the steve garvey binders fun continues

there were a bunch of steve garvey cards to be had in 1986.  here are some of them.  this is sheet 20 in my first steve garvey binder

those items are:

1. 1986 fleer mini
2. 1986 fleer star sticker
3. 1986 fleer star sticker (box bottom)
4. 1986 leaf
5. 1986 meadow gold
6. 1986 meadow gold blank backs
7. 1986 o-pee-chee
8. 1986 o-pee-chee tattoos
9. 1986 topps quaker

lots of oddball goodness on that sheet.  we ate a ton of quaker chewy granola bars in our house, so i had several sets of the quaker cards which were great because they were fully licensed.

here are the backs:

a couple of things to note: the meadow gold stat back cards were issued on the boxes of frozen confections, such as fudgesicles, while the blank backs were on ice cream cartons. there was also a set of meadow gold cards issued on milk cartons, but garvey wasn't part of that set (thankfully - i don't know that you could get the milk smell off).  anyway, this means that there are three cards on this sheet that came from some sort of box, with the fleer sticker box bottom card being the other.  also, i've kept the full tattoo panel intact, hence the appearance of future dodgers jesse orosco and rick dempsey on the flip side of the sheet.

here's sheet 21

with those cards being:

1. 1986 sportflics
2. 1986 sportfilcs (national league mvp's)
3. 1986 sportflics (all-star game mvp's)
4. 1986 sportflics decade greats
5. 1986 topps
6. 1986 topps glossy all-star
7. 1986 topps glossy all-star (national league team)
8. 1986 topps glossy send in
9. 1986 topps stickers

pete rose is the dominant image on the nl mvp sportflics card (ryne sandberg is the third player featured), and gary carter is visible on the all-star game mvp card.  garvey and carter are the only two to have won the award twice.  fred lynn is the other player featured on the card.  i like the national league all-star team card as the 1985 midsummer classic was played in the metrodome and the picture was taken in front of the retractable seats in right field.  good ol' multipurpose stadiums.  for the record, garvey is on the far left of the seated row.

here are the backs:

nothing too exciting there, but i'll have more sheets from the garvey binders posted soon!

a mcmemorial mcpatch for ray a kroc

raymond albert kroc was, among other things in his lifetime, a milkshake mixer salesman when in 1954 he met the mcdonald's brothers and recognized the potential for expansion that their hamburger business offered.  kroc eventually bought the brothers out of the business and took the restaurant worldwide.  in 1974, he used some of the money he had made from his mcdonald's empire and bought the san diego padres.  after he died of heart disease in january of 1984, the team added his initials to their left sleeves in tribute.

here's a 1985 topps steve garvey card that shows the memorial worn in 1984, the first year the padres appeared in the postseason

and it shows up on garvey's 1985 topps record breaker, too.

it's there on eric show's 1985 topps card, too

and carmelo anthony's 1985 donruss card offers a really good look at it

but i've got this 1984 star steve garvey card in the memorial binder as the 1984 example of the memorial

thanks to the fact that it's garvey and he's wearing a mcdonald's wristband.

the padres wore the memorial again in 1985, perhaps inspired by the chicago bears who had begun wearing george halas' initial on their uniforms following his death in october of 1983 and continued to do so the following year.  in fact, the 'gsh' on the bears jerseys has never been removed since it was first added over 30 years ago.  anyway, here are some examples of the memorial from the 1985 season.

1986 leaf dave dravecky

and 1986 topps mario ramirez

the ramirez card is in the binder, too.

the pads wore the memorial in 1986 as well, and there are some 1987 cards that show it fairly well.

1987 fleer garvey

1987 topps tony gwynn

with dodger catcher alex trevino lurking

1987 topps carmelo martinez

1987 donruss garry templeton

1987 donruss randy asadoor

and 1987 donruss ed wojna

those last two cards feature a nice dodger stadium, so they are both in that binder, but i have the wojna card in the memorial binder, too.

although the padres did not wear the memorial beyond the 1986 season, it has shown up on a few cards since then, like this 1992 fleer ultra tony gwynn commemorative series card

and this 2013 topps archives gwynn card

and, when the padres wear their 1984 throwbacks, the memorial makes a return as well, as evidenced by yorvit toerralba's 2010 topps update card

kroc, who once apologized to fans over the stadium loudspeaker for the padres' poor play, was a benefactor to many charities, including those involved in the research and treatment of various diseases, including alcoholism.  he also oversaw the development of the ronald mcdonald house charities and was a member of the inaugural class in the san diego padres hall of fame.

the evolution of the shortstop, part 2

it's been awhile and i need to finish off these position evolution posts.  here's the second installment of the shortstop evolutionary chain - this time from anderson to izturis.

dave anderson (1984)

andy started 111 games at short in 1984, replacing the dean of the dodgers, bill russell, as the team's first primary shortstop not named wills or russell in 15 years.  he hit .251, and the following year spent more time at third base than short.  that's because the dodgers promoted mariano duncan.

mariano duncan (1985-1987)

duncan appeared at shortstop in 123 games (120 starts) for the dodgers in 1985.  he hit .244 with 38 steals and helped the dodgers reach the playoffs, although he hit just .222 in the nlcs against the cardinals.  in 1986, duncan appeared in 106 games as the dodgers' shortstop, and while he stole 48 bases, his batting average dropped to .229 and he was losing favor as the dodgers' shortstop of the future.  in 1987, duncan's average dropped to .215 and he played at shortstop only slightly more (538 innings to 499) than anderson.  he was demoted to the minor leagues for the entire 1988 season, as the dodgers went out and brought in alfredo griffin.

alfredo griffin (1988-1991)

griffin, seen above admiring one of his mammoth home run blasts on his 1991 topps stadium club card, barely gets the nod in 1988 thanks to his 89 starts at short compared to anderson's 72 starts.  he hit a lousy .199 on the season, and then was even worse at the plate in the postseason - .160 in the nlcs and .188 in the world series - but the dodgers won it all anyway.  griffin had better seasons as the dodgers' primary shortstop in 1989 (136 games, .247 average), 1990 (141 games, .210 average), and 1991 (109 games, .243 average) before returning to the blue jays in 1992.

jose offerman (1992-1995)

offerman hit in the .260's in both 1992 and 1993 as the dodgers' everyday shortstop.  unfortunately, he made 42 and 37 errors in those seasons respectively, earning his nickname 'e-fferman'.  at least that's what i called him.  he lost a fair amount of playing time to rafael bournigal in 1994, but still managed to be the team's primary shortstop.  in his final season as a dodger (1995), offerman remained the everyday shortstop, and even made the all-star team thanks to a .303 average at the break (he wound up hitting .287 on the season).  offerman was traded to the royals after the 1995 season, and kc immediately moved him out of the shortstop position and reaped the offensive benefits that followed.  no joke - offerman averaged .306 over his three seasons with the royals.

greg gagne (1996-1997)

gagne came over from the royals after the 1995 season, but not in the offerman trade - it was his signing as a free agent actually made offerman expendable.  over the course of the next two seasons, gagne missed only 52 games (that's what passed for stability at this position back then) and hit .253 with a little pop.  he finished his career as a dodger, retiring after the '97 season.

jose vizcaino (1998)

el viz returned to the dodgers for the 1998 season, and he wound up leading the team with 65 starts at the position while hitting .262.  juan castro, wilton guerrero, alex cora, and even adrian beltre also spent time there, but vizcaino got the nod most often.  until the dodgers made a trade deadline deal, that is.  after that, mark grudzielanek took over the position.

mark grudzielanek (1999)

the g-man appeared in 123 games for the dodgers in 1999, 119 (118 starts) as a shortstop.  he also hit a robust .326 on the season.  yes, his 2002 upper deck card shown above lists him as a second baseman, and for good reason - he switched to second in 2000.

alex cora (2000-2001)

cora played short for the dodgers in 101 games in 2000 and 132 games in 2001.  he didn't do much offensively, and was an average fielder, but jim tracy played him.  like grudzielanek, cora later moved over to second base.

cesar izturis (2002-2005)

the dodgers went out and acquired izturis in a trade with the blue jays after the 2001 season.  i recall hearing him advertised as a slick fielding prospect and so was not really surprised when he posted obp numbers below .300 during his first two seasons as the dodgers' primary shortstop.  in 2004, however, his third year at the top of the depth chart, izzy put it all together, hitting .288 with an obp of .330 and 25 steals.  he also won the gold glove that year - the first dodger shortstop to do so since maury wills in 1962.  in 2005, izturis again was the dodgers' primary shortstop, at least until an injury sidelined him for the season in august. the following year, he found his starting job lost and was traded to the cubs for greg maddux.

i'll wrap up the shortstop evolution in a couple of days.  stay tuned.

cards from andrew

it's awesome to get emails with trade offers from readers.  it's more awesome when the offer includes some vintage dodger greatness!  such was the case recently when andrew contacted me.  he's a fellow dodger fan and collector, so we were able to put together a trade pretty quickly.  check out some of the cards he sent.

1960 topps gil hodges!

happy gil to boot.  his penultimate dodger card, and one of the few i didn't already have.  gil wouldn't be smiling much after this as his production took a huge drop in 1960 and never really recovered.  still, he was gil hodges, so he had that going for him.

1960 topps larry sherry

larry sherry was coming off of a stellar performance in the 1959 world series in which he won 2 games and saved the other 2 dodger victories, earning the series mvp award along the way.

1986 leaf bob welch

i don't post enough welch cards.  this is a nice dodger stadium shot of the kid who struck out reggie to end game 2 of the 78 world series.  awesome.  welch had an odd year in 86 - he pitched well but without much support as his 3.28 era, 1.19 whip, and 7-13 record would indicate.

1987 leaf orel hershiser

another dodger stadium shot!  orel would go 16-16 in 1987 with a save and just 1 shutout as a warmup for his fantastic 1988 season.  whoda thunkit?

1989 fleer mike scioscia all star insert

scioscia really was an all star in 1989 (and 1990, too) but this card is based on 1988 happenings.  gary carter and lance parrish were the official all stars in 1988, but i'm glad fleer threw some love to the plate-blocking, dwight gooden busting scioscia.

2010 topps manny ramirez toppstown

manny has quietly got his average up to .322 and his ops is currently .937.  i am really hoping for a big second half from him as he chases his next contract.

thanks andrew!

curses, captain - bipped again!

i thought there were more members of the gap band.  oh well, i've been bipped. hardcore. by a fellow canuck.  and only bipped - no redeeming card at the end.  just bippage.  witness:

the horror of a singular bip:

the tragedy of multiple jesse barfield cards:

the hilarity of alvin davis bippage:

the monstrosity of barfield and davis combined:

and the calamity of kent hrbek multiplicity:

just you wait, captain.  i've got a snowball of a bip in my freezer, waiting for a warm summer day...