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...

when your postman brings a package from jaybarkerfan's junk

yes, the joy that sandy koufax is displaying on his 2013 topps update postseason heroes card is pretty much how i want to react if i were to be home when the postman drops off a package from wes at jaybarkerfan's junk.  as it is, i am left to feel the excitement when i open the mailbox after a day at work and there is nobody around to exclaim my happiness to.

the result is a trade post that doesn't really do the cards, or thoughtfulness of wes, justice.  here are some of the other goodies i received.

2013 topps heritage then and now koufax and clayton kershaw

koufax led the league in era for five straight seasons, while kershaw has a streak of four era titles in a row.  other than that, he's matched sandy in cy youngs (3 in four years) and mvp awards.  now he just needs those four world series titles...

another kershaw - 2012 topps chrome orange parallel

and a 2009 upper deck spectrum card of another all-time pitching great who once (twice) toiled for the dodgers, greg maddux

maddux won 4 cy young awards, by the way.

here's a 1982 donruss bob welch card

welch was the dodgers' number 1 pick in 1977, and he has the highest career war of any of the dodgers' first round picks in history.  his 44.2 war is higher than rick rhoden (35.9), rick sutcliffe (34.3), paul konerko (28.1), and mike scioscia (26.0), who are third through sixth on the list.  in 2015, welch will be passed by kershaw, whose war through 2014 is 41.1.

how cool are pitcher's bat cards?  pretty cool.  this is a 2005 donruss champions tommy john bat relic card

that wes included in the package.

it wasn't all pitchers, though.  here's a 2013 topps heritage matt kemp new age performers insert

he'll be doing his new age performing for the padres, unfortunately.

i had not seen a 2006 upper deck special f/x card in person before receiving this jayson werth card from wes

what is most shocking about the card is that you can see jayson's cheeks, which haven't seen the light of day since he left the dodgers for the east coast.

last but not least is this 1994 topps archives 1954 card that should have been prospects card of roberto clemente

there's a nearly identical card in the 1995 topps brooklyn dodger archives set, so you have to look closely at the back to figure out which set these cards come from.  how cool would it have been for jackie robinson and roberto clemente (who was taken by the pirates in the 1954 rule v draft) to have been teammates?  at least as cool as this trade package, but not much more.  and, as cool as this trade package was, i received another one with a fantastic piece from wes not more than a week or so later.  i'll get a trade post for that one up in the near future.

thanks wes!

dodger cards are patriotic

i bought a hanger pack of 2014 panini prizm last week primarily because i was intrigued by the 'red, white, and blue pulsar prizm refractor pack!' promised inside.  they look like bomb pops or rocket pops and are perfect for the fourth of july.  here are the three i received - former dodger kiroki kuroda

jorge de la rosa

and taijuan walker

also appropriate for the fourth of july is this 2014 topps wil myers future stars variation i found in a series 2 value box

while the futures game usa uniform is not red, white, and blue, myers is wearing the stars and stripes.  a better team usa jersey can be found on this 2013 topps joe mauer wbc card

and then there are these 2005 donruss champions cards of dodgers - al oliver

darryl strawberry

and jayson werth

- that could not be any more red, white, and blue.

the truth is, however, that when it comes to the home dodger uniform, there is nothing but red, white, and blue.  here are a couple of cards to illustrate that fact - a 2004 upper deck kazuhisa ishii at home in dodger stadium

and a 1995 upper deck collector's choice orel hershiser gold signature parallel

tailor made for the fourth of july.  happy birthday, america!

what if that psychic guy the mccourt's hired had actually healed jayson werth's wrist?

i've had this 2005 fleer tradition marcus giles card scanned for quite some time.

giles is flying high over then-dodger jayson werth.  you can even see jayson's chin!  here's a 2006 fleer card of werth's just for good measure

werth was a bright spot for the dodgers in the 2004 nlds as he hit a couple of homers in the series.  then, in march of 2005, he was hit by a pitch on the wrist.  he struggled through the season, but the injury didn't heal properly, and werth wound up missing the entire 2006 campaign.  this despite the efforts of the mccourts and their russian psychic healer!  no, it took the mayo clinic to get it right, but the 2006 season was lost. once the season was over, werth left the dodgers as a free agent and found new life in philadelphia.

i have since wondered what might have happened had he not been hurt, and instead had productive 2005 and 2006 seasons - would the dodgers have still acquired kenny lofton to play center in 2006?  would grady little have been as enamored with werth as jim tracy seemed to have been?  assuming that jd drew still opted out of his contract, and milton bradley was still traded for andre ethier, would ned colletti have still signed both luis gonzalez and juan pierre for the 2007 season?  or would he have given the third outfield spot to matt kemp sooner?  and does that mean that we would have avoided the awful signing of andruw jones for the 2008 season?  for me, however, that is the biggest what if here.

had werth been healthy and productive, and assuming that ethier and kemp performed as they did in 2008, ned probably doesn't see the need to sign jones.  and if jones doesn't massively underperform, does ned still trade for manny ramirez?  the mind boggles.

the evolution of the left fielder, part 3

continuing the evolution of the dodgers' primary left fielders (here are parts 1 and 2), billy ashley filled the role (just barely) in 1995

billy ashley (1995)

the 'can't miss' prospect missed, unfortunately.  ashley played in 81 games (69 in left) during the second straight strike-shortened season.  he hit just .237 with 8 home runs and an ops of .692.  he was the dodgers' version of rob deer, going for one of the three true outcomes 121 times in 244 plate appearances.  in fact, in all three of ashley's postseason appearances (including two pa's in 1995), he either struck out or walked.

todd hollandsworth (1996-1997)

holly won the rookie of the year award in 1996, patrolling center field for the dodgers and playing in 149 games.  he hit .291 with 12 home runs, 21 stolen bases and 59 rbi.  as the 1997 upper deck card above state, he did in fact drive in three runs against the giants on 7/21/96. he had also driven in three runs on opening day.  in 1997, hollandsworth played in only 106 games (80 in left, but only 39 starts there) and his numbers dropped across the board.  the dodgers also used billy ashley and eric anthony in left, and even picked up darren lewis at the trade deadline.  still, left field was hollandsworth's to lose, and he lost it in 1998 due to injury. 

matt luke (1998)

luke took over for hollandsworth in left after holly's season ended in early june thanks to a shoulder injury.  the most interesting thing about luke's 1998 season with the dodgers is that, in addition to being their primary left fielder, he was an in-season double dipper (post coming soon)!  he had played in 33 games and was hitting .286 when the dodgers waived him in early june.  the indians claimed him, and he appeared in 2 games for the tribe.  11 days after losing luke, and just after losing hollandsworth for the season, the dodgers purchased luke's contract from cleveland and he finished out the season patrolling left field for the blue.  he wound up hitting .236 with 12 home runs and 34 rbi on the season, which included a 4-at bat span in which he hit 3 home runs over two days in saint louis.

gary sheffield (1999-2001)

sheffield moved from right, where he played after the dodgers acquired him in the 1998 mike piazza trade, to left in 1999 as raul mondesi returned to right field after a year in center.  it's too bad sheffield was such a, how do you say, jerk (?) during his career because he was as good of a hitter as the dodgers have ever had.  his three full seasons in la included no less than 98 runs, 34 home runs, 100 rbi, 98 walks and a .301 average.  his 43 home runs in 2000 were not only a career high, but were also the most ever by a los angeles dodger, and tied the franchise mark set by duke snider in 1956 (since eclipsed by shawn green and adrian beltre).  he made the all-star team in 1999 and 2000, and finished 9th in the league's mvp voting in 2000.  sheffield holds the la dodger single season records for obp, slugging and ops, along with atbat/hr.  he is also the dodgers' all-time franchise leader in each of those categories.  still, he complained and moaned badly enough that the dodgers wanted nothing more to do with him, and they traded him to the braves prior to the 2002 season.

brian jordan (2002)

jordan was one of the guys the dodgers got in the sheffield deal.  he played in 128 games for the dodgers in 2002 and hit .285 with 18 home runs with 80 rbi.  he was hitting .299 in june of 2003 when his season ended with a knee injury.

jeromy burnitz (2003)

a couple of weeks after jordan went down, the dodgers went out and acquired burnitz from the mets.  in dodger blue, burnitz hit .204 with 13 home runs and 32 rbi.  the dodgers didn't re-sign him after the season, and he instead went to colorado and had a monster season.

jayson werth (2004)

werth had been picked up in a pre-season trade with the blue jays.  he was the nl west champion dodgers' primary left fielder, atlhough juan encarnacion, dave roberts, and fellow jim tracy 'league of ja(y)son' member jason grabowski also saw a good amount of time in left.  89 games, werth hit 16 home runs and had a .267 average.  in the nlds against the cardinals, he was pretty much the only bright spot for the dodgers offensively, hitting two home runs and a double in their four game loss.  unfortunately, his number slipped in 2005 and for the fifth time in five years, a different dodger spent the majority of the time in left (just barely).

rickey ledee (2005)

ledee spent just a few more innings in left for the dodgers in 2005 than did werth (390.1 to 345.1).  ledee's offensive numbers weren't too much to get excited about either, as he hit only 7 home runs to go with his .278 average.

up next, andre ethier, manny ramirez, and...

...jerry sands?  here's hopin'.

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.