a moment for jerry grote

i want to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of jerry grote.  because he was a member of the 1978 topps dodgers, i was automatically a fan of his.

as i did with vic davalillo a few months ago, here's a look at grote's career in topps cards thanks to my evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers collection:

grote was famously left on the cutting room floor by topps in 1977, and he didn't receive a card when he returned to the majors in 1981. i, of course, made customs for him to fill in the blanks as i did for other members of the 1978 topps dodgers. the 1977 topps test card showed grote as a met, but i showed him as a dodger in 1977

as a royal in a 1981 topps traded style card

and back as a dodger in 1982 for a final tribute

however, my favorite custom i made featuring the veteran catcher was this 1979 topps 1978 nlcs card

grote was on deck when bill russell singled to drive home ron cey and secure the pennant for the dodgers in game 4 of the 1978 nlcs, and so he was there to greet the penguin as he scored. pure joy.

grote will be best remembered as a met, as he helped the mets to two pennants and the 1969 world series title in addition to being a part of the dodgers' back-to-back pennant winning teams in the late 70's. to me, he is number 9. when i go through numbers, i associate 9 with grote because i was a dodger fan in 1978 and because gordie howe didn't play baseball.

with grote's death yesterday, seven members of the 1978 topps dodgers have now passed away, and it is a reminder that time waits for no man. rest in peace number 9!

a moment for vic davalillo, players from my youth, and the new dodger dh

i read last wednesday that vic davalillo passed away, and it made me pause.

thanks to his incredible, rally starting, two-out bunt in the 9th inning of game 3 of the 1977 nlcs and his inclusion in the 1978 topps set as a dodger, i got to know davalillo at the very beginning of my fandom and collecting days. he didn't play a lot, but he was a dodger and there was cardboard evidence of that fact, so he was respected and celebrated in my collection.

i have all of davalillo's major manufacturer cards (issued in the us, anyway), as his entire topps flagship run 

is encapsulated in my "evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers" mini-collection, and his 1981 fleer offering

is in my dodger collection. there are one or two venezuelan releases that i wouldn't mind adding to the collection, but i haven't ever made it a priority.

davalillo is the sixth member of the 1978 topps dodgers to pass away. preceding him were glenn burke (1995), johnny oates (2004), lance rautzhan (2016), tom lasorda (2021), and don sutton (2021). time marches on, but it is still a bit of a thing to see these players whose cardboard i coveted back then pass away.

shifting to another way of looking at the 1978 topps set, i get excited when i can complete the immaculate grid using only players who appeared in that set. it is always my goal to use as many as i can, and there was a two day stretch last week where i was able to do so:

with davalillo getting center square in saturday's grid! as of now, that second one has a score of 8, which would be my second lowest ever.

finally, i would be remiss if i didn't mention the 700 million dollar man, shohei ohtani. i feel for angel fans who will now see ohtani suit up for the dodgers, but not enough to not be excited about ohtani joining the dodgers. here are some 2018 topps update cards i have of ohtani

with the last one being the most valuable, i guess, since it's a rainbow foil parallel. the dodgers still need pitching for the 2024 season (ohtani can't help them there), but it's a good start to a longer term benefit. i suppose my team break costs for 2024 just went up. way up.

bad trades never die

i was looking through some vintage dodger dupes recently, and i stopped when i got to the 1965

and 1966 

topps cards of well traveled reliever bob miller.  not only does miller look like he aged several years between the times that those photos were taken, i also noticed on the back of each card, topps mentions that the dodgers acquired miller for two players. here's the back of his 1965 card:

and here's the back of his 1966 card:

it is true that the dodgers gave up two players, but i found it interesting that topps repeated that fact on cards that were issued two and three years after the deal was done. of course, they also mention miller's 74 appearances in 1964 on both cards. i also find it interesting that the 1966 card mentions saves in the cartoon even though they weren't an official stat until 1969. curious.  anyway, these are the two guys that the dodgers sent to the mets for miller:

larry burright

and tim harkness

both played for the mets in 1963 and 1964, but did not appear in the majors after that. harkness had more success than burright, but he was traded to the reds after the 1964 season for bobby klaus. klaus was later traded away for dick stuart, and in 1966, stuart was released by the mets and signed by the dodgers for whom miller was still playing.

this all means that the two players the dodgers gave up to acquire miller were no longer major leaguers when topps put that information on the backs of the two cards up top. you might be relieved to know that the two-for-one trade was not mentioned on the back of miller's 1967 topps card, although his 1964 appearances were referenced in one of the cartoons on that card - incorrectly as 71 instead of 74. regardless, at least topps was finally able to come up with some new copy for the guy.

350 is a magic number - check your 6s

a few weeks ago i noted that i was pondering the idea of adding a number type mini-collection to my collection. of the options i considered - 190, 272, 350, or none at all - i decided to go with 350. i am posting the cards by ten-year increments, and so far i've done the 8s and 7s. today, i think i'll move on to the 6s.

1966 topps #350

mel stottlemyre had the good fortune to be a part of the 1964 yankee pennant winning team, contributing to their success and, as the card back says, starting three games in the fall classic. he also had the poor fortune of being a part of the yankees after that, as they failed to return to the postseason for the remainder of stottlemyre's pitching career, which lasted into the 1974 season. his 1965 season was one of his best, although he posted similar numbers in a couple of other seasons down the line. he was second in wins in the american league in '65, falling one behind the twins' mudcat grant.

1976 topps #350 

lefty grove represents the first subset we've seen representing number 350. part of the 10-card all-time greats subset, grove represents the team in the left-handed pitcher category. even by today's advanced metrics, grove ranks as the best lhp in baseball history, ahead of randy johnson and warren spahn and all the others. because of this card, i think of him as an "old-timey" player, which he sort of was, but he lived almost up to the point when this card was produced unlike most of the other players included in this subset.

1986 topps #350

jack clark hit a big home run for the cardinals in the 1985 nlcs against the dodgers even though first base was open at the time. it was the first time that i completely abandoned the national league and cheered for the american league champion to win the world series. thank you, don denkinger.

1996 topps #350

jay payton was, to me, the oddibe mcdowell of number 350. i mentioned in a previous 350 post that i would always look at the checklists as i pulled them from packs to see who was given the hero numbers. this is before i could look up checklists online before the product was released. in 1985, i saw oddibe mcdowell's name at card 400 and was completely confused. only later did i find that the olympic team subset was placed in and around that part of the checklist. here, payton was given the number as a "now appearing" prospect who didn't actually appear in the majors until the end of the 1998 season, and he didn't become a regular until 2000.

2006 topps #350

joe nathan was acquired by the twins in one of the greatest trades in their history. they sent a.j. pierzynski to the giants for nathan, boof bonser, and francisco liriano. the trade opened up a position for joe mauer and also brought them a potential hall of fame closer in nathan. when this card was released, he was coming of back-to-back seasons of more than 40 saves, and he would go on to post 159 more saves in the next four seasons. had he not missed the 2010 season due to injury, he may have reached 400 saves for his career. as it is, he amassed 370, which is the 8th highest total all-time. his 43 saves in 2005 tied him with mariano rivera for the third highest total in the american league, behind francisco rodriguez and bob wickman. 

2016 topps #350

kris bryant was the reigning nl rookie of the year in 2015, and i've added that to the list of things i am tracking below. as good as his 2015 season was, his 2016 was better as he was voted the league's mvp and became a world champion as well. 

i am tracking a few things in an effort to find any consistency with number 350, although there really isn't any. still, i am keeping track of the following occurrences, now through two posts:

number of reigning rookies of the year: 1 (kris bryant)

number of reigning mvps: 0

number of reigning cy young winners: 0

number of reigning world series champions: 1 (keith hernandez)

number of reigning pennant winners: 4 (steve garvey, jack clark, keith hernandez, clayton kershaw)

number of reigning league leaders: 6 (mel stottlemyre - complete games; keith hernandez - walks; kenny lofton - sb; chase utley - runs; david ortiz - doubles, rbi; clayton kershaw - wins, era)

subset types: 1 (all-time all-stars)

number of repeat players: 0

number of dodgers: 2 (steve garvey, clayton kershaw)

frequency of teams: cardinals (3), dodgers (2), astros (2), braves (2), mets (2), white sox, giants, indians, phillies, red sox, yankees, a's, twins, cubs 

i will have another post with another run of cards soon - stay tuned!

from my dad's collection to mine

a long time ago, i gave my dad a 1966 topps jim lefebvre card for father's day. i was a relatively new collector, and i found the card in my local card and comic shop's box of 1966 cards. i had asked my dad who his favorite player had been, and he said lefebvre. knowing that the dodger infielder won the 1965 rookie of the year award, i figured i would look for a 1966 card. anyway, that gesture, combined with my passion for collecting, encouraged my dad to begin a collection of his own and started us on a path of opening packs and boxes together each spring, and heading to a few card shows (including a national convention) over the subsequent years.

a couple of years ago, he formally gifted me his collection. i am not ashamed to say that i broke it up and used some of the cards to further my 1965 topps set build and a couple of mini collections, and i sold and traded some of the cards as well. there are some cards, however, that i used to create a new mini collection - cards from my dad - that features three of the pitchers that he collected:

1. sandy koufax

those nine cards, spanning from 1958 through 1966 fit nicely on a single page. my dad pretty much drew the line at the 1957 topps set (he only had one or two cards from years prior), so i am pretty sure he never owned a 1955 koufax rookie or his 1956 second year card. he did have a 1957 card of koufax, but he gave that to me several years ago when i was still working on my 1957 topps dodger team set. i have since upgraded it for the team set with this one

and moved my dad's old koufax card in to my '57 complete set build.

the 1958 card looks like it had been on display in a card shop window before my dad rescued it for his collection. he helped me understand that condition doesn't need to be king if all you are doing is trying to have fun with a hobby.

2. don drysdale

that is a complete career run of big d's topps flagship solo cards, including the 1957 rookie. i heard lots of references growing up to koufax and drysdale from my dad. he saw each of them pitch in person, and to be honest i am not sure which of them he favored. 

3. nolan ryan

my dad saw ryan pitch in person as a met once, which i am jealous of. i had the chance to see him pitch against the angels in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but never took advantage. what's worse is that ryan was dominant in his two starts at the big a in 1989 that took place while i was doing something probably much less exciting about 20 miles away.  anyway, i really am fond of this collection. i have no idea what my dad paid for his 1968 ryan rookie, but i do remember looking at it with a sense of awe when he added it to his collection back in the early 80's.  the last box of cards i recall opening together was 1990 topps, and that was pretty much the end of his collecting days. so, after he handed these cards over, i mined my own defunct player collection of ryan and added the 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994 cards. i find it very serendipitous that the result is 27 cards that fit squarely in three pages, and i think it is fitting that the collection is a combination of our efforts.

i am really happy to have these cards and plan to keep them together like this in my collection. i also have a 1966 topps jim lefebvre card in my 'meaningful and just because' mini collection. just look what it spawned!

i haven't seen my dad in person for 20 months, but we have plans to meet up in july. i am definitely looking forward to it! happy father's day tomorrow to all for whom it holds meaning!

1960's represent!

sometime around the year 2000, i began putting together "sampler" sets of topps sets from 1952 through 1969. i had no intention of ever completing any of those sets, and i figured it would be a fun idea to pick up a card from each team and each subset for those older sets.

i finished the task in a few years (it was a low priority), but then decided to scrap the collection as i began putting together the 1965 and 1957 sets.  now, i've decided to put together a "representative card" mini collection that will make it easier for me to see a great card from each topps flagship set from 1952 on.

i'll show off the cards occasionally, along with a reason for choosing that particular card. i won't use a card that is in my dodger collection, or any other collection for that matter, so i should wind up with a good variety.  here are the cards that represent the 1960's in this mini collection:

1960 - whitey ford

this is the last of the horizontal cards in this collection, and it's a good one. i used to have an al kaline card from this set, but gave it up to the travelling box several years ago that suspiciously went missing shortly thereafter. anyway, i picked up the ford card for my sampler project in a lot of vintage cards. very inexpensive card of a yankee hall of famer!

1961 - tracy stallard

this was the very first 1961 topps card i ever owned. i bought it from my local card and comic store when i was 9 or 10. i had recently read about roger maris breaking babe ruth's record and was excited to own a card of the pitcher who was victimized for number 61. a guy standing next to me at the counter as i presented the card for purchase said "hey, tracy stallard. isn't he the guy who gave up home run number 61 to maris?". i was nervous that this information might cause the store owner to jack up the price as if he didn't already know who stallard was. i paid a quarter.

1962 - brooks robinson

i still need the 1957 topps brooks robinson rookie, so this is the oldest card i own of the human vacuum cleaner. it was also part of a vintage lot purchase in the early 2000's. brooks was a big deal to me as far as collecting was concerned, thanks to his 1971 topps world series highlight card and his 1978 topps record breaker card.

1963 - al kaline

it's not a 1960 card, but here's kaline nonetheless. i picked up this card at a card show in the twin cities from kurt's famous vintage bargain bin. the crease across kaline's forehead meant big savings for me. i first learned of kaline around 1979 when i was doing research on players who wore number 6, like steve garvey.

1964 - duke snider

there was a time when i decided to complete topps runs for notable dodger players such as don newcombe, gil hodges, and duke snider (you'll see another example shortly). when i disassembled my player collections around the time that i started the sampler sets, cards like this duke migrated to the samplers. i'm still waiting for topps to make a 1965 duke card, even though he'd be a giant on that one.

1965 - bert campaneris

speaking of 1965, here is the first card i owned from that set. spurred by my interest in the a's thanks to billy ball in 1982 and given my fandom of catfish hunter, i was on the lookout for a's cards back to 1965. the local card and comic shop had long boxes of singles from old sets, and this campy was the first one i chose from the 1965 box. the kc cap and huge rookie "cup" trophy made it an obvious choice.

1966 - ted davidson

this was another card picked up for the sampler set, but it was done so with purpose. davidson was from my neck of the woods, and i even went to school and played little league with his son. however, i had no idea that his dad had pitched in the big leagues until another friend told me a year or so later. ted had even thrown batting practice to the little league all-star team one year - but it was (unfortunately for me) the year before i made the squad.

1967 - maury wills

here's another card from my efforts to complete topps runs of certain dodger players. this card also happens to be the first named topps maury wills card (his 1960 card is a world series highlight focused more on luis aparicio), and it's a high number to boot. 

1968 - tom seaver

this card was the crown jewel of my 1968 topps sampler set, although i obtained it in the mid-1990's. a few years before the internet and ebay, i traded my star wars figures and vehicles for baseball cards. a coworker of mine was a mets fan who had collected cards, but was turning his attention to toys. my brother and i had a serious cache of star wars figures, vehicles, and play sets from the original trilogy that were just sitting in a closet at my parents' house. i made my coworker throw in a 1989 upper deck ken griffey jr card in addition to his mets cards (which also included a 1971 topps nolan ryan card). i had no regrets, although i probably should have some now.

1969 - aurelio rodriguez

to be honest, i am not sure when i acquired this card - whether it was during my sampler days or before. i know i wanted to own it as a kid when error cards were all the rage and this one was touted as a prime example, even though it was an uncorrected error. when the gary pettis card came out in 1985, this rodriguez card was once again in the spotlight as they both featured people other than the supposed player, but not a different player. in this case, that's a bat boy on the card, while the pettis card featured gary's younger brother. it was a tough call between this card and the reverse negative larry haney card as far as representing 1969 was concerned, but in the end, the angel won over the pilot.

which cards would represent the 1960's in your collection?

up next, the 1970's represent! stay tuned...

i no longer have to choose

back in 1980, my dad took me to a card show in los angeles. it turned out to be the first national sports collectors convention, not that we knew that at the time.  i had with me my duplicates from 1978 and 1979 topps, complete with eddie murray and bob horner rookies. i was looking to sell them, because who needed doubles? i had completed the sets, along with dodger team sets and that was all i thought i needed.

i found a couple of guys who i believe offered me $10. my dad had no idea what the value should have been, nor did i, really. i just knew that i was able to offload some cards i didn't need for some cash.  my dad suggested i buy a binder and some pages to house my burgeoning dodger team set collection, and i agreed.  after that, i had a few bucks left over and i stumbled upon the very first vintage bargain bin i ever saw.

there were two cards that i was enamored with, but could only afford one. in the end, i went with a weathered 1971 topps reggie jackson card

i was entering a phase of a's fandom, and reggie was a recent back-to-back world series champion (much to my disappointment), so it made sense at the time.  the other card i was contemplating adding to my collection was a 1966 topps willie mays card.

my dad had seen mays play in person a few times, and i was learning quite a bit about the say hey kid.  over the years, i've thought about that card i passed on, and finally decided late last year to go and get one.

obviously i went for a cheap version with lots of wear. it's still a great card, and one that i am happy to finally have join that reggie in my 'cards of significance' collection!

pennant!

it's been 29 years.

29 years ago, that pennant begat a championship.

29 years before that, a dodger pennant begat a championship - their first in la.

i sense a pattern.

very happy right now.