better late than never with some 2013 dodger topps update cards

i am scheduling this post well in advance, so i don't know if 2014 topps is on the shelves yet.  i do know that i had some 2013 topps update cards scanned and unpublished on this site, and it's probably better to post them before the blogs get all filled up with 2014 stuff.

i am not really pursuing a full rainbow, but i did pick up a few parallels of nick punto's nice looking update card - black

gold

emerald

target red

and walmart blue

and, oh by the way, here's the plain old base

easily my favorite base card from update.

jose dominguez appeared in a handful of games during the summer

he made his debut in june (he struck out the first batter he ever faced) and stuck with the team into july. the dodgers were 8-1 in games in which he appeared.

clayton kershaw was the lone dodger representative at the 2013 all-star game

he could be a centaur, and we wouldn't know it thanks to the odd layout of that card.

here's a better one - his 1971 topps style mini parallel

and, better yet, a chasing history insert

sandy koufax was on the postseason heroes checklist

i think that's from the 1963 world series - koufax coming off the mound after a game 4 complete game to finish the sweep of the yankees.

here's another dodger postseason hero, but on a chasing history insert

johnny podres shut out the yankees in game 7 of the 1955 fall classic

jackie robinson's chasing history card

doesn't deal with the 1955 team.  instead, it marks his franchise record set in 1949 for most hits by a second baseman in a season.  and can i just say that i dislike insert sets that span multiple releases?

scott van slyke gets a non-bowman card

i am guessing his 2014 card (if there is one) will feature him standing for the national anthem in the nlcs.

topps didn't include managerial cards in the 2013 set, but dodger skipper don mattingly did get a card in the 1971 style mini insert set

i am disappointed that the manager cards seem to have migrated to heritage the last few years.  yes, that is in line with the topps sets from yesteryear (will there be a cubs' head coach variation in this year's heritage?) but i wouldn't mind having a flagship mattingly dodger card.

speaking of flagship, here's one more card from either series 1 or 2, i don't recall - a hanley ramirez chasing history foil insert

and with that, i'm almost ready for 2014 product.  almost.

my pared down 1954 topps sampler

earlier today i (hopefully) posted my 1954 topps sampler.  since scanning and writing that post, i have extricated the non-dodgers and reassembled the remaining cards.  so, my 1954 topps sampler is now a 1954 topps dodger partial team set.  here's how it looks:

as with my 1953 topps sampler to team set, i have added a card in between.  this time, it's duke snider's card

i picked this one up at the last card show i went to.  my vintage bargain bin guy was there and gave me a good deal on duke.

i think all of these players have been featured on the blog before, except charlie thompson.

thompson was better known as tim thompson, and his big league career as a dodger began and ended with a 10 game stint in 1954.  he was later traded to the kansas city a's and also spent some time with the tigers.  welcome to the blog charlie.  i mean tim.

i only need three dodgers to complete the 1953 topps team set, but one of them is jackie robinson.  if anyone has an extra jackie, or a ben wade or jim hughes card to spare, please let me know!

my 1954 topps sampler set

for the 1952 and 1953 sampler sets, there really weren't any variations to worry about.  16 teams to represent, and that was it.  in 1954, topps introduced a variety of backgrounds that were not team specific.  there were red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and white backgrounds, plus a combo card of sorts.  here's how i completed my 1954 topps sampler

a lot of nice cards there, including the o'brien brother 'combo' card, but the tommy lasorda rookie is probably my favorite.  i also discovered during my pursuit of these samplers that yankee cards from the 1950's are tough to find on the cheap.  that's why the lone yankee here is also in the roughest shape.

here's a scan of the backs of the first 8 cards above.

topps was not consistent with the orientation of the backs.  many people find that frustrating.  i certainly understand, but i was more frustrated when donruss and fleer came on the scene in 1981 and didn't match topps' orientation.

some beauties of a bowman

not too long ago, i posted about dodger double dipper clyde king.  i used a 1952 bowman card of his in the post - a card that i had purchased but not yet received.  i figured i might as well show the card again once it was in my possession, and i will, but first let's see this 1952 bowman cal abrams card that accompanied king on his journey.

abrams' card is superior to king's

but any 1950's bowman card is a fantastic add to my collection.  here are some other ones that i have picked up over the past few months.

1951 bowman carl furillo

and a 1951 bowman charlie dressen

i picked up the dressen at the most recent card show i attended.  i like how the card is cropped.  it looks like dressen is poking at the boundary of his two-dimensional cage.  kind of a-ha-ish.

here's a 1954 bowman george shuba

according to baseball reference, george 'shotgun' shuba was earning $13k in 1954.  i wonder if that's why he made his s look like a dollar sign.

i prefer his 1954 bowman card to his 1955 bowman card, but i bought one anyway at the same show i found the dressen

it's somewhat distressed, but that's ok.  1955 was a magical year for the dodgers, and i am very close to completing this team set.  1955 was shuba's last year in the majors, so he went out on top - making his final big league appearance in game 4 of the world series.

chico fernandez's rookie card is in much better shape

fernandez didn't debut for the dodgers until 1956, and his dodger career included only 34 apperances. he was traded to the phillies in 1957.

walt moryn

was traded after the 1955 season to the cubs, but still didn't appear in the 1955 fall classic.

charlie neal

like fernandez, made his debut in 1956. he stayed with the dodgers until he was traded to the expansion mets in december of 1961.  he also missed the 1955 world series, but he did stay with the dodgers long enough to play in the 1959 world series.

ken lehman

didn't pitch for the dodgers in 1955 (he spent the year in the minors), and the orioles purchased his contract in 1957.  he debuted in 1952, however, and got to pitch two innings in that year's world series against the yankees.

i was somewhat dismissive of early bowman during my formative collecting years.  now i recognize that these cards are pretty f'n cool.

the 2013 topps ted lilly rainbow is complete

the 2013 topps ted lilly rainbow is a first for me (i'm still looking for a 2012 topps update adam kennedy printing plate), but only because i don't count the silk version to be part of the rainbow.  i have the other parallels though.  let's recap.

base

mini

black /62

camoflauge /99

emerald

gold /2013

orange /230 (from factory set)

pink /50

silver slate /10

silver slate blue sparkle

target red

toys r us purple

walmart blue

and here are the last two i needed

sapphire /25 (inserted in 2013 topps update)

and a printing plate, in my case cyan

numbered of course to 1/1

i've also made a pretty healthy run at a 2013 topps update nick punto rainbow, but i am not as diligent about that as i was about lilly.  i am a big fan of lilly's card thanks to the nice dodger stadium background.  now that the bullpens are no longer covered in foliage, i can appreciate this card (and all of its variations) even more.