it's beginning to look a lot like all-star weekend

when the twins were awarded the all-star game a couple of years ago, i thought for sure that i would be attending a bunch of the events, including possibly the game itself.  now that it's almost here, i've actually turned down tickets to the futures game and celebrity softball game, as well as fanfest.  i thought about buying tickets to the home run derby, but decided not to go through with it.

i was in boston during the 1999 fanfest but didn't go, and i regretted it at the time (i think steve garvey might have been at that one).  there's a slight chance that i might pop into the local card show for a bit tomorrow, but i won't be at the fanfest.

anyway, i was thinking about this because there is a lot of coverage on the local news and downtown minneapolis is all decked out with all-star game graphics, and also because this 1987 topps fernando valenzuela glossy all-star card

has been staring at me from my scanned folder for quite some time.  it was included in a pwe sent my way by a certain jay barker fan.  and it wasn't alone.  a couple of weeks later, there was another pwe in my mailbox with more cards.  here are some of the cards from the two envelopes.

1981 topps jay johnstone

this card scanned kind of crookedly, which suits johnstone.  i am currently wondering who the player behind johnstone is.  it sort of looks like the second number on the back is a 6, which would mean it's rick monday, burt hooton, or pepe frias based on the 1980 roster.

1982 fleer tom niedenfuer

aka mr. judy landers

1984 donruss steve sax

we as bloggers don't show enough 1984 donruss i don't think.  this was such a high target set when it came out.  i completed multiple sets and sold one for about $80 in the late 80's as i recall.   i think i still have two sets today.

1990 fleer mike hartley

and another dodger who wore 43, raul mondesi and the back of his 1992 leaf gold leaf rookie insert

i am really intrigued by the lefty batting photos that leaf used here and on his 1993 leaf card.

2003 upper deck darren dreifort

and 2003 upper deck paul loduca

from 2002 through 2005, i largely ignored upper deck's flagship set, only buying product from carlsbad when it was stuff like 2003 chirography and 2004 legends, so these two cards were especially appreciated.

last but not least, here's a 2011 bowman hiroki kuroda card

i wonder if kuroda gives current teammate mark teixeira grief about spoiling his perfect game back in july of 2008 with an 8th inning double.  there are actually three braves who played in that game that now play with kuroda in new york - teixeira, brian mccann, and kelly johnson.  hopefully kuroda reminds them all that he dominated them that day as a dodger.

thanks for the cards wes!

sunday morning target dodgers

the undisputed star of this week's sheet (although not the only hall of famer) is sandy koufax.

over the last 6 seasons of koufax's career, his record was 129-47 with a 2.16 era.  he struck out 1713 batters, threw 1632.2 innings, hurled 115 complete games, and weaved 4 no-hitters.  he also won an mvp award, three cy youngs, and two world championships.  has there ever been a better or more impressive run for a pitcher?

jim barbieri

barbieri spent half of one season in the big leagues.  he was called up in july of 1966, and stayed with the dodgers for the remainder of the season, including the world series.  he hit .280 during the regular season, but was 0 for 1 in the fall classic.  still, he became the first player to have appeared in the little league world series and the major league world series, and he also got a card in the 1967 topps set.

ed brandt

brandt pitched for the braves from 1928 through 1935 (he was a teammate of babe ruth's that last year) before joining the dodgers for a single season in 1936.  as a dodger, he was 11-13 in 38 appearances, and was traded to the pirates after the season ended.  a few years after his retirement, brandt died at the age of 39 after being hit by a car while crossing the street.

tommy corcoran

corcoran played shortstop for the bridegrooms during the 1890's - from 1892 through 1896 to be exact. his best season out of the 18 he played came for brooklyn in 1894 when he hit .300 and scored 123 runs.

henry cruz

cruz obviously played for the white sox, but before that, he was a dodger.  in fact, he played more games as a dodger from 1975 through 1976 than he did as a member of the white sox from 1977 to 1978.  in 102 games with the blue, cruz hit 4 homers with 19 rbi and a .225 average, while in 69 games with chicago, he hit 4 homers with 15 rbi and a .235 average.  there are a couple of cards of cruz in a dodger uniform - he's got an sspc card from 1975 (or 1976 depending on how you catalog it), and he shows up on a 4-player rookie card in 1976 topps as well.  oddly enough, cruz is one of two players from the virgin islands to show up on this sheet.

jay johnstone

johnstone was a dodger double dipper, but i have already told that tale.  instead of rehashing that, i will note that all three of his home runs in 1981 came as a pinch hitter, which is not really a surprise.  the first two came in consecutive at bats, however, which is interesting but not as impressive as del unser and lee lacy hitting home runs in three consecutive pinch hitting appearances.

john kennedy

kennedy was acquired by the dodgers as part of the big trade with the senators following the 1964 season.  good timing on his part, as he played for the national league champions in both 1965 and 1966, winning a world series ring in '65.  kennedy saw action in both postseasons with the dodgers, and was traded to the yankees following the 1966 series.  interestingly enough, this john kennedy was born on may 29, 1941 - 24 years to the day after president john f. kennedy was born.

bill madlock

madlock was a 4-time national league batting champ who joined the dodgers for the pennant run in 1985.  he helped the team reach the nlcs that year, hitting .360 after joining the club, and then hit .333 with 3 homers and 7 rbi in the championship series against the cardinals. unfortunately, madlock wasn't able to direct tommy lasorda to not pitch to jack clark with first base open, and the dodgers lost the series.  madlock returned to the team for the entire 1986 season, but was released by the team following a slow start in 1987.

al mcbean

mcbean is the second player on this sheet to hail from the virgin islands.  he is from st. thomas, while cruz is from st. croix.  anyway, mcbean was a dodger for parts of two seasons - 1969 and 1970.  he joined the dodgers following a one game stint as an original padre in 1969 and went 2-6 in 31 games for the blue.  in 1970, he appeared in just one game for the dodgers before being released which was strange because he threw a scoreless inning in that game.  he signed with the pirates following his release, and returned to pittsburgh where he had pitched for the first 8 seasons of his career.

joe orengo

orengo came to the dodgers in a midseason swap with the new york giants back in 1943.  the dodgers gave up dolph camilli in the deal, and later in the season they wound up sending orengo to the saint paul saints, who would become the dodgers' aa affiliate the following year.  in between, he appeared in 7 games as a dodger,  hitting .200 in 19 plate appearances.

doug rau

dougie was a pitcher on the team of my youth, and i saw him pitch in person quite a few times.  he won at least 13 games every season from 1974 through 1978, and helped the dodgers to the postseason in three of those campaigns.  unfortunately, an arm injury effectively ended his career in 1979, although he did return to the majors for a short stint with the angels in 1981.  he's probably best known for trying to convince tommy lasorda to let him stay in the game during an argument (warning - tommy and rau and even davey lopes all have potty mouths) on the mound in the 1977 world series.

mike vail

like cruz earlier, vail is obviously not shown wearing a dodger uniform.  i suppose this can be forgiven, as vail appeared in only 16 games for the dodgers after he was acquired during to the 1984 season.  he was just 1 for 16 in those games, but at least his lone hit was a walk-off single against the cardinals on july 6.

gus weyhing

weyhing joined the brooklyn superbas during the 1900 season and was 3-4 in 8 games pitched.  until former dodger mike morgan came along, weyhing held the distinction of having pitched for the most number of teams (11).  which reminds me, i need to get to my travels of mike morgan post someday.

hoyt wilhelm

so we start and end the post with hall of famers.  wilhelm ended his hall of fame career with the dodgers in 1972.  he managed 1 save in his final season, which was ended when the dodgers released him - just a few days shy of his 50th birthday.

you may have noticed that there were only 14 cards featured in this post - that's because, once again, one of the players featured was a double dipper.  he'll get a separate post later on.

the best part of 1981 donruss

1981 donruss.  while i was pleased to have more cards to obtain back in 1981, i didn't quite know what to think of it.  strange card stock and powdery gum.  plus, all those photos from wrigley field.  bill russell

and bob welch

could have been standing next to each other ('classic combo' style) when their photos were taken.  similar photos, similar poses, similar backgrounds were abound in 1981 donruss.  in fact, you might recall the memory game post in which i made fun of the repetitive nature of many of the photos used in the set.

some folks, like jay johnstone,

were featured in the home whites at dodger stadium, so that was nice.  steve garvey was among the players who received two cards in the set, which i appreciated.
 
for me, though, the best part about 1981 donruss were the o-pee-chee like cards near the end of the set. cards like the bob owchinko

which used a cleveland photo with a pirates affiliation, even though owchinko wound up with the a's.  he was part of the offseason deal that sent bert blyleven from pittsburgh to cleveland, but wound up being traded to oakland right before the start of the season.

side note - i toyed with the idea of doing a 1981 donruss blog, largely because of the cards like this.  i decided to pass.  i haven't been able to manage the timeless teams blog for the last few months, so i don't see a 605-card set blog being a good idea.

the giants had a couple of players in cub uniforms - jesus figueroa

and jerry martin

were traded to san fran in december of 1980.

larry milbourne

who played the infield and shortstop, apparently, was dealt from seattle to new york in november of 1980.

donruss updated bruce sutter's team affiliation for the set after the december trade sent the future hall of famer to the cardinals

but the two guys the cubs got in exchange for him, leon durham and ken reitz, were both left as cardinals in the set.

dave edwards, one of three edwards brothers to play in the majors, went from the twins to the padres 

his brother mike was featured in the set, but marshall edwards didn't debut until april of 1981, so he was shut out of the 1981 donruss checklist.

jim essian chose the white sox in free agency

as did ron leflore

as with o-pee-chee cards, i like how the old and new team colors kind of clash on the essian card.  not as much clashing on the leflore card, which is unfortunate.

the cubs lost another player from their 1981 donruss team set, thanks to mike vail being traded to the reds

and donruss not putting hector cruz (the guy the cubs got back in the deal) in the set, even though he was featured in both the topps and fleer sets.

the last of these cards in the set belongs to fred stanley, who went from the yankees to the a's

in a trade for mike morgan.  stanley wound up facing his old mates in the 1981 postseason, but was on the losing end.  the second best thing about his card is that it shows the black armband that yankee players wore in honor of their teammate thurman munson, who died in a plane crash during the 1979 season.  i'll have a post about that tomorrow.

oh, one more thing.  the timeless teams blog returns to life tomorrow, too.

the 1981 postseason, as it should have been in 1982

who can tell me when topps started putting postseason summary cards in their sets?  there was the mickey mantle/hank aaron world series combo card in the 1958 set, highlighting 'world series batting foes' from the 1957 fall classic, but it wasn't until 1960 that there were cards that recapped the previous season's championship (the dodgers over the white sox, of course).  then, topps ran this subset - sometimes one card for each game, and sometimes one card for each series after the start of divisional play - all the way through the 1978 set, except for 1966.  and guess who played in (and won) the 1965 world series?  the los angeles dodgers, that's right.

the dodgers (and twins) were for some reason denied by topps an appearance on seven or maybe eight glorious cards.  cards that might have featured koufax, drysdale, killebrew, jim kaat, and lou johnson.  topps skipped the subset in 1979 (again penalizing the dodgers) and 1980, before bringing it back for a last hurrah in 1981.  after that, we would wait until 1998 for the return of postseason cards.  that, of course, means that topps ignored two more dodger world championship teams - the 1988 dodgers (who were recognized by fleer and, oddly enough, o-pee-chee) and the 1981 dodgers.

this post is here to right that wrong, so here are the 1982 topps postseason cards that should have been.  first, the world series recap card

there we have the three steves - garvey, yeager, and howe - in the aftermath of the final out in game 6 at yankee stadium.  kenny landreaux has just caught bob watson's fly ball in center field, and a 10-year old kid in california could not have been happier.

but, before we get to the world series, we must revisit the dodgers' triumph in the first divisional series, made possible by the players' strike.  the divisional champs in each 'half' of the season squared off, with the dodgers facing the houston astros.  the dodgers lost the first two games of the five game series, but came back to beat the astros thanks to strong pitching performances by burt hooton, fernando valenzuela, and jerry reuss.  here, reuss celebrates following his game 5 shutout to advance the dodgers to the nlcs against the expos.

that photo comes from the 1982 dodgers police set, and it's a bit frantic.  i found a better photo online, from jerry reuss's flickr account (thank you mr. reuss), but it's in black and white and there was too much to colorize for me to bother.

still, it does include steve garvey, as well as the astros' dave roberts who struck out to end the game (the out was recorded at first base as mike scioscia did not catch the final pitch cleanly).

and so, it was on to montreal to face the expos who had dispatched the phillies, also in five games.  actually, the dodgers and expos split the first two games of the series, played in los angeles.  then, the expos took the first game at home.  the dodgers rallied to win game 4 and force the decisive game 5.  i think we all know what happened next - rick monday took steve rogers deep to break a 1-1 tie in the top of the 9th, and fernando and bobby welch shut down montreal in the bottom of the inning.  welch, in fact, makes an appearance in the first photo i used for the nlcs recap card

but, after a quick reconsideration, i went with a different photo

that's pedro guerrero standing on deck.  i don't think he is employing steve garvey's advice, either.

i had mo sign a copy of this card through hall of fame sports' dodger days in 2010.

i like it very much.

as for the world series, the dodgers dropped the first game against the yankees, who had defeated the brewers and the a's (cards for those series are not shown).  graig nettles made some big plays at third base for the bronx bombers, so he gets the card.

in game 2 then following night, the dodgers were shut out, and goose gossage earned his second save of the series.

the series shifted to los angeles, and in the bottom of the first inning of game 3, ron cey hit a 3-run homer to put the dodgers on top, and he later scored their 5th run of the game as well.  it was his defensive play in the 8th inning, however, that is commemorated on the game 2 card that should have been.

with the dodgers up 5-4, fernando allowed the first two yankee batters to reach on singles.  bobby murcer pinch hit for rudy may, but his sacrifice attempt was popped up, and the penguin dove to record the out.  he then threw to first base to double up larry milbourne.  the next batter grounded out, and the yankee threat was eliminated.

looking to tie the series at two games apiece, the dodgers were down in game 4 6-3 when tommy lasorda sent jay johnstone to the plate in the bottom of the 6th inning.  pinch hitting for tom niedenfuer, johnstone hit a two-run home run to bring the dodgers to within a run of the yankees.  his curtain call makes the front of the game 4 card.

the dodgers tied the score later in the inning and went on to win the game 8-7.  many consider johnstone's home run to have been the turning point of the series.

in game 5, the dodgers turned to jerry reuss, and he did not disappoint.

he allowed only a second inning run and pitched a complete game, 5-hitter.  losing pitcher ron guidry allowed only 4 hits over 7 innings, but two of those hits were the back-to-back home runs that pedro guerrero and steve yeager hit in the bottom of the 7th to give the dodgers the lead.

it was all over but the shouting as the teams returned to new york for game 6.  the score was tied 1-1 until the 5th inning, when cey drove in davey lopes with a two-out single.

the dodgers went on to score two more runs in the inning, and the game was pretty much over, and the three steve party shown up top was an inevitability.

because of the oddity of it all, i also made a card featuring the co-mvp's of the series - guerrero, yeager, and cey.

it's a nice photo - in fact, it's used on yeager's 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams 1981 card.  the world series photos all came from sports illustrated, and the mvp photo was found online.  as was this last one.  

i'll end the post by noting (again) that steve garvey was originally told that he - not yeager - was one of the mvp's.  here's a screen capture of garvey with petey and the penguin (as well as commissioner bowie kuhn and announcer bob uecker) before someone told him of the mistake.

as for the cards, i didn't bother with backs - i think i would have gone with the game box scores and composite stats like the topps subsets did prevously - but i might get around to it someday.  until then, i'm just glad that these cards that should have been are finally seeing the light of day.

here's to the team of my youth, even if topps, donruss and fleer all ignored their 1981 triumph in 1982.