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 1973 topps card that came from 2001

this is a 2001 topps stadium club card of, not luis alicea, but rather chad kreuter

i think the oddly cropped photo featuring the partially obscured dodger catcher would fit nicely in the 1973 topps set as a kreuter card - all that is really missing is the umpire and parts of a couple more players.

this is another card from 2001 topps stadium club.

but it is simply eric karros rounding third and lumbering for home where he may well be thrown out by 20 feet.  karros also shows up on this 2001 topps stars card

but is noticeably absent from this 1996 score select team nucleus insert

you know, beneath the clothes you will find the man. and beneath the man, you find his…nucleus.  this card features the rookies of the year from 1993-1995 (mike piazza, raul mondesi, and hideo nomo), but the 1992 roy (karros) didn't make the cut.

before mondesi was the rookie of the year, he appeared on this 1992 upper deck minors team checklist

as a member of the albuquerque dukes.  abq is where joc pederson played last year, although the dodgers' triple-a affiliate was then called the isotopes. here's a 2014 topps heritage minors card of the dodger prospect

and here is a 2014 topps heritage minors card of fellow prospect corey seager

who will hopefully follow jimmy rollins as the dodgers' shortstop after spending this season in the minors at oklahoma city.

here's another minor league shortstop - yuri sanchez

turning two on a 1995 upper deck minors card.  i figure that the fact that sanchez was a shortstop, coupled with the way he's dragging his right foot over the bag means that there is a double play being turned.  just like this 1982 topps tim foli card

is a double play turn, because why else would foli be at the bag like that?  now that i look at foli's card more closely, i notice the parked car in the background behind the spring training fence.  that's another card that could pass for a 1973 topps card.

and that is how you bring a post around full circle.

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.

random notes about random cards

it's time for that sort of post again - a random assortment of cards that have been languishing in my scanned folder for various amounts of time.  excited, aren't you?

random card: 2001 fleer greats of the game carl erskine

random fact: the dodger logo on the card is from the team's los angeles days.  although oisk did pitch for the dodgers following their move to la, both the card's photo and team affiliation refer to him as a brooklyn dodger.  it's better when all of the features of the card match, but i still really like that 2001 greats of the game set.

random card: 2006 upper deck jeff kent

random fact: the player behind kent is jason repko. repko had a card in the 2006 as well, but it was the same number (283) as another player's and seems to be a bit harder to find.

random card: 2011 bowman chris withrow topps 100 insert

random fact: withrow needs to work on his 'suttoning' pose.

random card: 2013 bowman chrome jeremy rathjen mini parallel

random fact: rathjen seems to be looking at the same thing withrow is staring at.

random card: 2014 topps adrian gonzalez spring fever

random fact: gonzalez has mastered his jeremy rathjen pose.

random card: 2014 topps yasiel puig spring fever

random fact: dodger stadium is the only big league stadium with an in-house arborist.  if you've never been, it's worth giving yourself time to enjoy the landscaping, including the abundance of palm trees. that last sentence was a random opinion.

random card: 1982 topps joe ferguson

random fact: this card uses the same photo that topps featured on ferguson's 1981 topps card.

random card: 1985 7-up cubs coaching staff, featuring a member of the 1978 topps dodgers (johnny oates)

random fact: the only start of bill connors' pitching career came against the chicago cubs in 1967.  bet you thought i was going to give you a random oates or zimmer fact, didn't you?

random card: 1990 fleer baseball all-stars canadian steve sax

random fact: the only thing that makes this a canadian card is that it was printed in canada, and i am not sure that there is an american printed version, so it's not even a variation.

cards that should have been from the garvey binders

here are a couple more pages from my steve garvey oddball binder.  these two pages features cards that should have been of my favorite player. most i have created, but there are a couple that i have obtained from others - bob lemke and mrmopar.

the last 1969 topps card is the one that bob lemke made, while i lifted the first 1970 topps card from mrmopar.  i am partial to my 1970 topps card that should have been, as well as the 1978 topps record breaker.

and now for the tale of disappointment that i expected from a repack

hot on the heels of the pleasant repack experience i had recently (and posted about earlier today), i found myself in target a few days later and bought another one.  i again chose one that showed tim lincecum in one of the windows.  i should not have done that.

here's what was inside, starting with that 2008 topps chrome target t205 lincecum

1989 upper deck ellis burks

1994 fleer ultra glenallen hill

1993 leaf kurt manwaring

1992 donruss triple play albert belle

1989 upper deck tim flannery

1981 donruss keith moreland

1990 donruss terry kennedy

2010 topps tyler flowers

1989 topps glossy all-stars mark mcgwire

1981 topps marty pattin

1996 fleer ultra curt schilling

1981 topps andy hassler

1998 fleer metal universe hideki irabu

1981 topps dick tidrow

1992 classic four sport phil nevin

1981 topps steve stone

1994 topps tony gwynn

1991 upper deck dave bergman

1988 fleer mike moore

1988 fleer mike moore

1992 fleer bj surhoff

1988 fleer earnie riles

1992 fleer eric king

1992 leaf kevin reimer

1985 topps whitey herzog

1987 topps bobby valentine

1989 donruss tom brunansky

1989 topps keith hernandez

1982 topps lee mazzilli

1991 leaf jack armstrong

1991 leaf dwight evans

1987 topps terry kennedy

1991 leaf gary gaetti

1991 leaf barry jones

2006 fleer ultra huston street

1991 leaf greg harris

1987 topps rob wilfong

1991 leaf randy milligan

1991 leaf howard johnson

1991 leaf darren daulton

2004 fleer hot prospects omar vizquel draft edition

2010 topps brett anderson

2010 topps cliff pennington

2010 topps angel pagan

2010 topps kansas city royals

2010 topps casey kotchman

2010 topps toronto blue jays

1989 topps glossy all-stars andre dawson

and the last card of the first pocket, 2003 upper deck sp legendary cuts luis aparicio

the other window had this 2012 topps heritage doug fister black border parallel showing

behind it were these cards

1989 topps glossy all-stars ryne sandberg

1991 topps andy hawkins

1991 topps joe boever

1988 score dave engle

1989 upper deck tony armas

1991 donruss jim clancy

1990 fleer award winners ozzie smith

1984 topps darrell brown

1989 donruss bill long

1984 topps rafael ramirez

1991 upper deck brian downing

1987 donruss john shelby

1987 donruss frank viola

1990 upper deck lance mccullers

1991 donruss wayne edwards

2000 ud victory ken griffey jr 

1990 donruss pascual perez

1987 donruss howard johnson

1991 score mike henneman

1990 upper deck bill swift

1989 fleer bob kipper

1991 upper deck norm charlton

1989 score scott terry

1989 upper deck gary green

1993 upper deck jose uribe

1994 topps jimmy key

1991 upper deck alex cole

1992 topps scott aldred

1987 topps pirates leaders

1988 topps john wathan

when's the last time you saw a manager wearing a helmet?

1990 topps traded bobby cox

very poor airbrush job

1995 ud collector's choice ray mcdavid

1989 topps bruce hurst

1991 upper deck brian barnes

1989 topps greg gross

1988 donruss bill buckner

1988 donruss gene garber

1987 donruss brian downing

1988 score mel hall

1988 topps jeff stone

2012 topps addison reed

1989 topps larry parrish

1990 donruss lance johnson

2009 upper deck first edition alex gordon

2009 upper deck first edition jeff samardzija

2009 upper deck first edition alex rodriguez

2009 upper deck first edition josh hamilton

2009 upper deck first edition jj putz

1989 topps glossy all-stars will clark

and the last card of the repack, to put me out of my misery, 1996 fleer ultra frank thomas checklist

i don't think there was even a sniff of a dodger in there.  this repack will probably sour me on buying any more for a few weeks, i would guess.