hey, remember when the dodgers were in the postseason?

i do.  barely.  but, thanks to these 2008 upper deck documentary cards (that were issued in 2009) we can relive the glory of the 2008 nlcs.  sort of.

i know that the disconnect between the photos and the games on these cards has been well documented by me and others, i can't help myself.  here we go.

game 1 - dodgers at phillies

there's andre ethier.  he's got the road grays on, which is good, but i don't know if that is citizens bank park.  there's not enough red.  it used to be that brick in a photo like this meant wrigley, but now there are a few stadiums that could fit the bill.  i would guess pac-bell/at&t due to the smattering of orange.

the caption references a 'clutch slugger' and a 'career lcs rbi total'.  ethier had not appeared in a lcs prior to 2008, but i suppose that he added to his career lcs rbi total if he drove in the first run of the game and then later drove in the dodgers' second and last run as well.  unfortunately, andre ethier didn't drive in a run during the entire series.  he didn't add to his career total until 2009.  the caption refers, of course, to manny ramirez who drove in a run in the first inning with a double off of cole hamels.  ethier scored the run, at least.
manny makes an appearance on the card for game 2, again dodgers at phillies

again the road grays are a good start.  plus, there are some fans wearing red, so maybe this is a photo from philadelphia.  the caption is vague enough so that manny could be an appropriate subject, too.  things are looking up. lo and behold, it was manny who hit the 'three-run longball' in the dodgers' loss.  this card is about as accurate as upper deck could manage to get, assuming that the photo is from the nlcs, although i doubt that it is.  manny's still got the dodgers' 50th anniversary patch on his right sleeve, and i don't recall whether the team continued to wear that patch during the postseason, or if they switched to an nlcs patch.
at any rate, as the card for game 3 (phillies at dodgers) reaffirms, getting the photo right wasn't a priority for upper deck

nomah!  not in the home whites, though - that's strike one.  strike 2 comes when we realize that while the dodgers' offense was indeed 'on fire' to start the game, nomar's contribution to their 5-run first inning was a strikeout.  he did drive in a run with a single later in the game, however.   blake dewitt, whose 3-run triple was the highlight of the first inning assault would have been a better subject.  strike 3 comes for upper deck just because of their aversion to put a player like blake dewitt on one of these cards.
game 4 (phillies at dodgers) features rafael furcal

home whites! dodger stadium! caption regarding the bullpen with a photo of the shortstop? the caption is correct, as the combination of clayton kershaw, chan ho park, joe beimel, hong-chih kuo, cory wade and jonathan broxton in relief of derek lowe couldn't hold on to the dodgers' 3-2 and then 5-3 leads.  in fact, beimel was the only one who didn't allow a base runner or allow a run to score (kershaw was charged with a run when chan ho park's wild pitch allowed ryan howard -whom kershaw had walked - to score).  this was the matt stairs game, so i'll take furcal (who was 1 for 2 with 2 runs and 2 walks in the game) over seeing broxton serve it up, even though he would have been a better choice for this card.
game 5 (phillies at dodgers)

same deal as game 3 as far as the photo goes.  this time it's matt kemp in the away grays instead of the home whites.  as for the caption, the dodgers offense was pretty quiet, managing just 1 run and 7 hits against the phillies in game 5.  the lone run came on a home run by manny ramirez, but kemp was not the poster boy for the anemic offense as he was 2 for 3.  furcal and ethier were both 0 for 4 and would have made more sense. 

nice try upper deck.