still working my way through the steve garvey oddball binder

i haven't posted any pages from my steve garvey binders lately.  my goal is to post my entire garvey collection (at least what's in binders which really only leaves a couple of prints/posters) by the end of the year.  i'd better get moving if that's going to happen.

here are a few more sheets from the oddball binder.  i call it the oddball binder because it contains not only oddballs (duh), but also non-traditional sized cards, and other types of garvey stuff.  case in point - this circa 1971 dodger team issue photograph and a 1971 ticketron dodgers card

the photo is blank on the back, but the ticketron has the team's 1971 schedule on the back

i find it interesting to see that so few day games were played, and quaint that the lone weekday afternoon game was a special event. i guess 'getaway day' didn't matter as much back then.  more likely, the union hadn't addressed the issue of travel yet.

here are a couple of oversized cards that i've shown before from the 1977-79 sportscaster set

garvey got his own card, and then showed up on the all-star game card with joe morgan and carlton fisk.  here are the backs (they are flipped, so the one on the left is the all-star back)

i appreciate garvey showing up on another card, and it seems that the point of the photo was to show division rivals playing together for one night.  newer fans might not think much about it, but the dodger/red rivalry was a big deal when i was growing up. the big red machine and the big blue wrecking crew in the same division made for some good games and a healthy rivalry.

here are garvey's four dodger police cards.

issued beginning in 1980, garvey showed up in the inaugural set (upper left), the 1981 set, (upper right) and then appeared on two cards in 1982 - the world series celebration card and his solo card.

the backs are pretty interesting.  i appreciate the dodgers using garvey's throwing problems as an example of a tough situation that garvey had to work his way through.  if this card were published today, i would say that there are a few other tough situations he's had to deal with that would be better examples.

now we have reached the padres portion of the post.  here are, clockwise from the upper left, a 1983 topps foldout card, a 1984 donruss action all-stars card, a 1984 donruss champions card, and a 1986 donruss all-stars card

here are the backs (again, they are flipped)

bill madlock makes an appearance on the reverse side of the garvey foldout.  the mad dog's .316 average was tied with george brett for the second best career average among active players behind rod carew's .331.  garvey was down at 13, tied with fred lynn at .301.  not sure why carl hubbell is on the back of garvey's 1984 donruss champions card though.

i mentioned up above that my bindered garvey collection does not include posters.  well, it does include one - this 1984 sports illustrated poster that folds nicely to fit in a one-pocket ultra pro page.

i received it from another garvey collector - mrmopar - whose garvey collection is superior to mine.  i still have a bunch of oddballs to show, however, so stay tuned.

roy campanella and peter o'malley attended the 1977 all-star game

and, o'malley (in the blue plaid blazer) was apparently starstruck at the sight of commissioner bowie kuhn (with his hand on campanella's shoulder) while campy was decidedly less impressed.  at least that is what this recently acquired 1977-79 sportscaster card has me thinking.

this was the last of the dodger sportscaster cards that i needed.  i had been watching a few versions of it for the past few months, and finally decided to pull the trigger.  it's really a fascinating card.  at first, i assumed that it featured a photo taken at dodger stadium - perhaps during the 1977 or 1978 world series because of kuhn's presence.  to be sure, i did some research on the program that the guy in front of o'malley is holding.  it turned out to be the program from the 1977 all-star game.

so, unless that guy carried that program around with him, the photo was taken in yankee stadium on july 19, 1977.  i don't know who the guy with the program is, but the guy to his left (behind kuhn) looks way familiar.  anybody know who he is?

this is the second card in my collection showing campy in his wheelchair, the other being his 1959 topps symbol of courage card.  in fact, the only cards i have of his from his playing days are a 1955 bowman and the 1957 topps dodger sluggers card.  so, i am now officially setting my sights on his solo 1957 topps card. i'll worry about his '52 high number later.

fu dh

[this post, which has been sitting as a draft for a long time in one form or another, has finally been written for round 1 of the nachos grande contest.]

pitchers, at least in the national league, take batting practice.  sure, i suppose that american league pitchers try to figure out which end of the bat to hold on to in the days leading up to interleague games, but for the national league pitchers, an at bat is an every-game occurrence.  here's shawn estes practicing bunting on a 1995 upper deck collector's choice card.

i live in an american league city but grew up in national league territory.  i prefer national league rules.  when i first moved to minny, i promised myself that i would travel once a year (at least) to see national league baseball, and i did - maybe not every year, but most.  i don't care for the dh, even though it allows nice guys like jim thome or personal favorites like mike piazza to extend their careers.  however, with the game becoming so specialized, most pitchers can't hit.  heck, they can't even bunt.  as a result, i am slowly becoming resigned to the inevitability of the dh rule extending to the national league.  with an odd number of teams in each league and the pure idiocy of playing by different rules depending upon which stadium you are in, it just doesn't make sense to have pitchers bat anymore.  when it happens, i will miss the strategy part of the game, and i will miss seeing pitchers as batters on baseball cards.

those things even now are a fairly rare sight, and i know that;s probably why a few bloggers out there collect such cards.  furthermore, i know that pretty much everyone has seen what are (in my opinion) two of the greatest cards to feature hurlers as hitters.  of course i am talking about this 1994 upper deck all time heroes don newcombe

and this 1973 topps jim kaat card.

but did you also know that there was a 1977-79 sportscaster card dedicated to this topic?  it featured a pretty good hitting pitcher, too.  sadly, it featured him delivering a pitch, making the title of the card a bit ambiguous

were the crafty italians suggesting that big d was a good hitter, or that he enjoyed hitting pitchers with his pitches?  the back clarifies that it was the former.

lots of good information there, and not just about newcombe and don drysdale.  those guys didn't need a designated hitter, that's for sure.  it's too bad, however, that there is no mention on the back of that card regarding another dodger pitcher who could swing a mean stick.  i'm referring to that 'fat tub of goo' terry forster.  although not a slugger, forster hit .397 on his career, with 31 hits in 78 at bats.  for the dodgers, however, he was just 4 for 12.  i think i have noted this before, but of all the players to have a better career batting average than ty cobb, it is terry forster who has the most hits.

maybe i am biased, but it seemed to me that the dodgers always had good hitting pitchers.  besides newk and drysdale, there was forster and rick sutcliffe, fernando valenzuela (who is taking a nice cut on his 1990 upper deck card)

and orel hershiser (who hit .356 in 1993).  i remember going to a dodger game with my dad circa 1979, and seeing don sutton get a base hit.  it's actually the only thing i remember vividly from that game, probably because i fixated on how surprised the guy next to me seemed to be at the prospect of a pitcher (or maybe just sutton) stroke a clean single to center.  and then there is what is one of my all-time favorite dodger moments (i wrote about it here) which came during the 1988 season when tim leary pinch hit in an extra-innings game against the giants and drove in the winning run with a base hit.  good times all around.

getting back to cards, here's one of another dodger pitcher taking his hacks - ismael valdes and his 1997 upper deck collector's choice issue

the photo is a mirage of sorts - valdes hit only .088 in '97.

on his 1997 upper deck card, hideo nomo is almost striking a pose in the batter's box.

the text at the bottom tells us that he stroked two doubles in a game during what must have been the 1995 postseason, but the date is wrong.  it wasn't 10/10/95 (the dodgers were eliminated from the playoffs by then), it was 6/9/96, and nomo was 2 for 2 with 2 doubles in a 3-2 win over cincy.  those two hits raised his average to .167.  nomo was not a good hitter, but he took some pretty violent cuts.  every once in a while, he would send a ball on a long journey, even hitting a handful of home runs over the course of his career.

there are other cards of pitchers batting that look halfway decent, like estes' teammate allen watson on his 1997 topps card

and bunting mark buerhle on his 2004 topps card

this card is a 1995 upper deck special edition card of the big unit (he of the .125 career batting average) - a card i sent to a fellow blogger who collects such things.

that just looks awkward.  maybe it won't be a bad thing when pitchers don't hit.  until then, national league hurlers, keep practicing your bunting.  there are some of us out there who still appreciate it.

sportscaster goodness - sandy koufax

i picked up another sportscaster card recently - this one features sandy koufax as the subject

here's the back

norm sherry gets a mention thanks to his sage advice, but there is another story centering around koufax's early career that wasn't included on the card, even though we seem to hear a lot more about it.  that's probably due to the fact that the central figure in that story is more vocal about it than sherry seems to be regarding his koufax influencing tale.  i am referring, of course, to the fact that tommy lasorda was the player demoted to make room for koufax on the dodgers' 1955 roster.

i am down to needing just one sportscaster card to complete my dodger team set - i've got my eye on you, roy campanella!

the evolution of the ace, part 2

here we are with the second installment of the non-scientific evolutionary chain of the dodgers' ace.  we left off part one with gomer, and we start part two with don sutton.

don sutton (1971-1973, 1976)

don sutton, much to my chagrin, is the only hall of famer to be part of the team of my youth.  from 1971-1973, sutton averaged 18 wins a year.  he won 19 in 1973, and finished in 5th place in the cy young award voting in both 1972 and 1973.  he finished in the top five in strikeouts each of the three years, and his 9 shutouts and sub-1.00 whip led the league in 1972.  in 1976, sutton reclaimed the ace spot from andy messersmith (see below), by winning 20 games (21, actually) for the only time in his career.  sutton also finished 3rd in the cy young voting, and 22nd in the league mvp vote that year.

sutton actually finished in the top 5 of the cy young voting in 1974 and 1975 as well, but both times he was behind (or tied with) teammate andy messersmith (1974-1975)

messersmith finished 2nd in the vote following the 1974 season (behind teammate mike marshall) and then tied with sutton at 5th in 1975.  his 1974 season included 20 wins and a 1.10 whip (both of which led the league) as well as 221 strikeouts (good for 2nd in the national league).  in 1975, messersmith earned 19 wins and posted a 2.29 era.  he also led the league in starts, complete games, shutouts, innings pitched and hits/9 innings.  he also appeared twice in relief - earning a save in one of those appearances.

tommy john (1977)

tommy john was just two seasons removed from his eponymous surgery when he went 20-7 with a 2.78 era in 1977.  he also threw 11 complete games and 3 shutouts and finished 2nd in the cy young balloting.

burt hooton (1978-1979)

like john before him, hooton finished 2nd in the cy young voting after the 1978 season.  he had gone 19-10 with a 2.71 era in 32 starts, and also had 10 complete games with three of them being shutouts.  in 1979, the dodgers were not a first place team, but happy was still the ace - posting an era of 2.97 but being rewarded with a 11-10 record.  i gave the nod to hooton in 1979 over rookie of the year rick sutcliffe (17-10, 3.46) because hooton surpassed sutcliffe in pretty much every category other than wins.  i don't want to overvalue wins as a measurement of ace, even though my definition is obviously subjective. sorry sutt!  all of the other dodger starters (except for spot starter charlie hough) had losing records and substantially higher eras than hooton did in 1979, including the dodger ace of 1980.

jerry reuss (1980)

reuss joined the list of dodger pitchers to finish second in the cy young voting when he went 18-6 with 3 saves and a 2.51 era in 1980.  he also had 10 complete games, 6 of which were shutouts (the most in the league), and a no-hitter against the giants.  in candlestick, no less.

fernando valenzuela (1981-1982, 1986)

fernandomania touched down in 1981 as another lefty claimed the mantle of ace.  fernando made the opening day start only after it was determined that reuss could not, and went on to rattle off 5 straight complete games, 4 of which were shutouts, in his first 5 starts.  he went 9 innings in his next three starts, too, although it took 10 innings for the dodgers to win his 6th start, although he got the win as he did in all 7 of his other initial 8 starts.  after that, fernando was just 5-7 but finished the strike-shortened campaign at 13-7 with a 2.48 era, and was atop the league leader board in starts, complete games, shutouts, innings pitched and strikeouts.  he also took home some hardware as the league's rookie of the year and cy young award winner.  el toro was a 19 game winner in 1982, and then won 21 games for the blue in 1986 with a league leading 20 complete games and a personal best 242 strikeouts, good enough for second place in the cy young award voting. in between 1982 and 1986, however, fernando was outshone by a couple of other dodger starters.
 
bob welch (1983)

welch went 15-12 in 1983 (fernando was 15-10) and his 2.65 era was the best among dodger starters.  in addition, his 1.16 whip was just slightly higher than that of alejandro pena among the dodgers in the rotation.  maybe i am including welch here just so i can show his nice 1983 fleer card with dodger stadium and ron cey lurking in the background.

alejandro pena (1984)

pena was 12-6 with a league leading 2.48 era for the dodgers in 1984.  he made 28 starts and completed 8 of them, 4 by shutout.  oddly, it was the final season of pena's career in which he was used exclusively as a starter.

orel hershiser was the team's ace in 1985, but i'll cover him in the next post since he also held that title by my estimation later in the decade.

sportscaster goodness: what's your opinion of kingman's card?

first - i have updated the first installment in the sportscaster goodness posts which dealt with the dugout seats, keeping score, and vin scully.  i added a link to dylan hernandez's column from the other day which touched on some of those topics as well.

now then - i, for one, applaud dave kingman's performance on his 1977-79 sportscaster card which shows kong signing autographs in dodger stadium!

maybe he's signing the farmer john ad!  here's the back, which is refreshingly direct in its prose about kingman

kingman, of course, let his bat do the talking in a game against the dodgers in which he hit three homers.  and, it was tommy lasorda who more famously did the talking in a post game q&a session.

speaking of kingman and homers, he finished his career well above 400, which would have earned him a mention on this sportscaster card

instead, it's the duke of flatbush who gets the honor.  i am fairly sure that the photo used is from the 1959 world series in which the duke hit his 11th and final career world series home run. those 11 dingers, of course, did not count towards his membership in the 400-homer club.  if they had, he would have had exactly 400 as a dodger.  well, i guess technically he did have 400 as a dodger, just not all in the regular season.  here's the back

for the record, there are currently 47 players who have hit over 400 home runs for their career.  kingman is 38th on that list, and snider is low man at 47.  paul konerko needs just 4 homers this year to join the club.  back to kingman for a moment - his sportscaster card reminded me of one of my favorite non-dodger dodger stadium cards - the 1998 upper deck vladimir guerrero card

super cool.  oh, and vladdy has 449 homers to his name - 7 more than kingman.

sportscaster goodness - steve garvey

steve garvey was featured on two 1977-79 sportscaster cards - the all-star card and one of his own, shown below

the back is chock full of the steve garvey story highlights - the batboy years, the michigan state years, the 1974 all-star write-in and mvp, and the 200-hit seasons.

i appreciate the fact that the card also recognizes that his all-american image was 'resented by some' (don sutton, anyone?).  it's a fact that i overlooked as a youngster - a youngster who wished he attended steve garvey junior high school.

sportscaster goodness - davey lopes, pickle brine and the double bubble

over three years ago, i wrote about that iconic 1976 topps card featuring kurt bevacqua and a giant bubble. a true 'bubble-gum' card.  well, it turns out that that card was not the only one to address what apparently was an annual contest.  here's a 1977-79 sportscaster card that sheds more light on big leaguers blowing bubbles for fame and glory.  and, it just happens to feature davey lopes in a scene from dodger stadium!

here's the back, which gives some great information on the best bubble blowers of the day.

i find it curious, however, that steve yeager bested andy messersmith for the dodger crown in 1975, when the back of that 1976 topps card lists rick rhoden as their representative in the contest.  could there have been more than one tournament?  there is no mention of bevacqua's crown - just a third place finish in 1976.  however, the best bit of information here is the use of pickle brine by messersmith.  i've heard of people using pickle brine as a chaser after shots of whisky, but not for lip maintenance.  strange.

sportscaster goodness - bill buckner gets back to first

who would you choose to grace the front of the 1977-79 sportscaster card?  lou brock?  he would have been a good choice, although by the late 1970's he was no longer the yearly league leader in steals.  omar moreno, then?  ok - or how about davey lopes?  that's who i expected to see thanks to the checklist over at teamsets4u.  imagine my surprise when i picked up the card and saw none other than...bill buckner?

yes, that's billy buck diving back to first base under the glove of willie stargell in chavez ravine.  buckner and lopes had similar mustaches, but davey wore 15, not 22.  the back is all about the strategy and notes that keeping the runner close at first (as shown in the photo) helps prevent steals.  not necessarily double steals, however.

anyway, it turns out that buckner really wasn't that bad of a subject for this card.  he actually did steal bases back when he had good knees and ankles.  he had 31 in 1974 and 28 in 1976 when this photo was taken (i am pretty sure that is the 100th anniversary patch on his sleeve).  just for fun i took a look at buckner's game logs from 1976.  he stole 3 bases against the pirates at dodger stadium that year.  each time he stole second but was the only baserunner.  he was also caught stealing once, but again was the only runner on base at the time of the attempt.  no double steals.

still, it's a cool card - made even better thanks to the unexpected appearance of billy buck. 

sportscaster goodness - the perfect game

two and two to harvey kuenn.  one strike away.  sandy into his windup.  here's the pitch.  swung on and missed - a perfect game!  i never tire of hearing vin scully's call of koufax's perfect game against the cubs in september of 1965.  sportscaster wisely chose koufax to grace its card teaching children all over the world about the perfect game - 27 up, and 27 down.

koufax's perfect game came at dodger stadium, so we know the photo used on the card comes from some other game.  the 1965 world series, perhaps?  it might also be 1959 or 1963, but it's not 1966, as jim gilliam (who is seen lurking as the third baseman in the background) only played in the first two games of the series against baltimore, both of which were played in la.  just like sandy's perfect game.

for the record, gilliam started at third that night against the cubs.  he fielded one ball - a 6th inning roller by don kessinger - and was hitless just like all but one of his teammates.

koufax was the 8th pitcher to throw perfection.  since that night in 1965, there have been 12 others - 11 of which came after this card was printed.  i am happy that this card features the dodgers and their maestro of perfection instead of that photo of yogi berra jumping into don larsen's arms.  

here's to you sandy!

sportscaster goodness - tommy lasorda

tommy lasorda is signaling 'touchdown' on his 1977-79 sportscaster card

and here's the back:

nice to see that the folks in italy realized that no summary of tommy's life is complete without a reference to bleeding dodger blue or his friendship with frank sinatra, although they didn't mention the big dodger in the sky.  or pasta.  or his opinion of kingman's performance.

it's been 16 years since lasorda was forced to retire as manager of the dodgers.  since then we've had billy russell, glenn hoffman, davey johnson, jim tracy, grady little, joe torre, and don mattingly.  not one of them has taken the team to the world series or, for that matter, has claimed to bleed dodger blue.

here's to you tommy!

sportscaster goodness - johnny bench, dodger lurkers, and joe mauer's sideburns

when i was a kid, i didn't care much for johnny bench.  first of all, he was on the reds who at that time were a bigger nl west rival to the dodgers than the giants.  secondly, he was the best catcher in the national league and in my mind prevented steve yeager from being an all-star catcher every season.  lastly, he had a couple of rings that steve yeager didn't have.  over time, i learned to respect the talent (and the cool cards topps made of bench - especially 1973 and 1976) although i have never purchased a can of krylon paint.  i don't care if there are 'no runs, no drips, no errors.'

so, imagine my joy when i came across this card - a 1977-79 sportscaster card with steve yeager about to drill the living snot out of bench

that's a fantastically cropped photo.  here's the back, which is all about the different kinds of interference one might encounter on the baseball diamond

i'm not sure if i agree that catcher's interference is all that common.  the photo on the front really isn't referred to at all until you get to the caption at the bottom which explains that blocking the plate isn't interference.  i have a lot of respect for guys like ray fosse and mike scioscia who blocked the plate to their own detriment.

bench also had a sportscaster card of his very own, on which he again shared space with a dodger

this photo looks like it is from the late 1960's or early 1970's considering the uniforms, the shinguards and the joe mauer sideburns bench is sporting.  i'm pretty sure that the number on the dodger uniform is 15.  knowing that bench debuted in 1967, it could be bob miller except that miller was a right-handed batter.  from 1968 through 1970, tom haller (a fellow backstop) wore 15.  he hit from the left side, and when he went to the tigers in 1971, dick allen took the number 15.  then, starting in 1972, davey lopes wore 15 and held it through the 1981 campaign.

so, it looks like the background lurker is tom haller.  i'm hoping bench dropped the pop up.

here's to you, johnny bench.  these two cards, at least, look better with dodgers on them.

sportscaster goodness - the triple play. sort of.

here's another 1977-79 sportscaster card i haven't shown before.  it celebrates the ultimate rally killer - the triple play.  of course, it does so by showing a double play turn at second base.

i know that this is not a play within a triple play thanks to the back.

we are told that rick burleson (featured on the front) "figured in red sox triple play", but with a review of baseball's triple plays from the 1970's we learn that the triple play in which burleson was involved consisted of him catching a line drive, stepping on second to put out a wayward runner, and throwing to first to triple up another guy who strayed too far.  that event took place against the california angels - not the kansas city royals (hello, amos otis).  

since the card is 30-some years old, some of the text is out of date.  there have now been 15 unassisted triple plays in major league history, with the most recent occurring on august 23, 2009.  on that day, eric bruntlett of the phillies retired three mets on a single play, becoming the second person to record a game ending unassisted triple play.