four for four twenty

here's a 1981 donruss tommy lasorda card

that has something in common with these next four cards - 2019 topps heritage kenley jansen (this is the chrome parallel)

2020 topps mookie betts

2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary joe kelly (this is the refractor parallel)

and 2022 topps austin barnes

those four cards represent a four year run in which topps had assigned a dodger card to number 420 in one of their sets

i took note of it in 2021 when i saw the checklist for platinum anniversary. alas, there was no continuation of this in 2023, but i couldn't help but wonder if it were an intentional thing, similar to what upper deck did with number 666 in their early days.

not that it's a bad thing - 420 is a number associated with cannabis use, thanks to some california teens in the 1970s and i pass no judgement. it was just conspicuous to me that topps put a dodger in that spot four years running.

speaking of four years running, if cody bellinger (seen here on a 2022 topps allen & ginter chrome mini)

homers today, he will have hit a home run on 4/20 in four consecutive seasons. bellinger, as you might know, has a few 420 themed memes out there.

i almost forgot to mention - the donruss lasorda card up top is the first dodger card that i am aware of to slot at number 420 in a major set. these days, the dodgers have a 1 in 30 chance of being there in just a handful of sets each year. i took a quick look and found that no other team had more than two consecutive seasons at 420 in a topps set. donruss put the a's at 420 three years in a row in their flagship set in the mid-1980s, and the rangers were at 420 three years in a row in major pacific releases. it makes some sense to me as it has to be easier to set a checklist by starting with the previous year's, but maybe, just maybe, there were some shenanigans afoot.

the triumphant return of the mall show

i don't recall all of the details as it's been about four months, but back in february i went to a card show held in one of the many suburban twin cities malls. these locations have largely become depressing shells of their past glory, so i don't get to malls too often. the last time i was in a mall before this show, it was the mall of america in october for dinner at the twin city grill. that's good stuff and i highly recommend it if you ever venture to bloomington and the site of the twins' former ballpark.

i had been to shows at this particular mall before over the years, including recent incarnations even though the last few years have been disappointing as there seems to be more of a focus on other types of collectables (sport and non-sport) from the vendors who set up. this time, it was like the days of yore with a lot of card dealers from near and far. i recognized a couple of them and they admitted that they hadn't been to this location for a while, but they thought timing was right and they had hoped that the current status of the hobby would bring out the customers. 

one of these sellers i recognized had a nickel box of vintage-ish commons, including a bunch of miscuts. i remember buying a gloriously miscut 1977 topps davey lopes card from him several years ago. this time, i took this 1975 topps mini ken mcmullen card

that is slightly miscut and diamond cut. i will note that the mcmullen was the least miscut of the 15 miscuts i grabbed! 

the 1975 topps mini bob oliver

and 1975 topps (regular?) joe lis

are progressively worse, and then there is the star of the show - a 1980 topps larry biittner and kent tekulve mashup card

that is just ridiculous. i get vertigo just looking at that thing.

i even grabbed four football cards - three from 1973 and one from my lost love 1978 - that were fantastically miscut

the charley young card shares space with a checklist, while ed budde has the bills' dick cunningham encroaching in his neutral zone. bruce gossett's card features another kicker, or punter, actually, in bobby walden from the steelers. it's charlie harraway's card that really gets me, because that's jack younblood showing up. as a rams fan growing up, youngblood was one of my three favorite players. stud.

just before i found the seller with the miscuts, i visited a dealer who stuck to his guns and charged me $9 for 9 cards from his dollar box.

i asked him, "even austin barnes?", and he shrugged. i suggested that i should stop buying gavin lux cards and he agreed with me, but i persisted.

dollar boxes were the theme for the most part, but at least there was the opportunity to haggle, or in the case of one of the dealers the dollar (and two dollar) boxes were proactively marked as "50% off". i found some decent dodger parallels including a prism refractor

and a regular refractor

of mookie betts from the two most recent topps chrome platinum anniversary releases. i wonder if topps decided to take a break in 2024 and restart this set in 2025 with a true 70 year anniversary for the 1955 design.

these shows are a good way to pick up cards left over (i assume?) from card shop activities, like a couple of hobby rip night dodgers - yoshinobu yamamoto and shohei ohtani

this would have been one of ohtani's first dodger cards? or maybe these were series 2 rip night cards. i don't follow these sorts of things anymore.

my favorite pick up from this dealer was this 2008 upper deck yankee stadium legacy card

it's not just a roger maris 1961 season card from that expansive set, it's from his 61st home run game!

imagine the odds of pulling the card for this specific game from a pack. and then throwing the card in a $2 box and selling it for a buck.

the next seller was a guy whose tables were straining under the weight of a massive number of monster boxes with all sorts of cards jammed in them. i grabbed mostly cheap autos and relics like these four dodger autos

(that came from 2017 bowman high tek, 2017 topps finest, 2020 panini prizm, and 2023 bowman platinum, respectively), and this yankee relic from 2021 topps allen & ginter

yankee relics with a pinstripe will always make me take notice. as for luke voit, he's currently playing in mexico.

now we've made our way to cards from the first dealer i stopped at (and spent most of my time with). he had a couple of 1 and 2 dollar boxes in a corner of the second level walkway. the boxes had some good variety, and i wound up buying my very first 1965 topps embossed insert.

is that tommy davis? who knows. i had always avoided these things, even as i built the 1965 set. i may now look to track down the other dodgers now that i have a start.

2020 topps chrome dustin may refractor parallels

are sort of boring, but team collectors are slaves to the machine.

i like seeing shiny cards of players from my youth, so i picked out this 2022 panini mosaic george brett

green mosaic prizm and this 2023 panini prizm green ice prizm card

of willie stargell.

i will also happily purchase legend variation cards, such as this 2022 topps update christy mathewson

i tell you what, i would collect the heck out of a set that looked like this in its entirety. the simple 2022 flagship design works really well with tobacco card type images.

from clean and sharp to cluttered and nonsense, here are some 2024 topps parallels that i bought. this first one is the aforementioned (and recently released) austin barnes

he's got beach chairs and umbrellas behind him (reminds me of a day i spent at siesta key a couple of years ago). this series 2 holiday foil design is numbered to 50. here's the back:

jackie robinson number sighting!

i found three other, non-numbered holiday parallels, too

hot dog!

beach chairs and umbrellas, plus hot dogs? sounds like a summer cookout, and with the fourth of july in a couple of days now is the time!

happy (2021 panini donruss bo jackson) independence day (parallel)!

be safe!

my topps series 2 hobby box was good to me

my hobby box of 2025  topps series 2 that i ordered directly from topps showed up on thursday, the day after the official release date. that was quicker than i expected, but i waited until friday afternoon to open it up. being a dodger fan, the box was good. nothing really exciting, but good.

shohei ohtani is the cover guy for series 2 - here's a wrapper

i don't know how people attack boxes, but i open packs by the stack. this time, i started with the lower right hand stack. 

pack 1

josh smith, esteury ruiz, st. louis cardinals

the most prominent person on the cardinals' card is an umpire.

jd martinez, andy pages, jarren duran

first dodger just five cards into the box!

austin martin, jon singleton, victor robles

i will give you a closer look at singleton's card in a bit. robles with a bubble during a swing is not something you see a lot of.

billy cook, clayton kershaw and sandy koufax dynamic duos, milwaukee brewers

first pack comes through with a decent dodger insert! here's a closer look:

nowhere on the card, front or back, does it say "dynamic duos". the card number has a "dd" prefix though.

pack 2:

james outman, ezequiel duran, darren baker

another pack, another dodger. plus the son of dusty!

jose soriano, nathan lukes, cubs 3 and no-no checklist

soriano looks like he's straight out of 1979 with the classic california angels' uni.

sean murphy, reynaldo lopez, frankie montas

juan yepez, jon singleton blue rainbow foil #44/150, grayson rodriguez

two packs, two jon singleton cards. here's that closer look i promised

new for series 2 are a number of colored rainbow foil parallels. this is the blue one, and i much prefer it to the holofoil parallels that have all that noise. as for singleton's card in particular, his bat is almost hidden as it breaks the border in a pretty spectacular way.

from here on out, i will list the cards, but only show a select few.

pack 3:

michael massey

paul goldschmidt

and so the photoshopping begins. i expected to see goldy (and many other players in series 2) with their new teams in update, but that is not the case.

thomas saggese

shota imanaga

ryan weathers

stone garrett

minnesota twins

a different viewpoint here, with the photographer on the line in front of the player headed for home. i really like these twins uniforms!

pittsburgh pirates

jonathan cannon

nestor cortes

the last pitch he threw as a yankee was hit by freddie freeman into the right field pavilion at dodger stadium.

alec bohm 1990 35th anniversary

simeon woods-richardson

pack 4:

jake meyers

another cropping fail by topps, in my opinion. show the entirety of his glove!

cal raleigh

2025 home run machine! 

michael mercado

eduardo rodriguez

joey estes

edward cabrera

yariel rodriguez

chicago white sox

kevin alcantara 

this won't be last you see of kevin (not sandy) alcantara

david fry

landon knack

making good dodger team set progress!

shane mclanahan

pack 5:

jack flaherty

no photoshopping the world champion here; this is a pre-trade deadline shot of flaherty from last season.

josh lowe

roki sasaki

what in the wide world of sports is going on here?! i am thankful to have pulled sasaki's rookie from a pack, but i really wish topps would have waited until update or worked harder to get a real photo of him for the base set. his golden mirror card uses a photo from his initial workout at dodger stadium, so they could have made it happen instead of giving us this photoshopped monstrosity. seriously, it reminds me of the worst of topps' airbrushing in the past. like 1984 topps traded ron reed bad.

that card is so bad, i don't even have it in my "name/number on the back" collection. instead, it's in my sportlots inventory. 

darell hernaiz

bobby miller

that's a nice way to cleanse the palette. noticing miller's cleats and glove reminds me to wish everyone a happy father's day, by the way.

max scherzer

another one that should have waited for update.

zach brzykcy

instead of commenting on the name, i will note that this photo is a breath of fresh air among the majority of the pitcher cards. there are a lot of cards like scherzer's and a lot of screaming pitchers, but not many with a photo like this one.

heider montero

nolan jones 

michael conforto gold parallel #1341/2025

this box likes me.

gerrit cole summer superstars

a summer themed card using a photo of cole from game 5 of the world series. maybe even the fifth inning?

teoscar hernandez and bobby witt jr mutual admiration club checklist

i believe there are three dodger checklist cards in series 2.

now moving to the upper right corner of the box.

pack 6:

taijuan walker

brady basso

elias diaz

eguy rosario

yosver zulueta

zach mckinstry

jordan hicks

nick castellanos

gustavo campero

pavin smith

kevin alcantara 1990 35th anniversary

there's alcantara again!

gordon graceffo

pack 7:

daniel schneemann

javier baez

casey schmitt

ben casparius

hand over heart

luis peralta

christian javier

fist over heart.  now, there are only so many poses that are displayed on the field, but it seemed to me that there were a few packs where similarly posed (i know it's not really a pose) players were featured closely in the same pack. 

blake snell

10th dodger of the box!

isaac collins

joey bart

jack neely

matthew boyd 

ryan mcmahon

pack 8:

kutter crawford

that's the most chest hair we've seen on a card since 1984 fleer.

jose iglesias

zack gelof

matt mclain

gleyber torres

kumar rocker

jorge mateo

there's another example. two guys doing a josh harrison impersonation in the same pack.

trea turner

grant holman

brayan bello

rafael devers summer superstars

isiah kiner-falefa

pack 9:

tyler o'neill

this is a fantastic card. i love it. the green monster has been assaulted since the last time (or is it never?) the panels were replaced. and we can see (almost) all of o'neill's glove!

byron buxton

another fantastic card for buck. he's still my favorite non-dodger, and i really like this card!

heston kjerstad

detroit tigers c'mere you! checklist

willie adames

aaron nola

toronto blue jays

the city connect uniforms are showing up on cards way too often. the true photo version of this card would have me scratching my head for a bit.

max fried

another card that would have been better served by a real photo.

kevin alcantara 1990 relic card

so here's my guaranteed hit. it's a kevin alcantara hot box!

player worn relic, witnessed by topps. all the hallmarks of a dressing room session featuring who knows how many jerseys.

julian aguilar

only 10 cards (instead of 12) in that pack thanks to the hit.

pack 10:

spencer strider

brandon woodruff

jose tena

new york mets

nick fortes 

bo bichette

harrison bader

jared jones

mookie betts and freddie freeman two in blue checklist

that's the second dodger checklist of the box.

jonathan cannon purple rainbow foil #150/250

and the second colored rainbow foil parallel.

jackie robinson 1990 all-star 35th anniversary

the box keeps on giving!

wenceel perez

on to the lower left of the box.

pack 11:

miguel andujar

gavin lux

i am thankful for lux's last at bat as a dodger.

taylor walls

steward berroa

tyler anderson

michael wacha

victor scott ii

spencer evens

bryan reynolds

jairo iriarte

ben joyce

kenley jansen

this photoshop job is not as bad as the others i've seen in this box so far.

12

adam duvall

gary sanchez

jacob young

san francisco giants

wyatt langford

alex bregman 

this photoshop job isn't bad, either.

jorge polanco

kyle isbel

brendan donovan

troy taylor

mark mcgwire 1990 all-star 35th anniversary

i was surprised to find a card of big mac. i wonder if pete rose cards are in our future now that he is off the ineligible list.

ronny mauricio

pack 13:

felix bautista

pablo lopez

i do not care for the twins' official city connect uniforms.

endy rodriguez

elly de la cruz and cj abrams think fast! checklist

seth johnson

javier assad

the cubs' city connect uniforms strike me as a local town ball team's with the "wrigleyville" text

oswaldo cabrera

noelvi marte

alek thomas

austin barnes

former dodger, but two-time world champion!

luis peralta rainbow foil

parker meadows

pack 14:

nick madrigal

sean manaea

here's one of those screaming pitchers. good view of the bud harrelson and jerry grote memorial patches.

sal frelick

alexis diaz

edmundo sosa

hayden birdsong

steven kwan

jonathan aranda

tomoyuki sugano

lenyn sosa

jackson merrill ops leaders insert

jake fraley

i am going to show the next pack in its entirety because it reminded me of opening flagship packs back in 1978. no inserts. no big names. just a bunch of guys.

pack 15:

jeimer candelario

austin gomber

will wagner

bo naylor, jt realmuto, bryce teodosio

brendan rodgers, randy vasquez, luke weaver

jackson jobe, austin hedges, hunter brown

two guardian catchers in the same pack. i don't think i pulled johnny oates and steve yeager from the same pack back in 1978 or 1979. 

on to the final stack!

pack 16:

blaze alexander

mookie betts

more dodger goodness!

yandy diaz

not sure how the rays' city connect jerseys connect to the city of tampa.

hyeseong kim

another guy i expected to wait until update.

kansas city royals

kyle mccann

eury perez

marcus semien

garrett crochet

juan soto

luisangel acuna

tyler fitzgerald

so pack 16 is the antithesis to pack 15. a bunch of good looking cards, including two of the biggest names in the game and a couple of rookies that i am at least aware of.

here's the back of soto's card

my only complaint continues to be the lack of set recognition on inserts. it's ok to admit that upper deck did it right!

pack 17:

randal grichuk

salvador perez

jordan walker

sean burke

zac gallen

mj melendez

nolan gorman

when i first saw this card, i assumed it was a variation, because the photo comes from the rickwood field game. however, it's just gorman's base card.

kirby yates

i figured that yates wouldn't get a card as a dodger until update, if then. i was wrong.

brandon eisert

christian walker

francisco lindor and juan soto dynamic duos

javier sanoja

pack 18:

mike burrows

anthony santander

santander was an oriole when this photo was taken at dodger stadium.

garrett mitchell

max muncy

last dodger of the box.

michael helman

dominic fletcher

carlos rodon

walter pennington

mason miller

jon singleton

jackson jobe 1990 35th anniversary

it shouldn't be a surprise given his last name, but jobe will be undergoing tommy john surgery.

robert suarez

there were some doubles there in that pack, unfortunately.

pack 19:

stuart fairchild

minnesota twins hi mom! checklist

it's father's day weekend, but this is a decent card.

miguel amaya

kodai senga

wilyer abreu

tobias myers 

shane bieber

lucas erceg

valente bellozo

more screaming pitchers.

victor robles

billy cook

reynaldo lopez

jaden hill

and a few more doubles, too.

pack 20:

caden dana

alex cobb

johan rojas

jt ginn

jason foley

frankie montas

juan yepez

pittsburgh pirates

yordan alvarez summer superstars

adley rutschman

that last pack confused me. there were only 10 cards, including a few doubles, but no relic or anything else. topps owes me two cards, i guess.

i am not sure how much more of series 2 i will buy. i've already ordered the few dodgers i am missing from the team set plus a couple of additional 1990 design inserts. i don't miss finding the stars of mlb in every pack so i will probably avoid retail packages. never say never though.

the box was topped with the anticipated silver pack. here's what was inside:

david ortiz

ezequiel tovar

jose ramirez

william contreras

my dodger luck had run out!

there was also a promo for toppsripped

that featured 2025 card images

i spy the dancing dodgers mookie betts variation there. you know, he's not dancing he is doing an oblique crunch. the dancing is both arms over your head like freddie freeman at the usher concert. anyway, the series 1 promo for toppsripped featured 2024 card images, so i am glad topps made an update.

speaking of update, i guess we should prepare ourselves for a host of rookie debut cards and other nonsense.