continuing with the steve garvey binders - 1979 into 1981 with some error action and a story of a simpler time!

sheets 6 and 7 get us into the 1980's in the first of two main issue steve garvey binders.  here's sheet number 6.

containing:

1. 1979 dodger blue
2. 1979 hostess
3. 1979 o-pee-chee
4. 1979 topps dodger team
5. 1979 topps
6. 1980 kellogg's
7. 1980 o-pee-chee
8. 1980 topps
9. 1980 topps dodger team

here's the flip side of the sheet

the most interesting card here is the first one.  i am not completely sure how the dodger blue set was distributed - i don't recall seeing it for sale at dodger stadium in 1979, and i went to a few games that year, but i may not have noticed as we didn't typically check souvenir stands.  for us, it was straight to the program vendor, then the dodger dog line, and then our seats.  on our way out of the stadium is when we might check out the souvenirs, but we usually attended a giveaway game so i already had my helmet or poncho or batting glove or whatever.  i do know that the set was wrapped in cellophane, because i have a sealed set that mrmopar sent my way a while back. anyway, garvey's card features him wearing a green dodger hat.  i believe that the dodgers might have been one of the first teams to wear green on st. patrick's day during spring training.  it's a nice quirk to the photo, and the photo itself is a nice break from most of the other cards in the set.

here's sheet 7:

it features:

1. 1981 donruss (error)
2. 1981 donruss (corrected)
3. 1981 donruss (action)
4. 1981 drake's
5. 1981 fleer
6. 1981 fleer (most hits nl)
7. 1981 fleer star stickers
8. 1981 fleer stickers (back)
9. 1981 kellogg's

and the backs:

there is so much cool stuff on this sheet.  1981 was a watershed year for me as a garvey collector.  first, there were more cards to collect than ever, and both donruss and fleer had two different garvey cards on their checklists.  then there were the stickers! garvey was card number 1 in the fleer star sticker set, and his likeness also adorned the sticker back that celebrated the 1974 all-star game in which he was the mvp.  however, the best thing about this sheet at the time was that there was a garvey error card!

my neighborhood friends and i opened a lot of 1981 fleer cards looking for all of the errors in that set, and kind of ignored donruss a bit. we wanted 'craig' nettles and reversed negative tim flannery!  i had  opened only a few packs of donruss, but didn't have too many dodgers until one day, when one of my neighbors said he was going to meet another collector in town.  get this - he had seen a flyer posted on a light pole near the local grocery store that said 'do you collect baseball cards? i do, and i have doubles to trade or sell' and gave the guy's phone number.  this is not crazy, this was just what it was like in 1981.  anyway, we rode our bikes to the guy's apartment (no thoughts of stranger danger), and i bought a brick of '81 dodger cards from him for $3.  it had a couple of team sets, plus a ton of doubles of most of the players.  i got home and put my cards in my closet and went about my business. a few days later, my neighbor tells me that the other guy wants his cards back because he learned that there was an error version of one of the garvey cards in the set.  i was most certainly not going to give any cards back because caveat venditor and any garvey error surely was going to pay for my college education.

unfortunately, the error was nothing dramatic like a reversed negative or wrong player photo - it was related to the text on the back.  here are the two versions side by side.

in the 1980 text of garvey's 'career highlights', one card (the one on the left) notes that garvey 'surpassed 21 hr for the 4th straight year.' the other card (the one on the right) says that garvey 'surpassed 25 hr for the 4th straight year.'  so, which is correct?  well, this is a trick question because they are both wrong.  in the previous four seasons, garvey hit 33, 21, 28, and 26 home runs, respectively.  so to say that he 'surpassed' 21 homers is incorrect.  garvey reached 21 hr for the 4th straight year.  but, semantics.  the one on the left is considered to be the corrected version, and the one on the right is the error.  you can get either version on sportlots for 18 cents.

much more to come from the steve garvey binders. stay tuned!

only about half of this set makes sense

you dodger fans out there are probably familiar with the 1979 dodger blue card set.  it is named as such because it was distributed in 1979, and the back says 'go dodger blue!' along with some other information.  i am wishing right about now that i had scanned one of the backs, but oh well (thanks comc!).  the other thing that strikes me about the set is that many (about half) of the cards feature a blue background.  i think this might just be a photographer's background, as it seems to be a different shade of blue than the outfield walls at dodger stadium. but then again, maybe the photos were taken in vero beach where there may or may be such a blue wall in existence.

there is one more thing that i noticed right away when i first picked up the set ten years ago or so.  here's dusty baker's card.  see if you notice what i noticed.

yup, dusty is sporting the 1976 national league centennial patch (thanks for the link jerry reuss) which was worn in, of course, 1976.  so, the set features photos that are three years old.  here's the penguin.

you can barely make out the red border of the patch on his left sleeve, as well as the back of the chair he is sitting in under his right armpit.
no problem seeing the patch on burt hooton's sleeve

but i can only guess that it's there on charlie hough's jersey.

davey lopes is sporting it

and this is where i became fairly convinced that the background was just a photographer's screen.
now, rick monday was not with the dodgers in 1976, yet he has the blue screen.

maybe the photographer brought it back to spring training in 1977?
here's manny mota with the patch

which is also nicely visible on his 1977 topps card
reggie smith joined the dodgers mid-way through the 1976 season

so maybe his photo is from the same time as monday's.  incidentally, why did reggie wear 'r. smith' on the back?  i don't think the dodgers had another smith at the time.  ponderous.

now, terry forster didn't join the dodgers until the 1978 season, and it looks like the blue screen was gone by then

the lighting in the dugout or wherever this photo was taken, combined with forster's grin, give the card a kind of creepy feel.
here's what i think is probably the worse card in the set, and it pains me to say that.  it's steve garvey's card.

i will go out on a limb here and say that this photo was taken on march 17, 1976.  he's got the green hat and the patch to prove it.
here's a patch-less tommy lasorda who was just a coach in 1976

the dodgers used this photo of lasorda in several publications if memory serves.  nice of him to wear his wedding ring, by the way.
don sutton's card is an oddity.

he's in the away grays for some reason.  not sure why he didn't get the blue screen treatment or at least a dodger stadium background like...
...bill russell

and steve yeager

or even doug rau, who has the lone action shot in the set

it looks like he's just warming up as the penguin is lurking in the background checking out his manicure.

don't get me wrong, i really like this set as it includes the core group of the dodger teams of my youth.  it's just fairly inconsistent.

still, go dodger blue!