the closer

i know that he is back in the starting rotation, but roki sasaki has proven to be a closer for me in the early goings of 2026. no fewer than three dodger team sets had sasaki as the last card i needed.

2025 topps allen & ginter

2025 topps archives

and 2025 topps chrome update

all waited for sasaki's card to show up.

i've completed a few more sets that didn't include sasaki recently, including 2016 topps gypsy queen.

that kenta maeda rookie card was the last card i needed. it's a short print so i guess it makes sense that i waited for maeda to return to japan before seeking it out. i'll show the penultimate card i needed for the team set in a different post.

a sportlots seller had the last three cards i needed for 2023 topps chrome platinum anniversary

i understand that topps is planning to reintroduce this set in 2026, but they will call it 2025 so that using the 1955 topps design makes sense from a platinum anniversary standpoint. topps/fanatics just can't seem to get out of its own way sometimes.

another sportlots seller had this 2025 panini prizm pee wee reese card

that shut the door on my team set from that unlicensed release chock full of prospects and retired players and not much in between for licensing reasons.

2025 topps stadium club came down to two cards - hyeseong kim

and yoshinobu yamamoto

both of which came from a sportlots order

my 2026 topps series 1 dodger team set is also now complete, thanks to dalton rushing's card

showing up in my mailbox a few weeks ago.

i've got one other recently completed team set to visit. sasaki was the second to last card i needed to complete the 2025 topps all-star game dodger team set

with shohei ohtani being the closer in this instance

i've slowly been accumulating dodgers from this set via various sources, and now i'll show the cards i haven't shown before (which i believe is all but kim's).

mookie betts

freddie freeman

clayton kershaw

yoshinobu yamamoto

i also added a classic swings insert of betts

as well as kershaw's all-star game greats insert

the back

focuses on the 2022 midsummer classic which was held at dodger stadium and saw kershaw make the start for the national league. synchronicity at its finest.

you knew this was coming - i added another steve garvey parallel from the set. this is his black autograph parallel

numbered to 10. here's the back

interesting that these were exclusive to mega boxes. or is that the only way this set was distributed? i wonder if there will be a 2026 version? and will it include former greats like the inserts did in 2025? if so, get ready for a bunch of phillies. now that i think of it, i could use some new pete rose cards (or to fit in with the title of this post, tug mcgraw), so bring it on!

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!

two in the hand beats whatever is in the bush

i was excited to be included in rod's recent spate of mailings as he always sends some fun items. no poster this time, but he did include a couple of "twinographs" for me

that's twins lifer and two-time world series champion randy bush who signed a pair of cards for rod or some other person at some point in time.

there was another auto included, this one of a minnesota wild player on a 2008-09 o-pee-chee card

i must admit i wasn't paying much attention to the nhl at this point of stephane veilleux's career. i'm more engaged these days, making it to two or three games a year.

the cards rod sent gave me a chance to appreciate the three twins' multiplayer/checklist cards from 2025 topps

as well as byron buxton's indivicual card in base and holiday format

buck is not the only twin shown airborne in the 2025 topps set, as local kid matt wallner

is also catching some air. it's nice to see the flowers behind the outfield wall on a card.

buxton is still my favorite non-dodger, so it was cool to receive this relic card from 2025 topps holiday

of course, buxton flies because torii hunter also flew, and this 2004 topps clubhouse card of the latter

was equally appreciated!

2005 topps design has always looked good in black, and having brooks lee's 2025 topps archives card in black foil parallel fashion

makes me happy.

one more twin card that caught my eye was this 2025 bowman kyle debarge chrome prospects insert

i have to believe that, at some point, his walkup song has been or will be "rhythm of the night".

there was one dodger included in the mailing, and it was this 2025 bowman draft eduardo quintero card

quintero is a 6'-1" outfielder who hit 19 homers last year split between a and high-a ball. he's only 20 so plenty of time for him to progress.

finally, my favorite item in the package was this 1991 topps custom fernando valenzuela card

fernando as an angel is high on my list of cards i really want topps to produce in an archives release or even this year's flagship insert set. here's the back:

there aren't too many color photos of fernando as an angel, and i hadn't seen the one used here before. of course, i had taken my own shot at creating one of these cards a while back, but i don't recall doing a back, probably because it would look just like the back of his actual 1991 topps card, with a few slight changes.

thank you very much rod! always a pleasure to receive cards from you!

the days of archives

not quite "sands through the hourglass" stuff, but i spent a little bit of time on wednesday opening the blaster of 2025 topps archives that i ordered from topps. the official release day wasn't until yesterday, so i was surprised to see the fedex man with this part of my order. i also ordered a blaster of 2025 topps chrome update which did supposedly release on wednesday, but that hasn't shown up yet. go figure.

the first two cards out of the first pack were these ones:

and the first two cards out of the second pack were these ones:

thankfully, the third pack strayed from this pattern, as did all the others.

each pack included cards from the three designs being used this year - 1964 (as seen above), 1996

(the return of the phantom zone inset photo!) and 2005

we are officially in the joey votto legend era, and i always enjoy seeing teddy ballgame on cards, although the dangling socks placement on this one is suspect. plus, topps used this same photo last year on the 1994 design.

as far as the designs go, things are pretty faithful to the originals, but there are some font differences for sure. i am still of the opinion that 1996 topps looks better in landscape format, and there are some of those to be had

the luis robert card is nice but i really like the connor norby even if the rookie card logo seems to float a bit. topps included other marlins rookies with the 1996 design

and you can see the rc logo floats in the portrait design, too.

stan musial's card

caught my eye as a nice looking card. i just wish they had put him on the 1964 design so we could have had a belated final tribute card.

i guess my least favorite design used this year is 2005. having the player's name on the side makes the last name up top redundant and a waste of space. here's drake baldwin's card

as well as matt shaw's

i am liking those cub unis and am glad to see them on so many cards.

regarding keepers, i found a couple. shohei ohtani's card

and freddie freeman's card

go to the dodger collection, and vladimir guerrero's card

is for my player collection.

the blaster promised four black foil parallels, and here they are:

not a bad group there. the ozzie albies card looks especially nice with the black foil border.

i found another parallel - an "aqua scope foilboard" numbered to 75 of brenton doyle

his base card was also in one of the packs.

and then there are the inserts. not all inserts were represented in my blaster, but i did get a 1995 topps cyberstats season in review card of jung hoo lee

and a 2007 topps all-star card of fernando tatis jr

and then, of course, dylan crews made an appearance with a 1987 boardwalk & baseball insert

the first two cards are pretty true to the original design, although the season in review card of lee doesn't deal with the "what if" aspect that the original 1995 cards did. as for the boardwalk & baseball insert, topps has replaced the b/b on the originals with a team logo in the lower right. i guess that means there will be no "no slash" variations available.

the big card from the blaster was a fan favorites autograph:

ol' zebulon is a bit of a fan favorite here, although it might be because of his unique name. as a pitcher he had middling success in 2025 which was in line with most other twins players.

not a bad blaster to rip, and it was early to boot! a fun way to spend part of one of the days of my life.