lion eyes

this post is a couple of months out of sync, as it is based on the fifth sign of the zodiac - leo - which governs from july 23 through august 22. i had it all laid out and i guess forgot to hit publish. keep that in mind as you read on as i had planned to show this card back in mid august:

it's a 2022 topps gypsy queen gq gems insert featuring walker buehler who was born on july 28, 1994, and is therefore a leo. represented by a lion, leo's gemstone is something called peridot, but this card shows a ruby. based on a quick internet search, leos also "respond" to rubies.

i am not a leo, but seeing that card got me thinking about what other dodgers could be represented on a card like that. here are a few:

nomar garciaparra

that's a 2007 fleer mini die-cut card of nomah, who was born on july 23, 1973.

don drysdale

shown on a 2008 donruss sports legend museum collection card, was also born on july 23, but in 1936. it's interesting to me that they scrubbed drysdale clean of logos and the dodgers' script. on other 2008 cards they didn't go to such extremes.

pee wee reese

was another dodger born on july 23 - in 1918. he's shown on a 2019 topps stadium club red foil parallel, so that would be a card that was issued over 100 years after pee wee was born.

max scherzer

was born on july 27, 1984. his card here is a 2021 panini contenders base card that includes a photo of him from his short stint with the dodgers.

chad billingsley

is two days younger than scherzer, having entered this world on july 29, 1984. his 2007 topps chrome white refractor features fellow leo garciaparra in the background. i've added quite a few chrome parallels from 2007 and 2008 in the past year. they may be two of the best years (along with 2003) for chrome parallels, in my opinion.

ryan pepiot

is also a leo on the later end of the spectrum. he was born on august 21, 1997. that card is a 2022 topps update red foil parallel, by the way. pepiot was only 10 when that card of nomar i showed earlier was released. zoinks.

and then there are randy wolf

and jeff weaver

shown on a 2009 topps walmart black parallel for wolf, and a 2009 topps update target throwback parallel for weaver. both of these guys were born on august 22, 1976, and they were dodger teammates in 2009.

of course, it's been done before as don sutton and reggie smith were dodger teammates for several seasons and they shared april 2, 1945 as their birthday. that makes them aries, which would be a separate post if topps had used a dodger to represent that sign instead of nolan arenado. it probably would have made for a more interesting post since their birthstone is the diamond which translates well to baseball. however, with the demise of gq, we probably won't get any more inserts related to the zodiac unless a&g steps in, but they already did a birthday related insert set in 2010. 

happy (belated) birthday to these (and all the other) dodger leos!