how to assemble an atomic team set

i finally bit the bullet and bought the last few cards i needed to complete the 2011 topps chrome atomic refractor dodger team set.  i really like these kaleidoscope looking things.

clayton kershaw

of the 10 dodgers in the set, mr. cy young/mvp is one of only two players still with the dodgers.

chad billingsley

bills is pitching for the phils now. he's on the dl, but has made a couple of rehab starts in the minors as he works his way back from tommy john surgery.

dee gordon

dee is playing second base for the marlins following an offseason trade. he's hitting .348 with 7 steals so far in 2015.

jerry sands

sands was traded (as one of the players to be named later) to the red sox in the big adrian gonzalez/josh beckett/carl crawford deal, but was flipped to the pirates for joel hanrahan a short time later.  he finally resurfaced in the majors with the rays in 2014, and is currently hitting .381 for the indians in 7 games this year.

those were the last four cards i needed to complete my team set, but here are the other cards just to be thorough about it.

jonathan broxton

broxton is pitching out of the brewer bullpen these days. the good news is that his k/9 ratio is up (10 strikeouts in 6.2 innings so far in 2015), but so his is era (6.75).

ivan dejesus

dejesus was included with sands in the trade with boston in 2012, as well as the trade with the pirates that followed. unlike sands, dejesus played for boston in 2012 - he was 0 for 8.  that was the last big league action he's seen, but he's currently playing in the reds organization and hitting .364 at triple-a louisville.

andre ethier

currently the dodgers' fourth outfielder, ethier has appeared in 14 games and is hitting .276 in 2015.

rafael furcal

furky has been hobbled by injuries the last couple of years, playing in just a few games for the marlins last year after missing all of 2013.  he's currently with the royals, although still injured.

matt kemp

kemp seems to be enjoying himself in san diego, and he's healthy to boot. he's played in all 17 games this season, and is hitting .333 with a couple of triples, 14 rbi, and two steals.

james loney

loney was another one included in that 2012 trade with the bosox, but he is the rays' first baseman now.  he has only appeared in one game this season, however, as he suffered an oblique strain in the season opener.

good ol' chrome.  i think i will shift my attention to the 2007 topps chrome blue refractor dodger team set next.

8 jd drew

23 andre ethier

48 rafael furcal

54 jeff kent

106 brad penny

125 juan pierre

128 chad billingsley

149 jason schmidt

159 matt kemp

173 randy wolf

176 takashi saito

193 russell martin

229 derek lowe

275 greg maddux

please help me out if you can!

hand me downs that fit my collection perfectly

i used to receive hand me down clothes from my cousins in the late 1970's.  that was a dangerous time for hand me downs due to the many strange fashions of the time. these days, my hand me downs come in the way of cards, and night owl's unwanted cards are among the ones i appreciate the most.

thanks to the large number of folks who send cards to night owl, he accumulates lots of cool dodger doubles, and so i wind up with some nice hand me downs. should i say hand me downs again, or just show some cards?  right.

2011 topps roy campanella cognac parallel

the mustache was not a good look for campy.  my favorite thing about these retired player short print cards in 2011 was the dirty/aged baseball topps used behind the logo.  it was a nice touch.

2011 topps jonathan broxton diamond anniversary parallel

i must have missed the trade last year that sent broxton from cincinnati to milwaukee.  it's good to see his k/9 ratio is back up with the brew crew, but so is his era, unfortunately.

2008 topps chrome andruw jones xfractor

even andruw jones dodger cards are welcome.  i'm not entirely sure night owl had a double of this one - he may just have wanted andruw out of his house.

2011 bowman platinum prospects allen webster xfractor

webster was part of the big 2012 trade between the dodgers and the red sox. he started 18 games for boston over the 2013 and 2014 seasons, and is now in the diamondbacks organization.

it's not all parallels and shiny stuff that comes from night owl - there are other cool cards like this 1989 jj nissen superstars orel hershiser oddball

jj nissen is a bread company, by the way.

i even accept junk (or is this just trash) cards like this 1995 fleer ramon martinez card

it's still a dodger card, and it might just be one that i need.

here's a 1998 fleer metal universe card of catcher henry blanco

actually, blanco never caught for the dodgers.  he made his big league debut with the dodgers in 1997 and hit a single in his first at bat and a home run in his third, and played third base and first - not catcher.  he spent 1998 in the minors and then began a ten-team journey through the major leagues that lasted through the 2013 season.

here's another backstop who actually did catch for the dodgers - todd hundley on a 1999 upper deck victory card

hundley had two stints with the dodgers, the second of which was pretty bad.

2003 donruss diamond kings odalis perez silver foil parallel

perez was actually worthy of being a diamond king following the 2002 season. he posted the best numbers of his career, winning 15 games with an era of 3.00 and a whip of 0.99.  he also gave us a ball during a game in anaheim in 2006.

2002 topps roy campanella 1952 reprints

and so the post comes full circle, although this is a clean shaven campy.

i've got more night owl hand me downs to show some other time, and i'm pulling together some of my own to send back his way.  thanks greg!

one does not simply post random cards on friday

unless one lacks inspiration for a proper post, and there are still a bunch of cards sitting idly in the scanned folder.

such is life.

2002 topps tribute zach wheat

wheat actually had 476 career doubles, which was still about 300 shy of the all-time leader (tris speaker) when he retired.  speaker is still on top of the list, with wheat way down at 81st all-time (and about to be passed by torii hunter) now.

2004 topps heritage don newcombe flashback

newk won exactly 20 games in 1955 (as he had in 1951), but was 27-7 in 1956 to win the cy young and mvp awards.  he lost game 1 of the '55 world series, so i guess that's why the flashback card references the 1955 regular season.  always good to see don newcombe cards in newer releases!

1985 donruss ken landreaux

i liked '85 donruss at the time. definitely more than i liked '85 fleer (and i am a fan of the 1970 topps gray border set).  landreaux here is swinging away in dodger stadium, while delino deshields is in vero beach on his 1996 upper deck card

1996 upper deck got a little too fancy for me.  there are some nice cards in the set, but all the gold foil didn't do much for me so i bought very little of this back then.

2002 topps chrome davey lopes refractor

that's a shiny card of the former dodger second baseman who was fired by the brew crew 15 games into the 2002 season.

2002 topps chrome traded brian jordan

i don't know if the chrome traded veteran cards are short printed, but i was pretty ticked that topps did that with the regular traded set that year.

2010 upper deck jonathan broxton biography insert

broxton was indeed 6-0 after june 5, 2009 with 13 saves to his credit to boot.  after the game on august 18, 2009, broxton was 7-0 with 26 saves.  he took the loss the next day.

2010 topps cards your mom threw out 1953 topps johnny podres

this is the 'original back' version

at some point between 1953 and 1978, people stopped using the phrase "pulls a rock". i had not heard that until reading the back of this card.

2005 topps carl erskine 'dem bums' insert

oisk is trying to run away from this post as fast as he can. i don't blame him.

let's get atomic in here. seriously. find me some 2011 topps chrome atomic refractors and be rewarded for it.

i feel like the girl with kaleidoscope eyes, without all the 'lucy in the sky with diamonds' nonsense. that's because i'm looking at some 2011 topps chrome atomic refractors.  i've got a few in my collection now, after posting my matt kemp card and asking for more 364 days ago.

now, i also have jonathan broxton

andre ethier

james loney

and rafael furcal

who is still turning two as an outfielder.

in addition to the kemp card, i also had ivan dejesus

when 2014 started, but i figured i would show him and kemp

again.

i also picked up a 2011 topps chrome chad billingsley xfractor recently

which is close, but not quite atomic.

so, i'm down to four that i need to complete my team set:

107 clayton kershaw
167 chad billingsley
211 jerry sands
212 dee gordon

kershaw and billingsley sit on the nefarious 9 list, but each of these cards are high priority targets for me.  if you can find one, you will be rewarded - i've got some 1950's vintage sitting around with nothing to do...

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.