blue is a fall color this year

game 1 of the 2025 world series kicks off shortly after this post posts, but i won't be able to watch it due to a conflicting engagement. i am hoping it is as thrilling as last year's game 1 turned out to be. here are some related cards to the event, including a 2025 panini prizm trey yesavage card

his meteoric rise to the majors and the postseason is one of the more intriguing stories going in, and getting the game 1 start adds to the incredible season he has had. i found this card in a nickel box at the local card shop - twin cities cards, to be exact. i would expect his cards to be well sought after in 2026 releases.

there is maybe just one person as hot as vladimir guerrero jr going into the series. here's a 2021 topps update all-star game insert of vladito

that i found in a quarter box at a mall show recently. for the record, i was happy for guerrero and the blue jays but would have been happy for the mariners, too, had they won game 7. i didn't really care for george springer being the hero given his connection to the astros and their cheating during the 2017 season and world series, however i am looking forward to this matchup.

this card

arrived in my mailbox too late to show as a lead-in to the nlcs this year, but i can show it now. this is from 2025 topps dynamic duals which is in its third year (i think) as an online only release. jackson chourio had a better series than andy pages, but pages caught the last out so he has that going for him.

there aren't too many cards that i could think of off-hand that match a dodger up with a blue jay, but the one that immediately came to mind was the 1993 topps card featuring mike piazza and carlos delgado

that was a hot commodity back then for sure.

as far as players go, i immediately think of ron fairly (pre-scanned dodger card not readily available as i type this post so i defaulted to o-pee-chee (oh my!)), 

raul mondesi,

and shawn green

as players who have played for both the dodgers and blue jays, but i know there are several others like bob bailor, al oliver, russell martin and rickey henderson to name a few. i also think of roy hartsfield,

who was a dodger farmhand in the 50's and a dodger coach before ultimately going on to manage the jays.

i don't do an annual post of my favorite team rankings like night owl does, but if i did, the blue jays would be in position 2 or 3 on an annual basis. i will probably explain why in a future post, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in my near-term future if the blue jays were crowned world champs. with that said, let's go dodgers!

a new era

with 1978 topps being the first set i collected, i missed out by a year seeing davey lopes on a league leader card in real time. i was ever hopeful that a dodger would show up on a league leader card, as well as a record breaker or highlight card, in the annual topps set. in 1980, i got my wish in regards to the record breaker card as manny mota made the cut thanks to his pinch hit mark. a year later, don sutton graced the era league leader card, and for the first time in my collecting days, a dodger was featured.

the next dodger to lead the league in era was alejandro pena in 1984, but topps had stopped giving space to league leaders in their flagship set conveniently enough starting with the 1985 release. league leader cards were back as inserts in 1995, but not the way they were meant to be with representatives from each league on the fronts. 

in 2000, the league leaders returned to the base set, but the leaders were shown one on each side which is dumb. it happened again in 2001, and to show why it is dumb to do it this way, here is kevin brown on a 2001 topps chrome league leader card

brown was the first dodger to lead the national league in era since pena. that card, by the way, is the refractor parallel, or as it was called then the "retrofractor" parallel. the back, of course, is not chromeified even though it features the american league era leader

why brown was given the front of the card when pedro martinez had a lower era (1.74!) makes no sense to me but then again doing league leader cards like this makes no sense to me either. i am glad that topps is back to multiplayer league leader cards (which started in 2008), although i prefer one card with both leagues on it rather than one card (with multiple players) for each league.

here's some bonus content - a dodger pedro martinez card!

that's his 1993 topps gold parallel, and it completed my team set of these early days gold inserts. pedro didn't lead the league in era as a dodger of course, but he did as an expo in 1997 before going to boston and leading the american league on four different occasions. i am of the mind that he deserved some traditional league leader cardboard for his efforts!

the almost daily dodger - mike scioscia

today's card plucked from the scanned folder is mike scioscia's 1993 topps gold parallel

it shows the longtime dodger catcher getting knocked about, which was par for the course for the style of play back then - both on scioscia's part and in regards to the game in general.

the card is scioscia's final tribute, as he did not appear in a game after the 1992 season despite taking a shot with the padres in 1993 and rangers in 1994 as injuries prevented him from taking the field with either of those teams. the last game he caught was a 3-hit shutout by pedro astacio which is not a bad way to end a 13-year career spent exclusively behind the dish.

of course, scioscia did wind up spending more years in an angels uniform than he did in dodger duds as he served as their manager for 19 seasons. i thought that the angels would retire his number given the fact that he is the only skipper to lead the team to a world series championship and his longevity in that role is unmatched in team history. however, the angels redistributed number 14 a couple of years ago, so i guess they aren't planning to honor scioscia in that way. that's ok - the dodgers have retired 14 and even though it is in recognition of gil hodges, i think of scioscia too when i see the number on display.

350 is a magic number - they come in 3s

a few weeks ago i noted that i was pondering the idea of adding a number type mini-collection to my collection. of the options i considered - 190, 272, 350, or none at all - i decided to go with 350.

i've been posting cards from the same year of each decade, and so far i've done the 8s, 7s, and 6s. this time i think i'll mix it up and show the 3s.

1963 topps #350

bob purkey put together his best season in 1962, and i assume topps took his 23 wins and 2.81 era in to consideration when assigning his 1963 card this number. he finished third in the league in both of those categories and so got a floating head on a couple of league leader cards as well as card 350 in the set. his 1963 season was not good as he hurt his shoulder in spring training and never did regain his status as a top starter.

1973 topps #350 

tom seaver was second in wins and strikeouts (to steve carlton) in 1972, but he wound up leading the league in k's and era in 1973 en route to his second cy young award. he also led the mets back to the world series that year, although they weren't amazing enough and lost to the a's. clearly in 1973, 350 was being used as a hero number.

1983 topps #350

robin yount had himself a season in 1982. he won the american league mvp and led the brewers to the pennant and their first world series appearance. pure hero number stuff! topps didn't identify league leaders on the backs of cards in 1983, but his 210 hits and 46 doubles were tops in the al in '82. 

1993 topps #350

joe carter helped the blue jays win their first world series in 1992, and was rewarded with this hero number. of course, he went on to lead them to their second title in 1993 - a title claimed when carter hit the series ending home run in game 6.

2003 topps #350

postseason highlights were good to see in topps sets, even though they were not consistently included in flagship sets over the years. with the expanded playoffs, i enjoyed seeing these cards pop up. this one features the winners of two of the four divisional series - twins over a's and cardinals over diamondbacks. neither the cardinals nor the twins advanced to the world series, however. good to see everyday eddie guardado and a darryl kile tribute on this particular card.

2013 topps #350

albert pujols had just finished his first season with the angels as evidenced by the back of his 2013 card. in hindsight, the beginning of his offensive decline is apparent. still, he was worthy of the hero number. he missed the last two months of the 2013 season which likely has cost him the chance to reach 700 home runs for his career.

i am tracking a few things in an effort to find any consistency with number 350, although there really isn't any. still, i am keeping track of the following occurrences, now through two posts:

number of reigning rookies of the year: 1 (kris bryant)

number of reigning mvps: 1 (robin yount)

number of reigning cy young winners: 0

number of reigning world series champions: 2 (keith hernandez, joe carter)

number of reigning pennant winners: 6 (steve garvey, robin yount, jack clark, keith hernandez, joe carter, clayton kershaw)

number of reigning league leaders: 7 (mel stottlemyre - complete games; robin yount - hits, doubles; keith hernandez - walks; kenny lofton - sb; chase utley - runs; david ortiz - doubles, rbi; clayton kershaw - wins, era)

subset types: 2 (all-time all-stars, postseason highlights)

number of repeat players: 0

number of dodgers: 2 (steve garvey, clayton kershaw)

frequency of teams: cardinals (4), mets (3), dodgers (2), astros (2), braves (2), twins (2), white sox, giants, indians, phillies, red sox, yankees, a's, cubs, reds, brewers, blue jays, angels

i will have another post with another run of cards soon - stay tuned!

1990's represent!

sometime around the year 2000, i began putting together "sampler" sets of topps sets from 1952 through 1969. i had no intention of ever completing any of those sets, and i figured it would be a fun idea to pick up a card from each team and each subset for those older sets.

i finished the task in a few years (it was a low priority), but then decided to scrap the collection as i began putting together the 1965 and 1957 sets.  now, i've decided to put together a "representative card" mini collection that will make it easier for me to see a great card from each topps flagship set from 1952 on.

i'll show off the cards occasionally, along with a reason for choosing that particular card. i won't use a card that is in my dodger collection, or any other collection for that matter, so i should wind up with a good variety.  here are the cards that represent the 1990's in this mini collection:

1990 - bob welch

the 1990 set has grown on me over the last 30 years. when it was the current set, i couldn't stand it and i purchased very little of it - a box maybe. i eventually collected the full dodger team set and bought a complete set just to appease my inner collector. it has since grown on me, and this bob welch card is actually pretty nice.  1990 was a big year for old friend bob welch, who won 27 games for the american league champion a's while losing 6 - he only had 2 no decisions! he also took home the cy young award which perhaps offered him some consolation for being swept by the reds in the world series.

1991 - ken griffey jr

as much as i disliked the 1990 topps design, i loved 1991. ken griffey jr's card is a decent one to represent the set (i already have the carlton fisk card in my 'favorite cards of the year' mini-collection). jr was just 21 during the 1991 season, but he hit 22 homers, drove in 100 runs, and had a batting average of .327, all while making for must see tv on sportscenter.

1992 - barry bonds

i didn't mind the 1992 topps design, and it had some great looking photos in the set. tommy lasorda's card was a standout for me, but with the initial release of the gold parallels, barry bonds' card was the one i was looking for. one of the local card shops had asked me if i had pulled that particular card, as they were on the lookout and promised a decent sum for it. i never did find one, but bonds' regular card is worthy of representing the set here. he won his second mvp award that year, which was his last in a pirate uniform.

1993 - tony gwynn

i was out of college by the time the 1993 season began, and working full-time in my chosen field which wasn't a guarantee back then. i didn't make it to many games that season, but it began to dawn on me that i could get to padres games almost as easily as i could get to dodger games. i began testing that theory in 1994. meanwhile, gwynn was doing gwynn things - hitting over .300 for the 11th year in a row - and he posted the third highest batting average of his career up to that point. unfortunately for him, his .358 mark wasn't enough to win his fifth batting crown - baseball had come to colorado, and andres galarraga hit .370  (.402 at mile high stadium) on the season.

1994 - frank thomas

the strike year. many things come to mind when i recall 1994 - tony gwynn (would he have hit .400?), matt williams (would he have hit 62 homers?), the expos (would they have won the world series?), jody reed (did he regret turning down the dodgers' offer which put the wheels in motion for the pedro martinez trade as much as dodger fans came to regret it?), and so on and so forth. one of the other players who comes to mind is frank thomas. the big hurt had a big 1994 season with a 1.217 ops fueled by an obscene .487 on base percentage. it was his second straight mvp award, and his 1994 numbers weren't too far off from his 1993 stats even though he had played in 40 fewer games.

1995 - dave winfield

one of the things that gave me hope that the 1994 season would be salvaged was the indians' purchase of dave winfield's ontract from the twins in august of 1994. i figured that the move wouldn't have been made if the season weren't going to resume, given that winfield's contract was up at the end of the season. unfortunately, the season was cancelled. however, i was happy that winfield signed with the indians for the 1995 season and so got to be a part of the team that brought a pennant back to cleveland for the first time since 1954! i don't think winfield was on the postseason roster, but i was definitely rooting for his teammates, including orel hershiser, that fall.

1996 - cal ripken jr

aside from the dodgers winning the nl west for the first time since 1988 and the indians returning to the fall classic for the first time in my lifetime, the highlight of the 1995 season was cal ripken and consecutive game number 2,131. as a steve garvey fan, i learned all about lou gehrig early on, and paid close attention to ripken's streak. 1996 topps has a highlight card that focuses on that event specifically, but i keep that in my "meaningful and just because" mini-collection so i chose this card to represent 1996 instead. ripken reaching game 2,131 was a feat that really had me paying attention to baseball after the strike and loss of the 1994 postseason. i never thought about giving up on the sport, but i don't think it was hyperbole for many to believe that ripken and his streak saved baseball for a lot of people.

1997 - paul molitor

1997 was the year that i moved to minnesota. too late to see kirby puckett play, but in time to catch my one-time favorite non-dodger paul molitor. molitor had signed with his hometown twins for the 1996 season, and he had a fantastic year. in addition to batting .341, he recorded his 3,000th hit towards the end of the season. while his 1997 season was not quite as eventful, he did hit over .300 and drove in 89 runs as a 40/41 year-old. i made sure to catch some games at dodger stadium and the big a before i made my move, but only managed to catch the twins on tv over the last month or so of the season. still, 1997 will always mean minnesota to me.

1998 - mark mcgwire

who else but mark mcgwire would be best to represent 1998? sammy sosa, maybe, but it was big mac who set the season record for home runs that year. as luck would have it, the cardinals returned to minnesota in late june for the first time since the 1987 world series, and i was there for one of the games. we were sitting in left field hoping for a mcgwire home run, but the closest he came was a warning track fly ball off of bob tewksbury. i recorded the game in which mcgwire hit 62 and also the game in which he hit number 70 - i was fully on board the home run train at the time. the next year, some friends and i roadtripped to st. louis to see the dodgers play the cardinals for a weekend series, and big mac failed to homer in those games, too. just my luck, i guess.

1999 - nomar garciaparra

here's another former favorite non-dodger in the collection. the american league shortstop triumvirate of nomar, derek jeter, and alex rodriguez was dominating in the late 90's, and nomar was my favorite of the group. he won his first batting title in 1999 and helped the red sox advance to the alcs for the first time since 1990, although they lost (for the first, but not the last time) to the yankees in a postseason series.  i found myself in boston the weekend before the all-star game somewhat by chance. the red sox weren't in town, so going to a game was not an option, but i did walk past fenway for the first time and bought an all-star game t-shirt. i didn't suggest going to fanfest (we were there to visit extended family), but i was disappointed later to learn that steve garvey had been there. another opportunity lost!

 

up next, the 2000's represent! stay tuned...

ttm blasts from the past

forever stamps are a good thing, especially when it comes to through the mail autograph requests.  one just never knows when (or if) a request will be filled.  i've received a few in the last couple of months that i figured i would share.

first up is danny heep, who signed a 1989 topps

1989 fleer

and 1989 score

card for me.  this return was relatively quick as i sent the cards out on february 1st, and received the cards back on june 13.

here's brett butler who has signed for me in the past. 

i didn't have a 1991 topps traded card in my autograph collection until this one came back, but i can't update my topps dodger autograph project since butler is representing a different release.  i sent that card to butler on february 11, 2017 and got it back on april 2, 2018.  not quite 14 months.

ken howell was the dodger bullpen coach for a long time. he was replaced this season by former phenom mark prior.  would you believe that i received my 1985 topps traded card back from howell over five years after i sent it to him?

well, you should, because that is the truth.  i sent to howell on february 18, 2013 and received it back on may 29, 2018.  that length of time was not quite the longest wait i've endured - pete mackanin took five-and-a-half years to return a card to me.

however, mackanin was unseated about a month ago when i found some todd benzinger cards in my mailbox - 1993 topps 

and 1992 topps stadium club

he kept a 1989 upper deck card.  i sent these cards (plus a 1989 upper deck card that he kept) to benzinger on december 10, 2009.  they came back to me on june 14, 2018.  that's 3,108 days!  8.5 years!  it gives me some hope for other outstanding requests.

as always, thanks to all who sign ttm - no matter how long it takes!