how about a blog bat around challenge? the subject: cards that i (you) used to own

i have been buying packs (and sometimes boxes) of baseball cards since 1978.  some years, i bought more than others, but it's been a constant thing in my life since i was handed my first pack in 1977.  throughout that time, i've traded some cards away, and sold others, to further my collection.  there is one card, however, that i regret having dismissed from my hands, and that is the subject of this post. the card that i used to own that i wish i still did.

the very first card i felt remorse over trading was a 1978 topps steve garvey.  i had a double, but i was planning to start my dodger team set collection.  however, i needed a mickey rivers card for the full set, and my neighbor offered to give me rivers for garvey.  i made the deal, and my regret didn't last too long as i was able to get another garvey card fairly easily not too long thereafter.  before i get too far along, i'll show some cards that i used to own that i am ok with having sold or traded.

first up is this 2003 upper deck legendary cuts bill dickey cut auto numbered 09/25

i bought a box of legendary cuts that year for $60 and found this card in one of the packs.  i have no regrets about putting this up on ebay and taking the $200-ish that it commanded. still, i kept a photo of it for posterity.

similarly, i pulled this 1/1 mickey mantle magenta printing plate from a box of 2006 topps chrome

and sold it on ebay.  no regrets.

i've owned some non-gimmick cards that were pretty cool, but for one reason or another didn't fit into my collection.  like this 1909-1911 t206 jack egan card

and this 1951 topps luke easter card

both are nice and were cool to have, but likely fit better in the collections of some random ohioans.

there have been some other, even less spectacular cards that i've traded away yet felt the need to scan first and show here now, like this 1960 topps mound magicians card

this 2011 topps josh hamilton commemorative patch card

this 2012 topps carl yastrzemski facsimile auto stitch card

2011 topps diamond dig contest kelly johnson diamond die-cut black #/60

why did that have to be a d-back instead of a dodger?  obviously, i had no problem ejecting that card from my collection.

but now we come to the card that i do regret letting go of.  almost.  first, another story.  back in 2000, a friend and i split a box of upper deck legends.  one of my packs contained a mickey mantle jersey card with a pinstripe.  i shortly thereafter put it on ebay with a pretty high reserve, and while it was sitting there, my friend questioned why i would want to sell that card - "isn't that why you collect?", he asked. "to have a card like that?"  he was right, of course, and i was secretly happy that the card did not reach the reserve (it came within $15, as i recall).  i still have that mantle card, plus a couple of ruth bat cards that i've pulled from tribute packs, and several other non-dodger, non-double play, non-any of my mini collections that are just cool cards to own.

now, seriously, on to the whole point of this post.  i used to own this card:

well, not exactly that card, but another of the only 30 versions of the 2001 topps tribute walter alston patch cards that exist.  i could not find a photo of the card (i know i took one), but it featured a portion of the 100th anniversary of the national league patch worn by teams in 1976 (and visible on the 1977 topps manny mota card), which means that the uniform it was taken from was worn by smokey in his final season as the dodgers' manager.

i found the card in a local card/comic store.  it was on the 'markdown' wall, and was listed on sale for $49.99.  that was about the cost of a pack of 2001 topps tribute, if i recall correctly, and i knew that it was worth more than that.  now, i was not fully entrenched in collecting at this time (i bought cards more so out of habit and tradition), and really hadn't thought about what my collection was beyond maintaining my yearly dodger team sets from the topps flagship and traded sets, as well as my run of complete sets of those releases (a habit i abandoned a few years ago).  so, i bought the card with the full intent to sell it for a profit.  let me repeat that.  i, a dodger fan and collector of dodger cards, bought a 2001 topps tribute walter alston patch card with the intent to sell it.  and i did.  i made about $160, which was great, but future gcrl would become very disappointed in that past gcrl.

so disappointed, in fact, that i have kept my eye out for another version (or the same one) ever since.  i did find one on ebay (hence the picture of the card above), but it was already gone by the time i saw it.  my card sold to someone in alabama or arkansas - i do not remember which - so folks down that way, please keep an eye out.

in the meantime, i have added a different dodger manager's 2001 topps tribute patch card to my collection

that's alston's successor, tom lasorda, and his card features the red number patch that i enjoy so much.  i also own another patch from this set, one i pulled from a pack from a box i purchased in 2004 or so.

it's been about 11 years, and it may not neatly fit in my collection, but i'm not sure that i'm ready to part with eddie mathews yet.

so, what do you say?  what cards have you owned that you regret are no longer in your collection?  i'd like to read about it - either in the comments or as a bat around - because i feel your pain.

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.

moving past 2599

adrian beltre, who began his career with the dodgers in 1999 (here's his 1999 topps tek card for your enjoyment) 

rapped out  two hits on thursday night.  he had entered the evening tied for 79th all-time in hits with 2,599.  tied with steven patrick garvey.  now, garvey sits alone in 80th place, while beltre climbs the  list with 77th place in his sights (rabbit maranville and tim raines each have 2,605 hits).  meanwhile, i keep waiting for someone at elias to discover that garvey had one more hit that somehow didn't get recorded.  while he won't move up the leaderboard even if that were to be the case (and he may soon be passed by albert pujols and eventually miguel cabrera), i've always thought that 2,600 hits for garvey sounds a lot better than 2,599.

just for kicks, here's a 2001 topps tribute card of garvey that should have been.

when i first read about the inaugural issue of tribute and that it would be a set based on players whose numbers had been retired by their respective franchise, i thought for sure garvey would be included.  his number 6 was the first number retired by the padres, and only dave winfield had secured a similar spot in the friars' franchise lore.  no dice.  winfield was the only padre featured.  i used his card,

as well as that of robin roberts

to make the garvey, by the way.

congrats, adrian. i only wish you had got all of those hits as a dodger.

elston howard's tribute

i haven't made any progress on my 2001 topps tribute set in quite some time.  i did find an elston howard card from the set at one of the twin cities' lcs last year.  it set me back $3, which is why i haven't made much progress on the set.  here's my want list, in case anyone can help.  and here is howard's card in case you wanted to see it.

a promising catcher, howard began his big league career as an outfielder who dabbled in catching, but later transitioned to become the yankees' primary backstop towards the end of, and following, yogi berra's yankee career.  he was a part of 9 yankee world series teams, plus one as a member of the 1967 red sox.  he was also the 1963 american league mvp.  howard returned to the yankees after his playing career ended to become a coach, and when he died at the age of 51 in december of 1980, the yankees decided to wear black armbands as they had done the previous season (for thurman munson).

here's a 1982 fleer tommy john card showing the armband 

gotta love the blurriness of 1982 fleer.  here's john again, along with ron guidry, on a 1982 donruss card which also shows the armband

that's the card in the memorials binder.  it fits better than john's fleer card - it's in focus, it features yankee pinstripes, and elston howard was definitely a yankee winner.

is 'suttoning' the new 'tebowing'?

it took a while for don sutton to find his signature pose - he tried the 'arms over head' and the 'pitching motion follow through' - but he eventually got there.  i suspect this newly rediscovered pose will surpass planking, owling, and yes, even tebowing, in the coming weeks.  let's let the hall of fame pitcher show us how it's done.

1979 hostess

kneel on your left leg, and support your right arm on your right knee.  left arm goes across right arm, near the elbow.  baseball glove pointing down, look to the left of the camera.  got it.

1979 topps

or, you can look directly at the camera.  that works, too.

1981 fleer

without glove, looking to the right of the camera is also acceptable.

1981 fleer star stickers

squinting in the general direction of the camera is ok, too.

1981 topps

you can even go hatless, and hold a baseball in your right hand!

1981 topps league leaders

glove pointing up, is ok, but only if hatless?  i might need a ruling.

1981 topps traded

ah, a subtle 'open suttoning stance' is apparently appropriate when wearing rainbow jerseys.

1985 mother's a's

back to basics, with the ball.  around this time, sutton tried to teach the pose to phil niekro, who couldn't quite get the right leg up.  that is the most common mistake with people who attempt to 'sutton' - they kneel on the wrong knee.  it's simple, people!  left knee down, left arm on top.

1986 donruss

back to the original 1979 hostess pose

1986 fleer

this is the most basic form of suttoning, apparently

1986 fleer mini

glove up, with a hat!  ok, sutton knows what he's doing, so glove up or down in any 'suttoning' pose is ok.

1988 mother's dodgers

a final 'suttoning' at the sunset of a career.  i wonder how many stadiums don sutton 'suttoned' in?

but wait, his penchant for posing was so strong, that even recent issues have displayed the master's form.  like 2001 topps tribute

could this be the earliest known case of 'suttoning'?

2003 topps gallery

in which we pay homage to the 1979 event

but then there is 2003 topps all-time fan favorites

a vero beach 'suttoning' that predates that which is shown on the 2001 topps tribute card, complete with a blue glove.

anyone else seen another player 'sutton' on a card?  do you have the courage to 'sutton' somewhere unique?  will tim tebow score a touchdown for the jets, and 'sutton'?  we can only hope.

mota! cey! cey!

yes, it is 11/

10/

10!

or, if you prefer, it's reese

reese

anderson

sheffield

this was supposed to be a cey! cey! cey! post on 10/10/10 but i was out of commission.  admittedly, 11/10/10 isn't as catchy.

as a side note, i often associate numbers i need to remember with jersey numbers, not just on binary days.  in fact, if you were to find my old combination lock from high school, you would be able to unlock it using the code

baker

valenzuela

guerrero

happy binary day!  tomorrow's the last one until next year, so plan accordingly.

like a punch to the stomach...

or, an arm to the groin.  i feel a bit like jose offerman on his 1994 upper deck collector's choice card.  or maybe like the lurking jody reed.

no, i'm not talking about the twins and their inability to beat the yankees, i'm referring to my hard drive issues.  if the mets player is the hard drive, then offerman would be the data and reed would be me.  and, since we know offerman never lived up to expectations, we can assume that the data is not all there either.

so, as a collaterally damaged jody reed, i attempted to salvage as much as i could, and wound up with the vast majority of my scans being lost or partially saved.  here's an example.

this is a 1990 topps traded juan samuel card that he signed for me.

but you knew that, right?

how about a 2001 topps tribute roy campanella scan 

sweet.  why campy is lost but the offerman was spared is beyond me.  i'll spend some time rebuilding my scanned folder (and backing it up more regularly) and get back to business as usual soon.

say goodnight, duke.

goodnight.

happy binary day!

from al, pee wee, manny,  and the penguin

 

i know yesterday was a binary day, too, but - don sutton! what is he doing here?

well, technically, it's '01/11/2010' not just '01/11/10', so i guess he figured he would show up and do his part, even at the expense of the bit.

see you in october, binary day!  and we'll try to keep sutton away...

and don't forget to check out my side project - oh my o-pee-chee! - which officially gets started today!