garvey, you're a star

it gets less and less weird to see steve garvey in a padres uniform as the days go by.  he is often included in modern sets wearing the brown and yellow, so it's not like i can forget.  back in 1984, however, i was still having trouble adjusting.  that's when star put out a 36 card set of nothing but garvey.  it celebrated his status as 'baseball's ironman' and included cards covering his entire career (to date) at that point.  it also included photos from both his first season as a padre, and his previous 14 with the dodgers.  over the next few weeks, i'll show the entire set.

it came in 12 panels with 3 cards each.  star made these sorts of sets for a number of players over the course of a few different years.  anyway, here we go with garvey's set.

the first three cards, unfortunately, show the garv in padres gear

we get the yellow bp jersey on the checklist card, the white home jerseys on his regular season career stats card, and the brown away top on the all-star stat card.  here are the backs.

garvey would play for three more seasons, and appear in one more all-star game.

the next three cards focus on his status on the all-time dodger leaderboard, and he is appropriately shown wearing dodger blue.

these are los angeles dodger club records, as we can see by the absence of duke snider (among others) from the backs

these days, mike piazza sits atop that batting average list, and eric karros leads in home runs, but garvey still has the most rbi of any la dodger. he's still second in hits, first in doubles, and i'm not sure about triples.  i would guess that folks like steve sax and brett butler have passed him (sax tied him, butler passed him).  no change to his status on the games or at bats list, and i believe he is still just behind wills in runs, too.

the third panel is all dodger goodness again, with a fourth card of dodger leader stats, along with garvey's world series stats and post season stats cards

and here are those stats

garvey is still second among la dodgers in total bases, but eric karros has edged past him on the extra base hit list.  the last two cards there are also out of date, thanks to the fact that garvey helped to lead the padres to their first postseason berth in 1984.  his career world series record now shows a .319 batting average (thanks to his .200 clip in the 1984 fall classic), but his .400 average and game winning/series saving home run against the cubs in the 1984 nlcs would bolster the text and stats on the last card of the panel.

there aren't too many more cards in the set that feature garvey as a dodger, but i will show them all anyway.  stay tuned.

hey! you! get off of my card!

it looks like chris speier is a little perturbed that leroy stanton gets his name on speier's card.

my, what a glorious miscut diamond cut that card is! it was in a lot of 1975 o-pee-chee cards that i recently acquired.  there weren't any others like this, but there were some that are worth showing off (meaning there were some dodgers).  i'll get to them in a couple of days, i think.

sold!

or should i say purchased!  i recently saw an auction for a signed 1988 score steve garvey card.  what really caught my eye was that the auction title referred to it as a 'final tribute'.  as i have mentioned a number of times, score was the only card manufacturer to give the garv a card in 1988, and they did so complete with his full career stats on the back.  i was intrigued enough to check out the auction, and saw that it was being offered by rod of padrographs.  i bid on it and won it and rod sent it.

it's a nicer auto than the one that garvey signed for me through the mail over three years ago.  unfortunately, i missed out on some other items rod was offering, but he was sure to send along some extra dodger goodies, such as this sspc card of davey lopes

unfortunately, i don't believe that ron cey or bill russell were represented in the package.  rod did include a double play card that i didn't previously own - a 1993 score tim teufel card

with barry bonds making an appearance.

rod was also sure to send some twinkies, although not of the hostess or soon-to-be revived hostess-ish variety. no, he included a number of twins cards including the m&m boys - justin morneau

and joe mauer

these guys might not be together for too much longer as morneau could be moved at the deadline. 

big thanks to rod for the garvey and the bonus cards!

stick 'em to me

after hosting the 1983 fleer star sticker group break, i was motivated to pick up some more stickers for my collection.  for the longest time, i ignored stickers - seeing them as less important or even not something worthy of being in my collection.  i have since come to recognize that some sticker releases have merit, especially those with different and sometimes better photos than the card releases.  here's a 1982 topps steve garvey sticker

that includes dodger stadium world series action.  topps did not acknowledge the 1981 world series in their 1982 flagship release.  of course, topps also had boring photos in their sticker sets, like this garvey from their 1983 release

which uses a photo from 1981, and this davey lopes sticker

fleer's 1984 stickers set included some nice images, like the one on ken landreaux's sticker

featuring an on deck dodger stadium pose.  fleer went on the road for tom lasorda's photo

as well as steve sax's

but stayed in chavez ravine to capture fernando's eyes to the sky windup

pedro guerrero got two stickers in the 1984 fleer set

i wonder what the story is behind the little prison window in the dugout.

here's fernando's 1985 fleer star sticker

i think fernando was the only dodger who had that type of pullover.  he is featured on a number of cards wearing it, and i don't recall seeing any other dodgers in similar gear on cards.  or stickers.

here's former dodger lee lacy on his 1985 fleer star sticker

i don't know why some years they were 'star stickers' and some years just 'stickers'.  they varied the sticker size, too.  in 1986, fleer went back to full sized stickers.  they stayed that way for the 1987 star sticker release, too.

here are sax

fernando

and reggie williams

from that set, along with former dodger charlie hough

hough is best remembered by most as a ranger, i suppose.  still, i held out a little hope that his sp in this year's archives release would show him in a dodger uniform.  i was also expecting a dodger uniform when i ordered the rick honeycutt 1984 fleer sticker.  instead, i got another ranger

i figured i had a 50/50 shot at being right.  honey has since been sent off to texas where he belongs.

ok, enough with the stickers.  back to cards tomorrow.

four bucks for forty

quite a while ago, i sent some cards to bill buckner to be signed, happily paying his $10/auto fee.  for some reason, the results of that request have sat in my scanned folder for about three years.  enough, i say!  here are the cards from my billy buck ttm success!

1970 topps

1972 topps

ah, the rookie cup.  i actually had another one of these cards signed before this batch (along with a 1978 topps card), but traded it as part of the spring training/padres series auto deal with reader cory.

1973 topps

and 1975 topps

it was good to see buckner in dodger duds earlier this month as part of the old-timers game.  even though he was not officially a part of the 1977 or 1978 dodgers (the teams of my youth), i was still a fan.

thanks bill!

i can't begin to imagine how cool next year's version of this card will be

topps put an opening day highlights card of clayton kershaw in their 2013 opening day set.  that makes sense, but what doesn't compute for me is that it was a super short print.  why put ssp's in a set like opening day?  why put them in any set, really.  anyway, i picked one up for a reasonable price.

the card celebrates his 7-inning, 9 strikeout, no runs allowed performance against the giants on opening day 2011.  he picked up the win as the dodgers beat the no-cals 2-1.  next year's card should be spectacular, as on opening day this year, kershaw shut the giants out and provided the first sign of any dodger offense with an 8th inning solo home run.  that whole game was an opening day highlight for sure.

since opening day, however, i've been feeling a bit blue about the team's performance.  things are starting to look up, but maybe a different type of blue will cheer me up

like a 2007 topps chrome blue refractor jeff kent card

that blue scans so much better than the 2010 topps chrome blue refractors.  here's russell martin's card to prove it.

and then there are the walmart blue bordered cards, like this 2012 topps hong-chih kuo

and these 2013 topps josh beckett

and aj ellis cards

walmart went with a different shade of blue for the 2013 topps heritage parallels, of which i have the matt kemp specimen

although it's no chrome refractor, i like the looks of that card.  hopefully kemp doesn't make me blue by blowing out his hamstring.

hockey?

believe it or not, i used to be a pretty big hockey fan.  i was born into it, and attended many kings games while growing up in southern california.  i was at the 1981 all-star game at the fabulous forum (the first time i saw wayne gretzky play) and was an inaugural season ticket holder for the mighty ducks of anaheim and the minnesota wild.  i still have a pretty good luc robitaille card collection, as well as a few other stars of the 1990's.  and, with the stanley cup being won last night by the blackhawks, i figured now was a good time to show some puck stuff.

i have a bunch of random, more common hockey cards heading to captain canuck (once calgary dries out) in the hopes that they might be worth a dodger or two in trade.  one card that i almost held on to was this 2000-01 topps stadium club card of scott stevens.

that's about as pretty as modern day cardboard gets.

i did hold on to a couple of cards, though, and have decided to include them in my heretofore baseball only memorials collection.

one of those cards is this 1993-94 upper deck bryan mccabe world juniors subset card

as you can see, he's wearing a 'tdk 14' memorial patch.  the problem is, i am not sure for whom this patch is being worn.  trevor kidd was alive and well (and still is today) back then, even though he was no longer on the canadian junior team having last played for them in 1992.  if anyone has any knowledge regarding this patch, i would love to know more about it.

the other hockey card making it's way into my memorials collection is this 2002-03 upper deck top shelf jason allison card

allison is wearing the red, white, and blue 'am' patch in honor of kings' scouts ace bailey and mark bavis who were passengers on united flight 175 out of boston on september 11, 2001.  theirs was the plane that was hijacked and flown into the south tower of the world trade center in the terrorist attacks that day.

i used to have a kings jersey like the one allison is wearing on that card, and i had hoped at the time to add the patch to it, but never did.

i don't plan to add all memorial patches from other sports to my collection, but if anyone has a 2001 cowboys card showing the tom landry fedora patch or a maple leafs card with a good shot of the king clancy patch from 1986-87 i'd be interested.

finally, since this is a baseball card blog, i will tie today's hockey theme together by showing off some cards from upper deck's 2002 superstars release.

here's a ziggy palffy/shawn green jersey card

and another palffy, this time with adrian beltre.

note the 'am' memorial patch on ziggy's jersey, as it is on felix potvin's on this potvin/paul loduca jersey card

potvin will always be a maple leaf to me.  when i think of king netminders, i think of rollie melanson, kelly hrudey, jamie storr, and robb stauber.  and the failed grant fuhr experiment.  rogie vachon was before my time, unfortunately.

here's the last card of mine from the '02 superstars set that i will showcase - a shawn green/wayne gretzky/kobe bryant jersey card

this card is begging for sandy koufax instead of greenie.  i really thought that the kings were going to win the stanley cup back in 1993 with gretzky, but stickgate and patrick roy were too much to overcome.  while i was happy to see luuuuuuuuuuuuc raise the cup in detroit, it was even nicer to see him lift it (although in street clothes) with the kings last year.

don't count on seeing any more hockey (or basketball) for that matter.  unless i have a king clancy patch to show off.

the brew crew and the ironworkers local 8 patch

in july of 1999, during the construction of miller park (the brewers' new stadium), there was an accident involving a crane.  while lifting a piece of the stadium's retractable roof, the crane collapsed, hitting another crane where three workers were in an aerial basket.  those workers, william degrave, jerome starr, and jeffrey wischer, were killed, and a few others were injured.

to recognize the fallen workers, the brewers wore patches with the ironworkers union local 8 logo on their jerseys for the remainder of the 1999 season.  you can kind of see it on kevin barker's 2000 upper deck mvp card.  it's there on the left chest.

here's a better look at the patch, courtesy of a game used jersey from the 1999 season

the card that i will officially use for this particular memorial is the 2000 pacific brewers diamond leaders card, with both jeff cirillo and jeromy burnitz wearing the patch

it was determined at trial that the contractor, mitsubishi, along with their co-defendant lampson international, were responsible for the accident due to their putting schedule ahead of worker safety.  there was pressure to finish the stadium on time, and the contractor chose to proceed with the work that day despite strong winds that would normally dictate that this sort of crane operation would not be performed.  apparently a number of workers objected to the conditions, but the work was not stopped.

the brewers also wore patches during the 1999 season commemorating what was to be the final season of county stadium (those are the patches on their right sleeves).  however, due to the accident, miller park was not able to be completed in time for the 2000 season, and the brew crew spent one more year at their old park.

this and the columbine high school patch that the rockies wore during the same season were the first memorial patches that i can recall worn for a non-baseball person or entity.

three packs of 2013 topps series 2 plus a rack pack and a value box, too

i bought some series 2 cards the other day at target.  i didn't have time to make it to any one of the lcs's around town, even though i had a handful of 80's junk to trade for a quarter pack of the new stuff.  i wound up paying full price for three packs, a rack pack, and one of those value boxes where all the cards are in a single clear wrapper.  here are some highlights.

jonathan papelbon

did i say highlights?  this was the first card that i saw and i thought about walking away after seeing it.

troy tulowitzki 1972 mini

it's a double play!  of course, it's also the same photo used in the recent archives release.

here's another dp - marco scutaro

we've also seen that photo before, courtesy of this year's opening day release.

derek norris

here's where i started getting confused.  this card was in my second pack.  i initially thought that this might be a short print, but then i remembered that the home plate/post game celebrations were short prints last year.  right?  i can't keep it straight.  then i noticed the little person and forgot all about short prints.

bryce harper emerald parallel

i have been a harper magnet this year.  or maybe he just has a lot of cards.

jose reyes wbc insert

i'll have to check the checklist for the wbc set.  it would be cool if they included coaches like mike piazza or fernando.

pack 3 included a couple more cards that i thought might be short prints

steve lombardozzi was one

but i guess gatorade bath shots are standard issue

here's the third double play card i pulled - one in each pack!  it's ruben tejada

the last card in the third pack was this very nice michael bourn card

another short print?  at least this would be in line with the series one sp's.  but, no.  still a nice looking card.

on to the rack pack.  this card might be the most memorable one of the bunch.  so much...orange

i think after i get a handle on the memorials collection, i will turn my attention to tattooine shots like this one.  not a blade of grass in sight.

here's my first dodger of series 2, luis cruz

same photo as the team set.  speaking of which, i will get to my annual comparison this week.

more double play action, courtesy of asdrubal cabrera

and, another dodger - carl crawford

same photoshopped photo from the opening day set.  where's the effort?

here's a chasing history carlos gonzalez foil card

and stephen strasburg

you might be able to tell that i was struggling to find cards to scan at this point.  especially when you see what's next.

yes, a giant - andres torres target red parallel

i have definitely been a magnet for giants parallels this year.  hopefully arpsmith gets settled soon and we can make some trades.

here's an evan gattis target red, too

i will break the law and not mention what his former occupation was.

the last card from the rack pack is a jurickson profar 'making their mark' insert

not sure if they are all like this, but profar's celebrates his first big league home run.

on to the box.

here's tulowitzki's base card

no double play.

mariano rivera gets a nice card - and number 600 in the set

i hope topps includes a card of rivera in the 2014 set, and that it looks this nice.  this photo would have been a good one to go out on, but a true final tribute would be even better, regardless of the photo.

here is a very happy sandy koufax on a gold foil chasing history card

and here is willie mays on one as well

a sampling of the red parallels in the box - cc sabathia

he is, as of yesterday, 2 wins shy of his 200th win.  which is not a record, by the way.  more like a milestone chase.

as if to prove my point about being a bryce harper magnet, here is his 'making their mark' insert

like the profar, it too celebrates his first major league home run.  so, i'm guessing all of these inserts do just that.

i was expecting a manupatch in the box, but i guess those are just for blasters.  instead, i got this alex rodriguez cut to the chase die cut card

i will end with another card that i initially thought could have been an sp - justin ruggiano

too bad it's not.  now i will never be able to get rid of it.  like ruggiano in the photo, marlins cards leave me cold.

let me know if you want to trade for any of these.  other than the dodgers and the double plays, they are up for grabs, along with the rest of the stuff i got from these packs.