something something something gray borders, something something something complete

39 years after it first hit the streets, the 1970 topps complete set is now mine. i started putting the set together about 10 years ago or so. it's kind of a boring set, but it's my birth year so what are you going to do.

here are some of the last few cards i needed. enjoy.

al mcbean. i had one of these in my topps dodger collection, but not for the set. did you know that al's nickname was 'gay blade'? me neither. i thought zorro had that covered.here's a card that i have had for a long time, but i had to post it - it's gil hodges.

those are perhaps the palest eyes i have ever seen.

back to the cards that completed the set - norm cash. steve garvey used a norm cash model bat. meanwhile, i think norm's fly might be open.

woodie fryman.

another high number, of course. did you know woody was a tobacco farmer?
i wonder if he brought his own to the ballpark.

the late bob allison.

this one was/is hard to come by in this neck of the woods. allison is still a pretty popular former twin who was with the franchise for his entire career. he seems to have made a big impression on his former teammates as well as the fans, as jim kaat requests that ttm autograph seekers make a donation to the bob allison ataxia research center.

here's the last card i needed. american league rookie stars #702.

some no-names, but a yankee and a twin made this a tough find. i picked it up on ebay for 49 cents plus s&h. i love it when sellers don't title things correctly. i found it by searching for 'zepp topps'. there was no mention of the year or the high number status in the listing.

so, there you have it - this set is done, although there are about a dozen or so cards that i should probably upgrade. a collector's work is never done.

who is that masked man?

oh, it's just david wright with a strange shadow and some messy eye black. i thought maybe it was the lone ranger. how cool would that be - an allen & ginter card of clayton moore in full costume. maybe next year?

as an aside, i have eschewed the base a&g set this year (except for dodgers and select twins) and have completed the national pride insert set instead. no short prints.

hello larry! to both of you!

reader larry offered to help with my 2009 topps needs and to also send along some dodgers in a trade recently. he came through big-time!

here's a sampling of what i received:

we'll start with a different larry - larry burright and his 1962 topps card.a quick check of baseball reference shows that larry played for the dodgers in 1962 before going to the mets in 1963. he played a handful of games in 1964 and was done. he hit all four of his career home runs, including one inside the park job, as a dodger.

here's one of the 2009 topps - a david murphy.with a josh hamilton sighting!

a 2007 upper deck ramon martinez (ii).his bat looks to be defective.

1985 leaf orel hershiser.you can't have too many green leafy cards.

1997 pinnacle denny's jackie robinson.and a 2009 topps career best jackie robinson.i've seen some of the 1959 topps style 'jackie as a giant' cards from the national up on ebay. i have no desire to buy one though.

1967 topps world series game 4.this is how sandy koufax's career ended. with brooks robinson several feet in the air.

1999 topps gallery raul mondesi.i didn't realize that ra-uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuul put his number on the tongue of his shoes. kind of like grrranimals, but with numbers, i guess.

thanks again larry! let's do it again.

i am joe (mauer) collector

while it is true, i do collect post-2000 twins and especially the new m&m boys, i still prefer dodgers, so it is too bad for me that motherscratcher has laid claim to the boys in blue in i am joe collector's monthly box breaks. that leaves me with the twins, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

here are some of the cards i received from the july break - 2009 ud spx and 2009 topps series 2.

spx joe mauer. much like finest, spx hasn't been seen in the stores and speakeasys i frequent. so, it's nice to get a mauer (and a morneau) this way.

toppstown joe mauer (bronze)

it is bronze, right?

toppstown joe mauer blue.

these cards remind me of mystery science theater 3000 with the silhouetted crowd. that would make mauer the star of a b-movie, 'revenge of the tall catchers that are too good of a hitter to spend their entire career behind the plate.'

here's the other 'm' - justin morneau on his spx.

believe it or not, i think morneau has passed russell martin on my list of favorite current canadian players.

turkey red justin morneau.

when i try to swing like morneau, with that one-handed loop he makes with the bat up over his head, it feels like my shoulder is doing things that it shouldn't.

carlos gomez black border parallel.

go go has two base cards this year - one in series one and one in series two. i don't know why.

career best auto carlos gomez. this is actually nicer than his ip auto, even if i don't know what the first character is. the second one is most likely a 'g' but even then i am not completely sure.

thanks for hosting the breaks, jeff, and motherscratcher, if you're reading, it wouldn't bother me if you missed a month (or several).

eric karros, team hero?

back in 2003, donruss anointed eric karros a 'team hero'. they used the term loosely, as they also included such dodger stalwarts as victor alvarez and tyler houston in the set. anyway, now that karros' career has had time to settle, i figured i would take a closer look.

of the dodgers' string of rookies of the year in the 1990s, karros was my least favorite. piazza was stronger and more explosive, mondesi more athletic and exciting, nomo was more dominant and mysterious, and even hollandsworth had an 'aw shucks' kind of charm about him. karros just plodded along, hitting home runs and not being in any way flashy.

while his most famous home run came as a cub (the 3-run shot that denied roger clemens his 300th career victory at wrigley), in his 12 years with the dodgers karros hit a los angeles franchise record 270 home runs. more than cey. more than garvey. more than piazza. those 270 home runs are also good for 3rd on the all-time franchise leader board, where he is also 10th in games played, 8th in total bases, 8th in doubles (ahead of hodges!), 6th in rbi, and 1st in sacrifice flies - ha! ok, he's also the la dodger leader in strikeouts (3rd all-time) and 4th all-time in gidp - one ahead of garvey, in fact.

obviously, karros stands among others i easily consider to be 'team heroes' in terms of longevity and production, so i guess the shoe fits. still, i would have preferred him going to the fish instead of piazza, or to toronto instead of mondesi.

the infield gets a new/old manager - gcrl in 1976

in 1976, as in 1975, the dodgers finished in second place behind the eventual world champion cincinnati reds. steve garvey had another solid season, including a .317 average and exactly 200 hits. garvey, of course, played in all 162 games as he finished sixth in the mvp voting and was voted to start the all star game for the third year in a row. in the mid-summer classic his first inning triple off of mark fidrych scored pete rose, and garvey scored the eventual winning run later in the inning on a groundout. also for the third straight year, garvey was awarded a gold glove, having made just 3 errors for a .998 fielding percentage. he also stole a career high 19 bases, but hit fewer home runs (only 13) while pounding out 37 doubles - more on that later.

for ron cey, he had a solid 1976 season, although his numbers were down just a bit from the year before. his 23 home runs led the team and were good for sixth in the league as he finished 23rd in the mvp voting. he was selected to the all star team for the third straight year, although pete rose was voted to start at third base. cey made an appearance in the 9th as a defensive replacement, but did not get an at bat. he hit two home runs in a game once in 1976, and also had 2 walk off homers, including one against future teammate jerry reuss. i wonder if the penguin was nervous posing for the photographer without a hat - as if he might be included in a traded set later on.

bill russell rebounded nicely from his injury laden season in 1975. he appeared in 149 games and hit .274 while being named to the all star team for the second time in his career. he went 0 for 1 in the all star game, playing behind dave concepcion and larry bowa. for the season, all five of his home runs were solo shots and his 65 rbi tied his career high.

in 1976, davey lopes led the league in stolen bases for the second straight year. pretty impressive, considering that his 63 stolen bases came while playing in just 119 games. he played exactly 100 games at second base, and 19 in center field. although lopes hit only 4 home runs, two of them were lead off shots. lopes appeared on three cards in the 1976 set. in addition to his base card, there was the record breaker card celebrating his streak of 38 straight successful stolen base attempts. he also appeared on the stolen base league leader card with lou brock and joe morgan. nice that topps used a photo from the same shoot as his base card. no need to mix things up.

speaking of mixing things up, perhaps the biggest development for the dodgers in 1976 was the retirement of long time manager walter alston, who stepped down with 4 games to play in the season. he was replaced by tommy lasorda, who had been a coach for alston since 1972 and had managed many of the young dodger players in the minor leagues, including steve garvey, ron cey, bill russell and davey lopes. as the new manager, lasorda famously asked garvey to try to hit more home runs, and garvey would deliver in 1977.

thanks, baseball reference!

some recent non-dodger through the mail successes!

i don't mean to belittle the fine gentlemen that have signed and returned the various cards i have sent out recently simply because they are not dodgers, but i am going to lump a few of them together in one post. bear with me.

here's a former dodger, don zimmer.1978 topps are good for autos, i think. this one is pretty beaten up, and it was that way before i sent it. zim has a quick turnaround - about 10 days or so.

bryn smith is in dodger stadium on this 1990 donruss.he was quick, too. about a week or so.

1976 topps boog powell.night owl sent me this card for my 1976 set, and i had upgraded shortly thereafter, so i sent this off to boog's bbq shack at camden yards.

jim bouton asked for a $5 donation to a charity (i forget what it was now).

i have an autographed copy of 'ball four' and was hoping for a 'smoke em inside' inscription. anyway, it's a nice auto and a quick turnaround.