Sunday, August 7, 2016

On Target With The Dodgers

Aloha, everyone,

Let's take a break from the Olympics and take a peek at another Dodgers oddball from the past. 

Recently a fellow collector dropped a couple of these packages in my lap...



These were sold by Target back in 1990 in celebration of the Dodgers' 100th anniversary. 

What a cool set this is! But beware the checklist - it's got over 1,100 players. That's because the set contained every player that ever put on the uniform for the Dodgers (up to that point). This includes all of the variations of the Brooklyn club. 

The main drawback for me is the individual cards are rather small, and the cardstock is crap, which really takes away from the main appeal of the  set - the beautiful vintage photography. 




It's like having a Conlon set exclusively devoted to the Dodgers. And that's a grand thing. 

The set was sold in packages of 6 sheets each. Her's a look at the back of a sheet. The individual cards are separated by perforation. 



The checklist is huge, so the set wasn't the easiest to complete. It also means plenty of scrubs and lesser known players to go along with the legends from Brooklyn and the stars of LA. 





Target didn't feel compelled to only include photos of the players in Dodgers unis, and that doesn't bother me in the least. 

On the other hand, they used photos of the players in Brooklyn uniforms whenever possible, which makes the set a fascinating trip through the history of Dodgers uniform variations. 


Tony Burbs from Wrigley Roster Jenga is chasing this set, and he recently put out a feeler to see who might have some of these Target Dodgers. Auspiciously, it was right when I came upon these. 

I ripped the packages open (!!!) and saw what I could do to help a fellow collector out. Tony will soon receive the cards I was able to pull for him. 

Sure, I was able to help Tony out a bit, but his chase of this set opened my eyes and led to my appreciation of this vintage oddball set. 
Aloha! 

5 comments:

  1. Hey, I know that Burbs guy!

    Again, you're really helping me out here and I truly appreciate it. These are some of my favorite oddballs ever produced, for the various reasons you mentioned. Where else can you find cards of guys like Con Daily or Broadway Alec Smith?

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  2. i am a fan of this set, too. i toyed with the idea of a blog dedicated to it, but wound up covering the entire set over at garveyceyrusselllopes over several years.

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    1. Yup, it would take several years to completely cover this huge set

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    2. It's just tooo bad they're small and on lousy card stock. I would love to see an updated set, in normal card sizes.

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