a perfect score

here is another one of my favorite cards. 1988 score steve garvey. garvey retired after playing in only 27 games in 1987. he retired with 2599 hits and 272 home runs. how do i know this, besides the fact that i am a big fan? it’s on the back of the card. but if it weren’t for score, there would be no 1988 card that had popeye’s career totals. no topps, no donruss, no fleer.

this is one of my pet peeves with topps in particular. i understand that it probably has something to do with the mlbpa, but as a collector, i really was disappointed when a retired player would get no card in the following year’s set.

consider the cards that were never made, including the 1988 topps steve garvey. for dodger fans, there’s the 1970 don drysdale. big d is highly visible on the 1970 dodgers team card, but he has no card of his own to total up his career stats. how about a 1973 hoyt wilhelm? or a 1976 juan marichal. 1978 would have had al downing and boog powell. and in 1998 there should have been an eddie murray card. even in 2008, there was no barry bonds. in fact, before the retro sets, there were usually no cards that spanned a player’s entire career.

i do recognize that some players, like george brett who retired after the 1993 season, have had regular issue cards with their actual career totals – here’s the 1994 topps brett.
and i acknowledge upper deck for their efforts to recognize these players with their ‘final tribute’ cards. i know they did these cards for kirby puckett, robin yount, ozzie smith, kirk gibson, and brett – although they waited until 1995 to issue his. are there others?
anyway, back to the 1988 score garvey. i love the red and the darker feel it gives to the photo; the wrigley field brick and the padres away pinstripes. and, it’s a perfect pose for the final tribute – head down, arms extended, ball and bat in contact.

perfect.