The best Dodger card for every year I've collected, 2023 update

 

Hey, did you know it's been just about seven months since 2023 Topps flagship came out?

Seven months! Don't anybody tell me the clock is slow. The clock is the world record-holder in the 100-meter dash.

Update will be out before we know it and I assume news of the 2024 design will be dropping like any second. But that's all for those up-to-the-minute people. I don't run that race anymore. I've got old cards to keep me happy for the rest of time.

But tradition is tradition and completing the flagship team set for my Dodgers is always a must. So is determining my favorite card from that set each year. And now it's a tradition to show that thought process -- probably something that should stay confined to my brain -- for all to see on this blog.

So, the 2023 team set has been complete for about a month now, and I'm just getting to this because, although I like the design of this year's set very much, the photos -- at least for the Dodgers -- are a bit mundane. Pitchers pitching and batters batting. This has been the default since like 1991. But I need a little more for a card to be crowned my favorite.

Unfortunately, there isn't a "little more" for the Dodgers this year.

Here are some of the top candidates:

The most coveted flagship Dodgers card for a brief period, this was also the last card I needed to finish the set. James Outman has been pretty good this year, good enough not to make me miss Cody Bellinger, despite his rebound season. I like Outman's expression here, I think he got all of it.

 

Two of the better batting and pitching shots in the set. Chris Taylor has a pretty violent swing and Tony Gonsolin's downward motion always makes for good cards.

 

Austin Barnes has been a favorite card candidate in multiple years, he always gets a decent action shot. I don't know how those guys who barely hit do it. ... Yeah, I know, it's because he's a catcher.

 

Except for the catchers, Miguel Rojas is the only example of someone in action in the field (pitchers mound shots excluded). I love watching Rojas field. His hitting has picked up lately, too.

So, those are the top runners-up, not anything that stands out, though.

The winner doesn't either but here it is:

This is the first time Will Smith has been my favorite Dodger card of the year. It's a nice moment-in-time shot, it looks like Smith has someone caught in a rundown between third and home. I could look up the exact moment on Getty Images, but I'm telling you, that clock is rocketing to another world record as I type.

Here is a look at all of the 2023 Dodgers cards for Topps flagship:

That's 21 cards total, one less than last year and eight less than 2021. Compared to 2022, this amounts to one less checklist/team card. There were three in 2022 and just two this year. The solo cards remain the same at 19.

OK, quickly, here is my favorite Dodgers card for each year since I started collecting. This list doesn't change, except for the last card, so many of you have seen this before:

There you are. I know last year I threatened to just take a group shot of all of the individual winners but I actually found this less time-consuming than pulling all those cards. I might do it next year though.

 

Also, I'm pretty sure -- if I don't forget -- that I will be doing one of these for my least favorite Dodger card each year.

Also, also, if any of you counted all those individual cards, you know that next year is a big one.

It will be the 50th flagship set issued since I started collecting.

So, you know, Topps, don't blow it with something that looks like 2016.