more brown and yellow from the steve garvey binders

the 18th sheet of the steve garvey binders begins with a different former dodger wearing the san diego brown and yellow. i'll explain below.

so, those cards are:

1. 1985 topps dick williams
2. 1985 topps glossy all-star
3. 1985 topps pete rose #81
4. 1985 topps rubdown
5. 1985 topps stickers (foil top)
6. 1985 topps stickers (foil bottom)
7. 1985 topps stickers (nlcs - batting)
8. 1985 topps stickers (nlcs - posed)
9. 1985 topps stickers (foil)

the dick williams card is here because steve garvey is lurking in the background, signing autographs for his legion of fans.  two cards over is another card in which garvey is a background lurker.  it comes from a 1985 set produced by topps that features nothing but pete rose.  there are 120 cards in the set, which seems excessive, but i was happy to find card number 81 in the set that shows the scene at first base following hit number 4192.  i think that it's pretty cool that garvey was on the field for both babe ruth's career home run record being broken as well as the passing of ty cobb's career hit record (although some statistic scrubbing in the following years would show that rose actually passed cobb in an earlier game).

the rubdown 'card' is the same as the 1984 version with only the copyright date changing, but it gives bill russell another reason to be in the garvey collection.

here are the backs:

the back of the rose card shows how far they were reaching for content - hey mr. hit king! how important is batting practice?  jeez.  you can also see that i did not keep the rubdown instructions as i did with the 1984 version.

here's sheet 19, which transitions into 1986

the cards are:

1. 1985 topps stickers
2. 1985 topps tiffany (record breaker)
3. 1985 topps tiffany
4. 1986 burger king
5. 1986 cunningham
6. 1986 donruss
7. 1986 fleer
8. 1986 fleer (superstar special)
9. 1986 fleer league leaders

here are the backs

i think burger king confused baseball with football - there are no all-pros in baseball.  the fleer superstar special card features a photo from the 1985 all-star game (not all-pro game) in minneapolis.  garvey, dale murphy, and dave parker represented the national league in the home run derby that year, along with jack clark and ryne sandberg.  parker won.  and, if you're wondering, garvey led the league in games played in 1985 with 162 - i'm assuming that's why he was in the 1986 fleer league leaders set.

if you can't beat 'em, join 'em

back in 1974, the dodgers faced off against the oakland a's in the world series.  james augustus hunter, better known as 'catfish' made two appearances in the series - he earned the save in game 1 by striking out the only batter he faced (joe ferguson) and then got the win in game 3 after starting and going 8 innings.  in that game, bill buckner took him deep for a solo home run - the only run the dodgers would score against him.  also in that game, davey lopes was 2 for 3 with a walk and 2 steals against hunter, which qualifies as a classic world series matchup according to the 2002 upper deck world series heroes set.  here's a davey lopes jersey relic from that set that p-town tom of the blog waiting 'til next year sent me a while back

i do so appreciate relics of ron cey, lopes and bill russell, since they are not as plentiful as those of steve garvey.  i think cey is the only one without a jersey card in this particular set.  anyway, lopes later went and joined the a's following the dodgers' world series victory in 1981.  he was traded to the cubs late in the 1984 season, but topps still showed him in a's gear in 1985.  here's his 1985 topps tiffany card as proof

tom also sent an autographed card of one of the other dodger infielders - ron cey signed a copy of one of his cards from the 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams set

cey is a great ttm signer, so i would imagine that's how this one got signed.  i do plan to finish the timeless teams blog, by the way.  this year for sure.

not all of the cards in the trade package were of the infield - there were lots of other dodger goodies.  here's a 1982 tcma baseball's greatest pitchers card of don newcombe

and even a 1989 score jay howell card

can be appreciated for the unocal logo and old field level scoreboard from dodger stadium in the background.

dodger stadium is in the background of mark ellis' 2013 topps walmart blue parallel as well

but seeing part of a bud light sign is not as nice as that scoreboard on howell's card.

tom sent another relic card, too.  from 2013 topps archives, it's andre ethier giving up the shirt on his back

speaking of archives, i understand that the 2014 set will use the 1973, 1986, 1989 and 1980 set designs.  why use 1980 again? it was just used in 2012 archives.  i'm guessing that there will be one or two short prints (again) that use the 1978 design, but it would be nice if topps used it for the base set sometime.  of course, if they have bill russell on the auto checklist this year, i might give them a pass.

thanks for the trade tom!  and it looks like, once again, you will be waiting until at least next year for your cubs.

patching up my steve garvey collection

i've got a pretty good steve garvey card collection.  my collection also includes some non-card items, but it is by no means a complete collection.  in the past, i've removed some of those non-card items from the collection and shipped them off to padrographs or ebay auctions, so i am not concerned about being a completist.  besides, i know that i do not even have the best steve garvey collection in the blogosphere.  that achievement is reserved for curt at 1978, the year it all began.

over the past 15 years or so, curt and i have battled each other on ebay and traded with each other through our blogs.  most recently, i agreed to send curt my only garvey bronze parallel from 2004 upper deck legends in order for him to complete his garvey bronze set (there are four garvey cards in that particular set, each one coming with a bronze parallel numbered to 50).  the only one i had of the four was the only one he needed.  he offered to trade a duplicate, and i figured i would help a fellow garvey collector out, even though it created a hole in my collection.  one of many holes, so not much of a big deal.

curt added a few other items to his end of the deal, including this lightly soiled 1979 baseball patch

that's a penn emblem patch, to be precise.  i used to have a garvey photo patch i think.  or maybe it was a steve yeager photo patch.  i don't recall.

how about a 1985 topps tiffany garvey record breaker?

not new to the collection, but new to the blog.

and now here's the bronze parallel card i received to replace the outgoing one in my collection - it's the 1974 subset card, featuring a photo that is not from 1974

numbered 37/50 with dodger stadium on the back

i still plan to show my full garvey collection here on the blog later this year.  it won't be complete, but that's ok.  it's exactly what i want it to be.

curt - thanks for the trade and your patience.  i will send your card out this weekend.

dime box dodgers by proxy

nick from dime boxes didn't just send me double play cards recently, he sent a few dodger oddballs and parallels, too.  here is a smattering.

1982 fleer stamps steve garvey

i had avoided stamps and stickers for a long time when it came to my garvey collection.  i caved on stickers about 10 years ago or so, but i did not have one of these until nick sent it my way.

1985 topps tiffany rj reynolds

ditto with the tiffany cards.  i still don't have more than a few in my collection.

1986 fleer mini mariano duncan

i did pick up sets of the fleer minis back in the early 2000's - primarily as an easy way to get the garveys and dodgers.  i appreciate the fact that fleer used different photos - the sets weren't just a shrunken down version of the flagship set.

1989 woolworth's mike marshall

why topps didn't include postseason cards in their 1989 set is beyond me.  instead, we have fleer, o-pee-chee and woolworth issuing those cards.  and two of those three manufacturers had relationships with topps!

1991 conlon tsn zach wheat

mr. wheat led the national league in slugging percentage in 1916!  that looks more like the dodgers' 1912 uni than the robins' 1916 jersey.  wheat also played for the franchise when they were the superbas.

here's a 1992 bazooka card that had me scratching my head

a 1953 topps style 4-in-1 in a 1992 bazooka product?  at least some kids got to see preacher roe on cardboard.

the last card for this post is a 1995 upper deck collector's choice special edition silver signature parallel of ramon martinez

the silver/grey border actually works nicely with this card.

thanks nick, but i'm not done yet...