the next few sheets from the steve garvey binders are heavy with the padres, including the wizard of oz

this post will contain 3 sheets of cards from my steve garvey binders. all of the cards are from 2004, and 13 of them are dodger cards, with another 13 showing him as a member of the san diego padres.  just for fun, the other card is of a rockie.

here's sheet 50 

those cards are:

1. 2004 fleer ultra preston wilson (with garvey on the outfield mural)
2. 2004 leaf certified materials fabric of the game relic /100
3. 2004 leaf certified materials fabric of the game relic 'nl' /100
4. 2004 leaf certified materials fabric of the game relic position /100
5. 2004 leaf certified materials fabric of the game relic year /87
6. 2004 leaf certified materials fabric of the game relic award /50
7. 2004 leaf certified materials fabric of the game relic stats /21
8. 2004 leaf certified materials fabric of the game relic jersey number /6
9. 2004 leaf limited team trademarks /100

i showed that ultra card in this post (one of my favorite posts) about the various murals that the dodgers featured on their outfield wall in the late 90's/early 00's.  the entire run of garvey cards from the leaf certified materials set is represented except for the 1/1. i don't think leaf used any patches, which is unfortunate.  there's also a gold version (numbered to 10) of that team trademarks card that i don't have.

here are the backs:

here's sheet 51

those cards are:

1. 2004 leaf limited team trademarks auto /50
2. 2004 playoff absolute memorabilia absolutely ink auto /100
3. 2004 playoff absolute memorabilia absolutely ink auto (with "popeye" inscription) /100
4. 2004 playoff absolute memorabilia absolutely ink material bat/auto /100
5. 2004 playoff absolute memorabilia absolutely ink combo material bat/jersey/auto /100
6. 2004 playoff absolute memorabilia absolutely ink combo material prime jersey/auto /5
7. 2004 playoff honors tandem material jersey (with ozzie smith) /250
8. 2004 playoff honors tandem material combo bat/jersey (with ozzie smith) /25
9. 2004 topps series stitches bat relic

same goes for the auto from leaf limited - there's also a version numbered to 6 as well as a 1/1 that have eluded me, along with a jersey relic numbered to 6.  they are in good company, as there are a bunch of the playoff absolute cards that i am missing, too.  there is a jersey/auto card numbered to 5, as well as a spectrum auto parallel, also numbered to 5, plus the combo material prime jersey/auto numbered to 5 that i do have a copy of also includes at least one specimen with the coveted red number patch.  i'd love to have that one.

i mentioned in the title that the wizard of oz makes an appearance, and so he does, although it's on the back of the playoff honors cards.  and, with that, here are the backs:

usually, garvey the padre is teamed up with his onetime teammate tony gwynn, but it's nice to see ozzie in the brown and yellow, as opposed to the cardinal red.

here's the last sheet of this post, but not the last sheet to feature cards from 2004.  this is sheet 52

those cards are:

1. 2004 topps legends auto
2. 2004 topps all-time fan favorites
3. 2004 topps all-time fan favorites refractor
4. 2004 topps all-time fan favorites auto
5. 2004 topps retired signature
6. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams (1974)
7. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams (1977)
8. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams (1978)
9. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams (1981)

there is a black parallel for the retired signature card that i am missing, plus three of the four bronze parallels from the timeless teams set.  we'll see the one bronze parallel that i do have next time.

here are the backs:

we will also (finally) get into 2005 next time as well.  stay tuned...

before i get to archives...

i understand that 2015 topps archives is live. i also understand that they are using the 1957 topps design for one of the four subsets in the base set.  that's nice, although i do wish that 1978 would get some love sometime before heritage catches up in 2027.  speaking of heritage, the last time we saw the 1957 topps design was in 2006 with the topps heritage set.  this is the dodger team card from that set

it features a photo taken inside dodger stadium - a stadium that didn't exist in 1957.  here are a few more dodgers from that set - cesar izturis

hong-chih kuo

derek lowe

and bill mueller

i rather like the mueller card. it seems like an old-timey pose.  i understand that don sutton is featured in the 1957 topps design grouping in the archives set this year, and i hope that his card is also old-timey in flavor. 

here are some other random cards from my scanned folder.

2006 fleer andre ethier

2006 upper deck jayson werth

2006 topps jim tracy (through the mail autograph success!)

pretty sure tracy is standing in the same spot izturis was for the heritage card up above - notice the palm tree…

2004 topps jim tracy (through the mail autograph success!)

2005 upper deck roy campanella wingfield collection

and 2005 upper deck pee wee reese wingfield collection 

those last two are nice looking cards.  i don't think either campy or pee wee are in archives this year - it's koufax, duke, and jackie as far as brooklyn-era dodgers go.  i'll try to find some of them in a blaster sometime this weekend - stay tuned...

a boxscore from the team of my youth and other cards from hsca

there were plenty of cards to like in the package that brian from highly subjective and completely arbitrary sent my way as part of his group trade break, even before getting to the trade break bounty.  i've shown some of them already, but there are more.  like this card, which comes from the 2004 topps world series highlights insert set

that's dusty baker pounding a home run in game one of the 1978 world series against the yankees.   the back is even better, as it shows the box score from the game.

it's great to see that lineup on the card.  it's a bit different than the batting order i remember from my youth because of the designated hitter, but the starting lineup of lopes, russell, smith, garvey, cey, monday, baker, and yeager is the lineup that i consider to be the definitive lineup of the team of my youth.  as an aside, davey lopes should have been featured thanks to his two home runs in this game.  it's still hard to believe that the dodgers won this game and game 2 (thanks bobby welch), but then lost four in a row to lose the series.

on to the group trade break stuff - 1996 pinnacle tim wallach

and ramon martinez

i like ramon's card a lot.

here's his brother, pedro, on a 2002 topps gallery heritage insert

plus a couple of base cards of shawn green

and hideo nomo

from the set.  the nomo card makes it look like he's a giant standing in a farmer's field near the coast.

paul loduca is definitely in dodger stadium on his 2003 topps stadium club card

while franklin gutierrez is in vero beach's holman stadium on his

that's a gold parallel, by the way, as is this sean pierce card

pierce never made it out of the minors, but gutierrez went on to win a gold glove and set a record for errorless chances in the outfield for the mariners in 2010.  after missing the 2014 season due to illness, gutierrez is currently in triple-a for the m's trying to work his way back to the bigs.

here are a couple more cards that weren't part of the trade break, but they are shiny so they get some time on the blog.

2015 topps heritage clayton kershaw holofoil

and 1992 upper deck denny's grand slam kal daniels

daniels hit four of his five grand slams as a dodger, and was only 28 when his career ended. if only he had good knees!

thanks brian!

the 1978 topps dodgers in 2003 through 2006 - there was only one

one would have thought that with dusty baker's contract to manage the giants expiring in early november of 2002, and his subsequent hiring by the cubs on the 16th of that month, topps could have shown baker as a cub in their 2003 flagship set.  no dice - he showed up still as the manager of the giants.

the giants had hired felipe alou to replace baker a couple of days earlier, so it's not like there would have been a void in the set that baker needed to fill.  of course, the real reason is that back then, series one was released in november and so we have a bonus card of baker in a giant uniform.

thankfully, topps was sure to include baker in a cubs uniform in their 2003 traded set.

the cubs won 88 games under baker in 2003, good enough (by one game) to win the nl central title and advance to the postseason.  it was the first division title for the cubs since 1989, and baker had them sitting with a 3 games to 1 lead in the nlcs, but the marlins came back to win the final three games of the series and deny the cubs their first pennant since 1945.

baker returned to the cubs in 2004 (here's his 2004 topps card with a familiar photo)

and the team acutally improved, winning 89 games that year.  unfortunately, that was only good enough for third place in the nl central, 16 games behind division champ saint louis, and 3 games behind wild card champ houston.

in 2005, topps thankfully changed the photo they used for baker's card

and the cubs slipped to below .500.  they had a record of 79-83 and finished fourth in the division, 21 games behind the cardinals.

dusty was in the fourth year of his four year deal in 2006 (here's his topps card from that year)

and the cubs fell even further in the standings.  they finished dead last in the division at 66-96, although they were 'only' 17.5 games behind saint louis that year.  as a result of the poor showing, baker was not re-hired by the cubs.  he wasn't hired by anyone else, either, and spent 2007 as an analyst for espn.  that meant that, for the first time since the early 1960's, there were no members of the 1978 topps dodgers playing or managing in the major leagues.  thankfully, that would change in 2008.

here is the yearly tally of appearances to date:

baker 24 (1971-1987, 1993, 2001-2006)
burke 2 (1978-1979)
cey 16 (1972-1987)
davalillo 14 (1963-1974, 1978-1979)
forster 16 (1972-1987)
garman 8 (1971-1973, 1975-1979)
garvey 18 (1971-1987, 2002)
goodson 6 (1973-1978)
grote 15 (1964-1976, 1978-1979)
hooton 15 (1972-1986)
hough 23 (1972-1994)
john 26 (1964-1989)
lacy 16 (1973-1988)
lasorda 19 (1954, 1973-1974, 1977-1981, 1983-1993)
lopes 18 (1973-1988, 2001-2002)
martinez 9 (1971-1976, 1978-1980)
monday 18 (1967-1984)
mota 18 (1963-1980)
oates 14 (1972-1981, 1991-1993, 2001)
rau 9 (1973-1981)
rautzhan 2 (1978-1979)
rhoden 16 (1975-1990)
russell 18 (1970-1987)
smith 17 (1967-1983)
sosa 10 (1974-1984)
sutton 23 (1966-1988)
yeager 15 (1973-1987)

teams represented so far: 24 (dodgers, indians, colt .45's, pirates, white sox, astros, mets, a's, red sox, angels, expos, cardinals, braves, cubs, orioles, giants, phillies, yankees, rangers, tigers, padres, brewers, mariners, marlins)

a memorial patch for darryl kile

tomorrow would have been darryl kile's 46th birthday, but the right-handed pitcher passed away during the 2002 season while a member of the saint louis cardinals.  the team was in chicago facing the cubs when kile was found in his hotel room, dead of a heart attack.  the game that was scheduled for that day, june 22, was postponed.  soon thereafter, the cardinals added a "dk 57" patch to their left sleeves in kile's memory.

here's the patch on jim edmonds' 2003 upper deck sp authentic card

edmonds has also written "57" (kile's uniform number) on his hat, just as some of kile's former astro teammates had done.

the patch is also visible on scott rolen's 2003 donruss estrellas card

and this albert pujols mini poster from the same release

the patch also shows up on pujols' 2004 topps card

with the jack buck memorial patch visible on his right sleeve.  

the card that i keep in my memorials binder is this 2003 donruss scott rolen card

it's the home whites.

kile spent several seasons with the astros before signing with the rockies as a free agent following a 19-7 season in which he posted a career best era of 2.57 - third best in the league in 1997.  still, kile was well thought of in houston, and his initials are part of a permanent memorial to him in left field at minute maid park.

after two years in colorado, he was traded to the cardinals where he had his best season in 2000.  he was 20-7 that year, finishing 5th in the cy young award voting just as he had in '97. he was a 3-time all-star who also threw a no-hitter for the astros in 1993, and had a career record of 133-119.  kile was 33 years old when he died.

a memorial patch for jack buck

jack buck, who had been a broadcaster for the cardinals for more than four decades, succumbed to lung cancer on june 18, 2002.  the redbirds added a patch featuring his initials, "jfb" to their right sleeves in his honor.  fernando vina is sporting the patch on his 2004 topps card

as is jd drew on the front

and back

of his 2003 upper deck victory card.  

jason isringhausen's 2004 upper deck vintage card

provides a good look at the patch, along witih the 'chalk on the cap' memorial for darryl kile that some players wore immediately after the pitcher passed away.

the patch is also visible on edgar renteria's 2003 donruss card

on which he is turning two, but it's a different renteria card that represents this memorial in my binder.  his 2003 upper deck 40 man card gives a good view of the patch

buck passed away just a few days before cardinals' pitcher darryl kile died suddenly (kile also received a memorial patch from the team - i'll cover that later today), ending a hall of fame broadcasting career that included not only cardinal broadcasts, but national baseball broadcasts, nfl, nhl, and aba broadcasts as well.  he began his career with the cardinals in 1954, and aside from a couple of years (1959-1960), buck remained part of the cardinals' broadcast team into 2001.  he was teamed with harry caray in the 1960's, taking over for caray as the play-by-play man in 1970.

as a dodger fan, i am well aware of buck's famous call of ozzie smith's home run in the 1985 nlcs ("go crazy folks") and of kirk gibson's home run in game 1 of the 1988 world series ("i don't believe what i just saw").  the latter came on the national stage with buck providing play-by-play for cbs radio.  he also did television coverage for cbs of other fall classics, including the 1991 world series between the braves and the twins in which he followed kirby puckett's game 6 series extending home run with another famous call, "and we'll see you tomorrow night!"  buck was 77 years old when he died.

fall classic time

the world series begins tonight, and for the 26th year in a row, the los angeles dodgers will not be participating.  this continues to be the longest pennant drought in the history of the franchise, not just since they moved to los angeles, but since they joined the national league in 1890.  the club won the pennant that year, and then again in 1899 and 1900.  in the world series era, they first won the pennant in 1916 and then again in 1920.

the 20 year drought following 1920 had been their longest as a franchise until a few years ago.  after the team's 1941 appearance in the world series, they won 2 more pennants in the 1940's, followed by 5 in the 1950's (including their first world championship in 1955, and their first in los angeles in 1959).  in the 1960's, the team won 3 pennants and two world series, and they matched that pennant total in the 1970's, although without any hardware to show for it.  in the 1980's, the dodgers appeared in the 1981 and 1988 world series and won both, beating their rival yankees and the heavily favored a's, respectively.

thanks to 2004 topps, i have a card that reminds me of what the program looked like for the 1988 series, the last one the dodgers participated in

this comes from the fall classic covers insert set.  i also have an actual copy of the program, purchased prior to the start of game 1 in the right field pavilion.  that was a good time.

here's the card that showcases the program from the la dodgers' first world series trip - a matchup with the white sox in 1959

it is much more specific to the series than that '88 version

here's the 1963 card

that was the series in which the dodgers swept the yankees

here's 1965's program

space! a nice touch to have two astronauts (twins, i presume) on the minnesota rocket. the dodgers beat the twins in 7 games.

i get a kick out of the 1966 program

the orioles were the dominant team in that fall classic, sweeping the dodgers and shutting them out three times in doing so.

sometime between 1966 and 1974, the programs began to get generic.  perhaps it had to do with the switch to division play and the lengthier postseason.  anyway, here's the card for the '74 series (walter alston's last) in which the dodgers lost to the a's

that was slightly before my time as a fan, but i was fully aware by the time the dodgers won the 1977 pennant.

this is what the program looked like in 1977

and here's what it looked like in 1978

too bad there wasn't a good ol' fashioned dodgers vs. yankees graphic on those.

same goes for the 1981 program

way generic - in fact, it looks like a cardinals' or reds player on the cover.  yuck. although the guy on the 1988 program kind of looks like a brewer.

i was hoping to end this post with the 2014 world series program cover and salute the dodgers for breaking their pennant-less drought.  oh well - wait 'til next year!

and one more thing - go royals!