before i get to archives...

i understand that 2015 topps archives is live. i also understand that they are using the 1957 topps design for one of the four subsets in the base set.  that's nice, although i do wish that 1978 would get some love sometime before heritage catches up in 2027.  speaking of heritage, the last time we saw the 1957 topps design was in 2006 with the topps heritage set.  this is the dodger team card from that set

it features a photo taken inside dodger stadium - a stadium that didn't exist in 1957.  here are a few more dodgers from that set - cesar izturis

hong-chih kuo

derek lowe

and bill mueller

i rather like the mueller card. it seems like an old-timey pose.  i understand that don sutton is featured in the 1957 topps design grouping in the archives set this year, and i hope that his card is also old-timey in flavor. 

here are some other random cards from my scanned folder.

2006 fleer andre ethier

2006 upper deck jayson werth

2006 topps jim tracy (through the mail autograph success!)

pretty sure tracy is standing in the same spot izturis was for the heritage card up above - notice the palm tree…

2004 topps jim tracy (through the mail autograph success!)

2005 upper deck roy campanella wingfield collection

and 2005 upper deck pee wee reese wingfield collection 

those last two are nice looking cards.  i don't think either campy or pee wee are in archives this year - it's koufax, duke, and jackie as far as brooklyn-era dodgers go.  i'll try to find some of them in a blaster sometime this weekend - stay tuned...

so a guy walks into a card shop...

i've got some more cards to show from my most recent lcs visits.  normally, the cards i pick up are dodgers, double plays, or cards that fit in other collections of mine.  sometimes i will pick something up even though it doesn't 'fit'.  like this 1992 megacards babe ruth card

the best thing about this photo, other than it being of (most of) the first hall of famers, is babe ruth's droopy socks.  i actually have an 8x10 of this photo framed, i think it is so cool.  no dodgers, unfortunately.  also unfortunately, megacards identified one of the game's greatest players incorrectly.

in 1936, five players - ruth, ty cobb, christy mathewson, honus wagner, and walter johnson - became baseball's first hall of famers.  in 1937, they were joined by nap lajoie, cy young, and tris speaker.  also voted in that year was connie mack (one of 13 19th century figures that were added to the hall between 1937 and 1939). the lone 1938 inductee was grover cleveland alexander, and in 1939 - the year that the hall officially opened - george sisler, eddie collins, and willie keeler (there's a dodger!) joined the ranks.  that means that there were 11 living hall of famers in 1939 (mathewson and keeler had passed away), but the photo, taken at the opening of the hall of fame in cooperstown, only has 10.  let's see what the back has to say about that

poor cy young.  according to the card, he wasn't in the photo.  in reality, he is seated to mack's left.  it's ty cobb, the one who received the most votes for induction, who is missing.  the way the story goes is that cobb either arrived too late for the photo due to poor planning, or he chose to be late out of spite for kenesaw mountain landis.  it should be noted that lou gehrig was also voted into the hall in 1939, but his election came in a special ballot held in december of that year, so he was not a hall of famer at the time of the photo.  anyway, that's a great card.

i picked up another from the same set, this one with the babe wearing his brooklyn hat and singing alongside kiki cuyler (if the back of the card can be trusted)

the card back features a story told by ruth's old teammate bill dickey that involves some locker room hijinks.

i grabbed a few 2006 upper deck cards of dodgers, including one of a guy in a phillies uniform

and another of a dodger in a red sox uni

plus one of a devil ray in a dodger uniform

and then there was a 1987 woolworth's don sutton card that i had not seen before

that highlighted sutton's 300th career win.

i am not sure why, but i also grabbed a 'rookie of the week' card that topps put out in 2006 of george brett

i was disappointed that there were no dodgers in the set, nor were there any 1978 topps styled cards included.  i thought that maybe mike piazza would have been featured, or that eddie murray or paul molitor would have had their '78 cards restyled.  no such luck.

speaking of rookies, here are some rauuuuuuuul mondesi cards i rescued from the bargain boxes.  1994 donruss triple play

1995 topps stadium club

and 1998 upper deck collector's choice starquest insert

i picked up a bunch of other dodger cards, too.  that means there is one more lcs post on its way...

the topps dodger autograph project - 2005 through 2008

time for the next installment of the topps dodger autograph project.  these cards were signed free of charge through the mail.

2005 topps, chad billingsley

bills has signed a few cards for me through the mail.  i've also received cards from this set signed by edwin jackson and milton bradley.  however, that billingsley card above (which also features the guy i thought was going to be my baseball jesus, joel guzman) was obtained in a 50/50 ttm/trade event i had with reader cory a couple of years ago.  there are more from that fantastic transaction to be showcased in this and the next post.

2005 topps update & highlights, jason phillips

phillips signed this card for me while he was serving on the mariners coaching staff.  he might still be there, i don't know for sure.  i've also had success with blake dewitt and jose valentin from this set

2006 topps, bill mueller

topps didn't photoshop mueller for the flagship set, but the team was changed to 'dodgers'.  jim tracy and jason phillips are the only other 2006 topps dodgers who have signed for me through the mail.  i recall seeing a mueller ttm success in which the sender asked him a question along the lines of 'what does it take to be a big leaguer?'  mueller's answer was 'you have to fall in love with preparation'.  i like that quote, and have actually used it a couple of times.

i don't have any cards from 2006 topps update & highlights signed

2007 topps, james loney

other ttm successes i have had from this set include chad billingsley, luis gonzalez, juan pierre, and delwyn young.  plus a i have a purchased grady little signed 2007 topps card.

2007 topps update & highlights, andy laroche

i also have a 2007 topps u & h card signed by hong chi kuo from the 50/50 ttm/trade

2008 topps, delwyn young

in addition to delwyn (which was the result of a regular ol' ttm request), i also have a 2008 topps ramon troncoso autographed card from the 50/50 ttm/trade

2008 topps update & highlights, casey blake

although i have had a ttm success with blake directly, the card above came from the 50/50 ttm/trade deal.  in addition to blake, i have a card from this set signed by angel berroa that also came from that deal.  we'll see a couple more next time. 

thanks to all these players for signing my cards!  here's a running list of the topps dodger autograph project:

1951 topps - preacher roe (purchased)

1952 topps - rocky bridges

1953 topps - bobby morgan

1954 topps - billy herman (purchased)

1955 topps - don zimmer (purchased)

1956 topps - randy jackson

1957 topps - carl erskine

1958 topps - joe pignatano

1959 topps - fred kipp

1960 topps - chuck essegian

1961 topps - bob aspromonte

1962 topps - norm sherry

1963 topps - ed roebuck

1964 topps - ken mcmullen

1965 topps - dick tracewski

1966 topps - john kennedy

1967 topps - phil regan

1968 topps - jim campanis

1969 topps - jeff torborg

1970 topps - al mcbean

1971 topps - sandy vance

1972 topps - manny mota

1973 topps - wes parker

1974 topps - claude osteen

1974 topps traded - jim wynn

1975 topps - ron cey

1975 topps mini - joe ferguson

1976 topps - bill russell

1976 topps traded - dusty baker

1977 topps - steve garvey

1978 topps - dave lopes

1979 topps - charlie hough

1980 topps - jerry reuss

1981 topps - doug rau

1981 topps traded - ken landreaux

1982 topps - dave goltz

1982 topps traded - jose morales

1983 topps - ron roenicke

1983 topps traded - rafael landestoy

1984 topps - fernando valenzuela

1984 topps traded - mike vail

1985 topps - burt hooton

1986 topps - enos cabell

1987 topps - steve sax

1987 topps traded - matt young

1988 topps - len matuszek

1989 topps - mickey hatcher

1990 topps - kal daniels

1990 topps traded - juan samuel

1991 topps - tim belcher

1992 topps - roger mcdowell

1993 topps - dave hansen

1993 topps traded - tim wallach

1994 topps - jody reed

1995 topps - chris gwynn

1996 topps - todd hollandsworth

1997 topps - brett butler

1998 topps - greg gagne

1999 topps - jose vizcaino

2000 topps - jeff shaw

2001 topps - chan ho park

2002 topps - andy ashby

2002 topps traded - joel hanrahan

2003 topps - jim tracy

2003 topps traded - ron coomer

2004 topps - edwin jackson

2004 topps traded - milton bradley

2005 topps - chad billingsley

2005 topps update & highlights - jason phillips

2006 topps - bill mueller

2007 topps - james loney

2007 topps update & highlights - andy laroche

2008 topps - delwyn young

2008 topps update & highlights - casey blake

ok, i lied. here are a few more double play cards

just clearing the queue before the tourney starts, although we've seen most of these before.  just not with the autos!

i really like this 1973 topps card.  i hope it does well.  that's dick green lying in the dirt.  he was nice enough to sign the card for me, further cementing it as one of my favorite dp cards

even though tony perez was safe at first.

here's mickey morandini's 1997 topps card which he signed for me

dodger stadium and mitch webster goodness!

here's red sox/dodger hybrid bill mueller's 2006 topps card

mueller didn't get a chance to turn many dp's when he arrived in la since he spent most of his time at 3rd before he got hurt.
here's a card of him actually wearing a dodger uniform - his 2006 upper deck card

finally, no auto, but a 1986 topps jerry royster card that looks like it could have been part of an early to mid 1970's set

ok.  no more double play cards until we kick off the tournament. i'm serious.

topps panders to the team collector and serves up variations - a side by side comparison of the 2006 dodgers

for the most part, the blister team packs that topps has been selling for the past few years offer little other than a point-of-purchase distraction at the local target.  at least that was what i thought, although topps did start to market them as having an 'exclusive' card the past couple of years - be it a mascot or a manager card or whatever.  at any rate, i wound up buying the dodger sets more as a completist than anything else.  i am happy to say that there is more than just a different number on the back.  let's have a look at the 2006 dodgers.  i'll put the regular topps card on the left, and their topps dodgers team set card on the right.  we'll go in the order of the cards in the team set, starting with 'lad1', eric gagne.

eric gagne

the cards are the same, except topps, for some reason, moved their logo over to the right side of the card for the team set version.  what a variation!

rafael furcal

again, topps on the left, topps dodgers on the right.  but you can't really tell since they are the same.  right down to the airbrushing, which is actually an anomaly for topps as we shall see when we get to bill mueller.

jeff kent

here's another one where there is no difference.

cesar izturis

ditto cesar izturis.  at this point, i am wondering why i bothered.

kenny lofton

that's why.  lofton's regular topps card kept him as a phillie, and his topps dodgers version shows him nicely airbrushed into the dodger road unis, right down to the blue cleats.  topps did issue a card for lofton in the update & highlights set

which is different from the topps dodgers card.  i like it - the more variety the better.

jd drew

back to boring, which is fitting for jd drew.  just the movement of the topps logo on these cards.

bill mueller

here's another decent variation.  unlike furcal's card above, topps kept mueller in his former team's jersey (red sox) and just changed the team affiliation to the dodgers in the flagship set.  in the dodgers' team set, however, topps airbrushed the jersey and the hat to make it a little more official.  sadly, there was no update & highlights card for mueller as his career ended due to injury in may of 2006.

jose cruz jr

no difference.

brett tomko

here's the double variation - tomko is airbrushed (appropriately) into a dodger road uniform, and topps moved their logo.  tomko did pitch in the phone booth for the dodgers twice in 2006, but obviously this image ain't from either of those games.

like lofton, tomko got a card in the update & highlights set with a completely different image

i might actually like the airbrushed card better.

derek lowe

speaking of guys with card images from san francisco, here's derek lowe, whose subsequent topps cards were all about pitching on the road in at&t park.  sadly, there is no variation here.

brad penny

brad penny gets the topps logo treatment, and nothing more.

odalis perez

gets nothing, and probably doesn't like it, but nobody cares.  it's just noise at this point.

jayson werth

werth is also left out of the variation party.  on a side note, is there anyone other than don wert whose last name is in order on the standard 'qwerty' keyboard?  i will guess not thanks to most of the vowels being placed next to each other on the top row.

nomar garciaparra

finally, with card 'lad14' we get to the best of the bunch.  nomar goes from a cub in the flagship set to a dodger in the team set.  it's not as good of a job airbrushing as the shadows are different and nomar was put into the dodger home whites.  topps even airbrushed the cubbie in the dugout although they didn't put a red number on the guy's jersey.  it's basically the same card that was in the 2006 opening day set, but i still appreciate it, as it's one of the last nomar topps cards made.  he did get a card in the u&h set thanks to his all-star status

and that was it.  no more nomar.

so, of the 14 cards, we had 4 topps logo variations, 3 team variations, and 4 airbrushing variations. not bad.

we'll see what 2007 brought in a few days.