it's time for the encased cards from the steve garvey binders

you've seen the 9-pocket pages and the 8-pocket pages, so now let's see the 4-pocket pages from the steve garvey binders.  to be clear, these are not the pages with graded cards that are part of the oddball binders, but rather regular issue cards that were actually distributed in sealed cases.  have a look:

those cards are:

1. 2003 topps retired signature autographs
2. 2003 topps retired signature autographs (with "6" inscription)
3. 2004 playoff prime cuts ii mlb icons material prime relic /6
4. 2004 playoff prime cuts ii mlb icons signature material number relic/auto /6

those are some pretty sorry relics for cards numbered to 6.

here are the backs:

and here's the second sheet:

those cards are:

1. 2004 playoff prime cuts ii mlb icons signature material combo auto/relic /6
2. 2004 topps originals signature 1979 buyback auto /26
3. 2004 topps originals signature 1983 buyback auto /19
4. 2005 topps pristine legends refractors /549

1979 topps cards are pretty popular as far as buybacks go.  there are plenty of others from this set, however, including 1 1971 card, 1 1975 card, 4 1976 cards, 5 1980 cards, 10 1981 cards, a whopping 122 1982 cards, 32 1984 cards, and 129 1985 cards.  no 1978 cards, unfortunately.

here are the backs:

here's the third sheet:

those cards are:

1. 2005 topps retired signature autographs
2. 2008 tristar signa cuts 1984 donruss auto /25
3. 2013 panini hall heroes private signings auto /10

here are the backs:

looks like i have room for one more.

there are a few more cards to show before i'm done with the steve garvey binders, so stay tuned...

another page of cards from the steve garvey binders - the padres have infiltrated the collection!

ten sheets into the main steve garvey binders and we start to see the brown and yellow padre uniforms.  take a look.

these cards are:

1. 1983 fleer
2. 1983 o-pee-chee
3. 1983 topps
4. 1983 topps traded
5. 1984 donruss
6. 1984 drake's
7. 1984 fleer
8. 1984 fleer (superstar special)
9. 1984 milton bradley championship baseball

and here are the backs

while the 1983 fleer card gives us a rare locker room shot, my favorite card of this bunch is the 1983 o-pee-chee due to the text and team variation it possesses.  the 1984 fleer superstar special celebrates the garv's 1,207 consecutive game streak, although it mistakenly lists him as "the major leagues' most durable player" even though his streak was ended due to a season-ending injury in july of 1983.  in fact, pete rose took over as the most durable player until his streak of 745 straight games came to an end about a month after garvey's.  to be fair, garvey did return to assemble another streak of about 300 straight games from 1984-1986.

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.

graded garveys from the oddball binder

i've got a few four-pocket pages in my steve garvey oddball binder that hold graded cards.  i did, for a very short time in the early 2000's, buy into the idea of graded cards.  i sent a few off to be graded, including some modern cards, before i thought better of it.  i also bought a few graded steve garvey cards during that short stretch.

the first sheet has a garvey 1971 topps rookie, his fantastic 1974 topps card, a 1975 topps mini, and a 1978 topps, which is a masterpiece

i wanted a rookie graded, and got one with a qualifier.  that right there made me realize that this is not something on the up and up.  it's an 8, but it has issues.  then it's not really an 8.  bccg grading is a quicker/cheaper grade which again makes little sense.  the '75 came in a lot - i didn't seek that one out like i did the others there.

the second page has a gem mt 10 1978 topps card, plus a 1980 topps and two 1981 topps cards

the 1978 card in gem mt 10 was a requisite for this garvey collector.

next up are a couple of cards from 1982 donruss, plus a 1983 topps and a gem mt 10 1987 fleer glossy

garvey's last topps card as a dodger provided a bookend to the 1971 rookie.  the fleer glossy was a cheap gem mt 10 grab.

the last page features a 1988 score glossy gem mt 10, and two cards i sent off myself - a 2001 fleer greats of the game card, and a 2002 topps tribute card

like the rookie, the 1974 and 1978 topps, and the 1983 topps cards, having a graded 1988 score card (in this case glossy version) was necessary.  i obviously knew i wasn't going to have a complete run of garvey base cards graded so i wanted to hit the main points.  sending those two modern cards to be graded was a mistake and unnecessary.

still, if anybody has a graded garvey card they don't want/need, i have an open spot in my binder!

lurkers are lurking - sometimes in plain sight

one doesn't need to look very far or hard to find the dodger making his way onto joe mccarthy's 1993 conlon collection tsn card

dodger manager burleigh grimes gets some foreground respect in the photo from 1938.  not sure when/where this would have been taken, as mccarthy's yankees faced (and beat) the cubs in the '38 fall classic.

grimes gets a mention on the back of that particular card, but that is usually not the case with lurkers.  take this 1999 fleer ultra jeff bagwell card, for example

tom prince is just as much of the card as is bagwell, but he gets no acknowledgement which is as it should be.

jose offerman finds his way onto kurt stillwell's 1993 donruss card

and eric karros (with a cloud of dust) enhances kevin higgins' 1994 topps card

i don't consider the stillwell card to be a double play turn because i can't verify it as such, even though it looks like it might be one.  offerman didn't get on base a whole lot against the padres in 1992, and when he did, he was often sacrificed to second with stillwell covering first.

now here's a blurry lurker.

that's dodger first base coach john shelby in the background on miguel batista's 2003 topps card.  i wish there were more cards like this featuring manny mota or, these days, davey lopes.

here are a couple of hall of fame lurkers - eddie murray shows up on scott stahoviak's 1996 score card

and we get half of cal ripken jr on rickey henderson's 1983 topps record breaker card

this card would have qualified as a 'classic combo' by topps' 2007 standards.

pwe bombs part 2

here's a peek at the contents of the other 5 pwe bombs i received on friday from jaybarkerfan

pwe #6:

1982 fleer davey lopes

1982 fleer bobby mitchell
2009 ud icons chad billingsley
2007 topps jason schmidt
1996 leaf steel todd hollandsworth

pwe #7:

1997 leaf hideo nomo

2012 topps hong chih kuo
2012 bowman platinum clayton kershaw
2012 bowman platinum matt kemp
2011 bowman prospects allen webster

pwe #8:

1982 topps pedro guerrero

1983 topps ken landreaux

1984 topps steve sax

1985 topps terry whitfield
1986 topps rick honeycutt
1989 topps jay howell
2009 ud opc jonathan broxton

pwe #9:

1997 pinnacle hideo nomo (clout)
1988 fleer star stickers orel hershiser

2004 topps total darren dreifort
2012 topps ted lilly
2012 topps clayton kershaw (league leaders)

pwe #10:

2003 topps brian jordan
2003 topps omar daal
2004 upper deck vintage odalis perez

2011 bowman prospects rafael ynoa

thanks!

manny mota moves on, plus more cards that should have been in 1983

continuing with the evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers...

i missed the news last month that manny mota, after 30-some odd years of coaching for the dodgers was no longer acting in that capacity.  looks like he'll do some scouting and some work on the spanish broadcasts instead.  that leaves davey lopes as the only dodger of my youth still wearing the dodger uniform - noting that mota usually changed out of the uni after bp.

manny made his final appearance as a player in 1982, signing a free agent deal on september 1st that year so that he could be activated from his coaching duties.  he got just one at bat that day - his only at bat of the season - and he grounded out to second.  it was a productive out, however, as steve garvey moved from second to third.

topps did not deem that lone appearance worthy of a card, so here is the 1983 topps manny mota card that should have been.

i actually made this card a long time ago, or at least an o-pee-chee version of it.  i've updated the inset photo this time around.  since 1982 turned out to be the final season in which mota wore the uniform as a player, the 1983 card would have been his final tribute.  here's the back with his complete major league stats.

that's what 20 years of stats over 21 seasons (mota didn't play in 1981) look like.  i took rusty staub's card and modified the teams (except for the 1969 expos) and numbers.  very small type...

it is worth noting that the 44-year old mota took his final cut against 43-year old jim kaat.  quite possibly the oldest confrontation in baseball history.  and, as a veteran of so many seasons, mota would have been given a 'super veteran' card had he been in the set.  here's what it might have looked like

with a back, too.

that got me thinking, what if the infield had qualified for 'super veteran' status in 1983?  steve garvey and bill russell, who both debuted in 1969, must have just missed the cut.  here are their cards that should have been.

first, garvey

i even did a 'traded' version

and a back

same for the penguin - an all dodger version

traded version

and back

here's bill russell - front

and back

and davey lopes - front

and back

finally, i took some liberties with the record breaker subset that led off the topps set in 1983.  while not a true record breaker, i had to feature garvey's milestone in his consecutive games streak

 here's the scoop.  my tony armas rb card is diamond cut, apparently

garvey would pass billy williams early in the 1983 season, setting a new national league record.  that means you'll see a similar card that should have been when the evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers hits 1984.  stay tuned.

reggie smith's final tributes

here's the last of the 1978 topps dodgers as they were in 1983.  this post is all about carl reginald smith, the right fielder of the team of my youth and, according to don sutton and others, more valuable to that team than steve garvey.

reggie gets a visit from a future hall of famer on his 1983 topps card

that's ryne sandberg getting back to the bag in candlestick.  it was weird to see reggie smith in a giants uniform during the 1982 season.  he was on the field in game 162 when joe morgan hit his 3-run homer off of terry forster to end the dodgers' postseason hopes.  in fact, the last at bat of smith's career came against his former teammate forster.  here's the back of smith's 1983 topps card, with his complete major league stats.

topps also gave reggie a super veteran card

there he is in his younger red sox days and in his final spring training, dressed as a giant.  it looks like they gave reggie a rookie number - 60.  that's weird.  reggie wound up wearing 14 for the nocals.  the back of the super vet card gives a nice rundown of reggie's major league accomplishments.

he hit a couple of big milestones with the giants in 1982.  

despite the fact that reggie had signed just a one year deal with the giants, and then signed with the tokyo giants in december of 1982, he was included in all three major card releases in 1983.  here is his 1983 donruss card

without his complete stats on the back

although they do use 'switch' instead of 'both' when referring to which side of the plate he hits from.  i hadn't noticed that before.

here's his 1983 fleer card

i like the 1970 topps set.  i don't care for 1983 fleer too much.  go figure.  anyway, fleer put all the stats on the back, like a good card company should.

reggie played two tumultuous years in japan battling injuries, fans, the media, and even japanese baseball culture itself.

reggie later returned to the dodgers as a hitting coach, and has also been involved in team usa in the same capacity.

here's to you, reggie smith!