four for four twenty

here's a 1981 donruss tommy lasorda card

that has something in common with these next four cards - 2019 topps heritage kenley jansen (this is the chrome parallel)

2020 topps mookie betts

2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary joe kelly (this is the refractor parallel)

and 2022 topps austin barnes

those four cards represent a four year run in which topps had assigned a dodger card to number 420 in one of their sets

i took note of it in 2021 when i saw the checklist for platinum anniversary. alas, there was no continuation of this in 2023, but i couldn't help but wonder if it were an intentional thing, similar to what upper deck did with number 666 in their early days.

not that it's a bad thing - 420 is a number associated with cannabis use, thanks to some california teens in the 1970s and i pass no judgement. it was just conspicuous to me that topps put a dodger in that spot four years running.

speaking of four years running, if cody bellinger (seen here on a 2022 topps allen & ginter chrome mini)

homers today, he will have hit a home run on 4/20 in four consecutive seasons. bellinger, as you might know, has a few 420 themed memes out there.

i almost forgot to mention - the donruss lasorda card up top is the first dodger card that i am aware of to slot at number 420 in a major set. these days, the dodgers have a 1 in 30 chance of being there in just a handful of sets each year. i took a quick look and found that no other team had more than two consecutive seasons at 420 in a topps set. donruss put the a's at 420 three years in a row in their flagship set in the mid-1980s, and the rangers were at 420 three years in a row in major pacific releases. it makes some sense to me as it has to be easier to set a checklist by starting with the previous year's, but maybe, just maybe, there were some shenanigans afoot.

the k is for kershaw kountdown continues - giant slayer edition!

clayton kershaw made his sixth appearance of the 2025 season saturday night against the giants at dodger stadium, so i am pleased to be able to post another edition of the k is for kershaw kountdown as we track his progress to the 3,000 strikeout milestone.

coming off his best start of the season, kershaw registered another solid outing, going seven innings without allowing a run (matching the best outing by a dodger starter this season) and striking out five giants in the process. those 5 nocal's he k'd bring his season strikeout total to 20, and his career total to 2,988.

in honor of his performance, here are five cards (not seen on this blog before) from my collection to represent strikeouts number 2,984 through 2,988.

2,984 - 2024 topps finest

2,985 - 2014 topps wins leaders walmart blue parallel

2,986 - 2018 topps big league nl whip leaders gold parallel

2,987 - 2019 topps heritage 1970 scratchoff

2,988 - 2019 topps high tek

kershaw's night included allowing only three hits and just one walk to go with his five strikeouts. he faced the minimum number of batters through the first two innings (thanks to a walk-canceling double play) and then registered a strikeout in each of his last five frames. it was a low stress outing, as the dodgers piled on the runs early, and the giants did not mount any sort of rally against kershaw whatsoever.

kershaw's performance saturday night also reclaimed solo possession of first place in the national league west for the dodgers after they lost the series opener to the giants on friday and fell into a tie with their division rivals. it's worth noting that kershaw has struck out more players pitching against the giants than any other team, although that's not really a surprise given the old unbalanced schedules that teams would play.

here are some non-kershaw cards - starting with a 2007 topps moments & milestones russell (russ) martin card

martin was the catcher for kershaw's debut back in 2008. i would like to see kershaw asked to name the starters who were behind him that day because i sure as heck didn't recall a dodger named luis maza who started that game at second base.

seeing the 2019 topps heritage insert above referring to kershaw as "team captain" got me thinking about austin barnes. i recently read a quote from mookie betts - it may have been on a card back - that barnes (who served as kershaw's unofficial personal catcher for a few seasons) was the team captain of late. of course, he was recently released by the club. here's a 2021 topps big league rainbow foil parallel that features barnes and company as they celebrate the 2020 world series win

that is barnes, of course, in the catcher's gear. he is part of a very short list of dodger catchers (john roseboro, rick dempsey, and will smith are the others) to catch the final out of a dodger world series victory.

of course, you can't mention dodger catchers and kershaw without thinking of a.j. ellis. here is his 2013 topps gold parallel card

that features kershaw prominently.

kershaw is still in 20th place on the all-time leader board, and he will remain there unless he passes john smoltz (or is himself passed). smoltz has a career strikeout total of 3,084 and so kershaw is now 96 k's behind smoltz, but just 12 away from the 3,000 milestone. for what it's worth, he has moved past smoltz on the all-time wins leaderboard and is now tied with mark buehrle and rick reuschel with 214.

kershaw should be back on the mound later this week against the padres. know that when he makes his next start, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned! 

baseless claims

there was another seller other than brian that i purchased some cards from at the church show in september. it was an older couple who i have seen at these shows in the past, and they typically have some decent stuff in their bargain boxes. this time around, there was a smaller quarter box and then a couple of larger 50 cent and dollar boxes. however, they noted that those were 25% off.

as i was digging through, i noticed that these were all parallels with a few inserts here and there. i selected several parallels from these boxes, including a 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary duke snider refractor

i was actually hoping to find some base cards from this set, because i still need a handful of dodgers to complete the team set. no dice. there was no base to be found anywhere even though one of the box rows was filled with cards from this release.

i do have the full dodger base team set from the 2022 version of platinum anniversary, and i was able to find a refractor to add to the collection in the form of freddie freeman

more shiny stuff was there for me to take, like a 2020 panini select clayton kershaw holo prizm

and a 2019 topps fire corey seager green parallel

i found a new double play card for the collection - a 2020 topps chrome dansby swanson negative refractor

but perhaps the shiniest card i took with me was a 2019 topps heritage aroldis chapman chrome refractor card

what can i say, i am a sucker for shiny numbered cards.

here is a smattering of other parallel finds from these boxes

with the card in the upper right being numbered to 25. 

the oddest item i took from these boxes was this 1998 upper deck powerdeck cd-rom for the vladimir guerrero collection

there were a few more cards from this seller that came home with me, but none were base cards primarily because i didn't see any base cards. i am not complaining as it was fun to dig through all of those parallels but it did have me wondering what happened to all the base that had to have been set aside to get to so many parallels.

where it is with heritage chrome

a few weeks ago, i gave a synopsis of where my dodger collection is regarding topps heritage releases. this post will do something similar with the chrome heritage offerings. some collectors don't like the idea of chrome cards in heritage releases since there were no chrome cards using flagship designs until the late 1990's. i like the chrome cards and don't see them degrading the heritage sets at all, although there are plenty of other things for collectors to nitpick about (myself included).

anyway, the inaugural heritage release in 2001 introduced us to these partial set parallels, and i just recently finally added one to my collection

2001 sets meant dodger collectors were getting a whopping serving of kevin brown, shawn green, and gary sheffield cards. those three are the dodgers who were feted with chrome cards in 2001, but i only have brown's.

in 2002, brown and green again got the chrome treatment and were joined by paul loduca, omar daal, and chan ho park. i don't have any of those cards. i did pull a cc sabathia chrome card from a pack of 2002 heritage, but i've since parted with it.

five dodgers were included in the 2003 topps heritage chrome cards, including ruddy lugo

in addition to the lugo, i have shawn green's card but am missing kaz ishii, franklin gutierrez, and loduca.

there were only two chrome dodgers in 2004 - shawn green and edwin jackson - and i only have green's card. in 2005, green was joined by ishii, jeff kent, and eric gagne. i have the green and the ishii from that set.  then, in 2006, jeff weaver

rafael furcal

and kent 

joined nomar garciaparra as chrome dodgers. this is the first team heritage chrome set that i have completed.

i have also completed the dodger 2007 heritage chrome team set. it features andre ethier

delwyn young

and jonathan broxton

broxton's card looks fantastic in refractor form

it's the only one of the three that i own and i wouldn't have it any other way.

i have also completed the team set for 2008 heritage chrome. this one includes 10 dodgers (2 of which are part of the inaugural high numbers release). in addition to ethier, kent, andy laroche, and hiroki kuroda, dodger fans were treated to cards of andruw jones

matt kemp

brad penny

takashi saito

russell martin

who i also have in refractor form

and chin-lung hu

whose refractor looks really great

there were 10 more dodgers in 2009 heritage, and i have them all. kuroda

martin

penny

orlando hudson (high numbers)

ethier

whose refractor also sits in my collection

james loney (whose refractor made this post rather than the base)

the others in the team set include clayton kershaw, kemp, manny ramirez, and randy wolf.

six dodgers showed up in 2010 heritage as chrome parallels, and once again, i've been able to complete the set. here's chad billingsley's card

he is joined by kemp, kershaw, ethier, martin, and manny.

in 2011, if i recall correctly, the chrome cards were included in heritage and chrome? is that correct? anyway, there are nine dodgers and i have six of them. i am missing don mattingly, kuroda, and billingsley, but have casey blake, loney, kershaw, etheir, the kemp/ethier combo card, and kemp's solo card. here's his chrome parallel

that also graces my collection.

2012 heritage included five dodgers and i have three of them, including kuroda in base

and refractor format

i am missing ethier's card and the matt kemp league leader card, but i have kemp's solo card and kershaw's league leader card in chrome form.

2013 heritage only had five dodgers as well, and i own ethier and kershaw cards but need hanley ramirez', kemp, and adrian gonzalez. for 2014, hyun-jin ryu, zack greinke, and yasiel puig joined kershaw, ramirez, gonzalez, and kemp. i have kershaw and kemp

and i also have purple refractors of greinke and kemp

i don't have kemp's 2015 heritage chrome card, but i do have greinke's

i also have kershaw, dee gordon, puig, and gonzalez, but am missing ryu, ramirez, and kenley jansen. as for the high numbers, i have jimmy rollins but none of the other dodgers (yasmani grandal, trevor cahill, alex guerrero, and brett anderson).

there were only three dodgers - greinke (need it), puig (need it), and kershaw (got it) - given chrome cards in 2016 heritage, but high numbers gave us four more. scott kazmir and ross stripling are the two i am missing as i have julio urias and kenta maeda

it was more of the same in 2018, with four dodgers in the base run of heritage - kershaw (got it), maeda (got it), corey seager (need it), and urias (need it). then, in high numbers, there were four more. i need andrew toles, rob segedin, and cody bellinger, but have jansen.  

in 2019, topps returned to a greater number of dodgers included as chrome subjects as seager, maeda, bellinger, yu darvish, walker buehler, alex verdugo, puig, and kershaw were all included. kershaw's is the only card of those that i own, although i do have a couple of refractor parallels of others.  in high numbers, there was only matt kemp, and while i need his base chrome card, i do have his refractor parallel

man it was good to see him back with the dodgers in 2018.

things got sort of confusing for me in 2019 when i was putting together the checklists. i guess some of the chrome cards were only available in mega boxes, like this jansen

and this joc pederson 

while matt kemp was among those getting true "base" chrome cards. i don't have kemp's card, but i do have his refractor parallel

in all, i still need buehler, kemp, maeda, and max muncy from the base chrome checklist (i have kershaw), and i need only bellinger from the mega box checklist (i have seager in addition to the pederson and jansen cards above). high numbers included chrome cards for a.l. pollock and alex verdugo (along with russell martin in the mega boxes), but i have none of those.

twelve dodgers were included in 2020 heritage chrome (combining base and mega box exclusives). of those twelve, i only have bellinger

jansen, kershaw, and verdugo. i am still on the lookout for muncy, dustin may, gavin lux, will smith, seager, buehler, justin turner, and pederson.  i do have refractor parallels of bellinger 

and jansen

and they look pretty sharp. i would love to add the mookie betts chrome card from 2020 high numbers, along with any of the other three dodgers (edwin rios, brusdar graterol, and david price) but i have yet to do so.

in recent years, as you can tell, i've paid less attention to completing team sets of chrome, and that is true for 2021 where i only have kershaw and need the other four dodgers (muncy, betts, seager, and bellinger) plus the seven dodgers in high numbers (dj peters, victor gonzalez, price, lux, zach mckinstry, albert pujols, and buehler). 2022 is the same, where i am missing all of the chrome cards from the base heritage (buehler, urias, betts, trea turner, and bellinger) and only have kershaw from the high numbers release (missing craig kimbrel).

finally, 2023. so far, there are four dodgers to chase in chrome form - james outman, betts, freddie freeman, and buehler. i have buehler's card

and am looking forward to high numbers and what i will assume will be another kershaw card.

i mentioned that i have a number (actually all) kershaw chrome cards, including purple refractors from 2021 

and 2022

and i figured i would show the complete run of base kershaw chrome cards, starting in 2009

2010

2011

2012 (no base chrome card for kersh)

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

as i mentioned, i am looking forward to seeing kershaw's heritage card this year - might it resemble claude osteen's 1974 card? - and whomever else is in high numbers this year. 

thanks for sticking with this post - it was a lot of cards for sure!