the rest of the cards that should have been from the garvey binders

i am almost done with showing pages from my steve garvey oddball binder.  then it will be time to show the pages from the 'regular' collection binders.  get excited.  here are the rest of the cards that should have been that i've created or received or otherwise had to print myself over the last few years.

punkrockpaint is responsible for the 1988 topps card, while the writer's journey sent me the digital version of the gypsy queen card.  the last three are topps bunt 'cards' that i printed out.

in service

2012 is almost over, but before it goes, i want to recognize the 40th anniversary of roberto clemente's death.  clemente died when the plane he had chartered to deliver relief supplies to the people of nicaragua following an earthquake crashed into the ocean shortly after it left puerto rico.

here's a clemente card from one of my favorite sets - 1999 upper deck century legends

i did not see clemente play - i wouldn't remember it even if i had - but i became a fan of his at a young age.  i wrote a report about him in elementary school, and had a pc going of his cards as soon as i first saw his fantastic 1973 topps card, probably around 1980 or so.  

he has a statue outside what used to be three rivers stadium, and it was featured on jose guillen's 1998 topps card

i believe that this photo was used because guillen had been compared to clemente early on, kind of similar to the cesar cedeno/willie mays comparisons, although guillen played for the same franchise as the player he was being compared to.  it's still a nice card.

the mlb network aired a nice piece on clemente over the weekend, and i was glad i stumbled upon it.  i did not realize that neil walker's father, former major league pitcher tom walker, had been in puerto rico playing winter ball and helped clemente load the plane.  walker said that he asked to go along to nicaragua, but clemente told him to stay behind and enjoy new year's eve.

earlier this year, as i started to put together my 1974 topps set, this bob miller card made me do a double take.

miller, obviously airbrushed into a mets cap, is shown using a photo from his time in pittsburgh, which happened to be the latter half of 1971 and all of 1972, although he was cut during spring training of 1973.  the pirate over his left shoulder is what made me look twice - i can't tell if that is number 21 or not.  hopefully topps would have avoided using a photo of clemente in the 1974 set.

topps left clemente out, and rightfully so, of the 1954 set altogether.  he was in the dodgers' farm system, but they were unable to keep him hidden from other teams, and pittsburgh took him in the rule 5 draft in november of 1954.  clemente debuted five months later and the rest is history.  topps did make a card for their 1994 archives reprint set that featured the 1954 set

and they used it again in the 1995 brooklyn dodgers archives set.  ah, what might have been.

clemente was 38 when he died, which means that he has been gone for a couple years longer than he was alive, and that's a shame.  the roberto clemente award (formerly the commissioner's award) is given to the player who best exemplifies sportsmanship and community service.  clayton kershaw won it this year (the first dodger to receive the award since steve garvey in 1981), and i believe that the award is a nice way to remember clemente's efforts off of the field.  however, i would support the idea of retiring number 21 across baseball as another way of honoring clemente's contributions to the game and to the latin american community.

a legend in his own time

back in the day, jimmy kimmel was a radio guy on a local la station doing sports updates and bits with adam carolla.  when there was a mike piazza item, kimmel would refer to him as 'italian american superstar slugger mike piazza'.  at the same time, jim rome was hitting it big in san diego, and he dubbed piazza 'the strongest man in socal'.  to me, he was just the man.  the man who was going to bring the trophy back to la.

he wasn't my favorite player - that would have been too obvious and trendy.  i was still loyal to orel hershiser when piazza came on the scene, and then i took a liking to raul mondesi once the bulldog left town.  but piazza was always right behind those guys.  even for the first year or two after he was traded by the fox suits.

in 1999, upper deck issued their fantastic century legends set, and they ranked piazza as the 9th best active player (career wise). 

it's one of my favorite piazza cards, as you can tell by the fact that it's up there in the blog header.  through 1998, piazza had played in 840 games.  he had exactly 200 home runs, just over 1000 hits, a .330 average and a career ops of .972.  not too shabby.  that included his 1998 numbers that were split between the dodgers, marlins and mets, so i am grateful to upper deck for featuring piazza as a dodger in this set and not as a fish or a metropolitan (it should be noted for consistency's sake that gary sheffield is featured in the set as a marlin and not a dodger).

i have resigned myself to the fact that piazza will go into the hall of fame as a met.  he played pretty close to 8 full seasons in new york vs. 5+ in la, and although he had his best season with the dodgers, his met numbers eclipse his dodger totals.  he also made it to the world series with the mets, while he never got out of the nlds with the dodgers.

still, i wonder about piazza's legacy with the dodgers.  will they retire his number when he is enshrined in cooperstown?  after all, it was kept in mothballs for 6+ years until brad penny came along.  the dodgers had done the same for steve garvey, although that lasted for 20 years before jolbert cabrera was allowed to wear number 6.  with don sutton (whose number was retired once he was elected to the hall), candy maldonado took number 20 right away in 1982.  the only player i know of not in the hall of fame whose number is 'unofficially' retired is fernando and his number 34.  jim gilliam is the only dodger non-hall of famer whose number has been retired.  i personally think the dodgers should retire gil hodges' number 14, maury wills' number 30 and fernando's number 34 regardless of their hall of fame status.  after thinking about it, i also think that piazza's 31 should be added to that list.

the 1999 upper deck century legends cards that should have been

one of my favorite sets of all time is the 1999 upper deck century legends set. tied to the sporting news' list of the top players of all time, this set has it all - hall of famers, (then) active greats, (then) top prospects, inserts highlighting famous moments and milestones, etc. the only thing it didn't have were cards for the number 11, 25 and 26 players of all time. pete rose's ineligibility, along with licensing issues surrounding joe dimaggio and sandy koufax, meant that upper deck couldn't produce cards for these players. i have had empty pockets in my set binder for 10 years - placeholders for these cards that i knew i would eventually get around to creating.

so, without further ado, here are the 1999 upper deck century cards that should have been:

number 11 joe dimaggio

number 25 pete rose

number 26 sandy koufax

i wish that upper deck would have made at least make the dimaggio and koufax cards sometime over the past few years, since they had the players' licensing rights. now, with their signing of pete rose, maybe they can at least do his card.  doubtful, but...

there were some really great subsets in the release as well, including 'century memories' commemorating various highlights and achievements of the 1900's.  there was one card that was never issued - #126 - which i assume was meant to recognize one of dimaggio/rose/koufax's many achievements [update - according to baseballcardpedia, card 126 was meant to be a dimaggio card. his death in early 1999 triggered a clause that put a halt to the use of his likeness for a year, so that's why his cards were pulled].  naturally, i took a shot at that as well:

number 126 joe dimaggio century memories:

the end of the streak.

number 126 pete rose century memories:

i love this photo.  it is, of course, taken after rose singled for career hit number 4192, breaking ty cobb's record.  with steve garvey lurking no less!

number 126 sandy koufax century memories:

celebrating sandy's perfect game.

any one of those 3 would have been a great addition to the set, and until upper deck produces all 4 missing cards, i will fill the empty spots with these cards that should have been!

giving thanks for through the mail successes! (part 2)

steve kemp signed his 1978 toppsand 1984 fleer cardskemp is channeling lou ferrigno in the 1978 card. i collected his cards because i expected big things from him.

al hrabosky signed his 1978 toppsand 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic cardsthe mad hungarian. nuff said.

jon olerud signed his 1994 upper deckand 1999 upper deck century legends cardstwo of my favorite upper deck sets. i was a big fan of olerud's when he played in toronto.

sean casey signed his 2003 donruss studioand 2006 bowman heritage cardsthe studio card was mine, but i sent another card that the mayor replaced with the bowman heritage card.

finally, craig breslow signed his 2008 upper deck timeline cardi pulled these cards like nothing. i must have had at least 6 or 7 (short print my arse) but by the time i got around to sending out the request, breslow was with the a's. still, he came through and that's what counts.

thanks to all these guys (and all the others) for keeping the through the mail dream alive!

today, i consider myself, pretty darn lucky

70 years ago today, the iron horse gave his famous speech in yankee stadium.

gehrig is probably my favorite non-dodger of all time. even though he was a yankee, i can't find any fault with him. although i may not know as much about gehrig if it weren't for his 'bad break', in between bursts of fireworks this evening i'll think of him and realize that i, too, have 'an awful lot to live for.'

the game right now is at the plate... [part 2]

we were sitting in the right field pavilion, about 7 rows up or so. we chanted "steroids" at jose canseco when he was in the field. he flexed his biceps for us. we did this partially because it was done by boston fans in the alcs. bud selig must not have watched any playoff baseball that year, since he had no idea until just a few years ago that steroids might be a problem in major league baseball. but i digress.
i remember the excitement as the game got underway, which quickly led to elation as mickey hatcher went deep in the bottom of the 1st, almost catching up to steve sax on the basepaths. we were quickly brought back down to earth as tim belcher walked the pitcher (dave stewart) en route to giving up a grand slam to jose canseco. this remains one of the hardest hit balls i have ever seen. top 3 easy. i really don’t remember what my expectations were. my nervousness was spent after the nlcs against the mets. i knew, obviously, that the dodgers were the underdogs against the a’s, but as a fan i had hope. sure, it was lessened after the grand slam, but as tim leary came in and held the a’s, there was still hope.
and there was still gibson on the bench...