still scratching that 17 year itch

it wasn't too long after i had completed the 2007 topps chrome dodger team set that i decided to go after the blue refractor parallels. the base chrome cards seemed pretty lackluster, and with the chunky borders, the blue refractors were fantastically blue! it took me a while, but i got there, and i recently finished off the regular refractor and white refractor team sets, too.

here's the base dodger team set for comparison purposes later on.

j.d drew, andre ethier, rafael furcal

jeff kent, brad penny, juan pierre

chad billingsley, jason schmidt, matt kemp

randy wolf, takashi saito, russell martin

derek lowe, greg maddux, delwyn young  

the black borders don't do the base chrome any favors, and shame on topps (and other companies at the time) for including autographs as base cards.

now here is the blue refractor team set - note that there was no delwyn young card in the blue refractor style

j.d drew, andre ethier, rafael furcal

jeff kent, brad penny, juan pierre

chad billingsley, jason schmidt, matt kemp

randy wolf, takashi saito, russell martin

derek lowe, greg maddux  

having the blue refractors but not the regular refractors gnawed on me a bit, so i got that job done.

j.d drew, andre ethier, rafael furcal

jeff kent, brad penny, juan pierre

chad billingsley, jason schmidt, matt kemp

randy wolf, takashi saito, russell martin

derek lowe, greg maddux, delwyn young                

much, much brighter, of course. the young card is numbered to 500 in refractor form.

now for the white border refractors

j.d drew, andre ethier, rafael furcal

jeff kent, brad penny, juan pierre

chad billingsley, jason schmidt, matt kemp

randy wolf, takashi saito, russell martin

derek lowe, greg maddux, delwyn young    

the "pop" on these is largely background dependent. speaking of backgrounds, there was no nomar garciaparra chrome card in 2007, but he is in the background of chad billingsley's card.

the white refractors are numbered to 660 - hard to see on the scanned card back

but the delwyn young auto is only numbered to 200

interestingly enough, i have no xfractors in my collection. maybe that's next. or, the red refractor parallels. there is always something to chase!

lion eyes

this post is a couple of months out of sync, as it is based on the fifth sign of the zodiac - leo - which governs from july 23 through august 22. i had it all laid out and i guess forgot to hit publish. keep that in mind as you read on as i had planned to show this card back in mid august:

it's a 2022 topps gypsy queen gq gems insert featuring walker buehler who was born on july 28, 1994, and is therefore a leo. represented by a lion, leo's gemstone is something called peridot, but this card shows a ruby. based on a quick internet search, leos also "respond" to rubies.

i am not a leo, but seeing that card got me thinking about what other dodgers could be represented on a card like that. here are a few:

nomar garciaparra

that's a 2007 fleer mini die-cut card of nomah, who was born on july 23, 1973.

don drysdale

shown on a 2008 donruss sports legend museum collection card, was also born on july 23, but in 1936. it's interesting to me that they scrubbed drysdale clean of logos and the dodgers' script. on other 2008 cards they didn't go to such extremes.

pee wee reese

was another dodger born on july 23 - in 1918. he's shown on a 2019 topps stadium club red foil parallel, so that would be a card that was issued over 100 years after pee wee was born.

max scherzer

was born on july 27, 1984. his card here is a 2021 panini contenders base card that includes a photo of him from his short stint with the dodgers.

chad billingsley

is two days younger than scherzer, having entered this world on july 29, 1984. his 2007 topps chrome white refractor features fellow leo garciaparra in the background. i've added quite a few chrome parallels from 2007 and 2008 in the past year. they may be two of the best years (along with 2003) for chrome parallels, in my opinion.

ryan pepiot

is also a leo on the later end of the spectrum. he was born on august 21, 1997. that card is a 2022 topps update red foil parallel, by the way. pepiot was only 10 when that card of nomar i showed earlier was released. zoinks.

and then there are randy wolf

and jeff weaver

shown on a 2009 topps walmart black parallel for wolf, and a 2009 topps update target throwback parallel for weaver. both of these guys were born on august 22, 1976, and they were dodger teammates in 2009.

of course, it's been done before as don sutton and reggie smith were dodger teammates for several seasons and they shared april 2, 1945 as their birthday. that makes them aries, which would be a separate post if topps had used a dodger to represent that sign instead of nolan arenado. it probably would have made for a more interesting post since their birthstone is the diamond which translates well to baseball. however, with the demise of gq, we probably won't get any more inserts related to the zodiac unless a&g steps in, but they already did a birthday related insert set in 2010. 

happy (belated) birthday to these (and all the other) dodger leos!

angry like the wolf

well, no surprise. there was no collective bargaining agreement reached by yesterday's deadline or today's extended deadline, so the start of the 2022 season is going to be delayed. i can't say i've been paying super close attention, but i did read some articles on mlb.com at the beginning of the lockout and they were so biased towards the league and owners that i realized there was no point in continuing to follow progress through that pipeline.

i am not sure how i feel - disappointed is probably the best description. part of that disappoint stems from the fact that the dodgers were (are?) supposed to show up in minnesota in april and now it seems possible that their trip will be canceled for the second time in three seasons.

maybe i feel a bit like randy wolf on this 2009 topps heritage chrome parallel:

that is, teetering a bit towards frustration and maybe even anger.  you will notice that the chrome treatment of the card really brings out the early stages of randy wolf's bruce banner "hulk" eyes:

rob manfred probably wouldn't like it too much when fans like me are angry, and i think disappointment will turn to anger pretty quickly.

at least card stuff continues - the wolf card here was part of a dodger dupe dump night owl laid on me. i'll have more from his mailing in another post. maybe by then there will be better baseball news!

baseball cards come to me

bo from baseball cards come to life and i swapped cards over the summer as a result of our mutual giveaways, and i wound up with quite a haul of "lurker" cards in addition to the cards that i claimed. perhaps my favorite of the bunch is this 2010 topps dexter fowler card

with none other than johnnie b. baker there in the background! if i squint, i like to think i can see his toothpick.

another dodger of my youth was spotted on this 2008 topps milton bradley card

that's davey lopes with number 15 on his sleeve. he was the phillies' first base coach back then.  there are a ton more lurker cards that i will show in this post, but first here are some dodgers that he sent my way earlier in the year:

2003 fleer tradition cesar izturis

between this card and others from night owl, i was able to complete my team set.

2005 upper deck mlb artifacts jeff kent

a sneaky dodger card of the former astro. there were quite a few cards in this set that were similar to the kent card - pictured with one team/named with another

2003 upper deck classic portraits dave roberts

who knew he would manage the dodgers to a world series title back then?

this next card i claimed in one of bo's giveaways - 1980 topps vince ferragamo

i collected football cards in 1978 and a bit in 1979, but by 1980, i had stopped buying packs and focused just on baseball. i still followed the rams that year, and my favorite ram had evolved from lawrence mccutcheon to vince ferragamo, although the poster on my wall was of cullen bryant. anyway, i no longer owned a card of ferragamo, so i asked for this one. i used to have his 1979 card, but it had the ram horns airbrushed off of the helmet so this is a better choice. i put this card in my 'meaningful and just because' mini-collection.

bo also sent me this altered 1970 topps card of the late, great dick allen

i had commented on the modification of allen's team affiliation to the dodgers, as well as him being awarded a gold star. fun.

as we expanded the exchange of cards in to a bigger trade, one of the cards i requested was this 2002 topps 206 rich thompson card

it was a need for my set build, and i was happy to see it offered. you don't see too many cards from this set in trade packages, and this was the second one i was able to add that way last year (the other being a stan musial card from kerry).

back to the lurker portion of the post - get ready for a bunch of images!

1971 topps tommie agee (joe morgan)

that's morgan running to his left. it looks like the umpire is raising his hand to call agee out, but it also looks like morgan is running to field a loose ball.

1972 topps rick wise (jim bunning)

bunning is number 14, and he was otherwise shut out of the 1972 topps set as far as a card of his own, which would have been a final tribute.

1973 topps bob locker (reggie jackson)

both locker and his a's teammate in the outfield are airbrushed into semi-cubs uniforms.

1973 topps bobby bonds (willie stargell)

no airbrushing here.

1982 topps manny trillo (mike schmidt)

looks like tony armas is there, too. i figure this photo comes from the 1981 all-star game in cleveland.

1986 donruss highlights eric davis (pete rose)

i wonder if pete was betting on davis getting a hit.

1986 topps tony perez (eric davis)

back-to-back cards featuring eric the red. i really liked this card back in 1986 as it reminded me of the 1973 topps steve garvey card that prominently featured wes parker. sort of a 'changing of the guard' card.

1987 topps terry pendleton (gary carter)

only one of the players on this card was a nl mvp, and it's not the one that you might have thought if you weren't following baseball during their active careers.

1990 score mike heath (kirby puckett)

i didn't think this was puckett at first, but it checks out.

1990 upper deck jeff montgomery (robin yount)

lead-off lurkers are fun to find.

1991 fleer tim hulett (tim raines)

i guess raines wasn't holding that day since he's sliding feet first.

1991 fleer jeffrey leonard (ken griffey jr)

i'm surprised griffey wasn't more in focus given his popularity at the time.

1991 fleer mariano duncan (barry bonds)

i think this photo is from 1989 as that was the only time i could find mariano duncan playing shortstop at pittsburgh. that would make it luis quinones there in the background.

1991 leaf ken hill (ozzie smith)

ken hill on the hill. reminds me of a johnny bench on a bench card.

1991 score alvaro espinoza (rickey henderson)

rickey is a frequent lurker thanks to his ability to get on base.

1991 topps mariano duncan (ozzie smith)

the only way this could be a redder card is if it were a 1990 donruss card.

1991 upper deck ozzie canseco (jose canseco)

462 career home runs right there. ozzie had zero of those.

1990 upper deck rick reuschel (greg maddux)

pitcher batting!

1992 donruss jose oquendo (ozzie smith)

sure, andres galarraga is there, but it's ozzie smith in the back that puts this card in the collection.

1992 donruss roger mcdowell (eddie murray)

he's obscured, but it's eddie.

1992 donruss sammy sosa (tim raines)

neither one of these guys look right as white sox.

1992 score charlie o'brien (darryl strawberry)

dodger lurkers are a bonus.

1992 topps stadium club bj surhoff (ken griffey jr)

not sure where the umpire is

1993 donruss travis fryman (robin yount)

i had one of these in my double play binder, but happy to add one to the lurker collection

1993 donruss jose oquendo (barry larkin)

larkin is a hall of famer, so i guess he is notable enough to put in my lurker collection

1993 donruss ben rivera (back) (johnny podres)

dodger world series hero posing as pitching coach

1993 pinnacle jeff king (ryne sandberg)

this card actually goes in my double play binder - i would need a second one for the lurker collection.

1993 score select roberto alomar (george brett)

love having brett cards in the collection.

1993 score select rafael belliard (craig biggio)

biggio trying to break up the double play with a hand chop to the groin

1993 upper deck wally joyner (rickey henderson)

not sure rickey is going to get back in time

1993 upper deck tom candiotti (mike scioscia)

i felt kind of badly for candiotti after the 1992 season, his first with the dodgers. he had been with the blue jays the prior season, and signed with the dodgers just to see them have their worst season ever while toronto won the world series.

1993 upper deck mike bordick (dave winfield)

speaking of world champion blue jays, there's one now.

1994 leaf alan trammell (kirby puckett)

one of my favorite double play cards of all-time, now it's in my lurker collection, too.

1994 score jeff treadway (robin yount)

i might have more cards of a lurking yount in my collection than actual yount cards.

1994 topps bret barberie (jeff bagwell)

another double play card now with representation in my lurker collection

1994 topps bip roberts (eddie murray)

ditto

1994 topps jeff schwarz (frank thomas)

may the schwarz be with you.

1994 upper deck darren lewis (barry bonds)

center fielder has the right-of-way

1994 upper deck bob tewksbury (ozzie smith)

two lurking smiths on one card thanks to the phantom zone inset.

1994 upper deck mickey morandini (tony gwynn)

i like seeing cards featuring jack murphy stadium. the orange fence top is a giveaway from this era.

1994 upper deck collector's choice danny bautista (barry larkin)

i opened a ton of collector's choice in 1994.

1995 topps phil plantier (tony gwynn)

how fun would it have been to have tony gwynn as a teammate?

1995 upper deck collector's choice se jack mcdowell (frank thomas)

i bought a bunch of 1995 collector's choice, including a significant amount of "special edition" packs. sucker.

1996 donruss pedro nunoz (kriby puckett)

the question i asked above about tony gwynn also pertains to kirby.

1996 pinnacle curtis goodwin (cal ripken jr)

no offense to brady anderson (and, i assume, rafael palmeiro) but it's ripken that puts this card in the collection. i used to have a pc of anderson, by the way.

1996 topps stadium club dean palmer (ivan rodriguez)

i was not a fan of the rangers' red color scheme.

1997 pinnacle zenith tino martinez (ivan rodriguez)

i was a big fan of this set, however.  there's even a raul mondesi lurker card in it, of which i still need a duplicate for this collection.

1997 topps jose valentin (cal ripken jr)

another double play duplicate that gets added to the lurker collection

1997 topps steve finley (rickey henderson)

more rickey!

1997 topps stadium club john mabry (ryne sandberg)

the card also features awkward catching and awkward running poses

1997 upper deck collector's choice dennis martinez (orel hershiser)

forget black jack and the other guy (charles nagy?) - it's orel that makes this card collectible.

1998 pinnacle geronimo berroa (cal ripken jr)

cal has the least to do with this image, but he still is the best part about the card

1999 fleer ultra jt snow (orel hershiser)

another giants card sneaks in to my collection

1999 topps ricky ledee (mariano rivera)

as ledee loses at rock-paper-scissors

2000 fleer ultra warren morris (frank thomas)

here's another double play turn that was new to me!

2002 fleer maximum paul loduca (mike piazza)

i had maximum dislike of loduca when he was a dodger, largely because he wasn't mike piazza

2002 fleer ultra tino martinez (mike piazza)

i have a dupe of this card in my "name/number on back mini collection"

2005 topps milton bradley (shawn green)

also in my tatooine mini-collection

2007 topps chad billingsley (nomar garciaparra)

all signs point to that being nomar in the background except his head for some reason

2007 upper deck eric chavez (frank thomas)

i think i see tim hudson, too

2007 upper deck jason giambi (derek jeter)

yeah jeets!

2010 topps matt holliday (russell martin)

featuring a photo likely from the 2009 nlds. the dodgers swept the cardinals in that series. their winning pitchers were jeff weaver, george sherrill, and vicente padilla.

2010 topps randy wolf (russell martin)

good friends.

2010 topps opening day dustin pedroia (david ortiz)

based on ortiz' line of sight, it looks like pedroia hit a gapper.

2011 topps chris carpenter (albert pujols)

not to be confused with cris carpenter or luis pujols

2012 topps eduardo nunez (derek jeter)

looks like jeter is already headed to the dugout.

2013 topps peter bourjos (albert pujols)

i think that is brayan pena catching. good to see torii hunter in the background, too.

2013 topps mini welington castillo (david ortiz)

there's a red sox fan celebrating during a regular season game at wrigley in the background. interleague play has brought us strange happenings.

2013 topps mini michael morse (bryce harper)

or, someone wearing harper's #34 jersey

2013 topps mini brian roberts (bryce harper)

there he is. i am sure topps tried to get him on as many 2013 cards as possible.

2016 topps carlos perez (mike trout)

trout shows up on a few cards in my lurker collection. i am guessing there will be more.

2018 topps yasmani grandal (justin turner)

number 9 and number 10 together on a card.

whew. that was a lot of cardboard! thanks bo!