first home runs hit differently

alex freeland hit his first big league home run yesterday in the dodgers' loss to the padres. it came off of old friend yu darvish which is pretty cool. this is the only alex freeland card i have in my collection currently - his 2022 bowman draft chrome card

i am sure there will be more to come. i don't think topps will commemorate his first big league dinger, though.

10 years ago, however, they dedicated a full cross-release insert set to different players' first taters. it has taken me this long to complete the dodger team set, as i finally focused on getting each version from series 1, 2, and update.

series 1 base versions had a dark center background with silver foil (as modeled by mike piazza and paul konerko)

while series 2 and update base had a white center background with silver foil

jackie robinson's card was featured in the update set.

all three releases had silver background versions

(with yasiel puig being a series 1 example), and all three releases also had gold background parallels. 

you can't tell, but the series 2 (matt kemp and clayton kershaw) gold cards have silver foil, while the series 1 (piazza) and update (adrian beltre) gold cards have gold foil. 

in all, the dodger team set includes 21 cards featuring those seven subjects. there are also manufactured medallion cards but i'm in no rush to chase those.

the other dodger rookies to hit thier first big league bombs this year are dalton rushing, seen here on a 2023 panini chronicles luminance card

and hyeseong kim (not pictured). 

the first big knock is a major achievement and it's nice to recognize it on cardboard or otherwise. congrats to alex freeland!