i need a new favorite dodger

it turns out that yesterday was quite a day for the dodgers in terms of player personnel.  gone are dee gordon and dan haren (i already had a post queued up for later today before this other deal was made official) and in are jimmy rollins, howie kendrick, and some relatively unknown marlins.  well, add matt kemp to the list of former dodgers as he was dealt to the padres for yasmani grandal and a couple of other players.

here's kemp's 2006 upper deck rookie card

kemp was my favorite dodger, supplanting nomar.  he was more than that, however, as i referred to him as my baseball salvation - the guy i thought would be anchoring the team for 10 or 15 years.  i traveled to colorado to see kemp play not too long after he was called up. he was hitting around .350 at the time, and he didn't disappoint me, hitting his first career double and driving in a couple of runs.  he hit two home runs in the series finale, and i was hooked.

there probably won't be any 2015 cards of kemp wearing dodger blue, unless he's in the topps flagship series 1 release i guess.  here are some cards from the past, then, to keep my spirits up.

2008 topps chrome refractor

2010 topps triple threads emerald parallel

2010 upper deck jersey relic

2012 bowman's best

2012 topps museum collection

which reminds me that i need to do an official duke snider memorial patch post

2012 topps triple threads

2013 topps mini

and a 2014 topps chrome refractor

there's no doubt in my mind that kemp is now my favorite non-dodger, and that clayton kershaw is my favorite dodger.  there's also no doubt in my mind that i'll be heading to san diego in 2015 to see the bison play.