he was the best in the west

i recently received my cards back from the last chris potter sports signings.  i sent three cards in, and unfortunately one of the players i wanted cancelled.  luckily, jr richard did not cancel, and he signed my 1978 topps card.

i have no illusions about completing a signed 1978 topps set, but i have about 250-300 of the cards signed and i was happy to add james rodney to the binder.  i also had oscar gamble sign his 1978 topps card

i hope he appreciated not being asked to sign his 1976 topps traded card for a change.  for the record, the third auto i had hoped to get was matt keough's, since he appeared on a rookie card (with lance rautzhan) in the set.

back to richard.  i held out very little hope whenever the dodgers would face him from the time i started following the team (1977) to when richard's career came to an unexpected close (1980).  here is one of his 'final tributes' - 1981 donruss

the back of which explains just what happened to the dominant right hander during the 1980 season

richard made his first all-star appearance in 1980, pitching two innings of scoreless ball while striking out 3.  it figured that he would pitch well - the game was played at dodger stadium.  richard made one more start after the break, lasting 3.1 innings against the braves before being taken out of the game after experiencing numbness in his arm.  he had allowed only one hit, and had four strikeouts - the last three all coming in the second inning.  he would not pitch in the majors again.

here's his 1981 fleer card

with what were to truly be his complete major and minor league batting pitching record

nice uer, fleer.

topps also issued a card of richard in 1981

noting only that he started the 1980 all-star game

richard attempted a comeback with the astros, spending time in the minor leagues in 1982 and 1983, but he was unable to return to the majors.  fleer went ahead and issued a card for him as part of their 1982 set

this time not noting whether his stats on the back were 'batting' or not

topps also released a card for richard in 1982

the text they added at the bottom pretty much reflects my fears and feeling that richard was the best pitcher in the nl west at the time.

sure, tom seaver was with the reds, the braves had phil niekro, gaylord perry was a padre, vida blue was in san fran, and the astros added nolan ryan in 1980, but jr richard was literally unbeatable as far as the dodgers (and this fan) were concerned.

some cards that should have been in 1984

i'm not talking about the 1984 topps traded roger clemens or kirby puckett cards.  no, i'm talking about cards that should have featured players who were a part of the 1978 topps dodgers.  like steve garvey, who played in his 1118th consecutive game in 1983, breaking the national league record held by billy williams.

i was at that game, and was hoping that the 1984 set would have a card commemorating the event.  fleer did issue a card, but it featured a generic batting photo of the garv.

here is the highlight card that should have been.

i used the photo that was on the cover of sports illustrated the following week.  it has been used in some of the 1990's fleer/si sets for a card, too.  here's the back

i made no note of the streak ending since the format of those highlight cards was similar to a news clipping.  the back of the fleer card kind of/sort of addresses the end of the streak, as they note his mark of 1,207 games.

however, they also use the word 'currently', so it's somewhat confusing.  garvey broke his thumb in july and was put on the disabled list for the first time since 1971, ending the streak.

here's another version i made.

it uses a photo from the sports illustrated article, with garvey posing in front of a printout of every box score from the streak.  it's more of the type of photo that i would have expected fleer to use.

don sutton also hit a milestone in 1983, recording his 3000th strikeout on june 24.  he was denied a highlights card because three pitchers passed walter johnson on the all-time k list which is apparently more worthy of a card than simply passing the 3000 mark.  here's my version of the card that should have been.

yes, i used a photo of sutton in a road uni even though the strikeout came at home.

of course, there was another card that should have been, the 1984 topps traded davey lopes card

(lopes went from the a's to the cubs in september) but topps would make us wait until 1986 to get a base card of lopes in a cubs uniform.

so, with that, i will soon be moving on to 1985 in the continuing evolutionary saga of the 1978 topps dodgers.  stay tuned!

a memorial patch for tom cheek

last weekend, the widow of former blue jays' broadcaster tom cheek accepted the ford c. frick award from the national baseball hall of fame on his behalf.  cheek had broadcast every blue jays game from their inaugural contest in 1977 until the 2004 season when he took some time off after his father's death.  later that year, cheek was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  he passed away in 2005.  he is perhaps best known south of the border for his call of joe carter's world series winning home run in 1993.

in 2006, the blue jays wore a patch to honor their broadcaster.  they wore a white patch on their black jerseys and a black patch on their home whites.

here is a 2006 fleer tradition bj ryan card that shows the white patch.

hard to tell for sure, but i assume that ryan is also wearing a breast cancer pin.

another example is the 2006 upper deck francisco rosario card

but the card that will represent the white patch in the binder is this 2007 upper deck vernon wells card (sent to me by jeff of 2x3 heroes)

as for the black patch version, no card is better than this one, frank catalanotto's 2007 upper deck card

that might be even better than the rod beck/harry caray card.

here's to you tom cheek, and congratulations on the frick award.

pwe bombs part 2

here's a peek at the contents of the other 5 pwe bombs i received on friday from jaybarkerfan

pwe #6:

1982 fleer davey lopes

1982 fleer bobby mitchell
2009 ud icons chad billingsley
2007 topps jason schmidt
1996 leaf steel todd hollandsworth

pwe #7:

1997 leaf hideo nomo

2012 topps hong chih kuo
2012 bowman platinum clayton kershaw
2012 bowman platinum matt kemp
2011 bowman prospects allen webster

pwe #8:

1982 topps pedro guerrero

1983 topps ken landreaux

1984 topps steve sax

1985 topps terry whitfield
1986 topps rick honeycutt
1989 topps jay howell
2009 ud opc jonathan broxton

pwe #9:

1997 pinnacle hideo nomo (clout)
1988 fleer star stickers orel hershiser

2004 topps total darren dreifort
2012 topps ted lilly
2012 topps clayton kershaw (league leaders)

pwe #10:

2003 topps brian jordan
2003 topps omar daal
2004 upper deck vintage odalis perez

2011 bowman prospects rafael ynoa

thanks!

jaybarkerfan's pwe bombs reach the midwest

10 pwe bombs greeted me in my mailbox on friday.

all chock full of dodger goodness.

here are the contents of the first five that i opened.

pwe #1:

1981 fleer dusty baker

2008 ud documentary matt kemp
1982 topps ron cey (in action)
2007 topps greg maddux (gold glove)
2009 ud icons clayton kershaw
1987 topps fernando valenzuela glossy all-star

pwe #2:

2010 upper deck andre ethier (biography)
2009 topps update & highlights orlando hudson (all-star)

2009 topps update & highlights jonathan broxton (all-star)
2012 topps chad billingsley
2009 topps update & highlights george sherrill

pwe #3:

1981 topps traded ken landreaux

1992 topps chris gwynn
2006 topps update & highlights derek lowe (league leader)

i wonder how topps determined who would get to be on the front of the card?  it's cool that lowe got the top spot, but it could have been one of six guys.  there could have been another dodger, too, as brad penny also had 16 wins.

1984 topps greg brock
2006 topps update & highlights jd drew (classic duos)

2009 topps randy wolf
2012 topps hiroki kuroda

pwe #4:

2010 upper deck clayton kershaw

2010 upper deck jeff weaver
2010 upper deck hiroki kuroda
2010 upper deck james loney
2010 upper deck dodger stadium

pwe #5:

2009 topps update & highlights chad billingsley (all-star)

2002 upper deck vintage kevin brown
2003 topps paul loduca
2010 upper deck randy wolf

good stuff!

one, possibly two, garvey moments in time

i have been remiss in showing many of the newer steve garvey cards that have found their way into my collection. pat from hot corner cards recently sent me an envelope that contained this card from 2012 topps

when i first saw this card, i thought that the 'finding the finish line' tag would refer to the end of his consecutive games played streak, or maybe the world series title he helped the dodgers win after failing in 3 previous fall classics.  but, no.  it refers to a walk off home run that garvey hit against the padres in 1982.

sadly, that turned out to be the last home run garvey would hit as a member of the dodgers.

pat included some other cards from 1990 score, including a bip roberts card.

now, i have received a 1990 score bip roberts card from another blogger (and posted about it) before.

in the comments to that post, rod from padrographs (who sent me the bip) noted that it looked like garvey was waiting his turn on deck.  could this card really be a garvey lurker card?  i didn't think so at the time, but i was forced to take a closer look after opening the envelope from hcc.  it certainly looks like garvey.  however, garvey and bip were only teammates on the 1986 padres team - in 1987 (garvey's last year), bip spent the whole season in the minors.  would score use a photo from 1986 in their 1990 product? furthermore, garvey usually hit after kevin mcreynolds in 1986.  to make matters worse, the padre road unis were the same in 1986 as they were in 1989.

based on the photo, it looks like the pads are playing in shea stadium, so i took a look at bip's appearances there during the '86 campaign.  bip appeared in two games at shea in 1986 - as a pinch runner on september 6, and as the second baseman in the second game of a double header the following day.  garvey got that day off.  in all of his at bats that day, bip only went to the right side (as he appears to be doing in the photo) once.  he flew out to right in the second inning.  the person who should have been on deck at that time was the pitcher, ed wojna.  here's wojna's 1987 donruss card which i just happen to have at the ready thanks to the nice dodger stadium background.

and the ray a kroc memorial patch (post coming soon).

based on the photo on the donruss card, it could be wojna standing there, waiting to bat.  however, wojna's 1987 topps card shows him pitching against the mets with sleeves under his jersey, similar to what he is wearing on the card above.  if that photo comes from his start at shea in 1986, then the bip card doesn't feature wojna on deck.  i suppose that, at some point, garvey could have come on deck as a decoy pinch hitter, but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  so maybe the photo is from 1989 after all.  of course, bip hit in front of robbie alomar that year, except for a few times including a game at shea in which he hit in front of rob nelson.  the problem with that scenario is that nelson hit from the left side, and the guy on deck is wearing a right handed hitter's helmet.

after all that, i don't know what to think.  any suggestions?

thanks pat!

i found another way to love the 2012 topps update adam kennedy card

remember how much i love(d) this card?  the 2012 topps update adam kennedy card?

in addition to the base, there was the black bordered version

and the blue bordered version from wal-mart.

the gold bordered version, numbered to 2012.

the gold sparkle version

and the version from target with red borders

there is the silk version

and, i also have a base version signed.

outside of a printing plate, i thought i had them all.  i was wrong.  a week or so ago, i stumbled across this - an orange bordered parallel

it's numbered to 210, and apparently was part of a factory update set.  is nice, no?  at any rate, it completes the 9-pocket page for this particular card.  thanks to the person who bought a factory set of this and broke it up.  i would expect that giants and orioles fans might go for the singles, too, but i'm not pursuing any more of the orange cards from the set.  although if you have some dodgers to trade, i am open to it...