celebrate, i guess

the dodgers clinched the national league west title yesterday, with an 8-0 win over the diamondbacks. they stayed out of the pool this time, but did celebrate in the visitors' clubhouse with the usual means and methods (although this time they went for a slip n slide?!).

it's the team's 12th division title in the last 13 years, and i suppose it's clear that they did not take it for granted based on their celebratory approach. here are some cards that show some other sorts of celebrations...

2025 topps dodgers team card sandglitter parallel

2025 topps teoscar hernandez, andy pages, jason heyward dodgers' swagger rainbow foil parallel

and diamante parallel

it's the second step for this club on a multi-milestone journey - first make the postseason, then clinch your spot as a division winner - but it doesn't afford them a bye for the wild card round. they will face the mets, reds, or diamondbacks in a best of five starting next week.

it would be a mistake to look past that round, so i won't, but i will share another parallel card that i've picked up recently. it's from 2025 topps heritage (color of the year parallel) and celebrates a different postseason round

here's hoping the dodgers get there again!

a vintage chase of a different sort

with only two cards to go in my 1955 bowman set build, i don't have a lot of vintage to chase at the moment. i thought about reinstating my "sampler sets" of those topps flagship sets that i have not completed (1952-1956, 1958-1964, 1966-1969) and i just might do that although i think i still have most of the cards that comprised that part of my collection so there probably aren't a whole lot of cards to chase there either - mostly dodgers that migrated to my team collection.

what i have done is seek out some topps vintage stock cards for my collection. after seeing some from 2025 topps series 1, i was intrigued enough to pick up a couple of examples. here's clayton kershaw's card

just like last year, topps reimagined the current design for a simpler time. here's the back:

kind of christmasy.

i also picked up chris taylor's card

because it uses completely different colors than kershaw's, although the back is the same

and then i had the opportunity to add one of the checklist cards

that had another color scheme. here's its back:

which happens to be the only one of the three that is readily legible.

i also went back and found some vintage stock parallels from other topps releases for not a lot of money. here's a 2018 topps brandon mccarthy card

and a 2020 topps update terrance gore card

while i was happy for the short-timer gore to get a dodger card, this is probably one of my least favorite dodger cards in recent years because of the photoshopping and the design. but, i turned a blind eye to that fact when i found the vintage stock card for a very low price.

from 2022, here's tyler anderson's 2022 topps update card

in vintage stock form, and here's a dodger checklist card from 2022 topps flagship

that came from sluggo quite a while ago. that card is interesting because it appears that topps played with the image to make it look like an older photograph. vintage, if you will, in terms of irregular exposure. 

of course, 2024 was the first year that topps took vintage stock parallels in a whole different direction, and i recently added another example to my collection by way of jason heyward's card

i'm still annoyed by the addition of his number 23 to his jackie robinson day jersey.

another vintage pickup of mine has been a couple more dodger vintage embossed buyback cards from 2003 topps all-time fan favorites. you'll recall the 1979 steve garvey card i acquired, and now here is a 1975 topps roy campanella card (with yogi berra)

that includes the non-foil stamp. here's a photo that tries to show it in more detail

love seeing the "la" cap on campy!

similarly, here's a 1978 topps tommy john card with the stamp

with a photo for your benefit

the placement of these stamps seems to have been pretty willy nilly. for the record, the campy is listed as having 11 copies and the tommy john is listed at just 10. rare vintage adjacent pickups for my collection!

i really do doubt that i will chase any more vintage sets to completion. i would like to finish my 1953 topps dodger team set, but even needing only four cards (255 dixie howell, 258 jim gilliam, 263 john podres, 272 bill antonello) might be too much. luckily there are "other" vintage forms to keep an eye out for!

boo

i've been holding on to this 

2023 topps update jason heyward jack-o-lantern parallel since late last year for the express purpose of posting it tonight.

it's the only one of those that i own, but i have found a few of the other black and orange parallels over the past 11 months:

max muncy

j.p. feyereisen

noah syndergaard

and clayton kershaw

the blaster of 2024 update that i purchased had some of the new versions of these cards in it, including andrew chafin's card 

i think i would add the tigers to that list of teams for which these parallels might be a priority among team collectors.

the one non-"base" parallel that i found was former twin miguel sano, and it's ghosts!

these types of ghosts remind me of charlie brown. 

clearly these are just another parallel that allows topps to increase production numbers and are quite clearly unnecessary. i would say most collectors would consider them a "trick" with only giants and orioles collectors seeing a "treat" due to the color scheme.

happy halloween!

that was a good team break

here's "where it's at" with the 2024 topps series 2 team break i joined. i chose the dodgers, of course, and wound up with a couple of team sets - all 20 cards:

i'll come back to the jason heyward card in a bit.

kiké continues to get decent cards. i like that he and rojas got cards showing them as fielders. we don't need more at bats on cards

see what i mean? i feel like i am missing some candids these days.

especially with pitchers, who do nothing but pitch in today's game. 

we could also use more bat flip cards like teoscar there. 

back to heyward's card

it was obvious to me as soon as i saw the card that his number was photoshopped. it was also obvious that the background is dodger stadium. i was confused and couldn't believe that topps didn't use a photo of heyward as a dodger. it turns out that they used a photo from jackie robinson day when the dodgers were wearing a pre-1952 jersey style that didn't have the red numbers on the front. here's the original photo. i am not sure why topps felt they needed to add the red number at all, but they did. just add that to the list of headscratching decisions they make with seemingly every release.

unfortunately, the photo doesn't show the 42 on heyward's back, so even though i know it is a card from an april 15 game, it doesn't go in the 42 mini-collection. i did get the gold foil parallel

in the break, however, so that's nice.

one more note on one of the base cards (at least in this post). kyle hurt got a card! i mentioned this possibility in an earlier post about dodgers who got cards despite appearing in only one game with the team. hurt only appeared in one game for the dodgers in 2023 as the back of his card attests

so kudos to topps for using a photo from his big league debut and not photoshopping a minor league image. this season, hurt has pitched in three games for the dodgers, and was just activated from the 60-day il yesterday so will likely add to that total, leaving guys from that earlier post in the dust.

i netted two gold parallels - clayton kershaw

and dustin may

but no other parallels. i appreciate the photo topps used for may's card. it's one of the few pitcher cards that doesn't show a windup or delivery.

i did ok for inserts though, picking up both the shohei ohtani

and freddie freeman

1989 all-star inserts. freeman was the player my break landed the most as it turned out with both his covering the field

and fantasy favorites

inserts being pulled.

as for the silver packs, i got a bobby miller card

which was a bonus, really.

i did notice that the price for the dodgers in these breaks has increased with ohtani on the team, but it's still a good way to get a good number of cards to kickstart the team collection. i'll probably hold off on any more team breaks until update, however.

disconnected

i am curious to see the changes (or is it a complete overhaul) that the dodgers are making to their city connect uniforms. they've already made tweaks over the years since they first debuted in 2021. max scherzer's 2022 topps card (this is the gold parallel)

shows the original uniform with the full blue outfit and the "los dodgers" script on the hat. 

at some point in 2022, the dodgers ditched the "los dodgers" hat and just wore their standard interlocking la hats as seen on freddie freeman's 2023 topps stadium club (red foil version)

they kept the full blue unis, which i actually didn't mind.

last year, as jason heyward's 2023 topps card (gold parallel) shows

the dodgers ditched the blue pants and went with white pants, but with piping along the sides to differentiate from their normal home whites.

obviously i have no idea what is in store this year with the city connect uniforms, but i hope they are not anything like the padres'.

big league rip

i thought that topps big league was ok when it came out in 2018, and again in 2019. i liked that they brought box cards back with the blasters, but the design was nothing special - still better than opening day, however. then, in 2020, i really liked the simple design, and i had fun busting a box and putting together the set. unfortunately, 2021 was a complete disaster, so i was skeptical last year. 

it turned out that the 2023 set was fine even though the tiered checklist annoyed me to a slight degree. i knew i wasn't going to complete the set, so it didn't really bother me too much, and i've added a few of the dodger short prints as time has passed. coming in to this year, i wasn't planning on purchasing another box, but given where 2024 big league fell in the release calendar, i bit. i didn't want to buy anymore series 1, and heritage was still a ways out, so i bought a box. tiered checklist and all.

pack 1

the way the packs open, the foil cards are facing out, so the first card i saw was marcus stroman

from here on out, i am going to list the base cards first, followed by the foils and then the inserts.

justin lawrence

chas mccormick

james outman

joey gallo

masyn winn

jonathan ornelas

marcus stroman uncommon foil

christian encarnacion-strand to the moon die-cut

the design is similar to last year's with the parallelogram photo window. there's a weak effort at color coordination of the vertical color streaks over the overexposed image that bleeds outside of the main photo window. maybe not an effort at all, but seeing lawrence's card with purple first made me think the cards would be color coordinated.

pack 2

ryan pressley

bobby miller

george springer

corey seager

mookie betts

ozzie albies uncommon foil

become a big leaguer insert

swinging friar mascots

i am doing pretty well so far as far as dodgers go. i thought that the seager was a parallel of some sort, but it turns out topps just didn't overexpose the image for some reason. 

pack 3

willy adames

elly de la cruz

seiya suzuki

marco luciano

quinn priester

weston wilson

dansby swanson uncommon foil

andrew mccutchen topps big leaguer

the mccutchen card is a "topps big leaguer" insert - a continuation of the same insert set last year that had a few different backgrounds. this one is strange with all the cherries.

pack 4

jordan westburg

colton cowser

allan winans

starling marte

ryan jeffers

emerson hancock

william contreras uncommon foil

fernando tatis jr to the moon die-cut

so at this point i realized that the "to the moon" cards are all die-cut. i also realized that there are a lot of players i don't know. i didn't feel quite as badly when i saw that emerson hancock had only appeared in three major league games before getting a card in this set. 

pack 5

taylor ward

mickey moniak

cedanne rafaela

lane thomas

austin wells

aroldis chapman

anthony rizzo uncommon foil

noelvi marte good vibrations

so far there has been good variation of inserts, and i think this good vibrations insert is the last to surface. as for the backs of the base cards, let's see chapman's:

pretty basic backs, with varying number of years shown for players. this layout is interesting to me because topps put his royals' stats last, rather than the rangers. chapman started 2023 in kc but finished in texas.

pack 6

hunter goodman

jake rogers

jonny deluca

osleivis basabe

luken baker

whit merrifield

ke'bryan hayes uncommon foil

manny machado topps big leaguer

another dodger is always nice! and i'm hoping to find a big leaguer insert without the cherries.

pack 7

jorge soler

ronald acuna jr

kris bryant

julio rodriguez

brett baty

lawrence butler

logan webb uncommon foil

jose ramirez to the moon die-cut

acuna always seems to have such fun photos on cards.

pack 8

justin turner

cedric mullins

gunnar henderson

henry davis

wade meckler

miles mikolas

byron buxton uncommon foil

randy arozarena good vibrations

looks like the good vibrations inserts have the same palm tree and sunset design. i am wondering if arozarena will get a card this year that doesn't show him with his arms crossed.

pack 9

ketel marte

trey cabbage

tanner bibee

ezequiel duran

kevin gausman

keibert ruiz

jeremy pena uncommon foil

screech mascots

one of the things that can't be avoided is how prevalent the advertising patches are on cards now. in this pack i scanned a card of an angel and an astro that both have patches prominently displayed.

pack 10

hunter greene

elias diaz

javier baez

joc pederson

willson contreras

jonah heim

adolis garcia uncommon foil

david ortiz to the moon die-cut

the patch on baez's card is for a store that sells cards which is something. i am sort of surprised that fanatics hasn't shelled out for a topps patch on some team's jersey. it was weird to find ortiz in a pack as he was the first retired player i came across.

pack 11

noelvi marte

oscar colas

jordan wicks

evan carter

aaron judge

eury perez uncommon foil

freddie freeman good vibrations

cody bellinger rare blue foil

this was an interesting pack. evan carter is wearing the gimmicky mlb debut patch, so we know that photo comes from september 8, 2023. it blew my mind when the yankees announced that they were going to add an advertising patch to their uniforms after they were initially upset at the big nike swoosh. the bellinger wound up being the only colored foil card in my box. last year i got a rarer red foil so was a bit disappointed at the blue showing up.

nice to get a dodger insert. here's the back of freeman's good vibrations card

good, good, good, good vibrations

pack 12

chris sale

forrest wall

merrill kelly

vladimir guerrero jr

gary sanchez

yu darvish

nick castellanos uncommon foil

mookie betts topps big leaguer

sale was traded to the braves at the end of last december, and it's nice to see topps get him in his new team's gear. it makes sense given how they've made ohtani a dodger in a couple of sets now. mookie's topps big leaguer insert has a more sensible bunting design. here's the back:

tomorrow, he's making waffles!

pack 13

zach neto

michael harris ii

michael lorenzen

zack gelof

jorge polanco

lars nootbar uncommon foil

shohei ohtani to the moon die-cut

bryce miller electric orange big league autograph /25

and my dodger luck continues with the ohtani insert, but the star of the pack is my guaranteed auto. i would have preferred a different miller auto, but i wasn't allowed to choose. here's the back

and here's the back of the ohtani insert

i can't believe how the dodgers (allegedly) bungled the transfer of his first dodger home run ball from the fan to ohtani.

pack 14

eddie rosario

kenley jansen

justin steele

bryan reynolds

junior caminero 

max scherzer

josh jung uncommon foil

baxter mascots

i've had the experience of seeing the diamondbacks' mascot in person, but i don't really feel the need for mascot cards anymore. i was sort of hoping big league would go with some stadium inserts as it's been a few years since topps has done that. here's the back of a mascots' insert just to complete the insert back sharing

pack 15

jonathan india

ryan mcmahon

grae kessinger

davis schneider

brandon nimmo

tony kemp

blake snell uncommon foil

ronny mauricio good vibrations

schneider is giving some wayne tolleson vibes.

pack 16

jason heyward

freddy peralta

andrew vaughn

tyler glasnow

alex speas

ronny mauricio

sonny gray uncommon foil

evan carter to the moon die-cut

another good dodger pack!

pack 17

tim anderson

brayan bello

vaughn grissom 

owen white

jarred kelenic

curtis mead

matt mclain uncommon foil

george brett topps big leaguer

the brett card was a surprise!

pack 18

geraldo perdomo

nolan schanuel

ian happ

joey wiemer

alec bohm 

josh hader

masataka yoshida uncommon foil

francisco lindor good vibrations

i think the diamondbacks were smart in finding a sponsor whose logo is a capital a. it's hard to tell that it's not just a team logo on perdomo's sleeve.

so that's that. there was perfect collation - no duplicates whatsoever.  so, better than 2021 and pretty much the same as 2023. still not 2020.

speaking of last year's release, i found a couple of 2023 big league cards in my scanned folder, so i'll add them here. i think i am still short of the complete dodger team set, although i am just down to the short prints. here's james outman

with a photo from when he was wearing 77.

mookie betts' city slickers insert

wearing the first iteration of dodger city connect uniforms.

and finally, i did go out and pick up clayton kershaw's red foil card

thankfully the seller noted the slight ding to the lower right corner and priced it at a pretty good discount.

as for next year, who knows. maybe i'll continue to give big league a shot.