more days of archives

here's another late to market post, sharing my second wind roundup of cards i've added from 2025 topps archives to advance my dodger collection, mostly. 

to finish up the 1964 dodger cards, i added dalton rushing

and chan ho park

both are spring training shots typical of the eras in which these players played. 

i have most of the 1996 cards added as well - here's teoscar hernandez

clayton kershaw

and will smith

all at dodger stadium. not sure if i mentioned it before, but it annoys me slightly that the inset "phantom zone" (as i call it) photo is not skewed the way it was on the original '96 cards.

here's more of the dodger team set using the 2005 design - hyeseong kim, river ryan, mookie betts

and yoshinobu yamamoto

i like the betts card very much because of the world champion gold-lettered jersey he is wearing. i appreciate topps creating a few cards featuring dodgers in these duds in 2025 and i hope they make some in 2026 and beyond! here's the back of yamamoto's card

i found it interesting that they went with a straight "3" for his era below the photo of him on the back. era is always shown to two decimal places except here when the tenth and hundredth places are zeroes.

one of the other 2005 design cards belongs to orel hershiser

his card back is even more interesting

because i really don't know what's going on with the stat that shows up under his photo. i think it is supposed to be 204 to match his wins total (and the "w" above the .304). they just forgot to edit the number from a batting average and change the first digit. that's the best i can do in trying to figure it out.

those cards above all came from sportlots. i was able to find two of the three dodgers i was still missing at the february card show in those dig boxes i posted about previously. jackie robinson and sandy koufax

don't look too bad on these modern card designs.

i like the black foil parallels again this year, and picked up sandy's from an online seller

just like i did to obtain kershaw's 2007 all-star design insert

the other archives card i tracked down this year was barry larkin's

and that's because he is shown (finally) on the 2005 design, making this a final tribute. here are his complete career stats as they should have been presented 20 years ago

i don't have larkin in my hall of famer collection, but my final tribute collection is less restrictive.

all of this left me one card short of the dodger team set, and i should have that last card in hand soon. not that it's a big deal card (it's not) but it does provide fodder for a separate post. stay tuned!

flip a card

i have a few care packages to acknowledge - some from months back - and i am trying to get back on track!

to start, bo at baseball cards come to life sent me some cards that hit my mini-collections, including this first card that hits two of them. this 1995 upper deck sp john valentin card is very obviously at tatooine card 

but flip it over, and it's a double play card!

perhaps i should flip it in the air and see which side lands face up to determine where to house it in my collection. my friends and i never flipped cards the way i know some of you and many other collectors did. we just played the game on the back of the 1978 topps cards and traded.

anyway, that card lives as a tatooine card but this card from the same set of tim naehring

is a full on double play card for the collection.

i believe i may have claimed this 1999 topps stadium club card of dmitri young

and i did so because it fits in my "names/numbers on the back" mini-collection.

bo found a couple of obscure items for my dodger stadium collection - a 1982 fleer stamp of dave collins and a 1986 fleer miniature card of jose cruz

i appreciate bo's eagle eye!

easier to spot is the dodger stadium background on this 1987 fleer limited edition lenny dykstra card

and this 1989 fleer limited edition orel hershiser card

i miss those old field level scoreboards.

greg maddux's 1997 fleer card

also features a dodger stadium background, with a couple of dodger personnel people in the background.

bo didn't neglect my team collection, adding a couple of cards from 1997 fleer flair

those are showcase row 2 cards of brett butler and chan ho park, the latter of whom has made a hobby resurgence in 2025.

thanks for the cards, bo!

in other news, i skipped the monthly card show earlier today. while collecting is a way for me to de-stress, being out and about today for a card show didn't rise to the level of necessity. many of you have expressed concern over what is happening here in minnesota and it is concern well placed.

out of the park with these prices

it's been almost 15 years since chan ho park pitched in his final major league game. he was with the pirates then, following in the footsteps of another dodger pitcher of the 90's who ended their career in pittsburgh - ramon martinez. unlike martinez, however, park has made a return to baseball card releases in 2025 with topps hyping his first autograph cards in quite some time.

i was interested in adding one to  my collection, but then i saw the prices. here's a sampling:

good golly miss molly. those are sandy koufax prices.

instead, i will show off a few new to me park cards that came via a sportlots order a while back. here's a trio of cards from 1998 topps stars

and here's one from 1999 fleer flair showcase

those will have to do for my collection unless the prices of the 2025 autographed product takes a dramatic downturn. 

so, instead of a chan ho park autograph, here's a 2021 topps clearly authentic zach mckinstry auto

that i picked up for just a couple of bucks. it's not in the one touch it was originally distributed in, but that's ok by me. maybe park continues to sign and gets a fan favorites autograph later this year that helps to dilute the market. i sure hope so.

league of nations

well i was up early enough to catch the dodger/padre game in seoul this morning. it was good to see the dodgers put together a rally (albeit one aided by jake cronenworth's faulty equipment) and a strong pitching performance from the bullpen. it's weird that the season is officially begun, yet there are still spring training games going on for the next week.

anyway, you are probably expecting some chan ho park cards (he threw out the first pitch before today's game) so i don't want to disappoint.  here's his 1998 upper deck national pride insert

as well as his 2000 upper deck united nations insert

both of which prominently include south korea's flag into the design. here's the back of the 2000 card:

i recall park being the first korean player to debut in the major leagues, but i did not recall that he skipped the minors altogether. since park debuted in 1994, there have been 26 more players from korea appear in the majors. that number will increase in 2024 once the giants kick off their season and jung-hoo lee takes the field.

i have a couple more country themed cards to show, including mike piazza's national pride card

as well as a couple of cards from the 2023 topps wbc set. here's mookie betts

and freddie freeman

freeman's card is an insert of some sort.

and, because the 2024 season is no underway, here's a 2024 card of betts

there were no home runs today, so i'm not sure what the hr trot thing will be this year.

i'm looking forward to the dodgers closing out the series tomorrow and returning to the states. i'll be heading out to target field to see them in april, and am looking forward to seeing a couple of players from japan in particular.

happy opening day!

one more for the murals

not every card that features a dodger in their home whites makes it in to the dodger stadium mini-collection. that said, i am not sure why i hadn't added this 2001 topps chan ho park card

to the binder. it shows the batters eye background which is not the most photogenic part of the stadium, but it also shows a bit of the murals from the 2000 season, specifically the "ger" in "dodgers" that was out in centerfield.

we've seen that part of the mural on a card before, thanks to a 2000 pacific omega ken griffey jr card that i shared in this post. speaking of junior, here's another card with dodger stadium's outfield wall in the background:

that's a 2001 fleer ultra decade of dominance insert. sure, the background is pixelated, but i'll put a ken griffey jr card in a mini-collection for less.

i also recently added the refractor version of randy johnson's 1999 bowman chrome card

that gives some refractory goodness to ron cey's mug on the wall behind him.

it was a few seasons before the dodgers began placing the murals on the wall when the photo for these 1995 score cards were taken

but the low panel right field fence will get a card, in this case orel hershiser's base and gold rush cards, in to the collection anytime.

it wasn't until last week that i owned this 1996 upper deck sp hideo nomo marquee matchups card

and i quickly realized that it features the right field pavilion in the background. this was a surprise, because the piazza card from this insert set does not feature dodger stadium behind him. furthermore, nomo is paired with ken griffey jr as the "marquee" part, and griffey's background is not dodger stadium. no worries - i just need to add another one of these for the dodger stadium collection now.

lastly, i waited for the hype to die down in terms of 2020 gavin lux cards before i added this topps gallery master & apprentice card 

to my dodger collection. i also picked up a second copy for the dodger stadium collection, since the drawing places the two dodgers out in the parking lot beyond right field at chavez ravine with the back of the right field scoreboard visible over lux's shoulder.

bonus mini-collection content!:

i stumbled across a couple of new-to-me double play cards recently. this 2019 topps jose altuve 150 years greatest players card

and this 2020 topps chrome dee strange-gordon refractor

are welcome additions to my collection!

my most wanted cards walked the plank

i recently sent some cards that i'd been stacking to matt at bob walk the plank. he returned fire by trying to single handedly obliterate my nefarious 9 list of most wanted cards that i keep on the sidebar of my blog. he also mentioned that somewhere in his collection lies a joc pederson card with my name on it. can't wait!

the first card i'll show is one of the non-dodger bonus cards that i list as an appendix to the nefarious 9.  matt found the 1986 leaf dusty baker card

i assume with relative ease. currently, my most wanted non-dodger card is 1995 score #361 brian anderson. it's for my lurker collection.

the main focus of the nefarious 9, however, are dodgers. sometimes, they are cards that will complete a team set, like this 1994 fleer roger mcdowell card

and this 1994 pacific henry rodriguez card

other times, they are cards that i have in parallel form, and i feel weird not having the base. that was the case with this 2019 topps big league kenley jansen card

i had actually ordered the card from sportlots and the seller sent me the gold parallel instead. so the base version went up on the most wanted list.

sometimes, i will add a card that i thought i had but don't. this 2001 topps chrome shawn green card fit that description.

i was a pretty serious green collector in the early 2000's, and thought that i surely would have had at least one of his 2001 topps chrome cards. when i saw that it was on my want list, i double checked and was surprised to find that it was indeed a need. on to the most wanted list it went!

matt sent some other chrome cards from my regular want list - these are from 2001 bowman chrome

a nice 4-pack of vets that whittled my needs for this team set down to a couple of rookies. maybe they will show up on the nefarious 9 in the future.

matt attempted to knock off one more of my most wanted cards, but sent the optic version

instead of the regular 2017 panini donruss jose de leon card. somewhere between those two releases, panini followed de leon to tampa bay. it's an easy mistake to make, and matt still gets an "a" for his efforts.

thanks matt! the list has been refreshed if you (or anyone else) wants to take a run at it. you will be rewarded!