so it begins - the (mostly) regular issue steve garvey binders

i've got essentially four full binders of steve garvey cards and assorted items (not to mention my garvey posters, prints, first baseman's glove, louisville slugger bat, and signed balls).  two of them feature oddball items (which i've shown over the past few months) and the other two feature (for the most part) standard sized cards.  over the course of the next unknown amount of time, i'm going to show you the contents of those two binders.

here we go - page 1:

this first sheet features:

1. 1971 dell today's team stamp
2. 1971 o-pee-chee
3. 1971 topps
4. 1971 topps dodger team
5. 1972 topps dodger team
6. 1972 topps
7. 1973 o-pee-chee
8. 1973 topps dodger team
9. 1973 topps

here are the backs, just remember that they are reversed since i just flipped the sheet over to scan it

a couple of notes about this sheet - i obviously decided to include team cards (topps only) as the garv is in the front row of the 1971 card, the third row of the 1972 card, and the middle row of the 1973 card.  also, the dell today's team stamp is also sometimes referred to as the 'mlb official stamp'.  the only garvey release i am missing from this period is the 1972 topps venezuelan stamp. good luck to me.

here's the second sheet:

featuring:

1. 1974 o-pee-chee
2. 1974 topps
3. 1974 topps dodger team
4. 1975 hostess
5. 1975 kellogg's
6. 1975 o-pee-chee
7. 1975 o-pee-chee 1974 mvp's
8. 1975 o-pee-chee 1974 nlcs
9. 1975 topps

and the backs:

in case you're wondering, garvey's in the middle row of the team card.  here i'm missing only the 1975 hostess twinkie card (it has a black bar on the back, which the regular hostess card - as seen above - does not).

this is the third sheet of the binder:

featuring:

1. 1975 topps 1974 mvp's
2. 1975 topps dodger team
3. 1975 topps 1974 nlcs
4. 1975 topps mini
5. 1975 topps mini 1974 mvp's
6. 1975 topps mini 1974 nlcs
7. 1976 hostess
8. 1976 kellogg's
9. 1976 o-pee-chee

these are the backs

garvey's still in the middle row on the team card.  you might notice a couple of things here.  first, i am missing the 1976 hostess twinkie card (again with a black bar on the back), and the 1975 sspc card is not where it should be. instead, i have a 1976 o-pee-chee card there.  that's because i used to catalog the sspc card as a 1976 release (which is how it's listed on the official beckett garvey checklist).  since starting this blog, however, i have come to refer to that set as the 1975 sspc set based on the copyright date on the back of the cards.

so, there you have the first three sheets of cards in my basic steve garvey card collection.  there will be more.  lots more.  stay tuned.

now that's buckner

i was flipping through a binder a couple of weeks ago when i noticed this 2002 topps gold label card

that is, of course, a bill buckner uniform relic card from the mlb awards ceremony insert set.  it's a cubbie card all the way, with the logo, relic, photo, and 1980 topps card in the background all coming from billy buck's time with the cubs.  still, i haven't parted with it because, of all the dodger players that didn't quite make it to the 1977 or 1978 teams, buckner is the one i was the most disappointed with.

i recall seeing the footage of hank aaron's 715th home run with buckner climbing the fence in left - what a great effort, i thought.  that guy is awesome!  then, when he led the league with a .324 average in 1980 (the reason he is featured on the card above), i was really disappointed that he wasn't still a dodger.  it was pointed out to me that there was really nowhere for buckner to play on those dodger teams, unless i was willing to not have steve garvey at first or dusty baker in left, and it was due to the trade of buckner that the dodgers acquired rick monday, so i accepted the fact that buckner was not a dodger.

still, i was happy to see that topps brought him back to the blue in this year's set, giving us dodger fans a certified sticker auto in the trajectory insert set

they used the same photo (rotated) that upper deck used in the 2004 legends timeless teams set, which offered an on-card auto of the former dodger

which was the first card of buckner as a dodger i had seen since, well, 2003 in upper deck's sp authentic chirography dodger stars set.  but before that, you have to go all the way to 1977 i am pretty sure.

i actually did pick up a buckner card from his days as a dodger recently.  it was also a nefarious 9 want, and it completes a team set for me.  it is his high numbered 1971 o-pee-chee card

on which he shares space with future dodger enzo hernandez and the braves' marty perez who is really wearing an angels' uniform.  here's the yellow back

buckner has been featured in a few topps releases over the past couple of years, but last year's tier one release was the only one that had him in dodger blue as far as i could tell.  this year marks the first time they've put him in a dodger uniform on a non-auto card since '77 with the release of allen & ginter.  that base card is on the nefarious 9, and i am looking forward to adding it to my buckner as a dodger collection.

yeah, their backs are all yellow

continuing on from this morning's post, here are the rest of my 1971 o-pee-chee dodger cards.  they are easy to spot because the reverse side is all yellow...

maury wills

the 1962 nl mvp was in his second run with the dodgers in 1971

but he was definitely slowing down, as he stole only 15 bases in 1971

dodgers team card

the only year they took the team photo in the pavilion seats, as far as i know.

not too many updates to the franchise record holders other than the pennant winners list.  mike marshall's 106 games would be on there instead of bob miller's 74, and shawn green's 49 home runs eclipses duke snider's 43.  interesting that willie keeler was thought to have had 179 singles in 1900, as baseball reference credits him with 175.  even stranger is that he had 190 in 1899, but that is nowhere to be seen on the back of the card.

wes parker

parker made a run at johnny frederick's franchise doubles record of 52 in 1970, hitting 47

he also had a career best 111 rbi in '71

jim lefebvre

again with the black batting gloves

lefebvre replaced jim gilliam as the dodgers' first base coach late in the 1978 season after gilliam suffered what turned out to be a fatal brain hemhorrage.

jerry stephenson

stephenson was a member of the 1967 red sox and pitched for them in the world series that year against the cardinals

after retiring as a player, he spent almost 40 years as a scout for the dodgers and red sox.

willie crawford

with two black batting gloves!

this is the last of the 'sunburst' backs for the dodgers.

this is where the bill buckner card would be if i owned a copy.  it's listed on my nefarious 9 - help a blogger out!  you will be rewarded big time for this card.

jim brewer

brewer pitched in three world series games - one each in 1965, 1966, and 1974.  he struck out harmon killebrew in his 1965 appearance.

not only do the cards from these last series lack the sunburst photos, but we get no french text either.  at least the backs are still yellow!

walt alston

i found alston's card on ebay from a seller who labeled it as a topps card.  luckily they included an image of the back to let me know that it was the o-pee-chee version

it's a bit banged up, but i'll take it for only a couple of bucks as opposed to twenty or so.

willie davis

3 dog chokes up a bit on his bat

davis made the all-star team for the first time in 1971, and also won his first gold glove that year.

tom haller

1971 was haller's last season with the dodgers.  with duke sims, bill sudakis, and some kid named joe ferguson with the club, haller was expendable.

that's a haller back, yo.

rich allen

a fantastic dodger stadium shot with dead grass and the knee of the photographer.

allen was traded to the white sox after just one season with the dodgers for tommy john, and he went on to win the american league mvp in 1972.  the dodgers did ok with john, too.

jose pena

this card has some circular scuffs, but i don't need to spend a ton of money for an upgrade.

pena was effective in his first 12 outings of 1970 as the text notes, but in his other 23 outings that year, he gave up 26 earned runs.

tom paciorek

i thought for sure that this card would be the last one i would acquire, thanks to the rookie presence of  johnnie b. baker and don baylor.  paciorek was included in the trade that brought dusty to los angeles, much to my excitement.

there were just over 100 minor league home runs at the time between the three of them, but they combined to hit more than 650 big league home runs.  that's a powerful card.

i'll keep an eye out for the billy buckner rookie, but i will also turn my attention to the 1972 o-pee-chee dodgers.  thank goodness the o-pee-chee set from that year tops out at number 525 - no steve garvey, don sutton, hoyt wilhelm, or frank robinson cards to worry about!

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...