before i get to archives...

i understand that 2015 topps archives is live. i also understand that they are using the 1957 topps design for one of the four subsets in the base set.  that's nice, although i do wish that 1978 would get some love sometime before heritage catches up in 2027.  speaking of heritage, the last time we saw the 1957 topps design was in 2006 with the topps heritage set.  this is the dodger team card from that set

it features a photo taken inside dodger stadium - a stadium that didn't exist in 1957.  here are a few more dodgers from that set - cesar izturis

hong-chih kuo

derek lowe

and bill mueller

i rather like the mueller card. it seems like an old-timey pose.  i understand that don sutton is featured in the 1957 topps design grouping in the archives set this year, and i hope that his card is also old-timey in flavor. 

here are some other random cards from my scanned folder.

2006 fleer andre ethier

2006 upper deck jayson werth

2006 topps jim tracy (through the mail autograph success!)

pretty sure tracy is standing in the same spot izturis was for the heritage card up above - notice the palm tree…

2004 topps jim tracy (through the mail autograph success!)

2005 upper deck roy campanella wingfield collection

and 2005 upper deck pee wee reese wingfield collection 

those last two are nice looking cards.  i don't think either campy or pee wee are in archives this year - it's koufax, duke, and jackie as far as brooklyn-era dodgers go.  i'll try to find some of them in a blaster sometime this weekend - stay tuned...

rachel robinson continues to tell the jackie robinson story



one of the perks of this year's topps flagship release has been the jackie robinson story inserts at target.  my favorite is the 'call to the hall' card seen below



it shows jackie along with branch rickey (and his cigar) and jackie's wife, rachel, while celebrating his election to the baseball hall of fame in 1962 as he became the first african american so enshrined.

there are other interesting cards in the set (i still need four of them), such as this one showing him playing basketball at ucla

jackie was actually a four-sport star at ucla - baseball, basketball, track, and football. 

following college, jackie enrolled in the military

but was given an honorable discharge from the army following an incident in which he did not move to the back of a bus.

from there, it was on to the negro leagues, where jackie played for the kansas city monarchs

after just one year in kansas city, jackie was signed by the dodgers and assigned to their minor league affiliate in montreal for the 1946 season.  he eventually broke the color barrier in major league baseball and led the dodgers to a world series title in 1955

yogi still thinks jackie was out, by the way.

the last card in the set commemorates the retirement of jackie's number 42 across major league baseball

which is a fantastic legacy.

 

speaking of which, seeing the hall of fame card reminded me of the work that rachel robinson does to this day to honor her late husband's legacy, and so i sent a double of the card along with a donation to the jackie robinson foundation.  ms. robinson was kind enough to sign the card in silver sharpie and return it to me

along with a nice form letter outlining the purpose and work of the foundation.

at first, i was confused, because this is what i saw when i opened my return envelope

yes, she signed the card holder, too

i have heard of that happening with some ttm signers, but i am glad that the card was signed as well, as that is apparently not always the case when the holder gets signed.

here are a couple more jackie cards from 2015 topps just for fun - his archetypes insert

and the gallery of greats insert

i'm guessing that those two photos also show up on two of the jackie robinson story inserts that i am missing.

thank you, rachel robinson, for signing my card.  i am proud to support the jrf and your work in honoring jackie's career and life by helping others.

henry cruz and geoff zahn through the mail successes!

few men have sported sunglasses on baseball cards as well as former dodger henry cruz.  he recently signed some cards for me through the mail, and each one of them is a revelation in recreational eye wear.

here's his 1975 sspc card

and here's his 1976 topps rookie card upon which his style of sunglasses has changed.

there are three very recognizable outfielders (chet lemon, ellis valentine, and terry whitfield - a future dodger) from the late 1970's/early 1980's on that card next to cruz, who hit .266 in 53 games with the 1975 dodgers, and then just .182 in 49 games for the club in '76.  he did have a two-home run game as a dodger in 1976, which was nice.  in fact, that game was 39 years ago yesterday!

towards the end of the 1977 season, a season in which the dodgers kept him in the minor leagues, cruz was picked up on waivers by the white sox where he became teammates with chet lemon, and thus we have a 1978 topps card that looks like this

yes, cruz signed one of those for me, too.  those glasses look more like the ones from his sspc card above.

i was hoping to have another signed 1978 topps card to show, but geoff zahn hasn't returned it yet.  i'm hoping that he does, but until then, he did send his 1975 topps card back to me

signed and with a bible verse reference.

cruz and zahn were teammates briefly in 1975 (zahn was traded to the cubs early in the season), with cruz playing left field in both of zahn's games as a dodger that year.  with the way zahn seems to be squinting in the dodger stadium sun, perhaps he could have used a pair of cruz's shades.

thanks to both cruz and zahn for signing my cards!

another dave lopes through the mail success!

although the current dodger first base coach and second baseman for the team of my youth signed both his 1978 topps card and the 1978 topps card recapping the 1977 nlcs for me through the mail a few years ago (as part of my 1978 topps autograph project), i was in need (want) of another for my partially signed 1978 topps set.  i sent the cards to lopes ℅ the dodgers' spring training facility, and not too long after, this beauty arrived.

the blue sharpie looks great. it's always an exciting time when i get one of these back in the mail.

thanks davey!

where in the world is my wallet card? - hanging out with mr. october edition

i took some time earlier today to head to the bi-annual regional card show that, oddly enough, was scheduled for the same weekend as the monthly local card show.  the reason i chose the regional show was it draws dealers from a broader range of locales, plus they bring in some interesting autograph guests.  the one signer i keyed in on a couple of months ago when i first looked at the lineup was reggie jackson.  

first of all, i could only go to the show on saturday, so that meant no bill madlock for me.  second, reggie is in the 1978 topps set (twice), and i have amassed over a couple hundred signed cards from that set.  third, even though he was a yankee who beat the team of my youth in back-to-back world series, he's still mr. october.

i arrived later than i had hoped, and missed out on handing over a 330-count box of cards to brian from hsca.  that's the box there under my 1978 topps jackson card, the autograph ticket, and my trusty wallet card - a beat up (even more beat up now) 1974 topps steve garvey card.

i chose reggie's base card over his world series recap card because, to me, it's one of his most iconic cards.  the guy behind me in line was having a 1969 topps rookie card signed, and that might be the only card more iconic than the '78.

the line for jim craig (usa! usa! usa!) was about the same length as reggie's, but they were only letting in a limited number of people at a time for craig.  there was no such metering of reggie's line.  that was ok, as the line was moving well, even as reggie took photos with some folks. he had a couple of guys helping him out - one taking the tickets and the other monitoring the stuff being signed.  i was wearing my dodger hat, and the first guy commented on it. i told reggie that he broke my heart in 1977 and 1978, but that game 6 of the '77 series was one of the most impressive things i've ever seen.  even at 6 years old, i knew enough to be impressed by 3 home runs in one world series game.  he thanked me for the words, and as i was telling him i wouldn't ask about him sticking out his hip in the 1978 world series, he reached for my wallet card.

the second guy made sure that reggie didn't sign it - i don't think he would have - but reggie did ask me who it was on the card, and i told him it was the garv and that i kept the card in my wallet.  he didn't say anything about that, but did offer his hand for me to shake which was pretty cool.

it turned out that the '78 topps card isn't the best to get signed since there's a dark background on the bottom half of the card, but i'll still take it.

wallet card and i have a nice little story to tell.

i browsed the wares of a few vendors, and found a guy selling various signed cards for a couple bucks apiece.  i couldn't resist buying a 1981 topps bill russell

a 1984 donruss bill russell

a 1967 topps jim barbieri

and a couple of 1978 topps cards - gene clines

and bob gorinski

seeing the gorinski signed in ballpoint reminded me that i had received a dave lemanczyk card signed

through the mail a couple of weeks back.

i picked up some other cards at the show, including some decent vintage for a few of you out there in blogger land.  keep an eye out.

the bournigal supremacy

rafael bournigal was the victim of the changing expectations from the shortstop position.  his 1995 topps stadium club card

is fantastic, but good cardboard doesn't keep you in the big leagues.  bournigal was a good field/no hit shortstop which would have been ok prior to the 1990's when guys like cal ripken jr and barry larkin were winning mvp awards based on big offensive numbers. the dodgers had jose offerman at shortstop in the early 1990's when bournigal was ready to play in the bigs, and they apparently enjoyed e-fferman's slightly better offense over bournigal's better defense.

here's a 1993 fleer ultra bournigal card

and a 1993 score bournigal card

both of which carry a 'rookie' designation.  bournigal's topps card from 1993 had no such distinction, but there was a gold parallel version

which is nice.

bournigal was a september call-up in both 1992 and 1993, but saw more playing time during the summer of 1994. he appeared in 40 games that year and made only 3 errors compared to offerman who made 11 errors in 72 games.  dodger fans were rewarded with the nice stadium club shown up top in 1995.  here is that card again, with bournigal catching what i imagine to be a line drive with the dodger stadium bleachers in the background.

topps also liked the image, as they used it on one of the 1996 topps pre-production cards, although they cropped it slightly more tightly

here's the back of the pre-production card

which was somewhat elusive. the cards weren't in the 1995 factory set that i bought, which is where the pre-production cards had been in 1994, so i had to go the online marketplace route.  i think i finally found one on ebay, although it could have been comc.  in case you are wondering, there was no 1996 topps rafael bournigal card as he spent the entire 1995 season in the minor leagues, splitting time between the dodger and expo organizations (he was traded to montreal in june).

anyway, i recently sent some cards to bournigal through the mail, and he was kind enough to sign and return them to me.

1995 topps

1995 upper deck

1995 upper deck collector's choice

weird to see him without the goggles

and 1993 topps

looks like he got some sharpie on the table...

with bournigal's dodger career complete, he went on to resurface with the a's from 1996-1998, and then spent the 1999 season with the mariners.  pacific gave us one more card of bournigal in their 2000 pacific crown collection set, and it features a nice double play turn

the dodgers didn't really embrace the new shortstop prototype until they brought hanley ramirez on board, and that will continue with corey seager in a year or two. even when seager is hitting 20+ homers every year, i'll still have a soft spot for guys like bournigal and cesar izturis who can field like nobody's business.

alejandro pena was known for a slow delivery

maybe relaxed is a better way to describe alejandro pena's presence on the mound, but the slow delivery thing came in to play last week when i opened my mailbox and found a sase with an atlanta postmark.  inside were four cards that i had sent to pena prior to 2013 spring training.

1984 topps

1985 topps

1986 topps

1987 topps

pena is a pitching coach in the dodgers' system, and he spent some time at camelback ranch during spring training back when i mailed the cards.  he lives in atlanta, which makes sense considering his two stints with the braves.

a few things that i recall about pena - first and foremost, he led the national league in era in 1984, but injuries pushed him to the bullpen. second, he was the winning pitcher in game 1 of the 1988 world series following kirk gibson's walk-off home run in his first world series appearance (pena had been on the dodgers' 1981 postseason staff for the nlcs but didn't pitch in the world series).  conversely, he was the losing pitcher in game 7 of the 1991 world series after allowing gene larkin's walk-off single.  pena did wind up winning a third ring in 1995 as he helped the braves beat the indians in the fall classic that year.

i am very happy to have these cards in my collection, and very thankful for forever stamps - thanks alejandro!