dodgers blue

so, the dodgers' season is over - prematurely by many people's thinking, including my own.  and while i don't live and die by the team, i am disappointed.  blue?  not really.  although these cards are.

2008 topps triple threads duke snider sapphire parallel numbered to 25

i bought this card a couple of weeks ago.  the same seller had a steve garvey card from the same set/same parallel run going at the same time.  i got the snider for $1.99 plus shipping (i was the only bidder) while the garvey card went for over $30 (i didn't win that one).  go figure.

2012 panini cooperstown don sutton blue crystal ice or cracked ice or some such nonsense, numbered to 499

the dodgers haven't been to the world series since don sutton was on their opening day roster.  yikes.

2013 topps josh beckett silver slate blue parallel

beckett just retired, by the way.

2013 topps zack greinke silver slate blue parallel

i would have loved to have seen greinke pitch in game 5 at home.

2013 topps kenley jansen silver slate blue parallel

i would have liked for jansen to pitch in some of those more critical situations, like the 7th inning of game 1.  if he's your closer/best reliever, use him when the need is the greatest.  screw conventional wisdom.

2013 topps clayton kershaw league leader silver slate blue parallel

i don't blame kershaw.  i don't blame anyone.  i don't think i've felt that way about anything baseball related since 1985, although jim tracy did befuddle me in 2005.  there's no point.  good gosh, i've gone existential in my baseball fandom!

2013 topps chrome adrian gonzalez blue refractor

gonzalez led the league in rbi during the regular season, but had just one hit with runners in scoring position in the nlds.  of course, he may only have hit a couple of times in that situation during the series, so i don't know that he is to blame.

2014 bowman clayton kershaw blue parallel

and 2014 topps clayton kershaw league leader walmart blue parallel

it will be interesting to see how fernandez and harvey bounce back next year.  it will be interesting to see how kershaw bounces back for that matter.

2014 topps hanley ramirez walmart blue parallel

hanley had a tough year with a lot of little injuries, but he hit when he was in the lineup.  will he get a big contract? from whom?  would the dodgers re-sign him to play third?  did it make sense for mattingly to remove him from game 1 for a defensive replacement? what if he caught jhonny peralta's line drive in the 7th inning of game 4 that instead went off of his glove?  so many questions.  hanley played well; clearly he is not to blame.

2014 topps yasiel puig the future is now insert

not a blue parallel like these other cards, but there is enough of a blue tint that i included it here.  puig is an enigma.  i was surprised but not surprised that he was benched for game 4.  he looked lost at the plate for much of the series, but you know that he could explode at any time, and for a team desperate for some offense that means a lot.  i don't blame puig.

for me, the dodgers' performance in the 2014 nlds comes down to what they did or didn't do as a team during the series.  yes, the team is comprised of individuals managed by an individual and brought together by another individual.  and, yes, there may be some room for improvement with any of those individuals.  but whatever happens this offseason, i'll still root for the laundry next season - even if (and actually especially if) the same people are wearing it.

what concerns me more is the fact that no dodger team has won their division (or the national league pennant before division play) three years in a row.  history would tell us that the best shot the dodgers have is a wild card berth which means a one game playoff which means kershaw.  doesn't it?