sometimes there's more than just stats on the back!

imagine if you will a boy pestering his father to schedule a family road trip to los angeles that coincides with baseball card night at dodger stadium.  imagine that the child succeeds, and arrives at the stadium with a sibling who doesn't give two cents about baseball cards, but receives them because they are under 14.  imagine this boy now having two sets of dodger police cards.  man, was i stoked.  not even the fact that these sets, started in 1980, were oversized could really dampen my excitement.

years later, it was that fact that would contribute to my renewed excitement.  you see, i have never been able to display the cards in sheets since they are such an odd size.  i would need the 4 pocket sheets and i have just not bothered to order any.  i was recently going through them when i noticed three cards in particular - steve sax,

mike scioscia,

and tom niedenfuer.

all three feature dodger stadium in the background, and the scioscia is somewhat reminiscent of that great 1976 topps johnny bench card - the catcher as victorious gladiator as the dust settles around home plate.

when the lapd first issued these types of cards, the backs had short writeups about drugs or other safety tips.  at some point, they abandoned that approach and put stats on the back like any normal card, and just offered their 'good wishes'.  you'll notice something else on the backs of these three cards:

seeing these signatures again for the first time in 30-some odd years, i have a slight recollection of collecting these autographs down by the dodger dugout, but they could also have been obtained at a pregame autograph station.  now, if i could only find that program that the penguin and dusty baker signed for me...