mad dog 12 12

bill madlock was a four-time national league batting champion, and he toiled for the dodgers toward the end of his career.  the mad dog actually hit pretty well after being acquired late in the 1985 season - .360 - and helped the dodgers get to the nlcs.  he hit .333 with 3 home runs in the series against the cardinals, too.  he was with the dodgers in 1986 and part of 1987, as well, but is not usually remembered as a boy in blue.

brad's blog recently picked up some relics in one of thorzul's breaks, and we worked out a trade.  i received this card from 2007 upper deck sp legendary cuts

and this jeff kent card from 2008 upper deck spectrum

both of these guys wore number 12, hence my attempt at a clever title for this post.  thanks for the trade,  brad!

in other news, today is the day i feature the fantastic bill madlock 1977 o-pee-chee variation over at oh my o-pee-chee.  go ahead, check it out!

grande (and mini) impact

chris over at nachos grande recently hosted a group break that included 2000 fleer (skybox?) impact and 2012 topps mini.  i picked up the dodgers in the break, and received a complete team set from the impact set.

the dodgers won 86 games in 2000, but were 11 games behind the division winning giants, and 8 behind the wild card (and pennant) winning mets.  all 6 of these guys had pretty good seasons in 2000 - sheffield absolutely went off - but they couldn't pull it all together and get to the postseason, although they would have won the second wild card if there were such a thing back then.

here's a nice logo tattoo that was inserted into packs.

i don't have any tattoos, and if i did, it wouldn't be this one even though i really like the logo.

as is the case with most breaks these days, i was randomly assigned a second team.  i wound up with the marlins, which meant i got some more dodgers.  like josh beckett.

he's made five starts for the dodgers, and the team is 2-3 in those games.  run support has been a problem, as the dodgers scored 0, 2, 2, and 1 runs in his first four starts.  welcome to la, josh.

i also got a hanley ramirez card from the mini break

ramirez is hitting around .260 since joining the dodgers, which is better than he was doing in miami.  his power numbers seem to be there, so hopefully he can get the average up next year.  what has disappointed me the most, i think, is that he's not running like he used to.  he was only 3 for 6 in stolen base attempts as a dodger when i wrote this post.  i'm hoping that davey lopes can help him get his success rate up, because it looks like this team can't sit back and wait for the 3-run bomb.

here's a clayton kershaw insert from the mini break

i'm not going to show any of the base cards because they look just like the regular set cards.  i know that's how it was done in 1975, but i was hoping for some variation.

i also asked chris to throw in this card from 2012 topps archives.  it's a tulo double play card with matt kemp lurking.

it's also the same photo topps used for its 2011 topps marquee tulo card.  whatever, it's still a dp card and it's still the kem-v-p.

thanks chris.

coming at you...in 3-d!

it seems like everything is in 3-d these days - especially in tv and movies (finding nemo - opening soon!).  who knows what's next.  but, before this latest 3-d craze, topps issued a second set of cards in 1986, just as scary as their 1985 issue.  here's the wrapper

there were three dodgers in the set - pedro guerrero

orel hershiser

and fernando valenzuela

the worst of the bunch is the hershiser, with the portrait photo and vacant blue hat.  is it weird to actually prefer the 1985 fernando (linked above) to the 1986 version?  it goes without saying that topps did not release a similar issue in 1987.

no photos, just autos

that is the curse of upper deck's 2012 sp signature edition. lots of dodgers in the set, and i picked up a quad auto featuring 3/4 of the infield and johnnie b. baker.

upper deck must be trying to use up their supply of stickers, as these four are not all the same style of sticker.  at least there is some common thread here - the 1981 world championship team - but seriously, can somebody please get a bill russell autograph sticker and do one of these right for a change?

a freebie baseball cards magazine uncut panel

i recently saw a post on bob lemke's blog regarding an uncirculated baseball cards magazine panel featuring some cards that should have been.  you can go to bob's blog to read all about it.  i sent my sase and quickly received a panel.

of course, i was most interested in the 1952 bowman jackie robinson, but the other cards are cool, too.

thanks bob!

the topps dodger autograph project - the late 1970's

now we're in my wheelhouse - the dodgers of the late 1970's!  as usual, all of these cards were signed through the mail for free.

ron cey, 1975 topps

cey is easily one of the best ttm signers out there. i've had a number of successes with him; maybe too many.  i also have 1975 topps cards signed by other former dodgers, including bill buckner, manny mota, doug rau, ken mcmullen, and joe ferguson (world series card).

joe ferguson, 1975 topps mini

while not necessarily part of this project, i figured i would show it since i have it.  you'll have to take my word for it, but that is a mini.  fergie has signed through the mail for me a few times which is all kinds of awesome.  i also have 1975 topps minis signed by ron cey, al downing, jim wynn, and manny mota.

bill russell, 1976 topps

ropes is another good ttm signer whom i have hit up several times.  i also have signed 1976 topps cards from these other dodgers:  ron cey, davey lopes (with fee), al downing, joe ferguson, john hale, burt hooton, charlie hough, tommy john (in person proxy via trade), lee lacy (in person), leron lee, ken mcmullen, manny mota, doug rau, stan wall, and rick rhoden (with fee).

dusty baker, 1976 topps traded

as i mentioned in the last post - i don't consider the traded sets to be part of the 'project', but i'll show them if i have them.  johnnie b used to be a reliable ttm signer, but i haven't seen any successes from him lately.  it used to be he would sign and return cards in january or february, so maybe there's hope.  i asked him to sign at a spring training game a few years ago, and he said that he would when he got back to his dugout.  sadly, i never made it over to that side of the field.  so, i'm happy to have the few cards that he signed for me through the mail in my collection.  this is the only 1976 topps traded card i have signed in my collection.

steve garvey, 1977 topps

the garv.  how stoked was i when i learned that my favorite player signed through the mail.  very stoked.  1977 was his big power year (33 home runs), and i have learned to love this card - even with the scratch on the printing plate and the candlestick background.  other 1977 topps cards signed for me through the mail by former dodgers include bill russell, ron cey, tommy john (in person proxy via trade), davey lopes (via trade), rick rhoden (with fee), elias sosa, ellie rodriguez, and stan wall.

dave lopes, 1978 topps

i consider myself extremely fortunate that lopes signed and returned both of my 1978 topps cards (this one and the nl championship card) when i first began my humble 1978 topps dodger autograph project. they remain the only successes i have had with the former dodger second baseman/current dodger first base coach.  of course, i have some other 1978 topps cards signed by members of that dodger team, all except ed goodson.  most of those cards were obtained through the mail free of charge.

charlie hough, 1979 topps

knuckleballer (and closer) from the team of my youth, charlie hough is another good ttm signer.  i have a few of his cards in my autograph collection, including some of his non-dodger issues.  other dodgers from the 1979 topps set who have signed for me include dusty baker, pedro guerrero (with fee), bill russell, bob welch (with fee), ron cey, bobby castillo (with fee), joe ferguson, steve garvey, tommy john (in person proxy via trade), rudy law, doug rau, and lance rautzhan.  i also have a card signed by steve yeager that i picked up on the 'bay.

that's it for the 70's.  here's the list of each year's representative card (so far):

1951 topps - preacher roe (purchased)

1952 topps - rocky bridges

1953 topps - bobby morgan

1954 topps - billy herman (purchased)

1955 topps - don zimmer (purchased)

1956 topps - randy jackson

1957 topps - carl erskine

1958 topps - joe pignatano

1959 topps - fred kipp

1960 topps - chuck essegian

1961 topps - bob aspromonte

1962 topps - norm sherry

1963 topps - ed roebuck

1964 topps - ken mcmullen

1965 topps - dick tracewski

1966 topps - john kennedy

1967 topps - phil regan

1968 topps - jim campanis

1969 topps - jeff torborg

1970 topps - al mcbean

1971 topps - sandy vance

1972 topps - manny mota

1973 topps - wes parker

1974 topps - claude osteen

1974 topps traded - jim wynn

1975 topps - ron cey

1975 topps mini - joe ferguson

1976 topps - bill russell

1976 topps traded - dusty baker

1977 topps - steve garvey

1978 topps - dave lopes

1979 topps - charlie hough

broken down bus

i recently came across an auction for a here-to-fore unknown (to me) 1974 greyhound heroes on the basepaths issue.  of course, there is a davey lopes card in the booklet, as he finished second to lou brock that year on the national league leader board in stolen bases.

i had previously picked up a copy of the 1976 lopes card at the local card show, as well as complete 1975 and 1976 booklets online.  unfortunately, i didn't read this auction description closely enough, and i assumed i was bidding on the whole lot, as shown below.  

i wasn't - i wound up winning only the lopes card, and so i missed out on the card that featured both maury wills and lopes.

that got me thinking, though.  why was wills included in the 1974 booklet?  he hadn't played since 1972.  maybe since brock broke his record in 1974, he was included?  but then, why the other players? they weren't next on the career leader board. plus, there was that panel full of american league players.

what gives?

i spent a fair amount of time looking through baseball reference and found the following.

after the 1974 season, lou brock had a career total of 753 steals with 118 coming in 1974.  he led the league in steals from  1966-69, and again from 1971-74.  he was 2nd in 1964, 1965, and 1970.

maury wills had 586 career steals with 104 in 1962.  he led the league from  1960-65, and was 2nd in 1967 and 1968.

bobby tolan's career total was 171, and he had led the league in 1970.

joe morgan had 378 career steals, but had never led the league in that category.  he was 2nd in 1967, 1969, 1971, 1972 and 1973.

sonny jackson was at 126 career steals with a 2nd place finish in 1966.

jose cardenal had 263 steals and finished 2nd in 1965 and 1968 (he was in the american league that year)

and then there was davey lopes, who had just 99 steals to his credit, 59 of which came in 1974 when he was 2nd to brock.

i won't bore you with what i found for the american league players, although it was more of the same.  i should have gone straight to the source - my copy of the 2010 standard catalog of baseball cards.  there, i found out that these were the winners and runners up from each league since 1965.  there was half an hour of my life wasted.