Wednesday, May 17, 2023

once upon a time in echo park

at the start of the 2020 pre-season, one of the things i was looking forward to the most was the return of the mlb all-star game to dodger stadium, forty years after the first and only time it had been held there. of course, stuff happened, and the game wasn't played. dodger stadium was given the 2022 game and so i had to wait for what i knew would be an onslaught of dodger stadium cards to collect.

before we get to the all-star themed part of the post, i will share a couple other cards i picked up last year showing the stadium in the background. these two cards 
come from a 2021 release in conjunction with espn's 30 for 30 episode "once upon a time in queens". strange that they used a photo of gary carter almost as far away from queens as can be for this card, and stranger still that black and white parallels were deemed necessary.  i will also take this moment to remind you that one of my custom card creations was used in the glenn burke 30 for 30 a few years ago.

and now on to all-star stuff.

here's a 1982 all-star game program "insert" of robin yount
that features the brewer shortstop in action during the 1980 midsummer classic. pretty sure it is a double play turn, too, but i only have the one copy and it goes in the dodger stadium collection. it is likely that the lower left corner shows a minute amount of keith hernandez sliding in.

the beauty of modern cards is that there are a lot more cards to count on, and update will probably always pad its checklist with all-star game cards. in 2022, we had both topps update and chrome update provide all-star game inserts. i decided only to collect the ones that show the all-stars in dodger stadium, as there were a few cards of players who wound up not appearing at the game, such as bryce harper and nolan arenado. i will still list those players as i go through the full 50 card set(s).

here we go:

1. mike trout
2. mookie betts
3. vladimir guerrero jr
4. shohei ohtani (batter)
5. willson contreras
6. alejandro kirk
7. paul goldschmidt
8. jazz chisholm jr
9. jose altuve - not an all-star game card
10. albert pujols
11. miguel cabrera
12. manny machado
13. rafael devers
14. trea turner
15. tim anderson
16. shohei ohtani
17. ronald acuna jr
18. joc pederson
19. aaron judge
20. giancarlo stanton
21. xander bogaerts
22. jose ramirez
23. george springer - not an all-star game card
24. byron buxton
25. kyle tucker
26. julio rodriguez
27. yordan alvarez - not an all-star game card
28. freddie freeman
29. nolan arenado - not an all-star game card
30. pete alonso
31. dansby swanson
32. kyle schwarber
33. juan soto
34. starling marte
35. shane mclanahan
36. nestor cortes
37. alek manoah
38. clayton kershaw
39. sandy alcantara
40. corbin burnes
41. luis castillo
42. corey seager
43. tony gonsolin
44. joe musgrove
45. justin verlander
46. gerrit cole
47. bryce harper - not an all-star game card
48. ian happ
49. william contreras
50. austin riley
there are some real dodger stadium beauties in there for sure.

i also picked up a couple of examples of the all-star stitches cards - liam hendriks
and manny machado
because those cards also feature the pavilion in the background. here's mookie betts' card
for good measure.

one of the packs i bought back when update came out included a blue parallel of gerrit cole's card
and i decided to keep it even though dodger stadium is all blurry in the background.

topps also issued a "now" card of the national league's starting pitcher that i picked up
seeing as how it was clayton kershaw.
unfortunately, i was not in socal to attend the game. back in 1980, some friends of the family went to the game and they regaled me with tales of all of the stars of the game back then and ken griffey's home run off of tommy john. i was pretty jealous.

i was jealous, too, of fans who attended fanfest and received some all-star game themed cards like this mookie betts
i was able to find the betts card for cheap, but jackie robinson's card hasn't come down to a price i am willing to pay yet.  and, i have only seen one version of steve garvey's fanfest autograph card 
come up for sale
it would be nice to have, though!

i also wish topps would print some of their digital only cards for us old school hard copy collectors. they issued quite a few 1980 all-star game themed cards last summer, including one of the garv

topps did, of course, issue a factory set again in 2022 with the all-star game logo foil stamped on the cards, and i picked up kershaw's card
plus the factory bonus mookie betts card
i will wait to find others in repacks or on sportlots. however, those last few cards aren't dodger stadium cards, so let me get back to the point of the post.

speaking of repacks, i found a couple of new to me dodger stadium cards recently after a stop at walgreens, and they are both braves.

1989 fleer tom glavine
and a 1990 woolworth's dale murphy
complete with dodger personnel hanging over the railing.

another braves card i have added to my collection also features a photo from dodger stadium and it's this 1998 donruss signature series javy lopez autograph card
but i have this card in my lurker collection thanks to todd zeile there in the background.

i have picked up some actual dodger cards for my collection, as well as some duplicates for the dodger stadium collection, including this 1997 upper deck home team heroes card of hideo nomo and mike piazza
it's oversized like a lot of upper deck stuff was in the late 1990's, but provides a bird's eye view of the stadium and right field pavilion in particular.

i will always want to add cards to my collection, and hopefully also the dodger stadium collection, that show the murals in the background, and i've done that with cards like this 1999 topps chrome darren dreifort refractor
and these 2000 bowman chrome kevin brown cards
base and refractor, as well as a nice 2000 topps stadium club chrome refractor card of devon white
great stuff.

dodger team cards are a good source for dodger stadium cards, and the 2001 topps 
and 2004 topps
gold parallels are good examples of that. i also grabbed a second 2009 bowman clayton kershaw card
for the dodger stadium collection. it captures the short amount of time that the bullpen doors had yellow padding on them.

i have been paying less and less attention to topps now in recent years, but i did take a look at some cards last year and bought this mookie betts card
which also netted me a nice blue parallel
but the main reason i wanted it was for the back
because it shows some of the retired numbers up on the dodger stadium facade, including the newest number of the bunch - gil hodges' number 14. hello to don sutton's 20 as well.

i also decided to pick up albert pujols' card
celebrating his 700th career home run
which happened at dodger stadium, although the card is in my name/number on the back mini-collection. with some of these topps now purchases, i qualified for the september card of the month
which celebrated aaron judge and pujols and their home run exploits.
here's a 1998 upper deck special fx card that i've added to my vladimir guerrero collection
that features a dodger stadium background, although it is obscured by the "fx" treatment. and here's one from 2003 topps stadium club
that i bought in duplicate so i could put one with my vladdys and one with my dodger stadium cards. it shows eric karros' mural behind the hall of fame outfielder.

just one more card to go in this post, and it's this 1989 topps baseball talk card
that celebrates the greatest moment in the history of dodger stadium, but features the cover of the 1988 world series program on the front, rather than a photo of the event.
not a dodger stadium card, per se, but one that belongs in my dodger collection and my "games i attended in person" collection, too.

i know i am biased but i really do consider dodger stadium to be the best baseball stadium in the game, and my visit there earlier this week confirmed that stance. stay tuned for tales from those games!

3 comments:

  1. Dodger Stadium does a nice job brightening up those garish All-Star unis from last year. (Seriously, why can't MLB design a halfway decent ASG jersey?)

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  2. Not sure if I knew this or not... but that's pretty awesome that you attended the Gibson game... even if it's one of the most heartbreaking moments (in regards to sports) in my lifetime.

    P.S. That oversized Upper Deck Home Team Heroes card is really cool. Found that Gwynn and Caminiti have a card in the set with Jack Murphy Stadium in the background. I'm hoping to track down a copy for the collection.

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  3. Wow, that was some post! Maybe it's just me, but that first card doesn't even look like Gary Carter. From the side like that, he looks a lot like a younger Andy Messersmith. Even has the same hair!

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