blue is a fall color this year

game 1 of the 2025 world series kicks off shortly after this post posts, but i won't be able to watch it due to a conflicting engagement. i am hoping it is as thrilling as last year's game 1 turned out to be. here are some related cards to the event, including a 2025 panini prizm trey yesavage card

his meteoric rise to the majors and the postseason is one of the more intriguing stories going in, and getting the game 1 start adds to the incredible season he has had. i found this card in a nickel box at the local card shop - twin cities cards, to be exact. i would expect his cards to be well sought after in 2026 releases.

there is maybe just one person as hot as vladimir guerrero jr going into the series. here's a 2021 topps update all-star game insert of vladito

that i found in a quarter box at a mall show recently. for the record, i was happy for guerrero and the blue jays but would have been happy for the mariners, too, had they won game 7. i didn't really care for george springer being the hero given his connection to the astros and their cheating during the 2017 season and world series, however i am looking forward to this matchup.

this card

arrived in my mailbox too late to show as a lead-in to the nlcs this year, but i can show it now. this is from 2025 topps dynamic duals which is in its third year (i think) as an online only release. jackson chourio had a better series than andy pages, but pages caught the last out so he has that going for him.

there aren't too many cards that i could think of off-hand that match a dodger up with a blue jay, but the one that immediately came to mind was the 1993 topps card featuring mike piazza and carlos delgado

that was a hot commodity back then for sure.

as far as players go, i immediately think of ron fairly (pre-scanned dodger card not readily available as i type this post so i defaulted to o-pee-chee (oh my!)), 

raul mondesi,

and shawn green

as players who have played for both the dodgers and blue jays, but i know there are several others like bob bailor, al oliver, russell martin and rickey henderson to name a few. i also think of roy hartsfield,

who was a dodger farmhand in the 50's and a dodger coach before ultimately going on to manage the jays.

i don't do an annual post of my favorite team rankings like night owl does, but if i did, the blue jays would be in position 2 or 3 on an annual basis. i will probably explain why in a future post, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in my near-term future if the blue jays were crowned world champs. with that said, let's go dodgers!

bringing early pulls back to the forefront

i have about 15 monster boxes filled with cards that don't necessarily fit in my collection. one of those boxes contains my o-pee-chee cards that aren't bindered or boxed as sets. i have my dodger o-pee-chee cards in my dodger binders, and i have a binder that contains all of the variations that i showed over at oh my o-pee-chee! a few years back. i also have my 1977 and 1978 o-pee-chee complete sets in a binder.

the monster box includes non-variation cards as well as duplicates of variation cards and duplicates of cards from my completed sets. i was digging through this box a few months ago and decided to pull this card out

that's reggie jackson's 1978 o-pee-chee card, which is more easily identified by looking at the back:

i decided to extricate this card from the box so that i could add it to my "meaningful and just because' collection due to the fact that this was one of the cards that i pulled from a pack back in the summer of 1978 while visiting family in southern saskatchewan. it's seen a few things and has been shuttled around from boxes to binder to boxes since it was pulled from a pack, but now it's in its final resting place - until i go to my final resting place.

another box contains some of my vintage cards that exist outside of my primary collection. having completed all of the topps sets from 1970 through 2009, along with 1957 and 1965, most of these cards are duplicates. i took from that box this 1978 topps steve garvey card

which was also a pack pull from 1978. this card was in my dodger collection for a long time until i upgraded sometime after the advent of ebay. in fact, i still have a bunch of my pack pulled cards from 1978 in one of my complete sets (i completed an upgraded set without dismantling the one i put together back in real time). 

these two cards join my 1977 topps bill travers card (pulled from the very first pack of baseball cards i ever opened) and my 1978 o-pee-chee ron cey card (also pulled from a pack in 1978) in my "meaningful and just because" collection. the cey card has a pinhole from where i pinned it to my wall upon returning home from the great white north that summer, and has also been signed by the penguin himself.

i already had a 1978 topps garvey card in that collection, in much nicer condition, but i don't mind having another - especially with the lineage. now if only i still had the cards from my first pack of basketball cards, which included a kareem and a darryl dawkins rookie.

award show

as i eagerly await the arrival of my box of 2022 topps update to see what, if any, cards feature images from this past summer's all-star game at dodger stadium, i'll use this time to show off some cards related to a couple of mid-summer classics.

first, there is no burying the lede here - i puchased a 5-pack of 2022 topps now turn back the clock card of steve garvey directly from topps, and was once again rewarded with a low-numbered parallel:

the white ash parallel is numbered to 3, and is a great addition to my collection. this card celebrates the garv as the 1974 all-star game mvp and features him with his hardware in three rivers stadium.

there is more hardware handed out during the all-star game festivities these days, including the home run derby champion dual bat trophy. this year, juan soto won the contest, and i bought a single of this card through a third party

there's not a lot of dodger stadium visible behind him, but we get a couple of palm trees plus the upgraded "diamondvision" - is it still called "diamondvision"? - scoreboard.

as for the actual game, giancarlo stanton took home the mvp honors, and he got a card, too

this one features a photo with the right field corner in the background. a while back, the style of award has changed to a bat instead of a trophy. now, i was really hoping for a wider shot, because the guy who presented the award to stanton was none other than steve garvey. oh well, the tbtc card certainly makes up for that.

speaking of which, here is the base version of the card

and the back:

this may be the first time i have ever seen something reference garvey's performance in the 1974 all-star game without mentioning the fact that he was a write-in starter.

here's the full picture topps used, which included commissioner bowie kuhn and some nice old-man sideburns

four years later, kuhn and garvey would reunite (along with bob uecker)

as the garv picked up his second all-star game mvp.

with five of the card in my possession, i put one in the dodger collection, one in the garvey collection (along with the parallel), and i decided to send one to garvey to sign. i used pastpros for the first time, and it worked pretty well. i am assuming athletes are more apt to return cards that were sent using this service, but i don't know for sure. anyway, the card came back and looks great

i also asked him to sign a 1978 o-pee-chee card for me, and he did

at one time i had thought about making custom cards featuring dodger award winners and their trophies, but decided not to since there aren't images for all of them. thanks to topps, i at least have one garvey award card!

i hope you had a gem mint canada day!

it's not quite a '10', but this 1978 o-pee-chee steve garvey card

is still gem-mint according to the powers that be at beckett, for whatever that is worth.

i don't have too many graded garvey cards in my collection, but i do have a psa 10 1978 topps card, and was looking for a similar version of the canadian issue.  this'll do.

here's the back:

i sure don't recall o-pee-chee cards looking this nice when i was pulling them from packs in southern saskatchewan during the summer of 1978.  i was disappointed back then, and still am today, that they did not translate "swung for the fences" into french.  well, i hope you "balancé pour les clôtures" on this canada day!

here's another way i can link don baylor and steve garvey in my collection

i've mentioned before that don baylor was my first favorite non-dodger player. it was natural for me to pay attention to the angels as i lived in their broadcast area as well as that of the dodgers. the angels were on ktla with dick enberg and don drysdale (and later ron fairly and bob starr after enberg left), and the dodgers were on kttv with vin scully, jerry doggett, and ross porter. we were still a dodger household, but i followed the angels, too, especially as the 1979 season got underway.

i've also mentioned before that the 1979 all-star game was a seminal event in my early fandom. this was largely due to dave parker's cannon in right nailing jim rice at third base (tag applied by ron cey!) and brian downing at home plate (tag applied by gary carter), but also due to the fact that both baylor and garvey were in the starting lineups.

here's a card that features both garvey and baylor that i recently acquired 

that's a 2021 leaf lumber midsummer classic card. it's the bronze parallel of the card representing the 1979 all-star game, in fact, and it's number 6/20 which is cool, i guess, because that's garvey's jersey number.

i also bought the emerald parallel version

because i got confused. there are four of these cards that garvey is featured on - 1974, 1976, 1979, and 1984, and i lost track of which ones i had already acquired.  oh well, i'm happy to have them both in my garvey collection.

all eight of the players featured on the card along with garvey and baylor - davey lopes, jim rice, dave parker, fred lynn, mike schmidt, frank white - were in the starting lineups for the game played in seattle. baylor wasn't voted in as a starter, but replaced fellow angel rod carew, who was injured. to further clarify, carl yastrzemski had been voted in as a starter, and he moved to carew's first base position so that baylor could slot in in the outfield.

here are the cards i have representing don baylor in my favorite non-dodger collection:

1978: o-pee-chee

1979: topps

baylor was injured early on in the 1980 season and missed about six weeks as a result. my attention turned to pete rose as far as my favorite non-dodger player was concerned. at least until steve garvey became a non-dodger, that is. before we get there, here are the garvey cards that are in my mini-collection of my favorite dodgers through the years:

1978: o-pee-chee

1979: topps

1980: topps

1981: kellogg's

1982: donruss (diamond kings)

here's where garvey moves to my favorite non-dodger collection, and the first card helps to ease the transition

1983: o-pee-chee

1984: fleer (superstar special)

1985: topps

1986: topps glossy send-in

1987: donruss opening day

the sobering thing about these collections is that i realize that garvey was my favorite dodger for the same number of seasons (5) as he was my favorite non-dodger. sure, his 1987 season (and his career) ended early due to injury, but i still count him as my favorite that year.

i still followed baylor, and rooted for him in 1982 when he helped the angels get back to the alcs. he did all he could to help them beat the brewers, but it wasn't meant to be. then, in 1986, i was happy for him to be a part of the red sox pennant winning team even though i was rooting for the angels in that series, too. i was glad he won a ring with the twins in 1987, because his last trip to the world series came in 1988 with the a's and there was no way i was going to be pleased with baylor winning that series, even if he had been my favorite non-dodger at one time.

190 or 350 or just call it good?

in thinking about what's next for my collection, i was toying with the idea of another mini-collection. this one was borne out of my old sampler sets that i've whittled down to just one representative card for each topps flagship set.  as i was selecting those cards and writing about them, i thought about collecting the same number from each year's flagship checklist. i recognize that this is not a new idea - there is perhaps most notably the number 5 type collection, and angels in order collects (collected?) card number 444 from any and all sets. i am sure there are other examples.

at any rate, i had three ideas as to how i would approach this. the first was card number 272. 272 is the number of career home runs hit by steve garvey. i dismissed that pretty quickly as i figured it would net me a bunch of commons which wouldn't be that interesting to see grouped together, even though it would allow me to include sets dating back to 1952 (other than 1954 and 1955) without getting in to the high number set.

the next idea was card number 350. i chose this number because garvey's 1978 topps card is number 350

in that set.  this is a hero number, and would mean that i would be looking for a couple of mickey mantle cards, plus roberto clemente and other big name players along with some stars of their day, and some other variety with a playoff recap card or two from the early 2000's. this approach would mean that the collection would start with the 1957 set.

the third idea was card number 190. this is garvey's card number in the 1978 o-pee-chee set, 

and would mean that i would have a different card (specifically john candelaria's) representing the 1978 topps set in this collection. this is a semi-star number, although there would still be a willie mays card to track down, and there would be a little variety with a 1975 topps mvp card. plus, all flagship sets would be represented. the down side is that there would be some commons thrown in as well.

i suppose the fourth option would be to discard the idea and not bother with another mini-collection.

i am curious if anyone has considered such a collection recently or in the past? i guess i am also curious as to which of the three options - 190, 350, or just call it good - that you would choose if you were in my shoes. i already know what i am going to do, but i am interested in hearing your opinions!

thanks for the ttm-ories

on some past thanksgivings, i gave thanks for successful through the mail autograph requests, and i decided to do the same today. i'll start by showcasing the very first ttm request i ever made.

that's a 1982 donruss san diego chicken card that 11-year old gcrl sent off to be signed back in 1982. when i saw it a year or two ago, i was confused. i had found this card in my complete set that had been boxed up since '82 and didn't recall how it might have been signed. i think it was gavin who reminded me that there was information on the back about getting the card signed, and he was right.

once i re-read the back, i did recall taking advantage of this opportunity.

most of my ttm requests over the last 12 years or so have focused on dodgers and the 1978 topps set. i was pretty active with these requests from 2009-2013 or so, and i had sent out only a couple of requests in 2020 until mid august when i sent one to jim kaat and then realized that i was close to 400 different signed cards from the 1978 topps set. i decided to make some more requests and purchase a few signed cards to get me past that threshhold.

many players still sign for free through the mail, and i was able to obtain autographs from some of them that were new to me, including junior moore

rogelio moret

tim nordbrook

mike willis

randy elliott

ron hodges

jim norris

tom poquette

gary ross

balor moore

bob apodaca

rob sperring

al fitzmorris

brent strom

wilbur howard

terry humphrey

mike barlow

dave rosello

and rod gilbreath

who also signed a 1974 topps card for me

in addition to those players above who sign for free, there are quite a few who request a donation. some have taken to signing through past pros, but i didn't go that route. instead, i sent donations and requests directly to these players - all were within the $2-$5 range.

dennis leonard signed his base card

and the league leader card

i have another copy of that card signed by dave goltz. for the record, i don't count both cards (or any multiple versions of cards) towards my total.

others to whom i donated were reggie cleveland

jim dwyer

john scott

john mayberry

whitey herzog

steve braun

who also included a note

and roy white

i've no plans to try to get carlton fisk to sign the card, however.

that roy white card is one of the best in the set, but there were some other cards that i wanted to add to my signed partial set, and the only way to do so was to purchase them from a dealer. one such card thusly acquired was doug ault's.

my favorite non-dodger card of 1978.

i added a few more cards from that same seller - the late jim bibby

jack clark

somewhere i have a picture of me and clark - pre-1985, of course.

larry dierker

dierker signs ttm with a fee, but it was cheaper to buy this version.

george foster

this matches well with the rbi leaders card that i have signed by foster and this one

that i added very recently

rick monday

i have a signed mo card in my autographed dodger team set that was acquired through a 50/50 trade, but wanted another one for this effort.

jeff burroughs

ken clay

tom griffin

larry milbourne

same deal on clay, griffin, and milbourne as the dierker above.

mike ivie

this is one of the cards in the set that is most burned in my brain. it seemed to me that ivie was upset about having his photo taken.

john montefusco

the count was a big part of my burgeoning fandom thanks to his status as one of the giants' best pitchers and the fact that they played the dodgers so many times.

bill north

north was a dodger by the time we found this card in packs.

larry hisle

this one was a card that i really wanted to have in my collection. hisle didn't get an o-pee-chee card in 1978 aside from the rbi leader card that showed him as a twin. i was a bit confused as a seven year old opening packs back then as to how he could be a twin and a brewer in the same set. later, i was confused as to why o-pee-chee didn't add the "now with twins" text to the league leader card.

billy hunter

nice to get another manager card for the set.

and finally, money well spent to add this card to the project - greg minton.

it's not funny, it's art.

as of today, my partial set stands at 411 different cards signed, with maybe a dozen or so duplicate cards signed by different players (league leaders, rookies, team checklists, checklists).  

the last card i will show is this 1978 o-pee-chee ron cey card

one of the first ttm requests i made when i began sending them out in earnest was of the penguin. i sent him my collection's original 1978 opc card - the one that i had pinned up to my wall in my bedroom after returning home from saskatchewan in the late summer of 1978 and one of the first cards i scanned for my first blog. i have since moved that card to my 'meaningful and just because cards' mini collection, and i wanted to replace it among the few other '78 opc cards i have signed.  it turns out that cey had just recently stopped signing for free through the mail, but he had been so generous over the years that i was ok paying the $15 fee this time.

thanks to cey and to all the players who sign ttm! and, of course, i have so much more to be thankful for - family, friends, health, and work to name a few.

happy thanksgiving!