The worst Dodger card for every year I've collected

 

Here's something for you to chew over when you're sick of chewing on Thanksgiving fare.

A couple of months ago I revived my review of the best Dodger card for every year I've collected. At the end of the post, I mentioned I planned to unveil the worst Dodger card (Topps only) for every year I've collected.

That's what I'm doing now.

Unlike the "best," I feel like a number of these cards need explainers, so there will be words between the cards. In general, the card is a candidate for the worst if it's boring, a bad photo, airbrushed/photoshopped or an inconsequential player. I am all in favor of commons, I love them, but you know how Topps likes to force in players (a.k.a. rookies) who don't belong.

All right, here they are, the worst of my team since I started collecting. I hope no one's offended. (P.S: Rick Auerbach would be the worst for 1974 if I was technically collecting that year).

 

 

1975: Ken McMullen. I believe this card is the lowest-ranked Dodger in my 1975 Worst To Best Countdown. I'm too lazy to look it up.

 

 

1976: Ed Goodson. What an odd airbrush presentation. I knew something was strange about it back then. No team, other than the Braves, had that weird white sleeve panel that streaked up the shoulder. This is a Braves uniform. It certainly didn't look anything like what the Dodgers wore. Also the hat is monumentally fake.

 

1977: Stan Wall. It was difficult being an anonymous Dodger in the mid-to-late 1970s. Wall did it though, in back-to-back sets.

1978: Rick Rhoden. Maybe the first controversial pick. There are three Dodgers cards featuring head shots with airbrushed caps -- Vic Davalillo, Terry Forster and Jerry Grote. None of them are great, but how do I pick between them? Rhoden's card is just WAY TOO CLOSE. Zoom out a little!

 

1979: Jerry Grote. There's Grote now. You still can't be sure if he's really wearing a Dodgers hat.

1980: Lerrin LaGrow

1981: Jerry Reuss. I recall being disappointed by this card.

1982: Steve Howe

1983: Terry Forster. And there's Terry Forster (there won't be a Davalillo), standing like a fat tub of goo.

1984: Rick Honeycutt. I was excited by Honeycutt's arrival with the Dodgers so nothing but love for this card. It sure does stand out among the action in the set but not in a good way.

1985: Steve Yeager. There are a couple of other Dodgers with a similar profile shot but they are both youngsters (Sid Bream and German Rivera). Yeager should know better, and he should button his uniform, who is he, Jose Abreu?

1986: Steve Yeager. Oh for crying out loud.

1987: Ken Howell

1988: Tito Landrum. Probably one of the worst Dodgers cards ever. Or best.

1989: Bill Bene. This is where Topps started making it easy. Bill Bene never played for the Dodgers, or any major league team, yet there he is in the team set. Without a hat.

1990: Kal Daniels

1991: Dennis Cook

1992: Chris Gywnn. The single drip of sweat may be considered a nice touch but it makes me icky. Sweaty players need a ball cap, a ball cap with sweat stains.

1993: Dave Hansen. I feel like I'm missing half the show with this card.

1994: Omar Daal. Nothing really wrong with this card, I guess it was just the odd-man out.

1995: Rafael Bournigal. Is this a baseball play? Somebody please explain what's going on.

1996: David Yocum. Person, years later, who knows David Yocum, seeing this card for the first time: "I didn't know you played for the Dodgers." Yocum: "I didn't." Person: Did you even play in the majors?" Yocum: No, just Class A. *Awkward silence.*

1997: Ismael Valdes. That ELBOW.

1998: Jose Vizcaino. I don't know what's happening here. I think Vizcaino is trying to look tough with his batting gloves and wristbands and tape, etc. But he's not looking at the camera and he just looks like an obstinate teenager.

 

 

1999: Kevin Brown. Seeing old Kevin Brown Dodgers cards is like seeing your mom's old boyfriend in a photo album and remembering how you had to pretend to like him.

 

 

2000: Darren Dreifort. I have a problem with horizontal cards that should be vertical cards. I also have a problem with vertical cards that should be horizontal cards.

2001: Andy Ashby. "Suttoning" was best left in the '70s/'80s.

 

2002: Nick Alvarez. Alvarez got to Triple A. But that's not a Dodger card. I should actually banish cards like this to a box, but I'm weak.

2003: Dodgers team. You are going to see a lot of these, which baffles me that Topps continued to do this beyond 2003. There is nothing not weird about players lining up for a photo and then plastering a wall in front of them.

2004: Dodgers team card

2005: Ricky Ledee. Ledee breaks the streak of team cards by posing inside a studio as if he plays one of those cold-weather sports where you can't be outside.

2006: Dodgers team card

2007: Dodgers team card. I love that black-blue combination so at least there's that.

2008: The 2008 design is such a photo-killer. Anytime I think about trying to complete it, I remember cards like this.

2009: Mark Sweeney

 

2010: Chad Billingsley. Zooming in so close that you can't see his whole pitching arm is irksome.

2011: Ivan DeJesus

 

2012: Juan Rivera (you're gonna have to believe me with some of these foil-named cards).

2013: Zack Greinke. More photoshop wizardry that makes you question reality.

2014: Onelki Garcia

2015: Clayton Kershaw, checklist. Kershaw has four cards, I believe, in the flagship set this year (excluding leader cards). That's too many and by the time you get to this one -- a horizontal card that should be vertical -- even this Kershaw fan got tired of them.

2016: Frankie Montas

 

2017: Enrique Hernandez. I'm assuming someone thought the wheel ad in the background was cute, zoomy zoom around the basepaths! But the 2017 design makes it look like Hernandez has no legs and it's very odd, like many '17 cards.

 

2018: Tim Locastro. You may fool me with the uniform airbrush, but you are not fooling me with that helmet!

 

2019: "Sweet Life" checklist. These random cards are flat-out fillers but the headline makes it a special kind of cringe. It's a reference to the Nickelodeon show "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody," which aired like 15 years before this card appeared. The only reason I know this reference is my daughter was the show's prime audience at the time it aired. My daughter has zero interest in baseball cards.

2020: Edwin Rios. Where's his bat?

2021: Trevor Bauer. There are too damn many 2021 Dodger cards of Bauer for the time he put in with them, let alone this one of him straining. I think it might be time to start burning some.

2022: L.A. Dodgers card. I don't have a problem with celebration cards -- maybe there's too many -- but I'd appreciate my boys not looking like they're from "Dumb and Dumber".

2023: Yusniel Diaz. This card looks insanely out-of-place with the rest of the Dodgers in the set.

All right, so there you are. Some of those cards aren't so bad at all, while others were instant no-brainer picks.

That'll probably do it for me for the team set reviews until I've seen all the 2024 Dodgers sometime next fall.

Meanwhile, enjoy your holiday. I'll probably pop up on Friday with another post.