summer sortin' had me a blast

i have a bunch of cards to sort through and haven't dedicated the time to do so in recent months. or is it years? anyway, i was envious of fuji who noted that he was doing a big summer sorting project and now i have become one of the beneficiaries of his work!

i received a bubble mailer full of dodger (and selected other) goodness that ran the gamut from oddballs to parallels and even a custom pinback.

i was able to add some cards to my collection from 1986 sportflics including a tri-star card of fernando valenzuela that also features vida blue and john denny.

denny is a good outlier for me to use on the immaculate grid from time to time thanks to him being a non-steve carlton phillie cy young award winner who was featured in the 1978 topps set. i try my best each day to complete the grid using players from that set.

there were a number of fernando items, including stickers like this one from 1984 topps

that is a sears catalog worthy pose!

fuji also sent me my first 1993 topps micro dodger cards, including darryl strawberry, orel hershiser, and eric karros

i've had some of these in the past of other players, but these are the first keepers for me.

these next two items aren't new to me, but i did want to show how clayton kershaw went from a ryan reynolds lookalike on his 2012 panini triple play sticker

to a more hirsute individual on his 2013 panini triple play sticker

it's a transformation similar to what was seen for some players between early 1970's topps flagship sets - 1970 and 1971 richie/dick allen comes to mind (yes i know the photo on his 1970 card is an older photo).

these next three are all new to me - 2013 panini prizm mike piazza diamond dominance

and yasiel puig fearless

inserts, plus a 2018 panini diamond kings jackie robinson portraits insert

obviously, those cards are all lacking logos, but i think i prefer that to whatever it is that todd hollandsworth is wearing on this 1995 signature rookies card 

it kind of looks like a rec league jersey, but hey - the card is 1 of only 25,000!

there were cards with logos, including one that is just the logo

from 1987 donruss opening day.

with fuji being a padres fan, i wasn't surprised to see some steve garvey cards make the mailing. here's a 1986 donruss pop ups card

that celebrates garvey's (last) all-star game which was played at the metrodome in 1985.

my favorite item of the package was this pinback

that was constructed using his 1982 donruss diamond kings card. this is right up there with the coaster that p-town tom sent to me using a 2012 topps mini matt kemp card in terms of custom coolness.

finally, there were a handful of cards from the 2021 topps complete set (gold star edition) for my collection, including corey seager

and the championship fireworks

it's been a long time since i received a gold star from a teacher!

thanks mark! enjoy the last few days of your summer vacation!