2022 Topps Series 1 baseball card review

I got my hands on some 2022 Topps Series 1 baseball cards, which features 11 Dodgers cards in the 330-card set.

The design this year is a white border around the front edges, plus a red line that separates the border from the player photo and name.

An interesting feature, that I found a little jarring, is the use of baseball seams as part of that red border, not only on the front of cards but also on the back. It leaves a portion of the ball open, for lack of a better description, which seems a little weird.

The 11 Dodgers cards in this set, the first half of the full, regular Topps set (there is also an “Update” set later in the year with 2022 rookies and players on new teams, the rough equivalent of the old Topps Traded sets from decades ago) are chock full of legends.

Future Hall of Famers Clayton Kershaw (card number 41), Albert Pujols (No. 237) and Max Scherzer (No. 310) are in this group.

Fitting all 21 years onto the back of Pujols’ card requires a smaller font.

Also in this set is former MVP Mookie Betts (a likely future Hall of Famer himself) and former Cy Young Award winner David Price, plus shortstop Corey Seager, who just signed a 10-year, $325 million contract in Texas. Balanced out by first-year pitcher Andre Jackson, whose card (No. 258) gets the “RC” designation on the front to signify a rookie card.

When there’s room, factoids are on the back of cards. For catcher Will Smith (card No. 83), Topps tells us, “Cody Bellinger (with 46) is the only player in Dodgers history with as many as Will’s 38 home runs in the first 180 games of a Major League career. Three (including two of his first three) were walk-offs.”

Sometimes, these tidbits round a bit on the facts, like this notation for Jackson: “When he handcuffed Pittsburgh in a five-whiff performance on August 16, 2021, Andre became the first Dodgers pitcher in 70 years to debut with at least four scoreless innings of relief.”

It was actually 67 years, back to pitcher Bob Darnell in 1954 for Brooklyn, which you might remember as the impromptu trivia question from the True Blue LA podcast a few weeks back.

Dodgers cards in 2022 Topps Series 1

40 — David Price

41 — Clayton Kershaw

50 — Mookie Betts

83 — Will Smith

237 — Albert Pujols

238 — Dodgers win wild card game (Chris Taylor)

257 — Justin Turner

258 — Andre Jackson

299 — Julio Urías

301 — Corey Seager

310 — Max Scherzer