parrallelapalooza

well it's the end of the year and i've made some progress in clearing out my scanned folder through the "almost daily dodger" series of posts and other random ramblings throughout the year. several months ago, i started dumping scans of parallels into this draft, and i figure new year's eve is as good a time as any to hit publish.

enjoy a year end celebration of a variety of parallels!

steve finley's 2005 fleer ultra card is one of my favorite dodger cards of all time. about a year ago i picked up the gold medallion parallel

and the platinum medallion parallel

viva fernando!

these next two are parallels of an insert from 2000 pacific revolution

holo silver and holo gold parallels, to be exact.

the gold borders from 2002 topps aren't the most obvious when they are scanned

but you can tell in hand.

refractor parallels of cards from 2010 topps 206

are a bit strange because of the old-timey design, but they are still shiny.

here are a bunch of random parallels from 2011 through 2018

sluggo sent me a bunch of alex wood cards a year or so ago in one of our trades. and, i suppose technically the allen & ginter x card isn't a parallel since it's a base card of that set, but that set is a parallel of the regular allen & ginter set, so...

in 2015, topps issued three versions of these 1st home run inserts, and this is yasiel puig's gold version

and then in series 2 there was a white version, too. but not one of the series 1 versions. weird.

blackless cards used to be a mistake, but in 2018 topps gypsy queen

they were done on purpose

here's a more recent gold parallel

that parallel seems basic compared to some of the ones that panini came up with in recent years. this is a 2020 panini prizm cosmic haze parallel

and it's just one of literally dozens of parallels available of that card.

in 2020, topps introduced royal blue parallels. this one is from 2021 topps

and in 2022 they introduced ray wave refractors.

that cody bellinger card is from the 2022 topps chrome sonic set which thankfully was a one and done. now topps puts these refractors in regular chrome releases.

yellow parallels used to be a retail exclusive thing, but i don't think this 2024 topps card

was part of any walgreens exclusive

the aqua parallels from 2024, like this freddie freeman card,

were exclusive to fanatics packs.

finally, topps has continued with "holiday" themed parallels since debuting them in 2023 update. i suppose this is a way to support the huge print runs of base cards. here's a 2024 topps series 1 "base" holiday parallel

and a series 2 "base" holiday parallel

as well. 

i am sure 2025 will bring more of the same, but bring it on. happy new year!

lou whitaker is in my hall of famer collection

i've got one more current non-hall of famer that i've added to my hall of famer collection, and it's lou whitaker. here's the card i have as his entry:

that's a 2001 topps archives autograph card. here's the back:

i would expect to see whitaker on the contemporary era committee ballot at the end of 2025 as though he received some support his last time on a committee ballot (2020) when he got halfway to the required number of votes for induction.

we've come a long way since 2001 when he was one and done on the writer's ballot, and since then there has been a growing appreciation of whitaker's career. baseball reference lists his top three similar batters as ryne sandberg, alan trammell, and roberto alomar, all hall of famers. and, like bobby grich, whitaker's career war is higher than sandberg, craig biggio, or alomar. however, unlike grich, his peak seven year war is less than each of those players. still, longevity counts for something, and whitaker amassed 2,369 hits and 244 home runs to go along with 1,386 runs scored over his 18+ seasons. the 1978 american league rookie of the year, whitaker also won some gold gloves and silver slugger awards, but was never a league leader or serious mvp candidate. 

i don't think i ever saw whitaker play in person, but i did appreciate his longevity and partnership with double play partner trammell. i held those two, and paul molitor, in high regard as i entered the card collecting world as they were starting their big league careers. hopefully whitaker will join those guys in cooperstown in 2026!

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

1955 bowman complete through 120!

i am continuing to plug along with my 1955 bowman set build, and i have the next two complete sheets to show off.

here's sheet 14, cards 105 through 112:

eight cards and only four teams represented.

here are the backs:

we are in a bit of the doldrums here without any real big names, but we have some vern stephens who led the league in rbi multiple times, and some good names from the era such as solly hemus and gran(ny) hamner. hemus is yet another player who extolls the excellence of stan musial on the back of his card.

here's sheet 15, cards 113 through 120

another eight cards with just four teams accounted for.

here are the backs:

it's fun to have a guy named bowman in the bowman set, but most of these players are unknown to me. i did, however, learn that vic janowicz was the first heisman trophy winner to play major league baseball after seeing on his card back that he also played for the redskins. i also took some time to read up on sandelio (sandy) consuegra since bowman chose to use a different font for his name than they used on the other cards. his sabr biography is well written and full of information.

spoiler alert - i have also completed the next two sheets in the set, but i will save them for another post. stay tuned!

the almost daily dodger - charlie hough

i had the opportunity a couple of months ago to add charlie hough's 2004 topps all-time fan favorites refractor

for just a couple of bucks so here we are. these are really great cards but are tough to come by for reasonable amounts.

the back of hough's card is limited to his dodger tenure

but we know he went on to pitch another 15 seasons for a variety of teams. it's worth noting that kenley jansen and clayton kershaw have passed hough in terms of games pitched for the dodgers, but he's still 7th among los angeles dodgers (8th including brooklyn stats).

i like the fact that, in addition to pitching for the dodgers, rangers, and white sox, hough finished his career with the marlins. that fact comes in handy on immaculate grid sometimes when the marlins show up as i try each day to complete the grid using only players that were in the 1978 topps set. i've never been able to complete a marlins inclusive grid with all 1978 topps players though, as the only three people i can use are hough, andre dawson, and bob mcclure and the grids haven't aligned properly as of yet.

hough also won more than 200 games and recorded more than 2,000 strikeouts in his career, so he has a fair amount of flexibility among the most common pitching categories used in the grid. and, if they ever run a category of hawaiian born players, he would fit there, too.

i last used hough on the grid a few days ago, thanks to his dodger/ranger status.

this one netted a score of 18 which is not bad for a group of 1978 topps folks. maybe i should have used burt hooton instead of hough. i'll use jerry grote or ted martinez as my dodger/met and i go back and forth between keith hernandez and tom veryzer as my indian/met. toby harrah popped into my head even though i typically use bert blyleven or gaylord perry as my ranger/indian.

hough wasn't involved, but just this morning i had my best grid ever.

not only are all the players from the 1978 topps set

they are also all former dodgers. i will admit that i only know that pat zachry hit .300 in a season because of previous grids, but now that i know he's fair game. 

my favorite cards of the year

it's that time of year when i am looking back at cards i've acquired and figuring out which were my favorite - both in terms of dodgers and non-dodgers. i really did like the 2024 topps flagship design but there weren't a lot of non-dodger cards that stood out to me. i was pretty excited to pull my bowman dylan crews auto, but was it my favorite non-dodger card that i acquired in 2024?

actually, my favorite cards from new products that i obtained in 2024 were from 2023 topps stadium club - thurman munson's card and michael grove's card. i've disqualified them from consideration as i am only looking at 2024 product released in 2024 (sorry, archives).

here are a couple of runners up from the non-dodger category:

2024 topps stadium club (chrome) mark mcgwire

i didn't find big mac's base card in any of the stadium club that i opened, but i did get his chrome parallel. it doesn't scan well, but mcgwire is standing in front of roger maris' plaque at old yankee stadium. yogi berra's plaque is visible below his left elbow.  this is reminiscent of the classic 1992 topps cal ripken jr card featuring lou gehrig's plaque that was my favorite non-dodger card of that year.

another card i really like is andrew abbott's 2024 topps update card

it's his rookie debut card, and features the somewhat rare rookie card and rookie cup combination, but beyond that it shows a guy who is about to take a major league field for the first time. there is some real anticipation in this image, and it captures a great moment for abbott. he went on to one-hit the brewers over six innings that day, but it started with him on the top step of the dugout waiting for the sign to head out to the mound.

this, however, is my favorite non-dodger card of the year - lawrence butler's 2024 topps stadium club chrome refractor parallel

in a year that saw the a's play in oakland for the final time, a card that features not only an image of rickey henderson but references the "home of the oakland a's" really caught my attention. this is a really nice card.

my favorite dodger card of the year is pretty straight forward. it's shohei ohtani's flagship base card

yes, i am happy to have topps now cards related to his 50/50 feat and the team's world series title, but seeing this card fall out of a pack while ohtani was tearing up the record books was pretty nice. i would compare it to finding the 2008 topps update manny ramirez card, which was another favorite of the year.

i've updated my post that includes all of my yearly favorites dating back to 1978, and i'm looking forward to what 2025 products bring!

that's really super, super teams

2002 topps super teams can perhaps be considered a precursor to upper deck's 2004 legends timeless teams release in that it focused on specific team subsets without including every franchise on the checklist. however, super teams was even more focused, and with more player representation, than timeless teams.

in my most recent trade with sluggo, i received nearly the entire dodger team set in retrofractor form. these cards are numbered to the season represented, so in the dodgers' case that means 1955

the only card not included was jackie robinson's, but a quick online purchase later, and that was remedied

in addition to the 1955 dodgers, the teams in the set are the 1954 giants, the 1957 braves, the 1960 pirates, the 1961 yankees, the 1967 cardinals, the 1969 mets, the 1970 orioles. the 1974 a's, and the 1986 mets. the mets are the only team to show up twice, and i think roger maris and gil hodges are the only two to appear for more than one team in the set.

i had a couple of these retrofractors in my collection already, but was excited to complete the set so easily. they look pretty sharp in person, and are similar to some of the bowman heritage parallels from around the same timeframe. i had hoped that there would be a sequel to this set to include other super teams, but so far it's been a one and done.

the almost daily dodger - rickey henderson

i originally planned and wrote this post a couple of weeks before today, obviously not knowing that rickey henderson would pass away prior to its posting. 2024 has been a rough year for players that i followed closely as a young baseball fan, and henderson's death is still very surreal to me. 

it's still weird to me that rickey henderson played for the dodgers. however, it happened and like hoyt wilhelm and juan marichal before him, los angeles was his final stop before cooperstown. several months ago i picked up this 2005 playoff prestige prestigious pros blue parallel card

that features rickey as a dodger. his dodger cards seem to be fairly popular with collectors i've noticed, so i was pleased to find this one for cheap. the card is numbered to 900, which is a lot compared to this next one.

this is one of two 2004 playoff prime cuts rickey cards that i picked up twenty years ago

i'm showing it here because it is a true rickey henderson birthday card, numbered 12/25

for the christmas kid.

today would have been henderson's 66th birthday, but instead we are left to mourn the former dodger and remember how much of a revolutionary player he was. i am glad to have seen him play in person and been able to have followed his entire career. rest in peace, rickey.

happy holidays

it's christmas eve already which is hard to believe. i don't know whether or not santa will bring me any cards, but i am happy to report that i have found some dodger holiday variations in bargain boxes this year, including a 2020 dustin may

and a 2019 walker buehler

with 2024 topps holiday being such a departure from the first few years of the product, i thought about ranking the various designs. instead, i figured i would just show the progression through the years

2016

this set came on the scene as more of a weather variation than anything else.

2017

the weather continued to be the only thing differentiating these cards in the second year. the yasiel puig above is the "metallic snowflake" parallel which may make it a bit more difficult to see all the snow.

2018

just brought on more snow. i think most were pretty tired of this set by this point.

2019

the snow is gone in favor of some seasonal foliage and a tablecloth approach.

2020

back to snow, but with the addition of a pine garland. that gavin lux is also a metallic snowflake parallel.

2021

a departure this year with a beaded curtain made of ornaments and snowflakes, plus some candy cane treatment of the borders

2022

still sticking with the snowflakes. that clayton kershaw card is the metallic parallel, so the border is all treated up. the base cards just have the regular white border with the bows and garland.

2023

more snow, but topps switched to "charlie brown christmas" snow instead of elaborately designed snowflakes.

2024

topps finally fully embraced the christmas holiday theme, and continued to build on their flagship neon design. this is really a dramatic departure from previous years and it seems to have been embraced by a large part of the collecting community.

merry christmas everybody!

keith hernandez is in my hall of famer collection

here's another relatively recent addition to my hall of famer collection. it's keith hernandez, with this card as his entry:

that's a 2023 topps archives signature series 1986 topps all-star subset card, autographed and numbered 07/81. here's the back: 

once i decided to add hernandez, i decided i wanted one of the all-star cards that he "stole" from steve garvey. garvey, of course, was the national league starter in both 1984 and 1985, but topps gave the all-star cards the following years to hernandez, much to my chagrin. hernandez wasn't even on the 1985 all-star squad, for goodness sake.

hernandez was, however, the better first baseman by that point in time. he succeeded garvey as the national league's gold glove winner at first in 1978, and then claimed the award in each of the next 10 years to boot. he has a batting title, an mvp award, and two world series titles to his name, and he has remained in the game as a broadcaster since his retirement. the mets recently retired his number which again raised the question of his hall of fame candidacy.

modern metrics show hernandez as perhaps slightly below average when it comes to hall of fame first basemen, but he is one of the few modern first basemen with a positive dwar and ranks higher than tony perez, for example, in overall war. he has over 2,100 hits and a .296 lifetime average and passes my sniff test of more than 3,000 times on base.

i didn't see hernandez play in person until 1988. on august 24, i saw him go 1 for 4 as the mets beat the dodgers and orel hershiser 2-1. this was just before hershiser began his scoreless streak. he shut the mets out for seven innings but then mike marshall misplayed a mookie wilson fly ball into a triple and hernandez singled him home.

i'm not sure if hernandez will show up on the classic or contemporary era committee as he won his mvp in 1979 but fully entered the national stage with his two world series wins in the 1980's. whenever he shows up on the ballot, i am sure he will receive some votes.

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