the next two sheets from the steve garvey binders mark the end of the century

sheet 28 in my first of two primary steve garvey binders picks up where we left off with sheet 27.  have a look:

those cards are:

1. 1994 upper deck all-time heroes 125th anniversary parallel
2. 1994 upper deck all-time heroes (heroes of baseball) 125th anniversary parallel
3. 1995 sonic baseball greats
4. 1994 upper deck the american epic
5. 1995 upper deck sp championship (october legends)
6. 1995 upper deck sp championship (classic performances)
7. 1995 upper deck sp championship series (october legends) die-cut parallel
8. 1995 upper deck sp championship series (classic performances) die-cut parallel
9. 1996 danbury mint

and so begins the glut of parallels.  it was great to have a couple of parallels to find back in the late 1990's, but it is quite tedious today.  i see that i have a card out of sequence on this sheet, but i'll fix that later.  lots of good stuff on this sheet, but the highlight may well be the pete rose card from the 1994 upper deck the american epic set (a companion set to ken burns' baseball documentary) that features garvey lurking in the background as rose celebrates hit number 4192.

here are the backs:

the next sheet includes the first certified garvey autograph cards, one of which is the first card i ever purchased on ebay. here's sheet 29:

those cards are:

1. 1998 fleer sports illustrated world series fever
2. 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game
3. 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game autograph
4. 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game cover collection (dodgers)
5. 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game cover collection (padres)
6. 1999 upper deck retro
7. 1999 upper deck retro gold parallel
8. 1999 upper deck retro inkredible auto
9. 2000 nabisco all-stars

garvey has been on the cover of sports illustrated four times, and three of those covers are represented on this sheet.  the first card features a cover from 1974 during the world series between the a's and dodgers.  that's garvey in the lower left corner of the montage.  the other two cards featuring covers showcase the 1976 and 1983 covers, respectively, with the '83 cover also being used for the autograph insert.  the only garvey si cover not used for a card is the april, 1982 baseball preview issue cover.

in other news,  the inkredible auto from 1999 ud retro was the first card i ever purchased on ebay.  i had gone onto the site to find a 1995 upper deck sp championship kirk gibson card that i had seen somewhere, and i discovered that the garv had an autographed card on the market.  the first of many, as it turns out.

here are the backs:

i appreciate fleer's bold coa on the back of the greats auto.

the 2000 nabisco all-star card was the last card of garvey in the 20th century, and it is the 36th post-playing career card in the binders.  that's an average of about 3 new garvey cards per year.  the 21st century would blow that ratio out of the water.  stay tuned.

the start of the post-playing career card sheets from the steve garvey binders

sheet 26 in the steve garvey binder is where we find the start of his cards issued following his retirement (post-final tribute stuff, anyway).  in the beginning, these were mostly oddball releases, but once card companies began making retro-themed sets, look out! there was a garvey card explosion.

here's sheet 26

the cards:

1. 1989 smokey dodger greats
2. 1989 padres magazine
3. 1990 baseball wit
4. 1990 target dodgers 100th anniversary
5. 1990 collegiate collection michigan state (gibson & garvey)
6. 1990 collegiate collection michigan state (football)
7. 1990 collegiate collection michigan state (batting)
8. 1990 collegiate collection michigan state (posed)
9. 1990 pacific legends

here we have the first photo re-use, thanks to two dodger stadium giveaway sets, plus four cards from the michigan state spartans set.  i think the photo of garvey in his football uniform (he was a defensive back) has been used in a panini release (not entirely sure, however), but i know that the posed photo was used in last year's upper deck goodwin champions set.

i'm also missing a couple from these years - the 1989 michigan state pepsi card (never seen one), and 1990 pacific legends glossy (never bothered to find one).

here are the backs:

moving on to sheet 27, we once again see some photo re-use and a few oddballs:

those cards are:

1. 1990 swell baseball greats
2. 1991 line drive
3. 1991 swell baseball greats
4. 1992 action packed
5. 1992 mci ambassadors
6. 1993 ted williams
7. 1993 yoohoo
8. 1994 upper deck all-time heroes
9. 1994 upper deck all-time heroes (heroes of baseball)

i really appreciate that first upper deck card with the photo from the 1974 world series, and the fact that it gives some relief from all of the photos of garvey with a bat.  another item worth noting is the mci card and its photo of garvey with the dual-ear flap helmet.

and now the backs:

those mci ambassador cards were apparently distributed at military bases where select retired players appeared and played in games for the troops.  upper deck arranged some 'old-timer' games of their own, which is where the photo on the second card from the 1994 ud all-time heroes set was obtained. this was a tie-in to all of those sheets upper deck issued around that time.

speaking of sheets, we are two pages into the post-active garvey cards, and we are already in 1994.  don't fret, as there are plenty more cards to see.  stay tuned.

memorial patches for umpire john mcsherry

on april 1, 1996 - opening day in cincinnati - home plate umpire john mcsherry collapsed and died of cardiac arrest.  why then, you might ask, am i showing a card from the 1994 upper deck all-time heroes set featuring reggie jackson and lurking dodgers charlie hough and steve yeager?

i'm showing it because the umpire standing behind yeager, number 9 for the national league, is john mcsherry.

mcsherry began his umpiring career in 1971 and worked the world series in both 1977 (as seen above) and 1987.  he also umpired in 10 different national league playoff series and three all-star games, and was calling the balls and strikes for larry dierker's no-hitter in 1976.

i am not sure why exactly, but the mets added a patch to their uniforms in honor of mcsherry for the remainder of the 1996 season.  this 1997 fleer sports illustrated card of todd hundley shows the patch on his right sleeve

the patch is kind of hard to make out because it wasn't really a patch - it was actually embroidered as part of the jersey.  here's a close up

it's a little more clear on bernard gilkey's 1997 topps card

and rey ordonez's 1997 upper deck card

which is the one i have in my memorials binder.

mcsherry's fellow umpires also wore memorials in 1996.  as i recall, at first they wore black armbands as seen on brett butler's 1997 score card

but soon adopted the same embroidery that the mets sported.  in fact, the mets could have adopted the umpires' memorial; i am not sure how that played out.  in lieu of cards, here are some photos (from getty images) of umpires sporting the memorial in 1996

the umps, at some point, went to an actual patch.  here are some photos showing the patch version of the memorial

brett butler, again, with eric gregg sporting the patch

this resulted in patch overload for the umpires in the world series - the mcsherry patch is high up on the left sleeve of the umpires' jacket

it wasn't just national league umpires that wore the patch - here's al clark to prove it

although it seems like most al umps wore the patch on their right sleeves.  again, more photos from getty images

it would appear that charlie o'brien is upset

i was happy to find that photo - not just because of o'brien, but also because it showed the patch on the right sleeve of an al umpire wearing the navy shirt.  that confirms for me that the patch is also shown on this 1997 pacific gary disarcina card

which is a great addition to the memorials binder.  i also have this 2004 topps all-time fan favorite card of eric gregg

in the binder.  how fortuitous that topps used a photo of gregg from 1996.

i do have an actual john mcsherry card in my collection, by the way.  it comes from the 1989 t&m umpires set, and features mcsherry in dodger stadium.

i've got a couple other cards from that set in my dodger stadium binder along with the mcsherry as well - here's eric gregg (again)

and fred brocklander

both hanging out in chavez ravine.

as for mcsherry, he was 51 years old when he died.  he weighed well over 300 pounds, and his passing encouraged major league baseball to work on addressing the health of its umpires.  many, including gregg, lost weight as a result.  unfortunately, following his departure from umpiring, gregg re-gained much of the weight he lost and he passed away at the age of 55 due to a stroke.

brett, ryan, and yount - 1994 final tributes that are tough to beat

when the 1993 season rolled around, nolan ryan let it be known that it would be his last season as a pitcher.  then, with about a month left in the season, george brett announced that he, too, would retire after the season.  robin yount waited until february of 1994 to announce his retirement from the game. imagine that - not having a full season for the fans and media to whip your retirement plans into a frenzy the way it's been done this year for a certain shortstop who, by the way, delivered in his final home at bat last night.  anyway, the end result for ryan, brett, and yount from a baseball card perspective is a number of final tributes for three hall of famers.  for the record, carlton fisk and dale murphy also called it quits in 1993, but i don't believe either of them received any cardboard love in '94.  on with the tributes!

1994 donruss george brett - front

and back

1994 donruss nolan ryan - front

and back

1994 donruss nolan ryan special edition - front

and back

1994 donruss robin yount - front

and back

here we see the difference in having announced one's retirement before the cards are printed vs. after.  brett and ryan got special, full career stat backs, while yount got the regular treatment.

1994 fleer brett - front

and back

1994 fleer brett golden moment insert - front

 and back

1994 fleer ryan - front

and back

1994 fleer ryan golden moment - front

and back

1994 fleer yount - front

and back

and so again, because yount didn't announce his retirement until later, he missed out on the golden moment retirement insert.  of course, that also meant that he got some love from some other card manufacturers that didn't bother with brett or ryan.  like score and sportflics.

1994 score yount - front

and back

1994 sportflics yount - front

and back

topps didn't ignore anyone in their 1994 set.

1994 topps brett - front

and back

that's a lot of red on the back of brett's card.  i like his topps final tribute, but i prefer the way it was cropped on the pre-production sample, which i believe came in factory 1993 topps sets.

1994 topps brett pre-production sample - front

and back

they warned me though - 'design and photo selection subject to change'.

1994 topps ryan - front

and back

a lot of red on the back of ryan's card, too.  topps added the '27 seasons' button to the front of ryan's card.  he broke the record of 26 seasons shared by tommy john and deacon mcguire.  like brett, he was included in the pre-production sample set with a better photo, i think.

1994 topps ryan pre-production sample - front

and back

1994 topps yount - front

and back

not as much red for yount on the back of his card, and he didn't get a pre-production card either.  all three players did made it into the 1994 topps stadium club set though.

1994 topps stadium club brett - front

and back

1994 topps stadium club ryan - front

and back

1994 topps stadium club ryan golden rainbow parallel - front

and back

1994 topps stadium club yount - front

and back

the photo used for ryan's card is pretty much a perfect final tribute shot.

while topps took care of these three future hall of famers, upper deck really missed the mark.  none of them, not one, appears in the 1994 upper deck set, although yount does show up on an insert.  brett and ryan did appear in the 1994 upper deck all-time heroes set

1994 upper deck all-time heroes brett - front

and back

1994 upper deck all-time heroes ryan - front

and back

ryan pulls double duty as an angel and a met on his card (numbered 34 in the set).

both brett and ryan showed up in upper deck's collector's choice set, but yount did not which is really odd.

1994 upper deck collector's choice brett - front

and back

1994 upper deck collector's choice ryan - front

and back

and again, only brett and ryan found their way into the 1994 upper deck the american epic set

1994 upper deck the american epic brett - front

and back

1994 upper deck the american epic ryan - front

and back

i think upper deck recognized their mistake in 1994, because they included in their 1995 set designated 'final tribute' cards for all three of these guys (plus mike schmidt, who had retired during the 1989 season)

1995 upper deck brett - front

and back

1995 upper deck ryan - front

and back

1995 upper deck yount - front

and back

the reason schmidt received a card in the 1995 set was that he was entering the hall of fame that year, and in 1999, topps did the same thing for nolan ryan (but not brett or yount)

1999 topps ryan - front

and back

with the mickey mantle cards and the retired player variation madness that ensued in the late 2000's and into the early 2010's, we've seen more of these types of cards, but the 1999 ryan is still one of my favorites.  i don't count it as a true final tribute, however, which is ok because he (and brett and yount) had quite a few in '94.