it's time for the encased cards from the steve garvey binders

you've seen the 9-pocket pages and the 8-pocket pages, so now let's see the 4-pocket pages from the steve garvey binders.  to be clear, these are not the pages with graded cards that are part of the oddball binders, but rather regular issue cards that were actually distributed in sealed cases.  have a look:

those cards are:

1. 2003 topps retired signature autographs
2. 2003 topps retired signature autographs (with "6" inscription)
3. 2004 playoff prime cuts ii mlb icons material prime relic /6
4. 2004 playoff prime cuts ii mlb icons signature material number relic/auto /6

those are some pretty sorry relics for cards numbered to 6.

here are the backs:

and here's the second sheet:

those cards are:

1. 2004 playoff prime cuts ii mlb icons signature material combo auto/relic /6
2. 2004 topps originals signature 1979 buyback auto /26
3. 2004 topps originals signature 1983 buyback auto /19
4. 2005 topps pristine legends refractors /549

1979 topps cards are pretty popular as far as buybacks go.  there are plenty of others from this set, however, including 1 1971 card, 1 1975 card, 4 1976 cards, 5 1980 cards, 10 1981 cards, a whopping 122 1982 cards, 32 1984 cards, and 129 1985 cards.  no 1978 cards, unfortunately.

here are the backs:

here's the third sheet:

those cards are:

1. 2005 topps retired signature autographs
2. 2008 tristar signa cuts 1984 donruss auto /25
3. 2013 panini hall heroes private signings auto /10

here are the backs:

looks like i have room for one more.

there are a few more cards to show before i'm done with the steve garvey binders, so stay tuned...

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 garvey train moves onward

i've posted all of the pages from my steve garvey oddball binder, as well as all of the pages of cards from his playing days.  as i begin to show off the sheets that contain his post-active career cards, i'll take a moment to display some of my most recent garvey acquisitions.

the garv is featured in the 2015 panini donruss signature series insert set, and i have obtained only the blue variation

it's numbered to 49.

i've also snagged a few msa discs that will find their way to the aforementioned oddball binder shortly.  here's the 1976 crane disc

which i like because they replaced the generic stars on the front with the 'crane' name.  here's the back

that looks like the vlasic pickle mascot.

this is a 1976 msa blank back disc

told ya.

and this is a 1977 dairy isle disc. the front looks like the blank back (except for the copyright date)

but the back looks like this

i do not know what sort of creature that is supposed to be under the 'dairy'.

i was surprised to find out that i didn't have this 1981 topps sticker

so i'm glad i dropped ten cents for it at the card show i attended recently.  i do have the o-pee-chee version, so you can understand my confusion.  perhaps.

here are a couple of cards from 2011 in the game heroes and prospects.  the first is a dual relic card of garvey and trayvon robinson

robinson was hitting well in triple-a in 2011 after batting. 300 the previous two seasons when the dodgers traded him to seattle.  after playing for the m's in 2011 and 2012, robinson was dealt to the orioles where he played in their system for a year.  he then spent last year at triple-a for the dodgers, but is now in the diamondbacks system after a quick spin with the padres this winter.  whew.

this is a solo card of the garv, featuring a large jersey swatch and an auto

it has a supposed print run of 9 (it's a silver parallel apparently), but there is no serial numbering on the card.  hey - card companies!  for print runs that low, please stamp the cards. thank you.

the last card in this post is stamped, although it's a 2014 topps 75th anniversary buyback of garvey's double printed 1979 topps card

the only other 2014 buyback i have is of garvey's 1975 topps 1974 nl mvp card which he shares with jeff burroughs, so i'm glad to have a solo card.  still, this is the same one topps stamped as part of the 2015 topps originals inserts

which i also have in my collection.  how about some variety?  in fact, topps, i've got some cards i'd be happy to sell you.  just let me know.

lots more garvey goodness to come - stay tuned!

vintage - old and new - from the card show

when is vintage old and new, you might ask?  well, when topps buys back its old cards, stamps 'em, and puts them in packs of 2015 cards, they are both new and old.  such is the case with these three cards - 1974 topps charlie hough

1979 topps vic davalillo

and 1979 topps lance rautzhan

i bought them at the card show a couple of weeks ago,  they were twenty cents apiece.

i spent a little bit of time in the vintage bargain bin, picking up some set needs.  i needed this 1971 topps yankee team card

and this al kaline card from the '71 set

was the lowest numbered card on my want list.

i picked up $10 worth of 1965 topps cards, the best/worst of which was this juan marichal card

fifty cents for marichal.

after paying up one dealer for some of the vintage, he threw a 1957 topps ted williams card down on the table.  did i mention i was collecting the 1957 set?  the card is trimmed and notched, but hey - it's ted williams and card number 1 in the set.  i bit.

it's the first williams card that i own from his playing days, and should be the last.  i was stoked to find one that fits my collection for less than the price of something that costs $10.01.

there were more cards obtained at the show, but those were via trade.  i'll show some of them on friday.

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!

andy messersmith was a dodger double dipper

i mentioned earlier today that andy messersmith would get a dodger double dipper post of his very own.  i wasn't joking.

[this is the eighty-ninth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, babe herman, joe medwick, juan castro, ron perranoski, clyde king, paul waner, hughie jennings, ron negray, broadway aleck smith, george smith, johnny cooney, jim fairey, frenchy bordagaray, doc casey, waite hoyt, luis olmo, clyde sukeforth, willie keeler,  harry howell, germany smith, johnny allen, marv rackley, bobo newsom, maury wills, dazzy vance, ray hayworth, zack taylor, john cronin, art herring, brian falkenborg, bill reidy, john anderson, vito tamulis, wally hood, jim bruske, bill dahlen, patsy donovan, jamey wright, and watty clark.]

messersmith first joined the dodgers in 1973 after he was traded by the angels in the frank robinson deal.  i am sure the dodgers coveted his 2.78 era over the five seasons he pitched for the angels, and they weren't disappointed, as he had a 2.67 era in his first four years with the club, which included his fantastic 1974 season in which he went 20-6 and had an era of 2.59.  messersmith started the nl all-star game in 1974, as well as game 2 of the nlcs against the pirates which he won.  he also started games 1 and 4 of the world series, but took the loss in each.  

after a season like that, messersmith was looking for a raise, but when he tried to negotiate a contract for the 1975 season, things didn't go well.  here's his hostess card from 1975, by the way,

complete with the rare sighting of batting gloves on a pitcher's throwing hand.  he decided to pitch without a contract while his grievance against the reserve clause was being resolved.  he wound up winning 19 games in 1975 while posting an era of 2.29 and earning his second straight gold glove.  the baseball arbitrator ruled in his favor (the owners fired the arbitrator the following day), and messersmith signed a free agent deal with the braves.

he moved on to the yankees after the 1977 season, as his 1978 o-pee-chee card attests

but was re-signed by the dodgers when he hit the market again after the 1978 season.  it even says so on his 1979 o-pee-chee card

i really wish there had been a traded set in the late 1970's and 1980 so that there could have been more cards of players like messersmith.  here's a 1979 topps card that should have been that i made

to help ease my pain.

the second time around was not as successful for messersmith as he was 2-4 in 11 starts with a 4.91 era when the dodgers released him in early june.  he retired soon after, with a 2.86 career era which puts him between jim palmer and tom seaver, but well within the top 10 for starting pitchers after 1920.

here's another card i made for messersmith - it's his 1980 topps card that should have been

which serves as a final tribute with his entire career stats on the back.

i don't have any other double dippers lined up, so this may be the end of the line for these posts, at least until the dodgers reacquire matt kemp a few years from now for a torii hunter-esque swan song.  still, don't be surprised if i uncover some other heretofore unknown to me franchise double dipper in the 1990 target dodgers set...

now begins the yeager year

this is officially the first post of my 7th year running this blog.  7, the number that i associate with steve yeager, meaning that the garvey year has come to an end.  there are a number of things that i appreciate as a member of this loosely connected yet fast-friendly group, and there are a number of things that i am proud to have accomplished during my time as a member.  there are even some things that i am proud of not having done, if that makes sense.

most of all, i'm happy to have had this outlet to share my passion and my collection on my terms and no one else's.  with that said, here are some proper cards to kick off year number 7.

first up is a 1975 topps custom world series game 1 card that should have been.

i made it to commemorate the play at the plate brought to us by joe ferguson stepping in front of jimmy wynn and delivering a bullet to yeager in time to nail sal bando at home to end the top of the 8th and keep the score at 3-1 a's.  of course, ferguson led off the bottom of the inning but unfortunately flied out (he also made the final out of the game) and the dodgers went on to lose 3-2.  this particular copy was sent off to yeager ℅ hall of fame sports a couple of years ago.  both davey lopes (with his arm raised) and bill russell also appear on the card.  it's too bad the dodgers lost that game, otherwise i suspect this card may have been a reality!

here's another autographed yeager card from my collection, but new to the blog.  it's his 1979 topps card

this was not a ttm success, but rather a purchased card.  i still like it a lot.

i also like the fact that panini has been giving some love to the former dodger backstop in recent years.  i actually pulled this one out of the lone 2014 panini golden age pack that i purchased.

i think panini is most successful with catchers due to the fact that logos are often obscured by the mask, or the helmets are turned around.  here, however, panini went with a shot of yeager at the plate, so it becomes obvious that this is an unlicensed issue.  i'll still take it.

here's a link to my very first post, which was more of a mission statement.  i have stuck pretty true to what i laid out there, although many of the sets i was working on have been completed with different ones started, many of the limitations i had placed on my collection in terms of dodger team sets have been lifted, and i've added to the couple of mini collections i listed.  i don't really collect twins anymore, but i still have a bunch of cards to trade.

so thanks for what is now officially 6-plus years of reading my stuff, looking at my cards, and generally tolerating my existence among you.  i've got a few things planned over the next couple of months and maybe beyond that.  there won't be a reggie smith year, though; i promise you that.

pedro guerrero mail-in autograph success!

yesterday marked the 35th anniversary of the major league debut of pedro guerrero.  also debuting in the september 22, 1978 dodger game were rudy law, brad gulden, and dave stewart.  unfortunately, i still haven't received my triple threads stewart redemption so this post will just be a petey post.

a couple of years ago, i sent two cards to hall of fame sports for guerrero to sign.  the first was my custom 1978 topps burger king dodgers/update card that should have been

and the second was his official rookie card - the 1979 topps dodgers prospects card

that also featured law and joe simpson.  i also have versions of this card signed by law and by simpson, but not on the same card.

as a steve garvey fan, i was nervous about any dodger prospect whose position was listed as first base.  guerrero, however, was quickly moved to the outfield for the following seasons so i didn't need to worry about the garv being replaced.  not until 1983, anyway.

as for his debut that occurred 35 years ago yesterday, guerrero pinch-hit for rick sutcliffe in the 5th inning and singled against randy jones.  he eventually came around to score on a reggie smith sacrifice fly, and his career was officially under way.  and, for the record, law and gulden were both 0 for 1 that day, and dave stewart threw 2 innings, allowing a hit but no runs. he also struck out one while facing the minimum six batters (the single he allowed was erased by a double play).  35 years ago! i am old.

a haphazard canada day post

july 1 snuck up on me this year - i blame the weather.  it doesn't seem like july here yet.  anyway, enjoy some cards featuring teams from north of the border.  like this 1998 fleer ultra orlando cabrera card

or this 1998 pacific crown collection mike lansing card

both of those feature double play turning expos, and the lansing also features british columbia native larry walker.  happy canada day guys!

here's a blue jay turning two (or at least trying to).  it's maicer izturis and his 2014 topps card

he's got lyle overbay bearing down on him in a game from may 2013.  izturis threw to first too late to get curtis granderson, but it still goes in my double play binder.

this 1989 upper deck neal heaton card is in my dodger stadium binder

that is most likely joey amalfitano in the background there.

i am running short of expo and blue jay cards in the scanned folder, but i did have this 1979 topps blue jays team card at the ready

it's actually the thin-stock send in version of the card.  roy hartsfield, as you might recall, was a dodger coach in the early 1970's.

eric gagne is one of two canadians to win a cy young award (fergie jenkins is the other).  here is the montreal native's 2002 upper deck superstars card

 and another one from 2004 upper deck

looks like it was game over there.

russell martin was born in toronto but grew up in quebec.  this canadian made his big league debut on cinco de mayo, as noted on this 2006 topps update & highlights rookie debut insert

 here's a crookedly scanned 2007 topps chrome refractor of the former dodger backstop

who is one of three canadians to win a gold glove (larry walker and joey votto are the others).

here's martin again on perhaps my least favorite dodger card of the last several years.  it's from 2010 topps, and it's his 'when they were young' insert

i'll take these types of cards if they show jim hunter with his dog, or sal bando in little league, but i don't need to see big leaguers in footsie pajamas.

take us home bc native and only canadian to win the american league mvp award, justin morneau.

happy canada day, eh?