even andruw jones looks better in dodger stadium

i hadn't noticed this until a few months ago, but in 2008, upper deck took andruw jones out of spring training and put him in chavez ravine.  they even moved the third base bag.  take a look at his 2008 upper deck first edition card side by side with his 2008 upper deck masterpieces card

pretty soon it will be revealed that all games are actually played in front of the giant green screen at universal studios hollywood.

the masterpieces background includes the low railing that wraps (or used to wrap) into fair territory until it hit the bullpens.  it is also visible on chris speier's 1988 topps card

denny martinez's 1991 topps card

and jeff treadway's 1992 topps card

i am 99% sure that this 1998 steve kline card from fleer ultra also features dodger stadium in the background

thanks to the roof and light stanchion, plus the blue in the dugout.

curt schilling's card from the same set is definitely sporting a dodger stadium shot

it could well be from opening day 1997 when schilling shut the dodgers down.  that was the last opening day i attended prior to my move to the midwest.

the phillies also had some players captured in dodger stadium in the 2011 bowman set, like roy oswalt

jimmy rollins

with a lurking rod barajas, and jayson werth

who was airbrushed into a nationals uniform.  pretty sure these photos came from the september 1, 2010 game (a 12:10 local start) in which oswalt started, rollins scored 3 times (including on a home run off of clayton kershaw), and werth hit a dribbler down the first base line.  barajas, who had recently joined the dodgers, caught the whole game.

no airbrushing was needed for the 1999 fleer ultra set.   that set had some gorgeous photography and features some great dodger stadium scenes.  here's charles johnson on his way from the dugout to the plate

and gary sheffield standing in almost the same spot, with the 'three ladies' palm trees behind the bullpen mostly visible

it's hard not to look good when you have that for a background.

what did dejesus do?

he went and got himself traded to the pirates, apparently.  he also looks to be working on his double play relay on his 2011 topps card.

that's good enough for me to classify it as a double play card, even though it lacks some of the action that makes those types of cards fun to look at.  consider this a palette cleanser of all the dp cards you've seen over the past few days.  besides, this gives me a chance to clear out a bunch of 2011 cards from my scanned folder.  like the wal-mart black parallel version of dejesus's card

dejesus was 0 for 8 as a member of the red sox, with 6 strikeouts.  jerry sands (also traded to the pirates) did not appear in a game for the bosox (he was one of the ptbnl), and james loney (now with the rays) hit .230 with an ops of .574 in boston.

here's rod barajas's wal-mart black parallel

which means that clayton kershaw is blacked out from view.  barajas spent 2012 with the pirates.  pittsburgh is where former dodgers seem to go these days, although andy laroche isn't there anymore, nor is joel hanrahan.

continuing with the wal-mart black cards, here are hiroki kuroda

and kenley jansen

on jansen's regular card, we can see that he is, in fact, pitching in dodger stadium.

good lord! i think we have a davey lopes sighting!  lopes was the first base coach for the phillies in 2010, and if i squint i can convince myself that it's him.  billy hatcher, i believe, was the reds first base coach, and i suppose it might be the angels' first base coach since they play at dodger stadium every year, but i will go with lopes until proven otherwise.

i know that this next card features matt kemp and andre ethier

that's one of my favorite cards from the 2011 set, partially because i made a similar card as part of the 2010 goose joak set.

here is marcus thames' only card featuring him as a dodger

i had high hopes for marcus markley thames coming off the bench in 2011, but he was released in july with a batting average below .200.  he did hit a couple of pinch-hit home runs as a dodger, though.

here's dejesus again as we move on to 2011 topps chrome

and here's andre ethier

ethier's name keeps popping up in trade rumors.  as does dee gordon's

i am guessing nobody is checking in on the availability of chad billingsley

at least until he shows that he is healthy.  nice refractor, by the way.

now on to 2011 topps update, which seemed to be overrun with cards of ethier and matt kemp, like this diamond duos card

and all-star cards

with wal-mart blue parallels

plus a checklist

and a cognac parallel of the flagship card

plus, kemp had two all-star game cards

thanks to the home run derby

which also came in cognac versions

and a diamond sparkle version

here are a couple more 2011 matt kemp cards - these are obviously from allen & ginter

i had always heard that kemp was from oklahoma city until i saw this card

midwest city is a suburb of ok city - so i guess it's ok.  ha.

i'll end this post with cards of a brooklyn native who wound up pitching for the brooklyn dodgers - sandy koufax.  here are his 2011 topps 'topps 60' insert

and his 'topps 60' insert from 2011 topps update

or is it the other way around?

back to all double plays with the next post.

now that's something

i sent some 'anything' to thorzul for this 'something' - a 2011 topps update rod barajas cognac parallel

fortunately for me, thorzul also included more something - this clayton kershaw cognac parallel

i had asked for it, but was beaten to the punch by night owl.  i guess thorzul forgot and sent it to me instead.  he and night owl have worked it out, so i don't feel bad, except that i should probably send some more 'anything' to thorzul.  i'm not sure what i'll send, but i am sure i'll think of 'something'.

topps serves up some variations again - a side by side comparison of the 2011 topps dodgers

now that 2011 topps update is out, i can finally put this post to bed.  here's a comparison of the dodger cards made by topps and included in the blister team set and their flagship series 1, 2 and update counterparts.  the topps dodger set cards are on the right.

andre ethier

topps isn't messing around.  the topps logo is in the same spot, unlike some cards from previous years.  these card fronts are exactly the same.

chad billingsley

ditto.

clayton kershaw

ditto again

this is getting boring.  here's rafael furcal

very very nice card, but still the same. 

matt kemp

ditto ditto.

hiroki kuroda

finally!  topps eschewed the photo of kuroda with his eyes closed and went for one with his cheeks full of  mashed potatoes.  po-ta-toes!

ted lilly

back to the same ol' grind

rod barajas

even seeing a lurking clayton kershaw twice isn't enough to make me happy for a lack of variation, especially with the dearth of rod barajas dodger cards

vicente padilla

just one variation so far.  so sad.

jay gibbons

hey hey!  mr. mitchell report got a card in the team set, but was off the roster by the time series 2 rolled around.  good that his short time as a dodger was documented, though.

here's double dipper jon garland

same deal as gibbons, except garland got a heritage card. i would guess that garland would have been in series 2 had he not been injured.

james loney

so much for variations.

hong-chih kuo

hong-chih status quo

casey blake

another nice card.  twice as nice?  not really.

juan uribe

uribe's flagship card is from the update set.  i would guess that we will see a few cards next year with the baby blues.  i like the variations going on here - a different position and the fact that topps guessed (wrongly) at the number uribe would wear when they airbrushed his team set card.  he wore 9 for the short time he was actually on the field.

jonathan broxton

two variations in a row!  i think the team set broxton is similar (if not the same) to his chrome card.  i don't have any 2011 topps chrome so i don't know for sure.

finally, we have dodger stadium

there is no equivalent in series 1, 2 or update.  i really like this card.  i'll write more about it in a future post.  so there you have it.  17 cards, 3 photo variations and 3 checklist variations.  topps can do better.