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!

stick 'em to me

after hosting the 1983 fleer star sticker group break, i was motivated to pick up some more stickers for my collection.  for the longest time, i ignored stickers - seeing them as less important or even not something worthy of being in my collection.  i have since come to recognize that some sticker releases have merit, especially those with different and sometimes better photos than the card releases.  here's a 1982 topps steve garvey sticker

that includes dodger stadium world series action.  topps did not acknowledge the 1981 world series in their 1982 flagship release.  of course, topps also had boring photos in their sticker sets, like this garvey from their 1983 release

which uses a photo from 1981, and this davey lopes sticker

fleer's 1984 stickers set included some nice images, like the one on ken landreaux's sticker

featuring an on deck dodger stadium pose.  fleer went on the road for tom lasorda's photo

as well as steve sax's

but stayed in chavez ravine to capture fernando's eyes to the sky windup

pedro guerrero got two stickers in the 1984 fleer set

i wonder what the story is behind the little prison window in the dugout.

here's fernando's 1985 fleer star sticker

i think fernando was the only dodger who had that type of pullover.  he is featured on a number of cards wearing it, and i don't recall seeing any other dodgers in similar gear on cards.  or stickers.

here's former dodger lee lacy on his 1985 fleer star sticker

i don't know why some years they were 'star stickers' and some years just 'stickers'.  they varied the sticker size, too.  in 1986, fleer went back to full sized stickers.  they stayed that way for the 1987 star sticker release, too.

here are sax

fernando

and reggie williams

from that set, along with former dodger charlie hough

hough is best remembered by most as a ranger, i suppose.  still, i held out a little hope that his sp in this year's archives release would show him in a dodger uniform.  i was also expecting a dodger uniform when i ordered the rick honeycutt 1984 fleer sticker.  instead, i got another ranger

i figured i had a 50/50 shot at being right.  honey has since been sent off to texas where he belongs.

ok, enough with the stickers.  back to cards tomorrow.

some dodger cards, in order

of course, the order is up to me.  these are some cards i received from the angels in order a while back.  good stuff, including this card which i had neither seen nor heard of.  it's a 1993 upper deck foldouts card of la's own darryl strawberry.  here are the front and back sides of the card:

i love that part of the text can stand today just as it was written back then - 'in his only healthy season with the dodgers (1991)...' - although shawn green obliterated the la dodger record for homers by a lefty.  here's the insides:

look at darryl put out some serious effort to catch the ball; going over the low railing in right field and fighting the fans!  here are some more docile fans hanging out on eric karros' 1997 topps card:

that card always makes me laugh because of fabio's throwing style - all elbows.  he probably played first base from a young age.

here's bill madlock on a 1987 fleer star sticker card that is also a sticker

the mad dog is playing it free and easy with his bat there in the photo.  if that's mike marshall standing behind him, i am guessing general soreness is about to miss a few games.

also going one-handed with his bat is tim wallach on this 1995 leaf card

i don't recall wallach subscribing to the 'windmill' swing that has been the topic of some discussion up here thanks to justin morneau, but i do remember vividly how mike piazza would finish off his swings one-handed.  just as he is shown on this 1995 upper deck collector's choice se card

(silver signatrue edition, that is).  not to be outdone, wilton guerrero (vladdy's little brother) also goes for a single handed approach, although he probably bunted the ball that is about to hit him on his way to first for an out on this 1998 topps card

that rookie cup was probably the peak of wilton's career.  i was pretty disappointed that he didn't pan out.  i am not disappointed with the cards i received, however.  i'll show one more - a 1997 upper deck collector's choice card of jackie robinson

it's not a final tribute, of course, but it does have jackie's career stats on the back and that fancy 'tribute' logo on the front.  the card is a nice reminder of the 50th anniversary of jackie's debut, and everybody was sporting the special jackie robinson patch back in 1997, even the angels.

thanks for the trade tom!

one post for every consecutive game

this is my 1207th post on this blog. i've missed some days, and even weeks, since starting this blog over 3 years ago.  steve garvey didn't miss any games during his consecutive games streak which lasted 1207 contests and ended on july 29, 1983.  it was a feat so impressive that it has a blog named after it.

in honor of reaching this milestone, i offer up twelve steve garvey cards - one for every one hundred posts/consecutive games.  yes, i know he ended his streak as a padre, but first humor me some dodger cards.

perhaps my second favorite garvey card (1978 topps cannot be topped) was issued in 1974.  this happens to be the o-pee-chee version

 as is this 1975 card recapping the 1974 nlcs

garvey aka mr. clean playing the part of pigpen.  very nice.

i had planned, and may still get around to posting oddball team sets, or at least the infield's cards.  in the meantime, here are some garveys that i had already scanned.  this is his 1977 hostess twinkles card

 and this is his 1979 hostess card

what are the chances that the photos come from the same shoot?  fairly high, i would guess.  now we move away from snack cakes towards breakfast cereals. here's a 1981 kellogg's card

followed by the 1982 kellogg's issue

i'm not sure when the garv started to wear the red-white-blue sweatband, but he didn't carry it over to the padres, that's for sure.  here's his 1987 donruss card

 along with a 1987 fleer star stickers card

and a 1999 fleer sports illustrated card showing the si cover from the week garvey broke billy williams' national league consecutive game record (a game which i attended)

you can see in that photo that garvey has chosen the matchy-match yellow sweatband.

back to the 1970's, sort of, with a 2001 ud decade 1970's card - this one's from the award winners subset

 with the 1974 nl mvp getting his groove on apparently.

his 2002 upper deck sweet spot classics card is more refined

it's an image from the 1978 world series (notice the jim gilliam '19' patch), and if i remember my sports illustrateds correctly, that photo is of garvey fielding a throw as thurman munson bears down on first base.  pretty sure.

last year, topps chose to reprint garvey's 1982 in action card

which showcased the part of his swing that had the least amount of action.  here's the (original) back so we can remind ourselves of some of popeye's accomplishments as a dodger

so that was twelve cards for twelve-hundred games.  i guess i need something to cover the other seven, so i'll use a card that should have been created by jason at the writer's journey.  it's a 2011 topps gypsy queen garvey

that uses an image of the dodgers' first baseman receiving applause for his 1000th consecutive game.

here's to you, nl iron man.  and thanks to all of you for reading all/most/some of my 1207 ramblings.