we are closing in on the end of the steve garvey binder pages from his playing days

it's almost an all-fleer page on sheet 23 of the steve garvey binder.  have a look:

those cards are:

1. 1987 fleer
2. 1987 fleer baseball's exciting stars
3. 1987 fleer baseball's game winners
4. 1987 fleer glossy
5. 1987 fleer limited edition
6. 1987 fleer mini
7. 1987 fleer star stickers
8. 1987 kraft
9. 1987 leaf

here are the backs:

what i find most interesting about all of these backs is that fleer went back to 1969 and included garvey's albuquerque stats on some of the backs.  others start with his big league experience from 1969, yet those same cards keep his 1970 minor league numbers from triple-a spokane.  all of the cards, however, leave out his 1968 stats from ogden - stats that would have completed his professional career numbers.

i am looking forward to getting through the garv's playing days and back to some dodger cards on these sheets!

off hiatus and off my want list

who sends a 1954 bowman billy loes card

as part of a blind trade package? luckily for me, tony at off hiatus does. or did, in my case.  billy is really caressing that baseball there - i hope he's more careful with it than lennie and his rabbits.  this card is gloriously worn and it's one less '54 bowman that i need.

here's another brooklyn dodger sent by tony - it's gene hermanski

on what appears to be a card made for the 5th national convention held back in 1984.  here's the back of the card that led me to that conclusion

i'm guessing that hermanski was signing autographs at the convention.

now we get to the los angeles dodger portion of the post, with some great oddball cards.

1988 kaybee superstars of baseball pedro guerrero

it's true - petey was still a superstar at that time. he had hit a career high .338 in 1987, but the dodgers brought him back into the infield in 1988 and his trade to saint louis that season was deemed to be addition by subtraction.

1988 starting lineup talking baseball steve sax

and fernando valenzuela

the only talkin' baseball i know has to do with willie, mickey, and the duke.  sadly, none of those guys were included in the set.

more oddballs of el toro - 1987 fleer mini

in which fernando is wearing his shiny pullover and a hat that was certainly not a game issue, and his 1986 fleer mini

which features an oddly cropped photo.

here's a little photo of don drysdale on a 2004 upper deck sweet spot classics manufactured patch card

that features the national league logo.  i think the american league logo is better, mostly because i think that the glove that the eagle is holding on to in the nl logo looks odd.  better to have a baseball in that talon, i think.

finally, here's a 2013 panini hometown heroes card of paul loduca

yes, this is a dodger card (note the 'los angeles' pennant in the upper left) even though the heart and soul of jim tracy's dodgers is wearing his mets gear in the photo.  as a met, loduca hit .455 against the dodgers in the 2006 nlds.

tony hit 1.000 with this trade package.  so much so that i'll show some more cards that he sent later on! stay tuned...

dodger stadium only gets second billing because it can't hold a bat

seriously.  javy lopez is holding a bat on his 1994 upper deck card, but it's the architecture of the pavilion behind him that makes the card.

even allen watson's card from the same set is made better by the blue outfield wall.

notice the lack of ads on it.  i wish the new owners would take down those remnants of the mccourt era and put a mural back on it.  or even just return it to the solid blue color.

here are some cards that show the visitor bullpen in right field - 1997 topps mark leiter

1993 topps brian barnes

and 1993 topps xavier hernandez.

reggie sanders' 1993 topps card also features a dodger stadium photo

seeing the first base dugout/camera well is better than the rookie cup, in my opinion.

here are a few cards from 1987 fleer with photos from chavez ravine - darren daulton

and von hayes.

similar poses and similar backgrounds.  and then there is this mike scott card

which is actually from the 1987 fleer mini set.  i cropped it too closely and now it looks like it's the same size as the other cards, but it's a mini. trust me.

the wizard of oz splits the pavilions on his 1985 fleer card

while jerry royster gets more closely cropped on his 1987 donruss card.

max venable, meanwhile, gets the right field pavilion to back him up on his 1986 donruss card

matt williams almost obscures both pavilions, but not the diamondvision screen on this 1992 baseball card magazine card

that's real nice.  even though it's a card of a no-cal dodger stadium is relegated to the background.

padrographs package - a well balanced meal!

this has taken me far too long to post. sorry about that, rod.

rod at padrographs sent me a fantastic, well balanced package a while back. he hit the five main collecting groups - garvey, dodgers, double plays, dodger stadium backgrounds, and plays at the plate, with even a final tribute for good measure. i love receiving any of these types of cards, but rod really put some thought into it. enough of that, let's see some cards!

1987 donruss barry bondsa dodger stadium background. and an auto! wowza. nice hat, too. in his first full series in the majors, the dodgers held bonds to 1 hit in 10 at-bats, and struck him out 5 times. of course, they also walked him 5 times. i remember bobby bonds being in the booth with vin scully or ross porter at one point during the series and being deservingly proud of his son.

1987 donruss barry larkinanother dodger stadium shot of a former nl mvp. i spent many a game out there in the pavilion. good good times.

1995 topps craig shipleythe aussie turns two. craig began his career with the dodgers, and was involved in that 12-player deal that sent ken caminiti to the padres in 1994, setting up that great finish to the 1996 season where they swept the dodgers to win the nl west by one game. of course, the dodgers won the wild card and both teams were swept in the first round anyway.

1989 topps padres leadershere's the play at the plate. nice that gary carter, a met, is more recognizable on the padres leaders card than the padre shown. why not just have a smiling tony gwynn photo and be done with it?

2009 upper deck russell martinnice.

2008 upper deck documentary russell martinnice, but documentary still sucked.

and a ton of garveys. sure, they were padres garveys, but that's ok.

1987 fleer mini steve garveyyou can shrink steve garvey, but you can't defeat him.

1987 sportflics steve garveythese cards don't scan well at all. but you get the idea.

the final tribute was garvey's 1988 score, which i have posted before, so i won't show it again here, even though it's a favorite of mine.

rod - thanks for taking the time and putting together such a great package!