27 July 2013

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!

1 comment:

Bo said...

That does look like a young Robbie Alomar.