I received this card at the end of last year from Kenny at Torren' Up Cards. It's a Leaf-something-or-other card featuring infielder Trey Sweeney and his autograph but in a very generic setting.
Because of no logos, it was easy for Kenny to say that the card was now a Dodger card because the Dodgers had acquired Sweeney from the Yankees in a trade. But Sweeney didn't stay with the Dodgers very long. He was traded during the deadline period to the Tigers in the Jack Flaherty deal. And Sweeney has been playing for the Tigers in the postseason.
So this is now a Tigers card, which means I can send it to a Tigers collector. I happen to know a few of those. Hmmm, who should get it?
I thought of this card while opening a package I received last week from Cardboard Catastrophes. Inside was an Oklahoma City team set -- OKC is the Triple A team for the Dodgers. Trey Sweeney was one of the cards.
This is Sweeney closer to being a Dodger than on that Leaf card. You can see the "LA" on his arm sleeve at left.
However, Jeff pointed out that the players in this 2024 team set are considered part of the "Oklahoma City Baseball Club," not the Dodgers. Apparently, OKC is rebranding and there has been a year of wandering nameless until they come up with a new nickname for 2025.
Honestly, I remember being surprised when the Triple A franchise came to OKC and it was called the "Dodgers," minor league teams don't do that very often anymore, they prefer to have their own identity.
But I still like getting minor league sets for clubs in the Dodgers' farm system because they always produce players who actually did play for the Dodgers -- but may never end up with a Dodgers card thanks to Topps' practice of ignoring many players who don't have star potential. Both of these guys played for the Dodgers this season just a little bit.
It also includes a card of veteran Chris Owings, who was attempting to play for his seventh major league team when he signed with the Dodgers -- but he was released at the end of July without ever playing for the major league club.
Jeff also sent me the 2021 OKC set when they were still the Oklahoma City Dodgers.
A few former Dodgers who showed up a lot on various Dodgers Bowman prospect cards.
And here's another MLB veteran who appeared just a little bit for the Dodgers in 2021, but there's no L.A. Dodgers card for him.
The 2021 set has a crazy amount of filler. The 2024 set is 31 cards and the 2021 is 37! Not only does it include the mascots -- a standard part of minor league sets -- and a welcome manager and trainer card, but they had to include four different coaches and two extra members of the training staff!
The 2024 set is similarly focused on staff with manager, hitting coach, first base coach, bench coach, TWO pitching coaches an three cards for the training staff. I spend too much time trying to figure out which major league players were excluding from team sets, I don't want to do it for minor league sets, too!
Finally, for those wondering if there is an actual "real" card in this post, here you go:
Yeah, yeah, it's "just" a manager, but it was a 1967 Topps need! Cross of #494! Jeff said he accidentally acquired a duplicate at a show. Lucky for me!
Speaking of shows, I was at one Saturday. I've got a couple posts' worth of material from it. Coming soon.
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