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.

los angeles dodger commemorative patches through the years

i've been meaning to do this for quite some time, however it was a review of brian's want list at highly subjective and completely arbitrary that proved to be the push i needed to get it done. you see, brian collects cards showing commemorative - not memorial - patches.

the dodgers have worn a few commemorative patches recently, but not nearly as many as some teams for whom there seems to be something worth celebrating pretty much every year.  i'm limiting these posts to the los angeles dodger team, which means there won't be any discussion of the new york world's fair patch worn by the brooklyn dodgers in 1939.

well, aside from that 1961 fleer card, there won't be any discussion.  this list also does not include single game patches, such as the jackie robinson day patch that has been worn on april 15 in some recent seasons.

the task is fairly easy, because the dodgers didn't wear any patches, especially team specific patches for quite some time after moving to the west coast.  here's a year by year rundown.

1958 - none

1959 - none

1960 - none

1961 - none

1962 - none

1963 - none

1964 - none

1965 - none

1966 - none

1967 - none

1968 - none

1969 - major league baseball 100th anniversary (1971 dell's today team stamp maury wills)

1970 - none

1971 - none

1972 - none

1973 - none

1974 - none

1975 - none

1976 - national league centennial (1977 topps manny mota)

1977 - none

1978 - none

1979 - none

1980 - dodger stadium all-star game patch (1982 topps reggie smith)

1981 - city of los angeles bicentennial (1982 fleer bob welch)

1982 - none

1983 - los angeles dodgers 25th anniversary (1984 fleer derrel thomas)

1984 - dodger stadium olympic venue (1985 donruss orel hershiser)

1985 - none

1986 - none

1987 - dodger stadium 25th anniversary (1988 score steve sax)

1988 - none (vero beach 40th anniversary patch during spring training - 1988 donruss baseball's best alfredo griffin)

1989 - none

1990 - dodger national league franchise 100th anniversary (1991 topps debut '90 luis lopez)

1991 - none

1992 - dodger stadium 30th anniversary (1993 donruss triple play brett butler)

1993 - none (don drysdale/roy campanella and tim crews memorial patches)

1994 - major league baseball 125th anniversary patch (1995 fleer henry rodriguez)

1995 - none

1996 - dodger stadium 35th season (1997 upper deck tommy lasorda)

1997 - jackie robinson 50th anniversary patch (1998 topps finest brett butler)

1998 - los angeles dodgers 40th anniversary (1999 fleer brilliants eric karros)

1999 - dodger heroes (1999 keebler dodgers tripp cromer)

2000 - none

2001 - none

2002 - dodger stadium 40th anniversary (2003 topps total david ross)

2003 - none

2004 - none

2005 - none

2006 - none

2007 - none

2008 - los angeles dodgers 50th anniversary (2009 upper deck matt kemp)

2009 - none

2010 - 1955 world championship 55th anniversary (2010 topps update reed johnson)

2011 - none (duke snider memorial patch)

2012 - dodger stadium 50th anniversary (2013 topps josh beckett)

2013 - none

2014 - none

2015 - none

there were several missed opportunities that could have been celebrated - inaugural season on the west coast (1958), defending world champions (1960), opening of dodger stadium (1962), defending world champions (1964), defending world champions (1966), defending world champions (1982), defending world champions (1989), etc. as you can see, there were lots of chances to have worn defending world champions patches in the past, and i'm hoping next year they'll be in a position to wear one (or not) again.

the next two pages in the steve garvey binder get us through 1978

here's the fourth sheet in the first of two steve garvey binders that contain the regular issue stuff, plus some oddballs that fit in regular sized 9-pocket sheets.

this sheet contains:

1. 1975 sspc
2. 1976 topps dodger team
3. 1976 topps
4. 1977 burger chef disc
5. 1977 hostess
6. 1977 hostess twinkie
7. 1977 kellogg's
8. 1977 o-pee-chee
9. 1977 topps

as you'll recall from the previous post, the 1975 sspc card is mixed in with the 1976 cards, since i used to catalog that set as a 1976 set.  now i call it a 1975 release based on the copyright date on the backs.  speaking of backs, here's the back of the sheet

which is best used to note the difference between the regular hostess issue and the twinkie version.  the twinkie card has that black bar on the back.

here's page number 5

which features:

1. 1977 topps dodger team
2. 1977 topps cloth sticker
3. 1977 topps cloth sticker nl all-star team/checklist
4. 1978 o-pee-chee
5. 1978 pepsi (trimmed)
6. 1978 sspc
7. 1978 topps
8. 1978 topps dodger team
9. 1978 wiffle ball disc

and the backs

the 1977 o-pee-chee card is more similar to the 1977 topps cloth sticker than the 1977 topps card due to the absence of the all-star banner, but you already knew all about those types of o-pee-chee variations, right?

there are a bunch of msa disc variations that i don't have from this span of garvey releases (with the others that i do own sitting in the oddball binder due to their size), but that's about all i'm missing here.  for some reason, both hostess and kellogg's left the garv out of their 1978 sets, which is unfortunate.

next up, 1979...

a black armband for tom yawkey

tom yawkey owned the boston red sox from february of 1933 until his death in july of 1976.  in his memory, the red sox added a black armband to their jerseys, as seen on bobby darwin's 1977 topps card.

jackie robinson referred to yawkey as 'one of the most bigoted men in baseball' due to yawkey's opposition to integrating the red sox and a charade of a tryout that robinson had with the team in 1945.  it wasn't until 1959 that the red sox had an african-american player - pumpsie green - and racism was thought to have continued to play a part in the team's roster make up even after that.  still, yawkey was posthumously named to the hall of fame in 1980.

as for darwin, he joined the red sox about a month before yawkey died, and was traded to the cubs about a year later.  i had never really taken a close look at darwin's card before prepping it for this post. the back is pretty interesting.

darwin went several seasons between his debut in 1962 and his next appearance in 1969.  and, tommy lasorda gets a mention for converting darwin into a position player.  a little more digging shows that darwin debuted as a 19-year old pitcher for the angels, getting the start in the final game of the 1962 season. he struck out 6 in 3.1 innings, but also gave up 6 runs (4 earned) and took the loss.  the dodgers picked him up in the 1968 rule v draft, and gave him another shot as a hurler.  of those 6 games that show up in his stats, 3 were appearances as a pitcher, and 3 came as a pinch runner.  after posting a high era in those appearances, darwin was sent down to the minors - the dodgers' aaa team in spokane - where lasorda was his manager.  darwin remained on the pitching staff, but did play one game in the outfield, according to baseball reference.  in 1970, he was sent to single a ball to really learn the outfield.  his manager there was don lejohn who probably deserves more credit than lasorda for the transformation.  darwin did return to spokane and lasorda in 1971 before getting the call up to the majors.  he had some decent offensive years for the twins, but led the american league in strikeouts in each of his full seasons in minnesota.

the armband is also visible on the '77 cards of dwight evans and carlton fist, but i figured darwin makes a good representative of the memorial, even though his card is the least visually appealing of the three.

black armband for joan payson and casey stengel

the new york mets wore black armbands on their left sleeves during the 1976 season to pay tribute to some pretty important people in their franchise's history - joan payson and casey stengel.  here is joe torre's 1977 topps card with the armband prominently featured

joan payson was a shareholder of the new york giants baseball club, and she opposed their move to san francisco.  her efforts in bringing another team to new york were successful when her group was awarded the expansion mets in 1962.  she thus became the first female owner of an mlb franchise, and remained the majority owner until her death in october of 1975.

casey stengel was the first manager in mets' history, and is known for his colorful quotes about their ineptitude.  he managed the amazin' mets from their inception until the end of august, 1965.  shortly thereafter, the team (which had not won more than 53 games during any of the 3-plus seasons in which he managed them) retired his number.  stengel was diagnosed with cancer in september of 1975 and died from the disease just a couple of weeks later.

and, lest you think that the cards i choose to represent these memorials are opportunistic or random, allow me to point out that joe torre, just like casey stengel, managed the yankees, braves, dodgers, and mets.

now let me admit that a lot of the time, i just have to go with a card that shows the memorial, whether there is a good connection to the person(s) being memorialized or not.

there's no need to go anywhere else

1971 marked the first time that the photo used on the dodgers team card showed dodger stadium in the background.  here's the 1971 o-pee-chee version of the card, with the team sitting in the first few rows of one of the pavilions.

prior to that, the photo used either came from spring training, or the background was eliminated. in the  1972 set, they were back at spring training, but for the 1973 set, the team was clearly down on the field in chavez ravine, where they have stayed since then.

for 1976, they used the right field corner as their backdrop

as they did in 1977

and 1978, for that matter.  the 1979 card, however, shows them moving slightly towards center field

to capture some of the right field pavilion and even get a couple of palm trees in the photo.

they used the same set up for 1981

which was the last year for team cards for a very long time.

in 2000, fleer brought them back in their tradition set.  

here we have the dodgers still using the right field pavilion and corner as the backdrop, but for the 2000 team photo used in 2001 topps,

they moved to the left field pavilion.

they were back to the right field side for the 2002 topps set

and the 2003 topps set

and the 2004 topps set as well.

for 2006, they not only trotted out their third different team logo panel, but they moved the set up so that their backs are to home plate

they actually made that move first for the photo used in the 2005 set, but i didn't have a scan handy.  you can see the background better on the 2007 topps heritage team card

which uses the same photo that's on the 2007 topps card

which is the last of these types of team cards we have seen, if i'm not mistaken.

i can appreciate the fact that some teams have tried to dress up the drab background that their stadium provides for these photos, like the giants who brought in a cable car (1978 topps) to liven things up inside candlestick.  some teams have gone outside their stadium such as the phillies (who literally went outside of veterans stadium in 1978 topps).  taking things to an extreme, the padres have been to old town san diego (1979), the zoo (1980), and mission bay (1981), and the cubs used floating heads for a few years despite having the ivy as an obvious choice for a backdrop.  the dodgers, however, have stayed in their stadium, and really - why go anywhere else?

i'm looking forward to seeing the renovations on some 2013 series 2 cards!