the 17 year itch

after completing the 1992, 1993, and 1994 topps dodgers gold parallel team sets (and seeing night owl's complete 2008 topps series 1 and 2 dodgers gold parallel team set), i figured that it was time to complete a numbered gold parallel team set, and i decided that it would be 2007 topps. i chose that set mainly because it has big, chunky borders that allow for a lot of color, but also it does not include any rookie or early career clayton kershaw cards that i missed out on in real time!

i had maybe a third of the team set when i started, and it took me a few months to pull it all together, but i managed.  so, here is the complete 2007 topps gold parallel dodger team set

j.d. drew, andre ethier, rafael furcal

jeff kent, james loney, jonathan broxton

brad penny, grady little, delwyn young

greg maddux, juan pierre, jason schmidt

matt kemp, randy wolf, luis gonzalez

takashi saito, russell martin, wilson betemit

derek lowe, chad billingsley, ramon martinez

dodger team card

 

but that's not all - i also completed the update team set

brady clark, david wells, mark hendrickson

olmaedo saenz, hong-chih kuo, tony abreu

andy laroche, russell martin, brad penny

takashi saito, russell martin (alex rodriguez) combo, russell martin (cole hamels) combo

scott proctor

the proctor card was the last of these that i acquired. there weren't too many options when it came to purchasing the vagabond reliever's card, but thankfully one of the two sellers who had high hopes with their buy-it-now prices sent an offer that was pretty reasonable and i was able to complete the set.

there are a lot of "let's remember some guys" up there, but i remember being pretty happy with kemp and martin and ethier showing up. luis gonzalez not so much. and, as you can see, there are definitely some differences in the pigmentation of the gold across the collection.

another difference is the numbering on the back. topps switched the orientation of the serial numbering between flagship series 1 and 2 and update. ramon martinez is from series 2 and olmedo saenz is from update

ok, so it's hard to see, but on the flagship card, the 2007 is closest to the topps logo, and in update it's closest to the player inset photo. and, how great is it that topps noted each of these as "gold parallel" on the back?!

with the black borders, topps was in need of a different treatment for the other-colored border parallels (this was before camo /25 and all that). they went with copper

which was numbered to 56

the low print run black border parallels debuted in 2003 and were numbered to 52 copies. since then they have increased in production by one to match the "years of collecting" on the front. as far as i can tell, 2007 is the only year that the border for these cards hasn't been black.

i have no plans to chase the copper parallel set, but i do have more 17 year itch to scratch. stay tuned!

opening day 2001 showed up on a baseball card come to life

bo from baseball cards come to life and i swapped some cards earlier this year. most of what i sent to bo were yankees and most of what he sent to me were cards featuring dodger stadium in the background. when he mentioned that he was finding some cards from 2002 topps, i asked if he had an extra jeff shaw card, and he did!

now, i already had this card in my team binder and my dodger stadium binder, but i wanted another one to add to my "cards featuring games i attended" mini-collection. you see, i am as certain as i can be that this card features a photo of shaw taken on opening day, 2001 - a game i attended at dodger stadium.

it's interesting to me that eric karros was featured on my ticket, but not because the same photo was used on one of the large murals hanging on the exterior of the stadium as we approached it

but rather because i narrowly missed a screaming foul ball off of his bat - a ball that grazed my fingertips and made me instantly glad i wasn't a couple of inches taller. more on that in a minute.

you may recall that 2001 was the year that the dodger murals focused on their retired numbers. the pregame ceremony included large jersey tarps out on the field:

the team also handed out rally towels to fans as they entered. gary sheffield was standing by at the left field entrance that we used. he was shorter than i expected, but was the star of the game (along with chan ho park) as the dodgers won 1-0 behind a sheffield homer.

anyway, more pregame stuff - there was a skydiver

because it was 2001.  

the skydiver was not barry manilow, but manilow did perform the national anthem. you can't see him in this photo, but it was taken after manilow was introduced.

full disclosure - i saw manilow in concert on new year's eve at the old universal amphitheater in the early 1990's. it was a fun time.

our seats were just in foul territory down in the left field corner, and you can see in this photo where we were sitting relative to the foul pole. in one of his at bats, karros hit a line drive that i watched curl foul towards me. i stood and raised my hands and felt the ball graze my fingertips. any regret i had was instantly replaced with relief as i am sure i would have broken some fingers had the ball made more solid contact with my hands.

the last game photo includes the blimp.

my dad was a blimp fan, having been up in one a couple of times to take photos. this photo also gives a slightly better look at some of the murals, and you can see the stadium giveaway towel in the lower left corner, as a fan was using it to cover their head in the shadeless seats.

as for shaw, he came in and pitched a scoreless ninth inning for the save. the fact that the bunting is in place on shaw's card with him pitching in a day game is what led me to the opinion that the photo used comes from the game i attended.

shaw wasn't alone in the cards that bo sent - there were a bunch of other cards with dodger stadium in the background that i've added to that collection:

the above cards are pretty standard for recent issues as far as dodger stadium backgrounds go. this 2008 topps gary matthews card is a bit different

in that it features the outfield wall, with part of the universal studios ad which said "play in our park" in view.

bo sent me this 2007 topps matt kemp card

because of the background, but it actually goes in to the team binder because...

red letter text on the back variation! what a lame variation that was.

bo sent some other mini-collection hits, such as these for the double play collection:

2002 topps miguel tejada

2002 topps damion easley

2002 topps felipe lopez

2006 topps felipe lopez 

the guy knew how to turn two!

2006 topps opening day julio lugo si for kids max action insert

and 2006 topps marcus giles

that last one actually went in to the tatooine collection, along with these others:

the indians had a bunch of tatooine cards in 2006 and 2007 for some reason.  this last one is from 2008 topps, and features joey gathright

it sort of looks like it could be an intrasquad game with all of the blue, but i am guessing it is probably not.

thanks bo!