archives reminded me of something

i did buy a blaster (value box) of 2015 topps archives at target last week, and used my $5 off coupon correctly in doing so.  i didn't come across any dodgers, but did get a card of former dodger dee gordon

which features the los angeles dodgers bat knob decal, even though he's in marlins gear.  and, let's just say that i am glad that the marlins weren't around in 1976 because the color combo topps went with for their cards in the 1976 design is gross.

seeing dee's card, however, as well as that of daniel murphy

and brian dozier

reminded me that i am collecting the second baseman cards from 1976 topps for my double play collection.  keeping dozier's card in mind, here's another twins card with the same design - 1976 topps jerry terrell

topps kept the double play figures, but changed the wording from the place where one plays, to who one is on the ball field.  not sure why.  brian dozier is a second baseman, while jerry terrell played second base.  both are acceptable as far as i am concerned.

here are some other 1976 topps cards featuring men who played second base according to the set.

tito fuentes

and his teammate hector torres

bruce miller

jack brohamer

rod gilbreath

kurt bevacqua

whom tommy lasorda was not a fan of, and his teammate bob sheldon

sandy alomar

who would be replaced in the bronx by willie randolph

larry lintz

who replaced herb washington as the designated pinch-runner for charlie finley's a's - seriously, he played in 68 games for the a's in 1976, but only spent parts of 5 of those games in the field at second base, with only 3 other games including time at other defensive positions.  he did steal 31 bases, however, and it would have been fantastic for topps to have a pinch-runner position in this set.  alas, they did not.

last, but not least, future dodger teddy martinez

many of these players had multiple positions listed on the backs of their cards, but there could only be one position on the front in 1976.

i haven't gone through my 1976 set to figure out how many more i need for the dp collection, but i know that there are two i don't - joe morgan and rod carew both had the double play wiped out by the all-star star on their cards.  as for 2015 topps archives, i know i need kolten wong (my non-dodger bonus nefarious 9 need), but there may be others.  i could use a little help...

henry cruz and geoff zahn through the mail successes!

few men have sported sunglasses on baseball cards as well as former dodger henry cruz.  he recently signed some cards for me through the mail, and each one of them is a revelation in recreational eye wear.

here's his 1975 sspc card

and here's his 1976 topps rookie card upon which his style of sunglasses has changed.

there are three very recognizable outfielders (chet lemon, ellis valentine, and terry whitfield - a future dodger) from the late 1970's/early 1980's on that card next to cruz, who hit .266 in 53 games with the 1975 dodgers, and then just .182 in 49 games for the club in '76.  he did have a two-home run game as a dodger in 1976, which was nice.  in fact, that game was 39 years ago yesterday!

towards the end of the 1977 season, a season in which the dodgers kept him in the minor leagues, cruz was picked up on waivers by the white sox where he became teammates with chet lemon, and thus we have a 1978 topps card that looks like this

yes, cruz signed one of those for me, too.  those glasses look more like the ones from his sspc card above.

i was hoping to have another signed 1978 topps card to show, but geoff zahn hasn't returned it yet.  i'm hoping that he does, but until then, he did send his 1975 topps card back to me

signed and with a bible verse reference.

cruz and zahn were teammates briefly in 1975 (zahn was traded to the cubs early in the season), with cruz playing left field in both of zahn's games as a dodger that year.  with the way zahn seems to be squinting in the dodger stadium sun, perhaps he could have used a pair of cruz's shades.

thanks to both cruz and zahn for signing my cards!

three c's and a big d from fuji

everybody's favorite teacher from the bay area sent me some cards recently. you'd think by the title of this post that i didn't fare so well, as my gpa wouldn't be good enough to be academically eligible for the school's baseball team. however, a 'd' and three 'c's when it comes to dodger cards is pretty darn good.

here's a 1980 tcma 1959 world champions don drysdale card

drysdale was the winning pitcher in game 3 of the 1959 world series. he helped beat the white sox and bring the first los angeles dodger championship home, just four years after the franchise won it's first ever world series.

the three c's i received were these ron cey cards - 1976 topps, 2000 fleer greats of the game, and 1982 kellogg's

cey, of course, helped the dodgers win the 1981 world series - beating the yankees for only the third time in 11 tries.  note the helmet cey is wearing in the kellogg's card photo - no earflap.  he would be beaned in the head by goose gossage during the '81 world series and switch to an earflap helmet after that.

thanks for the cards fuji! enjoy your spring break!

the next two pages in the steve garvey binder get us through 1978

here's the fourth sheet in the first of two steve garvey binders that contain the regular issue stuff, plus some oddballs that fit in regular sized 9-pocket sheets.

this sheet contains:

1. 1975 sspc
2. 1976 topps dodger team
3. 1976 topps
4. 1977 burger chef disc
5. 1977 hostess
6. 1977 hostess twinkie
7. 1977 kellogg's
8. 1977 o-pee-chee
9. 1977 topps

as you'll recall from the previous post, the 1975 sspc card is mixed in with the 1976 cards, since i used to catalog that set as a 1976 set.  now i call it a 1975 release based on the copyright date on the backs.  speaking of backs, here's the back of the sheet

which is best used to note the difference between the regular hostess issue and the twinkie version.  the twinkie card has that black bar on the back.

here's page number 5

which features:

1. 1977 topps dodger team
2. 1977 topps cloth sticker
3. 1977 topps cloth sticker nl all-star team/checklist
4. 1978 o-pee-chee
5. 1978 pepsi (trimmed)
6. 1978 sspc
7. 1978 topps
8. 1978 topps dodger team
9. 1978 wiffle ball disc

and the backs

the 1977 o-pee-chee card is more similar to the 1977 topps cloth sticker than the 1977 topps card due to the absence of the all-star banner, but you already knew all about those types of o-pee-chee variations, right?

there are a bunch of msa disc variations that i don't have from this span of garvey releases (with the others that i do own sitting in the oddball binder due to their size), but that's about all i'm missing here.  for some reason, both hostess and kellogg's left the garv out of their 1978 sets, which is unfortunate.

next up, 1979...

i forgot the 5th infielder!

earlier today i posted four cards that i received from matthew at bob walk the plank - each a dodger infielder (or in the case of dee gordon and hanley ramirez, former dodger infielders).  i must admit that i forgot that there was a fifth card in the trade package, one that featured another infielder - just not a dodger.  it was this 2014 topps 1976 topps tito fuentes 75th anniversary buyback

i had asked for tito due to the double play turning second baseman that topps used back in '76.  i put a 1976 topps davey lopes card in my double play collection when i first began assembling it, and i recently decided to add all of the second basemen from 1976 topps.  now i just need to figure out which ones i have in my doubles box and go from there since i won't be breaking up my set for these guys.  i suppose i need to look through the fan favorites sets for this design, too...

thanks again matthew!

remembering roberto clemente

it's been 41 years since roberto clemente died in an act of service on new year's eve 1972.  in 1973, the pirates honored their fallen teammate first by wearing strips of black material during spring training.  luke walker's 1974 topps card represents that memorial in my binder

once the season began, however, the pirates switched to a circular patch with clemente's number 21 inside.  here's ramon hernandez's 1974 topps card showing the patch

another hernandez card represents that memorial in my collection - his 1974 o-pee-chee card

which, by the way, has a curious back.

there's a fair amount of information missing there.

the clemente tribute showed up in a later set, as topps used old photos in future releases.  take richie hebner's 1976 topps card, for example

or even lou brock's 1976 topps card, featuring jackie hernandez in the background with the patch visible on his left sleeve

25 years after his death, the pirates wore another patch in clemente's honor.  this time, they wore it on their right sleeves, as seen on kevin young's 1998 topps card

here's a better look at the patch.

we almost get a full glimpse of it on francisco cordova's 1998 upper deck card

but jose guillen's 1998 donruss collections leaf card is probably the clearest example i have

i believe that the pirates wore these patches at home in lieu of the jackie robinson patch.  the white sox did something familiar, but i'll cover that in a future post.  the 1998 cards don't show up in my binder since they aren't the 'official' memorial patches.

to close out this post (and the year), here are a couple clemente cards released well after his death.

1987 donruss

and 2001 topps golden moments subset

he was a good one.

happy new year everybody!

a helping of leftovers - more ttm successes to be thankful for

well, i hope the turkey and football and pie and gelatinous cranberry from a can has served you well today.  i am taking another moment to be thankful for some through the mail successes.  these are way down the list of things i am truly thankful for, but they rate fairly high in terms of collecting related things to be thankful for.  hopefully that makes sense.

here's a 1961 topps jim golden card

not sure why i hadn't sent a request to golden before a couple of weeks ago.  he may be best remembered for being one of the guys that the dodgers got from philadelphia in exchange for sparky anderson.  he was also traded for nellie fox later in his career.

thanks jim!

another former dodger, chad kreuter, signed a couple of cards for me a couple of years ago.  here's his 2001 topps card

and his 2002 topps card

kreuter may be best remembered for being the first dodgers since (i believe) reggie smith to go into the stands after a fan.  in kreuter's case, a fan in chicago stole his hat, and chad wanted it back.  it was the incident that led to kevin malone being referred to as 'the sheriff', as i recall.

thanks chad!

now for a 2005 topps update & highlights blake dewitt card

dewitt signed that one for me shortly after he left la for chicago.

thanks blake!

from one blake to another, here are a couple of casey blake cards that the former dodger signed for me through the mail.

2009 topps allen & ginter

looks nice!

2010 topps

thanks casey!

the last few are of the non-dodger variety, and are mostly due to my desire for more signed 1978 topps cards. first, though, there is this 1973 topps don kessinger card

followed, of course, by his 1978 topps card

love the lapels, by the way.  kessinger was named player-manager of the white sox for the 1979 season, and so he got two cards in the 1979 set, which i thought was pretty cool.  topps had done the same for frank robinson in 1975, but for some reason only gave him the team card in 1976 and 1977.  silly topps.

thanks don!

here's kessinger's teammate and subordinate, eric soderholm

soderholm was the first overall pick of the 1968 draft (january secondary) when he was taken by the twins.  appropriately, he also signed a 1976 topps card from his tenure in minnesota.

off the top of my head, i think this brings the number of former number 1 overall picks in my ttm autograph collection to 7 - soderholm, rick monday, tim foli, floyd bannister, bill almon, tim belcher, and josh hamilton - although i think most don't consider the secondary draft to be a true number 1 overall pick.  i think of that particular draft to be the one wherein the dodgers picked davey lopes in the 2nd round.  but i digress.

thanks eric!

back on topic - here's a 1978 topps bill castro card

and a 1978 topps card of his teammate, lary sorensen

thanks bill and lary!

don wilson remembered

don wilson's name was mentioned on mlb network a couple of weeks ago after homer bailey threw his second no-hitter.  that's because wilson had two of his own.  during his career, wilson logged double-digit win totals in each of his 8 full seasons with the astros.  he made the all-star team once, and finished fourth in the league in strikeouts in 1969.  prior to the 1975 season, however, the 29-year old wilson died.  for more information, it's probably best to check out the a great article on wilson that mike lynch at seamheads put together.

here is don wilson's 1975 topps card

which i borrowed from night owl's 1975 topps blog

early in the 1975 season, the astros retired wilson's number 40, and his teammates wore a memorial patch on their uniforms. it is prominently featured here on wilbur howard's 1976 topps card

as well as that of rob andrews

but for my memorials binder, i'll use this 1975 sspc card of bob watson

the card seems to have the appropriate tone to it.