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Double completion


The arrival of Sandy Koufax's 1958 Topps card not only allowed me to complete his Topps run of cards, but it also finished off the 1958 Topps Dodgers team set, too. Koufax was the last card I needed.

This gives me a nice run of completed 1950s Dodgers team sets, the 1956 through 1959 sets are done. I probably should get to work on that 1955 set.

The '58 team set is an odd one and one I've never enjoyed greatly. As I said when I did the Topps set countdown, the '58 set has a DIY feel, which should be admirable but considering you're paying money for the thing, is a little disappointing. Great subject matter of course -- it was the 1950s -- but they look like scrapbook cutouts pasted on colored construction paper.

The '58 Dodgers set adds to that inconsistency and slap-dash feel because this set marks the dawn of the Los Angeles Dodgers. While the '58 team card above pays homage to the 1957 Dodgers, the last Brooklyn team, the rest of the set is about the Los Angeles Dodgers. And Topps went through each Dodgers card and scrawled an L and an A on the player's cap. (Well most, they didn't bother with Koufax).

 


At least the logo is drawn fairly consistently, better than the Blue Jays logo on those 1977 expansion year cards that I pointed out a long time ago. Of course, that Jays logo is much more complex.

The questionable part of the L.A. drawing is the wild proportions on the images.

To get a better look, here are all the Dodgers in the set:


This is a transition team, containing legends of the Brooklyn '40s and '50s squads, like Hodges, Reese, Newcombe and Erskine and players who would bring new success in Los Angeles, like Drysdale, Koufax and Roseboro. Then there were guys who did both, like Snider, Gilliam and Podres.

OK, now for the obvious yellow theme.

The drawn logo never stood out that much for me because of the overwhelming YELLOW of the cards. Yellow is a running theme in the 1958 Topps set and it is notable that all but one of the 16 major league teams at that time featured at least one yellow card in the set. The Kansas City A's is the only team that doesn't.

But while the Cubs enjoy an array of orange, green, red and pink; the Red Sox a diversity of blue (two different shades), light green and pink; and even teams with an abundance of yellow, like the White Sox and Indians, receive other colors, too; the Dodgers are the only team in which all of the player cards are one color and that color is yellow.

This has intrigued me for years: Why the Dodgers? Why yellow? I don't think there is any reason, but while some collectors may not think there's anything wrong with the color chosen, I would have much preferred the Dodgers got a mix of green, blue and pink like other teams. Or if it's got to be all one color, I don't know, how about BLUE?

Anyway, the 1958 team set is complete and I can chase other cards now.

My goal for Dodgers team sets now is to take care of the '50s and '60s sets that are nearly complete with just a few stragglers. 1955 Bowman is down to three cards. 1960 Topps is down to two cards. 1966 Topps is down to that pesky Ron Perranoski high number. As for the 1962 and 1963 team sets that contain way too many difficult-to-purchase rookie stars cards, I'm not going to think about those for awhile.

Throw in the 1954 and 1955 Dodgers that I have a real shot at finishing and I've got plenty of work to do.

But the satisfaction of completing the first Los Angeles Dodgers team set is very real. And very yellow.

Comments

Elliptical Man said…
Wouldn't blue have made the caps blend in with it?
Old Cards said…
Interesting point about the Dodgers cards all having the same yellow background. I have some of these, but not the whole team set, so I never thought about all Dodgers cards being the same. Too bad we will probably never know why. Nice lineup of cards.
Commishbob said…
And only the Zimmer card has any color other than black as the name bar at the bottom.

Congrats on KO'ing the Dodgers in this set.
Brett Alan said…
It's funny that the A's are the one team with no yellow, considering that five years later they'd become the only team WEARING yellow!
Fuji said…
A. That team set is gorgeous. Love the yellow backgrounds.

B. Your run of team sets from 1956 to 1959 is impressive.

C. Years ago, I tried to build the 1972 A's team set and ran into those high numbers. Never even thought to try and collect the A's sets of the 50's... but maybe I'll start small and build the 1956 team set.
Nick Vossbrink said…
Yeah I agree with your 58 critiques. At their best they function as silhouettes of traditional baseball card poses and hearken back to things like the original Crackerjack cards. At their worst they're EXTREME closeups (something that Topps does again a ton in 64 and I don't like it there either). And it's at it's worst an awful lot of the team. Also totally feel you on the single-color thing. This is such a colorful set it sucks to get monochrome pages.
Nick Vossbrink said…
Also just gotta say that Topps did a better job with the LA logo than the SF logo this year.
Jongudmund said…
It wouldn't be something design-led, like the Dodgers were moving to sunny California and so the designer gave them all yellow backgrounds? It's hard to imagine a random process resulting in one team ending up with all one colour.
TraderJack said…
I believe the "LA" on McDevitt and Pignatano's caps are real. They are both late series cards and they're wearing road uniforms whereas almost all the rest of the photos are in home uni's.