buehler?

walker buehler is back on the bump for the dodgers tonight (assuming the game is played starting about 2.5 hours from when this post goes live). if the dodgers don't have a ben stein video on diamondvision before the game, what are they even doing?

here are some cards to mark the end of walker buehler's days off:

2020 topps chrome blue parallel

2021 bowman platinum ice foil parallel

2021 topps 1986 all-star relic

2021 topps chrome pink refractor parallel

2022 topps stars of mlb insert

2022 topps gypsy queen blue parallel

and here's his 2014 topps big league base card

that last card came from cards on cards, along with several more dodgers that hit my want lists on the nose.

this is a 2018 bowman alex verdugo chrome rookie of the year favorites insert

mojo box edition! verdugo did not rate in the roy voting in 2018 as he saw only limited playing time. in fact, he was still a rookie in 2019 when he hit .294 for the dodgers in just over 100 games, but didn't place in the roy voting that year either.

2021 topps uk edition luke raley

raley is playing in seattle now after two seasons in tampa following his 2021 season spent with the dodgers.

2023 topps stadium club mookie betts

and will smith

with these two cards in hand, my 2023 stadium club team set is missing only miguel vargas and jd martinez. 

2024 topps big league shohei ohtani

this might be the first ohtani dodger card i've received in trade. pretty sure it is, in fact, yes, it is.

2024 topps big league emmet sheehan

and emmet sheehan electric orange parallel

the borders of big league make the parallels look dirty and less electric, but i am happy to have an example of the orange parallels.

thanks kerry!

with buehler back in action, all eyes turn to the progression of clayton kershaw, whose 2024 topps big league card i recently picked up

it sounds like he threw off a mound the other day, and hopefully will be back in time to make a run at his 3,000th strikeout. the "k is for kershaw kountdown" will return!

the k is for kershaw kountdown continues - house of the mouse edition

yes, the kountdown to 3,000 strikeouts for clayton kershaw continues as he pitched against the angels on tuesday night in anaheim, not too far from disneyland. he struck out 5 batters to give him 103 strikeouts on the season. those 5 halos that he k'd increased his career total to 2,910.

in honor of his performance, here are 5 cards to represent strikeouts 2,906 through 2,910.

2,906 - 2018 bowman sky blue

2,907 - 2019 topps big league gold

2,908 - 2020 topps utz

2,909 - 2021 topps finest flashbacks

2,910 - 2022 topps cosmic chrome

kershaw remains in 21st place on the all-time leader board, and will remain there until he passes zack greinke, who struck out 4 on sunday against these same angels to increase his strikeout total to 2,940. kershaw is now 30 k's behind greinke (although greinke is slated to pitch today) and 90 away from the 3,000 milestone. 

with the game taking place in anaheim - a city that i spent a lot of time in back in the 1990's - i figured this was a good time to show off an oddball card that i added to my dodger collection a few months back:

that's a dodger card - even though it says "mickey mouse all-stars" - from the 2010 all-star game that was held in anaheim. it was a fanfest giveaway that came in packs of five cards. i believe there were ten cards in all - three non-franchise cards (national league, american league, and all-star game) and seven franchise cards (dodgers, angels, braves, cubs, mets, yankees, giants). here is the back of the dodger card:

there's a bit of weirdness on the back as i don't know anyone who refers to 1932 as the first season for the dodger franchise. otherwise, the card presents a nice snapshot in time in terms of franchise leaders. today, kershaw would replace chad billingsley in each of the active leader pitching categories, plus sandy koufax as the all-time whip leader and don sutton in all-time strikeouts with 2,910 and counting. see? this card ties in to the k is for kershaw kountdown quite well!

it would seem that kershaw's next start will come against the rockies next tuesday in colorado. regardless of when he makes his next start, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!

love that minneapolis sound

first things first - i know that the minneapolis sound has nothing to do with ed lover or doctor dre, but this 1991 pro set muicard of the hosts of yo! mtv raps

was sent to me by fellow twin citian brian at highly subjective completely arbitrary. he sent it my way due to the fact that doctor dre (who is not that dr. dre) is wearing a dodger hat. ed lover is repping the raiders, which is fine by me, too. i used to root for them as my afc team back in the late 70's and early 80's.  anyway, the minneapolis sound is the style of funk and r&b pioneered by prince and propagated by his proteges and producers like jimmy jam and terry lewis.  there are a bunch of rock/punk/post-punk/alt-rock bands from the twin cities, too, like the suburbs, suicide commandos, information society, soul asylum, husker du, the replacements, and trip shakespeare, but they are not part of the general definition of the minneapolis sound.

that's a long way to go to simply say that i received some cards from brian that included a music related card. maybe i should start this post over, but it's too late to turn back; here we go.

i received these cards in part due to our ongoing swapping of cards through the mail (looking forward to swapping in person once we both feel comfortable attending the monthly local card shows again), and also because i won a contest he held on his blog a while back.

here's the big gun first, a maury wills certified autograph

from 2020 topps archives signature series and featuring his 1962 topps card that should have been as featured in the 1987 topps set.

here's another autograph that was in the package:

that's a 2015 bowman's best chase de jong autograph. de jong was the blue jays' second round pick in 2012 and was acquired by the dodgers via trade in 2015. the dodgers traded him to the mariners in 2017, and he's appeared in the big leagues for seattle, minnesota, and houston since. he's currently in the pirates' organization.

here's a guy who has pitched for the dodgers in the majors, mitchell white

on a 2018 bowman prospects card. white pitched in a couple of games in 2020 and was just called up for the first time this season earlier in the week.

this next guy is one of the dodgers' more successful pitchers

that's a 2002 donruss originals don drysdale. i have copies of that card in my team binder, my dodger stadium mini-collection, and my name/number on the back mini-collection. someday i'll share a post about that last mini-collection.

another successful dodger pitcher is next - derek lowe

on his 2005 donruss zenith museum collection parallel. i say lowe was a successful dodger pitcher due to the fact that he led the league in wins as a dodger in 2006 and won game 1 of the 2008 nlds against the cubs, largely thanks to james loney's grand slam. i was in a bar watching that game and pretty much lost my shit when loney hit that home run against the mighty cubs.

next up is a guy who has done lowe one better and won a ring as a dodger - dustin may

on a 2021 topps heritage high numbers rookie performers insert. an appropriate card for today, i think.

now we are in the 'before they were big leaguers' portion of the package. here's eric young

on his 1990 star florida state league all-stars card. the only difference between this card and his 1990 star vero beach dodgers card is that the front of this one says "national" instead of "infielder". i think these uniforms are some of the happiest around - you've got a grapefruit on the hat and a hibiscus flower on the sleeve. how can you not be happy wearing something like that?

here's a real dodger uniform on this card

that's a 1992 classic update white travel edition carlos hernandez card, with raul mondesi on deck. i suppose by this time, hernandez had played in the majors during parts of two seasons. it's worth noting that he was the first of (so far) four guys named carlos hernandez to make it to the majors. they've all been from venezuela, too.

similar to hernandez, here's tom goodwin

on his 1992 score glossy rookies card. goodwin had already made his big league debut before this card was issued, but he didn't lose his rookie status until 1995 when he was with the royals. he was one of three players that the dodgers selected in the first round of the 1989 draft. they took kiki jones with the 15th pick, goodwin with the 22nd pick, and jamie mcandrew with the 28th pick. jones and mcandrew were compensation for losing steve sax to the yankees via free agency, so goodwin was the dodgers' "real" pick. right after the dodgers selected him, the red sox took mo vaughn. 

thanks again brian! hope to see you soon!

i've already had a blue, blue blue blue christmas

secret santa delivered some cards to me well before the holiday, which was great.

also great was that all of the cards were needs of some boys in blue.

you can't go wrong sending dodger card collectors blue-bordered parallels, and those clayton kershaw and cody bellinger cards up above from 2018 bowman look great.

my secret santa also finished off my 2018 bowman base dodger set with these two cards

both of which had also been on my 'nefarious nine' most wanted list.  well done!

another team set completed here - this time it is the 2018 panini chronicles score subset

the buehler looks great. even though there is no logo on the cap (no need to photoshop out the new era logo on the caps, though).  still, i could convince myself that the buehler would look the same on a topps card thanks to the angle of the photo.

last card in my gift package was this 2018 topps stadium club of now-former dodger tim locastro

his signature kind of looks like it says "in la", but tim is now "in new york" as he was traded to the yankees last mont.

thanks to matt at bob walk the plank for kicking this off and to jon at penny sleeve for your thoughts for carrying on the tradition! and big thanks to ketchupman36 from rekindling the cardboard flame for delivering a great secret santa package!

merry christmas and happy holidays!