the grounded flight of the bumblebees

i'm working on a trade with matt from bob walk the plank, so i'm pulling together some pirates.  these cards won't be leaving my collection, however, even though they feature the black and yellow.

1984 donruss dave parker

the cobra is giving me the stare down from inside dodger stadium.  i will keep this card in my dodger stadium binder.

1984 donruss lee lacy

the black jersey/yellow pant combo is just not a successful look.

1984 fleer lee lacy

here it is again.  the fact that lacy wears yellow sleeves under the jersey puts it over the top.

1984 fleer rick rhoden

ah, a simple white jersey with the pillbox hat.

1985 donruss rick rhoden

i spoke too soon - there's the full yellow ensemble

1986 donruss highlights rick rhoden

rhoden at the plate!  he was voted the nl pitcher of the month for june of 1986 when he went 5-1 in 6 starts with a 1.99 era, 3 complete games, and 35 strikeouts.  he also kicked ass at the plate that month, going 9 for 19 with 3 doubles, 4 rbi, and 0 strikeouts.  kudos to donruss for putting a photo of rhoden with a bat on the card.  if i had three of this card, i'd keep one, send one to matt, and send the other to nick.

1987 donruss all-stars rick rhoden

now donruss put him back on the mound.  rhoden was an all-star in 1986 - his first time at the game since 1976 when he was with the dodgers.

1987 topps mini leaders rick rhoden

rhoden was second in complete games and fourth in era in 1986, so he received a card in this set.

i'm keeping the lacy and rhoden cards because while i really haven't committed to collecting non-topps base cards of the 1978 topps dodgers, i am not necessarily opposed to the idea either.

finally, i am not sending this 1991 topps gary redus to matt (or to wes for that matter)

because dodger lenny harris is lurking.

don't worry matt - i'll have some different (and hopefully better) pirates in the mail this week.

a black armband for roger maris

roger maris, one of the yankees' famed 'm&m' boys, died in houston on december 14, 1985 at the age of 51 due to cancer.  the yankees added a black armband to their uniforms for the 1986 season in his memory.  thanks to the sheer number of cards produced in 1987, there are lots of examples.  this first one is a 1987 topps glossy send-in card of rickey henderson.

the armband is much more noticeable on that card than it is on rickey's 1987 donruss card

but it's still there.  here's ron guidry's 1987 donruss card 

and don mattingly's 1987 fleer card

both good examples.  topps had some in the flagship, too, like bobby meacham's 1987 topps card

the problem with this particular memorial is that the yankees wore black armbands in 1985 for clubhouse man pete sheehy, so i can't really be sure if these photos are from 1985 or 1986.  i'll assume they are from 1986, but i know for sure that these next two - 1987 topps doug drabek

and 1987 topps mike fischlin

feature photos from 1986 because neither player was with the yankees in 1985.  still, i'd rather use a different card in the collection.  this 1987 topps yankees leader card featuring rickey and mattingly was a front runner

as was this 1986 donruss highlights card of mattingly

in the end, i think it's a higher likelihood that the 1987 topps card features a photo from 1986.  besides, it features the yankee pinstripes.

maris famously hit 61 home runs in 1961, eclipsing babe ruth's record for most in a single season.  he also led the league in runs scored and rbi that year, won his second straight mvp award, and helped the yankees win the world series, too.  he finished his career with the cardinals, including two more trips to the world series in 1967 and 1968.  in addition to the armband memorial following maris' death, the yankees had retired maris' number 9 during the 1984 season with maris in attendance.

maris was born in minnesota, but the family moved to fargo when he was young.  the fargo community still embraces maris as a hero, with many events and other references to him throughout the city.  i can say that i have been to the roger maris museum in the west acres shopping mall.  they will be the first to point out that maris is still the single season american league home run champ, if not the 'legitimate' champ.

things are a little less saxy in arizona

i saw that the diamondbacks have decided to not bring back their first base coach next year, or rather, they have decided to go with a different first base coach in 2014.  that means that former dodger steve sax is out of a job.

here's a 1983 topps sticker of the 1982 nl rookie of the year in happier times

i didn't realize that he was back in the game until sometime during the season when daniel from it's like having my own card shop pointed it out in a post.  sax and dbacks manager kirk gibson were teammates for one magical season 25 years ago, so i guess that is the connection.  here's a 1986 donruss highlights card of sax

september of 86 is the month that sax put together a 25 game hitting streak and made a run at the batting title (he finished a couple of points behind tim raines).

for some reason, i never got around to posting this 1989 upper deck card that saxy signed for me through the mail a while back.  now seems like a good time.

former dodger dave anderson was also relieved of his coaching duties recently, so maybe sax can head to texas with andy going to the desert.

the dodgers' journey

more dodgers in the mail thanks to jason at the writer's journey. all i had to do was send him some reds, including a couple of chris sabo cards, and wait for the dodgers to come rolling in.  here's a sampling:

1986 fleer stickers box bottom dodgers logo

i don't understand why the dodgers were featured.  they were nl west champs in 1985, but lost to the cardinals in the nlcs (first base was open tommy!) and the royals beat the cards in the series (the blue jays were the other postseason team).  maybe it's part of that royals/dodgers confusion that night owl has been writing about.  anyway, there is a checklist on the back which lists the 4 cards found on the bottom of the boxes.  in addition to the dodger logo, there is this card

1986 fleer stickers box bottom steve garvey

garvey was card number 1 in fleer's first star sticker set (1991) which was cool.  and, it's cool that he was included in the box bottom set.  but i still wonder why - he was clearly past his prime in 1985, although he made the all star team, and the pads were nl champs in 1984, not '85.  there were bigger stars to be had for sure.  donruss was putting dwight gooden on the bottom of their boxes in 1985.  anyway, i'm glad to have another garvey card to collect.

here's a true sticker, the fernando valenzuela 1988 topps sticker

along with a 1986 donruss highlights fernando

and a 1987 donruss all stars valenzuela

the card is 3x5.  both the 1986 highlight and the 1987 all star card deal with fernando's incredible appearance in the 1986 all star game when he struck out 5 american league all stars in a row - don mattingly, cal ripken, jesse barfield, lou whitaker, and teddy higuera.  what was the pitcher doing being allowed to bat in the all star game, you might ask.  well, that was back when the starters went 3 innings and so did their first replacements, although neither dwight gooden nor fernando came to bat thanks to the national league's offensive ineptitude for the first 6 innings of the game.

jason also sent some auto'd cards - a 1990 bowman jose offerman

this is way cool since i don't think e-fferman will ever return to the states in an mlb role.  i think there are  some dealers at the local card show that have some auto'd cards from his twinkie days, but i never thought to buy any.  so, this card is much appreciated.

as is this 1990 fleer lenny harris

and this 1990 topps lenny harris

lenny is back with the dodgers in a minor league hitting role and hopefully recovered from some health issues a year ago.  these are my first harris autos.

1973 topps dick dietz

dietz is one of those guys who was acquired in a trade with the giants.  it's a small club.  i think of dietz as a giant all the way, even though he was obviously a dodger.  i think that's because the first card of his i owned was his 1972 topps in action card.  plus, he was the guy who thought he had broken don drysdale's scoreless inning streak when he was hbp with the bases loaded.  the umpire ruled that dietz didn't try to get out of the way, so he wasn't awarded first.  ha ha - stupid giant.

we'll end with a guy i don't feature enough - shawn green on a 2004 bowman heritage card

green recently addressed some dodger rookies about the right way to play and be a big leaguer at their winter workouts.  i hope he told them not to be like him and instead sign through the mail.

thanks jason!