dean of the dodgers

it wasn't too long after justin dean was involved in a memorable play in the 2025 world series that he was waived by the dodgers and picked up by the giants. i recall thinking that there was no chance we would see dean in a dodger uniform on 2026 topps cardboard as a result.

a couple months after that, he was picked up by the cubs. so, i was surprised that 2026 topps heritage came out with dean featured as a dodger on one of the four-in-one rookie cards. then topps series 2 was released, and dean was featured as a cub. i was hopeful that his golden mirror card would be a dodger card with an image from his "hands up" play against the blue jays in game 6 of the world series, similar to how the nationals' darren baker's golden mirror card last year was a giants card from his bat boy experience during the 2002 world series. however, dean's golden mirror card identifites him as a cub.

i still bought the card, however, since he is pictured walking through the lower levels of dodger stadium, past the gold gloves that dodgers have won in the past. it's a unique look at a part of dodger stadium that fits into my dodger stadium background mini collection. i am 99% sure that the glove on the top shelf at the far right of the card is davey lopes', and the one that would be immediately to the right of that (cropped out from the original photo) is steve garvey's

the back is the same as his regular card, except for the gold coloring

later, topps chrome was released, and i was again surprised - but then again, not, given the time that is needed to print and have cards signed - to see dean as a dodger in the autograph insert set

i made adding this card a high priority and eventually found one for a very low price. here's the back

which has all the same information as his flagship card, except for the team affiliation and transaction information around his arrival in chicago.

of course, the title "dean of the dodgers" makes me think of bill russell, thanks to the 1986 topps card 

that applied that moniker to him on the back.

i picked up a new to me russell card a few months back - a 2017 topps rediscover topps buyback of his 1985 topps card

it's a silver foil version, which sort of conflicts with all of the gold that preceded it in this post, but oh well.

chrome again chrome again jiggety jig

i've seen a lot of chatter about topps chrome football being a hit or miss, and largely a miss, product in terms of "hits". i typically don't buy boxes for hits but rather for variety and a good shot at some inserts, parallels, and dodger cards. it's entertainment to me, but i will admit that i am often disappointed a bit.

my mega box of 2026 topps chrome baseball arrived a while back, and really the only things worth showing from the packs are this albert pujols perspectives insert

and this aaron judge xfractor parallel

the pujols is a keeper for the tatooine collection, and the judge, in previous years, would have been worth up to $40. this year, it is hardly a blip on the radars of collectors. perhaps i should have stuck to mangled blasters.

i was able to complete my dodger team set 

between all of the product i've opened and a team lot purchase, as well as a couple of other purchases online.

that team lot came with several refractors

prism refractors

and inserts

like the above, although the max muncy refractor came from a non-team lot purchase.

the mookie betts 1991 card

and big ticket players card

were a part of the team lot, however, i had to go and buy this betts and jackie robinson insert individually

i am a big fan of these "past to present" cards, and pairing mookie with jackie is perfect. i also found a motivated seller and picked up the orel hershiser and yoshinobu yamamoto card

as well. those two dodgers are forever linked by world series pitching heroics.

speaking of world series heroics, i added kirk gibson's diamond moments card

and i love seeing his game 1 home run from the 1988 world series written about on cards

i decided not to add one to my "games i've seen in person" collection, but if i find one of these in a bargain bin i probably will add it.

i was happy to find clayton kershaw's rivals card in the team lot

but disappointed that his base card didn't carry through into the set.

finally, i had to target shohei ohtani's base card separately

i bought it on the downslope of its perceived value, but not at the bottom of the curve. it looks like pca will likely be the mvp in the national league this year so i am hoping to pick up a refractor of ohtani at some point thereafter. i did find an unannounced yordan alvarez base card in a lot i purchased, so that's nice. maybe i'll find some throwaway ohtanis at the card shop when i trade that card in.

the rickey henderson memorial patch

it still seems very surreal that rickey henderson is no longer with us. 

rickey passed away on december 20, 2024 - just a few days shy of his 66th birthday. it was no surprise that the a's - the team that rickey was most closely associated with - announced that they would wear a memorial patch in his honor during the 2025 season. and, as some of the later-year card releases came out last year, i kept my eyes open for cards featuring the patch (a gold circular patch surrounded in green with "rickey 24" in green text).

one of the first cards i saw was nick kurtz's 2025 topps heritage high number card. the image used on his chrome parallels was a bit better, so i set aside this light blue sparkle refractor

the card also features the sacramento patch that the team (perhaps somewhat begrudgingly?) wore.

once 2026 topps heritage was released, however, i decided to put this jacob wilson dark gray parallel 

in the memorials collection. there's a lot going on on this card for sure, but the rickey patch is in a prominent spot on the card.

in related news, i pulled this insert from 2026 topps chrome

i am a fan of cards featuring a "past to present" type theme, and the fact that this card features rickey along with lawrence butler who is wearing the rickey memorial patch makes it a winner in my book. it's not going to replace the wilson card in the memorials collection, but it might find its way into my collection somewhere else.

i would also gladly add this 2026 topps dynasty kurtz card

to my collection, but i could not afford it even if the person who pulled it put it up for sale. i saw the image on a post by topps a couple of months ago. the only similar card i have is an orel hershiser relic from leaf that features part of the rangers' memorial patch for johnny oates (hershiser was a pitching coach for the rangers for a spell). it would be cool to have a card featuring a full memorial relic like this one.

anyway, rickey is missed.

what's your damage?

i have not seen any non-flagship topps baseball product on the target shelves this year. not even celebration mega boxes. just series 1 and 2, with a few of the collector's boxes for those releases. so, when i walked by the card aisle one day last week, i was surprised to see a handful of blasters (or value boxes) of 2026 topps chrome.

i've already opened a blaster sent directly by topps, and i am still waiting for my mega box to show up, but i decided to try my luck with retail. i bought two of the boxes, including one that was absolutely mangled.

that's the theory, though - right? damaged boxes contain "sick hits". let's find out.

i was a bit concerned about card condition, but things were ok in the first few packs. here's pack 1:

a 3:1 insert/parallel ratio is not bad, unless you are trying to complete the base set. not sure anyone is doing that with chrome these days. also, i really do like the "seams" parallel. reds cards look especially nice in that design.

pack 2:

only one insert, but it's a good one for me! have a closer look at the shohei ohtani wrecking crew card

it's not a big hit by any means, but i will take it for my dodger collection

pack 3:

i like the idea of the "past to present" inserts, but am not sure about the execution. still, i'd like to pick up the jackie robinson/mookie betts card. the cole ragans card is a refractor, by the way.

pack 4:

two mets and a raywave refractor. these cards had just a touch of abnormal warping or even bending near one of the corners. at this point i figured that the rest of the cards would probably be damaged.

pack 5:

here's the red, white and blue parallel for the blaster. it and the other three cards look fine on the front, but the backs all have a tiny bit of creasing

it's hard to see in the scans, but there are small creases from the bottom edge (bottom edge of the cards as shown in the scan, that is) up the center of the card.

pack 6:

well would you look at that! a retail rookie autograph, and it's (former) dodger jack little. these four cards have that same creasing on the back

and the crease extends a bit further towards the center of the card. i will show a better example of the creasing, but first, here's another look at the dodger autograph that i pulled from a pack (that doesn't happen to me too often)

here's the back:

still hard to see, but the creasing runs from the right edge of the card towards the center.

pack 7:

the ratio is reversed from pack 1, with a 3:1 base to refractor parallel ratio. lots of yellow on jacob wilson's card! 

these cards have the crease running pretty much all the way through the center of the card

here's a photo of the back of bryce eldridge's card that shows the crease pretty well

for the record, i am not going to seek any replacement cards - the fault for this is probably target's fault and not topps' anyway. besides, i knew what i was getting into with this blaster. and as far as the theory goes, i found an ohtani insert and a rookie autograph, so maybe there is something to it.

the other blaster i bought yielded some similar inserts and parallels, but no autograph. i was able to add three cards from it to my dodger collection, including yoshinobu yamamoto's base card

roki sasaki's red, white and blue refractor

and yamamoto's perspectives insert

these inserts look nice in chrome fashion, so i am glad that they weren't a flagship insert like they were back in 2017 or whenever topps last put them out.

i plan for my next 2026 topps chrome post to feature the haul from my mega box, but who knows what might happen if i stop at a target in the meantime.

here's a 2026 topps chrome blaster - all 28 cards of it

my blaster of 2026 topps chrome that i purchased directly from topps showed up on wednesday. that was in line with release day which is nice. four cards per pack, seven packs per blaster meant that these cards are priced at just over $1.40 each. that's steep. here's what i found:

pack 1:

three veterans and a gunnar henderson big ticket player insert

pack 2:

three more veterans (meaning non-rookies) and our first rookie of the pack - a nathan church refractor parallel.

pack 3:

konnor griffin base rookie, plus a sal stewart rookie 1991 design card and a raywave refractor of giancarlo stanton. elly de la cruz is sort of lost in the mix here.

pack 4:

the most interesting pack of the bunch! a second dodger for my collection, plus two cards of munetaka murakami. the seams parallel is decent - at least the design is clearly baseball affiliated.

pack 5:

three more veterans and a fernando tatis jr wrecking crew insert, paying tribute to a 30-year old insert design.

pack 6:

a rookie, a vet, plus a past to present insert featuring david wright and francisco lindor, and a george kirby refractor parallel

pack 7:

two vets, a rookie, and a red, white, and blue refractor parallel of daniel schneemann.

so that's it. that's a blaster.

i was surprised to see these packs be so veteran heavy as it feels like more and more of the checklists are devoted to rookies. not a lot to say other than i like the two blaster/value box exclusive refractor designs than some of the more traditional refractor parallel designs.

i also ordered a mega box that will trail this post by a couple of weeks i believe, and there will be more to share when it arrives.