the almost daily dodger - derek lowe

i miss guys like derek lowe pitching for the dodgers. what i mean is guys who make over 30 starts a year for four years in a row with an era under 4. here's a 2006 bowman chrome card of lowe

that completed my team set a few months ago (aside from the james loney autograph card that is considered part of the base set - some real base set bs!).

lowe twice led the national league in games started during his four year stint with the dodgers, and the club qualified for the postseason in two of those years. he wasn't flashy, but he averaged around 210 innings pitched each season as a dodger. in contrast, gavin stone was the only dodger in 2024 to throw more than 140 innings, and no dodger started more than stone's 25 games. 

j.d. drew had a good run

j.d. drew hit the majors with a bang in 1998 when he slugged 1.436 in 14 games for the cardinals. those high expectations were hard to measure up to over the course of a full season, and eventually drew was dealt to the braves. after putting up a career year there in what was a "walk" year, the dodgers signed him and now we have legion cards of drew in dodger blue.

i noticed that the ones i had in my scanned folder all showed drew running.  

here's his 2005 upper deck update card

which used a donruss design combined with a blackberry device. really strange.

here's his 2006 topps bazooka blue parallel

and his 2006 topps gold parallel

those two topps produced cards certainly show images captured within seconds of each other. here's one more - drew's 2006 topps chrome black refractor parallel

that is, of course, identical to the flagship gold parallel.

drew did more than run as a dodger, even though he was injured for much of his first season with the club. the second year, 2006, he played in a career high 146 games and drove in 100 runs for the only time in his career helping them get to the postseason. i recall being hopeful when drew was signed, disappointed when he was injured so much in 2005, and then content with his performance in 2006.

i was even more hopeful when the dodgers decided not to re-sign drew (or kenny lofton) after the 2006 season, as i figured that meant matt kemp would be an every day outfielder. however, the dodgers went and signed juan pierre and luis gonzalez and kemp was left to wait a bit longer.

boat of note

today i'm sharing a nonsports card that i picked up for my "meaningful and just because" collection. it's a 1955 topps rails and sails card of the santa maria

this boat was one of the three in christopher columbus' "fleet" when he sailed the ocean blue in 1492. the back offers some information and clarification to put things in some sort of context in terms of what is shown on the card front

today has nothing to do with columbus or his ships, i realize. those other two ships were the niña and the pinta, as you know, and i always thought that santa maria didn't really fit in with those names. i was only interested in the card for this boat, however, due to my hometown using an image of the ship in their logo for as long as i can remember. i guess that is the connection to today - i am thankful for where i grew up and when i grew up.

happy thanksgiving!

these memories have waited

in one of the boxes i received from sluggo, among the dodger cards were complete sets of the ted williams card company's 1993 "memories" inserts featuring the 1955 brooklyn and 1963 los angeles dodgers.

i had most of the 1963 dodger cards, but the 1955 ones were new to me. the first one features a fantastic color photo of roy campanella

along with a photo of jim gilliam wearing number 15

which makes me wonder if it is a photo of him from his time with the baltimore elite giants but with a brooklyn "b" added to his cap. the other dodgers are gil hodges

and duke snider

with a nice "posed" action shot. the fifth card in the 1955 part of the set is a checklist

and the 1963 checklist that finishes off the 10 card memories set was also a need

the '63 dodgers featured are don drysdale, willie davis, johnny podres, and maury wills. podres, of course, would have fit with the 1955 players as he provided one of the greatest memories from that season with his world series game 7 performance.

a museum collection

i have never been to the national baseball hall of fame, but i have been to a couple of baseball themed "museums". one was in a souvenir shop near the old hhh metrodome in downtown minneapolis. their big draw was a babe ruth signed baseball along with a bunch of twins memorabilia. and, while not a baseball themed museum, i did see a nice 1952 topps mickey mantle card at the smithsonian complex in washington dc about 17 years ago or so.

hobby vip larry fritsch had a baseball card museum in cooperstown for a few years, and there were cards associated with this endeavor as i learned at a recent show. i found this 1988 card

in one of the bargain bins i dug through. the back of the card relays an interesting story regarding the 1909 t206 honus wagner card that made its way to fritsch's collection

$1300 in 1974 was a lot of money, but...

the cards in my collection that are associated with museums come from topps' museum collection releases, like this 2024 steve garvey autograph card

and this 2022 jackie robinson card

i do have a dover reprint of the wagner card somewhere, but i'd like to see one in person. i suppose that the national is the most likely place to do so these days since the fritsch museum has been closed for over 30 years.

freddie freeman is in my hall of famer collection

even before his game 1 walk off grand slam in the world series last month i had freddie freeman pegged for baseball immortality. i had decided to add him to my hall of famer collection sometime earlier in the year, and i went out and picked up this card to use as his entry:

that is a 2018 topps diamond icons diamond autograph purple parallel numbered 06/10. here's the back:

obviously, it shows freeman as a brave as he spent the first 12 seasons of his big league career in atlanta. he just completed his third season as a dodger, and by the time all is said and done, i will certainly think of him as a dodger first. in fact, i am pretty much already there, but my collecting rules dictate that i would need a duplicate dodger autograph of freeman for this collection and to date, i have no freeman dodger autograph cards at all.

through 2024, freeman is well on his way to cooperstown. he leads all active players in runs, hits, doubles, rbi, and total bases, and has already surpassed my hof sniff test of reaching base at least 3,000 times. he needs at least four more years before he reaches 3,000 hits but even with his current stats, he is in hall of fame territory. his two world series titles and 2024 mvp performance in the fall classic don’t hurt. 

i never saw freeman play in person before he joined the dodgers, but i've been able to see him play firsthand in multiple games during each season since. in those games, he's gone 13 for 32 with four doubles with hits in each of the games i've attended. i sure wish i had been at game 1 to see that grand slam, though!

as a reminder, you can see freeman and all of the members of my hall of famer collection here.

who says rounded corners are bad?

i found this 2000 fleer ultra jt snow card 

in a dime box at a show earlier this year. it's the gold medallion edition parallel, and this was the first year that fleer decided to round the tops of the cards.

if it hadn't been for pacific invincible's release in 2000, the base version of the snow card would have been my favorite card of the year. the throwback unis make for a colorful card and remind me of my early days of watching the giants and a's play the dodgers and angels, respectively.

i also found a dodger card for the collection - a 2004 gold medallion edition parallel of brad penny

by this time fleer was just rounding corners. but in a non-damaging way.

the tim wakefield memorial patch

tim wakefield passed away from cancer on october 1, 2023 at the age of 57. wakefield was a bit of a phenom when he broke in with the pirates in 1992 and beat the braves twice in the nlcs, but he didn't find any sustained success until he joined the red sox prior to the 1995 season. he pitched for the red sox for 17 years and was part of their 2004 and 2007 world series championship teams. after retirement, he remained involved with the club as a special assistant and broadcaster.

in light of his significance to red sox nation, the team wore a patch in his honor for the entirety of the 2024 season, and that patch is visible on this rafael devers card from 2024 topps update

the patch is heart-shaped, with wakefield's number 49 inside.

the card is a sneaky insert as it is an all-star game insert. devers didn't suit up for the all-star game and so his selection is noted with a photo showing him in his "everyday" duds.

when the team honored wakefield prior to the first game of the 2024 season, they also honored his wife stacy who passed away from cancer a few months after her husband. it could be argued that the patch represents the couple, whose community involvement efforts and support of the jimmy fund were well documented.

pretty fly for an insert set

i was pretty interested in the "city to city" insert set in 2024 topps series 2. my interest waned a bit when i found out that not all 30 teams (and their local airports) were represented, and i was even less interested when i saw that the topographical background was the same on all of the cards. having an airport specific photo or map (as bowman international parallels used to have) doesn't seem like a heavy lift.  still, i was interested enough in the cards to add as many as i could find featuring airports that i have flown to and from.

first up is one of the dodgers featured in the set, with lax (los angeles international) as the airport

i flew for the first time when i was just a month or two old, but i won't count that. the next time i flew was from lax. 

first flight: june 1988

most recent flight: november 2024

it is probably the airport i've used the most outside of msp, although there are a couple of others that are climbing the charts.

here's mike trout and sna (john wayne)

my first real job after college was for a firm in newport beach, just up the road from john wayne. it is orange county's main airport and so is associated with the team from anaheim

first flight: 1992

most recent flight: 2012

flying out of john wayne is an experience. due to noise issues they cut engines during climbing, or at least they used to.

evan carter represents dfw (dallas-fort worth)

that flight from john wayne in 1992 took me to dfw

first flight: june 1992 

recent flight: feb 2011

my most recent flight involving dfw was for a conference in fort worth. one night we went to the stockyards which was fun. i had a fantastic margarita as i recall.

ronald acuna jr is here for the atl (hartsfield-jackson atlanta international)

dfw was just a layover en route to atlanta on that trip in 1992. hartsfield is, by the way, the world's busiest airport.

first flight: june 1992

most recent flight: july 2024

i most recently flew in and out of atlanta this past summer when i stopped in to catch a ballgame.

adley rutschman is representing bwi (baltimore/washington international thurgood marshall airport)

i flew to baltimore from the west coast and so went to bwi rather than reagan national (one of the airports missing from this set)

first flight: 1993

most recent flight: july 1999

in 1999 i flew into baltimore and we proceeded to drive up to new hampshire after spending some time in the queen city

here's bos (boston logan international) with ceddanne rafaela on the card

topps seems really committed to rafaela

first flight: july 1999

most recent flight: june 2004 (may 2025!)

that backend of my trip from baltimore to new hampshire ended with a flight out of logan. i last flew to/from boston in 2004 to see the dodgers play the red sox at fenway, but i have a trip planned for may of next year that will include a bosox game if i can swing it.

julio rodriguez is featured on the card for sea (seattle-tacoma international)

i always thought it was officially sea-tac but i guess that's just the location of the airport. i first flew there as a stop prior to driving into british columbia, but i forget which month exactly and am too lazy to dive into my photo archives to find out

first flight: 1996

most recent flight: august 2008

that most recent flight came after a work trip to portland. i drove from portland to seattle to catch the twins playing the mariners and flew home from sea-tac.

here's my now-local airport, msp (minneapolis saint paul international), represented by carlos correa

i first flew to the twin cities for a wedding. at the time, i had no idea that i would eventually live here.

first flight: july 1996

most recent flight: november 2024

i have flown from and to this airport many, many times. i wish i had kept track of all of my flights, but i know the most recent one because it happened today!

san (san diego international) is represented by fernando tatis jr

there was a time when i flew to san diego fairly often

first flight: december 1997

most recent flight: january 2020

the last time i flew there was just a stopover on the way to hawaii.

chicago has a couple of airports with ord (chicago o'hare international) being the north side airport, so we get a cub on the card. specifically, pete crow-armstrong

i've been to wrigley twice, and my first visit to chicago was to specifically see the dodgers play there

first flight: april 1998

most recent flight: may 2009

one of my favorite airport codes is toronto's (yyz), and its card features vladimir guerrero jr

toronto was not the first canadian city i had flown to, but it is the one i've flown to most often now.

first flight: april 2000

most recent flight: june 2016

it's a great city and the fact that it's been eight years since i've visited is something i will work to rectify.

sfo (san francisco international) is one of my favorite airports. topps chose marco luciano for the card

i used to have family in the bay area and so would fly out that way to see them. lately i've flown into sfo and taken the opportunity to drive down the coast to southern california

first flight: september 2003

most recent flight: october 2023

i may be heading out towards the end of the year, but not fully certain yet.

here's the other chicago airport, mdw (chicago midway international) with luis robert jr on the card

back when i worked at a place that had a significant presence in chicago, i would typically fly to midway and hop on the orange line to get downtown.

first flight: july 2004

most recent flight: may 2006

that last flight out of midway was at the end of a business trip during which i took in a game at whatever comiskey was called at that time.

the first time i flew to mci (kansas city international) i wound up not using my ticket to fly out. here's bobby witt jr on the card for that airport

after flying to midway for the first time, i flew to kansas city to meet up with some friends and go to a royals game

first flight: july 2004

recent flight: august 2024

the most recent trip to kc was for work, but the royals weren't in town.

i've been to houston a few times, and i always fly into iah (george h. w. bush international) which is represented by alex bregman

most of my trips to houston involved work in some fashion, including my first flight 

first flight: february 2006

most recent flight: september 2024

i've seen a couple of games at minute maid park (or is it only the one?) and my recent trips seem to coincide with the astros being out of town

jazz chisholm isn't with the marlins any longer, but he's on the card repping mia (miami international)

i've flown to/from miami a few times now, usually as a gateway to the caribbean which was the case with my first flight there

first flight: feb 2007

most recent flight: december 2022

in between those flights i've also flown there to stay in florida - a week in the keys ten years ago or so

cvg (cincinnati/northern kentucky international) is actually in kentucky. elly de la cruz is on its card

i've only flown there once, and it was for work. this was the trip where i got to see matt kemp play for the reds and hit his lone home run of the season

only flight: april 2019

i took a cab into cincy and when we got across the river the guy said "welcome to ohio". i didn't realize i had been in kentucky.

later that year i scheduled a stopover in phoenix after leaving southern california. here's corbin carroll for phx (phoenix sky harbor international)

it was hot, but i got to see a game at the bank or whatever they are calling that stadium

only flight: sep 2019

i also met up with a blogger that night!

jose ramirez represents cle (cleveland hopkins international)

just as with cincy, i've only flown into cleveland once, and it was for work

only flight: august 2021

a friend and i caught a game at the jake and then drove to columbus.

next up is junior caminero on the card for tpa (tampa international)

i've only flown in and out of tampa once

only flight: june 2023

i did get to the trop for a game during that trip, which was all vacation, no work.

it's sort of the same deal for milwaukee, which has christian yelich on the card for mke (milwaukee mitchell international)

except that i flew in and out of milwaukee last summer

only flight: august 2023

and i didn't see a game on that trip (which was for work). the only games i've seen in milwaukee were arrived at by a road trip. so, maybe not like tampa at all.

so there you have 21 of the 30 cards in the set. there are some teams that have multiple cards in the set, and some that have zero, which blows my mind. 30 teams, 30 cards, 30 airports (ok maybe 29 becuase of new york and both teams being closest to laguardia). 

the missing teams and airports are the nationals/dca (reagan national), rockies/den (denver international), and tigers/dtw (detroit metropolitan wayne county). i've flown to/from reagan and denver and through detroit. dtw is probably the airport that i've spent the least amount of time in - just a quick layover during which i had to run between gates.

teams/airports that i don't have in my collection are yankees/lga (laguardia), mets/lga (laguardia), a's/oak (oakland international), phillies/phl (philadelphia international), pirates/pit (pittsburgh international), and cardinals/stl (st. louis lambert international). both times i've flown to new york i've used jfk, and my one trip to st. louis was a road trip. and, i've flown to sacramento but not oakland, and that doesn't count with this set.

i do have plans to get to those other stadiums i've missed, so i may yet be adding lga, phl, and pit to my collection. stay tuned!

still scratching that 17 year itch

it wasn't too long after i had completed the 2007 topps chrome dodger team set that i decided to go after the blue refractor parallels. the base chrome cards seemed pretty lackluster, and with the chunky borders, the blue refractors were fantastically blue! it took me a while, but i got there, and i recently finished off the regular refractor and white refractor team sets, too.

here's the base dodger team set for comparison purposes later on.

j.d drew, andre ethier, rafael furcal

jeff kent, brad penny, juan pierre

chad billingsley, jason schmidt, matt kemp

randy wolf, takashi saito, russell martin

derek lowe, greg maddux, delwyn young  

the black borders don't do the base chrome any favors, and shame on topps (and other companies at the time) for including autographs as base cards.

now here is the blue refractor team set - note that there was no delwyn young card in the blue refractor style

j.d drew, andre ethier, rafael furcal

jeff kent, brad penny, juan pierre

chad billingsley, jason schmidt, matt kemp

randy wolf, takashi saito, russell martin

derek lowe, greg maddux  

having the blue refractors but not the regular refractors gnawed on me a bit, so i got that job done.

j.d drew, andre ethier, rafael furcal

jeff kent, brad penny, juan pierre

chad billingsley, jason schmidt, matt kemp

randy wolf, takashi saito, russell martin

derek lowe, greg maddux, delwyn young                

much, much brighter, of course. the young card is numbered to 500 in refractor form.

now for the white border refractors

j.d drew, andre ethier, rafael furcal

jeff kent, brad penny, juan pierre

chad billingsley, jason schmidt, matt kemp

randy wolf, takashi saito, russell martin

derek lowe, greg maddux, delwyn young    

the "pop" on these is largely background dependent. speaking of backgrounds, there was no nomar garciaparra chrome card in 2007, but he is in the background of chad billingsley's card.

the white refractors are numbered to 660 - hard to see on the scanned card back

but the delwyn young auto is only numbered to 200

interestingly enough, i have no xfractors in my collection. maybe that's next. or, the red refractor parallels. there is always something to chase!