this will do for now

i know - this makes two topps now posts in a couple of weeks. 

this one features more current cards than the bobby abreu card i showed earlier in the month, as i've made some purchases of 2026 cards so far this season. the first one was from opening day when the dodgers unveiled their 2025 world series championship placard at chavez ravine.

here's the front

which features dave roberts and shoehei ohtani, along with the first appearance of kyle tucker as a dodger on cardboard. i was not as much of a fan of the dodgers "gold" jerseys (and the hats? ugh) this year as i was last year.

here's the back:

i wound up buying three of these cards so that i could feed the dodger collection and the dodger stadium collection. these placards don't ever show up on cards, so this is a unique view of a dodger stadium element. before 2024, these were actual pennant shaped placards and way back in the o'malley days, they only had banners that they would attach to the outfield wall on opening day to celebrate the team's titles.

the third copy of the card goes in my steve garvey collection, as that is the dodgers' first baseman of my youth unveiling the 2025 placard along with fellow legend of dodger baseball, jaime jarrin.

a couple of other topps now purchases i've made this year include an impulse buy of konnor griffin's first card

interesting that topps capitalized "baseball" in the middle of a sentence. as for the card, it was the first one i saw that showed the bill mazeroski memorial patch (the "9" on griffin's left sleeve) but i am sure there will be better cards for that purpose in this year's update. i'll stash this card away and watch it lose what little value it has over the years to come. 

finally, i made my annual jackie robinson day purchase(s). first up is the jrd card which features aaron judge and shohei ohtani on the front

and andy pages on the back

i bought two copies so that i could have one in the dodger binder and one in my "42" mini-collection. i thought about a third card for the dodger stadium collection, but even though that is the chavez ravine outfield grass with the 42 mowed into it, i decided not to go that route.

one other card caught my eye from april 15, and it features padre (boo) jackson merrill. he made a nice catch and then had a big hit or something. on the bright side, we wound up with a card featuring 42 on the front

 and back

i've been to a couple of major league games recently, so perhaps there will be another topps now update in the future. stay tuned.

a slight return of manager cards!

well well well. i have been lamenting the loss of manager cards in topps heritage over the last few years as it has denied me cards of dusty baker and dave roberts to collect. thankfully, topps included roberts in a flagship insert set - "mlb awards" or some such thing - a few years ago, and both roberts and baker were part of the short printed "skippers" mini insert set in 2016 allen & ginter's (i still need to get a copy of baker's card, by the way).

then along came 2021 topps archives. when i saw that roberts and baker were on the autograph checklist, i figured it would be as fan favorite players, since both were definitely that during their playing careers. but no - they are managers!

i am pretty happy to have a new card of dusty as a non-dodger; especially one that features him in a new uniform. the aforementioned skippers card is the only one i know of from his time with the nationals, so i really do need to track one down.

as for roberts, it's great to have a certified autograph of him as the dodgers' manager. i already had a ttm auto from him on that aforementioned awards card which kept alive my string of autographed cards of dodger managers back to walter alston, but certified is preferred.

topps even went with the 1982 design even though there were no manager cards issued in that set. just great all around stuff that i was all too happy to track down on ebay. for the record, twins' manager rocco baldelli is also featured in the managerial subset which is nice to see, but the other highlight is kim ng's card - even if topps put "marlins" above her name rather than "general manager".

there were no steve garvey cards in archives this year which was a bit of a surprise given his appearance in a number of other topps releases. topps did recycle some of his old cards for their 2021 archives signature series retired players edition, and i dutifully picked up a few of them:

the first two were purchased from comc and i didn't notice that the seller had salvaged the one-touch holders. i put them in one-touches after they arrived though, although i have some uncaged autos from other releases (like 2004 topps originals) that i've left loose. i should work on my consistency. the last card there is the tiffany version of garvey's final topps card. this is the third or fourth year that garvey has been included in this set, and i really don't need to add another signed buyback of his 1987 card, that's for sure. i might be the only person around who would like to see a jim tracy card included in this set, however. more manager cards, please!

cut it out, topps

for the first time since 1977, i do not plan to purchase any packs of topps flagship. the reasons related to design and checklist have been well documented by others, so i won't rehash that here. i don't even really care whether or not i complete the dodger team set to be honest. i have picked up a few singles from sportlots and ebay to feed some of my mini-collections, and will continue to do so as i see fit.

one dodger card that i purchased in this fashion is the dodger team card

the reason i targeted this card is because it is one of the few (only?) to show cutouts in the stands. in fact, the two cutouts to the left of the "topps 70" logo are nomar garciaparra and former gm ned colletti. both are currently part of the dodger broadcast/analyst team.

cutouts were such a huge part of the 2020 season - i watched most dodger games, and seeing mary hart during every pitch was a very real thing - and i don't understand why topps seems to be going out of their way to avoid showing them on cards. there is the white sox team card and a juan soto short print that shows him holding a cutout, but those are the only other cards with cutouts i've seen. even the topps now cards from last year seemed to eschew cutouts and masks. i had thought that some of that was that the photographers were not in the camera wells, so the angles of photos were more field-focused rather than set with "fans" in the background, but now i am not so sure that it wasn't intentional for whatever reason.

the only other dodger cards i've added are those of steve garvey and clayton kershaw. i think the 1986 inserts look fine

kind of hard to screw them up. 

i did see that shohei ohtani is featured on the 1978 topps design in one of the insert sets, but i am not seeking that card out since i've limited my master 1978 topps effort to players from that era. maybe archives will come through this year in a way that flagship just doesn't.

baseball cards come to me

bo from baseball cards come to life and i swapped cards over the summer as a result of our mutual giveaways, and i wound up with quite a haul of "lurker" cards in addition to the cards that i claimed. perhaps my favorite of the bunch is this 2010 topps dexter fowler card

with none other than johnnie b. baker there in the background! if i squint, i like to think i can see his toothpick.

another dodger of my youth was spotted on this 2008 topps milton bradley card

that's davey lopes with number 15 on his sleeve. he was the phillies' first base coach back then.  there are a ton more lurker cards that i will show in this post, but first here are some dodgers that he sent my way earlier in the year:

2003 fleer tradition cesar izturis

between this card and others from night owl, i was able to complete my team set.

2005 upper deck mlb artifacts jeff kent

a sneaky dodger card of the former astro. there were quite a few cards in this set that were similar to the kent card - pictured with one team/named with another

2003 upper deck classic portraits dave roberts

who knew he would manage the dodgers to a world series title back then?

this next card i claimed in one of bo's giveaways - 1980 topps vince ferragamo

i collected football cards in 1978 and a bit in 1979, but by 1980, i had stopped buying packs and focused just on baseball. i still followed the rams that year, and my favorite ram had evolved from lawrence mccutcheon to vince ferragamo, although the poster on my wall was of cullen bryant. anyway, i no longer owned a card of ferragamo, so i asked for this one. i used to have his 1979 card, but it had the ram horns airbrushed off of the helmet so this is a better choice. i put this card in my 'meaningful and just because' mini-collection.

bo also sent me this altered 1970 topps card of the late, great dick allen

i had commented on the modification of allen's team affiliation to the dodgers, as well as him being awarded a gold star. fun.

as we expanded the exchange of cards in to a bigger trade, one of the cards i requested was this 2002 topps 206 rich thompson card

it was a need for my set build, and i was happy to see it offered. you don't see too many cards from this set in trade packages, and this was the second one i was able to add that way last year (the other being a stan musial card from kerry).

back to the lurker portion of the post - get ready for a bunch of images!

1971 topps tommie agee (joe morgan)

that's morgan running to his left. it looks like the umpire is raising his hand to call agee out, but it also looks like morgan is running to field a loose ball.

1972 topps rick wise (jim bunning)

bunning is number 14, and he was otherwise shut out of the 1972 topps set as far as a card of his own, which would have been a final tribute.

1973 topps bob locker (reggie jackson)

both locker and his a's teammate in the outfield are airbrushed into semi-cubs uniforms.

1973 topps bobby bonds (willie stargell)

no airbrushing here.

1982 topps manny trillo (mike schmidt)

looks like tony armas is there, too. i figure this photo comes from the 1981 all-star game in cleveland.

1986 donruss highlights eric davis (pete rose)

i wonder if pete was betting on davis getting a hit.

1986 topps tony perez (eric davis)

back-to-back cards featuring eric the red. i really liked this card back in 1986 as it reminded me of the 1973 topps steve garvey card that prominently featured wes parker. sort of a 'changing of the guard' card.

1987 topps terry pendleton (gary carter)

only one of the players on this card was a nl mvp, and it's not the one that you might have thought if you weren't following baseball during their active careers.

1990 score mike heath (kirby puckett)

i didn't think this was puckett at first, but it checks out.

1990 upper deck jeff montgomery (robin yount)

lead-off lurkers are fun to find.

1991 fleer tim hulett (tim raines)

i guess raines wasn't holding that day since he's sliding feet first.

1991 fleer jeffrey leonard (ken griffey jr)

i'm surprised griffey wasn't more in focus given his popularity at the time.

1991 fleer mariano duncan (barry bonds)

i think this photo is from 1989 as that was the only time i could find mariano duncan playing shortstop at pittsburgh. that would make it luis quinones there in the background.

1991 leaf ken hill (ozzie smith)

ken hill on the hill. reminds me of a johnny bench on a bench card.

1991 score alvaro espinoza (rickey henderson)

rickey is a frequent lurker thanks to his ability to get on base.

1991 topps mariano duncan (ozzie smith)

the only way this could be a redder card is if it were a 1990 donruss card.

1991 upper deck ozzie canseco (jose canseco)

462 career home runs right there. ozzie had zero of those.

1990 upper deck rick reuschel (greg maddux)

pitcher batting!

1992 donruss jose oquendo (ozzie smith)

sure, andres galarraga is there, but it's ozzie smith in the back that puts this card in the collection.

1992 donruss roger mcdowell (eddie murray)

he's obscured, but it's eddie.

1992 donruss sammy sosa (tim raines)

neither one of these guys look right as white sox.

1992 score charlie o'brien (darryl strawberry)

dodger lurkers are a bonus.

1992 topps stadium club bj surhoff (ken griffey jr)

not sure where the umpire is

1993 donruss travis fryman (robin yount)

i had one of these in my double play binder, but happy to add one to the lurker collection

1993 donruss jose oquendo (barry larkin)

larkin is a hall of famer, so i guess he is notable enough to put in my lurker collection

1993 donruss ben rivera (back) (johnny podres)

dodger world series hero posing as pitching coach

1993 pinnacle jeff king (ryne sandberg)

this card actually goes in my double play binder - i would need a second one for the lurker collection.

1993 score select roberto alomar (george brett)

love having brett cards in the collection.

1993 score select rafael belliard (craig biggio)

biggio trying to break up the double play with a hand chop to the groin

1993 upper deck wally joyner (rickey henderson)

not sure rickey is going to get back in time

1993 upper deck tom candiotti (mike scioscia)

i felt kind of badly for candiotti after the 1992 season, his first with the dodgers. he had been with the blue jays the prior season, and signed with the dodgers just to see them have their worst season ever while toronto won the world series.

1993 upper deck mike bordick (dave winfield)

speaking of world champion blue jays, there's one now.

1994 leaf alan trammell (kirby puckett)

one of my favorite double play cards of all-time, now it's in my lurker collection, too.

1994 score jeff treadway (robin yount)

i might have more cards of a lurking yount in my collection than actual yount cards.

1994 topps bret barberie (jeff bagwell)

another double play card now with representation in my lurker collection

1994 topps bip roberts (eddie murray)

ditto

1994 topps jeff schwarz (frank thomas)

may the schwarz be with you.

1994 upper deck darren lewis (barry bonds)

center fielder has the right-of-way

1994 upper deck bob tewksbury (ozzie smith)

two lurking smiths on one card thanks to the phantom zone inset.

1994 upper deck mickey morandini (tony gwynn)

i like seeing cards featuring jack murphy stadium. the orange fence top is a giveaway from this era.

1994 upper deck collector's choice danny bautista (barry larkin)

i opened a ton of collector's choice in 1994.

1995 topps phil plantier (tony gwynn)

how fun would it have been to have tony gwynn as a teammate?

1995 upper deck collector's choice se jack mcdowell (frank thomas)

i bought a bunch of 1995 collector's choice, including a significant amount of "special edition" packs. sucker.

1996 donruss pedro nunoz (kriby puckett)

the question i asked above about tony gwynn also pertains to kirby.

1996 pinnacle curtis goodwin (cal ripken jr)

no offense to brady anderson (and, i assume, rafael palmeiro) but it's ripken that puts this card in the collection. i used to have a pc of anderson, by the way.

1996 topps stadium club dean palmer (ivan rodriguez)

i was not a fan of the rangers' red color scheme.

1997 pinnacle zenith tino martinez (ivan rodriguez)

i was a big fan of this set, however.  there's even a raul mondesi lurker card in it, of which i still need a duplicate for this collection.

1997 topps jose valentin (cal ripken jr)

another double play duplicate that gets added to the lurker collection

1997 topps steve finley (rickey henderson)

more rickey!

1997 topps stadium club john mabry (ryne sandberg)

the card also features awkward catching and awkward running poses

1997 upper deck collector's choice dennis martinez (orel hershiser)

forget black jack and the other guy (charles nagy?) - it's orel that makes this card collectible.

1998 pinnacle geronimo berroa (cal ripken jr)

cal has the least to do with this image, but he still is the best part about the card

1999 fleer ultra jt snow (orel hershiser)

another giants card sneaks in to my collection

1999 topps ricky ledee (mariano rivera)

as ledee loses at rock-paper-scissors

2000 fleer ultra warren morris (frank thomas)

here's another double play turn that was new to me!

2002 fleer maximum paul loduca (mike piazza)

i had maximum dislike of loduca when he was a dodger, largely because he wasn't mike piazza

2002 fleer ultra tino martinez (mike piazza)

i have a dupe of this card in my "name/number on back mini collection"

2005 topps milton bradley (shawn green)

also in my tatooine mini-collection

2007 topps chad billingsley (nomar garciaparra)

all signs point to that being nomar in the background except his head for some reason

2007 upper deck eric chavez (frank thomas)

i think i see tim hudson, too

2007 upper deck jason giambi (derek jeter)

yeah jeets!

2010 topps matt holliday (russell martin)

featuring a photo likely from the 2009 nlds. the dodgers swept the cardinals in that series. their winning pitchers were jeff weaver, george sherrill, and vicente padilla.

2010 topps randy wolf (russell martin)

good friends.

2010 topps opening day dustin pedroia (david ortiz)

based on ortiz' line of sight, it looks like pedroia hit a gapper.

2011 topps chris carpenter (albert pujols)

not to be confused with cris carpenter or luis pujols

2012 topps eduardo nunez (derek jeter)

looks like jeter is already headed to the dugout.

2013 topps peter bourjos (albert pujols)

i think that is brayan pena catching. good to see torii hunter in the background, too.

2013 topps mini welington castillo (david ortiz)

there's a red sox fan celebrating during a regular season game at wrigley in the background. interleague play has brought us strange happenings.

2013 topps mini michael morse (bryce harper)

or, someone wearing harper's #34 jersey

2013 topps mini brian roberts (bryce harper)

there he is. i am sure topps tried to get him on as many 2013 cards as possible.

2016 topps carlos perez (mike trout)

trout shows up on a few cards in my lurker collection. i am guessing there will be more.

2018 topps yasmani grandal (justin turner)

number 9 and number 10 together on a card.

whew. that was a lot of cardboard! thanks bo!