here's the next installment of sheet from the steve garvey binders

here are sheets 8 and 9 of the first of two main steve garvey binders keep us in his los angeles years, but just barely.  here's sheet 8:

these cards are:

1. 1981 o-pee-chee
2. 1981 permagraphic
3. 1981 squirt
4. 1981 topps
5. 1981 topps scratch-off
6. 1982 donruss (diamond king)
7. 1982 donruss
8. 1982 drake's
9. 1982 fleer

here are the backs:

the 'oddballs' on this sheet - permagraphics, squirt, and drake's - all have some topps influence to them.  the photo on the permagraphics card is the same on garvey's 1981 topps (and o-pee-chee) cards; the 'dodgers' text on the squirt card is the same as the 'dodgers' text on 1978 topps cards with the back being a firm reproduction of 1981 topps; and the back of the drake's card is clearly the same design as 1982 topps.

one thing to note - i maintain that garvey was not included in the team photo that appears on the 1981 topps dodger checklist/tom lasorda card.  so, i don't have that card in the garvey binder.  if anyone can prove me wrong, i'd be happy to add it.

sheet 9 looks like this:

those cards are:

1. 1982 kmart
2. 1982 kellogg's
3. 1982 louisville slugger
4. 1982 o-pee-chee
5. 1982 o-pee-chee (in action)
6. 1982 permagraphic
7. 1982 topps
8. 1982 topps (in action)
9. 1983 donruss

and here are the backs:

the louisville slugger card came attached to a baseball glove. it may be from 1981 (or 1980 even - garvey is wearing the 1980 all-star game patch in the photo as he is in the o-pee-chee and topps cards), but i put it here in 1982 since beckett lists these things as '1982-89 louisville slugger' tags.  there's one of the garv in padres gear, too, which we'll see in a future post..  i know i am missing the 1982 permagraphic gold card that would go on this page, bumping 1983 donruss to the next.  maybe someday.

pictures of men lurking and from foreign lands

here are a few more cards sent to me by dennis at pictures of men.  these first two were the only ones i specifically requested (other than random dodgers, of course).  here's a 2011 topps update sp card of roberto alomar.

he's turning two with omar vizquel hanging out in the background.  and then, we have joe mauer lurking in the foreground of the frank thomas diamond sparkle parallel from the same set

as you might be aware, dennis is a blue jays fan who lives north of the border, but south of me (just slightly).  so, it is no surprise that he included some o-pee-chee goodness in his package.  here's that perennial vedette de la ln, steve garvey

yes, he was quite a premier-but in his day.  i like how o-pee-chee just replaced 'topps' in the little baseball on the front of the 1981 cards, but i really liked that they used their little kids logo on the 1982 cards.  here's garvey au jeu from that set.

they had used that logo previously in 1979.  by the time 1985 rolled around, they were using just stylized text as seen on garvey's card from that year.

i'll end with a card featuring another member of the infield.  this is ron cey's 1983 donruss action all-stars card

i should have used this card in yesterday's post to show cey going to the earflap helmet in 1982 after he was beaned in the 1981 world series.  oh well, it works well here, too as i once again thank dennis for the fantastic package of cards.

thanks dennis!

o-pee-chee on parade

here are a few dodger o-pee-chee cards, celebrating the occasion of the final variation being posted over at oh my o-pee-chee! today.

the back of wes parker's 1971 card is somewhat inexplicably included in the blog's header.

his card is not a variation (here's the front)

but i wanted to show the cool 'sunburst' photo on the backs of (most of) the 1971 cards, and i chose parker's mug for some reason.

here's ron fairly from the years before variations, 1969 to be exact

a bunch of rick monday's former teammates wanted to show their support for his 1977 o-pee-chee variation, and here they are.  from 1981, we have burt hooton

who had a variation of his own in 1985;

steve howe

who did not have any variations even though he bounced around in the mid 1980's.  he either switched teams during the season (1985), or signed as a free agent after missing the previous season(s) due to suspensions (1987, 1991);

bill russell

and reggie smith

sporting their 'vedette' banners;

don stanhouse

sporting don sutton's hair and phil garner's mustache;

steve yeager

looking forward to his shameful 1986 o-pee-chee variation (i really wanted yeager to remain a dodger for life);

and here's a 1982 ron cey in action card (with the man of the hour, rick monday, lurking in the background)

one year before receiving a team variation of his own (one of three appearances the penguin made on the blog);

while dave lopes' 1983 card

is one year past his trio of variations, although i think his 1985 variation is the best of lopes' five o-pee-chee variants.

it's been fun (and sometimes tedious) covering the wonder of o-pee-chee cards through the years.  i will miss writing about minute changes in photo cropping and cool team variations and wacky airbrushing and odd text variations and even cards that weren't variations.  i hope you all enjoyed it.

now, back to timeless teams!

opc ttm

this marks the last week of posts over at oh my o-pee-chee, and there are some decent variations lined up.  go and check out the fun.  speaking of o-pee-chee, i recently worked out a trade with reader trevor, who had come to own a nice stack of cards from north of the border.

we swapped late 70s/early 80s opc for late 70s topps.  oddly, there were no dodgers in the box of cards he sent me, but there were a few expos, as should be expected.

i was disappointed to find that there was no 1977 o-pee-chee card of andre dawson, especially since john scott - one of the players who shares space with the hawk on his 1977 topps rookie card - got a card of his own in the set.  instead, this 1978 card is dawson's first appearance in an o-pee-chee set

i'm not sure what changed between 1977 and 1978 that made o-pee-chee leave the rookie cups on the cards, but i'm glad they did.

i didn't show any checklists on the o-pee-chee blog for the simple reason that i don't consider them to be variations.  sure, most of the sets have different numbering and maybe 'o-pee-chee' shows up instead of 'topps', but the design is the same.  they are just different due to the nature of the set, not through a choice to alter a player's card.  anyway, here's a checklist from the 1978 o-pee-chee set

ron cey and ed ott - two of the shortest names in the game - together on one card.

here's the back of the expos' team checklist from 1978.

the card is horribly miscut, but it shows something that i didn't realize until i put my 1978 o-pee-chee set in a binder.  almost every 9th card is an expo.  72 was a giant (gary alexander), but 108 was joe kerrigan.  kerrigan was in expos gear, but got a team and text variation due to the fact that he was 'now with' baltimore.  the other two anomalies were cards 225 (mike schmidt) and 234 (buddy bell).  it's too bad chris speier wasn't moved to one of those two spots.

here's another back of a 1978 o-pee-chee card.  this one is the home run leaders card

topps had the record breakers at the front of their 1978 set, with the league leaders in the 201-210 range.  o-pee-chee moved the leaders to the front of the set and put the record breakers at the back.  anyway, the back of this card shows the four dodgers who each hit over 30 home runs in 1977, so i like it.  not enough to put it in my garvey binder or anything, but enough to point it out to you.

i've previously shown a few o-pee-chee multi-player rookie cards.  1973, 1974, and 1982 come to mind, but i haven't shown a 1980 card.  much of that has to do with the fact that only the expos and blue jays got these cards in the o-pee-chee sets of the early 80's while all the teams were represented in the topps sets.  so, here are the expos future stars from 1980

tony bernazard is the only one who panned out, i believe.  here's another expos card from 1980 - larry parrish

i'm showing it because of the velour jacket he is wearing.  nice.

there were also some 1981 o-pee-chee cards in the package, like this kirk gibson rookie card

he looks a lot more like a voltigeur than an outfielder.

there was some 1982 o-pee-chee as well.  i had to show this fred lynn 'in action' card

because of the o-pee-chee logo.  also, when i try to say 'in action' in french, it sounds like i am saying 'au jus' - with juice.  but that would be a jose canseco card.  zing!

finally, there were a couple of the completely forgettable 1993 opc premier cards sent along

i don't consider them to be 'real' o-pee-chee cards.

thanks for the trade trevor!  your cards will be sent along shortly!

jay johnstone came, saw, conquered, left, and later returned

after facing the dodgers in the 1978 world series as a member of the yankees (he appeared in two games without an at bat), and splitting the 1979 season between new york and san diego, jay johnstone was signed by al campanis as a free agent.  we were rewarded with a nice 1980 o-pee-chee team and text variation, and a year later got this run of the mill 1981 o-pee-chee card. 

as a dodger, jay performed a bunch of pranks on teammates and manager tommy lasorda, but came through on the field when it counted.  he hit .307 in 120 games in 1980, and after a lackluster showing in the 1981 regular season, he went 2 for 3 with a big two-run pinch-hit homer in the 1981 world series against the yankees.   after an appearance on solid gold with teammates steve yeager, rick monday, and jerry reuss, johnstone returned to the dodgers for the 1982 season.  a couple months in, however, he was released.  fortunately for fans of practical jokes everywhere, the cubs took a chance and signed johnstone to a contract.

here's his 1983 o-pee-chee card

but, we all know that if there is any card that should be used to represent johnstone's time with the cubs, it's his 1984 fleer card

in his two-plus seasons as a cub, johnstone hit .257 in 236 games.  he also hit the final 16 home runs of his career, the last of which was a pinch-hit job off of hall of famer phil niekro.  the cubs, who were making their run towards the playoffs, released johnstone in september and he failed to latch on with another team until the following winter.  that's when the dodgers came calling again, and brought johnstone back, giving him dodger douple dipper status.

here's his 1986 topps card (no o-pee-chee for jay, unfortunately)

it also serves as his final tribute, as 1985 was his final season in the big leagues.  it's also a card that johnstone signed for me through the mail last year

here's to you, jay johnstone, another dodger double dipper!

i like this card

it's a 1993 upper deck sterling hitchcock card

it reminds me a bit of the 1978 topps ron guidry and don gullett cards.  those were nice. even if they were yankees.

rick sutcliffe

did not look as graceful.

magnificent

the u2 show last night was magnificent.  oddly enough, they didn't play that song, one of the few that i would have recognized from their latest album.  it rained, poured, and thundered, but that just added to the experience.  easily in the top 3 u2 shows i have been to, even though the last song they did, 'moment of surrender' was kind of a buzzkill.  the song before that was 'with or without you' which has always been better live, especially when they do that 'shine like stars' part at the end.  unfortunately, i don't think they have done that part since the early 90's, and they didn't do it last night.

they gave the obligatory shout-out to amy winehouse, and at times sang verses from 'rain', 'singing in the rain' and 'purple rain' - a nod to the favored funk son of the twin cities.  no mockery of michele bachman, though.  bono must be slipping.

anyway, i figured i should show off some magnificent cards, but instead, i'll give you the garvey cey russell and lopes cards that have been in my scanned folder the longest, some going back to october of '08 around when i started this thing.

the garvey card is appropriate.  it's a 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams memorable moments

the cey is from 2001 upper deck decade 1970's, and it features dodger stadium and is the cey card in my blog header

 the russell is from the same set as the cey, which is kind of a poor man's 1975 topps

davey lopes takes us north of the border with his 1981 o-pee-chee

they shine like 'vedettes' in the summer night...

ok, no more u2 after this.  back to some cards that should have been tomorrow.

the evolution of the center fielder

i'll start this ode to the trail of dodger center fielders with the silver fox, the duke of flatbush, or as his parents named him, edwin donald snider.

duke snider (1949-1958)

in his 10 seasons as the dodgers' primary center fielder, snider hit .306 with 326 home runs, 1035 rbi, over 1000 hits and 3000 total bases, and had an obp of .386 and an ops of .950.  he helped the dodgers to five world series appearances over that stretch and hit 4 home runs in two different fall classics.  he is the gold standard as far as dodger center fielders go, and don demeter had the unenviable task of replacing him when the duke moved to right field in 1959.

don demeter (1959)

(this, by the way, is the copy of demeter's 1958 card that topps sent me from the mcg promotion.  i should have taken one of those multi-card trades and bought a better copy on the bay for $4).  demeter's lone season in the center field spotlight resulted in a .256 batting average and 17 home runs.  the dodgers made the world series, though, and demeter had 3 hits and scored a couple of runs as the dodgers won their first world championship in los angeles.  demeter returned to back-up status in 1960 as tommy davis debuted.

tommy davis (1960)

tommy davis had actually debuted in 1959, getting a single at bat under his belt before the season ended (he struck out pinch-hitting for clem labine against marshall bridges).  in 1960, though, he played in 110 games,  hit .302 with 11 home runs and 44 runs driven in, and finished 5th in the rookie of the year voting.  he shared the center field position in 1960 with the two previous occupants as well as another rookie, willie davis.  the 3-dog would take over the 8 spot in 1961.

willie davis (1961-1973)

willie davis became the holder of most los angeles dodger records during his tenure, virtually all of which was spent as their primary center fielder.  he leads all la dodgers in career war (war, offensive war, and defensive war) as well as at bats, runs, hits, total bases and triples.  in his 13 year run in center for the blue, he amassed over 2000 hits and nearly 1000 runs scored.  the dodgers traded davis to the expos for reliever mike marshall in december of 1973, one day before they acquired the toy cannon to replace him.

jim wynn (1974-1975)
wynn was an all-star in both of his seasons with the dodgers, and may have been the actual mvp in 1974.  he hit 32 home runs and drove in 108.  he also walked 108 times and scored 104 runs.  he hit only .188 in the world series against the a's that year, and is probably best remembered among dodger fans for having joe ferguson cut in front of him in game 1 to catch reggie jackson's fly ball before nailing sal bando at the plate.  wynn was traded to the braves after the 1975 season, and in return, the dodgers got their next center fielder, dusty baker.

dusty baker (1976)

yes, baker played center in 1976 before moving over to left field.  he had played mostly right field for the braves the previous two years, but made the transition fairly easily - just 1 error in 83 games in center.  his offensive production dipped quite a bit, though, as he hit only 4 home runs after hitting no fewer than 17 in his previous four seasons.  the move to left field the following year coincided with the return of baker's power, and opened a spot for another newcomer in center, rick monday.

rick monday (1977)

monday is the guy i remember as the center fielder, since the 1977 team is the one i first followed closely.  he was acquired from the cubs for bill buckner and ivan dejesus (the dodgers also got mike garman in the deal).  he was coming off a career year - 107 runs scored and 32 home runs - when he was traded.  like baker before him, his offensive production declined as he hit just .230 with 15 long balls.  he hit .286 in the nlcs against the phillies, but just .167 in the fall classic against the yankees.  in 1978, monday began the season as the center fielder, but in may they acquired bill north from the a's, and monday began to play a bit more in right and as a pinch hitter.

bill north (1978)

north made 82 starts for the dodgers in center, while monday made 74, so north gets the nod as the dodgers' official center fielder for 1978.  acquired for glenn burke, north hit .234 in 110 games as a dodger, scoring 54 times and stealing 27 bases (he was caught 8 times).  he was pretty quiet in the post season, going hitless in the nlcs and managing just 1 hit in the world series.  monday wasn't too much better - he managed two hits in each series.  north headed north to san francisco as a free agent after the season, meaning that the dodgers would once again have a new primary center fielder in 1979.

derrel thomas (1979)

thomas had joined the dodgers as a free agent prior to the season, and wound up making 93 starts in center.  he also played at every infield position at some point during the season.  in all, he hit .256 and scored 47 runs in 1979.  his value clearly was as a utility player, so the dodgers allowed a rookie to take over in center in 1980.

rudy law (1980)

law debuted in 1978, but didn't appear in the majors again until 1980.  he won the center field job after a good showing in spring training, and he went on to set a dodger rookie record with 40 stolen bases that year.  he found his way into tommy lasorda's doghouse and was made made expendable when the dodgers acquired their next center fielder, kenny landreaux, prior to the 1981 season.

landreaux brought some stability back to center field for the dodgers, so we'll let him kick off part 2, coming soon.