mostly smokeys from the garvey oddball binder

only you can guess which steve garvey card shown below isn't a smokey the bear issue.

those all come from the garvey oddball binder.  of course, the only card without smokey on it - the middle top card - is from 1986 donruss all-stars set, and is the pop-up garvey featuring the now demolished hubert h humphrey metrodome, site of the 1985 all-star game.  the others are all national forest service related giveaways.

speaking of the metrodome, i have seen regular season baseball games in 16 different stadiums.  however, three of those stadiums - jack murphy, busch, and the metrodome - either are not being used for baseball anymore or are no longer in existence.  i'll have to get back to san diego and saint louis sometime to see the new (to me) ballparks.

back to the cards.  starting at the top left, we have the 1984 smokey padres team set garvey, the aforementioned 1986 donruss all-stars pop-up garvey, a 1987 smokey dodgers all-star card of garvey, plus three garvey related cards from the 1987 smokey dodgers record breaker set.

garvey got three cards in the 1987 smokey dodgers set thanks to his membership in the record setting infield, his consecutive games played streak, and his involvement in the first quartet of teammates to each hit at least 30 homeruns in a season.  two of those three cards feature images made into giveaway bobbleheads, by the way.

here are the backs (reversed in order thanks to the fact that i just scanned the back of the 6-pocket page from the binder)

i have one other smokey card in the garvey binder - it comes from the 1987 national smokey bear day set.

unlike previous years, this was not a team/regional set.  in 1987, the set included players from every team.  here's the back

i wish smokey and his cubs would come to my house and do some gardening.

the original 30 home-run quartet has arrived!

oh man, was i stoked to see a package sitting on the front porch the other day.  it didn't contain any cards, but it did contain some fantastic dodger/team of my youth goodness.  you may recognize the photo of dodgers steve garvey, reggie smith, ron cey, and dusty baker on this 1988 smokey dodgers record-breaker card

as it was (and is) the publicity photo of the first foursome to hit 30 or more home runs in the same season for the same team.  here's the back with the details (and a smokey the bear poster)

that same photo adorned the 1978 dodger media guide, and was featured on the 1978 topps record breaker card that should have been that i created four years ago or so.  speaking of cards that i created, glenn burke gave dusty baker a high-five after baker hit his 30th, and espn recently produced a '30 for 30' short celebrating that celebratory gesture.  reader sharxfan tipped me off that the short used the 1980 topps glenn burke card that should have been that i created as part of my evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers posts.  sure enough, the card is in the film.  topps gets the credit (it is their card design, after all), but it's way cool.

back to the big blue wrecking crew foursome - that same photo adorns the box of the 2014 dodgers bobblehead stadium giveaway from last thursday, july 31, 2014.

i pre-ordered one of these a week or so prior to the game, and my guy packaged the thing up nicely and sent it out right away.  i was pretty pleased when i opened the package up and saw that the other side of the box looks like this

and the bobblehead looks like this

i think it is fantastic that the pavilion (i believe it is the right field pavilion as i assume the foursome posed in front of the third base dugout) was incorporated into the display even if the union 76 logo is absent.  it could be the left field pavilion since both scoreboards were the same shape with the union 76 logo ball on top and used the same technology prior to the diamondvision screen being constructed in left field for the 1980 season.  i also very much appreciate that even the windbreaker cey was wearing under his jersey is represented.

after the infield bobblehead in 2012, i was waiting for another multi-player bobble, and this did not disappoint.  it would be cool to have one of the tri-mvps (cey, steve yeager, and pedro guerrero) of the 1981 world series, or of the three steves (garvey, yeager, and howe) in their celebration after the final out of the 1981 world series, or of the back-to-back-to-back-to-back rookies of the year (rick sutcliffe, howe, fernando valenzuela, and steve sax) or even the back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back rookies of the year (eric karros, mike piazza, raul mondesi, hideo nomo, and todd hollandsworth).  next year is 50 years since the 1965 world series championship, so maybe something to commemorate that is in store for us dodger fans.  i don't plan to collect these things (i only have this one, the infield, a garvey from the mid-2000's, and a vin scully bobble) but the pee wee reese/roy campanella one from earlier this year might wind up on my desk, too.

in related news, i hope dodgerbobble is doing well.