card games

onelki garcia pitched in 3 games for the dodgers. that was in 2013, and it was enough for topps to include him in the 2014 flagship checklist. here's his target red parallel card

garcia wound up missing the 2014 season due to injuries (knee and elbow) and was claimed by the white sox in the rule 5 draft that november. he didn't pitch in the majors again until 2017, and that was with the royals.

preparing for this post got me wondering about other dodger pitchers who received cards of their own from topps in flagship releases while appearing in fewer than the 3 games garcia pitched in. a quick review found a couple:

most recently, there was zach lee. lee was a number one pick who pitched in one game for the dodgers in 2015 and was included by topps in series 1 of their 2016 flagship release. 

he didn't appear in the majors again until 2017, this time with the padres.

and then there is bruce brubaker. he received a card from topps in 1967. 

he had previously received a dual player rookie card in the 1965 set as a tiger, but didn't appear in the majors until he did so as a dodger in an april 1967 contest. it turned out to be brubaker's only appearance as a dodger in the majors. he made one other big league appearance - it came with the brewers in 1970, but there's no brewers card of him to be had.

as for position players, i think terrance gore takes the title for fewest games as a dodger with a flagship card, 

although he's not actually wearing a dodger uniform. that card is from 2020 topps update, and gore earned it after appearing in 2 games early in that truncated season.

this is by no means a knock on topps. with all three of the pitchers listed, the expectation would have been that they would appear in more games than they did. in fact, i am thankful for topps issuing these cards because even short-time dodgers count, and maybe we'll see a kyle hurt dodger card in '24!