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.

dead end trade legacies for the team of my youth

generally speaking, when i refer to the team of my youth, i am referring to the 1977 and 1978 dodgers.  more specifically, i am referring to this lineup:

sp - don sutton

c - steve yeager

1b - steve garvey

2b - davey lopes

3b - ron cey

ss - bill russell

lf - dusty baker

cf - rick monday

rf - reggie smith

rp - charlie hough/terry forster

back then, the dodgers' general manager was al campanis.  he's one of the few baseball gm's to be featured on cardboard, by the way (this is a 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts card)

campanis subscribed to branch rickey's theory that it is better to trade a player a year too early than a year too late, and thanks to the dodgers' bountiful farm system, there was usually someone ready to take up the slack once a player was dealt away should the return package have been lacking.  campanis also once traded away his own son!

anyway, wrigley wax recently ran a series of posts regarding the 'trade links' of several former cubs players, and i thought i would do what any self-respecting blogger would do and steal that idea for my own posts.  unfortunately, while campanis made a lot of deals, most of the team of my youth was kept until their usefulness in trades was diminished or free agency beckoned.  let's see about what i will call the 'trade legacies' of the team of my youth.

let's start with don sutton, seen here on a 1969 mlb photo stamp.

sutton was a product of the dodger farm system, and following the 1980 season (a season in which he led the national league in era) he signed a free agent deal with the astros.  dead end.

steve yeager was also a product of the dodger farm system.  he was traded to the seattle mariners in december of 1985 for ed vande berg, as hinted at on their respective 1986 o-pee-chee cards.

vande berg was released by the dodgers a year later.  not much of a legacy.

steve garvey, yet another dodger home grown talent, took his skills south to san diego as a free agent following the 1982 season. dead end.

davey lopes, still another dodger organization developed player, was traded after the 1981 world series to make room for steve sax.  here's his 1982 o-pee-chee card showing him 'traded to a's'.

however, the dodgers received a minor leaguer named kelvin hudson who was out of the organization by 1984 and not by trade as far as i can tell.

ron cey, like all the players discussed above, came up through the dodger organization, and like garvey, left after the 1982 season.  however, cey was traded to the cubs for a minor leaguers dan cataline and vance lovelace.  this is cey's 1983 o-pee-chee card showing the damage done to the dodgers' hot corner.

lovelace eventually made it to the majors with the angels, although they acquired him from the dodgers via the rule v draft, and cataline peaked a double-a and was not, as far as i can see, ever traded out of the dodger organization.  i believe lovelace is currently the dodgers' vp of player personnel.

bill russell was drafted by the dodgers, developed by the dodgers, and he retired as a dodger.  the dean of dead ends, as far as trade legacies go.

the outfield is a little more interesting even though none of the three primary outfielders were traded by campanis.

dusty baker was acquired via trade.  the dodgers sent lee lacy, tom paciorek, jerry royster, and jimmy wynn to the braves for baker and ed goodson in november of 1975.  unfortunately for the purposes of this post, baker left the dodgers via free agency prior to the 1984 season.  another dead end.

rick monday was also acquired via trade.  in january of 1977, the dodgers received monday and mike garman from the cubs in exchange for bill buckner, ivan dejesus, and minor leaguer jeff albert.  monday was released by the dodgers during the 1984 season, effectively ending his career.  dead end.

reggie smith came to the dodgers in a trade with the cardinals.  in june of 1976, the dodgers sent joe ferguson and two minor leaguers (bob detherage and freddie tisdale) to saint louis for smith, who remained with the dodgers until after the 1981 world series when he left as a free agent.  detherage is an interesting case, however.  if you will pardon the tangent, he was drafted by the dodgers in 1972.  after he was traded to the cardinals, the redbirds sent him (along with ferguson) to the astros in november of 1976 for larry dierker and jerry davanon.  in 1977, he was the player to be named later in a deal that the astros made with the dodgers late in the season involving danny walton and alex taveras.  detherage remained in the dodgers' system until sometime in the 1978 season when he was released.  he did all this without making it to the big leagues, although he finally received a call-up from the 1980 kansas city royals.

back to the trade legacy at hand, charlie hough was a dodger draftee who pitched his way up in the organization until he had his contract purchased by the rangers during the 1980 season.  as for terry forster, he signed with the dodgers as a free agent after the 1977 season, and left as a free agent five years later.  nothing to see here.

the most interesting trades involving members of the team of my youth might be the rick rhoden for jerry reuss deal, or the bob welch (and others) for jesse orosco, jay howell, and alfredo griffin, or even the glenn burke for bill north deal.  unfortunately, all of those players acquired by the dodgers were either released by the team or left via free agency.  yes, free agency killed the trade legacies!

so, this idea didn't really pan out for me.  i have a similar idea regarding legacies that won't dead end - i'll roll out one of those posts soon.  

follow the leader

for a while back around 1979 and 1980, steve garvey and ron cey were running just about neck and neck in the bid to become the los angeles dodgers' all-time leader in home runs. cey led garvey by four home runs (163 to 159) after the 1979 season, both having passed the previous leader (willie davis) and his mark of 154 home runs during that campaign.  cey got there about a month before garvey, and the first baseman never could catch up to him.  when both players left after the 1982 season (cey by trade, garvey by free agency), the penguin sat atop the leader board with 228 roundtrippers to garvey's second place total of 211.  here's cey's o-pee-chee card from 1977, the year he hit a career high 30 home runs.

cey held on to his title for just about 18 years until eric karros hit his 229th career home run on june 13, 2000.  here is karros' topps card from that year

karros went on to hit 270 home runs as a member of the los angeles dodgers, putting him not only atop the la leader board, but landing him at third place in the all-time franchise history.  he trails only duke snider (389 total as a dodger, 73 in la) and gil hodges (361, 63), and sits above roy campanella (242 all as a brooklyn dodger) with cey rounding out the top 5.  the rest of the franchise leader board sits as follows - garvey in 6th place, followed by carl furillo (192, 18), mike piazza (177), pedro guerrero (171), raul mondesi (163), and shawn green (162) all ahead of davis.  matt kemp (151) is next on the list, which is good for 9th place in la dodger history, and 13th in franchise history.

so what becomes of the la dodger career home run leader in the era of free agency?  starting with cey, he gets dealt to the cubs and gets a card showing him in transition - his 1983 o-pee-chee card.

and, in the case of eric karros, he gets the same thing - although his transition card is a 2003 leaf issue

they each also have full blown cubs cards.  here is cey's 1987 fleer

and this is karros' card from 2003 upper deck sp authentic

cey wound up spending four years in chicago, and hit 84 home runs as a cub, including his lone career inside the park job.  karros was in chicago for just one season, and hit 12 homers, a total that included one of my favorite karros home runs.  do you remember it, too?

on june 7, 2003, the yankees were visiting wrigley field and roger clemens was on the mound looking for career win number 300.  the game was televised, and the cubs had hee seop choi at first base and kerry wood on the mound.  in the fourth inning with the score still 0-0, jason giambi hit an infield pop up that resulted in choi making the catch while colliding with wood and then hitting his head on the ground.  choi left the game on a stretcher, and karros replaced him in the field.  the yankees took the lead the following inning on a solo home run by hideki matsui, and clemens was cruising.  in the 7th inning, however, clemens allowed a one out single to moises alou followed by a walk to sammy sosa.  joe torre replaced clemens with juan acevedo, and karros greeted him with a 3-run home run on acevedo's first pitch to ruin any chance clemens had at the milestone victory.  yes, clemens got his 300th win soon thereafter, but karros made him wait and i for one was thankful.

from chicago, both cey and karros returned to california, although they went to oakland rather than los angeles.  here's cey's 1987 topps traded card

and karros' 2004 topps card

each player finished their careers in oakland, and so hit their final career home runs in the green and gold.  cey hit four home runs as a member of the a's to bring his career total to 316, while karros managed only two homers in oakland to finish his career with 284 long balls.

so, with karros following in his predecessor's footsteps so closely, what does this mean?  matt kemp should break into the dodger franchise top 10 in 2013, and has a good chance to pass pedro and piazza to finish the year fourth on the los angeles leader board with karros' mark certainly attainable.  does that mean he will wind up in cubs and a's apparel towards the end of the decade?  i hope not, but the precedent has been set!

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!

10/10/14?

i suppose it would have made sense to show a couple of ron cey cards followed by a dusty baker card today (10/10/12), but i'm not going to do that.  instead, i have 14 ron cey cards that i have been lucky enough to have signed by the penguin himself through the mail over the last few years to showcase.  i have been kind of lax in posting my ttm successes (obviously); most likely because a ttm success post is not the most interesting type of post.  today i don't care - get ready for a cavalcade of cey.

1975 topps mini

scuffed up, but still nice.  dodger stadium works well with the two-toned border, i think.

1976 topps

hatless penguin

1981 donruss

wrigley foreshadowing

1981 fleer

doing the hokey-pokey?

1982 fleer

back to dodger stadium, finally without a bat

1982 o-pee-chee

back with a bat.  and, the facsimile autograph doesn't match

1982 topps (in action)

with actual action.  hello, mo.

1983 donruss

another bat photo.

1983 fleer

back at wrigley.  still with a bat.

1983 o-pee-chee

i was curious to see whether he put the '10' inside the 'r' on this one.  he did, which makes sense since it's a dodger photo.

1984 o-pee-chee

no '10' on this one, of course.  he wore 11 with the cubs.

2001 ud decade 1970's

at dodger stadium

and at bat.

2006 fleer greats of the game (nickname greats)

thanks ron!

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!

garvey like it's your birthday

today is steve garvey's 63rd birthday.  i am not sure how i feel about that, in the sense that if my boyhood idol is 63, i must be getting on in years too.  anyway, it was a great day for me when i found that the garv signed through the mail.  i've had a few successes with him, sending a donation to his foundation (palm desert baseball) once, and going through a paid signing another time.  most of my attempts, however, have been freebies.  so, on his birthday, here are some of the 'gifts' the nl iron man has given me.

here's the 1970 topps card i created

nicely signed, but no number inscription.  that was one of the cards i sent with the donation.  i think it looks great.

here's my second favorite garvey card, his 1974 topps

this was the actual card that i used to carry around in my wallet, just like bob costas did with a mickey mantle card.
another one of my faves, his 1981 topps card

and his 1979 topps card, with marc hill lurking.

and, of course, i sent a 1983 o-pee-chee card, too

not sure why he signed that one vertically.

and then there was his 1983 fleer card

no more wire hangers!

i also picked up a 1976 topps card

in a lot somewhere.  a little more sketchy than the others, but may well be legit.  i am pretty much out of the ttm game these days, (although i have a bunch of successes yet to share) so popeye is probably done signing for me.  besides, he probably needs a nap. 

just kidding garv!  happy birthday and here's to many more.  thanks for signing my cards!