it's time for the encased cards from the steve garvey binders

you've seen the 9-pocket pages and the 8-pocket pages, so now let's see the 4-pocket pages from the steve garvey binders.  to be clear, these are not the pages with graded cards that are part of the oddball binders, but rather regular issue cards that were actually distributed in sealed cases.  have a look:

those cards are:

1. 2003 topps retired signature autographs
2. 2003 topps retired signature autographs (with "6" inscription)
3. 2004 playoff prime cuts ii mlb icons material prime relic /6
4. 2004 playoff prime cuts ii mlb icons signature material number relic/auto /6

those are some pretty sorry relics for cards numbered to 6.

here are the backs:

and here's the second sheet:

those cards are:

1. 2004 playoff prime cuts ii mlb icons signature material combo auto/relic /6
2. 2004 topps originals signature 1979 buyback auto /26
3. 2004 topps originals signature 1983 buyback auto /19
4. 2005 topps pristine legends refractors /549

1979 topps cards are pretty popular as far as buybacks go.  there are plenty of others from this set, however, including 1 1971 card, 1 1975 card, 4 1976 cards, 5 1980 cards, 10 1981 cards, a whopping 122 1982 cards, 32 1984 cards, and 129 1985 cards.  no 1978 cards, unfortunately.

here are the backs:

here's the third sheet:

those cards are:

1. 2005 topps retired signature autographs
2. 2008 tristar signa cuts 1984 donruss auto /25
3. 2013 panini hall heroes private signings auto /10

here are the backs:

looks like i have room for one more.

there are a few more cards to show before i'm done with the steve garvey binders, so stay tuned...

the rest of 2005 brings the first steve garvey binder to an end

before i get to sheet 59 in the steve garvey binder, i want to note that i did receive the 2005 donruss greats card in the mail the other day, and so i now know that the first card on sheet 55 is not the base version, but rather the un-numbered silver holofoil.  what that means is that all of these cards are going to shift one spot in the binders when i insert the actual base card in that first slot on sheet 55.  i already have these next sheets scanned, so i'm just going to go with it.

here's sheet 59:

those cards are:

1. 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia team quads swatch double padres relic (with willie mccovey, tony gwynn, and rickey henderson) /75
2. 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia team quads swatch single spectrum prime black padres relic (with willie mccovey, tony gwynn, and rickey henderson) /10
3. 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia team six dodgers (with darryl strawberry, rickey henderson, kazuhisa ishii, paul loduca, and kevin brown) /100
4. 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia team six swatch single dodgers relic (with darryl strawberry, rickey henderson, kazuhisa ishii, paul loduca, and kevin brown) /150
5. 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia team six swatch single spectrum dodgers relic (with darryl strawberry, rickey henderson, kazuhisa ishii, paul loduca, and kevin brown) /100
6. 2005 playoff presitge
7. 2005 playoff prestige xtra bases red /150
8. 2005 playoff prestige xtra bases green /50
9. 2005 playoff prime cuts mlb icons /100

again - the padres team quad cards had garvey and mccovey on the back, but they are considered the front in the binder.  it's too bad that garvey has the most non-descript patch piece on the card.  there are many more parallel versions of both the padres team quad and the dodgers team six cards, as well as the playoff prestige cards.  i've only got a few, as you can see.

here are the backs:

there are two different ishii jerseys being cut up for these cards, and i'm guessing that the loduca jersey being used is actually a mets black alternate.  playoff could have left loduca off the card and put al oliver on instead, as they did have oliver relics in that set.

here's sheet 60:

those cards are:

1. 2005 playoff prime cuts mlb icons century silver /50
2. 2005 playoff prime cuts mlb icons material jersey relic /50
3. 2005 playoff prime cuts mlb icons material combo bat/jersey relic /10
4. 2005 playoff prime cuts mlb icons signature material trio mlb auto-bat/bat/jersey relic /10
5. 2005 topps all-time fan favorites
6. 2005 topps all-time fan favorites autograph
7. 2005 topps pristine legends
8. 2005 topps pristine legends gold die-cut refractor /65
9. 2005 topps pristine legends valuable performance relic

just like the previous page, this sheet holds only a fraction of the available parallels for the prime cuts card.  there are also a few more parallels for the fan favorites card, including a refractor that i am currently watching.

here are the backs:

sheet 61 is not full because it's the last sheet of this binder and i figured i should end the binder at the end of 2005, leaving some empty spaces for any additional cards i might obtain featuring the garv between 1989 and 2005.  i've already got the 2005 donruss greats card to add, so i can pick up 5 others without having to add a sheet.  anyway, here is sheet 61:

those cards are:

1. 2005 topps retired signature
2. 2005 topps retired signature gold parallel
3. 2005 upper deck ultimate signature signs of october dual auto (with ron guidry) /250

here are the backs:

yes, it used to be a sign of october when the dodgers and yankees would square off.  it's now been over thirty years since those two teams last met in the post season, and garvey was 2 for 6 against guidry in that most recent clash (1981 world series).

the next binder is on the clock - stay tuned...

the dodgers' tim crews memorial patch

tim crews was a reliever for the dodgers from 1987 through 1992, coming over from the brewers with tim leary in exchange for steve garvey's replacement, greg brock.  he pitched effectively enough - he had a 3.05 era for the club through the 1991 season - but after a subpar 1992 campaign, the dodgers allowed him to leave via free agency.  here's his 1992 o-pee-chee card.

crews signed with the indians, along with another dodger teammate turned free agent, bob ojeda.

it was during spring training in 1993 that crews, along with ojeda and fellow cleveland pitcher steve olin, took a boat ride looking for gators on little lake nellie that ended with crews and olin dead, and ojeda severely injured.  the boat, with crews behind the wheel, had hit an unlit dock, killing olin instantly.  crews died a while later at the hospital.

the dodgers wore a patch in crews' memory for the 1993 season - his number 52 in a black circle.  this was similar to the memorial they wore during the 1978 world series following jim gilliam's passing.  it shows up on a lot of 1994 cards, including cory snyder's 1994 topps card

darryl strawberry's 1994 topps card (this is the gold parallel version)

also has the patch on display, as does his 2005 topps retired card (also the gold parallel version)

since topps recycled the photo.  here's a different photo of darryl with the patch visible on his 1994 topps finest card

later in the season, the dodgers also lost don drysdale and roy campanella, and honored them with a memorial patch on their right sleeves.  i'll address that particular memorial in a separate post, but you can see it, along with the crews patch, on tom candiotti's 1994 donruss card

with a photo taken on a sunny day in dodger stadium.

both patches are again on display (along with a tremendous mustache) on brett butler's 1994 topps stadium card

with just the crews patch (and no mustache) visible on the back

for a while, i had this 1994 upper deck collector's choice card

pegged as the representative for the crews memorial in my binder, but i also considered tim wallach's 1994 topps stadium club card

as well as the rainbow foil parallel

and even thought about jody reed's 1994 fleer flair card

ultimately, i decided that the best card to represent the tim crews memorial patch in my collection is eric karros' 1994 bowman card

crews left behind a family, as did olin, as well as a lot of affected teammates and club personnel.  they were the first active major leaguers to pass away since thurman munson died in 1979.  the indians also wore a patch to honor crews and olin, and i'll show some examples of that later today.

how about some vintage duke?

feeling vintage today, and i just happen to have a few cards of the silver fox scanned and loaded.  these aren't too vintage-y, however, as they are la dodger dukes.

1960 topps

1961 topps

classic duke pose on that '61.  similar to his 1952 topps card, which is one of two (1955 is the other) topps cards that i have yet to obtain of snider.

1959 topps baseball thrills subset

looks like the guy in the stands is protecting his privates.  this was the last 1959 topps dodger card that i needed for my set.

here's duke's last topps card from his playing days - his 1964 topps card

he was featured as a met in the 1963 set, too, but i don't have that high numbered card.  there wasn't a card issued for him in the 1965 set, unfortunately, as that would have been his final tribute.  of course, he would have been featured as a giant, so maybe it's not all bad.

duke appeared as a met again in the 2003 topps retired set

but topps fixed that in time for the 2005 version of the retired set

one of the first duke snider cards i ever owned was this 1983 donruss hall of fame heroes card

it was a year later that donruss had him in their regular set as the 'hall of fame diamond king' and puzzle subject.

here's another duke card from donruss, 2004 donruss studio to be exact

with the los angeles skyline behind him, he's shown in his brooklyn duds.  i think of snider as a brooklyn dodger - he had all of his best seasons there, and never was an all-star while in la - and the lack of the '52 and '55 cards in my collection is really starting to wear on me.  i'll probably do something about that.

this had seemed most improbable

following up on davey lopes' inclusion in the 2013 topps archives set with a short print and an auto, as well as steve garvey's autos in 2013 panini and topps, and the ron cey auto available from panini golden age that same year, 2014 has brought to me a 2014 topps archives bill russell on-card, certified autographed card.  unbelievable!

i did not consider this to be very likely given that topps has not once put russell in a fan favorites issue.  the last time topps issued a card featuring the shortstop of the team of my youth, it was 1987.  upper deck included him in a number of releases much to my enjoyment, but not topps.  we got the likes of tom niedenfuer in 2005 topps all-time fan favorites

 and 2005 topps retired

but never russell.  i was shocked when i first saw one of these cards show up on ebay.

here's the back

not sure how topps decided on truncating the stat rows, but they left out russell's final six seasons with the club.  the career totals are correct however, and so is the cartoon - russell played in 2181 games as a los angeles dodger, just about 230 more than the next player on the list, willie davis.  in fact, the only player to wear the franchise's uniform in more games than russell is hall of famer zach wheat.  wouldn't it be nice to see him in one of these sets sometime…

thanks, topps, for thinking of bill russell.  he definitely was one of this fan's favorites.

giving up garvey

today is the last day for me as the sponsor of steve garvey's baseball reference page.  i love baseball reference.  i use it a lot.  i even just browse around the site, looking at various pages for fun.  yes, for fun.  however, i had noticed over the past few months that the prices they were asking for sponsorship were pretty high.  i didn't know what they were going to ask for garvey's site until 3 weeks ago, when i got the email reminding me that it was getting close to renewal time.  it turns out that i could re-up for $150, approximately the value of over 150 2005 topps retired gold garvey cards.

that's a lot of cards.  i'm not sure what i paid to sponsor the site initially, back in 2008.  i will guess $35.  to renew it in 2009 cost me $30.  in 2010, i paid a whopping sum of $10 for another year of sponsorship.  a week ago, i got another email.  my lack of action meant that now it would cost me $180 to renew for another year.  by that time, however, i had already decided against it.

like i said, i still use the site quite a bit and am willing to sponsor somebody.  in a post not too long ago, i mentioned that bill russell's page was available for $45, while ron cey's would cost $85 and davey lopes' $75.  if i choose to think out of the infield, i could sponsor the 1978 dodgers (the team of my youth!) for $45 or give steve yeager some love for $30.  i could also pick up the tab for myron white's page for $10.

but, since today is veteran's day, i will choose to sponsor the page of roy gleason.  it may be the best $10 i spend today.

here's to you roy, and thank you for your service. 

as for the garv, i'm still a fan.  i made this 1993 pinnacle style card to prove it

while i was at it, i decided to do another take on the idols subset, this one with a twin cities spin

someone should tell justin morneau that over at hockey-reference, patrick roy is available for $50.

taking a bite out of the thorzul group breaks

i've picked up the dodgers in the last couple of thorzul breaks, and while my haul hasn't been stellar, i have received some decent cards - lots of shiny and some oldtimey, too.  first up are the 2003 donruss elite cards from the april break.

the crime dog, fred mcgriff

mcgriff had hit 30 home runs for the cubs in 2002, so i was fairly pleased with his signing going into the 2003 season (the dodgers and cubs essentially traded first basemen with the cubs acquiring eric karros in the todd hundley trade, part 2).  mcgriff wound up hitting only 13 home runs and his average dropped from .273 to .249.  i actually missed karros, who hit 12 homers but had a .286 average for the cubbies.

shawn green

green was coming off of back-to-back 40-home run seasons heading into '03.  he wound up with just 19 roundtrippers.  he hit a ton of doubles, and i figured his power was waning.  there were rumors about injury, but green played in 160 games.  his home run total ticked up the next season when he was moved to first base to replace mcgriff.

paul loduca

i am pretty pleased with myself that i never really got on the loduca bandwagon.  jim tracy was a fool.

odalis perez

i have a soft spot for odalis.  once at an interleague game against the angels in anaheim, i was sitting behind the dodger dugout and odalis was standing at the rail in front of us.  the guy next to me was jawing at him the whole game, but it turned out to be good-natured and odalis gave him a ball to give to one of the kids in my party.  nomar also threw us one after the third out was made at first and we got another ball somehow, which was nice since there were three kids in our group. 

the second box from the april break was 2005 topps retired.  i got johnny podres

which is nice.

in may, thorzul broke a fleer product from which i received no dodgers, and a box of 2006 upper deck sweet spot, from which sprung

cesar izturis

and nomar garciaparra

love the parking lot in the background.

my other team in may was the a's.  i got a few cards, including this milton bradley

bradley for ethier, straight up.  thanks billy.

in the earlier break, my second team was the astros.  my favorite card i received was this one, jr richard from the 2005 topps retired box

james rodney used to dominate the dodgers.  he was 15-4 against them lifetime, with 14 complete games and 5 shutouts in 24 starts.  in fact, after 1976, richard was 11-0 against the big blue wrecking crew. his last two starts against them in 1980 resulted in a 13-k 8 inning performance and a one-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts. i recall hearing an interview with burt hooton circa 1979 in which happy was (jokingly) complaining that he always seemed to be slotted to start against richard (i counted 6 times from 1977-1980).  who could blame him.

thanks for hosting, thorzul!