how about a blog bat around challenge? the subject: cards that i (you) used to own

i have been buying packs (and sometimes boxes) of baseball cards since 1978.  some years, i bought more than others, but it's been a constant thing in my life since i was handed my first pack in 1977.  throughout that time, i've traded some cards away, and sold others, to further my collection.  there is one card, however, that i regret having dismissed from my hands, and that is the subject of this post. the card that i used to own that i wish i still did.

the very first card i felt remorse over trading was a 1978 topps steve garvey.  i had a double, but i was planning to start my dodger team set collection.  however, i needed a mickey rivers card for the full set, and my neighbor offered to give me rivers for garvey.  i made the deal, and my regret didn't last too long as i was able to get another garvey card fairly easily not too long thereafter.  before i get too far along, i'll show some cards that i used to own that i am ok with having sold or traded.

first up is this 2003 upper deck legendary cuts bill dickey cut auto numbered 09/25

i bought a box of legendary cuts that year for $60 and found this card in one of the packs.  i have no regrets about putting this up on ebay and taking the $200-ish that it commanded. still, i kept a photo of it for posterity.

similarly, i pulled this 1/1 mickey mantle magenta printing plate from a box of 2006 topps chrome

and sold it on ebay.  no regrets.

i've owned some non-gimmick cards that were pretty cool, but for one reason or another didn't fit into my collection.  like this 1909-1911 t206 jack egan card

and this 1951 topps luke easter card

both are nice and were cool to have, but likely fit better in the collections of some random ohioans.

there have been some other, even less spectacular cards that i've traded away yet felt the need to scan first and show here now, like this 1960 topps mound magicians card

this 2011 topps josh hamilton commemorative patch card

this 2012 topps carl yastrzemski facsimile auto stitch card

2011 topps diamond dig contest kelly johnson diamond die-cut black #/60

why did that have to be a d-back instead of a dodger?  obviously, i had no problem ejecting that card from my collection.

but now we come to the card that i do regret letting go of.  almost.  first, another story.  back in 2000, a friend and i split a box of upper deck legends.  one of my packs contained a mickey mantle jersey card with a pinstripe.  i shortly thereafter put it on ebay with a pretty high reserve, and while it was sitting there, my friend questioned why i would want to sell that card - "isn't that why you collect?", he asked. "to have a card like that?"  he was right, of course, and i was secretly happy that the card did not reach the reserve (it came within $15, as i recall).  i still have that mantle card, plus a couple of ruth bat cards that i've pulled from tribute packs, and several other non-dodger, non-double play, non-any of my mini collections that are just cool cards to own.

now, seriously, on to the whole point of this post.  i used to own this card:

well, not exactly that card, but another of the only 30 versions of the 2001 topps tribute walter alston patch cards that exist.  i could not find a photo of the card (i know i took one), but it featured a portion of the 100th anniversary of the national league patch worn by teams in 1976 (and visible on the 1977 topps manny mota card), which means that the uniform it was taken from was worn by smokey in his final season as the dodgers' manager.

i found the card in a local card/comic store.  it was on the 'markdown' wall, and was listed on sale for $49.99.  that was about the cost of a pack of 2001 topps tribute, if i recall correctly, and i knew that it was worth more than that.  now, i was not fully entrenched in collecting at this time (i bought cards more so out of habit and tradition), and really hadn't thought about what my collection was beyond maintaining my yearly dodger team sets from the topps flagship and traded sets, as well as my run of complete sets of those releases (a habit i abandoned a few years ago).  so, i bought the card with the full intent to sell it for a profit.  let me repeat that.  i, a dodger fan and collector of dodger cards, bought a 2001 topps tribute walter alston patch card with the intent to sell it.  and i did.  i made about $160, which was great, but future gcrl would become very disappointed in that past gcrl.

so disappointed, in fact, that i have kept my eye out for another version (or the same one) ever since.  i did find one on ebay (hence the picture of the card above), but it was already gone by the time i saw it.  my card sold to someone in alabama or arkansas - i do not remember which - so folks down that way, please keep an eye out.

in the meantime, i have added a different dodger manager's 2001 topps tribute patch card to my collection

that's alston's successor, tom lasorda, and his card features the red number patch that i enjoy so much.  i also own another patch from this set, one i pulled from a pack from a box i purchased in 2004 or so.

it's been about 11 years, and it may not neatly fit in my collection, but i'm not sure that i'm ready to part with eddie mathews yet.

so, what do you say?  what cards have you owned that you regret are no longer in your collection?  i'd like to read about it - either in the comments or as a bat around - because i feel your pain.

los angeles dodger managerial autographs managed

the los angeles dodgers have had only 9 managers in their 58-year history. compare that to the marlins, who have employed 13 managers (including two interim guys with just one game apiece) in their 23 years of existence.  all but one of the la dodger managers are still with us, and so obtaining autographs from each is not too difficult.

i've finally found the final piece to this collection, and so i will now display a complete set of la dodger manager autographed dodger cards.

1968 topps team (walt alston)

smokey passed away in 1984, so this card is obviously one that i purchased.  he first started managing the dodgers in 1954, and he won a total of 7 pennants and 4 world series, with 5 of those pennants and 3 of the world series titles coming in los angeles.  alston was at the helm for 2040 dodger wins - most all-time - and is enshrined in the hall of fame.  he gave way at the end of the 1976 season to tommy lasorda.

1978 topps tom lasorda

tommy signed this card for me through the mail, which was fantastic.  from the last four games of the 1976 season until his heart attack during the 1996 season, lasorda's dodgers won 1599 games, 4 pennants, and two world series titles, and lasorda himself was twice named the national league manager of the year.  he is second behind alston on the franchise's all-time managerial wins list, and he, too, is in the baseball hall of fame.  following the aforementioned heart attack in 1996, lasorda retired and bill russell took over.

1987 topps bill russell

like lasorda, russell signed this card (a final tribute) through the mail.  there is one card of him as a manager, and it comes from the 1997 mother's dodgers set.  i will try to get that one signed, but i don't believe ropes is signing through the mail anymore.  anyway, russell took over for lasorda in 1996 and led the team to a wild card berth. they were swept in the nlds, and were out of the playoff picture the following year which was russell's only full season at the helm of the club.  after 74 games in 1998, russell was fired by the fox regime about a month after the mike piazza trade.  it was the first time since leo durocher was relieved of his duties in 1948 that a dodger manager was fired during the season.  russell's 173 wins as the dodger skipper puts him 17th on the franchise list, and his winning percentage of .537 is good enough for 9th all-time (7th if we ignore interim managers clyde sukeforth and ray blades who won all three games they managed).  russell was replaced by glenn hoffman

1988 topps glenn hoffman

hoffman is (currently) the last of the former dodger players to manage the club.  he signed his 1988 topps card for me through the mail, and i may try to get him to sign a 1998 mother's dodgers card as well - it's the only one of him as a big league manager.  hoffman's dodgers finished out the 1998 season with 47 wins in 88 games, and those wins are the 25th most (out of 31) among the franchise's managers.  his .534 winning percentage puts him at 11th (or 9th), just a tick ahead of joe torre.  after the 1998 season, the fox boys were looking for a name, and they hired davey johnson to be the dodger manager.

2001 topps davey johnson

once again, the dodger manager in question signed a card for me through the mail.  johnson's debut as the dodger manager was a game for the ages.  on opening day, raul mondesi hit a 3-0 pitch into the stands for a game-tying three-run homer with two outs in the 9th, and then hit a two-run homer to walk-off the diamondbacks in the bottom of the 11th.  good times.  johnson wound up managing the team for two years, and the dodgers were 163-161 during his tenure (163 wins puts johnson 19th among the franchise's managers).  in 2000, they finished well behind the giants for second place in the nl west, and were 8 behind the mets for the wild card, and so johnson was fired after the season ended.  jim tracy was hired to take over.

2002 topps jim tracy

this is another through the mail autograph success, by the way.  tracy managed to manage the dodgers for five seasons, with the team winning 93 games and the nl west in 2004. although they lost to the cardinals in the nlds that year, they did win their first postseason game since 1988 (thanks to lima time!).  overall, tracy's dodgers were 427-384, and if it weren't for an awful 2005 season (you'll not be able to convince me that tracy wasn't trying to get fired that year - the second worst season for any la dodger team), his winning percentage would have been better. tracy ranks 6th all-time in wins for the franchise, behind five hall of famers, but he will probably be passed by don mattingly later this season.  the dodgers hired grady little to replace tracy following the 2005 season.

2007 topps grady little

i had to purchase this signed card.  

*update* little returned my ttm request after a fair amount of time with both his 2007 topps card 

and 2006 upper deck card 

signed.  very happy to have this success! *end update*

little's 170 wins in his two seasons as the team's manager puts him right between bill russell and davey johnson on the franchise's all-time list.  the dodgers won the wild card in 2006, but were swept in the nlds, and then finished 3rd in 2007.  little resigned as the team's manager after the 2007 season as it seemed apparent that frank mccourt wanted to hire joe torre to take over.

2009 topps joe torre

hall of fame manager torre, who signed this card through the mail, came aboard and led the club to two straight nl west titles and national league championship series berths.  the team faltered in 2010, however, and torre retired after that season. his 259 wins are 12th best among the franchise's managers, and his winning percentage is sandwiched by hoffman's and little's on the leader board. torre's bench coach, don mattingly, was picked to be his successor.

2014 topps heritage don mattingly

this card was the final card i needed for this post.  i had previously received a couple of signed mattingly cards through the mail with some help from reader cory, but i wanted a card of mattingly in dodger gear signed as well.  turns out i had to buy one.  mattingly is the current dodger skipper, and he has the team in first place this year, his fifth at the helm.  the team has won the nl west and made the postseason each of the last two years under mattingly, and they made it to the nlcs in 2013.  mattingly currently ranks 7th in managerial wins and tenure for the franchise, but should pass jim tracy in both of those categories by game 2 of the 2016 season.  after that, he's looking up at five hall of famers - alston, lasorda, wilbert robinson, durocher, and ned hanlon.  that's not bad managerial company.

a dodger black armband for a teammate's wife and some cards that should have been

ken mcmullen, a dodger double dipper and third baseman, lost his 30-year old wife bobbie to breast cancer in april of 1974, just five months after she had given birth to their third child.  he laid his wife to rest on april 8 while most of his teammates (i believe don sutton attended the funeral) were in atlanta to take on the braves.  that night, the dodgers wore a black armband on their left sleeves in honor of mcmullen's wife.  that also happened to be the night that hank aaron hit career home run number 715 to break babe ruth's career home run record.  here's the 1994 topps card that celebrates the 20th anniversary of hammerin' hank's historic home run.

this card represents the mcmullen memorial in my collection because the black armband is visible on al downing's left arm in the background photo.  joe ferguson, the catcher, is wearing the armband, too, but it is obscured by the home plate umpire, satch davidson.

it's too bad that topps didn't find a way to incorporate photos from the game into the 1975 set.  while i appreciate the 1994 card, i decided to try my hand at making some cards that should have been.

here's the card that topps did include in the set - at number 1, in fact.

now here's my take on it

this card gives us the black armbands on both ferguson and dodger shortstop bill russell.  here's another version using a color photo

now we see the armband on downing again, along with one of the guys who chased aaron around the bases.

speaking of downing, even though he allowed the home run (which tied the game), there's no shame in being linked to that kind of history. so, why not use a photo from that night on his card in the set?

and look - there's steve garvey lurking in the background!

i like this card better than his actual card from the set

even though it does feature dodger stadium in the background.

downing walked the next two batters after allowing the home run to aaron, and was removed from the game by manager walt alston.  here's a card showing downing on his way back to the dugout with alston having just handed the ball over to mike marshall

here's the full mound scene, with marshall and garvey, and davidson, i believe.

mcmullen returned to the dodgers and resumed his pinch-hitter role later that week, which must have been difficult even though it seems to be what she would have wanted based on this article from the associated press.  as for the dodgers, they have not worn black armbands since this particular memorial.  fortunately, lots of evidence of the memorial worn for ken mcmullen's wife exists, just not much on cardboard.

[edit - topps included this fantastic card

in 2023 topps heritage, and with the armband being way more visible on davey lopes' sleeve than what the 1994 topps card affords, i've put the new card in my memorials binder]

a 52 card pick up, 13 at a time

not too long ago, i showed off some new to me steve garvey cards.  one of those came from a deck of playing cards - the dodgers' version of the 2005 baseball hero deck.  i later went out and bought the whole deck of cards, and figured they were worth showing off.

i noted in the title that it was a 52 card pick up, but actually, there are 55 cards in the set.  three 'jokers' are included - long time managers walter alston and tommy lasorda, along with even longer-time broadcaster, vin scully.

each suit is broken up into specific teams/eras of the franchise, with the clubs focusing on the brooklyn years - and primarily the 'boys of summer' years of the late 1940's and early 1950's.  let's see what we have in this suit.  aces are low in this deck, as the card values mirror the fielding positions...

don newcombe as the ace of the staff, plus roy campanella behind the plate. gil hodges, jackie robinson, billy cox, and pee wee reese make up the infield, with hall of famers zack wheat and duke snider sharing the outfield with rightfielder carl furillo.  the high cards have dazzy vance, clem labine, and carl erskine in the bullpen, plus jake daubert coming off the bench.

most of these cards represent the latter years of the brooklyn franchise, with the outliers being zack wheat, dazzy vance, and jake daubert. it's nice to see them getting some attention though.

this is daubert's first appearance on the blog, so i'll go ahead and note that he was the first franchise player to win the mvp award (1913), and the second to win a batting title (also 1913) after dan brouthers was the first in 1893.  daubert followed up that season by winning the batting title again in 1914.

sunday morning target dodgers - a few players short of a full sheet

today's post features cards from two different sheets issued as part of the 1990 target dodgers 100-year anniversary giveaway.  when i first started showing cards from this set, i wasn't doing it sheet-by-sheet. instead, i posted groups of cards with no care taken from a set organizational standpoint.  my current self regrets that very much.  so, i'm going to finish off the sheets that have, to date, only been partially shown.  here are the remnants of the first one.

boog powell

yes, i've shown this card before - in the evolution series (the 'out of place guy' post).  it's worth showing again in a proper target dodgers post.  powell was used almost exclusively as a pinch-hitter during his lone season with the dodgers (1977).  he had 10 hits (all singles) in 41 at bats, but his obp was .415 thanks to 12 walks.  powell was released on august 31, 1977 and so didn't get to experience the postseason as a member of the dodgers.  that's ok - he was there plenty with the orioles, including 1966 when the o's swept the dodgers in the world series.

now on to the players from this sheet that haven't made it to the blog before.

randy moore

moore spent the 1936 and part of the 1937 seasons with the dodgers, hitting .218 in a total of 55 games during his tenure.  you'll note that he is in a catcher's crouch on the card, although his position is given as an outfielder.  well, in his 8 big league seasons prior to joining the dodgers, and his first season with the dodgers, moore was used primarily (almost exclusively, really) as an outfielder.  however, the dodgers gave up hall of famer al lopez (a catcher in his playing days) in the trade that brought moore to brooklyn, so, despite him having played catcher in the big leagues only once before joining them, the dodgers used him primarily as a backstop in 1937.

john o'brien

o'brien was a native of new brunswick who played for the brooklyn grooms in 1891.  he was a second baseman who appeared in 43 games that season, and hit .246.  he would later be part of the 1899 trade between louisville and pittsburgh that sent honus wagner to the pirates.

john russell

this is one of the odder cards in the set.  it is an egregious case of mistaken identity.  the card shows former big league catcher john russell, who played for the phillies, rangers, and braves, and most recently managed the pirates a few seasons back.  the john russell who pitched for the dodger franchise did so in the 1917 and 1918 seasons as a member of the robins.  he was 0-1 in 6 games for brooklyn, and later pitched for the white sox in 1921 and 1922.

ray searage

searage signed with the dodgers in april of 1988, but he unfortunately spent the entire championship season at albuquerque.  he did spend most of 1989 and 1990 with the big club, however, pitching effectively out of the bullpen.  he was 4-4 as a dodger and i believe he is currently the pitching coach for the pirates, a job he started while john russell (the guy pictured on the above card, not the actual brooklyn pitcher) was the team's manager.

bill swift

swift pitched for the dodgers in 1941, after spending 8 seasons in pittsburgh and another in boston with the bees.  he appeared in 9 games for brooklyn, posting a 3-0 record with a save and an era of 3.27.

tim thompson

thompson was a good hitting minor league player who didn't make his big league debut until he was 30 when he appeared for the dodgers in 10 games early in the 1954 season.  he hit .154 with one double and an rbi in 14 plate appearances in those games, and didn't return to the majors until 1956 when he was with the kansas city a's.  thompson is known as the first national league catcher to wear glasses.

that's is for the first sheet.  the other players from this sheet are john wetteland and eddie stanky (featured here); pop corkhill and tex carleton and pop dillon (featured here); tom baker and william brennan (featured here); and glenn wright (featured here).

here are some cards from another sheet.  same story - for some reason a few players on the sheet haven't been addressed until now.

jim bunning's 1990 target card was previously shown in the same evolutionary post as boog's, but here it is again

bunning spent the latter part of the 1969 season with the dodgers, making 9 starts and posting a record of 3-1 with a 3.36 era.  the dodgers had beaten bunning twice earlier in the season while he was with the pirates, but traded for him anyway.  they released him following the season, and he was picked up by one of his former teams, the phillies.

walter alston

alston managed the dodgers for just shy of 23 seasons (he retired with two games to go in 1976 to give tommy lasorda a chance to get his feet wet as the team's manager).  in that span, the dodgers won 2040 games, seven national league pennants, and four world championships.  alston was elected to the hall of fame in 1983, and his number 24 was subsequently retired by the team.

don lejohn

if you were to only play in the major leagues for one season, you couldn't do much better than don lejohn did, as far as timing goes.  called up to the dodgers in late june of 1965, lejohn played a fair amount of third base for the club down the stretch as they held off the giants for the national league pennant.  lejohn began his big league career that season with a 5-game hitting streak, and finished it with a pinch-hit strikeout in game one of the 1965 world series.  the dodgers, of course, won the series, and so lejohn earned a ring in his only big league campaign.

jose pena

the dodgers selected pena in the 1969 rule v draft from the reds, and he was a part of their bullpen for the next two-plus seasons.  he posted a record of 6-3 with 5 saves in 55 games during his dodger tenure, and continued to pitch in the mexican league through 1984 with great success.  in fact, pena is a member of the mexican baseball hall of fame.

schoolboy rowe

rowe had won 105 games and pitched in three world series in 10 seasons with the tigers when the dodgers purchased his contract in 1942.  he pitched in 9 games for brooklyn that year, starting two, and finishing with a 1-0 record.  the phillies purchased his contract prior to the 1943 season, and so ended rowe's brooklyn tenure.  rowe was also a decent hitter, with a .263 lifetime average and 18 home runs to his credit.

rube walker

walker joined the dodgers in 1951 after three-plus seasons with the cubs.  he was roy campanella's backup from then through the 1957 season, and then backed up john roseboro for part of the 1958 campaign in los angeles.  he never played in more than 60 games in a season for the dodgers, and his cumulative batting average for the club was .214.  a few years after the end of his playing days, walker's teammate gil hodges added him to his coaching staff with the senators and later the mets.

matt young

the dodgers acquired young from the mariners prior to the 1987 season.  young had shown some flashes of potential with seattle, but they were a bad team and he was pretty inconsistent as a starter.  in 1986, the mariners moved young to the bullpen after a few bad starts, and he saved 13 games.  as such, the dodgers decided to use young exclusively in relief, and he wound up saving 11 games, tying alejandro pena for the team lead.  after the season, however, young was dealt to oakland with bob welch in the three-team trade that netted the dodgers alfredo griffin, jesse orosco, and jay howell.

the other players found on this particular sheet have been featured in earlier 'sunday morning target dodger' posts.  they are:  gary thomasson (featured here); gus getz and bob logan (featured here); jim baxes (featured here); cesar cedeno (featured here); tommy john and hank edwards (featured here); and then there is bill reidy, a double dipper who gets a separate post later today.

thoughts of managers and other cards

adam from thoughts of sox sent me some cards a while back, including this 2003 upper deck sp legendary cuts card of hall of fame manager walter alston

he managed the dodgers to 7 pennants and 4 world series titles in 23 years, winning 2040 games and finishing below .500 just 4 times.  he was four games short of managing 23 full seasons, as he abdicated his managerial role late in the 1976 season, allowing tommy lasorda to take over.  that got me thinking, so i pulled my lasorda card from the same set

(which features a photo from the 1998 all-star game - after lasorda had retired from managing), and i scanned the backs of the cards together

these two cards together summarize the dodger franchise performance from 1954 into the 1996 season - 42-plus seasons.  crazy.

back to the cards adam sent, here's a 2005 bowman draft picks and prospects russ martin gold parallel card

that i should have shown on canada day

here are a couple of andy laroche cards from 2007 upper deck sp rookie edition

laroche was last seen in 2013 with the blue jays.  he's still in their system, but hasn't appeared in the majors yet this year.

from 2011 topps chrome, here's a rafael furcal refractor

the many permutations of 2011 topps furcal cards combine for one of my favorite dodger double play cards, even though some of them (including the card above) list furky as an outfielder

also from 2011 topps chrome was this ubaldo jiminez refractor

that was sent along due to the 'ksm' patch on the jersey, just above the glove.  i wrote about the patch here as part of my memorials collection.

thanks for the cards adam!