wilson!

over 14 years ago i discovered that my 1990 topps dodger team collection was missing mike davis' card (sorry mike!). history repeated itself earlier last summer as i was entering my dodger collection in to tcdb. when i got to the 1992 score set - a set that i had marked "dodgers complete" - i found that i was missing steve wilson. and, unlike the 1990 topps davis card, i did not have a bunch of 1992 score wilson cards sitting among my dupes.

i quickly added a wilson card to a sportlots order

and now my team set is complete.

similarly, i found that i had a promo version of this card

from 1992 donruss triple play but not the actual card. that, too, has been rectified and tcdb has been updated.

speaking of tcdb, it has taken me awhile to get to entering cards from my mini-collections, but i have been able to add most of them. there are still some i haven't entered, including my dodger stadium and my double play collections. i keep adding cards to those collections, however, including this fantastic 2001 topps fusion card

that nick at dime boxes turned me on to. it features one of the great moments in dodger stadium murals - manny mota's, in fact - that i love to see on cardboard so much. i don't know how i missed this example back when i was scrutinizing cards from the early 2000s for any sign of the murals.

i went back and forth about picking up this 2022 topps now turn back the clock card of jim palmer

but finally relented. it shows him pitching in dodger stadium during the 1966 world series. long gone are those low-rise paneled railings, but they are a dead giveaway for dodger stadium with pre-mccourt era photos.

as for double plays, i've added a 1985 topps sticker showing the dp combo of alan trammell and lou whitaker eliminating luis salazar

during the ninth inning of game three 1984 world series. not shown is tony gwynn who grounded to whitaker to start this play. gwynn made it safely to first base, but then steve garvey flew out to end the game.

more current twin killings include a 2006 topps marcus giles gold parallel card

a 2020 topps jonathan villar gold foil parallel card

a 2023 topps chrome vaughn grissom card

and a 2023 topps heritage jonathan india card

i am assuming mookie betts will get some double play cards in 2024 and i am looking forward to those, but first i want to get the rest of my mini-collections loaded in to tcdb. wish me luck!

baseball in the sky(dome)

i've seen games in skydome twice. actually, it was skydome the first time and rogers centre the other.  it was the seventh different stadium i had seen a game in, and i have this 1992 donruss triple play card in my "stadiums i've seen games in" mini-collection.

here's my ticket stub from the first game:

and here's my eticket from the second:

it looks like my photos from the first game have not been scanned, but i recall a few things from the game. the roof was closed, the upper deck where we sat seemed very steep and far from the action (even compared to the metrodome), roy halladay pitched, and the mariners had a high powered offense even without ken griffey jr. i had been a fan of halladay's since watching his near no-hitter on the last day of the 1998 season. however, he and the toronto bullpen were no match for edgar martinez, alex rodriguez, john olerud, and mark mclemore who combined for 10 runs and 11 rbi between them.

with the 2016 game being more recent, i do have photos to share.  this first one is from the top of the fourth inning, with ra dickey on the mound

you can see that the roof is open, and with that plus the full dirt basepaths, it certainly felt more like a baseball stadium than the first time i had visited. dickey had a no-hitter going at this point, although it was not in any way looking to be sustainable. still, dickey made it through 5 and a third no-hit innings before mookie betts hit a triple.

this next photo is from the bottom of the 5th, and it shows jose bautista about to cross home plate

bautista just kicked off the scoring with a two-run homer off of david price. the fans were in to it for sure - it was a fun atmosphere. the game wound up going in to extra innings with the red sox winning 5-3.

i'll give a nod to the photo on the triple play card with this one showing the cn tower rising above the stadium behind me

in fact, we headed up in to the tower after the game and took some photos of the field below

i do plan to get back to toronto at some point - it's such a great city. and when i do, i will very likely visit this stadium again.

this post is the last in a series covering the stadiums i've seen regular season major league baseball games in. my goal is to get to a new stadium next year, and try to do that until i've hit them all. time will tell!