celebrate, i guess

the dodgers clinched the national league west title yesterday, with an 8-0 win over the diamondbacks. they stayed out of the pool this time, but did celebrate in the visitors' clubhouse with the usual means and methods (although this time they went for a slip n slide?!).

it's the team's 12th division title in the last 13 years, and i suppose it's clear that they did not take it for granted based on their celebratory approach. here are some cards that show some other sorts of celebrations...

2025 topps dodgers team card sandglitter parallel

2025 topps teoscar hernandez, andy pages, jason heyward dodgers' swagger rainbow foil parallel

and diamante parallel

it's the second step for this club on a multi-milestone journey - first make the postseason, then clinch your spot as a division winner - but it doesn't afford them a bye for the wild card round. they will face the mets, reds, or diamondbacks in a best of five starting next week.

it would be a mistake to look past that round, so i won't, but i will share another parallel card that i've picked up recently. it's from 2025 topps heritage (color of the year parallel) and celebrates a different postseason round

here's hoping the dodgers get there again!

do you miss upper deck baseball?

i was a late adopter to upper deck baseball. i wasn't buying a whole lot of cards by the time 1989 rolled around, and at that time i was loyal to topps when it came to baseball with my limited hobby spending. i did buy a lot of upper deck hockey starting with their 1990-91 release through 1994 or so. still, i didn't pay a lot of attention to upper deck baseball until i saw some 1992 packs for sale at my college campus convenience store.

later on in the 90's, i went back and started building the 1989 set and completed numerous dodger team sets from their flagship (and other releases). reading "card sharks" in the early days of blogging gave me a new appreciation for what the founders of the company were trying to do. as it mentioned in the book, the cards were certainly an upgrade to what the other companies were putting out at the time.

they put out some weird stuff, too, like this 1997 upper deck sp special fx card of eric karros

which demonstrates their commitment to holographic imagery and die-cut experimentation. 

by the end of the 1990's, i was all-in on upper deck baseball. they had, it seemed, more sets with legends than topps and i collected many of them. maybe fleer was the only one giving them a run for their money in that regard. here's a 2005 upper deck artifacts don drysdale card

which is the only one of four dodger "legends" short printed as part of the team set that i currently own.

they put out repetitive and redundant sets, too, like their annual obsession with "x". these three dodgers are from 2009 upper deck spx

they look pretty good scanned, i will admit.

my favorite upper deck baseball flagship set is probably 1994

there was a lot of "stadium club" level photography as andre dawson's card can attest, and i liked the design. topps, of course, took the "phantom zone" inset image and used it in their bowman release the next year, as well as in their 1996 flagship set. that dawson, by the way, is the "electric diamond" parallel, which was upper deck's answer to topps' "gold" full set parallels.

a couple of things that were pointed out in "card sharks" were the large numbers and the holograms on the card backs

one of the pet peeves of the founders (who owned a card shop) were small and/or hard to read card numbers. i am also very frustrated by that as my eyesight declines. the 1990 eddie murray card above is testament to upper deck's commitment to legible card numbers for sure. i don't know if anyone was clamoring for hologram authentication technology back then, but it certainly was a differentiator from the other card manufacturers at the beginning of the junk wax era when reprinting of key cards was somewhat rampant (of course, upper deck reprinted their own cash cow - the 1989 ken griffey jr rookie card - at will).

eventually, upper deck began to stray from some of these design tenants. the numbers got smaller

and there were releases later on in their existence that lacked the holograms on the backs, too. however, in the mid-2000's, they introduced my favorite innovation - one i wish topps would fully embrace. they put the set name on the card back

this was done as far back as 2004 from what i can find - some of their sweet spot base cards from 2004 say "2004 sweet spot" on the backs - but their flagship set in 2007 seems to be the first primary set that included this for all cards. it was issued in two series, and they identified each one on the backs. that nomar garciaparra checklist card is from series 1. that's great to know, although i consider series 1 and 2 of flagship releases to really just be one total set (although i have stopped combining the checklists in my want lists). still, it's a nice touch - one that topps has sort of embraced by putting "series one" or "chrome" under the numbers of their base card releases.

however, here are a couple of insert cards from 2024 topps chrome releases

gerrit cole got an "all-etch" insert in both topps chrome and topps chrome update. they are different, but how do you know which is from which set? in this case, topps added a "u" to the card number

so those who understand the nomenclature might also understand that one of the cards is from the update set. still, would it be so hard to add text above the copyright box stating which sets these cards come from?

here are another two cards, this time from 2025 topps series 1 and series 2

coby mayo was featured in the "stars of mlb" insert set in both releases. here are the card backs:

there is really no way to know which is from series 1 and which is from series 2 without finding a checklist database as topps even restarted the numbering with series 2. i am pretty sure that series 1 is on the left, but i forget at this point.

upper deck treated their cross-release inserts differently. here are a couple of starquest inserts from 2009

the one on the left is one i own and is from their flagship set - series 1. i know this because the back says so

the one on the right is not in my collection but i know straight away that it is from a different release - in this case 2009 upper deck first edition - because they identify that set on both the front of the card and its back:

they are both numbered sq-9, but the set information tells me that they come from different sets. so helpful.

now, upper deck wasn't perfect by any means - check out these 2007 nomar garciaparra and takashi saito cards

that are from series 1

now check out these nomar garciaparra and takashi saito cards

that say they are from series 2

trust, but verify.

i do wish topps would go all-in with set identification and include the information on every card they print. they do it on their autograph and relic cards (for the most part) as well as the base cards (again, for the most part). it would make me miss upper deck a whole lot less.

almost free cards - international edition

this 1998 bowman chrome dennis reyes international parallel

came to me a while back from night owl. greg sent me cards in exchange for the card he claimed in my most recent "almost free stuff friday" event which took place back in march. technically, it's not a giveaway so i guess i'll call it an event. he wasn't the only one to participate, as tom from the angels, in order sent this 2014 bowman platinum alex guerrero card

in exchange for the cards he claimed.

bo from baseball cards come to life sent a few cards - certainly more than he claimed - including this 1998 pacific online bill simas card

yes, i collect bill simas cards as he was a high school teammate of mine.

bo also sent some minor league cards

of an array of one-time dodger prospects.

i am still hoping to receive a return card from the international participant, but until then, here are some more cards from night owl. he attacked my sportflics needs with this 1990 orel hershiser card

and these other dodgers from that set

plus three from 1988

here are some more cards greg sent:

1995 leaf eric karros

1997 donruss vxp 1.0 hideo nomo

1998 leaf raul mondesi state representatives

1998 leaf rookies & stars raul mondesi ticket masters

b/w paul konerko

2023 topps finest mookie betts headliners

2020 topps archives snapshots gavin lux

2020 and 2022 panini donruss justin turner holo parallels

2021 panini donruss dustin may

2022 panini absolute roy campanella and gil hodges historical duals

and a 2023 panini chronicles pinnacle campy card

lots of great adds to my collection from these traders!

and here are some bonus free cards that a couple of random ebay sellers included with some cards i purchased recently.

2023 panini select al lopez holo prizm

2025 topps chrome freddie freeman

my dodger luck with 2025 topps chrome has been absolutely horrible, so this was a nice surprise.

2020 topps tribute sandy koufax

that card was included with a bigger koufax purchase i made recently.

another seller threw this sticker

in with a purchase, and it is much appreciated! looks great on my water bottle.

finally, here's a card that wasn't free, but does touch on the international theme

it's from a set called 2005 artbox harry potter and the sorcerer's stone. it features the scene where the first year students are learning how to fly on brooms. hre's the back:

i picked it up because it features a nice shot from inside the walls at alnwick castle in northumberland, england. the card goes into my meaningful and just because collection as my wife studied abroad during college at this castle, and she has taken me there for reunion events a couple of times. we've stayed in the dormitories inside the castle and walked the grounds. it has been a really cool thing to experience and we enjoy returning to the uk each time.

thanks to all for the cards - there may be another edition of almost free stuff friday coming along later in the year so stay tuned.

isn't it iconic?

it's been a while since 2025 topps heritage was released and i mentioned that i was working on a post related to the player icons that make the 1976 set so memorable. today, i finally publish that post, and it starts with a red parallel of darren baker's rookie card

it's not his flagship golden mirror variation, but i do like this card. aside from the color match, it features the familiar second base icon with sweet double play action. i've added baker and a host of other cards to my double play collection since that initial post. here's a colt keith chrome parallel

and a bunch of base keystone players

i also picked up a marcus semien variation

for the double play collection. semien's regular card has the all-star star instead of the player icon. of course topps calls these "cartoon variations". more on those later.

there is also an insert set devoted to the player icons, and i added both jose altuve

and semien to my dp collection

as the second basemen represented in the set.

this insert set has both a cardboard and a foil version - here's elly de la cruz to demonstrate

and here's first baseman freddie freeman

to represent the dodger collection. these cards use the 1976 icons and topps calls these inserts "1976 player icons" and not cartoons so i don't understand how the variations are cartoon variations.

anyway, here's a reminder of what all of the 1976 player icons looked like:

i had to use carl yastrzemski's first baseman icon since there were no dodgers given that one back in 1976. steve garvey had the all-star star and when he plays every day there really isn't anyone else to show at that position (as a primary). the designated hitters are from tony oliva and hank aaron cards, respectively (thanks brett alan!)

now, here are the variatons in 2025:

one of the first things i noticed is more detail or shading of the figures, and also that the position text is mostly left justified. 

you can probably tell that the right handed pitcher icon comes from shohei ohtani's variation

that i was fortunate to pick up in a lot of heritage cards i purchased a while back. the lefthanded pitcher icon comes from tarik skubal's card

which i used to own. i tried to convince myself that the icon is based on clayton kershaw 

but i don't think it is. that silver pack card from 2025 topps series 2 is sort of close, but not really. maybe it's justin verlander based. any ideas?

another item of note is that there are a few designated hitters in the 2025 set, including leftys and rightys, just like in 1976. topps used the same player icons for those players:

the lefty is from joc pederson's card and the righty is from marcell ozuna's. here's the variation:

it comes from kyle schwarber's variant card. schwarber hits lefthanded and his base card features the same icon as on joc's card. his chrome parallel, however, features the righty dh. go figure. i did not find a lefty dh variation, but i make no claims that it doesn't exist.

here's a blue parallel of joc's card that i found in a pack

along with ozuna's that was also pack pulled by me

topps also used that dh icon on the batting related league leader cards. here's the american league home run leaders to represent leftys

along with the a.l. batting leaders for the rightys

i would need to be convinced by a preponderance of evidence that the icon used on those cards is not based on carl yastrzemski. his 2012 topps archives deckle edge insert

is pretty demonstrative of my thinking.

topps used the same icons for the league leaders in 2025

including the shortstop icon for the stolen base leaders (minus the baseball)

and the pitcher icons on the pitching league leader cards

topps was pretty true to the original with this leading firemen card, as it is the only leader card that covers both leagues. they are still short on data - the back (as it was in 1976) shows only previous winners and their teams

with no mention of "points" or how the points are calculated. today, i can google this and find out that relievers get 3 points for a save, 2 for a win, and are deducted 2 for a loss. us kids in the 70's just shrugged our shoulders and figured that topps and rolaids knew what they were doing.

it's worth noting that topps took another run at player icons as part of their "1976 redefined" insert set. here's corey seager's card

as an example. the icons are all different from the variations of the base set, and this one in particular screams chipper jones. the jump/throw image is similar to chipper's 1993 upper deck card but matches his 2023 topps stadium club card spot on.