Dodgers in Toronto

No, this isn't a post about the 2025 World Series games! Now that that's off my chest, let's start! :) I always wanted to visit Toronto and seeing the World Series made that wish burn a bit brighter. So when I saw our boys were playing the Blue Jays this year I booked a flight and got tickets for the first two games at Rogers Centre, which I like to call Dodgers Centre ever since the World Series last year.

Toronto is big! It's not that different from US cities. Large department stores, loads of homeless people, but also a city underneath the city. An easy way to move around the place during those cold winters.

I really hoped to book a room at the City Centre Marriott which has rooms looking out over the baseball field. They were a few hundred dollars when I looked for a room in April in January, but prices skyrocketed in March to several thousand dollars. Ofcourse! The Dodgers were coming!

We visited the bar with field view in the beginning of the afternoon, Dodger fans were there as well, checking in into the hotel or just roaming the bar like us. I didn't have to fear being the only Dodger fan at the games.

The first night Rogers Centre was filled with almost 41,000 fans. The booing, when a Dodgers player came to bat, was loud, but I couldn't blame them. Theoscar was amazing with four RBI's. Plenty of homeruns by Hernandez, Freeman, Ohtani, Rushing (twice). Wrobleski had a great outing where Scherzer was done after 2 innings. All in all a great night out.

The next night Yamamoto was on the mound and pitched 6 solid innings. Díaz got the save. No homeruns but a great outing: 4-1.

I was impressed by the stadium. Really a nice place to visit again when the boys play here.

Old Blue New

I wanted to write a book about our boys in blue for some time, but never really had the peace of mind to sit behind my laptop and type. Which is weird, because I do write my short posts on this blog. Somehow I didn't know what kind of angle I could go with. Then, a few weeks before visiting Toronto to see the boys play, I got this urge. A story was forming and I saw before me a beginning, and an end. It was the middle part I had to figure out.

First thing I had was a title, it's a bit out there, but if you read the book, you'll get it. I conjured up an older man so the protagonist had someone to reflect upon. He had to be old enough to have seen the Dodgers play in Brooklyn. The stage turned out to be New York City, around the 2024 World Series.

I visited one game in Yankee Stadium and stayed in NYC for a few days myself so I could incorporate real life experiences together with made up ones. It was fun to delve deeper into my knowledge of the boys in blue and regurgitate facts from (auto)biographies I'd read throughout the years.

I don't want to spoil anything nore, So I'll leave you with the back cover blurb.

"When a Dodgers fan from the Netherlands decides to fly to New York City to attend the 2024 World Series games at Yankee Stadium, he encounters an interesting old man. Both of them Dodgers fans, but worlds apart."

Mike Olson 1/1 baseball card

I like baseball cards. I’ve never collected then religiously, mostly because I’m not from the US and getting hold of them isn’t very easy. Regular cards aren’t worth very much. Older cards, or those with famous players can cost you an arm and a leg. Grated vintage cards reach insane prices. Nowadays, the baseball card producers try to make cards more desirable by stamping them 1/100 or 1/10 and even 1/1. The 1/100 could be a the image of a player with a green border, the 1/10 could be the same image but with an orange border and 1/1 could be the same image but with a yellow border. Even the 1/1 isn’t unique, because the only thing different is the border color. That’s all! Yes, there is only one, but it still feels a bit like cheating.

To have a 1/1 unique baseball card, how cool would that be? Well, meet Michael Olson! I came across his work through his Instagram account. This guy hand draws baseball cards from scratch. Yes, he also draws ice hockey and football, truly… anything you want.

Now that was something I would be into. I would come up with a player I’d like a hand drawn card of. Took me no time, he just popped in there: Joe Kelly! This guy had brought some more swagger to the Dodgers team. He was the personification of the ‘Not Like Us’ movement with his ‘nice swing bitch’ pouty face.

But the pouty face had been done over and over and I just wanted a happy Joe card so I chose as a reference photo a shot of Joe in his mariachi jacket (belonging to Grover Castro of Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuéllar) which he traded for with a game worn jersey. He wore it to the White House celebration of the 2020 World Series title and threw the ceremonial first pitch in it before game 1 of the national League Wild Card Series in 2025.

So that’s the image I send to Mike and he was all happy about making it into a hand drawn card. He suggested using the Topps layout from the 1988 baseball card series, because it’s Joe’s birth year. I thought that was a great idea. Also because the Dodgers won the World Series in 1988.

A few months later it was done and, damn, that’s one fine card! It’s so much better than any numbered or limited regular card. It even has room on the back for Joe to sign it, if I ever bump into him.

The work is outstanding, the communication with Mike is smooth, he is a very friendly guy who thinks along with you about the overall look and feel of the card. His wife Mary designed the packaging and it’s all one big party receiving it and do the unboxing.

So, if you have a favorite player and you like unique art, visit Mike Olson’s website. He also sells pre-drawn cards so there is a good chance you’ll find a card there that strikes your fancy. Check out his Instagram account @mikeolsonart for recent projects. If you want to see his video presentation of my Mariachi Kelly card go here and here.

Pieces of Johnny Podres

After the daffiness years and 5 lost World Series against the Yankees it was, finally, next year! A bunch of guys who, especially since the arrival of Robinson, almost finished first multiple times, did it. Took them seven games, but who was counting? Nothing came easy in Brooklyn, certainly not a World Series win. But in 1955 it was their time.

It was the year of Jackie stealing home and Duke Snider hitting 2 homers in game 4 ánd 5! But the series MVP was 2 game winner Johnny Podres. He pitched two complete games and shut out the Yankees in game 7 to give Brooklyn its overdue first World Series Championship.

He would go on to win a total of four World Series titles, play in four All Star games and was the National League ERA leader in 1957. Another interesting fact: Podres hit .313 in World Series games.

Now, with a career like that I was amazed to find some Podres baseball cards "cheap". With today's prices for modern day players like Ohtani $30 for two cards isn't bad for a World Series MVP.

Card #1: 2003 - Upper Deck - Sweet Spot Classic - Game Used Memorabilia

Card #2: 2005 - Upper Deck - Sweet Spot Classic - Signatures

"Game Used"
The Sweet Spot card is pretty straight forward. The Game Used piece of jersey is debatable. Because what is 'game used'? I tried to get an answer online which wasn't easy. The best infomration came from reddit and it's kinda disappointing. Game worn or game used means it was worn during a game, but that could also have been an exhibition game or minor league game AND it might not have been worn by the player on the card.
Now, if it specifically says (like it does on the Podres card) it was worn by him, only then can you be sure he wore it. Still a chance he wore it during spring training or something.
Still, while these cards can readily be found, I'm very happy with them. Remembering one of Dodgers' best!

Hollywood Ending: The Official World Series Championship Commemorative Book - Review

Rarely was a book review as easy as this one. ‘Hollywood Ending: The Official World Series Championship Commemorative Book’ is exactly what I hoped for. It was advertised directly after the Dodgers won the World Series in November, but it finally came out in February. Still, it was totally worth the wait.

It’s a good size coffee table book with a minimum of text so there is ample space for photos. This is precisely what you want. Visuals from the incredible regular and post season run.The photos are neatly put in chapters which makes it easy to relive the series you want.

Verdict
Seems like a waste to go on and on about the book. It's simply great. Loads of photos,all the exciting plays caught on camera. Skybox Press did a great job putting it together like this and it's quite affordable: $40.

2025 World Series Champions - Topps NOW 15-Card Team Set

Topps, well known publisher of baseball cards, released the 15 card team set of the 2025 World Series champions. I ordered 2 sets in November and they arrived in January. Topps was very transparent about the fact the set was a bit delayed, shipping was smooth, packaging sturdy.

I was a bit surprised the packs themselves were flimsy. At least compared to the set released after the 2020 World Series win. The 2020 set was shipped in a box and a hard plastic case. This year the packs came in a small cardboard envelope stuffed with a plastic pouch containing the cards.

The Set
Every set is comprised of the same 15 cards, all stacked in the same order: Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernandez, Blake Snell, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, Tyler Glasnow, Tommy Edman, Max Muncy, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Will Klein, Enrique Hernandez, Clayton Kershaw, Roki Sasaki, Team Celebration and last but not least one:

guaranteed numbered parallel or

image variation or

autograph/Triple Autograph or

parallel

Now, here’s where it gets tricky. This is Topps Now so you get to know how many sets are gonna be out there. So, at the end of the ordering window (first week of November) it turned out there would be 118,459 sets printed. Now, this is the amount of parallels/short prints we get:

/99 Green Foil

/50 Gold Foil

/25 Orange Foil

/10 Black Foil

/5 Red Foil

/1 FoilFractor

That's not a lot to look forward to. The chance of getting anything worthwile is close to zero.

Should I Open it or Should I Keep it Sealed?
These sets cost $75 each, a total of $178 for two sets including shipping to Europe. When they arrived, I wrestled with the thought of maybe keeping them sealed because I see them for sale from $150 to $300 and even higher on Ebay. But curiosity got the better of me. Maybe I DID get that 1 of 1 triple auto card with Yamamoto, Ohtani and Sasaki.

I had some luck with earlier sets. When I bought the 2020 Championship set, see blog about that set, I did get a /99 signed Corey Seager card which was amazing! So, why keep the sets sealed? I dug in!

The Cards
As far as design goes, the cards look very clean and the photo’s used are great. It really takes you back to some of the exciting World Series action. I was surprised not to find Miguel Rojas or Andy Pages in the set. They did their part, didn’t they?
The first set had an alternative short run pic of Yamamoto. Nice but nothing fancy. The second set had an alternative short run pic of Kershaw. Turnes out there was some misinformation on the back as well. Kershaw is a 2 time World Series winner, not three. More about that later!

Verdict
Nice set! But don't pay $75 for a chance to get an autograph or parallel. Buy the base set from Ebay and enjoy the memories.

"World Championship"

The [insert MLB-team name] are World Champions or even weirder: The [insert MLB-team name] are Champions of the World!

Some people and even MLB-teams really say this, which is nonsense because there is NO baseball world championship for teams. Sure, we have the World Baseball Classic (WBC), the unofficial World Championship for countries, but that’s it!

For an MLB-team to become World Champion there would have to be a WBC kinda setup.

The winners of the World Series would play the winners of the European Cup and comparable tournaments in Asia, South America, Afrika, Carribbean and Oceania (if they even exist).

Or you could invite the club champions of the countries playing at the WBC. That would be 20 teams from all over the world.

Then and only them would you be able to crown a World Champion.

In 2025 you could have the World Series winner LA Dodgers playing the European Champions Heidenheim Heideköpfe or Japans’ champs Fukuoka Hawks vs. Diablos Rojos del México, champs of Mexico.

Sure, the World Series winner could become World Champion, but never say they are without actually playing a team that's not from North America.

Now, I recently was in contact with someone from the website Baseball Reference.com and he came up with an answer that made me look at it differently:

"Definitely one way of looking at it — a great way too. Another? Over 27% of the players on rosters opening were from countries other than the United States. Almost all of those countries have a baseball league of their own, and these players rose to the top and transitioned from their country / league to the minors, then made their way through that to join the majors. I think at season’s end this year, the number was just over 30% of the players, so it changes as the years goes on."

I can get into that view, but not entirely. When a soccer team wins the Champions League and it has players from all around the world, it still isn't world champion. No matter where the players come from.

Then I got a reply from Ross Yoshida, Senior Director, Graphic Design at Los Angeles Dodgers, who has designed amazing looking press pins and world championship logo's for the club. He said:

"All teams in every sport make their own championship marks that leave off trademarked wording and verbiage. This is so clubs, partners, etc. can avoid usage rules and fees/royalties that come with using "World Series", "Super Bowl", et al..."

If that is the case something is very wrong within the sports organizations. Using the words World Series should be free advertizing for MLB. But I get his point of view.

No matter what it is, international players, dodging royalties... a World Series winner still isn't a World Champion. But I decided not to bother anyone anymore. Case closed!