the rest of the infield (and others) show up in the steve garvey binders

not all of the cards in the steve garvey binders are of steve alone.  sometimes, he has company.  such is the case with one of the cards on sheet 44.  have a look.

those cards are:

1. 2003 topps all-time fan favorites relic
2. 2003 topps retired signature
3. 2003 topps retired signature black parallel
4. 2003 topps tribute
5. 2003 topps tribute gold parallel
6. 2003 topps tribute auto relic
7. 2003 topps tribute team tribute relic with ron cey and steve yeager
8. 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography dodger stars auto
9. 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography dodger stars auto bronze

i was happy to see cey and yeager show up on a tribute relic, even though it would have made more sense for them to do so with the other co-mvp of the 1981 world series, pedro guerrero, and not the garv.  i am missing the gold version of the garvey tribute auto relic, and i am sure it is as fantastic as the base gold parallel.  look at that sucker shine!

here are the backs:

moving on to sheet 45, the upper deck autographs continue with some familiar faces (and signatures):

those cards are:

1. 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography dodger stars auto silver
2. 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography doubles auto with ron cey
3. 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography triples auto with davey lopes and ron cey
4. 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography triples auto with bill russell and ron cey
5. 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic
6. 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic jersey relic
7. 2004 donruss classics team colors bat relic
8. 2004 donruss classics team colors combo material bat/patch relic
9. 2004 donruss classics team colors combo auto relic

the 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography dodger stars set was a fantastic group of cards for this fan back in '03.  it featured certified autos for bill buckner, tommy john, maury will, ron cey, bill russell, don sutton, duke snider, davey lopes, don newcombe, steve yeager, and, of course, steve garvey.  there were also the combo autos, three of which you see on that sheet.  each individual auto had the base (numbered to a variety of copies - garvey's is 320), bronze (most, like garvey's, numbered to 100 and with the "dodgers" inscription), silver (numbered to 50, and most with a year inscription), and gold (numbered to 10).  i am missing the garvey gold version, unfortunately.

here are the backs:

a note about the 2004 donruss classics team colors cards, which continue on sheet 46.  donruss essentially used the twins 'twin cities' logo on these cards which confused me at first.  you can't unsee it - have a look:

 those cards are:

1. 2004 donruss classics team colors jersey relic
2. 2004 donruss classics team colors jersey (pinstripe) relic
3. 2004 donruss classics team colors signatures auto
4. 2004 donruss elite extra edition back to back picks signature with ron cey
5. 2004 donruss leather & lumber rivals
6. 2004 donruss leather & lumber rivals material dual relic
7. 2004 donruss leather & lumber lumber cuts auto
8. 2004 donruss leather & lumber leather cuts auto
9. 2004 donruss team heroes

it is also strange to me that donruss used a dodger jersey for the combo bat/patch relic on sheet 45, but then went with a padres jersey for the other relics while still using a photo of garvey as a dodger.  at least upper deck switched from a dodger photo on the 2003 upper deck sweet spot classics base card to a padres photo on the relic insert since they were using a brown friars swatch.  donruss also took the 'back to back' literally with the elite extra edition auto card as you will see in a moment.

here are the backs:

there's the penguin!

still more to come - stay tuned...

rickey got some final tributes

today is many things - the last tuesday of the year, christmas, and rickey henderson's 55th birthday.  i'm sure rickey got shorted on gifts as a kid due to the dual birthday/christmas thing, but perhaps rickey used that as fuel to motivate rickey into becoming, as he said, the greatest.

back in 2003, rickey spent his last days in the major leagues with the dodgers who had plucked rickey out of the atlantic league in the hopes that rickey would jumpstart the team, or at least put some fans in the seats.

here's rickey's 2004 upper deck card

it doesn't look like there were too many fans coming out to see rickey.  that's too bad.  i remember the first time i saw rickey play - it was at the big a in anaheim and some youth group i was in took a trip to see some billy ball in 1982, the year rickey stole 130 bases.  it was great - rickey stole a couple of bases, billy martin came out to yell at an umpire, and we all went home happy.

as for that upper deck card, it features rickey's complete major league career stats on the back, as a true final tribute should.

those are some big numbers.  at the time of rickey's retirement (or at the end of the 2003 season, as rickey didn't officially retire), rickey was the all-time leader in stolen bases, walks (not shown), and runs scored.  rickey is still number one in steals and runs scored, but barry bonds wound up walking more times than rickey.

rickey had other cards in 2004 which, as a dodger collector, pleased me.  this is a 2004 playoff absolute memorabilia (retail version) card

here's the back

for the record, since it's not on the back of any of these cards, rickey walked 11 times as a dodger.  rickey was 20th on the all-time hit list after the 2003 season,  rickey has since been bumped to 22nd as craig biggio and derek jeter have both passed rickey in recent years.

here's a 2004 donruss team heroes card of rickey

here on the back, we can see that rickey had 3 of the dodgers' 80 team steals in 2003

a little bit fancier now, here's a 2004 donruss timeless treasures card of rickey

the back notes that rickey broke ty cobb's career runs record with a home run.

rickey slid into home plate to celebrate, just like yasiel puig did last year on his first walk-off homer.  admittedly, rickey had a few more years under rickey's belt when rickey did it.

not all of rickey's 2004 cards showed him as a dodger.  this is a 2004 donruss lumber & leather card featuring rickey as an athletic

rickey had four different stints with the a's.  the back of this card features a photo of a younger rickey

i am still of the mind that billy beane should have signed rickey to a contract in september of 2004.  the rosters were expanded, and rickey could still play (rickey was playing independent ball at the time).  yes, the a's were playing for a division title (they finished one game behind the angels), but rickey could have pulled some herb washington duty as a designated pinch runner.  plus, the a's were eliminated by the angels in game 161.  rickey could have suited up for game 162 at the coliseum and finished rickey's career in front of the home crowd.

unfortunately, rickey's last professional game was played in 2005 as a member of the san diego surf dogs dawgs in the golden baseball league.  strangely enough, billy beane did pluck a player off of the surf dawgs' roster in '05, but it was disappointing twins' prospect adam johnson, not rickey.  so that meant that, fortunately for me, rickey's last major league games were played as a member of the dodgers.  that means that rickey's 2004 upper deck vintage card (featuring a dodger usher appearing to be a first base coach) is also a final tribute card

it's too bad that upper deck didn't do rickey's full career stats on the back, though, as they did with rickey's flagship card shown up top.

and, while the text on the back notes that rickey homered in his second game as a dodger, rickey also homered in his fourth game as a dodger. the dodgers didn't win that game, but the home run was the last of rickey's career, and it was also (quite appropriately) a lead-off homer.  it is also worth noting that rickey stole for the last time in rickey's career in a game against the rockies with greg zaun as the catcher.  about three weeks later, in rickey's final big league plate appearance, rickey was hit by a pitch.  rickey took second on a sacrifice and then scored on a shawn green single.  and that was the end of rickey's major league career.

merry christmas everybody, and happy birthday rickey!

odd combinations

i don't have too many cards from the various topps co-signers sets in my collection.  i think they are kind of strange, actually.  still, i am open to picking some up if and when the opportunity arises.  like with this tommy john/bob welch dual-sticker auto card from the 2006 release.

there aren't too many certified auto cards of welch as a dodger, and that's a shame.  however, i find the pairing with john odd.  their dodger careers overlapped by just one season - 1978.  john moved on to the yankees for the 1979 season, and welch moved into the dodger rotation full time in 1980 after splitting two seasons between starting and relieving.

perhaps a better match for john would have been don sutton, who was john's teammate for six years.  and, while i am thinking about it, a better match for reggie jackson on this 2004 donruss leather and lumber 'rivals' card would have been bob welch

sutton did face reggie in four different postseasons (1974, 1977, 1978, and 1982) but i am pretty sure everybody recalls welch's strikeout of reggie to end game 2 of the '78 series over any sutton/jackson matchup.  but, then this card would be more of the 'classic confrontation' variety i suppose.

let's enjoy a few other combo type cards, like this 1997 bowman's best mirror image insert

i have this card because it features wilton guerrero, along with the suggestion that he might make some folks think of craig biggio.  the other side of the card features chuck knoblauch and donnie sadler, by the way.

this pairing makes some sense - todd hollandsworth and derek jeter on a 1997 pinnacle inside card

as they were both rookies of the year in 1996.  holly last played in 2006, and jeter is still (sort of) playing.

forget batman and robin, the real dynamic duo is delwyn young and andy laroche according to this 2007 topps 52 card

these two were teammates in la during the 2007 and 2008 season, and then were reunited in pittsburgh in 2009 and 2010.  laroche made an appearance for the blue jays this year, but young was released by washington prior to the start of the season.  as dodgers, they combined for 6 home runs and 26 rbi.

last, but certainly not least, here's a 1961 topps card featuring sandy koufax and johnny podres.

they're both leftys so why not put them on a card together?  it doesn't matter that koufax was only 8-13 in 1960 when the decision to make this card was made (podres went 14-12 in 1960).  poor danny mcdevitt, the dodgers' other southpaw in 1960, who went 0-7 and didn't make the cut for the card.

cards with stars and clouds and dodgers

here is the second installment of my recent trading frenzy with the rhubarb runner.  it's a wonder what some vintage twins and a couple of sticker autos will bring in return.  first up, a 2002 topps american pie american sluggers insert of the silver fox

this is one of the more obscured card in my blog's header.  it's right there under the 2004 topps robin ventura and the 2001 ud decade 1970's ron cey.  i feel badly that the duke is so slighted, but he is up there!

here's the first of two shawn green relics - this one is from 2004 upper deck diamond collection (i think)

it's not as cool as this 2001 playoff absolute memorabilia game used base card

featuring green playing baseball amongst the clouds.  what a wacky design.  almost as bad as this 2003 fleer ultra pee wee reese insert

apparently, it was a game when the players floated in the heavens.

back to earth and a 2002 upper deck insert featuring kevin brown

the insert set is called 'return of the ace'.  it kind of reminds me of the opening credits of 'game of thrones'.  without the fictional geography lesson.  on another semi-related note, i will be starting my 'evolution of the ace' series next week.  at some point, brown does show up on the chain of dodger yearly aces.

2004 fleer greats jackie robinson

this card, of course, reminds me of the book by lawrence ritter 'the glory of their times'.  although i prefer 'the image of their greatness' by ritter and donald honig. both are well worth your time, as is the collecting of jackie robinson baseball cards.  even the glut of cards put out by topps over the last couple of years, although it would be nice to see some different photos used.

2005 upper deck sweet spot dj houlton

one of the most interesting things that i know about dj houlton is that his middle name is sean.  i guess ds houlton just doesn't sound right.  actually, the dj stands for dennis junior which is quite sensible.  houlton pitched for the dodgers in 2005 and then again in 2007.  he moved on to japan in 2008, and is still pitching there today as far as i know.

just when you thought you had seen the last of 2011 topps update cognac cards, here comes jerry sands

hopefully sands is working on keeping his eye on the ball down in the minors this seaon.
 
i saved this card for last, only because it has a hated yankee on it.  it's from 2004 donruss leather & lumber

what saves it is the presence of duke snider.  duke and scooter faced each other in the world series 4 times, with the yankees winning three rings before the dodgers finally won in 1955.  duke hit .290 with 9 homers in those 4 series, while rizzuto hit .266 with no homers.  small consolation for the silver fox, i am sure.

thanks for the cards david!