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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.

Comments

steelehere said…
That Mookie Panini card looks more like Austin Barnes than Mookie Betts.
bbcardz said…
I'm not a Stadium Club collector (although I probably should be) but Stadium Club does have superior photography for the most part. Nice post!
Nick said…
The Dodgers have produced three of my all-time favorite Stadium Club cards - 2015 Puig, 2019 Kershaw & 2020 Koufax. Almost impossible to pick a winner out of that trio - probably Koufax, though I love the 2015 Puig more and more every time I look at it.
Fuji said…
I cheated and purchased a complete 2015 Stadium Club set... but I am trying to build the 2017 set. Don't think I've built a hand collated set of any other SC set since the early 90's.

As for the Master Photos... I pick up the 90's versions of them when I see them in dime boxes or quarter bins for nostalgic reasons. I remember seeing dealers have them in their displays back then.

Kershaw sure got hooked up with some nice Stadium Club cards. Both of the ones you featured in this post are fantastic.
Matt said…
Turner has to be in the running for the best of all those SC cards. I may have to steal this idea and do a Red Sox version ;)
Nick Vossbrink said…
The 2021 Master Photos drive me nuts. The 1990s versions were a cool idea. Because Stadium Club was full bleed, you lost about an eight of an inch of the image on all sides. The Master Photos showed you the entire 3.75"x2.75" image that was used and got framed in an oversize 5"x7" "matte." The modern ones are just shrunken down versions of the already-existing cards. Completely different and completely missing the point.