the steve garvey binders fun continues

there were a bunch of steve garvey cards to be had in 1986.  here are some of them.  this is sheet 20 in my first steve garvey binder

those items are:

1. 1986 fleer mini
2. 1986 fleer star sticker
3. 1986 fleer star sticker (box bottom)
4. 1986 leaf
5. 1986 meadow gold
6. 1986 meadow gold blank backs
7. 1986 o-pee-chee
8. 1986 o-pee-chee tattoos
9. 1986 topps quaker

lots of oddball goodness on that sheet.  we ate a ton of quaker chewy granola bars in our house, so i had several sets of the quaker cards which were great because they were fully licensed.

here are the backs:

a couple of things to note: the meadow gold stat back cards were issued on the boxes of frozen confections, such as fudgesicles, while the blank backs were on ice cream cartons. there was also a set of meadow gold cards issued on milk cartons, but garvey wasn't part of that set (thankfully - i don't know that you could get the milk smell off).  anyway, this means that there are three cards on this sheet that came from some sort of box, with the fleer sticker box bottom card being the other.  also, i've kept the full tattoo panel intact, hence the appearance of future dodgers jesse orosco and rick dempsey on the flip side of the sheet.

here's sheet 21

with those cards being:

1. 1986 sportflics
2. 1986 sportfilcs (national league mvp's)
3. 1986 sportflics (all-star game mvp's)
4. 1986 sportflics decade greats
5. 1986 topps
6. 1986 topps glossy all-star
7. 1986 topps glossy all-star (national league team)
8. 1986 topps glossy send in
9. 1986 topps stickers

pete rose is the dominant image on the nl mvp sportflics card (ryne sandberg is the third player featured), and gary carter is visible on the all-star game mvp card.  garvey and carter are the only two to have won the award twice.  fred lynn is the other player featured on the card.  i like the national league all-star team card as the 1985 midsummer classic was played in the metrodome and the picture was taken in front of the retractable seats in right field.  good ol' multipurpose stadiums.  for the record, garvey is on the far left of the seated row.

here are the backs:

nothing too exciting there, but i'll have more sheets from the garvey binders posted soon!

these cards didn't come from the dollar store

but they did come from doug at sportscards from the dollar store.  a 1986 sportflics fernando valenzuela

 a 2014 topps triple threads yasiel puig

and a 2013 panini hometown heroes steve yeager auto!

that's above and beyond.

thanks doug!

dodger record setting infield - assemble!

i posted a ton of steve garvey cards last december due in large part to his 65th birthday, and i kind of neglected the other members of the infield of my youth.  and, we are already almost half way through the third month of 2014 and the likes of ron cey, bill russell, and davey lopes haven't been seen much on the blog yet this year.  so, here are some cards of the rest of the infield.

2007 upper deck sweet spot classic ron cey

which is infinitely better than the 1984 7-up cubs release

there's only one member of the dodger infield who didn't move on and play for another team - bill russell.  here's his 1984 fleer card

and a 1986 donruss card

after his playing days, russell spent some time as the dodgers' bench coach and then went to albuquerque to manage the dukes.  here's his 1993 fleer pro cards card

and the back

i picked up another version of this card - from the 1993 fleer pro cards aaa all-stars set.  the front is the same

but the back has a new text box!

the box would make more sense on the players' cards i would imagine.

here's russell's 1999 dodger heroes uniform patch

i think i paid more for this one than i did for either the cey or garvey patch.  it's too bad that davey lopes didn't get a patch - he would be one of my heroes.  he did get a card in the 2007 upper deck sweet spot set, however

and, to be fair, here is a card from his cubs' tenure - 1986 sportflics

yes, lopes is in there along with tim raines and willie wilson.  here's a better look

after lopes retired from active status, he went on to become a coach with the rangers.  he followed that up with stints with the orioles, padres, brewers (as their manager), padres (again), nationals, and phillies before returning to the dodgers.  he doesn't have too many cards from that part of his career, but i did purchase one from his phillie days.  this is a postcard sized team issue from the phillies, nicely autographed by lopes himself

i won't show any more garvey cards here, but i do have a couple of items featuring all four of the infielders.  a couple of years ago, i purchased the collector's pin given away at dodger stadium in 2003 marking the 30th anniversary of the infield first playing together

and from the depths of one of my garvey binders comes this 1992 upper deck heroes of baseball sheet that commemorates the foursome and their feat of longevity as a unit

here's to the infielders of my youth.  unfortunately, there is going to be a whole lot more garvey here on the blog soon...

happy birthday to steve garvey - the big six-five!

time waits for no man, and that includes the first baseman of the team of my youth, steve garvey.  the garv turns 65 today, and it's been over 26 years since he last suited up in a major league baseball game. time flies.  thankfully (most of the time), card companies have kept him in their sights as they compile checklists for sets featuring retired players.  you had better believe that today is going to be chock full of those, plus one or two from his actual playing days.  hopefully some other bloggers join in the fun of wishing number 6 a happy 65th.

on to the cards.  here's a 2009 topps sterling white parallel numbered to 50

i really like the red accents on this card, just like the red number on the dodger home whites.

here's a 2002 fleer greats of the game card

on which the nl iron man sports the dual earflap batting helmet.  not a good look.

garvey was featured in topps' 2011 update set with an insert in the '60' run of cards.

this year's update set included a manu-patch insert set featuring all-star game mvp's.  i thought for sure that garvey would be included - the man won two all-star game mvp awards - but no, he was not.  sportflics did give him a card in their 1986 set that recognized his status as a midsummer classic mvp, along with fellow two-timer gary carter, and singular winner fred lynn

here's a better look at garvey's image on the card

of course, both of garvey's all-star mvp's (1974 and 1978) were won as a dodger, yet he's a padre on the card.  in fact, none of the players featured are wearing the uniform of the team they won the award with.  lynn won as an angel, but was with baltimore by the time this card was released, and carter is wearing his mets uni rather than the expos gear that he wore when he won his awards.

here's another padre garvey card, this time from 2005 donruss diamond kings

garvey was one of the inaugural diamond kings way back in 1982.  unfortunately, he didn't achieve the same status when he went to san diego.  here are the padres who were diamond kings instead of garvey:  dave dravecky (1984), tony gwynn (1985), goose gossage (1986), and kevin mcreynolds (1987).  i don't know that he deserved the honor over any of those guys, but i don't think donruss repeated diamond kings until the early 90's anyway.  nope - that's not true.  i just checked and george brett was a dk in 1982 and 1987.

moving on, here's a 2006 fleer greats of the game autographics card

this is pretty much how i think of garvey - manning first base in dodger stadium with the home whites, tidy stirrups, and red white and blue wristband.  none of that brown pinstripe stuff with a mcdonald's wristband.  yuck.

seeing things at the lcs

if you've ever wondered what pete rose, ryne sandberg, and steve garvey would look like if their faces were somehow combined into one, then go pick up a copy of this 1986 sportflics card.

when scanned, it looks mostly like rose.  here's the garvey image, or at least as best as i could manage.

i didn't need a copy, but i couldn't leave that card in the nickel box at one of the local card shops, now could i?  i also picked up a better looking garvey - again, no real need, but for a nickel…it's a 2005 topps pristine card for goodness sake!

i mentioned in an earlier post that i had made a few visits to the two local card shops over the last few months, and had some cards to show from those trips.  some of the nickel and dime boxes at these shops included boxes sorted by player - mostly hall of famers, stars, and notable twins.  some of the lesser organized boxes seemed to include bunches of cards of players who were at one time highly collectible, but now are not really sought after - probably moved out of the star boxes to make room for the bryce harpers and mike trouts of the world.  one such player is roberto alomar.

i found a bunch of alomars, including this 1995 topps d3 double play card

as well as base

and die-cut versions

of his 1995 upper deck championship series card.

like alomar, eddie murray seemed to have been moved into the low rent district.  i picked up a 1991 bowman card of the hall of famer

 it mentions his .330 average on the back

which led the majors in 1990, although murray didn't win a batting title.

here's a 1993 fleer vinny castilla card

on which he is shown turning two as a brave, but listed as a rockie.  i had forgotten that castilla was not always a third baseman.  castilla did not start the season as colorado's shortstop (freddie benavides had the honor of being the first ss in team history) but he took over the role in may.  he didn't move to third base full time until 1995.

there were some oddball cards in one of the boxes, many of which i had not seen before.  i picked up a 1992 fleer citgo darryl strawberry card for the dodger collection

it was a joint 7-11/citgo release, apparently.

there were even some ted williams cards floating around - this one of joe black is from 1993.

the tough thing with the nickel and dime boxes is that they aren't getting any new inventory.  i noticed that at both shops, although the lack of new material seemed to be for different reasons.  at one shop, they didn't appear to be busting any new product.  at the other, they seemed to be discouraging people from digging through boxes.  i'll expand on that next time.

blurred lines

sure this post title would have been more timely during the summer, or more appropriate if there were topless dancers moving about.  still, it makes sense for a post with cards like this 1986 sportflics card.

somewhere, along with rollie fingers' mustache and pete rose's batting stance lies the cubs' ron cey.  they are a trio of world series mvp's, although neither fingers nor cey are featured in the uniform in which they won the award.  it would have been cool, for dodger collectors like me, to have cey with pedro guerrero and steve yeager on one of these cards instead of three random players.

not all lenticular cards feature hard to distinguish players, though.  here are some 1971 kellogg's cards whose subjects are easily discernible to be willie davis

and claude osteen

the blurry lines are all in the background, just like on these kellogg's cards from 1978 of reggie smith

and don sutton

back to 1986 sportflics, this mike scioscia card scanned pretty well

but this pee wee reese card from the decade greats set of 1986 has a little more obvious overlap of the images when scanned

had i been younger when these were released, i probably would have thought they were pretty cool.  instead, i ignored them.  i had collected the kellogg's cards as a youngster and much preferred them to the sportflics releases.

i had no knowledge of 1995 topps d3 until more recently.  here's a raul mondesi card from that set

and here's mike piazza with a more traditional baseball background

and lastly, chuck knoblauch turning two

i don't think these cards had multiple images.  i don't even recall how much movement they had when the cards were tilted.  the schtick is lost on me.  i know topps has brought these types of cards back, in last year's archives release for example, but i would be ok if they stayed in the dustbin of baseball card history.  i prefer clear photos.