cards of future past

the latest in a long line of envelopes i've received from madding at cards on cards was packed with cards featuring some players from before we knew them and some players from before they weren't really known at all.

what i mean by that is that there were several cards from 2014 bowman draft, including some black parallels that were exclusive to asia packaging. here's corey seager's top prospects insert black (or some say asia) parallel

plus those same parallels of base cards featuring grant holmes, jeff brigham, and john richy

you know seager - he's a two-time world series champion - and grant holmes just recently made it to the major leagues with the braves. brigham has, at least to me, carved out a big league career under the radar, appearing in 94 games over parts of six seasons. he's currently with the cubs after pitching for the dbacks last year. richy made it to triple-a with the phillies after being part of the chase utley trade, but didn't get any further than that. richy was the dodgers' third round pick in the 2014 draft, with holmes being their first rounder and brigham their fourth. 

that just leaves the second round, and the dodgers used that pick on alex verdugo, whose chrome prospect card

was also included in the mailing. you know verdugo, of course, as he played for the dodgers and was sent to the red sox in the mookie betts trade. he struck out to end the 2024 world series, and then played half of the 2025 season for the braves. he is currently unsigned as i understand it.

kerry included some more recent cards of someone we may eventually know - 2025 bowman jesus tillero propsect and prospect chrome inserts

he's not quite 20 years old, and has pitched in rookie league and a-ball so far. let's see what happens!

here's an actual major leaguer card of edwin rios

it's a 2020 topps chrome refractor parallel. rios showed some pop for the dodgers in 2020, hitting 17 homers plus two in the postseason. his big league run ended with the reds in 2024.

dalton rushing's big league career is just beginning, and kerry sent a 2023 bowman platinum card

of the dodgers' backup catcher. he's in a tough spot with will smith firmly entrenched, but hopefully he gets his time or is spun off and given an opportunity elsewhere.

finally, a hyeseong kim ornament insert from 2025 topps holiday

kim is another current big leaguer who should see more action in 2026 than he did last year (if he's healthy) as tommy edman will miss some time to start the season.

all in all, another great envelope full of cards from cards on cards. thanks kerry!

two in the hand beats whatever is in the bush

i was excited to be included in rod's recent spate of mailings as he always sends some fun items. no poster this time, but he did include a couple of "twinographs" for me

that's twins lifer and two-time world series champion randy bush who signed a pair of cards for rod or some other person at some point in time.

there was another auto included, this one of a minnesota wild player on a 2008-09 o-pee-chee card

i must admit i wasn't paying much attention to the nhl at this point of stephane veilleux's career. i'm more engaged these days, making it to two or three games a year.

the cards rod sent gave me a chance to appreciate the three twins' multiplayer/checklist cards from 2025 topps

as well as byron buxton's indivicual card in base and holiday format

buck is not the only twin shown airborne in the 2025 topps set, as local kid matt wallner

is also catching some air. it's nice to see the flowers behind the outfield wall on a card.

buxton is still my favorite non-dodger, so it was cool to receive this relic card from 2025 topps holiday

of course, buxton flies because torii hunter also flew, and this 2004 topps clubhouse card of the latter

was equally appreciated!

2005 topps design has always looked good in black, and having brooks lee's 2025 topps archives card in black foil parallel fashion

makes me happy.

one more twin card that caught my eye was this 2025 bowman kyle debarge chrome prospects insert

i have to believe that, at some point, his walkup song has been or will be "rhythm of the night".

there was one dodger included in the mailing, and it was this 2025 bowman draft eduardo quintero card

quintero is a 6'-1" outfielder who hit 19 homers last year split between a and high-a ball. he's only 20 so plenty of time for him to progress.

finally, my favorite item in the package was this 1991 topps custom fernando valenzuela card

fernando as an angel is high on my list of cards i really want topps to produce in an archives release or even this year's flagship insert set. here's the back:

there aren't too many color photos of fernando as an angel, and i hadn't seen the one used here before. of course, i had taken my own shot at creating one of these cards a while back, but i don't recall doing a back, probably because it would look just like the back of his actual 1991 topps card, with a few slight changes.

thank you very much rod! always a pleasure to receive cards from you!

'tis the night before christmas

deck the halls and what not - it's christmas time! it's also time for me to show some topps holiday cards that i've added since we last shared yuletide greetings.

this release should really be called "topps christmas" because that is the only holiday the cards reference, and it's been that way since the first issue in 2019. here's a 2019 cody bellinger variation

that is pretty easy to spot.

this 2020 bellinger variation

is a bit tougher. here, the variation is the "la" ornament hanging off of his bat. i am guessing that there are many of these languishing in forgotten boxes of unwanted base cards.

the 2021 set included the bead curtain design, and here's a max scherzer variation

i wore a scarf just the other day.

mookie betts variations are also in my possession - this one from 2022

and this one from 2023

as well as this one from 2024

that last one is him in an elf hat, but the card design has it looking more like something that comes out of a christmas cracker.

this year, the variation i purchased was roki sasaki's

which combined the santa hat with the christmas light necklace.

i also picked up betts' 2021 base card to complete the team set

as well as the remainder of the 2025 base cards i needed to complete that team set

the parallels have evolved over the past few years, and i added a few of them to my collection over the past few months. here's freddie freeman's 2022 silver metallic snowflake parallel

and then freeman and max muncy on their 2024 equivalent

except these are called "silver glitter" now.

no surprise that 2025 expanded on the parallels. here's clayton kershaw's sliver glitter

dalton rushing's light blue & white glitter

blake snell's metallic blue foil christmas lights

teoscar hernandez' gold foil christmas lights

and freeman's green plaid

that last one was a throw-in into a lot of 2025 allen & ginter i bought which was a nice surprise. it came with some other, non-dodger inserts from 2025 topps holiday that i found interesting, like this evergreen harmon killebrew card

which is die-cut. i also got a laugh out of seeing emmanuel clase on the nice list

what a crazy story that is.

it wouldn't be (almost) christmas without me thinking of the late rickey henderson. at some point during the year, i found a seller with rickey's 2003 topps chrome traded base and refractor listed. they were listed separately and i am not sure that the seller knew one was a refractor. i bought them both 

for $40 which is a steal (pun intended). let's take a moment to look at rickey's almost career totals on the backs of these cards

the refractor is noted on the back down by the card number.

i still need a couple more refractors to complete my 2003 topps chrome traded team set, but i did find james loney's card shortly after picking up the rickey

this one was listed as a refractor, and it was pretty obvious from the photo of the front, and it is marked as such on the back

just in a different way than rickey's.

rickey's 2003 upper deck card is probably my favorite from his dodger stint

but i have questions about the back

i have never seen "mariners" shortened to "mrl". and, "athletics" is nine characters, so why not say "mets/mar". ponderous.

back to christmas, i pounced on this complete printing plate run from 2024 leaf metal happy holidays web exclusive

so i suppose i could print my own steve garvey holiday cards now? i haven't seen any of the actual cards hit the market yet, but i may have missed any that did because these are so short printed by leaf.

some other holiday "hits" to share - a 2022 topps holiday cody bellinger relic

and, very fittingly, a 2025 topps holiday jhonkensey noel relic

that i pulled from a holiday tin earlier this month. it's the first noel relic card i've pulled. ha.

also in that tin was a 2009 design card of ol' saint nick himself

which is part of the multi-year santa archives. here's the back:

i remember hearing about zsu zsu pets but did not partake.

earlier in the year, i found the 2014 card in a dig box at the lcs

here's the back

i don't recall any of those toys. i think i first heard about paw patrol last year. 

finally, here's the first card i purchased from 2025 topps holiday - the 1978 design santa archives

i've added it to my 1978 topps master set. any idea why santa's position is identified as "cpt"? at first i thought that was an abbreviation for "captain" which didn't make a lot of sense. i googled "cpt" and found that it is also an acronym for "carriage paid to" which is an international trade term that means the shipper delivers goods at their own expense. that certainly applies, but it seems like an obscure "position" for mr. claus. here's the back:

ah yes. this i remember. it was all star wars at my house that christmas. i remember getting the milennium falcon and immediately mixing up the stickers on the back. good times. here's hoping that 2025 creates memories that last a lifetime.

and now please enjoy norm macdonald reading the dickens classic. merry christmas to all and to all a good night!