blue is a fall color this year

game 1 of the 2025 world series kicks off shortly after this post posts, but i won't be able to watch it due to a conflicting engagement. i am hoping it is as thrilling as last year's game 1 turned out to be. here are some related cards to the event, including a 2025 panini prizm trey yesavage card

his meteoric rise to the majors and the postseason is one of the more intriguing stories going in, and getting the game 1 start adds to the incredible season he has had. i found this card in a nickel box at the local card shop - twin cities cards, to be exact. i would expect his cards to be well sought after in 2026 releases.

there is maybe just one person as hot as vladimir guerrero jr going into the series. here's a 2021 topps update all-star game insert of vladito

that i found in a quarter box at a mall show recently. for the record, i was happy for guerrero and the blue jays but would have been happy for the mariners, too, had they won game 7. i didn't really care for george springer being the hero given his connection to the astros and their cheating during the 2017 season and world series, however i am looking forward to this matchup.

this card

arrived in my mailbox too late to show as a lead-in to the nlcs this year, but i can show it now. this is from 2025 topps dynamic duals which is in its third year (i think) as an online only release. jackson chourio had a better series than andy pages, but pages caught the last out so he has that going for him.

there aren't too many cards that i could think of off-hand that match a dodger up with a blue jay, but the one that immediately came to mind was the 1993 topps card featuring mike piazza and carlos delgado

that was a hot commodity back then for sure.

as far as players go, i immediately think of ron fairly (pre-scanned dodger card not readily available as i type this post so i defaulted to o-pee-chee (oh my!)), 

raul mondesi,

and shawn green

as players who have played for both the dodgers and blue jays, but i know there are several others like bob bailor, al oliver, russell martin and rickey henderson to name a few. i also think of roy hartsfield,

who was a dodger farmhand in the 50's and a dodger coach before ultimately going on to manage the jays.

i don't do an annual post of my favorite team rankings like night owl does, but if i did, the blue jays would be in position 2 or 3 on an annual basis. i will probably explain why in a future post, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in my near-term future if the blue jays were crowned world champs. with that said, let's go dodgers!

playing catch up

i've fallen behind in my trade posting, and still won't be caught up after this post. between giveaways, contests, and straight up trades, there hasn't been much of a slowdown in incoming cards during the pandemic.  here are some cards to prove it.

cards from diamond jesters

these 2019 topps holiday cards were a return for one of my "almost free stuff friday" trade bait posts, and are an appropriate trio of cards to kick off this early december post.

cards from gtt

these three cards are also part of a "almost free stuff friday" trade. the 2007 fleer ultra saito at the top reminded me that it is tough to tell the difference between hobby and retail versions of these cards. the hobby versions have rainbow foil, i believe.   a new-to-me ryne sandberg lurker card and the tatooine bobby bonilla parallel card fit right in with a couple of my mini-collections.

cards from it's like having my own card shop

daniel and i exchanged a few pwe's over the summer, and these were some of the highlights. the 2003 upper deck 40 man dave roberts card is a rainbow parallel, which is great. the rest are inserts or parallels that were new to me. i suppose i should have shown these cards in october, given the pinkness of the 2016 topps chrome trayce thompson card.  speaking of pink...

card from card hemmorrhage

i claimed this 2019 panini donruss max scherzer franchise features pink firework parallel from one of jay's giveaways.

card from cards that never were

i won this custom card from john in a giveaway. you can buy packs of customs through his blog - they look great!

card from the diamond king

i won this 1979 topps comic nolan ryan card for correctly guessing that kevin had a dupe of it.

cards from nachos grande

i claimed the 103rd trade stack. you can see all of the cards that i obtained by doing so here, but i was really in it for the 2020 topps allen & ginter gavin lux card. the 1996 leaf limited hideo nomo was the other dodger in the stack, and i thought that the 2000 pacific private stock tim hudson mini was neat enough to scan and show here.

cards from fuji

these cards are from the oldest trade that i had yet to post about - sorry about that mark! lots of great cards including the 2001 upper deck decade the 1970's willie davis relic. one of the nice things that resulted from waiting on posting these particular cards is that i can now say that all 8 of the players shown are world series champions. of course, a couple of them (rafael furcal and manny ramirez) won their rings with teams other than the dodgers, but they are champions nonetheless.

thanks to all that trade or offer cards on their blogs - it is appreciated! and, i still have a few trades to post about and will try to get caught up in the new year.  in the meantime, check out my wantlists and let's trade!