another team collector dilemma?

when i first began collecting in 1978, there were team cards

that doubled as team checklists

and then there were set checklists

that sometimes misspelled bucky dent's name (he's number 164).  these checklists were two different entities - i figured it was one for team collectors and another for set collectors.  i didn't realize until later that this was a fairly new phenomenon as topps first put the team checklist on the back of team cards in 1975.  anyway, all was good until 1981 when fleer came along.

in their inaugural set, fleer divided the set checklist cards up into team checklists - two teams per card, one on the front and one on the back.  here's the dodger team checklist from 1981 fleer. 

les expos are on the back, by the way.  this made sense to me as fleer numbered their sets by team, so all of the dodgers were numerically sequential, well, except for the steve garvey superstar special card near the end.

fleer did the same thing in 1982 (with the dodgers at the front of the set as world champions!), 

and then again in 1983.

by this time, i was including these checklists with my team sets since there weren't any other team cards, and these checklists were team specific.  in 1984, fleer made the decision easier by adding the manager to the teams that were lucky enough to be on the front of the checklists

hello, tom lasorda.  sorry, steve boros (the a's are on the back).

like i said, i considered these to be part of the team sets.  in 1982, topps did away with the team cards and started putting the team checklists on the back of team leader cards.  they continued doing that until 1985, when they moved the team checklist to the back of the manager's cards.  topps continued this practice of team checklists on the back of manager cards and set checklists on their own cards through 1989.  in 1990, however, they brought the team statistics to the back of the manager cards and modified the set checklists so that they were sorted by team.  this continued through 1992 before topps went back to the traditional numerical order set checklists in 1993, although they eliminated team checklists that year.

so, the dilemma is this - are the topps set checklists part of the team sets from 1990-1992?  it is not as cut and dried as with the fleer cards above, because topps was sloppy - not wanting to devote 13 cards to checklists (yes, there were only 26 teams in the early 1990's).  here's a checklist from 1992 topps to show what i mean

to me, this does not belong in my dodger topps team set binder.  what say you?

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...

andy messersmith was a dodger double dipper

i mentioned earlier today that andy messersmith would get a dodger double dipper post of his very own.  i wasn't joking.

[this is the eighty-ninth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, babe herman, joe medwick, juan castro, ron perranoski, clyde king, paul waner, hughie jennings, ron negray, broadway aleck smith, george smith, johnny cooney, jim fairey, frenchy bordagaray, doc casey, waite hoyt, luis olmo, clyde sukeforth, willie keeler,  harry howell, germany smith, johnny allen, marv rackley, bobo newsom, maury wills, dazzy vance, ray hayworth, zack taylor, john cronin, art herring, brian falkenborg, bill reidy, john anderson, vito tamulis, wally hood, jim bruske, bill dahlen, patsy donovan, jamey wright, and watty clark.]

messersmith first joined the dodgers in 1973 after he was traded by the angels in the frank robinson deal.  i am sure the dodgers coveted his 2.78 era over the five seasons he pitched for the angels, and they weren't disappointed, as he had a 2.67 era in his first four years with the club, which included his fantastic 1974 season in which he went 20-6 and had an era of 2.59.  messersmith started the nl all-star game in 1974, as well as game 2 of the nlcs against the pirates which he won.  he also started games 1 and 4 of the world series, but took the loss in each.  

after a season like that, messersmith was looking for a raise, but when he tried to negotiate a contract for the 1975 season, things didn't go well.  here's his hostess card from 1975, by the way,

complete with the rare sighting of batting gloves on a pitcher's throwing hand.  he decided to pitch without a contract while his grievance against the reserve clause was being resolved.  he wound up winning 19 games in 1975 while posting an era of 2.29 and earning his second straight gold glove.  the baseball arbitrator ruled in his favor (the owners fired the arbitrator the following day), and messersmith signed a free agent deal with the braves.

he moved on to the yankees after the 1977 season, as his 1978 o-pee-chee card attests

but was re-signed by the dodgers when he hit the market again after the 1978 season.  it even says so on his 1979 o-pee-chee card

i really wish there had been a traded set in the late 1970's and 1980 so that there could have been more cards of players like messersmith.  here's a 1979 topps card that should have been that i made

to help ease my pain.

the second time around was not as successful for messersmith as he was 2-4 in 11 starts with a 4.91 era when the dodgers released him in early june.  he retired soon after, with a 2.86 career era which puts him between jim palmer and tom seaver, but well within the top 10 for starting pitchers after 1920.

here's another card i made for messersmith - it's his 1980 topps card that should have been

which serves as a final tribute with his entire career stats on the back.

i don't have any other double dippers lined up, so this may be the end of the line for these posts, at least until the dodgers reacquire matt kemp a few years from now for a torii hunter-esque swan song.  still, don't be surprised if i uncover some other heretofore unknown to me franchise double dipper in the 1990 target dodgers set...

more pages from the steve garvey oddball binder - this would be part 3

let's continue the trip through my steve garvey collection.  we are still in the oddball binder, which contains a number of, oddly enough, oddballs.

1977 pepsi glove discs and 1978 pepsi

here are the backs

i prefer coca-cola products (prefer is not a strong enough word), but i thank pepsi for putting these things in their 'cartons' back in the late 1970's.

now for some msa discs - starting in the upper left we have a 1976 isaly's, a 1976 towne club, a 1978 pepsi (removed from its glove), and a 1978 big t disc

it's hard to tell the isaly's and the towne club apart, unless you look on the back

i can't believe i didn't order one of those pepsi shirts!  then again, we were drinking shasta cola back then.

one more item for tonight - an uncut sheet of 1978 o-pee-chee cards, including garvey in the upper right

it's a darn shame that there aren't any variations on the sheet, although a young robin yount and don baylor's 1978 card are nice to have.  here are the bright and bilingual backs

buddy bell and bump wills are pretty well creased, but i don't mind.

through the mail thursday - chris potter and the autographed cards

a couple of days ago, i received a package from chris potter sports.  it contained the four cards that i had sent in for their february signing tour.  i had a credit left over from their last tour (matt keough had cancelled) so cashed in for a couple different 1978 topps autos.  i also sprung for a couple of dodger signatures.

1974 topps tom paciorek

i had made a couple of freebie attempts through the mail with paciorek, better known for his days as a white sox broadcaster, with no success.  i chose his 1974 card rather than, say, his 1978 topps card because dodger cards take priority over non-dodger 1978 topps cards in my autograph collection.

1978 o-pee-chee rick rhoden

rhoden had sent me a few bonus signed cards while fulfilling a request i sent with his 1978 topps card and a $10 donation a while back.  i was happy to spend another $10 to get this canadian issue signed.

here are the two cards that i got signed using the matt keough credit - 1978 topps sixto lezcano

and 1978 topps tom hume

i was pretty pleased to see sixto signing for cheap, because, well, his name is sixto.  as for hume, i remember him as one of the people that was rescued from the 1980 mgm fire in las vegas first and a reliever second.  i sent a different copy of this card to steve mccatty a couple of years ago, which he signed, but i figured i would let hume have a clean card to sign.

thanks again to chris potter sports and to the players for signing!

requiem for a teammate - a black armband for danny frisella

danny frisella was only 30 years old when he died in january of 1977 from injuries sustained in a dune buggy crash.  he had split the 1976 season between the cardinals and brewers, and had established himself as the brew crew's closer with 9 saves and a 2.74 era in 32 appearances.

the team subsequently wore black armbands during the 1977 season as a memorial for their teammate.  cecil cooper's 1978 o-pee-chee card is a good example. 

cooper's 1978 card(s - topps and o-pee-chee) will always make me think of my swimming lessons in the summer of 1978.  it's a great card, but i like it all the more because the first one i ever saw was lying near the pool at which i had those swimming lessons.  this was pre-ymca or swim school, so the lessons i had were at a motel pool across the street from the 7-11 where my friends and i would buy our 15 cent packs.  the card was creased and had some water damage (not as much as you might think), but i took it home.  eventually, it was replaced in my set and collection by a pack fresh version.  still, it was the first card i ever found just lying around somewhere.

even though i really like cooper's card, the one that makes the memorial binder is charlie moore's 1978 topps card

it's number 51 in the set, which means that it immediately follows rick reuschel's card with the black armband for philip k wrigley (the subject of today's earlier post).  that's a strong back-to-back memorial one-two punch.

the danny thompson memorial armband

danny thompson was drafted by the reds, yankees, and senators before finally signing after being taken by the twins in the first round of the 1968 june draft.  by 1972, he had earned the starting shortstop job for the twinkies.  here's his 1975 o-pee-chee card

following that season, in which he hit .276 in 144 games and even garnered some mvp votes, thompson was diagnosed with leukemia.  doctors estimated that thompson had 5 more years of being able to play baseball before the disease affected him.  he returned to the twins in 1973 and was later traded to the rangers during the 1976 season in the bert blyleven deal.

he finished the season with the rangers, hitting .214 in 64 games.  a couple of months after the season ended, thompson passed away at the mayo clinic in rochester, minnesota due to complications from his disease.  he was only 29 years old.

the following season, the rangers wore a black armband with thompson's number 4 on their left sleeves.  you can see it on adrian devine's 1978 topps card

but the card in my memorials collection is mike hargrove's 1978 o-pee-chee issue

the twins did not wear a memorial for thompson, but his former teammate harmon killebrew organized a fundraising golf tournament in his memory that still operates today - the danny thompson memorial golf tournament (now known as the killebrew-thompson memorial golf tournament) which has raised millions of dollars for cancer research since its inception.

it's not trade bait anymore

i've got more trade bounty to showcase today, courtesy of oscar at all trade bait all the time.  it's sometimes tough trading with fellow dodger collectors, but at the same time, you know they are pulling from a variety of card manufacturers and years.  that makes for some interesting trade packages.  here are some highlights from one of them.

1986 sportflics decade greats steve garvey

garvey certainly was a decade great, although his best decade was 1974-1983.

1978 o-pee-chee rick rhoden

always a joy to get an o-pee-chee card in a trade package.  how do i know it's o-pee-chee?  here's the back

rhoden was only 24 in 1977.  i was pretty excited at the time about the dodger rotation with him, don sutton, tommy john, burt hooton and doug rau.  only hooton was around for the 1981 world series title, however.

1988 topps uk mini pedro guerrero

from canada to the united kingdom.  not bad.

2005 playoff prestige ron cey

playoff put together some decent retired player/current player cards in the early 2000's.  i was happy to see some garvey cards included, although this is when the parallel ridiculousness really took off.

fleer greats of the game, however, were my favorite retired player sets from that timeframe.  topps all-time fan favorites was right there, too, but i slightly preferred fleer.  here's davey lopes' card from the 2004 greats release.

oscar included a couple of 2002 greats of the game, too - fernando

and maury wills

and you know it wouldn't be a dodger collector's trade package without a shawn green card.  here's a 2001 topps gallery card of green

if you think that there are a lot of matt kemp cards these days, well, shawn green had more ten years ago.  at least it seemed like it.

thanks oscar - more trade goodies coming up throughout the day.

a fairly nice return

before last week, i had sent cards to ron fairly on two different occasions.  both times, there was no response.  no problem - they were shots in the dark.  one set of cards (a 1978 topps and a 1967 topps) were sent to his home address.  the other set (another 1978 topps and a 1968 topps) was sent to him c/o the mariners where he used to broadcast games. 

fast forward to last week when i noticed that he had signed and returned a few ttm requests according to  sportscardforum.  i quickly pulled a couple of fairly dupes - a 1962 topps and a 1978 o-pee-chee - and mailed them off.  i was pleased to find them in my mailbox just a few days later.

fairly was the last dodger to wear number 6 before steve garvey.  fairly was traded to the expos in june of 1969, and the garv made his debut in september of that year.  i actually knew him better as a broadcaster for the angels.

as much as i love the o-pee-chee variation (i recall pulling that very card from a pack in southern saskatchewan as a youngster), i only wish i had had a dupe of his 1978 topps card to add to  my partially signed set.  at any rate, it's great to finally have some signed fairly cards.

thanks ron!

once again, i'm thankful for some 1978 topps through the mail successes (and other signed 1978 cards)!

well, happy thanksgiving to everybody out there.  i am thankful for a lot of things unrelated to this hobby, but i would be remiss if i didn't thank the players who sign cards through the mail in this forum. over the past 3 years i have sent out around 1000 requests, with about 700 coming back.  a large number of the requests have involved cards from my favorite set, 1978 topps.  here are some that i have received in the past year, including a couple that were part of a private signing.

1978 topps pete rose

the hit king signed for me through the mail a while back free of charge, but i paid for this one through hall of fame sports about a year ago.  same with this next card, a 1978 topps bill madlock

i like the 1978 topps set so much, i sent a giants card to be signed by the mad dog instead of a dodgers card featuring the multi-year batting champ.  i also turn a blind eye to the uniform when sending out good ol' freebie ttm requests.  here's giant marc hill

and another giant backstop, mike sadek

marc hill appears on steve garvey's 1979 topps card, but i didn't bother to include one of those.  these cards remind me of the days when we would get 3, maybe 4 catchers in a team set.  in 2012, i didn't get a card of the dodgers' starting catcher until update came out.

moving on, here's jerry mumphrey.

who played against the dodgers in the 1981 world series, and enos cabell

who played for the dodgers in the 1985 nlcs.  i have had the cabell card for a while.  it was one of two cards that he signed for me with the other being a 1986 topps card that i finally showed on the blog as an entry in the topps dodger autograph project.

clay carroll used a red pen on his card

vic correll used a blue pen

and greg gross used a black pen.

they are all signed and appreciated.

cliff johnson got the rare three position designation on his 1978 topps card

but he may be best remembered as a pinch hitter.

rance mulliniks

wound up playing third base for the blue jays during their run in the mid to late 1980's.  he was still with the club in 1992, but didn't play in the postseason.

craig swan

led the league in era in 1978 but was just 9-6 with 13 no-decisions for the last place mets.

andre thornton

and the indians finished in sixth place in the old al east in 1978, ahead of only the blue jays.  thornton hit 33 homer for the tribe, however, which was fourth best in the league.

here's bill nahorodny

who unfortunately had to share space with three other guys, so his signature is cramped.  i am left to wonder whether he would have dotted the 'i' in 'bill' with a baseball if he had more room to write.

rodney scott

is shown in yankee stadium on his card, while his manager bobby winkles

is at home in oakland's alameda county stadium.  winkles took over the club from jack mckeon during the 1977 season.  then, in 1978, winkles was replaced after 39 games by jack mckeon.  such were the ways of charlie finley.

this next one is actually a 1978 o-pee-chee card.  jim barr was nice enough to sign it.

i'll finish this post with some signed cards that i have straight out purchased.  first up is a 1978 topps dave lopes

i was lucky enough to have had a ttm success with lopes when i first started pursuing the 1978 topps dodgers.  since then, he has rebuffed my requests but i wanted another '78 to put into the binder featuring my other signed cards.  i also picked up a lot of four signed '78s, including ray knight

(the second signed copy of his 1978 topps card that i own), paul reuschel,

dan spillner,

and the whole reason i bought the lot - glenn burke

as with the lopes, this is my second burke card, but i couldn't resist.  i had long thought that a signed card from the former dodger and a's outfielder would be the white whale of my autographed card pursuit.  who knew that ed goodson would turn out to fill that role instead.

thanks to all the former (and current) players who sign through the mail, in person, and wherever else they may find themselves!  it is appreciated.