will there be a final tribute?

shortly after i started this blog in september of 2008, i received an email from ben henry, creator of the baseball card blog and someone with whom i had traded a couple of times. he said that he had poked around the site a bit, liked what he saw, and thought that it was smart of me to be focusing on a particular team and era.  i've thought a lot about that comment over the past 6+ years, and i've come to realize that he was right. even though i've branched out with tangential topics that make up part of my collection - the memorial patches and armbands, through the mail autograph successes, cards featuring dodger stadium in the background, double plays, final tributes, and tatooine cards to name a few - the focus on the team of my youth, and in particular the infield of steve garvey, davey lopes, bill russell, and ron cey, has always been there.

i've completed a few different series of posts related to the infield and the team - most recently the contents of my steve garvey collection, but prior to that the position by position evolution from the brooklyn years to recent dodger teams, the inclusion of members of the 1978 topps dodgers in topps flagship sets for almost 50 years, the career torchbearers for the primary starters from that team, and the year-by-year evolution of the infield itself during their playing days.

in doing so, i've enjoyed reliving the memories i have of those teams and of collecting cards during the late 1970's and early 1980's.  i've also enjoyed trading with other bloggers and reading their posts about what makes their collections unique.  i know that i have not been the most interactive blogger - i don't leave too many comments, i don't share much personal information, and i fail at responding to comments most of the time.  i do, however, put together a decent trade package.  it was never my goal to be the most heralded blogger or have the most popular blog, not that those are anyone else's goals, or bad goals to have, either. that's just not the reason for the 2,800 posts i've written. i didn't track readership or number of comments, and i didn't fret about posting every day - i just wrote and posted about cards as i saw fit.  i did it for myself, and in doing so, i gained a new appreciation of my collection - one that didn't exist when they were just cards in boxes and binders.

as a result of creating this blog and its subsequent impact on my collection and collecting habits, i've received and traded emails with jerry reuss, the hall of fame, dodger historian mark langill, and others (including a nastygram from a dodger player from the '90's), plus a comment from kevin pasley, and return mail from a host of former dodgers (including all four of the infielders for whom this blog is named) and other players who signed cards for me or wrote a note in response to a request.  even the great vin scully signed and returned a card for me, in what resulted in the greatest mail day ever. all of that is appreciated greatly, as are the comments from you folks who have read what i've written, and those of you who have traded with me to help make my collection what it is today.  the interaction with fellow bloggers (including the two that i've met in person - carl crawford cards and highly subjective and completely arbitrary) has been a true joy.  all of it has made for a great experience over the past 6-plus years.

during that time i have posted a lot of great cards (and some not so great) from my collection - old and new - and i've enjoyed posting about them, whether they were dodgers or even giants. however, there are a lot of great cards in my collection that i haven't shown on this blog, and i know that in the future there will be more great cards that enter my collection that won't be shown here.  i know that there will be more double play cards, and there will be more cards featuring memorial patches and armbands, and there will be more cards that feature the stunning beauty of dodger stadium in the background.  there will also, of course, be more cards featuring the players fortunate enough to play for the los angeles dodgers.

i will still be collecting those cards.  i would still like to trade if you have some of those cards.  but, i won't be posting about those cards.

i'm done.

i've done what i set out to do, which was to add my voice to the baseball card collecting community that was exploding in the fall of 2008; to make sure that the dodgers got a fair shake in that community; to highlight the excellence that was the dodger infield and the team of my youth; and to make it known that i was a collector with a passion and a collection worth sharing.

to me, it was worth it.

this was the infield of my youth.

garvey, cey, russell, lopes.

how about the foldouts from the steve garvey binders?

foldout cards kind of ticked me off when they first started showing up.  what good are they if they are to remain folded up?  i remember seeing some hard cases that would display the cards, but i'm a binder guy, not a hard case sort.  it's a good thing, then, that i found some 3-pocket pages (not the postcard kind) that work well with these things.

have a look:

those cards are:

1. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams team terrific game used hat logo relic (with bill russell, davey lopes, dusty baker, ron cey, and steve yeager) /50
2. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams team terrific game used team logo relic (with bill russell, davey lopes, dusty baker, ron cey, and steve yeager) /85
3. 2009 topps sterling sterling season relic autographs /10

three cards that celebrate the teams of my youth - mainly the 1977 and 1978 pennant winning years.  you know that i am a big fan of the timeless teams set, and i sure would like to find the other versions of that foldout relic card.  there's a version with the timeless teams brand (/35) seared into the bat pieces as well as one with the national league logo (/15), and one with stats (/5) - although i'm not sure what the stats one looks like.  i was a bit disappointed to find that the sterling card wasn't a patch card, but rather just material from the team's away jerseys during the time that they had color at the base of the sleeves.

here are the backs:

this is the last sheet in the main card part of my steve garvey binders:

those cards are:

1. 2011 topps triple threads relic combos double (with duke snider, sandy koufax, clayton kershaw, andre ethier, and matt kemp) /36
2. 2013 panini america's pastime hitter's ink booklet (with tony gwynn) auto /25

i really should move that hitter's ink booklet to a 2-pocket page.  i find it interesting that over steve garvey's career, he only had two teammates (for any substantial amount of time - i'm not counting the likes of jim bunning, hoyt wilhelm and frank robinson) who made the hall of fame - don sutton and tony gwynn.  and with this gwynn card, i have dual auto cards for garvey and both of those teammates.

here are the backs:

i mentioned before that i'll have a living post for my garvey collection that i'll update as i add cards. it will be more for my use than anyone else's, i imagine, but it will be cool to have it all in one place.

there is a lot going on on this sheet from the steve garvey binders, but something is missing

i'm only posting about one sheet in the steve garvey binders today, and it's sheet 70:

those cards are:

1. 2012 topps triple threads unity relics emerald /18
2. 2012 topps triple threads relic autographs 'dodgers great' /18
3. 2012 upper deck sp signature edition autograph
4. 2012 upper deck sp signature edition season signatures quad 1981 world series champions (with davey lopes, dusty baker, and ron cey) /15
5. 2013 panini elite extra edition bloodlines (with ryan garvey)
6. 2013 panini america's pastime pastime signatures auto /99
7. 2013 topps chasing history autograph
8. 2013 topps million dollar chase autograph /268
9. 2013 topps allen & ginter framed mini relic

i think there are five different versions of the relic autographs from triple threads - different in that the cut outs for the relics spell different things. i'm glad i have the 'dodgers great' version, even if it comes with padre uniform material.

i am again somewhat disappointed with topps for not giving garvey base cards in the chasing history set, as well as the allen & ginter set, but i'll take the autos and relics anyway.

i noticed after scanning this page that the garvey card from 2013 panini hometown heroes is missing.  i know i have it, i guess i've misplaced it in one of my boxes.  i'll have to dig it out and get it in its rightful spot.  when i do, i'll update this (or another post).

here are the backs:

here we see garvey's son ryan (which is actually the front of the elite extra edition card).  the younger garvey was drafted by the phillies in 15th round of the 2011 draft, but didn't sign and wound up being selected by the rockies in the 33rd round the following year.  he spent three years in the minors, but was released by the rockies in march of this year.

the cuts are legendary in the next installment of sheets from the steve garvey binders

the first five cards of sheet 64 in the steve garvey binders feature a photo (well, two photos) of him wearing the dual-ear flap batting helmet.  if i were to ever have a conversation with garvey, i would ask him about wearing that type of helmet that was usually reserved for switch-hitters and amateurs.  here is sheet 64:

those cards are:

1. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts baseball chronology materials relic
2. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials relic /225
3. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials relic /199
4. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials relic /99
5. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials relic /15
6. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts memorable moments materials relic /225
7. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts when it was a game silver /550
8. 2006 upper deck ultimate collection ultimate ensemble signatures quad auto (with ron cey, don sutton, and dusty baker) /25
9. 2007 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials relic /199

looks like padre relics on cards 1 and 6 (which are dodger cards), which always bugs me a bit.  there are a number of other parallels, and a relic version of card 7, that i am missing from the 2006 legendary cuts set.  the 2007 legendary cuts set has two versions of the legendary materials cards for garvey - one is a padres version and the other is the dodger version that i have.

here are the backs:

moving on to sheet 65:

those cards are:

1. 2007 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials dual relic /125
2. 2007 upper deck sp legendary cuts masterful materials relic
3. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic /575
4. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic classic memorabilia relic
5. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic classic memorabilia patch relic /55
6. 2008 dodger pocket schedules (with james loney)
7. 2008 donruss threads
8. 2008 donruss threads century proof silver parallel /100
9. 2008 donruss threads jerseys relic (yellow swatch) /150

so there is the padre version of the legendary materials card, although it is the dual relic version.  there are also quad relic versions of both the dodger and padre cards, but i don't have either.  i was disappointed back in 2007 to see garvey as a padre in the sweet spot classic base set and jersey insert checklist, but at least they got the relic swatches matched up with the team this time.  and, at least they had garvey as a dodger on the signature cards in the set (more on those in a future post).

i suppose that the pocket schedule really belongs in the oddball binder, but it fits nicely here in a 9-pocket page, so here it remains.  there are a number of versions of the schedules with then-current dodgers and past dodgers matched by position as is the case with loney.

here are the backs:

you can see on the back of card 8 that i have the /100 version of the donruss threads parallel, and that i am still looking for the /250 version.  that card is target number 1 on the nefarious 9.

one more time - avert your eyes!

you've been warned! here's another 2008 tristar signa cuts card that i've added to my collection

that would be a 2001 fleer greats of the game ron cey card that's been butchered and repackaged and is one of 25 similarly butchered cards of the penguin.  it's not a certified auto from the gotg set, either, as those cards were printed with gold borders.

i don't mind these signa cut cards - i have a few now in my collection - but i prefer ones like this that are cut up cards as opposed to photos.  and, the fact that it's not a certified auto that was chopped up is a good thing.  yes, even i have my limits when it comes to cards like these.

turning the pages of the steve garvey binder into 2005

the 53rd sheet in the steve garvey binder features six cards from 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams, but i wish that there were more.  here is sheet 53:

those cards are:

1. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams (1974) bronze parallel /50
2. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams (1977) auto sp - print run of 35
3. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams (1981) auto sp - print run of 75
4. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams legendary signatures dual auto (with davey lopes) /150
5. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams legendary signatures dual auto (with ron cey) /150
6. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams legendary combo triple signatures auto (with dusty baker) /50
7. 2004 upper deck sp legendary cuts
8. 2004 upper deck sp legendary cuts significant fact relic /1
9. 2004 upper deck sp legendary cuts historic swatches relic

i've written quite a bit about the timeless teams set, and used to have a bronze parallel of garvey's 1980 subset card, but i traded it for the 1974 version to help another collector out.  so, i still need three bronze parallels, four gold parallels, plus two autos, four gold auto parallels, and then there are the four 1/1 autos, too. that's a lot.  i should note at this point that there are other relic cards from the set, as well as some from other 2004 sets (and other years, too) that will be shown later. they are either encased or otherwise too big or thick to fit in a standard nine-pocket sheet.

the 2004 upper deck sp legendary cuts 1/1 relic card is actually 1 of 99.  there are 99 unique "significant facts" printed on the cards which are stamped "1 of 1".  so, i have the only one that touts garvey's 95 rbi in 1975.  kind of a weak 1 of 1.  on the last card, we've got the padre relic swatch on a dodger card, which will happen again on the next sheet.

here are the backs:

 there's one more card from 2004, and it's on sheet 54:

those cards are:

1. 2004 upper deck sp legendary cuts significant swatches
2. 2005 baseball hero deck playing card
3. 2005 donruss classics stars of summer /1000
4. 2005 donruss classics stars of summer relic /250
5. 2005 donruss diamond kings
6. 2005 donruss diamond kings framed red
7. 2005 donruss diamond kings materials bronze /200
8. 2005 donruss diamond kings materials silver /100
9. 2005 donruss diamond kings materials gold /50

there is a triple-relic card from the 2004 sp legendary cuts set that i would very much like to find. it features garvey, along with his dodger teammates reggie smith and dusty baker. it's only got a 15 card print run, however, so it is unlikely that i will find it.

while i am missing some of the autos and parallels and auto paralles from the 2005 donruss classics stars of summer insert set, my five cards from 2005 donruss diamond kings represent only about one-tenth of the garvey cards available from that set.  ridiculous.  i'm missing 50 cards, according to beckett, including bronze, challenge (whatever that is), framed black, framed blue, framed green, gold, hawaii, and other variant parallels of just the base version of the card.  as i said, ridiculous.

here are the backs:

even without all of those parallels, there are still plenty of cards and pages to be shown.  stay tuned...

the rest of the infield (and others) show up in the steve garvey binders

not all of the cards in the steve garvey binders are of steve alone.  sometimes, he has company.  such is the case with one of the cards on sheet 44.  have a look.

those cards are:

1. 2003 topps all-time fan favorites relic
2. 2003 topps retired signature
3. 2003 topps retired signature black parallel
4. 2003 topps tribute
5. 2003 topps tribute gold parallel
6. 2003 topps tribute auto relic
7. 2003 topps tribute team tribute relic with ron cey and steve yeager
8. 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography dodger stars auto
9. 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography dodger stars auto bronze

i was happy to see cey and yeager show up on a tribute relic, even though it would have made more sense for them to do so with the other co-mvp of the 1981 world series, pedro guerrero, and not the garv.  i am missing the gold version of the garvey tribute auto relic, and i am sure it is as fantastic as the base gold parallel.  look at that sucker shine!

here are the backs:

moving on to sheet 45, the upper deck autographs continue with some familiar faces (and signatures):

those cards are:

1. 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography dodger stars auto silver
2. 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography doubles auto with ron cey
3. 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography triples auto with davey lopes and ron cey
4. 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography triples auto with bill russell and ron cey
5. 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic
6. 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic jersey relic
7. 2004 donruss classics team colors bat relic
8. 2004 donruss classics team colors combo material bat/patch relic
9. 2004 donruss classics team colors combo auto relic

the 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography dodger stars set was a fantastic group of cards for this fan back in '03.  it featured certified autos for bill buckner, tommy john, maury will, ron cey, bill russell, don sutton, duke snider, davey lopes, don newcombe, steve yeager, and, of course, steve garvey.  there were also the combo autos, three of which you see on that sheet.  each individual auto had the base (numbered to a variety of copies - garvey's is 320), bronze (most, like garvey's, numbered to 100 and with the "dodgers" inscription), silver (numbered to 50, and most with a year inscription), and gold (numbered to 10).  i am missing the garvey gold version, unfortunately.

here are the backs:

a note about the 2004 donruss classics team colors cards, which continue on sheet 46.  donruss essentially used the twins 'twin cities' logo on these cards which confused me at first.  you can't unsee it - have a look:

 those cards are:

1. 2004 donruss classics team colors jersey relic
2. 2004 donruss classics team colors jersey (pinstripe) relic
3. 2004 donruss classics team colors signatures auto
4. 2004 donruss elite extra edition back to back picks signature with ron cey
5. 2004 donruss leather & lumber rivals
6. 2004 donruss leather & lumber rivals material dual relic
7. 2004 donruss leather & lumber lumber cuts auto
8. 2004 donruss leather & lumber leather cuts auto
9. 2004 donruss team heroes

it is also strange to me that donruss used a dodger jersey for the combo bat/patch relic on sheet 45, but then went with a padres jersey for the other relics while still using a photo of garvey as a dodger.  at least upper deck switched from a dodger photo on the 2003 upper deck sweet spot classics base card to a padres photo on the relic insert since they were using a brown friars swatch.  donruss also took the 'back to back' literally with the elite extra edition auto card as you will see in a moment.

here are the backs:

there's the penguin!

still more to come - stay tuned...

allow me to show you one of my favorite sheets from my steve garvey binders

sheet 31 from the steve garvey binders keeps us in 2001, and it features what may be the jewel of my steve garvey collection.  take a look:

those cards are:

1. 2001 leaf certified materials fabric of the game relic (bronze)
2. 2001 leaf certified materials fabric of the game relic (silver/career)
3. 2001 leaf certified materials fabric of the game relic (gold/season)
4. 2001 leaf certified materials fabric of the game relic (century) - red patch
5. 2001 leaf certified materials fabric of the game relic (century) - blue patch
6. 2001 leaf certified materials fabric of the game relic (jersey number) - red patch
7. 2001 upper deck decade 1970's
8. 2001 upper deck decade 1970's (award winners)
9. 2001 upper deck decade 1970's bellbottomed bashers insert

2001 leaf certified materials is hands down my favorite relic set ever.  i have a few other dodgers, including a drysdale jersey number patch and an adrian beltre jersey number/logoman patch, but the garvey jersey number is my favorite card.  as you'll see on the back, it's numbered 6/6.  here are the backs, by the way:

the bronze version of the jersey relics are unnumbered, with the silver/career version being numbered to some significant career number.  in garvey's case, that would be 272 - the number of home runs he hit in the major leagues.  the gold version is numbered to a season related number, and for the garv, that number is 33 - the number of home runs he hit in 1977 (a career high).  it's strange that the front of the card talks about his 115 rbi that year, and not the 33 homers.  the century version is numbered to 21 (the 21st century), and i have two of these.  one features the red patch from his jersey number on the front of his uniform, and the other features a blue patch from elsewhere within the chest script.  i used to have a third century card with a blue patch, but sold it several years ago.  the sixth card on the sheet is the 6/6 card and it is gorious.  i am a big fan of the red dodger patch.

not to be ignored, the 2001 upper deck decade 1970's cards continue on sheet 32:

 those cards are:

1. 2001 upper deck decade 1970's decade dynasties insert
2. 2001 upper deck decade 1970's game-used bat relic
3. 2001 upper deck decade 1970's game-used bat quad relic all-star game mvp's
4. 2001 upper deck decade 1970's game-used bat quad relic la dodgers
5. 2001 upper deck decade 1970's game-used bat quad relic national league mvp's
6. 2001 upper deck decade 1970's game-used bat quad relic 1974 world series
7. 2001 upper deck decade 1970's game-used bat quad relic 1977 world series
8. 2001 upper deck minor league centennial
9. 2001 upper deck minor league centennial relic

lots of great 1970's players featured on those bat cards - joe morgan, bill madlock, dave parker, johnny bench, george foster, reggie jackson, bert campaneris, willie stargell, and graig nettles, not to mention garvey, ron cey, bill russell, and rick monday.  every time i look at that particular card, i am reminded of how close upper deck came to creating a garvey cey russell lopes relic card.

here are the backs:

i suppose that it is worth noting that the upper deck minor league centennial card doesn't feature a photo of garvey from his minor league days, but rather a dodger photo with the team identifiers airbrushed out.  cards from that set continue on sheet 33:

 those cards are:

1. 2001 upper deck minor league centennial relic (gold)
2. 2001 upper deck minor league centennial auto
3. 2001 upper deck minor league centennial auto (gold)
4. 2001 upper deck prospect premieres heroes of baseball relic
5. 2001 upper deck prospect premieres heroes of baseball auto/relic
6. 2001 upper deck prospect premieres heroes of baseball dual relic with reggie smith
7. 2001 upper deck sp authentic cooperstown calling relic (gray swatch)
8. 2001 upper deck sp authentic cooperstown calling relic (white swatch)
9. 2001 upper deck sp game bat milestone edition quad relic

i found it interesting that the gold parallel jersey card was serial numbered to 25 by way of printing, while the gold auto parallel was hand numbered to 25, as was the auto/relic from prospect premieres and the 'base' version of the minor league centennial auto.  i believe that the dual jersey card with reggie smith was at one time reported to have an autographed version, but i've never seen one.  i may not be remembering that correctly, but the design of the card sure looks like it was set up for autographs.

you know that i had to have both white and gray swatch examples of the somewhat depressingly named cooperstown calling jersey cards from sp authentic, and it is again a bit sad that garvey is the only non-hall of famer on that last quad relic with puckett, winfield, and ozzie.

here are the backs to that sheet:

featuring lots of assurances from richard p. mcwilliams.

next up from the garvey binders, a whole lot of tony perez.  stay tuned.

big d, pee wee, and other dodger autographs

i don't know how realistic it is of me to think that i might one day have a jackie robinson and a roy campanella autographed card, but those are the only two current members of the dodger retired number club for whom i lack signed cards.  i've shown tommy lasorda, duke snider, jim gilliam, don sutton, walt alston, and sandy koufax signed cards previously, and now, i have a 1993 nabisco don drysdale certified auto card

and a 1991 topps archives 1953 pee wee reese in person autographed card

to show.

i am guessing that this is about as far as that collection will get.

here are some more (certified) dodger autos - a 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams ron cey card

and a dave lopes card from the same set

this tommy john sticker auto card

comes from 2005 donruss greats

and this eric gagne signed card

is from 2006 upper deck sp authentic.

i was very happy to pick up this last card - a 2014 panini immaculate collection steve garvey signed card

numbered to 49.  it looks like he signed a piece from a watercoloring paper.  it's nice.  i'm pretty sure he tried to add his number 6 at the end (not an exclamation point), which in my mind should also be retired by the dodgers.  however, i recognize my bias and after considering the fact that the yankees are running out of numbers, i think the dodgers' hall of fame requirement (except in the case of jim gilliam) is probably a pretty good one.

three c's and a big d from fuji

everybody's favorite teacher from the bay area sent me some cards recently. you'd think by the title of this post that i didn't fare so well, as my gpa wouldn't be good enough to be academically eligible for the school's baseball team. however, a 'd' and three 'c's when it comes to dodger cards is pretty darn good.

here's a 1980 tcma 1959 world champions don drysdale card

drysdale was the winning pitcher in game 3 of the 1959 world series. he helped beat the white sox and bring the first los angeles dodger championship home, just four years after the franchise won it's first ever world series.

the three c's i received were these ron cey cards - 1976 topps, 2000 fleer greats of the game, and 1982 kellogg's

cey, of course, helped the dodgers win the 1981 world series - beating the yankees for only the third time in 11 tries.  note the helmet cey is wearing in the kellogg's card photo - no earflap.  he would be beaned in the head by goose gossage during the '81 world series and switch to an earflap helmet after that.

thanks for the cards fuji! enjoy your spring break!

i received congratulations from bob walk the plank

yes, matthew from bob walk the plank sent me some congrats recently.

those, of course, are the backs of three baseball cards - a 2014 topps mini bill buckner autograph,

a 2001 fleer greats of the game ron cey autograph,

and a 2007 upper deck ultimate collection chad billingsley autograph

that wasn't all.  here's another card back

that's the back of a 2014 topps archives bill russell gold parallel autograph card

the shortstop for the team of my youth! numbered 6/50 (that's garvey's jersey number and one-third of russell's jersey number - got to be a 1/1, right?!?).  this will pair well with the base and silver autos i already owned.

but wait - there was more!  i noted on a recent bob walk the plank post that i regretfully did not own a john candelaria autographed card featuring the candy man in dodger blue, having been rebuffed in previous through the mail attempts.  here's the back of the last card matthew sent

yes, that's a 2004 donruss recollection collection 1992 donruss card, signed by candelaria himself

matthew, did we just become best friends?

thanks for the congratulations and the autos!  i'm working on another package to be heading your way soon!

be still my hearts, it's pretty much the team of my youth

this is the third suit of cards from the dodger playing card set known as the 2005 baseball hero deck. it features mostly members of the 1981 and 1988 world championship teams, with most of the players being from the 1970's teams of my youth.

here are the cards:

if you moved don sutton from the queen of hearts to the ace, and put rick monday in the set at number 8 instead of claude osteen, it would be the team of my youth from ace to 9.  as it is, orel hershiser is the ace with steve yeager catching, the infield of garvey, lopes, cey, and russell (yes, it was difficult for me to put them in that order), and the outfield of dusty baker and reggie smith, with starting pitcher osteen thrown in between them.  burt hooton, fernando valenzuela, sutton, and 1988 mvp kirk gibson round out the subset.

it would have made sense to switch osteen (a member of the 1965 world championship team) with bill buckner (a member of the 1974 pennant winning team) who was featured in the diamond suit, but no big deal.  any of the pitchers featured in this suit could have been considered the ace of the team at one point or another.

read any good books lately?

how's that winter reading list coming along?  personally, i've yet to finish a book this year, but i'm working on 'east of eden'.  i took a break from some steinbeck goodness to pick up a couple other books recently.  here's the cover of one of them.

that's a 2013 panini america's pastime 'hitters ink' book, numbered to 25.  it only has two pages, and it's a picture book to boot.

so, this is my first tony gwynn auto.  it's nice to see garvey paired with mr. padre.  he's previously been featured on relic cards with ozzie smith in the brown and mustard, and with gwynn, willie mccovey, and rickey henderson, too.  i just hadn't seen an auto pairing between these two, who have 5,740 hits between them.

here is the back of the book (and the binding and front)

the other book i picked up was also a quick read.

it comes from 2009 topps sterling, and is a 'seasons' auto-relic card of steve garvey as a dodger, numbered to 10. you can tell from the back of the book that the 'season' being celebrated here is garvey's 1978 campaign. it's even more clear inside.

the book came at a steep price, but anytime '1978' and 'steve garvey' are put together, i'll probably make it happen for my collection.  now, this card/book was advertised as a patch card, but in reality the jersey pieces used come from a dodger away jersey that had the blue and white striping on the sleeves.  just like the one he is wearing in the photo used for this 2003 upper deck sp authentic dodger stars chirography auto card

the seller of the book/card noted that he had some other limited run garvey cards available.  i inquired and picked up a few, including two versions of the chirography card.  that first one is the 'base' (numbered to 320), and this one is the 'bronze' (numbered to 100)

it has the inscription 'dodgers', and the lower print run versions have different inscriptions such as '1981 ws champs'.  i already had those two cards, but they're in the garvey binder and i wanted duplicates to put with the other dodgers featured in the set.

i did pick up from the seller a few other auto cards that were new to my collection, however.  here's a 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams legendary combo triple signatures card featuring garvey, dusty baker, and ron cey

and here's one from the same set (although just a combo dual signatures card) featuring the penguin and garvey

the triple auto card has a reported print run of 50, while 150 copies of the dual were produced.  i already have the garvey/davey lopes dual, but there are some other dodgers (like don sutton and tommy john) that have eluded me.

speaking of sutton, he's on the next card i picked up.  it's a 2006 upper deck ultimate signatures card numbered to 25.

and there we have 4 of the starting 9 from the team of my youth.  fantastic.

the last card is kind of a letdown.  it's from the no photo sticker auto dump that was 2012 upper deck sp signature edition

i have a dodger quad signature from the set, but i didn't have the supposedly easier to obtain garvey solo card.  go figure.  i'm not sure why this particular garvey collector was moving his collection, but i was happy to have the opportunity to add some of the lower print run cards to my collection.

now i need to get back to seeing how things are going for adam trask and family in salinas...