03 August 2011

topps serves up more dodger variations - a side by side comparison of the 2010 dodgers

yes, it's time to compare the dodgers from the flagship set(s) to their team set counterparts.  2009 was a year with many variations.  how will 2010 fare?  let's find out.  as always, it's flagship/update card on the left, team set card on the right.

first up, lad1: manny ramirez
nice of manny to make an appearance in the team set in 2010.  topps left him out of the 2009 set, i suppose because he was unsigned after the '08 season.  the only variation i detect here is the topps logo, which is slightly displaced.

lad2 is james loney
from the home whites to the away grays.

ronald belisario is lad3
topps didn't issue a belisario card in series 1, 2 or the update set.  maybe they had visa problems.

lad4 is clayton kershaw
it's the same.

as is lad5, jonathan broxton
and lad6, casey blake
lad7, matt kemp
gets a tighter crop in the team set

andre ethier is lad8
with no variation.

lad9 is ronnie belliard
belliard had to wait until the update set to get his regular topps card, which is rotated and not airbrushed like his team set card.  at least i think that's airbrushed.  belliard came aboard at the end of august, 2009 so there is a slight chance he is pictured in an actual dodger uni.

lad10 is chad billingsley
and his card gives us a different angle on his delivery.

russell martin is lad11
and his cards are cropped slightly different.  a fairly weak variation.

lad12 is the departed rafael furcal
the team set photo is a tad racy, with furky standing between musial and slaughter.

lad13 is the also departed george sherrill
mega-crop variation!

hiroki kuroda is lad14
again with the cropping!

lad15 is mark loretta
who was shut out in the topps regular sets.  because he retired.  would have preferred a jamey carroll card instead.

lad16 is hong-chih kuo
whose update card is different from the team set card.  the team set card photo comes from san francisco, which seems to be a default locale for dodgers pitcher's cards

the final card, lad17, is blake dewitt
and thankfully, his topps base card is different from the team set card.  dewitt looks like a vampire on his team set card.  no joe torre in this set, although he is there in dewitt's card, lurking blurrily in the dugout.

final count: 1 logo variation, 6 photo variations, and 4 cropping variations.  plus two cards that had no comps in the base topps sets.  not a bad haul - definitely worth a pick up for the team collector.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the info, I had no idea there were team set variations until I read your blog, I had to go pick up a few different sets for myself.

madding said...

Ethier's Topps logo is placed in the opposite corner. I love the team set variations. I did a similar post with the 2009 Cardinals, which is unfortunately my only complete team set.