highly surprising and completely appreciated

although he's been quiet on the blogs, brian from highly subjective and completely arbitrary is still out there and i have some cards to prove it! brian sent me a package sometime last fall, and it's a shame it has taken me so long to share.

first up is a professionally printed "card that should have been" 1967 topps sandy koufax

i created one of these missing final tributes a long time ago, and it is great to have this version in my collection. the back

meets the final tribute criteria by having his complete career stats on the back, even if they don't have the year by year stats and they also show a line for 1967. it's still great. you can see that the card was produced by or for the greater boston sports collectors club in 2008 based on the "celebrating 23 years" note in the text. there are some other similar "cards that never were" under the gbscc name out there, including a 1957 bob feller that would be nice to have.

speaking of nice to have, i've been eyeing a complete dodger team set of 2020 topps total after brian sent this will smith card

from the online only set. we will see if i pull the trigger (spoiler alert i am certain that i will). i just miss topps total so much.

this is a 2022 topps mike piazza insert

and i appreciate topps showing him as a dodger from time to time. of course, he had to be a dodger in this "welcome to the show" set.

brian also hit some mini-collections, such as the dodger stadium one with this 1985 donruss mario soto card

and the double play mini-collection with this 1994 fleer ricky gutierrez card

nice cameo of hall of famer jeff bagwell there, too.

this next card

wasn't a need, but it is such a great card that i had to show it anyway. fernando valenzuela's final topps flagship card as a dodger, and the photo selection and design complement each other so well.  although, this isn't topps but instead is o-pee-chee!

oh my!

here's where i remind folks that i once dedicated an entire blog to the differences between topps and o-pee-chee cards. check it out if you haven't already!

a couple of the cards that i featured on that site were also included in brian's package, including this 1991 dodger/mets mashup of bob ojeda

and a blue jays/padres card of joe carter

forget the "now with" - card packages from brian always have the good stuff. thanks brian!

where did the summer go?

i had plans for summer 2020. i was going to kick it off with a run along pch in big sur and then meet up with friends. among other things, i had circled several baseball games on the calendar - the dodgers were coming to target field! - and had planned to catch a game in a couple of new stadiums to boot. and, there were plans to get to dodger stadium to check out the renovations and see a dodger home game for the first time since 2012.  well, we all know what happens when we make plans, especially in 2020.

instead, i stayed home and used some of the newfound time to go through neglected monster boxes of cards in my basement. the result was finding more cards for some of my mini collections. although i didn't make it to dodger stadium (or any stadium in 2020), i did find more cards to add to my dodger stadium collection. brace yourself - there are a lot of images in this post.

1995 pinnacle milt thompson

i was not sure that this photo came from dodger stadium, which is why it wasn't already in my mini collection. however, this summer i took a closer look and am pretty sure that it is given the fencing that existed in front of the speaker equipment. plus, what other stadium is more associated with beach balls than dodger stadium? finally, milt thompson did play center for the phillies in a game at dodger stadium in 1994 - one of the few times he played that position. i have never taken a beach ball to dodger stadium, but i have participated in knocking one around.

some cards i didn't find in my monster boxes, but rather went and bought duplicates of cards that were already in my dodger collection because they were good examples of dodger stadium goodness.

1971 dell's today stamps duke sims

1975 hostess steve garvey

that one is the third copy i have

1977 topps tom lasorda/dodgers checklist

1975 topps charlie hough

1975 topps lee lacy

1976 topps tommy john

those last four cards are also in my evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers collection. i've lost track of how many copies of each of them i have at this point.

back to the monster boxes to salvage more cards now.

1993 score bob ojeda

1996 topps stadium club todd worrell

1998 upper deck todd worrell

that one could also fit in my lurker collection, thanks to lee smith making an appearance.

1999 upper deck eric karros (back)

2012 panini cooperstown tom lasorda

2013 panini cooperstown duke snider

2001 upper deck sp legendary cuts tommy davis

i've looked at those last two cards a bunch of times, but it didn't click for me that the photos were from dodger stadium until this year. full disclosure - i forgot to scan the davis card so i pulled the image from the internet.

and here are a couple from 2015 topps stadium club - clayton kershaw

and deion sanders

the yasiel puig card from that set has been firmly entrenched in the dodger stadium card collection since i first laid eyes on it, but i failed to add these two until just recently.

i was digging through my old player collections and found another 1990 upper deck larry walker rookie card

that features dodger stadium images on the front and back

yes - i put two copies of this card in my dodger stadium collection.

more from early 90's upper deck - 1990 neal heaton

todd frohwirth

tommy herr

and 1991 freddie benavides

a few more from my abandoned player collections -1992 fleer ultra award winners ozzie smith

1994 upper deck orel hershiser, who's warming up in the bullpen

1994 upper deck collector's choice fred mcgriff

1999 topps ryan klesko (back)

2001 topps randy johnson league leaders (trust me, dodger stadium is in the background)

2002 donruss todd helton

here's a duo from a 2002 topps total stockpile i had - adam eaton and kaz sasaki

both with mariano duncan lurking in the background.

i dutifully completed most of the early 2000s fleer retired player sets, and found a dodger stadium card in my dupes - donn clendenon from 2002 fleer fall classics

i also found an extra 2013 topps chasing history reggie jackson insert card for the collection

and a 2016 topps stadium club phil niekro card

for the collection. that niekro would have been better off being shown in this post, but oh well.

here's the most recent pick-up for this collection, cody bellinger's card from 2020 topps stadium club chrome

it doesn't scan the best, but it gives a good view of dodger stadium behind bellinger and (i think) alex verdugo.

the last card for this post is actually from a pack in 2020 - a gypsy queen will smith card

that features smith pitching in dodger stadium as a brave, which didn't actually happen in 2020. maybe next year.