bringing the steve garvey binders up to the present

steve garvey has maintained a presence in card sets since he last played in a big league game in 1987, and i am happy for it.  i don't have a lot of his recent cards - mostly due to the vast number of parallels - but i have some.

here is sheet 71 from my steve garvey binders:

those cards are:

1. 2013 topps museum collection jumbo lumber relic /30
2. 2013 topps tribute tribute to the stars autograph /24
3. 2014 panini classics significant signatures silver autograph /199
4. 2014  panini immaculate collection immaculate ink /49
5. 2014 topps 75th anniversary stamped 1975 topps mvp buyback
6. 2014 topps 75th anniversary stamped 1979 topps buyback
7. 2014 topps museum collection jumbo lumber relic /25
8. 2014 upper deck goodwin champions
9. 2014 upper deck goodwin champions mini

not much difference between the 2013 and 2014 museum collection relics, is there?  getting back to the parallels, there are three different versions of the 2013 topps tribute tribute to the stars, each numbered to 24, plus purple parallels of each numbered to 1.  lots more parallels of most of the other cards on the sheet, too.  i can't find any information on the 75th anniversary buybacks as far as which garvey cards were part of the buyback, but i am happy to have two of them.

here are the backs:

only three cards on this last sheet as of now, although cards will get pushed as i add some 2005 donruss studio parallels and other cards that i've picked up in the last couple of weeks, and find that 2013 panini hometown heroes card that went awol.

here's sheet 72:

those cards are:

1. 2014 upper deck goodwin champions autograph
2. 2015 donruss signature series blue autograph /49
3. 2015 topps original stamped 1979 topps buyback

looks like topps bought a few of the 1979 topps card - it was a double print, after all.

here are the backs:

so that brings an end to the 9-pocket pages, but don't worry, there are still a few more sheets to be shown.  stay tuned...

the only thing dull about this trade package is the pair of scissors used to cut the first card...

nick at dime boxes and i have completed a couple of trades recently, and here are some cards from the most recent package i received from him.  this 1962 post tommy davis card

was very likely liberated from its box by a young boy using the butter knife or perhaps a spoon at his kitchen table.  it's got some great character and i am thankful for it.  it was also the oldest card in the package, although this 1988 reprint of whit wyatt's 1941 goudey card

features an earlier dodger card.  wyatt had a big year in 1941, leading the league in wins (22) and shutouts (7) while finishing 3rd in the mvp vote.  he had a solid run as a dodger (80-45 with a 2.86 era over 6 seasons) as they converted him to a starter and reaped the benefits.

here's a 1980 laughlin famous feats card of hugh casey

who was 10-4 as a reliever in 1947.  rg laughlin was the guy who did the illustrations for the fleer world series sets in 1970 and 1971, as well as the sticker backs in later years.  he was on his own in 1980 and produced this set, which also features jackie robinson.  i picked up a jackie card, but i'll show it another time.

1984 milton bradley championship baseball steve sax

saxy was an 'nl super star' not too long after replacing davey lopes at second base. i find it interesting that milton bradley was allowed to use the team name but not the logo on these cards.

1990 score young superstars jose gonzalez

score used the term 'superstar' lighting in 1990 with jose gonzalez.  yes, he was a highly regarded prospect, but 1990 was his sixth season and he had not done anything to make us dodger fans feel like he was going to be a superstar.

1997 score eric karros showcase parallel

karros, on the other hand, won the rookie of the year award in 1992 and was a very good player. not a superstar, though.  that term was saved for the 1993 rookie of the year, mike piazza.

here's an all-star insert piazza card from 1994 o-pee-chee

the italian-american superstar slugger is wearing the roy campanella/don drysdale commemorative patch on his right sleeve, and the tim crews patch is partially visible on his left.

continuing with the rookies of the year, here's the 1994 nl roy raul mondesi on a 1996 fleer emotion xl card

i do not know what sort of emotion 'fense' is.

well, i bet you thought the next card would be of 1995 rookie of the year hideo nomo.  that would be incorrect.  instead, it is of short time dodger pitcher ricky nolasco on his 2014 topps museum collection card

topps went all-in with nolasco in its 2014 products, and he was a twin before any of them were released.  i wonder if we'll see a bunch of nolasco sticker autos on twins cards in 2015 releases.

thanks again nick! we'll trade again soon, i am sure.

dodgers walking the plank

i recently completed my first trade with the overly generous and world cup of trading champion matthew from bob walk the plank.  there was so much to enjoy in the cards that he sent.

this is a 2011 panini limited shawn green auto

it's only the second autograph card of a guy who at one time was my favorite non-dodger and then my favorite dodger that i have in my collection.  the back of the card mentions dodger broadcasting legend and hall of famer vin scully and green's monster 4-home run game in 2002 - a game which i attended.  good stuff.

there was another auto in the package - this 2014 topps museum collection ricky nolasco card

topps went all-in with nolasco in their 2014 releases, even though he signed with the twins in the offseason.  the result is an abundance of signed nolasco dodger cards, of which i now have two.  nice.

there were some regular ol' base cards sent along as well, like these cards from 2014 topps opening day:

yasiel puig

carl crawford

and clayton kershaw

kershaw chose not to stick his tongue out for the camera like the other two

matthew reached back to 2009 as well, sending a few dodgers from the 2009 topps 206 set.  here's chad billingsley

who will hopefully anchor the back end of the rotation in 2015.

andre ethier

with andrew friedman in the loop, i wonder if ethier will lose his fourth outfielder spot in favor of joc pederson.  ethier's got 3 years and over $50 million left on his contract, so he may very well stay.

matt kemp

kemp's got 5 years and over $100 million left on his deal.  his agent is now the gm of the diamondbacks, which might make me nervous if his contract weren't so large.  kemp is the kind of guy that i would really like to see wear dodger blue until he retires.

rafael furcal

speaking of retirement, furky finally made it back from injury to appear in a handful of games with the marlins last season but is a free agent and may be looking at the end of the line.

here's a james loney relic from the set as well

loney is not doing too badly in tampa - he hit .290 last season and played decent defense - and i still hold him in high regard thanks to that grand slam he hit in the 2008 nlds against the cubs.

last, but certainly not least, here is the first card in my collection from the 2013 leaf memories buyback set.

it's a 1991 leaf darryl strawberry buyback stamped 3/5.  3/5 is appropriate because 3 is the number of seasons that darryl played for the dodgers out of the 5-year contract to which they signed him.  following a fairly productive season in 1991, he saw limited playing time in 1992 and 1993, and was released without playing for the team in 1994.  still, a nice card to cap a great trade.

thanks for the cards matthew!

i staked a claim from the group of death

i could not resist throwing my hat into the world cup of trading tournament hosted by wes at jaybarkerfan's junk.  the trade bait was short on dodgers, but i claimed this 2014 topps museum collection eddie murray momentous material relic card

because steady eddie was once a dodger who, while wearing dodger blue, led all of mlb in 1990 with a .330 average.  the murray is in the same trading group as a bob gibson auto, tony gwynn relic, and a jose canseco auto.  that's stiff competition, and i hope my return package does well against the bounty wes is sure to receive for the other cards in this aptly named 'group of death'.  we'll see over the next week or so.

and, because this is the 2010's, i got a bonus just for participating.  wes included a 2014 topps tier one hyun-jin ryu relic

to keep murray company in the package.  ryu returns from the dl tomorrow, just in time to save the dodgers from another kevin correia start.

thanks wes! can't wait to see how i fare in this world cup of trading...

gathering garveys - real, recycled, and otherwise

i've been working on getting the contents of my steve garvey binders scanned, as i plan to show the entire garvey collection on the blog yet this year.  during that time, i've put some cards away that had been in boxes rather than the binder, and i've also picked up a few new cards for the collection.  some, as you will see, are real cards, one is a recycled card, and some don't really exist.

2006 upper deck legendary cuts legendary materials platinum /15

this is a newer pick up to go along with my 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials silver /199

and of course the 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials bronze /225

there is also a gold /99 version, but i don't have that one.  i do have garvey's base card from the set - he got a numbered short print

i think there is a /99 version of this card, too.  i've added the missing jersey card to the nefarious 9, by the way.  

here's the recycled card i mentioned.  it's a 1975 topps mvp subset card featuring jeff burroughs of the rangers along with the 1974 nl mvp steve garvey

that embossed logo in the upper right means that this card was re-issued in 2014 topps as part of the 75th anniversary buyback inserts

here are some oddballs that are somewhat new-ish to my collection - first up is a 1982 permagraphic card

these are reminiscent of credit cards, and i think were only produced in 1981 and 1982.

1987 ralston purina cookie crisp

i think these were only available on sheets.  they differ from the regular ralston purina cards in that they don't have any text there in the upper right corner.

1996 danbury mint 22k gold card

i took this guy out of it's plastic case.

garvey has been absent from the recent topps archives sets, but he was included in the past.  here's his 2002 topps archives reserve card

which is just a really shiny version of his 1977 topps card.  i preferred getting new garvey cards, like this 2003 topps retired black parallel

here's an on card auto from 2003 upper deck sp authentic.

this card was part of the sp chirography set, in which there was a 'dodger stars' subset.  lots of good autos for dodger collectors like me, and believe me, i collected them.

these next two cards fall into the 'otherwise' and 'don't really exist' categories i alluded to earlier.  they are both part of the digital app/game called 'bunt' that topps started last year.  i just pulled the images from the web.  this one is from 2013

here's the back

and this one is from 2014

with the back

according to topps, over half of garvey's hits were solo home runs.

thankfully, topps is also making real cards featuring the garv in 2014, even if this 2014 topps museum collection /25 bat relic

is pretty much identical to the 2013 version

and then there is the garvey card that panini released as part of the 2013 panini elite extra edition bloodlines insert set

steve is on the back, and his son ryan is on the front

steve garvey is his padre, after all.

get ready for garvey overload over the next few months.  the binders are coming...