'tis the night before christmas

deck the halls and what not - it's christmas time! it's also time for me to show some topps holiday cards that i've added since we last shared yuletide greetings.

this release should really be called "topps christmas" because that is the only holiday the cards reference, and it's been that way since the first issue in 2019. here's a 2019 cody bellinger variation

that is pretty easy to spot.

this 2020 bellinger variation

is a bit tougher. here, the variation is the "la" ornament hanging off of his bat. i am guessing that there are many of these languishing in forgotten boxes of unwanted base cards.

the 2021 set included the bead curtain design, and here's a max scherzer variation

i wore a scarf just the other day.

mookie betts variations are also in my possession - this one from 2022

and this one from 2023

as well as this one from 2024

that last one is him in an elf hat, but the card design has it looking more like something that comes out of a christmas cracker.

this year, the variation i purchased was roki sasaki's

which combined the santa hat with the christmas light necklace.

i also picked up betts' 2021 base card to complete the team set

as well as the remainder of the 2025 base cards i needed to complete that team set

the parallels have evolved over the past few years, and i added a few of them to my collection over the past few months. here's freddie freeman's 2022 silver metallic snowflake parallel

and then freeman and max muncy on their 2024 equivalent

except these are called "silver glitter" now.

no surprise that 2025 expanded on the parallels. here's clayton kershaw's sliver glitter

dalton rushing's light blue & white glitter

blake snell's metallic blue foil christmas lights

teoscar hernandez' gold foil christmas lights

and freeman's green plaid

that last one was a throw-in into a lot of 2025 allen & ginter i bought which was a nice surprise. it came with some other, non-dodger inserts from 2025 topps holiday that i found interesting, like this evergreen harmon killebrew card

which is die-cut. i also got a laugh out of seeing emmanuel clase on the nice list

what a crazy story that is.

it wouldn't be (almost) christmas without me thinking of the late rickey henderson. at some point during the year, i found a seller with rickey's 2003 topps chrome traded base and refractor listed. they were listed separately and i am not sure that the seller knew one was a refractor. i bought them both 

for $40 which is a steal (pun intended). let's take a moment to look at rickey's almost career totals on the backs of these cards

the refractor is noted on the back down by the card number.

i still need a couple more refractors to complete my 2003 topps chrome traded team set, but i did find james loney's card shortly after picking up the rickey

this one was listed as a refractor, and it was pretty obvious from the photo of the front, and it is marked as such on the back

just in a different way than rickey's.

rickey's 2003 upper deck card is probably my favorite from his dodger stint

but i have questions about the back

i have never seen "mariners" shortened to "mrl". and, "athletics" is nine characters, so why not say "mets/mar". ponderous.

back to christmas, i pounced on this complete printing plate run from 2024 leaf metal happy holidays web exclusive

so i suppose i could print my own steve garvey holiday cards now? i haven't seen any of the actual cards hit the market yet, but i may have missed any that did because these are so short printed by leaf.

some other holiday "hits" to share - a 2022 topps holiday cody bellinger relic

and, very fittingly, a 2025 topps holiday jhonkensey noel relic

that i pulled from a holiday tin earlier this month. it's the first noel relic card i've pulled. ha.

also in that tin was a 2009 design card of ol' saint nick himself

which is part of the multi-year santa archives. here's the back:

i remember hearing about zsu zsu pets but did not partake.

earlier in the year, i found the 2014 card in a dig box at the lcs

here's the back

i don't recall any of those toys. i think i first heard about paw patrol last year. 

finally, here's the first card i purchased from 2025 topps holiday - the 1978 design santa archives

i've added it to my 1978 topps master set. any idea why santa's position is identified as "cpt"? at first i thought that was an abbreviation for "captain" which didn't make a lot of sense. i googled "cpt" and found that it is also an acronym for "carriage paid to" which is an international trade term that means the shipper delivers goods at their own expense. that certainly applies, but it seems like an obscure "position" for mr. claus. here's the back:

ah yes. this i remember. it was all star wars at my house that christmas. i remember getting the milennium falcon and immediately mixing up the stickers on the back. good times. here's hoping that 2025 creates memories that last a lifetime.

and now please enjoy norm macdonald reading the dickens classic. merry christmas to all and to all a good night!

happy holidays

it's christmas eve already which is hard to believe. i don't know whether or not santa will bring me any cards, but i am happy to report that i have found some dodger holiday variations in bargain boxes this year, including a 2020 dustin may

and a 2019 walker buehler

with 2024 topps holiday being such a departure from the first few years of the product, i thought about ranking the various designs. instead, i figured i would just show the progression through the years

2016

this set came on the scene as more of a weather variation than anything else.

2017

the weather continued to be the only thing differentiating these cards in the second year. the yasiel puig above is the "metallic snowflake" parallel which may make it a bit more difficult to see all the snow.

2018

just brought on more snow. i think most were pretty tired of this set by this point.

2019

the snow is gone in favor of some seasonal foliage and a tablecloth approach.

2020

back to snow, but with the addition of a pine garland. that gavin lux is also a metallic snowflake parallel.

2021

a departure this year with a beaded curtain made of ornaments and snowflakes, plus some candy cane treatment of the borders

2022

still sticking with the snowflakes. that clayton kershaw card is the metallic parallel, so the border is all treated up. the base cards just have the regular white border with the bows and garland.

2023

more snow, but topps switched to "charlie brown christmas" snow instead of elaborately designed snowflakes.

2024

topps finally fully embraced the christmas holiday theme, and continued to build on their flagship neon design. this is really a dramatic departure from previous years and it seems to have been embraced by a large part of the collecting community.

merry christmas everybody!

the k is for kershaw kountdown - seeing reds

yes, the kountdown to 3,000 strikeouts for clayton kershaw continues as he pitched against the reds on thursday. he struck out 9 batters to give him 93 strikeouts on the season. those 9 reds that he k'd increased his career total to 2,900.

in honor of his performance, here are 9 cards to represent strikouts 2,892 through 2,900.

2,892 - 2014 bowman platinum gold 

2,893 - 2015 panni prizm red baseball prizm

2,894 - 2016 bowman's best refractor

2,895 - 2017 topps galler artist proof

2,896 - 2018 topps legends in the making blue 

2,897 - 2019 topps inception

2,898 - 2020 topps holiday

2,899 - 2021 topps gold label class 1 black

2,900 - 2022 topps update all-star game black

kershaw remains in 21st place on the all-time leader board, and will remain there until he passes zack greinke, who struck out 3 earlier in the week to increase his strikeout total to 2,932. kershaw is now 32 k's behind greinke and an even 100 behind the 3,000 milestone. 

kershaw's start against the reds was his second straight start with 9 strikeouts, and included seven scoreless innings to boot! he got phenom elly de la cruz twice, showing that the reds' prospect is human after all.

it would seem that kershaw's next start would come this week against the white sox. regardless of when he makes his next start, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!