i went about this the wrong way - front to back instead of back to front

after a fair amount of searching, i finally picked up a set of 1978 fleer hi gloss stickers.  it was a master set,  which means that it includes all of the different team logos, as well as the background color variations.  yes, apparently there were pink, white, and blue background variations for some of the stickers.  for instance, here is a yankees sticker.

isn't it pretty in pink?  yeah, i know - scoreboard.

now, i know you know all about this release because you read about it over at the fantastic fleer sticker project blog.  right?  well, i'm still going to show you some of the different stickers.  all the teams had at least two different stickers - the city/state name and logo, and the hat logo and team name.  here's the twins, for example:

minny and paul are back for good at target field, and the twins have worn their red caps now and again, i think.

and how about the astros:

they have had some pretty bad logos.

brewers:

those logos are even worse than the astros'

rangers:

the rangers'  logo with the cowboy hat always makes me think of that cartoon psa character that had a hankering for a hunk of cheese.  it's the combination of the hat and the round ball.

and, of course, i have to show the dodgers:

the guy who sold me the set also included a wrapper.  luckily for me, it was one of the wrappers that featured the national playoff teams from 1977 rather than the american league teams.

here's the mlb sticker just for fun:

but, as i am sure you are aware, i was interested in this set because of the backs.  i desperately wanted to own the complete puzzle of dodger stadium, even though i would be reminded of their defeat in the 1977 world series.  this puzzle back tells the tale all too well

as in 4 games to 2.  but, we have the unmistakable pitched roof of the left field pavilion to enjoy.  here are four stickers put together to identify just who the 1977 national league champions were, in case you were unsure.

excellent.  so, i put the puzzle together on the counter, and what did i find?

i'm missing two backs.  goldangit.  i should have asked the seller if it was a complete puzzle, rather than a complete master sticker set.  i don't suppose anyone out there has any 1978 fleer grand slam hi-gloss sticker lying around?  anyone?  i'll check with the seller to see if he has any, but rest assured that these will be on the nefarious 9 very soon.

as an aside, i can't tell who is in the field and who is batting, but i am assuming the image is from the 1977 fall classic.  if i had to guess, i would say that jim gilliam is in the first base coaches box, and so the dodgers are up to bat.  anyone have any better ideas?

community service

i recently noticed that andy, over at community gum, was trying to complete a 1984 fleer set.  i offered to send him a stack from his want list, and he countered with some cards from my pursuit of upgrading my 1979 topps set.

i should have scanned some of my cards from the set i put together back in 1979, but you will just have to trust me that these are upgrades.  i handled the heck out of my cards back then.

here's card number 1 in the set - rodney cline carew and the cobra

that wasn't the only batting leader card to be featured in the set, as we had the all-time record holders subset, which included rogers hornsby and ty cobb

ty cobb's career average was .366.  terry forster's was .397.  just saying.

here's one of the prospect cards that were included in the package.  this one includes the blue jays hopefuls

pat kelly is from the same town as robin ventura, fyi.  and, ernie whitt is featured on his second multi-player card as he was part of the lance parrish/dale murphy/bo diaz card in 1978.

i scanned this george hendrick card to point out the tragedy that is the fact that we can't see his legs.

i have a thought that hendrick started wearing his pant long around 1983.  i'll get around to an update to this post someday.  in the meantime, here's then-future dodger rick honeycutt

and his teammate and former dodger tom paciorek

i have a soft spot for the dodgers of the early 70's that didn't quite make it to 1977 with the club, like bill buckner, claude osteen, jimmy wynn, and willie crawford.  paciorek, who was a dodger through 1975, falls somewhere towards the bottom of that group.  but, he's still in the group.

here's robin yount's 1979 topps card

has there ever been a bigger transformation from one year to the next than there is between yount's 1978 and 1979 cards?  he looks like he's aged several years.  plus, he looks like mr. snow miser.  anyway, if you can find a better transformation from year-to-year, i'd like to hear about it.  maybe some clean cut player on 1972 topps is suddenly an unkempt scruff ball on his 1973 card.  let's see what you can find.

andy also included some dodgers, including a 1992 topps stadium club jay howell

and darryl strawberry

in which straw has taken his eye off the ball.  there was another strawberry card which i had never seen before.  this one is from 1993 upper deck and features darryl signing for some kids in dodger stadium

the back has a bunch of advice for kids.  and for darryl, as it turned out.

here's a 1996 leaf preferred todd hollandsworth card

featured just because he got the shaft

and a 2011 bowman's best dee gordon card

i am woefully lacking in non-topps dee gordon cards, so this, along with all of the other cards in the package, were greatly appreciated.  thanks andy!

steve garvey is not a padre, but he is out of position

i recently picked up the two new steve garvey relics from 2012 topps gypsy queen - each cost about the same as a pack.  i was happy to see the gary featured as a dodger on both the regular jersey card

and the framed mini

i suppose it should be expected that they use the same photo, which appears to be a mid-1970's image, and things must have been on for garvey as he is obviously checking out a right-center gapper.  anyway, here's the back of the regular card.

same old disclaimer - not even clear that it's from a garvey jersey.  or pants, perish the thought.  the back of the framed mini is pretty much the same, except for one detail.

whoever was in charge of the copy for the mini back (and why would it be different from the regular back?) took garvey for a pitcher.

sigh.  i guess i can't be picky, though. at least my favorite player is still showing up in sets, and as a dodger, too.

nine from starting 9

you couldn't field a team with these 9, but they are a good representation of the cards i recently received from jacobmrley at starting 9.  you'll see what i mean right away when i show three cards featuring the penguin.  here's a 2005 playoff prestige card

and a 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic jersey card

plus his 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic base card

also from that set, here's a duke snider card

in which he is holding four bats.  not sure why.

i do know, however, why don drysdale is holding a ball with "#3" on it on his 2001 upper deck legends card

that's because it also has the date (10/5/63) on it, which was the day of game 3 of the 1963 world series.  in that game, big d shut out the yankees on three hits and beat them 1-0 thanks to a jim gilliam walk, a jim bouton wild pitch, and a tommy davis single in the first inning.  the dodgers went on to sweep the yankees in the series, thank you very much.

here's don sutton on a 2003 topps all-time fan favorite card

i enjoy this card even more now that 2012 topps archives has arrived with a thud.  

in 2002, donruss put out a set of its own, similar to archives i suppose.  they called it donruss originals, and this is one of the hideo nomo cards from the set

if i recall correctly, they used their 1982, 1984, 1986, and 1988 designs in the set with a repeating checklist.  they also made some retro 'what if' cards for 1978 and 1980.

here's a 1994 post canadian card of italian-american superstar slugger mike piazza

voici a vous!

finally, a 1981 fleer steve garvey "most hits nl" card

he'd be in my starting 9 everyday.

thanks max!

if i had a hammer...

...i'd hammer out a post about some 1971 topps cards i received in the mail recently.  like this one from night owl

i've been seeing a lot of old mr. met recently.  today is the day his 1977 o-pee-chee card is featured over at oh my o-pee-chee, and i pulled a 1970 topps style card of his from my 2012 topps archives blaster the other day.  now, i get to cross a card off of my want list.  thanks greg.

then, out of the blue, i received these four cards from thoughts and sox.

jose cardenal

he's a cardenal on a cards card.  nice.

doug rader

one of the many dave roberts

and don wilson

wilson's number 40 is retired by the astros.  he threw the first no-hitter in the astrodome back in 1967, and passed away in 1975.  thanks adam!

those cards are great and i sure do appreciate them.  so imagine how grateful i am after opening a package from crinkly wrappers that included 30 high numbers on my list.

like walt alston

and jose pena

a couple of dodgers that i used to only see in my dodgers binder.

plus, a bunch of the cards had the magic hats, like don o'riley

did the white sox ever wear hats that shade of blue?  o'riley had been with the royals in 1970 and was released by the white sox during spring training in 1971.

here's billy wynne of the angels

who was either hatless or wearing a white sox cap in the original photo. or maybe even a mets hat if the photo were from 1967.  wynne at least appeared in a few games for the angels in 1971.

here's rickey clark demonstrating the proper style of cap for the angels

and the magic continues, with the fantastic reynolds boys

see?  topps did at one time have a dry sense of humor - not the stupid 'put a squirrel on a card' sense of humor.  plus, archie's angels hat is not even close.  at least they got the red brim right on his card, unlike wynne's above.  if you were to combine wynne's hat and archie's hat, you might be close to the real thing.  but it would still be a magic hat.

here's another three-in-one rookie card ted sent

with wayne redmond wearing what looks like it might be a magic visor.  kind of like george hendrick on his 1977 cards.

finally, al severinsen gets a magic ups hat on his rookie card

what can brown do for you, other than give you crazy eyes?  and make balor moore give you the stink eye for messing up his rookie card.

to finish off the post, here's my hammer - not the hammer of justice, but a bona fide 1971 topps hank aaron card

what an awesome surprise! i figured those x00 cards would be the last ones i would get, and now 400 is sitting pretty in the binder.  thanks ted!  the back end of my 1971 topps set binder isn't quite as lonely as it was just last week.