how about the foldouts from the steve garvey binders?

foldout cards kind of ticked me off when they first started showing up.  what good are they if they are to remain folded up?  i remember seeing some hard cases that would display the cards, but i'm a binder guy, not a hard case sort.  it's a good thing, then, that i found some 3-pocket pages (not the postcard kind) that work well with these things.

have a look:

those cards are:

1. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams team terrific game used hat logo relic (with bill russell, davey lopes, dusty baker, ron cey, and steve yeager) /50
2. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams team terrific game used team logo relic (with bill russell, davey lopes, dusty baker, ron cey, and steve yeager) /85
3. 2009 topps sterling sterling season relic autographs /10

three cards that celebrate the teams of my youth - mainly the 1977 and 1978 pennant winning years.  you know that i am a big fan of the timeless teams set, and i sure would like to find the other versions of that foldout relic card.  there's a version with the timeless teams brand (/35) seared into the bat pieces as well as one with the national league logo (/15), and one with stats (/5) - although i'm not sure what the stats one looks like.  i was a bit disappointed to find that the sterling card wasn't a patch card, but rather just material from the team's away jerseys during the time that they had color at the base of the sleeves.

here are the backs:

this is the last sheet in the main card part of my steve garvey binders:

those cards are:

1. 2011 topps triple threads relic combos double (with duke snider, sandy koufax, clayton kershaw, andre ethier, and matt kemp) /36
2. 2013 panini america's pastime hitter's ink booklet (with tony gwynn) auto /25

i really should move that hitter's ink booklet to a 2-pocket page.  i find it interesting that over steve garvey's career, he only had two teammates (for any substantial amount of time - i'm not counting the likes of jim bunning, hoyt wilhelm and frank robinson) who made the hall of fame - don sutton and tony gwynn.  and with this gwynn card, i have dual auto cards for garvey and both of those teammates.

here are the backs:

i mentioned before that i'll have a living post for my garvey collection that i'll update as i add cards. it will be more for my use than anyone else's, i imagine, but it will be cool to have it all in one place.

there is a lot going on on this sheet from the steve garvey binders, but something is missing

i'm only posting about one sheet in the steve garvey binders today, and it's sheet 70:

those cards are:

1. 2012 topps triple threads unity relics emerald /18
2. 2012 topps triple threads relic autographs 'dodgers great' /18
3. 2012 upper deck sp signature edition autograph
4. 2012 upper deck sp signature edition season signatures quad 1981 world series champions (with davey lopes, dusty baker, and ron cey) /15
5. 2013 panini elite extra edition bloodlines (with ryan garvey)
6. 2013 panini america's pastime pastime signatures auto /99
7. 2013 topps chasing history autograph
8. 2013 topps million dollar chase autograph /268
9. 2013 topps allen & ginter framed mini relic

i think there are five different versions of the relic autographs from triple threads - different in that the cut outs for the relics spell different things. i'm glad i have the 'dodgers great' version, even if it comes with padre uniform material.

i am again somewhat disappointed with topps for not giving garvey base cards in the chasing history set, as well as the allen & ginter set, but i'll take the autos and relics anyway.

i noticed after scanning this page that the garvey card from 2013 panini hometown heroes is missing.  i know i have it, i guess i've misplaced it in one of my boxes.  i'll have to dig it out and get it in its rightful spot.  when i do, i'll update this (or another post).

here are the backs:

here we see garvey's son ryan (which is actually the front of the elite extra edition card).  the younger garvey was drafted by the phillies in 15th round of the 2011 draft, but didn't sign and wound up being selected by the rockies in the 33rd round the following year.  he spent three years in the minors, but was released by the rockies in march of this year.

read any good books lately?

how's that winter reading list coming along?  personally, i've yet to finish a book this year, but i'm working on 'east of eden'.  i took a break from some steinbeck goodness to pick up a couple other books recently.  here's the cover of one of them.

that's a 2013 panini america's pastime 'hitters ink' book, numbered to 25.  it only has two pages, and it's a picture book to boot.

so, this is my first tony gwynn auto.  it's nice to see garvey paired with mr. padre.  he's previously been featured on relic cards with ozzie smith in the brown and mustard, and with gwynn, willie mccovey, and rickey henderson, too.  i just hadn't seen an auto pairing between these two, who have 5,740 hits between them.

here is the back of the book (and the binding and front)

the other book i picked up was also a quick read.

it comes from 2009 topps sterling, and is a 'seasons' auto-relic card of steve garvey as a dodger, numbered to 10. you can tell from the back of the book that the 'season' being celebrated here is garvey's 1978 campaign. it's even more clear inside.

the book came at a steep price, but anytime '1978' and 'steve garvey' are put together, i'll probably make it happen for my collection.  now, this card/book was advertised as a patch card, but in reality the jersey pieces used come from a dodger away jersey that had the blue and white striping on the sleeves.  just like the one he is wearing in the photo used for this 2003 upper deck sp authentic dodger stars chirography auto card

the seller of the book/card noted that he had some other limited run garvey cards available.  i inquired and picked up a few, including two versions of the chirography card.  that first one is the 'base' (numbered to 320), and this one is the 'bronze' (numbered to 100)

it has the inscription 'dodgers', and the lower print run versions have different inscriptions such as '1981 ws champs'.  i already had those two cards, but they're in the garvey binder and i wanted duplicates to put with the other dodgers featured in the set.

i did pick up from the seller a few other auto cards that were new to my collection, however.  here's a 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams legendary combo triple signatures card featuring garvey, dusty baker, and ron cey

and here's one from the same set (although just a combo dual signatures card) featuring the penguin and garvey

the triple auto card has a reported print run of 50, while 150 copies of the dual were produced.  i already have the garvey/davey lopes dual, but there are some other dodgers (like don sutton and tommy john) that have eluded me.

speaking of sutton, he's on the next card i picked up.  it's a 2006 upper deck ultimate signatures card numbered to 25.

and there we have 4 of the starting 9 from the team of my youth.  fantastic.

the last card is kind of a letdown.  it's from the no photo sticker auto dump that was 2012 upper deck sp signature edition

i have a dodger quad signature from the set, but i didn't have the supposedly easier to obtain garvey solo card.  go figure.  i'm not sure why this particular garvey collector was moving his collection, but i was happy to have the opportunity to add some of the lower print run cards to my collection.

now i need to get back to seeing how things are going for adam trask and family in salinas...

it's getting a little dusty in here

i am enjoying going back and visiting the early days of dusty baker's managerial career in the 1978 topps dodger evolutionary posts.  i am also enjoying seeing johnnie b. baker in some recent card releases.  i bought a 2014 topps baker autograph recently,

as well as a 2013 panini america's pastime boys of summer auto

and i am looking to add one from this year's panini donruss or topps tier one sometime soon as well.  there are plenty of other baker cards to show from my collection in the meantime.  like this 1981 permagraphic all-stars issue

or a 1981 squirt card

that features the 1978 topps team font and position ball!  good for you, squirt.

here's a 1984 7-11 slurpee coin of johnnie b.

and one of his more recent cards - a 2009 topps ring of honor insert

i guess i am ignoring the fact that dusty has received cards in the topps heritage set in recent years (up to 2014, anyway) as well.  but those were cards of him as a red, not a dodger.  baker was, of course, also a brave, and here is his 1990 pacific legends card showing him in atlanta duds

for some reason, topps decided to go back to atlanta as far as dusty was concerned for 2014 allen & ginter

there were probably too many other dodgers in the checklist already.  like…

…his old teammates bill buckner

 and don sutton

 and his former dodger manager, tom lasorda

 plus there are the current dodgers that needed to be represented in the set, such as adrian gonzalez

zack greinke

clayton kershaw

and yasiel puig

among others.

so, i'll take dusty in a braves uniform from time to time, especially if that limits the cards of him as a giant.

puttin' on the ritz

you've likely seen this 2014 upper deck goodwin champions card of former dodger ron cey already

but it's new to my collection, and it features the third baseman of the infield of my youth in a tuxedo and top hat and needs to be shown off here.  cey famously posed in a tuxedo with some penguins for a poster back in the day, but i hadn't seen this image before.  it calls to mind another penguin - all that's missing is the monocle and cigarette…

meanwhile, steve garvey is left in his michigan state duds on his card in the set

garvey was inducted into the michigan state athletics hall of fame in 2010 (fellow spartan kirk gibson was inducted in 1994), and had his number 10 retired by the school earlier this year.  unfortunately, cards of davey lopes in his pajamas and bill russell in a gorilla costume were not included in the set.

i recently picked up another garvey card not licensed by mlb - a 2013 panini america's pastime auto

and i also 'picked up' another 2014 topps bunt 'card' of the garv.  it's another take on his 1974 topps card

at least they got the stats on the back right this time.

i have never heard of garvey being called 'hollywood'.

i failed to add this card from 2011 topps tier one to my collection, unfortunately.

that's a nice piece of the 1980 all-star game patch the dodgers wore in, of all seasons, 1980.  it went for $355 which was well above my limit.

let's cleanse the ron cey palette with a card of him in proper dodger attire - here's his 1975 hostess card

the batting helmet is an improvement over the tops hat, for sure.  and, the penguin is in dodger stadium where he belongs!

here's bill russell in chavez ravine, turning two on his 1980 dodgers police card

looks like opening day, given the banner on the outfield wall.

here's another card of the dodger shortstop - this is a silver parallel auto from 2014 topps archives

russell's inclusion in this year's archives set has probably been my favorite development of the collecting season.

of course, i am also pleased that davey lopes has an on-card auto of his own from 2014 panini golden age

with a blurb about the infield on the back

lopes also has a base card, which i'll show in a different post.

i also recently found a 1988 topps tiffany lopes card - i'm not sure if i had one already or not, so i bought it

even in astros' clothing, i covet davey lopes cards

i thought about picking up another 'set' of infield collectibles but ultimately passed on buying the 1978 slurpee cups of garvey, cey, russell, and lopes

i kept the images, though.

i believe this is the most recent infield reunion - a photo from the 2013 dodger old-timer game

looking good, infield - no need for formal wear!

cartwright!

perhaps one of the best early episodes of seinfeld was the chinese restaurant one.  the foursome waited in real time for a table, but lost out when the host called out 'cartwright' instead of 'costanza' when it was their turn to be seated.  that's a long way to go to get to this 2012 panini cooperstown card of alexander cartwright

it came to me from jeff at 2x3 heroes as part of his 'tis the season giveaway and features the baseball pioneer in fireman gear from his time as the honolulu fire chief.  

there were also a mess of twins in the package, including a 2012 topps heritage jamey carroll

on which the former dodger does his best 'suttoning' pose, and a bunch of angels including a 2006 fleer ultra vladimir guerrero

i also found this 1987 ralston purina steve garvey card

in the package.  i think i still need the cookie crisp version - it doesn't say '1987 collectors' edition' on it.

don't worry - jeff also sent some dodgers along.  here's a 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee cory wade black parallel card

but the biggest, best, baddest card of the entire package was this 2013 panini america's pastime fernando valenzuela autograph

el toro autografia certificado para mi!  mucho gusto! muchas gracias jeff!