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]

and you shall know them by their yellow backs

i caught myself by surprise a couple of years ago when i realized that i had a complete dodger team set of 1970 o-pee-chee cards.  i am not really sure how that happened, but it did.  one day i was cross checking lists with my early 70's dodger binder and there they were - all the gray bordered dodger goodness that o-pee-chee bothered to issue.  helped, of course, by the fact that there are six fewer dodgers in the o-pee-chee set than the topps - no canadian versions of jim lefebvre, maury wills, tom haller, don sutton, jim brewer or al mcbean.

i didn't have the same luck with 1971 o-pee-chee at the time, but i did pick up a large lot of dodger cards from the set a year or so ago, plus a few of the high numbers here and there since then to help me get closer to knocking another team set off the want list.

i'll show the lower numbered cards first...

claude osteen

everytime i see a '71 osteen, i wonder what the heck is going on in the background.  here's the back of osteen's card - it's yellow, but of course you already knew that because you followed along as i posted all about o-pee-chee over at oh my o-pee-chee, right?

it's been well over a year since things wrapped up over there, and i kind of miss posting and learning about the variations.  i'm not starting another blog though, especially since timeless teams is floundering.

here's sandy vance

the 'lesser' sandy, if you will

i really like the 'sunburst' behind the photos on the back.  it's different from the rectangular insert photo on the backs of the 1971 topps cards, and in my opinion, better.

von joshua

it's worth noting that on these cards, the french text comes first.

joshua was a dodger double dipper, by the way.

billy grabarkewitz

good to see the holman stadium seats in the background there.  jerry stephenson is hanging out, too, but i don't know who the seated dodger is.

it's too bad that grabarkewitz and mark grudzielanek played three decades apart.  harry caray wouldn't have known what to do if they were involved in a double play turn.

manny mota

this is a photo from shea stadium, like so many other cards in the 1971 set

the back of mota's card notes that he is 'a good hitter' who topped .300 in 4 of the previous 5 years.  he hit over .300 in 1971, too, as well as 1972 and 1973.

bill singer

if only the photographer had snapped the picture a moment earlier, i wouldn't be wondering who is walking behind singer.

no surprise that the back of the card mentions singer's no hitter thrown in july of 1970.  a joule sans coups, as it were.

duke sims

yankee stadium on a dodger card?  yes, thanks to the power of the o-pee-chee team variation!

nice to read that he was a yankee killer, too.

al downing

another team (and text) variation, which features a first year brewers uniform. 

downing would go on to have the best season of his career in 1971.

bob valentine/mike strahler

both guys had some big league stats prior to 1971, but topps still went with the minor league numbers on the back.

valentine and strahler (and grabarkewitz and singer as well) would be traded to the angels after the 1972 season with frank robinson in exchange for andy messersmith and ken mcmullen.

alan foster

i'm somewhat on the fence about including this card with my team set for obvious reasons.  foster was the guy traded to the indians for duke sims.

andy kosco was the player traded to the brewers for al downing, but his card came in a later series, so topps already had him as a brewer with a magic hat thus eliminating the need for an o-pee-chee variation.

bill russell

still an outfielder on the card, russell's conversion to the infield began in 1971

he actually played more second base than any other position in '71, but was moved to shortstop in 1972.

bill sudakis

it's too bad sudakis had bad knees.  on the other hand, had he been healthy, would steve garvey and later ron cey have been given a shot at third?  or joe ferguson behind the plate?  the mind boggles.

sudakis' co-mvp in the 1968 texas league was jim spencer who was the first player ever drafted by the california angels.

joe moeller

moeller was in his second stint with the dodgers when this card was issued

he was one of the few players on the team that had been a teammate of duke snider's.

jeff torborg

with danny ozark hitting fungoes behind him

singer's no hitter gets mentioned again, as does sandy koufax, as torborg was the catcher for sandy's perfect game as well as singer's masterpiece.    he later caught nolan ryan's first no hitter.

steve garvey

canadian rookie goodness!

and what's with all the black batting gloves?

don sutton

still pre-perm

and it still bothers me that he was released by the dodgers in august of 1988.

i'll show the rest of my 1971 o-pee-chee dodgers in a post later on today...

some in person autographs from my youth, so i got that going for me, which is nice

a long time ago, i posted about a through the mail autograph success with former dodger (and dodger double dipper) joe beckwith.  in that post, i also showed the back of a ticket that beckwith signed in person for my dad back in 1980.  i mentioned that i would show the front of the ticket in a future post.  that post is this one, and this is the front of the ticket.

yes, for one glorious year, my hometown hosted the don sutton celebrity golf tournament.  actually, i it returned in 1981, but sutton did not as he was no longer in southern california, having moved on to houston.  in fact, the inaugural tournament, for which my dad had his dinner ticket signed by sutton himself, took place about two weeks before he signed with the astros.  as for me, i was in attendance at the dinners in 1980 and 1981, but as a server not a guest.  my dad got me the gig as a way to get me into the dinner which was nice of him.  it gave me time to meet a couple of other celebrities in attendance, including bill murray.

why yes, i just happened to have my little autograph book in hand.  i had not yet seen caddyshack, but i recall a friend of my dad's encouraging me to go talk to murray who was very nice.  i wish i could remember what he said to me, but i do not.  perhaps on my deathbed i will have total consciousness and recall his words.

that same autograph book accompanied me to many events, including a dodger game.  this is my lone in person steve garvey autograph

i got it before the game in which he broke billy williams' national league record for consecutive games played.  he was signing autographs down the right field line at dodger stadium.  i recall a bigger kid trying to force his way to the front of the mob.  the garv looked at him and said 'maybe next time' and grabbed my book instead.  that was much appreciated, just like the autograph.

there was an annual baseball hot stove dinner that came through town in the late 70's and into the early 90's as well.  i went to a few in the 1979-1988 time frame.  one regular was pete rose

i followed him into a bar area to get him to sign my book.  he wasn't too happy about it as i recall - looking back i think he went there to get some relief from the crowd.  still, i'm a fan of the hit king.  somewhere i have a ball signed by rose, robin yount, tim wallach and some other guests from one of the dinners.  last time i saw it, the autographs were pretty faded, unfortunately.

there are other autographs from the hot stove dinners in my book, such as these two.

who are they?  well, they are both guys with socal roots - the first one is from riverside, and the second is from santa barbara.  that would be wayne gross and brian asselstine, both of whom recently signed their 1978 topps cards for me through the mail

their signatures haven't changed much in 34 years!

here's another page from one of the hot stoves - can you figure out who the signatures belong to?

dave stegman, mickey kelleher, and bobby bonds.  i can still see bonds signing my book while walking towards the front table to take his seat.  he was wearing a very cool velvet/velour shirt.

here's another local guy - rusty kuntz

nothing else needs to be said about that.

the last auto i will show from the book came from what i believe was the second sutton golf tourney.  i've mentioned it before on the blog, but hadn't yet shown it.  it is the first autograph i personally received from a retired player who had worn the dodger uniform.

i knew all about al downing and 715 and i was pretty starstruck.  he was really nice and took a couple of minutes to talk with me about my little league experience.  even just looking at the book now brings a smile to my face as i recall his smile and encouragement.

don't get me wrong - i've enjoyed requesting and receiving ttm autos over the past few years, but the in person experience as a kid just can't be beat.