hey topps, you missed a couple back in 1980

if you've been following along with the evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers, you know that in 1980, topps produced cards for 21 of the 27 subjects featured in the 1978 set.  ed goodson had retired, as had mike garman, and jerry grote didn't play in 1979.  that still leaves three players unaccounted for.  so, i made some cards that should have been.

vic davalillo was still with the dodgers in 1979, and continued playing into 1980.  his 1980 card that should have been

didn't get a back because it would not have been a 'final tribute' and i didn't feel like messing around with 15 years of stats.  i used a photo from one of the dodgers' photo albums from the late 1970's and moved his autograph around.  it came out pretty well, i think.  davalillo was 1 for 3 as an outfielder for the dodgers in 1979, and 6 for 24 with two walks as a pinch hitter.  he did not strike out in any of his plate appearances.

glenn burke finished his big league career in 1979 as an oakland athletic

although he returned to the club in 1980 after 'retiring' during the 1979 campaign.  by all accounts, billy martin did not take kindly to burke in spring training, and the outfielder wound up spending the season at aaa ogden, never getting a call-up.  burke retired for good after the 1980 season.  so, 1980 would have been burke's final tribute and that is worthy of a card back.

it's card 728 since the davalillo would have been 727.  the cartoon was kind of tough - a fair amount of manipulating the hands.  still, i thought it appropriate that the card reference the unorthodox greeting burke gave to dusty baker after johnnie b hit his 30th home run of the 1977 season.  burke, it should be noted, followed up with a homer of his own.

the third player missing from the 1980 set is lance rautzhan.  rautzhan started the 1979 season with the dodgers, but had his contract purchased by the brewers in may.

he had a tough season, and appeared in only 3 games for the brew crew at the big league level.  he also gets a card back, as 1979 was the last year that rautzhan pitched in the big leagues

that was a pretty standard cartoon in 1980 - a pitcher who pitched in the postseason.  i reversed the image of someone's cartoon (rawly eastwick, i think) to make it a southpaw pitcher, when i could have just used bill lee's cartoon.  there is one falsehood on the card, and that is the title of 'complete major and minor league pitching record.'  rautzhan pitched in the minors during the 1980 season, but never made it back to the majors, so at least the big league totals are final career stats.  in hindsight, i wouldn't have bothered with the minor league stats if i had thought about how painstaking it was going to be.  in case you're wondering, i took the photo from the 1978 dodger photo album and photoshopped in the brewers' hat.

so, there you have it.  all 27 dodgers featured by topps in 1978 have been accounted for in terms of 1980.  coming soon, the 1981 posts.  i think there are only two cards that i will need to make to complete that story.  unfortunately, they both had long careers which means pain in the ass card backs.