where's the now with?

those of you who have been around for awhile know how much i love o-pee-chee cards. heck, i dedicated a whole separate blog to documenting the variations through the years. i was also very excited about the 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee release back when it came out. sure, i was disappointed that they were not able to hijack an actual topps design masquerading as o-pee-chee (like they had for 2002 vintage) and also that they eschewed the variations that made o-pee-chee cards so great during the late 1970's through the early 1990's.

that said, they did have some cards that weren't in those original o-pee-chee releases such as a variety of inserts and even game used cards. the game used cards are quite colorful, and i've had this one featuring a trio of twins 

in my "meaningful and just because" catch-all mini-collection for quite some time. by the way, i think it was a huge miss to not line up the players - joe nathan, joe mauer, and michael cuddyer - with their positions - p, c, and o - respectively.

i was also sure to pick up this one featuring a trio of dodgers - andre ethier, james loney, and matt kemp

early on as well.

it took me a bit longer to add the other true dodger relic cards to my collection, but i have them now. they feature russell martin

along with fellow backstops victor martinez and joe mauer, and chad billingsley

with the guy who was really roberto hernandez but went by fausto carmona and future dodger zack greinke.

that was it as far as dodgers on the official checklist, but i spied a couple other cards that i could reasonably consider dodger cards, like this brad penny card

that he shares with a couple of roys - oswalt and halladay.  penny is shown as a dodger but listed with his new team, the red sox.  he also shows up on a card with josh beckett and aj burnett

on a card where all three players could have used some "now with..." text. same for this last one, which features takashi saito along with brad lidge and billy wagner

each of whom were on the move between the 2008 and 2009 seasons. 

2009 o-pee-chee was a fun set to collect, but it certainly wasn't o-pee-chee in anything other than name. if only there were some "now with..." sprinkled throughout!