where's nomar?

i don’t mean literally – i know he is on the bench (so far) for the dodgers’ post season schedule. i mean, where are his topps cards? when the dodgers acquired nomar, i was stoked. probably more excited than i was the night i heard the dodgers had acquired kirk gibson. back then i still had the taste of dave goltz and don stanhouse, and was a bit leery of dodger free agent signings.

but nomar was my favorite non-dodger player. i couldn’t wait to see him in the uniform, and on the cards. 2006 topps was out, and he was shown as a cub. that’s ok – there’s always the update set. sure enough, there he was, on an all-star card swinging away at dodger stadium. 

topps opening day also showed him as a dodger,

as did topps chrome – both sets using his regular issue card photo, with the uniform airbrushed into the dodger home whites. he also appeared in allen & ginter, co-signers, heritage, pretty much every issue topps made. after his fantastic start to the 2006 season, and some huge hits to take the dodgers to the post season, i was excited to see if topps would a picture from his walk-off homer in the 4 home run +1 game. would it be at the plate?

scoring the run?

being hoisted on his teammates shoulders?

after all the injuries and doubts, nomar was back!

then, in 2007, something strange happened. no more nomar. no mention of him anywhere. upper deck had him, but the only topps I could find was a topps finest “rookie finest moment” card showing him with the red sox.

2008 offered more of the same. no topps nomar. i even bought the special edition dodgers 55 card team set issue, which promised cards of the entire 25 man roster. sure enough, there’s joe beimel and everyone else, but no nomar. even the coaches have cards in that set.

now, I assume that, for whatever reason, nomar chose not to sign with topps. just like alex rodriguez during his first few years, or barry bonds did for a couple years. but why? i don’t get it. all i know is that for people like me who collect the topps dodger team sets, there has been a very big hole the last couple of years. here's hoping nomar is back with topps next year.