the last dodger pitcher to win the mvp award was sandy koufax

by my count, there have been 10 pitchers who have won the national league mvp award.  three of them were dodgers - dazzy vance (ok, he was a brooklyn robin), don newcombe, and sandy koufax.  koufax won in 1963, and then finished 2nd in 1965 (to willie mays) and in 1966 (to roberto clemente in a very close vote).  

let's see some koufax cards in honor of the most valuable player award - the 2014 winners of which will be announced later today

here's koufax with his right-handed compatriot don drysdale making a tony cloninger sandwich on a 1966 topps league leaders card

and here's koufax sharing space again, although this time it's with ryan braun on a 2011 topps update diamond duos card.

here's a card from 2012 topps that recognizes his effort in game 1 of the 1963 world series

koufax struck out 15 yankees that day.  a few days later, he struck out 8 more to complete the dodgers' sweep.

i've had this short print of koufax from 2012 topps archives for awhile

there's next year's heritage design.

koufax had a couple of cards in 2014 topps allen & ginter as well - here's his pastime's pastimes insert

koufax's pastime is listed as 'actor'

which was not uncommon for the dodgers of the late 1960's/early 1970's.  the don drysdale and wes parker episodes of 'the brady bunch' were two of my favorites. those and the hawaii trip episodes featuring vincent price.

here's koufax's base card from this year's ginter

in his mvp season, koufax won the pitching triple crown with 25 wins, a 1.88 era, and 306 strikeouts.  he also led the league in shutouts and whip.  meanwhile, clayton kershaw led the league in wins and era in 2014, falling just 3 strikeouts behind stephen strasburg and johnny cueto. we'll see later today if kershaw joins dazzy, newk, and sandy as a league mvp.  i'm betting that he does.

too many tigers sporting memorial patches

for quite a while now, i've been posting about memorial patches on mondays.  i still have quite a few to get to, but two of the patches i have already covered include the ernie harwell patch worn by the tigers in 2010, and the sparky anderson patch that the motor city kitties wore in 2011.  dennis from too many verlanders recently sent me a package that included a whole mess of tigers wearing these patches.  here are two cards of brennan boesch from 2010 topps update that show the harwell patch.

these cards are both great examples of the patch that i did not have in my collection previously.  i'll keep the valverde in the memorials binder, however.

dennis also included a whole mess of cards showing the sparky anderson patch.

there we have cards from 2011 topps and 2011 topps update, and here are a couple (plus a parallel) from 2012 topps

boesch is back with a 2012 topps allen & ginter card

while alex avila and miguel cabrera show the patch on their 2012 topps archives cards

boesch and miggy also show the patch on their 2012 topps gypsy queen cards

and then there are the 2012 bowman cards

the tigers' american league central division rival kansas city royals also wore a memorial patch in 2011 (for former pitcher paul splittorff), and dennis threw this 2012 bowman billy butler card in the package as well.

he added another memorial patch, too - the harry caray memorial patch can be seen on this 1999 ud choice kerry wood starquest insert

although this was included as part of the complete 30-card set in a separate package.  i had claimed some cards from dennis, and he included this set (which contained a single dodger - adrian beltre)

as well as a set of the 1990 fleer league standouts insert set, which included current dodger manager don mattingly wearing pinstripes

i'll show some of the cards that i claimed in a later post.

there was yet another package that dennis sent recently.  it contained one card that he picked up at a card show with me in mind - a 2005 topps pristine steve garvey uncirculated card

i've got one in the garvey collection already, but now i have one for the dodger binder, too.

thanks dennis!

the quest for a 1978 topps master set

1978 topps was the first set i ever completed.  it took me most of the summer of 1978 to do it, but i built the set through packs and neighborhood trades and singles purchased at the local card shop.  although i had been given a pack of 1977 topps the year before, and somehow had a few 1971 cards in my collection, it was the 1978 set that spurred my dedication to the hobby.  

i also spent a couple of weeks in the great white north that summer, and bought up packs of 1978 o-pee-chee cards, enjoying the variations that mixed the topps photos with new teams for some players and the clarifying text that was added to those cards.  i didn't finish the o-pee-chee set until the early 2000's, however, but once it was completed, i turned my attention to the other 1978 variations.

there was the 1978 topps zest willie montanez card, and the 1978 topps burger king cards issued for the rangers, tigers, yankees, and astros that included several cards not in the 1978 topps flagship.  beyond that, there are the cards that topps made as part of their archives and fan favorites sets using the 1978 design.  i showed most of them in this post, but left out two from the 2004 topps all-time fan favorites set.

here's keith hernandez

and a card made for national league umpire eric gregg

topps had to modify the design slightly to accommodate the lack of a team name, although i wish they had used the national league logo (or at least a larger mlb logo) and broken the border to make it look a little bit more like a 1978 card.  the back is all text, which is a departure as well

there is no mention of the generous strike zone gregg employed in the 1997 nlcs.

here's the back of hernandez's card, which looks more like the real thing

except for the stats beyond 1977 and the text reference to his 1979 co-mvp and batting title.

since the post that showed the other atff and recent archives cards that used the design, i was able to find one that had eluded me.  the 2012 topps archives george foster auto sp is now in the collection

i don't know why this card wasn't issued as a non-auto (same goes for the greg luzinski in the set).  meanwhile, it doesn't appear that the 1978 design was used at all in 2014 topps archives.  still, there was this card issued as an insert in 2014 topps series 2 that i picked up

it's a 'future stars that never were' card, re-imagining eddie murray's 1978 topps rookie card as a 'future star' subset card, had there been one in 1978.  topps did a nice job of using the stars that they used on the 1978 highlights cards, so i see how this design could have fit into the set.  however, i would have preferred to see a card that should have been of paul molitor, alan trammell, lou whitaker, dale murphy, or some other player who was featured on a multi-player rookie card that year instead of murray.  i'll still take it, though.

a yankee black armband for catfish hunter

as i mentioned earlier today, the yankees wore a memorial - their traditional black armband - following the death of jim 'catfish' hunter on september 9, 1999.  hunter passed away after being diagnosed with als - lou gehrig's disease.

the yankees were already wearing a memorial number patch for joe dimaggio (more on that in a future post) who had passed away during spring training, but didn't add the armband until after hunter's death.  that means that roger clemens is wearing both memorials on this 2000 fleer tradition card

even though we only see the armband.

it's fitting to use a world series themed card as the memorial for hunter as he pitched in three more fall classics after joining the yankees.  he won 23 games in 1975, his first year with the yankees, and then had 17 more wins in 1976 as he helped new york return to the world series after an 11-year absence.  although they lost to the reds that year, hunter helped them return and beat the dodgers in 1977 and 1978.

arm problems forced him to retire following the 1979 season, but he went out with well over 200 wins and just over 2000 strikeouts in his 15-year career.  he was voted to the hall of fame in 1987, and is the only player (i think) who is enshrined without a logo on his cap as he refused to choose between the a's and the yankees.

unfortunately, topps failed to produce a card of hunter in 1980, but they came through a couple of years ago with this card from 2012 topps archives

with his complete career stats on the back, and a snarky cartoon that picks at my 1978 world series scab (the dodgers were up 2 games to none!).

that's what hunter's final tribute would have looked like, and in fact, i have this card in my final tribute binder.  better late than never.

1978 topps redux

because it was the first set i collected, i think that the 1978 topps set design is great.  i plan on buying some heritage in 13 years due to that fact, and, i have completed my 1978 topps extended set by acquiring the variation and 'missing' cards that were included in the various 1978 burger king releases and 1978 topps zest.  heck, i even created a bunch of cards for the dodger players from 1977 and 1978 that weren't featured as dodgers or at all in the set.  i love this set.  

now, like many others, i can see a touch of the 1978 topps design in the 2014 donruss release.  it's really too bad that they also tried to incorporate 1987 donruss into it as well, because the borders are too wide as a result.  i am not a fan of 2014 donruss.  i am a fan, however, of topps archives and fan favorites releases that used the 1978 design for some of their cards.  like dusty baker here from 2005 topps all-time fan favorites

that card would have fit right in with the rest of the dodgers in the real 1978 set.

as would have this jack clark card from 2003 topps all-time fan favorites

and this mark fidrych card, also from 2003

i pulled an autographed version of this from one of the two boxes i broke back in '03.  i'm too lazy to go find it right now, however.

ron guidry's card is nice, but the black armband means it would be better as a card from 1980, 81, or 82.

still, i'll take it.

the last of the cards from the 2003 topps atff release that uses the 1978 topps design (as far as i know) is this jim rice

it's nice, but i like the laughing jim rice better on his official 1978 topps card

moving on to the 2005 topps all-time fan favorites set, and in addition to the johnnie b. baker card up top, we have a good looking bob boone card

and another dodger, rick monday

this card is much better than mo's actual card from 1978 upon which he is wiping mustard from his chin.  the back is nice - it keeps the 'home run' value that his original card had - but it adds a reference to his 1981 nlcs home run

rather than his 3-homer game in 1972, which is what his original 1978 card had.

when topps archives was released in 2012, i was curious if the 1978 design would be used.  it did wind up on a couple of autographed short prints, like this greg luzinski

and a george foster card that i have yet to obtain.  if anyone wants to pick a foster up for me, rest assured, you will be rewarded.

in 2013, there were two short prints from the topps archives set that used the 1978 design - larry bowa

and the cobra, dave parker

i'm not used to seeing parker look so happy on his cards, but i sure am glad to see this card design again.

the brewers' groundskeeper memorial patch

gary vanden berg was the brewers' head groundskeeper for 20 years, and was with the team for a total of 30 years.  he passed away in october of 2011 during the brew crew's playoff run.  for the remainder of the nlcs, the team wore a patch with his initials on their jerseys.  you can see the patch on yovani gallardo's 2012 topps archives card

vanden berg, who passed away after a battle with cancer, was also memorialized by the major league baseball groundskeeper hall of fame, who named a trophy after him which is given to new inductees to the hall.

the phillies' 'b' memorial patch

two of the three buck brothers who purchased the phillies back in 1981 died during the 2010 offseason.  alexander 'whip' buck passed away in october 2010, while jim buck died in march of 2011.  as far as i can tell, the third brother - william - is still alive today.  they were the heirs to what is now known as the glaxosmithkline pharmaceutical company, and used a small amount of their fortunes to buy the phillies in 1981.

for the 2011 season, the phillies wore a circular patch with the letter 'b' inside to remember the two brothers.  the patch is visible on a whole mess of 2012 cards, including this 2012 topps heritage charlie manuel card

roy halladay is wearing it on this 2012 topps league leader card

clayton kershaw is also wearing a memorial patch - his is for duke snider.

here's a nice 2012 topps target red parallel of jose contreras with the patch

and a regular 2012 topps card of joe savery

i thought about using ryan howard's 2012 topps chrome card as the example in the memorial binder

but shane victorino's card from the same set is better

i'm not a victorino fan, so i kept looking.  here's a 2012 topps gypsy queen jimmy rollins card

and a couple of hunter pence cards - 2012 topps opening day

and 2012 topps archives

i probably like pence less than victorino, so i'll go with jimmy rollins' 2012 topps opening day card

as the representative card in the collection.

with all the talk about the new dodgers' ownership and the finances that the guggenheim group has, the buck brothers were also venture capitalists and have apparently set the phillies up with a vast amount of resources to remain competitive for a long time.