2025 brings balance to the franchise

i was pondering the upcoming 2025 baseball season last winter and did some quick math in my head regarding some dodger milestones. it will be the 70th anniversary of the team's first world series title and the 60th anniversary of their fourth. it will also be the 135th anniversary of their inaugural season as a member of the national league. as you likely already know, while the team existed for a few years prior, brooklyn officially joined the national league in 1890 and later moved to los angeles following the 1957 season. 

partly inspired by the fact that the a's were heading to sacramento after having been in oakland longer than they were in philadelphia, i pondered the dodgers' multi-city status and realized that with this being their 136th season in the major leagues, 2025 will mark their 68th season as the los angeles dodgers, matching the 68 that they played in brooklyn. franchise symmetry! (note that the giants still have seven years to go to reach this franchise fulcrum, as they began play as a national league team in 1883).

in 1957, topps gave us this team card of the brooklyn dodgers

but despite '57 being their final season in brooklyn, we got one more brooklyn dodger team card in 1958

since these were always "last year's" team photos. topps left off the city for the dodgers (and the giants) which was out of step with the other team cards. seeing roy campanella on the card makes me even more disappointed that topps did not give him a proper final tribute. finally, it's worth noting that topps not being able to color the numbers on the front of the dodger jerseys correctly is not a new phenomenon.

in 1959, topps gave us the first los angeles dodgers team card

and they got the red numbers right!

the last single player brooklyn dodger topps card belonged to don elston in 1957

and the first los angeles dodger topps card belonged to charley neal in 1958

around the first of the year, i took the opportunity to complete a couple of sets that span both cities. first, the 1980 tcma all-time dodgers

which features more brooklyn folks than los angeles ones. this 1991 line drive set

reverses that trend. i had a few of the tcma cards previously, as well as the garvey from the line drive set, but found it easier to buy the sets than piecemeal the missing cards.

i have plenty of other cards from my scanned folder to show today that play on this theme, including a couple gil hodges cards

that's a 1949 bowman reprint (chromified) from 2001 bowman chrome, and this is a 2002 topps 1952 world series insert

while hodges played for the dodgers in both brooklyn and los angeles, he's representing brooklyn in each of his cards in this post.

here's hodges' teammate in both brooklyn and la, duke snider, on a 2005 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary lineage insert

duke has his brooklyn hat on here, but is repping los angeles in the all-time dodger set above.

another dodger who played in both cities is jim gilliam, seen on a 2023 panini donruss pennants insert

his helmet has no logo, but the card makes it obvious that he is representing the brooklyn dodgers here. the brooklyn dodgers won nine pennants, but just one world series.

one great who didn't make the trip to los angeles with the club is jackie robinson. here he is on a few cards - 2024 topps mega box 1989 all-star

2024 topps allen & ginter mini chrome parallel

and 2023 topps archives 1969 single player foil insert

that really makes the case for brooklyn.

don drysdale, seen here on a 2008 donruss threads baseball americana insert

pitches for brooklyn, but the big d shown here on a 2022 topps gypsy queen short print

pitches for los angeles.

here's another sandy koufax card, this one from 2024 topps

it's another mega box exclusive parallel. koufax, of course, also spanned the franchise's time in brooklyn and los angeles, and he's wearing the latter on his chest here. he led the club to three world series titles in the first 10 years of their existence on the west coast and is still revered by the dodger faithful today.

once the 1970's arrived (represented here on a 2020 topps update decades' best blue parallel)

the club won three pennants, but lost each of the world series in which they played. the card above features a photo from the 1978 world series, which was especially heartbreaking for young gcrl who assumed that the dodgers would win since they lost in 1977. it was their turn!

the 1978 season did cement steve garvey as my favorite player, and i was far from alone in that regard. here's the garv on a 2024 topps allen & ginter gold mini parallel

while the perennial all-star didn't lead the dodgers back to the postseason in 1979, the 1980's brought two pennants and two championships to los angeles, represented by this 1989 mother's dodgers card

but then came some lean years. there were some bright spots, as a number of rookies of the year, including mike piazza seen on a 1994 ultra pro card

gave us hope. that hope petered out with two postseason sweepings in the middle of the 1990s. then came the jim tracy years. here's tracy on a 2004 topps gold parallel

his tenure included the dodgers' only postseason single game win since 1988, but also included a number of interesting player personnel decisions. one solid player who was there for part of the tracy era was shawn green, seen here on a 2005 donruss classics team colors insert

that is most decidedly "la".

another highlight of those years was "game over". eric gagne's prowess at saving games was highlighted on this 2006 upper deck epic epic events insert

gagne won the cy young award in 2003, and the dodgers didn't have a pitcher win another until clayton kershaw came along.

here's kershaw on a 2009 topps unique red parallel card

kershaw's arrival coincided with a run of team success. in fact, in kershaw's 17 seasons, the dodgers have missed the postseason only three times. here's a 2015 topps limited edition dodger team card

showing the 2014 squad celebrating their regular season success.

it wasn't until the dodgers added mookie betts, however, that their postseason fortunes changed. here's betts on a 2021 topps 70 years of topps insert

betts led the dodgers to the world series title in 2020, and he was aided four years later by freddie freeman and shohei ohtani (shown on his 2024 topps archives card)

who went 50/50 during the regular season.

of course, perhaps the greatest dodger and the real bridge between the franchise's time in brooklyn and los angeles, was vin scully. here's a 2013 panini cooperstown matrix parallel

of the longtime broadcaster.

i am excited to watch this team as it reaches its equilibrium this year and as it tips the scales to los angeles in years to come. i am very happy that the stateside opening day is tomorrow!

350 is a magic number - dressed to the 9s

a few weeks ago i noted that i was pondering the idea of adding a number type mini-collection to my collection. of the options i considered - 190, 272, 350, or none at all - i decided to go with 350.

i am posting cards from the same year of each decade, and so far i've shown the 8s, 7s, 6s, 3s, 2s, 1s, and 4s. this post will be all about the 9s.

1959 topps #350

ernie banks makes his second appearance at number 350 in these posts, but his first chronologically. as the back of his card states, he was the national league's mvp in 1958 as he led the league in home runs and rbi (and slugging percentage). he would repeat as mvp in 1959, but was featured on card number 10 in the 1960 set.

1969 topps #350

richie allen had a strong season in 1968 and put up nearly identical numbers in 1969. the phillies weren't winning and traded allen to the cardinals in what became known as the curt flood trade. he eventually won the mvp award with the white sox in 1972 before returning to the phillies in 1975,

1979 topps #350 

garry templeton led the national league in triples in 1977 as his card back states, but he also led the league in that category in 1978. weird that the card doesn't mention that. he went on to lead the league in triples for the third year in a row in 1979, and also led the league with 211 hits that year. he may be best remembered as basically the guy the cardinals traded away to get ozzie smith, but he was a solid player in his own right. 

1989 topps #350

andy van slyke led the league in triples in 1988, just like templeton a decade before him. we know this thanks to the italicized text that topps started using to denote things like this. and, like templeton, van slyke was traded by the cardinals. he had a down year in 1989 but rebounded to help lead the pirates to back-to-back-to-back nlcs losses from 1990 - 1992.

1999 topps #350

larry walker followed up his 1997 mvp year with a batting title in 1998 as seen with red italicized text on the back of his 1999 card. walker led the league in batting again in '99, posting a career high .379 average.

2009 topps #350

dustin pedroia was the american league mvp in 2008, giving us two reigning mvp's on card number 350 in this post. he finished second in the league in batting average to joe mauer by just a couple of thousandths, but did lead the league in runs, hits, and doubles. he hit .346 in the alcs as well, but the red sox fell to the devil rays.

2019 topps #350

nick markakis had a solid career, and i wondered if this numbering was somewhat of a lifetime achievement award. he went on to play through the 2020 season, however, so i think this was a result of the very strong start he had to the 2018 campaign. he was batting around .330 well in to the summer and was a big part of the braves' national league championship that year.

i am tracking a few things in an effort to find any consistency with number 350, although there really isn't any. still, i am keeping track of the following occurrences, now through two posts:

number of reigning rookies of the year: 1 (kris bryant)

number of reigning mvps: 4 (ernie banks, frank robinson, robin yount, dustin pedroia)

number of reigning cy young winners: 0

number of reigning world series champions: 2 (keith hernandez, joe carter)

number of reigning pennant winners: 7 (frank robinson, steve garvey, robin yount, jack clark, keith hernandez, joe carter, clayton kershaw)

number of reigning league leaders: 16 (ernie banks - home runs, rbi; ernie banks - home runs; mel stottlemyre - complete games; willie mccovey - home runs; billy williams - runs, hits; garry templeton - triples; robin yount - hits, doubles; keith hernandez - walks; andy vanslyke - triples; kenny lofton - sb; larry walker - batting average; chase utley - runs; dustin pedroia - hits, runs; david ortiz - doubles, rbi; clayton kershaw - wins, era; dj lemahieu - batting average)

subset types: 2 (all-time all-stars, postseason highlights (3))

number of repeat players: 1 (ernie banks)

number of dodgers: 2 (steve garvey, clayton kershaw)

frequency of teams: cardinals (6), cubs (5), astros (4), mets (4), twins (3), yankees (3), braves (3), dodgers (2), a's (2), reds (2), brewers (2), giants (2), phillies (2), rockies (2), red sox (2), white sox, indians, blue jays, angels, rangers, orioles, rays, padres, pirates

i will have another post with another run of cards soon - stay tuned!

from my dad's collection to mine

a long time ago, i gave my dad a 1966 topps jim lefebvre card for father's day. i was a relatively new collector, and i found the card in my local card and comic shop's box of 1966 cards. i had asked my dad who his favorite player had been, and he said lefebvre. knowing that the dodger infielder won the 1965 rookie of the year award, i figured i would look for a 1966 card. anyway, that gesture, combined with my passion for collecting, encouraged my dad to begin a collection of his own and started us on a path of opening packs and boxes together each spring, and heading to a few card shows (including a national convention) over the subsequent years.

a couple of years ago, he formally gifted me his collection. i am not ashamed to say that i broke it up and used some of the cards to further my 1965 topps set build and a couple of mini collections, and i sold and traded some of the cards as well. there are some cards, however, that i used to create a new mini collection - cards from my dad - that features three of the pitchers that he collected:

1. sandy koufax

those nine cards, spanning from 1958 through 1966 fit nicely on a single page. my dad pretty much drew the line at the 1957 topps set (he only had one or two cards from years prior), so i am pretty sure he never owned a 1955 koufax rookie or his 1956 second year card. he did have a 1957 card of koufax, but he gave that to me several years ago when i was still working on my 1957 topps dodger team set. i have since upgraded it for the team set with this one

and moved my dad's old koufax card in to my '57 complete set build.

the 1958 card looks like it had been on display in a card shop window before my dad rescued it for his collection. he helped me understand that condition doesn't need to be king if all you are doing is trying to have fun with a hobby.

2. don drysdale

that is a complete career run of big d's topps flagship solo cards, including the 1957 rookie. i heard lots of references growing up to koufax and drysdale from my dad. he saw each of them pitch in person, and to be honest i am not sure which of them he favored. 

3. nolan ryan

my dad saw ryan pitch in person as a met once, which i am jealous of. i had the chance to see him pitch against the angels in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but never took advantage. what's worse is that ryan was dominant in his two starts at the big a in 1989 that took place while i was doing something probably much less exciting about 20 miles away.  anyway, i really am fond of this collection. i have no idea what my dad paid for his 1968 ryan rookie, but i do remember looking at it with a sense of awe when he added it to his collection back in the early 80's.  the last box of cards i recall opening together was 1990 topps, and that was pretty much the end of his collecting days. so, after he handed these cards over, i mined my own defunct player collection of ryan and added the 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994 cards. i find it very serendipitous that the result is 27 cards that fit squarely in three pages, and i think it is fitting that the collection is a combination of our efforts.

i am really happy to have these cards and plan to keep them together like this in my collection. i also have a 1966 topps jim lefebvre card in my 'meaningful and just because' mini collection. just look what it spawned!

i haven't seen my dad in person for 20 months, but we have plans to meet up in july. i am definitely looking forward to it! happy father's day tomorrow to all for whom it holds meaning!