Club-hopping

 

I haven't completed, nor attempted to complete, a Stadium Club set since I finished the 2015 set.

 

Although nothing since has inspired me enough to try to complete it, I do still like Stadium Club and I do try to buy some of it just to get my fix. I've done that for six years now ... well, five years because I never saw 2020 SC in stores. So it's been five years of a sample here and a sample there. It's what passes for Club-hopping for me these days.

Mostly what I want these days is simply to complete the Dodgers team set. I've done that now for all of the most recent series of Stadium Club, from 2014 to, as of last week, 2021.

A few days ago, I received the last two Dodgers I needed to finish the base set.

Cody Bellinger and Corey Seager. (Sorry for the crooked and light photos. Without my trusty scanner, I've discovered I have zero patience for photographing cards, especially glossy ones).

 

I exchanged some Stadium Club cards with regular trade partner, Joe, and got those last two Dodgers needs in return. 

Joe also sent the red-parallel Walker Buehler card at the top of the post, as well as this red-parallel:

Dustin May pitching for the Dodgers seems like a long time ago now.

 

I also received one of the Super Star Duo inserts. Bellinger is on the back.

 

And speaking of the Bellinger and Betts, here are the Master Photos of each of those players.

I still don't get the purpose or appeal of these. The photos are the same as the base shots except with a 1993 Stadium Club design ... and lots and lots of extra white space that makes them challenging to store. But I can cross them off the want list!

 

Before I move on to a few other cards that Joe sent, I wanted to point out my favorite Dodgers Stadium Club card from 2021 now that I have them all.

 

 Some people might have guessed that it would be the Kershaw card of him holding up the World Series trophy, but it's the Justin Turner card.

Stadium Club is at its very best when it can show off a terrific shot capturing something notable. This was a key moment in the Dodgers-Braves playoff series last year and the photographer should get a raise for the image he captured. Everything about it is tremendous.

I can now add Turner to my Dodgers Stadium Club favorites that have been dominated in the past by Kershaw and Puig. Let's go through my favorites for each year since 2014:

 

2014

 

Jackie Robinson. This is the first time Stadium Club displayed this shot. It returned to SC five years later with a wider image. But the first one is the best.

2015

Yasiel Puig. One of my favorite Stadium Club cards ever. You talk about a "moment in time" card! That moment in time is 8:14!

2016

Sandy Koufax. I would love to get some of the parallels of this card, but it seems so does everyone else. I'm not going to pay those prices. So I'll be content to stare at this forever.

2017

Corey Seager. 2017 was an average year for Dodgers in Stadium Club. Topps also had to wedge in inconsequential players like Trayce Thompson (as the years pass, Topps' rookie-loaded sets look sillier and sillier).

2018

Yasiel Puig. Stadium Club is very good to teams that make the postseason the previous year, particularly if they make the World Series. There is always sure to be a shot or two or three of a moment in the postseason. The Dodgers reached the World Series in 2017 and the quality of the photos increased greatly.

2019

Clayton Kershaw. Clydsdales, you guys.

2020

Clayton Kershaw. Two in a row for Kershaw. Just too bad about that Players' Weekend uniform. I guess we have that coming up later this month, right? Hope someone knows how to dress the players this time.

2021

Justin Turner. No three-peat for Kershaw.

You could've chosen several others, the Fernando Valenzuela signing shot in 2015, Matt Kemp in the locker in 2014, Kershaw celebrating his no-hitter in 2015, Max Muncy's dance down the first base line in 2019, the Pee Wee Reese jump in 2019, Koufax with the bat in 2020.

That's the beauty of Stadium Club, all of the marvelous and varied photos.

But I need to break away from that and show a couple other cards from Joe:

 

Joe also threw in some Panini Diamond Kings needs with a Gallery of Stars card that supposedly shows Mookie Betts. It doesn't really look like him and that doesn't really look like a Dodgers uniform.

 

 

I've been making some noise lately about how much I enjoy O-Pee-Chee cards. This isn't anything new. I always do. But people have noticed and Joe sent me two from the early 1970s. Printed in Canada! Always a lot of fun.

I don't ever expect to try to complete Stadium Club ever again. I think I'm over that for modern sets. But who knows? Maybe the thrill will come back again. Keep in mind, I thought I was over it in 1994 and then all of a sudden in 2008 I was trying to complete everything again.

But I think I'll be happy Club-hopping each year for the foreseeable future. I avoid racking up a big bar tab that way.