steve garvey is not a padre, but he is out of position

i recently picked up the two new steve garvey relics from 2012 topps gypsy queen - each cost about the same as a pack.  i was happy to see the gary featured as a dodger on both the regular jersey card

and the framed mini

i suppose it should be expected that they use the same photo, which appears to be a mid-1970's image, and things must have been on for garvey as he is obviously checking out a right-center gapper.  anyway, here's the back of the regular card.

same old disclaimer - not even clear that it's from a garvey jersey.  or pants, perish the thought.  the back of the framed mini is pretty much the same, except for one detail.

whoever was in charge of the copy for the mini back (and why would it be different from the regular back?) took garvey for a pitcher.

sigh.  i guess i can't be picky, though. at least my favorite player is still showing up in sets, and as a dodger, too.

nine from starting 9

you couldn't field a team with these 9, but they are a good representation of the cards i recently received from jacobmrley at starting 9.  you'll see what i mean right away when i show three cards featuring the penguin.  here's a 2005 playoff prestige card

and a 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic jersey card

plus his 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic base card

also from that set, here's a duke snider card

in which he is holding four bats.  not sure why.

i do know, however, why don drysdale is holding a ball with "#3" on it on his 2001 upper deck legends card

that's because it also has the date (10/5/63) on it, which was the day of game 3 of the 1963 world series.  in that game, big d shut out the yankees on three hits and beat them 1-0 thanks to a jim gilliam walk, a jim bouton wild pitch, and a tommy davis single in the first inning.  the dodgers went on to sweep the yankees in the series, thank you very much.

here's don sutton on a 2003 topps all-time fan favorite card

i enjoy this card even more now that 2012 topps archives has arrived with a thud.  

in 2002, donruss put out a set of its own, similar to archives i suppose.  they called it donruss originals, and this is one of the hideo nomo cards from the set

if i recall correctly, they used their 1982, 1984, 1986, and 1988 designs in the set with a repeating checklist.  they also made some retro 'what if' cards for 1978 and 1980.

here's a 1994 post canadian card of italian-american superstar slugger mike piazza

voici a vous!

finally, a 1981 fleer steve garvey "most hits nl" card

he'd be in my starting 9 everyday.

thanks max!

if i had a hammer...

...i'd hammer out a post about some 1971 topps cards i received in the mail recently.  like this one from night owl

i've been seeing a lot of old mr. met recently.  today is the day his 1977 o-pee-chee card is featured over at oh my o-pee-chee, and i pulled a 1970 topps style card of his from my 2012 topps archives blaster the other day.  now, i get to cross a card off of my want list.  thanks greg.

then, out of the blue, i received these four cards from thoughts and sox.

jose cardenal

he's a cardenal on a cards card.  nice.

doug rader

one of the many dave roberts

and don wilson

wilson's number 40 is retired by the astros.  he threw the first no-hitter in the astrodome back in 1967, and passed away in 1975.  thanks adam!

those cards are great and i sure do appreciate them.  so imagine how grateful i am after opening a package from crinkly wrappers that included 30 high numbers on my list.

like walt alston

and jose pena

a couple of dodgers that i used to only see in my dodgers binder.

plus, a bunch of the cards had the magic hats, like don o'riley

did the white sox ever wear hats that shade of blue?  o'riley had been with the royals in 1970 and was released by the white sox during spring training in 1971.

here's billy wynne of the angels

who was either hatless or wearing a white sox cap in the original photo. or maybe even a mets hat if the photo were from 1967.  wynne at least appeared in a few games for the angels in 1971.

here's rickey clark demonstrating the proper style of cap for the angels

and the magic continues, with the fantastic reynolds boys

see?  topps did at one time have a dry sense of humor - not the stupid 'put a squirrel on a card' sense of humor.  plus, archie's angels hat is not even close.  at least they got the red brim right on his card, unlike wynne's above.  if you were to combine wynne's hat and archie's hat, you might be close to the real thing.  but it would still be a magic hat.

here's another three-in-one rookie card ted sent

with wayne redmond wearing what looks like it might be a magic visor.  kind of like george hendrick on his 1977 cards.

finally, al severinsen gets a magic ups hat on his rookie card

what can brown do for you, other than give you crazy eyes?  and make balor moore give you the stink eye for messing up his rookie card.

to finish off the post, here's my hammer - not the hammer of justice, but a bona fide 1971 topps hank aaron card

what an awesome surprise! i figured those x00 cards would be the last ones i would get, and now 400 is sitting pretty in the binder.  thanks ted!  the back end of my 1971 topps set binder isn't quite as lonely as it was just last week.

hollandsworth gets the shaft

i was obviously quite pleased when todd hollandsworth won the national league rookie of the year in 1996, becoming the fifth straight dodger to capture that award.  and, i was disappointed when wilton guerrero couldn't make it happen in 1997.  so, as you might expect, i enjoy the cards that celebrate the fact that the dodgers had so many consecutive rookies of the year.  topps, fleer and donruss missed the boat in the early 80's when the dodgers trotted out rick sutcliffe, steve howe, fernando valenzuela, and steve sax in consecutive years, but card companies caught on in the 90's.  there was at least one card in 1994 that featured 1992 rookie of the year eric karros and 1993 rookie of the year mike piazza together and addressed their back-to-back awesomeness.  i am thinking of 1994 fleer, although i am too lazy to go dig for the card right now.  then, in 1995, there was this example from score select certified that brought rauuuuuuul into the fold.  then, in 1996, pinnacle added hideo nomo and gave us this very nice card featuring dodger stadium in the background.

so very nice.  here's the back

so, where's the 1997 card with these four guys plus holly?  i'm still looking for it.  hollandsworth, however, gets the last laugh as he is the only one of the five to win a world series.

the card up above was one that was recently sent to me by night owl.  great minds think alike, as i mailed him an unsolicited package around the same time.  isn't this trading thing swell?  here's some more of what greg sent.

1999 topps stadium club darren dreifort

oh, how nice it would be if the dodgers got rid of the ads on the outfield wall and went back to the murals.

2000 upper deck victory chan ho park

even though i own an authentic blue dodger jersey, i rue the davey johnson era for actually wearing them in games.  it is redeemed only by the heroes patch on the left sleeve.  that's koufax, i believe.

i had requested two copies of this card when i saw it on night owl's blog - it's a 1998 fleer tradition jose vizcaino

i needed one for the dodger binder and one for the double play binder.  good thing it wasn't a dodger stadium play or i would have needed a third.

1997 upper deck jackie robinson

part of the subset that led off that set, and a 2012 topps gypsy queen jackie hallmark heroes insert

because night owl cares to send the very best.

speaking of which, he also included a couple of the very best leftys on a 2012 topps heritage insert

better than koufax and say, cole hamels.  i am so glad that the dodgers have players worthy of over produced parallels and inserts these days.  i still don't pull them from packs, but with everybody out there in the blogosphere, i know some of them will come my way eventually.

thanks greg!

i am so disappointed in 2012 topps archives

how disappointed am i?  i am so disappointed that i will write a post about the blaster i opened the other day.  and i will listen to the smiths while i am doing it.  truly disappointed.  truly, truly, truly.

i mentioned that i stopped by the lcs the other day, but was unable to find any archives.  the next day (that would be wednesday), i stopped at a target and found a couple of blasters.  i grabbed one and started to open the cards in the parking lot.  it had been a long time since i had done that, but i had high hopes.  i was really hoping that archives would be at least as cool as the old fan favorites or archives releases from the 2000's, just with current players thrown in for fun.  it would be a mix between heritage and fan favorites, and i was willing to overlook the selection of 1954, 1971, 1980, and 1984 as the designs to be used - not the four that i would have chosen, but i have no say in the matter.  i was pretty sure going in that this would be the first set i would complete since 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee (i still need some cards, actually).  i was wrong.

by the end of the third pack, i was certain that i would not be collecting this set.  still, i'll go pack by pack and let you know what i found.

here's pack 1.

evan longoria (1980)

yes, the first card out of the chute told me all i needed to know.  in fact, i think i was making the same face as longo while i was opening the packs.  i had read on a couple of blogs that morning about the card stock being thin, but i didn't expect this.  it is akin to those send away team checklists from the late 1970s.  and, i won't even get into the cartoon on the back which mentions longoria's walk off homer to put the rays in the 2011 playoffs, but shows a cartoon of a catcher applying a tag at home plate.
shane victorino (1984)
robinson cano (1954)
andrew mccutcheon (1971)
chili davis (1990)

i scanned the back of the chili davis card to give an idea of how much these cards do not look or feel like the cards from the years they represent.  i'm also not sure why chili is featured with a 1990 design.  why?  and why is there no 'archives' stamp on the fronts of these cards?
jaime garcia (1954)
nyjer morgan (1971)
david ortiz (1980)

pack 2:

george brett (1980)

ok. this is what i was expecting.  even though that's a 1990's era george brett photo.  but, wait - where's the all-star banner?
carlos santana (1984)
nelson cruz (1954)
josh beckett (1971)
jose bautista (1967 sticker insert)

i am not the biggest fan of stickers, but i like these - a nod back to the 1967 insert set, which is fairly obscure.  nicely done.
josh hamilton (1984)
cal ripken jr (1954)
anibal sanchez (1971)

pack 3:

cliff lee (1980)
david price (1984)
corey hart (1954)
adam wainwright (1971)
yogi berra (1952)

because it wouldn't be a topps archives release without a yankee on a 1952 card.  hey - there's the archives logo!  why is it only on this card?  i don't know about y'all, but when i open packs, i put cards in numerical order (but move dodgers to the top of the pile).  i have done this since i was 10 years old.  it comes from being a set collector when i first started collecting, and it makes things easier to stay organized.  well, about this time i noticed that the first cards in the set are the 1954 designs, then the 1971s, followed by the 1980s and the 1984s.  that 1990 chili davis is all by itself at number 236, so i figure that maybe the cards after 200 are other years' designs.  i flip yogi over expecting to see number 205 or something like that.  nope - it's card 191 in the set and fits in between the 1984 designs of josh hamilton and brad peacock.  yeah, that'll look good in a binder.  i am so not completing this set.
howie kendrick (1980)
brad peacock (1984)
drew pomeranz (1954)

i slogged on and finished opening the blaster anyway.  here's pack 4:

jp arencibia (1980)
starlin castro (1984)
jose valverde (1954)
clay buchholz (1971)
miguel cabrera (1968 topps 3d insert)

this card is actually pretty cool, but i am not going to be swayed.  i only want the dodgers from this set.
johan santana (1971)
ra dickey (1980)
brandon morrow (1984)

pack 5:

ivan nova (1980)
nolan ryan (1984)
melky cabrera (1954)
ed kranepool (1970)

i am a fan of 1970 topps, so this was nice to see.  and, it's number 235 in the set which makes some sense.  too little, too late, though.
matt moore (1954)
shane victorino (1984 shiny garbage parallel insert)

ugh. i don't recall topps doing this back in 1984.  how about a tattoo insert or something that is at least recognizable from the era.
jordan zimmerman (1971)
torii hunter (1980)

pack 6:

miguel montero (1971)
giancarlo stanton (1980)
mark reynolds (1984)
mat latos (1954)

that is a lot of red.
justin verlander (1977 cloth sticker insert)

hey - i like these.  maybe i'll collect just the 1977 cloth stickers.  but then again, no.
stephen strasburg (1984)

just to show a non-shiny 1984 card
brandon beachy (1954)
drew storen (1971)

pack 7:

ryan zimmerman (1971)
tim lincecum (1980)
lucas duda (1984)
pablo sandoval (1954)
willie mccovey (1969)

that's three giants in this pack, and still no dodgers to be seen.  this mccovey has the archives logo, and the number on the back is 440.  i think i have this figured out, thanks to the 'reprint' text at the bottom of the mccovey back.  the 1952 berra and this mccovey are just reprints inserted into packs.
heath bell
asdrubal cabrera
bj upton
some advertisement card for a topps pennant app.  looks like some box score archive thingy.  i'll stick to baseball reference.

finally, pack 8:

brian mccann (1971)
jose bautista (1980)

this might be my favorite card from the blaster.  it looks like it could have been in the 1980 set.
aramis ramirez (1984)
matt garza (1954)
derek jeter (1977 cloth sticker insert)

two cloth stickers in the blaster was nice, but i would have been happy to see a different insert instead of jeter.
elvis andrus (1980)
ervin santana (1971)

that's what the 1971s look like
adam lind (1984)

no dodgers whatsoever.  bummer.  that means that all of these cards are available.  i'd like to trade them for dodgers from the set, but that's not completely necessary.

hopefully topps tries harder next time.