in a new york minute

anything can change.

here's kevin brown pitching at dodger stadium on his 2004 topps opening day card

complete with the mural of the infield of my youth behind him.  there are very few cards that show that particular mural, and i want them all.  that's why i picked up this next card

which shows kevin brown as a yankee pitching in dodger stadium, except that's a halfway decent photoshop job by topps.

the dodgers probably got more out of jeff weaver and yhency brazoban (plus a couple of minor league seasons from titans' back-up quarterback brandon weeden!) than the yankees got out of kevin brown overall, but it was the brown and the bronx bombers who actually advanced in the playoffs in 2004.  at least the dodgers got some 'lima time' that year.

there goes my hero

i've now completed a few trades with gavin from baseball card breakdown.  the first trade was facilitated by oscar at all trade bait all the time after he received a ron cey cardsphere heroes custom card from gavin a couple of years ago.

the most recent trade package from portland included this beauty for my steve garvey collection:

that's a 2018 baseball card breakdown cardsphere heroes card of the garv himself!  i had asked gavin to create one using the photo from garvey's 1978 sports illustrated poster.  it looks great!

there were other cards in the package, and i sent real cards in exchange, but i will still thank gavin in person next week. anybody else going to be in the pdx?

everybody loves ramon

brian at highly subjective and completely arbitrary closed out another round of trading a while back by sending a number of cards from my want lists.  he even found a 1992 ramon martinez card that i still needed!

i had never seen this 1992 upper deck team mvp hologram card before, which made me happy because there aren't too many dodger cards from 1992 that surprise me these days.

ramon had his worst season as a dodger in 1992 (which was also the worst season for the dodgers in their west coast history), but at least he had a cool hologram card.  thanks brian! look for some twins in the mail soon!

dodger stadium bonus play

it's been over four months since the world series ended, and i'm finally hitting publish a post inspired by the host stadium for games 1, 2, 6, and 7.  i was excited coming into the season as dodger stadium hosted the semi-finals and finals of the world baseball classic which resulted in some cards featuring the third oldest major league stadium in the background.  with the postseason also coming to dodger stadium, i was hoping for more 'bonus' dodger stadium cards.

there were two topps now cards in particular that i will showcase (although i did pick up pretty much all of the dodger-themed postseason topps now cards), the first of which comes from the game 1 opening ceremonies:

with a photo from the dodger dugout on the back

it's not every day that you can see the san gabriel mountains from the stadium, so thank goodness for clear (although hot) october days.

the next card is not a dodger card, although rich hill's name makes an appearance on the dodger stadium wraparound display thingamajigs.  no, this is an astros/marlins card

prior to game 2 of the world series, jose altuve and giancarlo stanton were recognized as the 2017 hank aaron award winners on the field at dodger stadium, and there was enough there behind them for me to pick up the card (on the cheap a couple of weeks after it was issued).

the 2017 postseason is not the first time that dodger stadium has been featured on cards, as there are a couple of cards in the 1964, 1967, and 1975 topps sets.  there are others, too.  here is a 2001 upper deck decade '70's card of reggie jackson

it shows mr. october during the 1977 world series.  it could be 1978, or even 1981 for all i know, but it is from a world series game.  that is because reggie only played road games in the world series as a yankee against the dodgers.

here's another world series road team - the baltimore orioles - represented by jim palmer on a 2015 leaf heroes of baseball card

palmer outpitched sandy koufax at dodger stadium in game 2 of the 1966 world series, throwing a shutout to extend the orioles' lead in the series to two games to none.

with 2018 product on the shelves, i've pulled a few more cards to add to this collection, including a nice cameron maybin card from heritage

along with a less pleasant card from the same set

hopefully just over 7 months from now, there will be some more postseason cards featuring dodger stadium in the background, only this time with the home team celebrating.

dishonoring heritage

i bought some 2018 topps heritage.  i got a few cards that i found interesting and will keep for my collection, but not too many.  one card that left me shaking my head was card number 1 in the set - the american league 2017 batting leaders card

let's take a closer look.

jose altuve led the league with a .346 average.

avisail garcia was second with a .330 average.

eric hosmer was third with a .318 average.

hanley ramirez had a .242 average on the season.

topps put hanley on the front of the card instead of the indians' jose ramirez, who tied hosmer at .318.

i also noticed that topps referred to andrew miller as a "righty" in the text on the back of his card.

does topps even pay attention to baseball anymore?

if a career ends and there is no final tribute, is it really over?

alex rodriguez didn't allow topps to make a card of him until 1998.  by then, he had played in 435 major league games over four seasons, won his first (and only) batting title and amassed 435 hits. fast forward to 2017 and you will find that topps failed to make a flagship base card for rodriguez for the first time since 1997.  sure, there were inserts and online exclusives, but none that showed his career stats on the back.

i had hoped that, even though rodriguez retired during the 2016 season, there would be an honest to goodness final tribute card to add to my collection.  alas, i was disappointed. thankfully, topps (through their bowman brand) issued a chrome card of a-rod for the 2017 national sports collectors convention

that did feature a truncated career stat summary line

even though they were highlighting his 2007 mvp season.  it'll do.

i was never a huge arod fan, although i respected the talent and was excited when he appeared in topps product 20 years ago.  later on, i continued to respect the talent, but learned not to respect the man.  i am very much ok with the fact that he didn't stick around to get to 700 (or even worse, 715) home runs.  i am not an arod apologist, but i can appreciate what he was able to do over the course of his career, and that is why i added this card to my final tribute collection.

completing a team set is kind of a big deal

i recently picked up the 2015 topps archives will ferrell card that features him as a dodger

i've been slowly updating my want lists this winter, and knocking out team sets here and there as i go.  this particular card is a "one and done" team set, which is nice, however it made me remember how much i don't care for the 2015 topps flagship design.

i may or may not have crossed paths with a younger will ferrell in the late 1980's/early 1990's out in orange county as we apparently lived fairly close to one another. i would have paid him no mind, unless he was sitting in front of me at the edwards cinema.

but i digress.  while i've knocked one more team set off, this card reminds me of the nonsense that topps will publish while not being able to put vin scully on a non-autographed card of any kind or put the proper players (chris taylor) and players in the proper uniform on a non-short print (yu darvish) in their update set.  you see, i've got a fever, and the only cure is a better baseball card product.