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!

steve yeager's torch is being carried by alberto callaspo

it pains me to note that steve yeager, the catcher for the team of my youth, spent his final year in the big leagues with the mariners.  that pain is tempered a bit by the existence of this very nice 1986 o-pee-chee card

he played in only 50 games in '86, with his last appearance coming on august 29.  he pinch hit that day in the bottom of the 9th inning of a game against the yankees.  with the m's down 13-12, yeager was summoned to hit for harold reynolds with the tying run on first base, and against the yankees' closer dave righetti, yeager flew out to end the game.

dave righetti would pitch for a few more seasons, ending his career in 1995 with the chicago white sox.  i don't know that i have a card of rags from his chisox days, so here's a 1993 upper deck card instead.

righetti had began his career as a starter, even throwing a no-hitter for the yankees in 1983 before being moved to the bullpen the following season.  he made 10 appearances for the white sox in '96, with the first 9 coming as a starter despite having started only 4 games (for the 1992 giants) since the season of his no-hitter.  anyway, righetti's final big league appearance came as a reliever, in a game against the indians on september 18, 1995.  he pitched the 9th inning with the white sox down 11-1, and although he loaded the bases on two singles and a walk, he retired dave winfield on a pop-up and then got billy ripken out on strikes to end the threat and his career.

billy ripken, meanwhile, is protecting what's his on the back of his 1993 donruss card

he finished his playing career with the tigers in 1998, hitting .270 in 27 games.  he was released by detroit in july of that year, not too long after playing in his final game on july 13. in that game, ripken was a late-inning defensive replacement who was in the on deck circle waiting for his first plate appearance of the game when the last out was recorded.  so, i'll go back to june 20, which was the game featuring ripken's previous appearance (and final at bat).  he got only a single at bat in that game against the royals' tim belcher, who coaxed a fly ball out.

tim belcher went to anaheim to pitch for the angels the following season, and he was there again in 2000, his final season.  this is a 2001 upper deck victory card

showing the former dodger in those disney-fied angel unis. belcher made 9 appearances (all starts) for the halos in 2000, and finished with a record of 4-5.  one of those losses came in his final start, on september 30 against the mariners.  belcher lasted only 2.2 innings that day, and the blow that knocked him off of the mound for good was a walk to david bell.

david bell continued to play through the 2006 season.  he finished that year with the brewers, after starting the season with the phillies whose uniform he is wearing on his 2006 topps heritage card

bell was the brew crew's third baseman on the final day of the season in 2006 as they faced the cardinals.  he went 1 for 4 at the plate, but his last at bat resulted in a backwards k, courtesy of josh kinney.

josh kinney had made his debut earlier that season, and was on the team's postseason roster as well, winning a ring as the cardinals beat the tigers in 5 games.  he stayed with the cardinals' organization through the 2010 season, and was featured in the 2009 upper deck set

kinney spent 2011 with the white sox and 2012 with the mariners, and hasn't pitched in the big leagues since.  he spent last season in the pirates' organization, but is currently a free agent.  so, yeager's torch has been carried by someone else for the last couple of seasons.  in kinney's last big league appearance, he relieved felix hernandez in a game agains the angels, and allowed a single to former teammate albert pujols, but then struck out kendrys morales and got alberto callaspo to fly out.

and that's how we get to callaspo, the current torchbearer of steve yeager's career.  callaspo, shown here on his 2014 topps card

was recently signed as a free agent by the braves to a one-year contract, so he should carry the torch a bit longer.

a pwe to please me

so, jeff at 2x3 heroes and i are playing hot potato with the pwe's these days (there's one in the mail for you today, jeff).  here are some (yes, jeff fit more than just these cards in a pwe) of the cards that i received in his last missive.

1996 upper deck hideo nomo vj lovero showcase insert

that's a rarely used viewpoint that never gets old.  plus, it qualifies as a 'tatooine' card.  more of those a bit later.

here's a 1986 o-pee-chee card of steve garvey

and a 1987 topps boardwalk and baseball card of the garv as well

those cards make up two-thirds of the pwe's garvey content.  the b/b card is from a boxed set featuring 'top run makers' and was all about each players' "runs produced average" which was just (runs scored + rbi)/games played.  real scientific sabermetric stuff back in 1987.

this is a 1995 fleer ultra pedro astacio card

which, when considered from the standpoint of the envelope's contents as a whole, was kind of out of place.

there were other dodgers, but they were from the 2000 fleer greats of the game set, and included this fantastic preacher roe card.

just a beautiful thing.

here's a less interesting card from the same set featuring gil hodges

now back to tatooine cards.  joe randa is looking for droids on his 2003 donruss card

as is morgan ensberg on his 2004 upper deck card

and jason michaels as well, on his 2007 topps card

thanks jeff - you're it!

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.  

the evolution of the dodgers' first baseman, part one

it is well known that jackie robinson began his major league career as the dodgers' first baseman in 1947.  unfortunately, i do not own a 1947 bond bread card of jackie's, nor do i own a 1948 leaf card to show in this space.  with that being the case, i'll start the evolution of the dodgers' first baseman with the guy who replaced jackie at first in 1948, gil hodges. this is not a departure from the norm, using a fantastic 1952 bowman card to kick off an evolution post (this is a baseball card blog and i don't have many pre-1950's cards in my collection), but it sure would have been nice to see that leaf card of jackie up top.  maybe someday.

gil hodges (1948-1959)

yes, hodges' 1952 bowman card is fantastic.  i enjoy having it in my collection.  the dodgers enjoyed having hodges' bat in their lineup following his conversion from catcher to first baseman in 1948.  he hit a total of 361 home runs for the dodgers, including 344 during the 12-year span in which he was the team's primary first baseman.  the club also won two world championships (and 6 pennants) with him at first.

norm larker (1960-1961)

norm!  larker (shown on his 1961 topps card) took over for hodges in 1960 and promptly went out and finished second in the national league batting race, .002 behind dick groat and .004 ahead of willie mays.  he was an all-star that year, but came back to earth in 1961, hitting .270 in just 95 games.  he was drafted by the colt .45's in the expansion draft prior to the 1962 season, and he became the very first first baseman in houston's history.  if there were an astros blogger out there doing this same sort of post, larker would be at the very start.

ron fairly (1962-1964)

with larker gone, fairly moved to first from the outfield.  yes, i am showing his 1965 topps card even though he was back in the outfield when the 1965 season rolled around.  before that, however, he enjoyed three solid seasons as the dodger first baseman, averaging 12 homers and 74 rbi.  he was playing more outfield by the end of the '63 season, making way for bill skowron.  as a result, he made only late-inning appearances during the 1963 world series.

wes parker (1965-1972)

skowron left the dodgers after one season, and fairly moved back to the outfield with wes parker taking over at first.  he became part of the team's all switch hitting infield (with jim lefebvre, jim gilliam, and maury wills) and helped the dodgers win the world series against the twins.  parker also won gold gloves in 6 of his 8 seasons spent playing primarily at first (including 1971 - the year of the topps card shown above).  in 1970, he led the national league with 47 doubles, but he was always better known for his skill with the leather, compiling a career .996 fielding percentage as a first baseman.  he retired following the 1972 season at the age of 32.  parker is the only non-hall of famer on rawlings' all-time gold glove team.

bill buckner (1973)

buckner's 1974 topps card lists him as a first baseman because he played in 93 games (83 starts) at the position in 1973.  he hit .275 and played in 140 games overall that year, and was moved back to the outfield in 1974, where he was seen climbing the wall in atlanta trying to get to hank aaron's 715th career home run.

steve garvey (1974-1982)

there aren't a lot of steve garvey cards from his playing days that i haven't shown on the blog yet, but that 1980 kellogg's card is one of them.  the garv took over the first baseman's job and wound up winning the all-star game and national league mvp awards in 1974.  he held on to the job until he left the club as a free agent following the 1982 season, amassing 8 consecutive all-star starts, 4 gold gloves, 4 pennants, and a world series championship during that 9-year span.

greg brock (1983-1986)

brock, shown on his 1986 o-pee-chee card, was a triple-a phenom who had the misfortune of being asked to replace garvey in the dodgers' lineup and maybe even continue the dodgers' string of rookies of the year (they had owned the award since rick sutcliffe won it in 1979, with steve howe winning in 1980, fernando valenzuela in 1981, and steve sax in 1982).  unfortunately, brock hit just .224 with 20 homers in 146 games in his rookie year, finishing 7th in the 1983 nl rookie of the year balloting.  the dodgers still won the west, however, and brock was 0 for 9 in his first taste of postseason play.  the following season, he hit .225 while playing in only 88 games, but still spent more time at first than anybody else.  in 1985, he helped the dodgers return to the postseason with what may have been his best season with the dodgers - he hit .251 with 21 homers and 66 rbi in 129 games.  he got his only postseason hit of his career that year, a home run in game 2 of the nlcs.  he was hitless in his other 11 at bats of the series.  following another lackluster season, brock was traded to the brewers for a couple of tims - crews and leary.

franklin stubbs (1987-1988)

stubbs had been the dodgers' left fielder in 1986, but moved to first to replace brock in 1987.  he had a 'brock-ish' season, however, hitting .233 with 15 homers and 52 rbi in 129 games, 111 of which included some time at first.  in 1988, stubbs appeared in 84 games at first for the dodgers, 54 of which were starts, which was more than mike marshall (54 games, 51 starts) so he gets the nod here for the year that was so improbable.  that's his 1988 score card, by the way.  stubbs started all five games of the '88 world series, hitting .294 with a couple of rbi. interestingly enough, stubbs went to the astros in a trade prior to the 1990 season, but signed with the brewers as a free agent for the 1991 campaign wherein he replaced greg brock as the first baseman for the brew crew.

eddie murray (1989-1991)

the dodgers were likely tired of a lack of production from the first base position since garvey's departure, so they traded for hometown guy eddie murray following their world series triumph over the a's.  steady eddie showed up in 1989 (i was excited to see him in dodger blue on his 1989 upper deck card shown above) and played in 160 games (159 at first) but hit only .247.  he did drive in 88 runs, however, and in 1990 he led all of major league baseball with a .330 average.  too bad for murray that willie mcgee was hitting .335 when he was dealt from the cardinals to the a's (mcgee hit only .274 with oakland, dropping his composite average to .324 for the season).  murray left the dodgers after the 1991 season as a free agent, opening the door for a rookie named eric karros to win the job even though the team had traded for todd benzinger just in case.

some southpaw successes

might as well continue the ttm success theme for the rest of the week.  it makes the posting easy, and let's face it - there are not a lot of ways to be creative with cards signed through the mail by former dodger loogys.

here's ed vande berg on his very nice 1986 o-pee-chee team and text variation

vande berg spent just one season with the dodgers before moving on to cleveland.  this was not my only ttm success with vande berg - i just wanted to get that opc sucker signed.

i also had a couple of successes with former dodger reliever steve wilson.  here's his 1992 topps card:

 and his 1993 topps card

along with a 1994 topps card

i think wilson is a scout for the cubs these days.  he appeared in slightly more games as a cub (106) than a dodger (96) and was part of the 1989 cubs team that made the postseason. 

the second time i sent to wilson, i included a 1993 donruss card

 and another 1993 topps card

and even another 1994 topps card

this time,wilson added his number.  inscriptions are always nice, but i wonder if wilson adds a different number depending on the card. [edit - i answered my own question when i found the 1994 card in my scanned folder - i forgot to add it the first time around]. according to baseball reference, he wore 38 for the dodgers in 1991 and 1992, but was 50 in 1993.

dave walsh added bible verse inscriptions to both his 1991 score

 and 1991 topps cards

walsh was only in the big leagues for a couple of months in 1990 after spending 8 or so years in the minors.  he pitched in 20 games totaling 16.1 innings with 15 strikeouts.  he was 1-0 with a save and a 3.86 era, earning the win in what would be his final big league appearance.  he spent a bit of time back in aaa in 1991 and his numbers would indicate that he was effective, but he never got another call-up.

finally, here is george sherrill and his 2010 topps card

sherrill was lights out for the dodgers over the second half of the 2009 season (0.65 era) but struggled in 2010.  i sent this card to him last year when he was with atlanta.  he's with the mariners now, and i hope he rediscovers whatever it was that he had back in '09.

hey leftys - thanks for signing my cards!

the bobby cox card that should have been!

yesterday over on 'oh my o-pee-chee', i showcased the text variation that is the 1986 bobby cox card.  in doing so, i lamented the fact that o-pee-chee failed to give the card the proper team variation treatment.  so, i figured i would go ahead and create the 1986 o-pee-chee bobby cox card that should have been:

i suppose o-pee-chee didn't switch the teams since only the expos and blue jays had manager cards in the set, and they didn't want to create a jimy williams card to replace cox in the set.  although that sort of checklist variation is one of the things that makes me say 'oh my, o-pee-chee!'

[end shameless plug]

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...