another 73 down

thanks to don who found an amos otis for me

that's a classic '73 right there with what looks to be a brewers catcher (but likely not ellie rodriguez) in the foreground.  don also sent some parallel dodgers, like this 1995 score gold rush card of rafael bournigal

who is awkwardly high-fiving a lurking mike piazza.  i can imagine the staff as they assembled the checklist:

'we need another dodger in the set'
'how about piazza?'
'he already has a couple of cards'
'well find a player who has a photo that includes the italian-american superstar slugger, even if it's a no-hit, all-field backup shortstop'
'bournigal gets a card!'

here is one of mike piazza's cards from the set

i could do without his eyes featured so prominently.

score wasn't the only company doing some weird stuff to their parallels in 1995.  here's a 1995 topps ismael valdes cyber stats card

i think topps figured ismael would have gone 3-2 if the full 1994 season had been played, and he would have suffered blisters on his fingers on three separate occasions.  you dodger fans know what i'm talking about.

i predict the-riot! on a 2010 topps update gold card

which is markedly different from the 2011 topps update cognac cards

that particular ethier card is really just a checklist.  it's interesting that topps included no further text elaborating on what it meant by 'ethier streaks through april'.  who knows what future generations will think.

back to gold - here's darryl strawberry's 1992 topps gold card

i never get tired of that card.  so cool.

finally, in a nod to sesame street, don included a card that was not like the others.  it's a 1991 swell baseball greats card of ralph branca

thanks don! hope you enjoy your 73's i sent in return.

karma karma karma karma karma camilli

it used to be that the only dolph camilli card i had was this 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts card

that was until i picked up his 1961 fleer card

after it enjoyed a lengthy stay on my nefarious 9 list.  camilli was the dodgers' first baseman from 1938 to 1943, winning the league's mvp award in 1941 after hitting 34 homers and driving in 120 runs.  the photo on the card does in fact feature him in a dodger uniform; it's obvious thanks to the 'b' on his hat.  the patch on his arm gives it away too - and dates the photo to 1938.  that was the season that the dodgers wore a patch to advertise the world's fair that was coming to new york in 1939.

in his final season with the dodgers, camilli played alongside a youngster named gil hodges.  about 18 years later, his son doug was suiting up for the dodgers alongside hodges.  that's pretty cool, just like that 1961 fleer card.

you reap what you sew

not that i really did anything to deserve it, but the sewing machine guy recently sent me this beauty of a card

for no reason other than i am a dodger collector.  it was nice to see a package arrive unsolicited like that.  i know he's not really collecting anymore, but maybe i can find something he can flip.  thanks larry!

one post for every consecutive game

this is my 1207th post on this blog. i've missed some days, and even weeks, since starting this blog over 3 years ago.  steve garvey didn't miss any games during his consecutive games streak which lasted 1207 contests and ended on july 29, 1983.  it was a feat so impressive that it has a blog named after it.

in honor of reaching this milestone, i offer up twelve steve garvey cards - one for every one hundred posts/consecutive games.  yes, i know he ended his streak as a padre, but first humor me some dodger cards.

perhaps my second favorite garvey card (1978 topps cannot be topped) was issued in 1974.  this happens to be the o-pee-chee version

 as is this 1975 card recapping the 1974 nlcs

garvey aka mr. clean playing the part of pigpen.  very nice.

i had planned, and may still get around to posting oddball team sets, or at least the infield's cards.  in the meantime, here are some garveys that i had already scanned.  this is his 1977 hostess twinkles card

 and this is his 1979 hostess card

what are the chances that the photos come from the same shoot?  fairly high, i would guess.  now we move away from snack cakes towards breakfast cereals. here's a 1981 kellogg's card

followed by the 1982 kellogg's issue

i'm not sure when the garv started to wear the red-white-blue sweatband, but he didn't carry it over to the padres, that's for sure.  here's his 1987 donruss card

 along with a 1987 fleer star stickers card

and a 1999 fleer sports illustrated card showing the si cover from the week garvey broke billy williams' national league consecutive game record (a game which i attended)

you can see in that photo that garvey has chosen the matchy-match yellow sweatband.

back to the 1970's, sort of, with a 2001 ud decade 1970's card - this one's from the award winners subset

 with the 1974 nl mvp getting his groove on apparently.

his 2002 upper deck sweet spot classics card is more refined

it's an image from the 1978 world series (notice the jim gilliam '19' patch), and if i remember my sports illustrateds correctly, that photo is of garvey fielding a throw as thurman munson bears down on first base.  pretty sure.

last year, topps chose to reprint garvey's 1982 in action card

which showcased the part of his swing that had the least amount of action.  here's the (original) back so we can remind ourselves of some of popeye's accomplishments as a dodger

so that was twelve cards for twelve-hundred games.  i guess i need something to cover the other seven, so i'll use a card that should have been created by jason at the writer's journey.  it's a 2011 topps gypsy queen garvey

that uses an image of the dodgers' first baseman receiving applause for his 1000th consecutive game.

here's to you, nl iron man.  and thanks to all of you for reading all/most/some of my 1207 ramblings.

i can see leary now

when i think of tim leary, i think of two things.  first, his 11th inning pinch-hit game winning single against the giants in an august game that is one of my all-time favorite television watching experiences and made me a believer in the 1988 dodgers, and second, his three scoreless innings of relief in game 1 of the 1988 world series kept things in check that made the dodgers' rally possible. 

i guess the third thing i would think of is that he is the guy who came over from the brewers in the greg brock trade.  i remember thinking 'we let steve garvey go for this?'.  leary disappointed in 1987, his first year with the dodgers, going 3-11 in 39 games (12 starts).  in 1988, he turned things around as his place in the starting rotation was solidified thanks to bob welch being traded to the a's.  leary went on to post a record of 17-11 with a 2.91 era with 6 shutouts.  he won the silver slugger (he hit .269) and was named the nl's comeback player of the year award for his work in 1988.

these days, leary makes appearances on behalf of the team, and he was recently kind enough to sign and return some cards for me.  like his 1988 topps card

his 1989 topps card

and his 1989 upper deck card

thanks tim - for that hit, that relief work, and these cards.

why did i scan this card?

this 1990 swell baseball greats card of dodger utility man lee lacy has been sitting in my scanned folder for a long time.

so long that i don't recall why i scanned it.  i know it wasn't for lacy's double dipper post, as i try my best to use only cards from a player's playing days, and lacy had cards in real-time to document his goings and comings. 

maybe it was the fact that someone considered lacy to be a baseball great.  don't get me wrong - i am a fan as leondaus is a member of the 1978 topps dodgers - but i don't know that he was a great player, especially for the dodgers.  his best years were with the pirates for whom he hit over .300 in 4 of 6 seasons.  he also played well at the end of his career in baltimore.  still, i'm happy to have another card of a 1978 topps dodger.  that's probably why the card got scanned.
the same can't be said for this 1990 pacific legends tom paciorek

paciorek was traded with lacy to the braves in the dusty baker deal after the 1975 season.  he went on to have his best years with the mariners and white sox, hitting his peak in 1981 when his .326 average was good for second in the american league and he finished 10th in the mvp voting.  not very legendary.  but, like the lacy card, i am happy to have another dodger card of one of the guys selected in that legendary 1968 draft.  shoot.  that's why i scanned the card - i was planning a post on that draft class.

i hate when that happens.

before the 'batting stance guy'...

...i was the 'pitching motion boy'.  i also did batting stances in my front yard - everyone from steve garvey to rod carew to willie stargell and pete rose.  later, i even modeled my high school stance on don mattingly - a little bit pigeontoed to try to engage my hips.

but, this post is about windups.  i mimiced luis tiant and most of the dodger starters - sutton, reuss, valenzuela i remember well.  one i particularly enjoyed was rick sutcliffe.

there were some similarities to don sutton's windup, but sutcliffe was more extreme with the way he tucked the ball by folding his right wrist while keeping his left leg straight, as demonstrated on his 1980

and 1981 dodgers police cards

his windup was fun to do.  it was a little bit herky-jerky, and it sure didn't feel natural.  i believe vin scully once said "there's a lot of sutcliffe going on out there'.  anyway, i broke out the sutcliffe windup a couple of times in little league with poor results as i recall.  everything was high thanks to the straight leg and over the top delivery.  my coach told me to pick a different windup.

unfortunately, i couldn't quite master the juan marichal leg kick.