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!

on the road with mike morgan

mike morgan pitched for 12 different teams in 13 different stops (he double dipped with the cubs) over the course of 22 big league seasons.  those 12 different uniforms morgan wore were a record until octavio dotel made it to 13 in 2012.

morgan began his career as the 4th overall pick in 1978, and he was rushed to the majors less than two weeks later by a's owner charlie finley who obviously wasn't paying attention when the rangers made the same mistake with david clyde earlier in the decade.  morgan pitched a complete game in his big league debut as an 18-year old, but took the loss.  he lost his other two starts that season, and was 2-10 for the a's in 1979.  so, by the time this 1980 topps future stars card featuring morgan

was released, he was 2-13 as a major league pitcher, and he had also pitched in his last big league game for the franchise.  as an aside, kirk gibson was taken by the tigers with the 15th pick in that draft, and cal ripken jr was taken with the 22nd pick of the 2nd round.  i point this out not to disparage mike morgan, as he had a decent big league career, but rather to note that the team that drafted ahead of the orioles in the second round was the dodgers, who passed on ripken (then a third baseman) to take a different high school shortstop named clay smith.

anyway, morgan spent all of 1980 in the minors, and was traded to the yankees following the conclusion of the season.  he made it back to the majors in 1982, going 7-11 for the bronx bombers in 23 starts and 7 relief appearances.  he was traded to the blue jays after the season ended (with fred mcgriff!), but we were still treated to this 1983 fleer card showing him in yankee apparel.

topps also had him as a yankee in their 1983 set, but included him as a blue jay in the 1983 traded set

with the jays in '83, morgan was 0-3.  he pitched in 16 games, 4 of which were starts.  he spent all of 1984 back in the minors, and was taken by the mariners in the rule v draft prior to the 1985 season.  morgan took his 9-27 career record to seattle, where he made 2 starts (he was 1-1 in those starts) in 1985 before becoming a fixture in the rotation for both the 1986 and 1987 seasons.  he lost 17 games in both of those campaigns, however, leading the league in that category in 1986.  still, he won 11 and 12 games, respectively, kept his era below 5.00, and threw his first 3 career shutouts with the m's.  morgan was still a mariner on his 1988 donruss card

even though he was traded to the orioles in december of '87.  they got things updated in the 1988 donruss baseball's best set (also known as the halloween set)

morgan spent just that one season with the orioles, going 1-6 in 22 games, 10 of which were starts.  he had a cumulative record of 34-68 and had pitched for 5 different teams when dodger gm fred claire traded mike devereaux to the orioles in march of 1989 to acquire the 29-year old morgan.

the dodgers used morgan primarily as a starter to begin the 1989 season, and he responded nicely to his first taste of national league play.  morgan was 6-8 with a 1.79 era at the all-star break, but lost his first three starts of the second half with his era jumping to 2.61, and so was sent to the bullpen for the remainder of the season.  he finished with a record of 8-11 and a (by far) career best 2.53 era.  here's his 1990 upper deck card, featuring him dealing in dodger stadium.

over the next two seasons, the dodgers used morgan almost exclusively as a starter (he had one relief appearance against 66 starts in that span).  morgan was 11-15 in 1990, leading the league with 4 shutouts, and posted the first winning record of his career in 1991, going 14-10 with a 2.78 era and an all-star berth to boot.  morgan got to pitch the 9th inning of the midsummer classic, retiring hall of famers kirby puckett, carlton fisk (by strikeout), and roberto alomar in order.  he was also the national league player of the week for the last week in june, thanks to two complete game victories.  as a dodger, morgan was 33-36 with an era just over 3.00, and he decided to sign with the cubs as a free agent.

morgan went on to have one of his best seasons in 1992, going 16-8 with a 2.55 era in 34 starts.  he pitched for the cubs for a total of 3-plus seasons before being traded to the cardinals in june of 1995.  here's his 1993 bowman card

as i mentioned above, morgan had two different stints with the cubbies. the first time around, he was 30-34 in 85 starts.  from there, he was 9-14 for the cardinals between june of 1995 and august of 1996 when he was released.  the reds took a chance on morgan for the last month of the '96 season, and he posted a 2.30 era in 5 starts for them, although he was just 2-3 in those games.  he stayed with cincy in 1997, going 9-12, and was signed by the twins for the 1998 season.  morgan was traded to the cubs during the 1998 season after pitching in 18 games (17 starts) for the twins in his first american league (non-interleague) action since joining the dodgers in 1989.  he was 4-2 for the twinkies, but 0-1 for the cubs down the stretch.  still, morgan got his first taste of postseason play with those 1998 cubs, pitching a perfect 1.1 innings over two appearances in the nlds against the braves.  from there, it was on to texas for the 1999 season where the 39-year old went 13-10 in 34 appearances, 25 of which were starts.

at this point in morgan's career, he was 134-180, having pitched for 11 teams, and his days of being primarily a starter were behind him.  he signed with the diamondbacks, his record breaking 12th team, for the 2000 season, and stayed with them through the 2002 campaign - the last of his career.  here's his 2001 topps card

because the diamondbacks used morgan primarily as a reliever, he pitched in more games (120) wearing their hideous uniforms than any other - the dodgers were second at 107.  he had a record of 7-6 with 5 saves for arizona, and also picked up a world series ring in 2001 (he threw 4.2 scoreless in the fall classic against the yankees, although he did allow an inherited run (turned out to be the winning run) to score in game 3).

so, there you have it.  mike morgan was 141-186 for 12 different teams.  he won more games (33) for the dodgers than any other team, and also had his lowest cumulative era (3.06) in dodger blue.  so, here's a signed 1991 donruss card that i picked up at the local monthly card show a couple of years ago.

it was signed during his fleeting tenure with the twins, which ended with that trade with the cubs.

i suppose i'll do one of these for dotel, since he spent all of a month or so with the dodgers.  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...

a braves' black armband for a groundbreaking executive

bill lucas was a minor league player in the braves' system before joining the team's front office in the mid-1960's.  he worked his way up from public relations to player development, becoming the director of the braves' farm system in 1972.  in 1976, he became the club's vice president and director of player personnel and performed the duties of a general manager.  as such, he is widely considered to be the first african-american gm in baseball history, although bob watson was the first to have the actual gm title.

among lucas's moves were the signing and development of dale murphy and the hiring of bobby cox as the team's manager.  cox appears on the braves 1980 topps team card

that features the players and coaches wearing black armbands in honor of lucas who died on may 5, 1979.  shortly after watching the braves on tv on may 1, lucas suffered a brain hemorrhage resulting from an aneurysm.  he was taken to the hospital where he died of cardiac arrest.  the team wore the armbands for the remainder of the season.

one of lucas's first moves was to sign free agent outfielder gary matthews out of the 1976 free agent draft.  i have this 1980 o-pee-chee matthews card

in the memorials binder as a result.  it shows the black armband front and center, and provides a good link to lucas's work as a de facto general manager.  lucas was just 43 years old when he died.

graded garveys from the oddball binder

i've got a few four-pocket pages in my steve garvey oddball binder that hold graded cards.  i did, for a very short time in the early 2000's, buy into the idea of graded cards.  i sent a few off to be graded, including some modern cards, before i thought better of it.  i also bought a few graded steve garvey cards during that short stretch.

the first sheet has a garvey 1971 topps rookie, his fantastic 1974 topps card, a 1975 topps mini, and a 1978 topps, which is a masterpiece

i wanted a rookie graded, and got one with a qualifier.  that right there made me realize that this is not something on the up and up.  it's an 8, but it has issues.  then it's not really an 8.  bccg grading is a quicker/cheaper grade which again makes little sense.  the '75 came in a lot - i didn't seek that one out like i did the others there.

the second page has a gem mt 10 1978 topps card, plus a 1980 topps and two 1981 topps cards

the 1978 card in gem mt 10 was a requisite for this garvey collector.

next up are a couple of cards from 1982 donruss, plus a 1983 topps and a gem mt 10 1987 fleer glossy

garvey's last topps card as a dodger provided a bookend to the 1971 rookie.  the fleer glossy was a cheap gem mt 10 grab.

the last page features a 1988 score glossy gem mt 10, and two cards i sent off myself - a 2001 fleer greats of the game card, and a 2002 topps tribute card

like the rookie, the 1974 and 1978 topps, and the 1983 topps cards, having a graded 1988 score card (in this case glossy version) was necessary.  i obviously knew i wasn't going to have a complete run of garvey base cards graded so i wanted to hit the main points.  sending those two modern cards to be graded was a mistake and unnecessary.

still, if anybody has a graded garvey card they don't want/need, i have an open spot in my binder!

random rules the day

here's a smattering of randomness from the scanned folder.  no rhyme or reason, just some dodger cards…

1980 topps ken brett

when ken brett joined the dodgers, it was the first time that i became aware of the 'wrong brother' syndrome. not that i wanted george brett to join the dodgers and mess up the infield thing they had going on, but i still recognized that the younger george was the better player.  that wasn't what was expected, however, as ken brett was thought to be the best athlete in the family when he joined the red sox in the late 1960's.  with the dodgers, brett pitched in 30 games during the 1979 season and was released during spring training the following year.

1983 dodgers police tom lasorda

i used this photo for one of lasorda's cards that should have been.  i still have a few of those to make.

1984 ralston purina pedro guerrero

i found it odd that the same company that made dog food also made cereal.  anyway, i had a bunch of these mail in sets. or were those the cereal series cards that were mail ins?  i don't remember.  we ate a lot of chex cereal in 1984.

1987 baseball's all-time greats carl erskine

erskine threw 2 no-hitters (one against the giants) and struck out 13 yankees in a single world series game.  that's my kind of dodger.

1989 upper deck juan bell

more 'wrong brother' syndrome here.  bell was the younger brother of blue jays' slugger george bell.  the younger bell didn't actually play for the dodgers - he was part of the 'haul' that the orioles received in the eddie murray trade.

1990 topps mike morgan (in dodger stadium)

and 1991 topps stadium club mike morgan

i'm working on a 'on the road with mike morgan' post.  stay tuned.

1990 upper deck lenny harris

i could do a similar post for harris, i think.  although he only played for 8 franchises (morgan wore 12 different uniforms), he made multiple stops in cincinnati and new york.  no player has been used as a pinch hitter more than harris, and no player has more pinch hits than harris.

1990 upper deck mike marshall

between this mike marshall (who was a met when this card was issued) and the other mike marshall, there was a mike marshall in the major leagues from 1967 through most of the 1991 season.  i guess that's not that impressive, since nolan ryan was in the bigs from 1966 through 1993.

1992 donruss triple play roger mcdowell

to me, the oddest thing about this card is mcdowell's hair - forget about the sandpaper sticking out of the bottom of his pantlegs, what is that thing on his head?

35 gone at 57

i couldn't believe what i was reading yesterday afternoon.  bobby welch, the rookie pitcher from the team of my youth, had passed away at the age of 57.  definitely a need for black mourning crepe here on the blog.

there is no doubt that welch closing out game 2 of the 1978 world series was a huge moment for all dodger fans, but for me it represented the point of no return in my fandom, which at that time was barely a year old.  i had to wait until 1979 to get a card of welch, but once the packs hit the streets, i didn't wait long.  i remember opening about a dozen packs purchased at the 7-11 for a quarter apiece, and somewhere around the 6th pack, there was this card

let's take a stroll through welch's dodger career.

1980 topps

he suttons.

1981 fleer

my neighbor across the street was a yankee fan, and pulled this card from a pack.  i reminded him of how welch struck reggie jackson out to end the aforementioned game 2 of the 1978 fall classic, and he quickly handed the card over to me.

1981 topps

hatless and morose.

1982 topps

 1983 donruss

bad mustache.

1984 topps team leaders

welch is currently 9th on the dodgers all-time strikeout list, but is about to be passed by clayton kershaw.

1984 topps

similar to 1982 topps

1985 topps

similar to 1984 topps

1986 topps

what's with all the road uni photos?

1987 donruss

that's better - the ice white uniform with a dodger stadium backdrop

1987 fleer

back on the road

1987 topps

he was 15-9 in 1987, his final season with the dodgers, and he led the league with 4 shutouts.

1988 donruss diamond king

1988 donruss

1988 score

the yellow border fit in 1988, as he joined the a's as a free agent.

welch was 115-86 with a 3.14 era as a dodger, and 96-60 with a 3.94 era as an athletic, but 27 wins in 1990 means most will remember him as a member of the a's.  i'll remember him as the guy who made a young fan believe that the dodgers could beat the yankees, even if they didn't really get it done until 1981.