rest in peace davey lopes

i was a fan.

more words here.

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.

feeling complete, except for some cards that should have been that i didn't make

i certainly didn't think this would happen, but i completed my 1955 topps brooklyn dodger team set recently by adding ed roebuck's card to my collection.

that means that my topps flagship/update dodger team sets are complete from 1954 through 2013, including variations (except for those super short printed 2012 topps update cards of the red sox three), and through 2015 if we are just considering the base cards.  add in a 1955 bowman team set, a 1963 fleer team set, and what i believe to be 1960 and 1961 fleer team sets, and i'm feeling pretty good about that part of my collection.

speaking of 1955 topps and completion, quite a while back i completed the 1995 topps archives brooklyn dodgers set, which includes some cards that should have been, including a 1955 topps tom lasorda card

topps created backs for these cards, too

because of this card, a 1955 topps lasorda card was never on my list of 'cards that should have been' to create, but 1956 and 1957 topps lasorda cards were.  bob lemke created a 1956 card, but i've never gotten around to a '57 lasorda.  speaking of '57's, jackie robinson was on my list of cards to create, since 1957 would have been a final tribute year with jackie's last season coming in 1956.  bob lemke has a '57 jackie, but he's in giants gear which is frankly disturbing.  still, i haven't made the time to finish that card that should have been, either.  other cards on my list were also final tributes that i haven't gotten around to, such as a 1980 topps willie davis card, and a 1995 topps steve sax card. some of the cards on that list, however, have been created by others.

for instance, here's a 1958 topps roy campanella

created by bob lemke

a 1959 topps pee wee reese

that would fit right in with the '59 set. unfortunately, i've misplaced the source for this card. if you know who created it, please let me know and i'll update the post.

a 1965 topps duke snider

created by cards that never were.  only slightly less disturbing than seeing jackie in giants gear.  and to think that the duke actually suited up for the nocals.

it's not just final tributes that were on my list - there are some cards just plain missing from history, like this 1977 topps reggie jackson

created by bob lemke, although i believe that there is a test/proof of this as an actual topps card out there (in keith olbermann's collection?).

still, most of the cards i wanted to create were final tributes, like this 1978 topps brooks robinson

created by uncle doc's card closet - when topps had (base)balls also created a final tribute for brooks, who was given the al kaline treatment and just had a season highlight card in what should have been his final tribute set.

in keeping with the oriole theme here at the bottom of the post, here are some cards that i made for ryan at o no another orioles blog a while back.  they are all of o's pitcher jamie walker.  i made a 2007 topps

a 2008 topps

and a 2009 topps

for ryan, who, like me, lamented the lack of cards given to non-closer relievers in sets these days.

as for all of the other cards i've created, i think there are some good ones in there, and certainly there are a lot of talented folks out there making their own cards that should have been, never were, or just need to be.  one of the best is travis from punk rock paint/the baseball card blog.  i still think that topps should pick up his 'pugilists & other pugnacious princes of play' idea and give us a real copy of this chan ho park card

made with a 2009 topps allen & ginter-ish feel.  come on, a set with that card, juan marichal wielding a bat, alex rodriguez getting punched by jason varitek, and aj pierzynski getting clocked by michael barrett among others? it's a no-brainer set that really ought to be made.  i'd collect the whole thing.

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.

it's time for the encased cards from the steve garvey binders

you've seen the 9-pocket pages and the 8-pocket pages, so now let's see the 4-pocket pages from the steve garvey binders.  to be clear, these are not the pages with graded cards that are part of the oddball binders, but rather regular issue cards that were actually distributed in sealed cases.  have a look:

those cards are:

1. 2003 topps retired signature autographs
2. 2003 topps retired signature autographs (with "6" inscription)
3. 2004 playoff prime cuts ii mlb icons material prime relic /6
4. 2004 playoff prime cuts ii mlb icons signature material number relic/auto /6

those are some pretty sorry relics for cards numbered to 6.

here are the backs:

and here's the second sheet:

those cards are:

1. 2004 playoff prime cuts ii mlb icons signature material combo auto/relic /6
2. 2004 topps originals signature 1979 buyback auto /26
3. 2004 topps originals signature 1983 buyback auto /19
4. 2005 topps pristine legends refractors /549

1979 topps cards are pretty popular as far as buybacks go.  there are plenty of others from this set, however, including 1 1971 card, 1 1975 card, 4 1976 cards, 5 1980 cards, 10 1981 cards, a whopping 122 1982 cards, 32 1984 cards, and 129 1985 cards.  no 1978 cards, unfortunately.

here are the backs:

here's the third sheet:

those cards are:

1. 2005 topps retired signature autographs
2. 2008 tristar signa cuts 1984 donruss auto /25
3. 2013 panini hall heroes private signings auto /10

here are the backs:

looks like i have room for one more.

there are a few more cards to show before i'm done with the steve garvey binders, so stay tuned...

dodger (and other) cardboard from mets cardboard

what makes more sense than receiving a mike piazza dodger card from justin at mets cardboard? not much.  i sent him a bunch of mets, and he sent me some dodgers and other good stuff for my collection.  here's the aforementioned strongest man in socal on a 1993 topps stadium club card

i don't know the full story of piazza switching from number 25 to 31, but i know it had to do with time wallach signing with the dodgers for the 1993 season.  i wonder how much wallach had to give to get the number from piazza.

here's a 1996 fleer joey eischen

part of the reason that i scanned this card was that i was pretty sure that eischen hadn't been shown on the blog before. he pitched in a total of 45 games for the dodgers over the course of the 1995 and 1996 seasons, and non-closing relievers weren't showing up on a lot of cards back then.  but then i remembered that he made his debut on the blog as part of a mother's cards post earlier this year.

1996 skybox dugout axcess eric young axcess airlines frequent flyer insert

i don't care much for card companies when they misspell things on purpose, like 'axcess'.  or 'authentix', as is the case on this 2002 fleer authentix shawn green power alley insert

however, if those cards featured the dodger stadium murals like this 2003 fleer focus jersey edition shawn green card

i'd be more accepting of the spelling.  i'm not going to kick them out of my collection, mind you, but i'm  going to shake my head every time i see them.

2004 topps total robin ventura

the santa maria native finished up his career playing more first base than third base for the 2004 dodgers.  he also pitched in a game.

2008 topps finest hong-chi kuo autograph

always cool to find an auto card in a trade package.  it's also cool to find a card from a set that you're trying to finish, like this jr towles card from 2008 upper deck timeline.

there's been so little movement on my part with that set that it took me a moment to figure out why i was getting a card of an astro that wasn't a tatooine or double play card.  speaking of double play cards, justin sent a bunch of those, too, more than i showed last weekend.  i'll show the others that were new to my collection later.  thanks justin!

some good things from topps (and panini) in 2015 and contest results

imagine opening a pack of cards in 2015 and finding a 1978 topps steve yeager card.

someone out there had that experience, and then decided to sell that card to me.  the only two buybacks i have ever pulled from a pack were a 1992 topps joel skinner card in (i think) 2001 topps, and a 1971 o-pee-chee bob lemon card from 2009 upper deck opc - neither of which had any stamp to distinguish it from a non-buyback card.

i also went out and bought a few other cards that struck my fancy from one of this year's releases - in this case 2015 topps archives.  i was happy to see that topps used the 1957 topps design, and that they did it better than they did in 2006 when they washed it out with heritage.  here's don sutton

clayton kershaw

and a nice surprise, vladimir guerrero.

it's good to see the expos logo on cardboard.

here's the last '57 i picked up from archives, yasiel puig

i wish they would have used photos from inside dodger stadium, however, as one of the best things about the '57 set is the stadium backgrounds on many of the cards.

topps did use dodger stadium in the background for this mlb the show puig insert

which is nice.

it's not dodger stadium on this robbed in right insert

but at least the effort behind the insert set is appreciated, unlike some of the series 2 inserts (hot streak, stepping up, etc).

i really like this 2015 panini diamond kings puig aficionado card

it's good enough to make me forget that it's an unlicensed card.

back to some 2015 topps stuff, here's a nondescript 2015 topps gypsy queen card of adrian gonzalez

i think gypsy queen has run its course.

topps heritage, however, has somehow made me appreciate the 1964 and 1966 sets more than i did in the past over the last three years. here's gonzalez on a 2015 heritage league leader card

he was the first dodger to lead the league in rbi since matt kemp in 2011.  not so long, but before that, you would have had to go back to 1962 and tommy davis.

one of my favorite insert sets this year was the jackie robinson story set.  i've picked up the last four that i needed to complete the set, including these two (the other two were sent to me by wes at jaybarkerfan's junk).

now when i see branch rickey, i think of han solo.

this may be my favorite insert of 2015, however. it's clayton kershaw on a team spirit card from 2015 topps opening day.

he's tipping his cap to the dodger stadium crowd just as i am tipping my cap to those of you who've been reading these posts of mine over the past not-quite seven years.  and to the two of you who took the time to enter my contest.  as you may recall, it consisted of identifying the 31 cards that have made up my header for the past six-plus years.

neither of you got them all, but alec got 29 out of 31 and john was not too far behind.  here are the answers:

this list might be easier to read:

1. 1987 topps fernando valenzuela

2. 1995 topps national packtime mike piazza

3. 2004 donruss team heroes rickey henderson

4. 1978 topps dodger team/checklist (graded)

5. 2005 topps all-time fan favorites pedro guerrero

6. 1989 upper deck orel hershiser

7. 2007 upper deck russell martin

8. 1971 topps jim lefebvre

9. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams kirk gibson

10. 2004 upper deck sp legendary cuts jackie robinson

11. 2001 upper deck legends don drysdale/kevin brown reflections in time

12. 1978 o-pee-chee steve garvey

13. 2004 topps robin ventura

14. 2001 upper deck decade '70's ron cey

15. 2005 upper deck sweet spot classic maury wills jumbo patch

16. 1987 fleer bill russell

17. 2001 upper deck gold glove shawn green

18. 1974 topps dave lopes

19. 1992 topps darryl strawberry

20. 1981 topps jack perconte/mike scioscia/fernando valenzuela

21. 2003 topps all-time fan favorites steve yeager autograph

22. 2008 topps dodger factory set dodger stadium

23. 2002 topps american pie duke snider american sluggers blue

24. 1956 topps don zimmer

25. 2004 topps world series highlights kirk gibson

26. 2007 upper deck nomar garciaparra

27. 2001 upper deck legends of new york pee wee reese

28. 1989 fleer world series dodgers team/champions

29. 1997 bowman hideo nomo

30. 1962 topps nl strikeout leaders sandy koufax/stan williams/don drysdale

31. 1999 upper deck century legends mike piazza

i admit, the garvey was impossible to discern as o-pee-chee, and the 1995 piazza and the american pie snider were almost completely obscured (kudos to alec for identifying the snider, though).  thanks to both who took the time to give it a shot - since there were only two of you, i'll send more cards than i had previously advertised.

et tu, bill russell?

steve garvey wore a padres uniform.  ron cey suited up for the cubs and a's.  davey lopes wore the uniform of the a's, cubs, and astros as a big league player, and then wore rangers, padre, brewers, nationals, and phillies gear as a coach/manager at the big league level.  there are plenty of cards that show evidence of those three infielders wearing non-dodger uniforms, but i didn't think that was the case for the fourth - bill russell.

there was only one season in which russell wore a non-dodger uniform in the major leagues, and it was in 2000 when he served as the bench coach for the tampa bay devil rays.  i didn't think that there were any cards showing russell in his devil ray gear, and i may be correct, but i did stumble across this card, a 1999 multi-ad sports orlando rays card 

showing the shortstop of the team of my youth as the manager for tampa bay's triple-a team the year before joining the big league club as its bench coach.  this came after russell was fired by the fox folks and our hopes of another long-tenured dodger manager were dashed.  any and all cards of bill russell have a place in my collection, so i was happy to find this one.  and, apparently, there is another minor league card of russell showing him as the skipper for the shreveport swamp dragons in 2002. that was a giants farm team (shudder).

speaking of giants, i also found a couple of cards showing reggie smith, the right fielder for the team of my youth, wearing giant gear.  although, it's not san francisco giant duds, it's the uniform of the yomiuri giants

both cards are from the 2013 bbm legendary foreigners 2: deep impact set, according to check out my cards.  both cards are incredibly awesome, as well.  after spending one season (1982) with the nocal giants, reggie went to japan for a tumultuous year and a half, starting in 1983.  that second 'off shot' card is pretty cool, with reggie tipping his cap.  it would fit in my 'nob' mini collection, although i still haven't made that an official thing.  

i do have an official 'tatooine collection' featuring cards with nothing but dirt in the photo background.  this 2006 topps mickey mantle 2002 card fits the bill.

in 2006, topps essentially created mantle cards for all of the sets that had left card number 7 vacant - i believe it was from 1997 on.  still waiting for a mantle in the 1978 topps design...

moving along with some other recent pick-ups, there are few images that work better for companies without a license to use logos than the maskless catcher in gear.  such is the case with this 2013 panini elite extra edition mike piazza historic picks insert

there were 75 rounds in the 1988 draft, although not all teams participated in all rounds, and piazza is the lowest pick in the draft to make it to the majors.  the dodgers took eric karros 56 rounds earlier, in the sixth round of that draft.

speaking of sixth round draft picks, here's a shiny matt kemp 2011 topps finest refractor of matt kemp

kemp was the dodgers' sixth rounder in 2003.  i also grabbed a 2007 topps chrome blue refractor parallel of kemp

for my latest target as far as team sets go.  also new to the collection towards that endeavor are rafael furcal

derek lowe

and jason schmidt

just four left - randy wolf, andre ethier, takashi saito, and greg maddux.

another team set i am working on, but not really, is the 1953 topps team set.  i added rube walker

to my collection, but there are still many high ticket cards to be had before i am complete with that one.  someday, perhaps.

i began this post with one of the infielders for whom this blog is named in a strange uniform and ended it with a 1953 topps card of a brooklyn dodger named rube who later became a pitching coach, including for the mets during gil hodges' managerial reign and beyond.  as such, walker appeared on a couple of topps cards in 1973 and 1974 as a coach.  i wish the same luxury was afforded russell in 2000.