it's time for the 2014 topps dodgers/2014 topps dodgers factory team set card by card comparison

i finished last year's post comparing the topps flagship cards to their team factory set counterparts (a year ago to the day) by asking 'what is the point' of these factory team sets?  here's hoping that there is more variation to the 2014 version.  it's topps flagship on the left, team factory set on the right.

adrian gonzalez

no difference other than the factory set is more like opening day - no foil for the names or the topps logo.

matt kemp

topps moved the logo on the factory set, for literally no good reason.

clayton kershaw

same

brian wilson

i fear that we have seen the biggest difference that this set has to offer.  the factory set features a much, much better version of wilson's card - the portrait orientation works a lot better.

kenley jansen

landscape works well for this card, so no need to make a change.  and, topps did not.

hanley ramirez

the pose is reminiscent of matt kemp's on his card, except here, topps left the logo in the busy spot.  it would have made sense to move it on this card.

yasiel puig

it's the same.

aj ellis

ditto.

zack greinke

again, no difference.

carl crawford

seriously

josh beckett

what

chad billingsley

is

andre ethier

the

juan uribe

point?

hyun-jin ryu

...

dan haren

logo displacement is no cause for me to continue to buy these sets.

dodger stadium

there's the last card of the set - the only one without a companion in the flagship.

it's nice, but it's pretty much the same view we had in last year's set.  topps had done a good job in 2008 and again from 2011-2013 offering a variety of views of the stadium.  maybe it's time for topps to add a manager card to the set (we still haven't seen donnie baseball in a flagship design yet), or give us a prospect (joc pederson?), or even, god forbid, put vin scully on a card.  come to think of it, that's probably what they will have to do to make me a buyer in 2015.

random rules the day

here's a smattering of randomness from the scanned folder.  no rhyme or reason, just some dodger cards…

1980 topps ken brett

when ken brett joined the dodgers, it was the first time that i became aware of the 'wrong brother' syndrome. not that i wanted george brett to join the dodgers and mess up the infield thing they had going on, but i still recognized that the younger george was the better player.  that wasn't what was expected, however, as ken brett was thought to be the best athlete in the family when he joined the red sox in the late 1960's.  with the dodgers, brett pitched in 30 games during the 1979 season and was released during spring training the following year.

1983 dodgers police tom lasorda

i used this photo for one of lasorda's cards that should have been.  i still have a few of those to make.

1984 ralston purina pedro guerrero

i found it odd that the same company that made dog food also made cereal.  anyway, i had a bunch of these mail in sets. or were those the cereal series cards that were mail ins?  i don't remember.  we ate a lot of chex cereal in 1984.

1987 baseball's all-time greats carl erskine

erskine threw 2 no-hitters (one against the giants) and struck out 13 yankees in a single world series game.  that's my kind of dodger.

1989 upper deck juan bell

more 'wrong brother' syndrome here.  bell was the younger brother of blue jays' slugger george bell.  the younger bell didn't actually play for the dodgers - he was part of the 'haul' that the orioles received in the eddie murray trade.

1990 topps mike morgan (in dodger stadium)

and 1991 topps stadium club mike morgan

i'm working on a 'on the road with mike morgan' post.  stay tuned.

1990 upper deck lenny harris

i could do a similar post for harris, i think.  although he only played for 8 franchises (morgan wore 12 different uniforms), he made multiple stops in cincinnati and new york.  no player has been used as a pinch hitter more than harris, and no player has more pinch hits than harris.

1990 upper deck mike marshall

between this mike marshall (who was a met when this card was issued) and the other mike marshall, there was a mike marshall in the major leagues from 1967 through most of the 1991 season.  i guess that's not that impressive, since nolan ryan was in the bigs from 1966 through 1993.

1992 donruss triple play roger mcdowell

to me, the oddest thing about this card is mcdowell's hair - forget about the sandpaper sticking out of the bottom of his pantlegs, what is that thing on his head?

a ribbon for a fan

three years ago today, rangers fan shannon stone fell over a railing after reaching for a ball and died.  the rangers were playing the a's in the first game of a four game set that night, and for the remainder of the series, each team wore a black ribbon on their jerseys in memory of stone.

this 2012 topps opening day josh hamilton card

shows the ribbon well.  the photo comes from the july 9 game in which hamilton (who was the player that threw the ball in stone's direction) hit a walk-off home run to beat the a's.  i couldn't find any cards showing the a's wearing the ribbon, but here is a photo from getty images

the rangers also erected a statue for all ranger fans using stone and his son as the inspiration.

the diamondback memorials for 19 granite mountain hotshots

last week was the one year anniversary of the deaths of 19 firefighters who were trying to control the lightning strike ignited yarnell hill wildfire near yarnell, arizona a couple of days prior.  the 19 were members of the 20-man granite mountain hotshot unit sponsored by the city of prescott.  those that lost their lives were andrew ashcraft, robert caldwell, travis carter, dustin deford, christopher mackenzie, eric marsh, grant mckee, sean misner, scott norris, wade parker, john percin, anthony rose, jesse steed, joe thurston, travis turbyfill, william warneke, clayton whitted, kevin woyjeck, and garret zuppiger.

immediately following the tragedy, the diamondbacks wore a black armband on their right sleeves as a memorial.  the armband is seen on miguel montero's jersey on this 2013 topps update marlon byrd card

when the team returned home, they wore a white patch on their left chest with the number 19 inside instead of the armband, as seen on aaron hill's 2014 topps gypsy queen card

following that initial home series, the memorial moved back to the right sleeve, with a black patch and the 19 in white, as shown on chris owings' 2014 topps card

although for the all-star game, the black patch moved back to the chest as shown on patrick corbin's 2013 topps update emerald parallel card

all four of these cards are in my memorials binder, representing the memorials for what was the worst wildfire in terms of firefighter deaths since 1933.

a memorial patch for four slain officers from the oakland police department

on march 21, 2009, four oakland police officers were shot and killed by a parolee for whom a no-bail warrant had been issued.  the a's paid tribute to the fallen officers by wearing an 'opd' patch on the right sleeves of their home white jerseys.  the patch is visible on landon powell's sleeve (and you can kind of see it on mike gallego's as well) on powell's 2010 topps card

as well as vin mazzaro's 2010 topps card

topps must have used a photo from 2009 on brett anderson's 2011 topps card because the patch is visible

just as it is on adam kennedy's 2010 upper deck card

i like kennedy's card, but the card in the binder for this memorial is daric barton's 2010 topps card

it gives the best look at the patch.

the four officers, sergeant ervin romans, sergeant mark dunakin, sergeant daniel sakai, and officer john hege, had sometimes worked security at a's games, and the team also held a fundraiser, raising $130,000 for their families.

ray hayworth double dipped

ray hayworth broke into the major leagues with the 1926 detroit tigers, the last tiger team to include ty cobb, who moved on to the philadelphia a's for the 1927 and 1928 seasons.  this post isn't about the georgia peach, however; it's about hayworth and his dodger double dipping ways.

[this is the seventyfifth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, babe herman, joe medwick, juan castro, ron perranoski, clyde king, paul waner, hughie jennings, ron negray, broadway aleck smith, george smith, johnny cooney, jim fairey, frenchy bordagaray, doc casey, waite hoyt, luis olmo, clyde sukeforth, willie keeler,  harry howell, germany smith, johnny allen, marv rackley, bobo newsom. maury wills, and dazzy vance.]

here's the lone card i have of hayworth in a dodger uniform (or any uniform, for that matter) - his card from the 1990 target dodger stadium giveaway set

following his 1926 debut, hayworth returned to the mnors until 1929 when he rejoined the tigers for the next several seasons, including the 1934 and 1935 world series teams (hayworth appeared in the '34 fall classic which the tigers lost, but did not appear the following year when they won).  he put together some solid seasons both as a starter and a backup, but was eventually put on waivers during the 1938 season.  that's when the dodgers came in.

hayworth joined the dodgers for the last couple of weeks of the 1938 season.  he appeared in five games going 0 for 4 with a walk at the plate.  in 1939, he appeared in 21 games for the dodgers, hitting .154, before being sent to the new york giants late in the season.  following his release from the giants after the 1940 season, hayworth played in the cubs' system and then resurfaced in the majors with the browns in 1942.  he was released early in the season, signed with the cardinals but was released again - this time before he could get back to the majors.

the dodgers actually signed and released hayworth in the 1943 season (thanks baseball reference) before giving him another shot with the club for the 1944 and 1945 seasons, the latter of which he spent primarily as a coach.  in those two years combined, hayworth was 0 for 12 with 3 walks in 9 games.  still, he had fulfilled his role as a dodger double dipper!

sunday morning target dodgers

fourteen more from a sheet of fifteen (double dipping ray hayworth gets his own post later), courtesy the fine folks at twin cites based target who, for some reason, issued a set in 1990 featuring nearly all the players and managers to appear for the brooklyn/los angeles groom/bridegroom/superba/robin/dodger franchise.

let's kick this installment off with some mean muttonchops.

orlando alvarez

alvarez made his big league debut in 1973 as a pinch-hitter for charlie hough.  future dodger jerry reuss struck him out.  the next day, however, alvarez again was called upon to pinch-hit, and this time he doubled.  it would be his only hit as a dodger although he made two more pinch-hitting appearances that season, plus one in 1974 and four in 1975.  in fact, alvarez only played in the field as a dodger in one inning as a defensive replacement in 1974.  alvarez was traded to the angels on the eve of the 1976 season for ellie rodriguez.

george bell

no, not that george bell.  this bell was a pitcher who spent five seasons (1907-1911) in the majors, all with brooklyn.   the image on the card shows him in the 1909 superbas uniform, which matches the year that he had his only winning record (16-15).  the following year, bell led the league with 27 losses.  overall, he posted a 43-79 record in his career, with an era of 2.85.  the teams he played on just weren't very good.

john bolling

following a stint with the 1939 phillies, bolling pinch hit and played some first base for the 1944 brooklyn dodgers and did pretty well.  in 56 games, he hit .351 and made only 2 errors in 27 games spent in the field.  his season was cut short by military duty, and he chose to retire from baseball after a year in the minors following his service.

elmer brown

brown pitched for the superbas and robins during the 1913-1915 seasons.  over that span, he was 1-2 with a 3.66 era.

gilly campbell

campbell finished his major league career with the 1938 brooklyn dodgers.  he had previously played for the cubs and reds, and in 54 games as a dodger, he hit .246.  he spent the rest of his career in the minors, and while with the la angels of the pcl in the early 1940's, campbell had a small role in the film 'the pride of the yankees'.

ownie carroll

carroll, who had led the league in losses as a red in 1932, joined the dodgers for the 1933 season in a trade with the cardinals in which the dodgers gave up dazzy vance.  carroll went 13-15 with 11 complete games in 1933, and followed that up with a 1-3 record in 1934 when he was used primarily out of the bullpen.

cozy dolan

dolan played for the superbas in 1901 and 1902.  he led the league in games played, plate appearances, and at bats in 1902, hitting .280 in 141 games.  a converted pitcher, dolan played outfield and first base for brooklyn, although he did make a couple of appearances on the mound after leaving the superbas.  in 1907, during spring training with the boston braves, dolan contracted typhoid fever and passed away.  the braves wore a memorial black crepe bow on their uniforms that season - if only the t206 set had come out a year or two earlier, i might have been able to find a card with the bow for my memorials collection.

spider jorgensen

jorgensen made his big league debut on april 15, 1947 - the same day jackie robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball.  later in his career, jorgensen played for the new york giants in willie mays' first big league game.  in between, however, he put together a solid rookie campaign as the dodger third baseman, hitting .274 in 129 games.  an injury following the 1947 season limited jorgensen's playing time, and he appeared in only 86 more games for the dodgers before he was traded to the giants early in the 1950 season.  he retired following his release in 1951, and later became a scout for the cubs, signing mark grace among others.

tommy mccarthy

hall of famer mccarthy closed out his career with a single season in brooklyn.  playing for the 1896 bridegrooms, mccarthy hit .249 and stole 22 bases in 104 games.  he's probably one of the weaker hall of fame players - 1493 hits, .292 batting average - although he may have been recognized as a pioneer of the game as well.

jay partridge

partridge played for the robins in 1927 and 1928.  somewhere in there is a ornithological joke.  he hit .260 in 146 games as the robins' second baseman in 1927, but played in just 37 games the following year, hitting .247.

mike jeffrey ramsey

one of two mike j. ramseys to play for the dodgers, this one finished his big league career with 9 games as a dodger early in the 1985 season.  he hit .133 before being released in june, thus missing out on the opportunity to face his former club, the cardinals, in the nlcs.

harry riconda

during his lone season with brooklyn (1928), riconda appeared in a career high 92 games, hitting .224 with 3 of his 4 career home runs coming that season.  he was traded by the robins after the season to pittsburgh.

rosy ryan

ryan pitched in 30 games for the 1933 dodgers, all in relief.  a former starter for the formidable new york giant teams of the early 1920's, ryan was 1-1 for the dodgers in what would be his final big league season.

jimmy sebring

having previously played for the pirates and reds, sebring began the 1909 season, his fifth and as it would turn out, final season in the big leagues with the  superbas.  he hit .099 in 25 games before being released by the team.  he was signed by the senators and played in one more game that season.  during the following offseason, sebring died of bright's disease (nephritis) at the age of 27.  he is perhaps best known for hitting the first world series home run in history, taking cy young deep in the 1903 fall classic.