1955 bowman complete through 160!

it's been a while since i added any cards to my 1955 bowman set build, but i can still provide an update post as i have a few complete sheets that you haven't seen yet!

sheet 18, cards 137 through 144

the shantz brothers provide the highlight of the page, with bowman's followup to the 1954 topps o'brien brothers card. unlike topps, however, bowman gave each brother an individual card, too. bobby's card is right next to the duo's card in the set, with billy's is coming up later in the set.

here are the backs:

the backs of both shantz cards address bobby's injuries that limited his time following his mvp performance in 1952.

brooklyn dodger don newcombe is on that page as well, and the well loved card you see above was actually in my dodger collection until a few months ago. for this project i picked up another one of newk's 1955 bowman cards

which turned out to be an upgrade, so i put it in the dodger collection and moved the other one to the set. maybe i have it backwards, but that's what i did.

sheet 19, cards 145 through 152

here are the backs:

not a lot of star power on that page, but the backs have some fun information. both bob nieman and sam mele count their biggest baseball thrill as hitting the first home run of their career - in nieman's case he hit one in each of his first two big league at bats! and how lucky was mele to get his home run ball back from the fan in exchange for a new ball? today that would have cost him at least a signed ted williams bat.

sheet 20, cards 153 through 160

a couple of yankees and a couple of dodgers, but they are not side by side as teammates. gil hodges looks annoyed at the creases in his card. sorry gil.

here are the backs:

this page also gives us the corrected version of ernie johnson's card, with the photo on the front matching the player on the back. note that johnson gives another vote to stan musial as the best hitter he's seen (bill klaus on the previous page voted for his teammate ted williams).

here's a look at the ernie johnson error card

that's don johnson of the orioles. here's the back of the error card

which is the same as the correct card.

back to gil hodges, his card status is the same as newcombe's. i found a card in better condition for the set and wound up putting it in the dodger collection instead.

no more creases, gil!

so there you have it. as of now, i've shared exactly half of the set! however, i am further along than that as i need just 47 cards to have all 320. stay tuned!

that's really super, super teams

2002 topps super teams can perhaps be considered a precursor to upper deck's 2004 legends timeless teams release in that it focused on specific team subsets without including every franchise on the checklist. however, super teams was even more focused, and with more player representation, than timeless teams.

in my most recent trade with sluggo, i received nearly the entire dodger team set in retrofractor form. these cards are numbered to the season represented, so in the dodgers' case that means 1955

the only card not included was jackie robinson's, but a quick online purchase later, and that was remedied

in addition to the 1955 dodgers, the teams in the set are the 1954 giants, the 1957 braves, the 1960 pirates, the 1961 yankees, the 1967 cardinals, the 1969 mets, the 1970 orioles. the 1974 a's, and the 1986 mets. the mets are the only team to show up twice, and i think roger maris and gil hodges are the only two to appear for more than one team in the set.

i had a couple of these retrofractors in my collection already, but was excited to complete the set so easily. they look pretty sharp in person, and are similar to some of the bowman heritage parallels from around the same timeframe. i had hoped that there would be a sequel to this set to include other super teams, but so far it's been a one and done.

the new adventures of old pristine

well, topps gave us a second year of the "new" pristine in 2023, so i guess i may as well show what i added to my collection as a result. i entered a team break and was able to pick up this mookie betts "oh snap" insert

i'm not sure that anything that says "oh snap" belongs in a 2023 release.

before i get to more from last year, let's go back and review previous pristine releases, shall we?

2002 topps pristine - here's shawn green's card

i didn't pay a lot of attention to this release as it reminded me of a finest set which typically wasn't on my radar at all. i did pull some singles from a box at the local card and comic shop, however.

2003 topps pristine - hideo nomo, kevin brown, paul loduca, shawn green

i did not have any 2003 pristine cards in my collection until late last year as it was way off of my radar. also, i have no idea what happened to paul loduca's uniform in that photo. at no point did the dodgers wear black uniforms, and he is still wearing a dodger uniform in the picture. 

2004 topps pristine - shawn green again

same deal here - i had to buy this card to have one to represent the release in my collection. of course, there are only two dodger cards in the team set (anyone have an extra eric gagne card?)

2005 topps pristine - jeff kent

i didn't pick up any of this set, either, but i was acutely aware of pristine in 2005 because of....

2005 topps pristine legends - including maury wills

don newcombe

and others. i was aware of this set because of the 1965 design and the fact that it featured a lot of retired guys that i favored, like three-fourths of the dodger infield. topps also issued uncirculated cards encased in what i assume at the time were screw holders. i've never bothered to check, but maybe i'll see if my ron cey card

reveals anything. these uncirculated refractors are numbered to 549

the dodger infielder who was left out was bill russell, so that means that davey lopes (not pictured) and steve garvey got cards.

garvey got a relic card, too, and i added the refractor version to my collection about a year ago

it featured a new to me photo of the garv and this version is numbered to 25

truth be told, it was primarily the fact that garvey was on the checklist that i paid close attention to the set. as it stands, i am missing don zimmer's base card although i have his uncirculated card.

i was surprised in 2022 when topps brought pristine back, and have only picked up a handful of non-garvey dodgers. one card i did add sometime in the last few months is this mookie betts refractor parallel

when i saw that the 2023 set was coming out, i noticed that the design wasn't too different from the 2022 version. i figured i would join the group break and that would be it. 

in addition to the mookie insert above, the break netted me a miguel vargas pair of refractors - base and purple

a steve garvey refractor (!)

plus all-star cards of freddie freeman

and tony gonsolin

with garvey on the checklist again, i of course went looking for more. i showed some of the cards i picked up in this post but have added a couple more since then. these are the encased orange /25

and encased pink /15

parallels.

i will be just fine if topps/fanatics gives pristine a rest in 2024, although if they are following their playbook 20 years into the future, i will be on the eye for a 2025 legends release!

inspired by baseball cards at dodger stadium

during one of the many dodger broadcasts i've watched in the last two to three years, i saw a photo from dodger stadium that was used as a bumper or a promo background that showed steve garvey's legends of dodger baseball monument. on that monument, his 2005 topps pristine card was shown.  during my recent trip to dodger stadium, i wanted to be sure to find the monument and see what cards represent the other members of this fairly new dodger tribute group.

i had a heckuva time finding them, however. i wandered all around the stadium, looking at a bunch of other displays including gold gloves and murals and photos but couldn't find those specific items. i saw an information booth tucked under the right field pavilion just off center field and walked over to inquire. on my way there, i spotted some glass cases with a bunch of baseball cards in them. one of those cards was steve garvey's 1976 topps card

these cards (they are high-res reprints) dangle from either end of a player's bat, and the display honors los angeles dodger all-stars.

no players have been added since 2017 which is too bad, but i still had fun looking through the cases. they aren't in any particular order (juan samuel is hanging above garvey) and there is a wide variety of cardboard representation.  here are photos of the cases (sorry for the glare)

there were a few mother's cookies cards in there along with a couple tcma/renata galasso cards, plus an unlicensed panini donruss card for dee gordon, and even a topps now card for cody bellinger. i was happy to see some 1978 topps for rick monday and don sutton. for the record, the infield was represented with 1976 topps (garvey and davey lopes), 1983 topps (bill russell), and 1975 topps (ron cey).

the person at the booth was able to direct me to the legends display (it's under the drip line of the left field pavilion just off the center field plaza) and so i headed over. each player has a metal display with a card and text displayed. here's a sideways view of all six members:

the first three members were inducted in 2019 - they were don newcombe, steve garvey, and fernando valenzuela

so there's the pristine card i mentioned up top. newcombe has a 1991 topps archives ultimate 1953 card, and fernando's card comes from 1986 topps and shows an alternate take on his 1981 topps traded card. none of these cards are iconic for the player, and i have to admit i was a bit disappointed with the card selection.

here are the other three members - maury wills, kirk gibson, and manny mota

wills and gibson went in during the 2022 season, and mota was just added in april of this year. those are obviously 1972, 1990, and 1970 topps cards, respectively. orel hershiser will be inducted later this year - not too long after the dodgers retire fernando's number 34.

speaking of which, here are the retired numbers on display in the left field corner:

this was my first time to the stadium since they added the microphones for vin scully and jaime jarrin, and number 14 for gil hodges.  i will have to come back sometime after number 34 is added.

i was actually surprised to see that the dodgers also had a display for the retired numbers behind the right field pavilion at the back of the center field plaza. each of the numbers and microphones have the same sort of display as the legends of dodger baseball, complete with baseball card images for the field personnel.

 

1 - pee wee reese

that's reese's 1953 topps card, but the borders tell me it's actually from the 1991 topps archives ultimate 1953 set.

2 - tommy lasorda

1989 topps

4 - duke snider

1959 topps

14 - gil hodges

1991 topps archives ultimate 1953

19 - jim gilliam

1964 topps

20 - don sutton

1978 topps

24 - walter alston

1965 topps

32 - sandy koufax

1964 topps

39 - roy campanella

1991 topps archives ultimate 1953

42 - jackie robinson

2012 topps archives

53 - don drysdale

1961 topps

vin scully

jaime jarrin

some interesting choices there, and it's a shame that there aren't even dodger team issue cards for scully or jarrin to be used. it would have been easy enough, i think, to include them in the lapd/dare sets at some point.  it will be in august that fernando valenzuela joins this group, and i wonder if they will just move his marker from the legends side, or add a new marker. he is obviously the first (and will probably be the only) legend of dodger baseball to later have his number retired so there are no set rules for how to handle the "promotion".

seeing all these cards got me thinking.

i thought about pulling together the cards that represent the dodger all-stars in to a mini-collection, but the fact that the post-2017 all-stars aren't recognized killed that idea. then i thought about a mini-collection for the legends of dodger baseball, but the card selection didn't thrill me. same for the retired numbers, even though the use of the 1991 archives set would make chasing down cards for campy and the others a lot less expensive.

after returning from my trip and looking through all my photos - it hit me. i have decided to put together a mini-collection featuring cards of all field personnel to have their number retired by a major league team. so, not just the 11 (soon to be 12) dodgers, but the dozens of yankees (i exaggerate only slightly) and people from the other 28 (plus the expos) teams as well. my goal will be to find cards that show the player/coach/manager's number but i know that will be impossible thanks to honus wagner whose 33 was retired by the pirates even though i don't know that he ever wore 33. plus i don't think there is a card of don zimmer showing him wearing 66 for the rays. focusing only on field staff means i don't need (or want, frankly) a card of bud selig wearing number 1 for the brewers or august busch jr wearing 85 for the cardinals. gene autry actually wore an angel uniform with 26 on it, but there are no cards showing it.

there are over 200 retired numbers in major league baseball, and i've already begun culling cards from my duplicates and monster boxes that have been sitting around without a purpose. i'll post some cards from time to time and i'll have a "have" list up at my want list site.

some teams don't display uniform numbers anywhere but the back, so one or two of you may be wondering how i will differentiate these cards from my "name/number on the back" mini-collection. well, i knew from the get go that there would be at least one card in both collections, but for the most part i will try to avoid duplication across collections. for example, this 2002 topps stadium club bernie williams card

meets the criteria for both collections, but is only going to be in the "name/number of the back" binder. i've got a different card that isn't quite full back for the retired numbers collection. and yes, the yankees retired bernie williams' number. stay tuned!