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!