the final active player pages from the steve garvey binders

twenty-five sheets are all i have in my steve garvey binders of cards from his playing days - excluding smaller and larger sized oddballs.  here is sheet 24:

those cards are:

1. 1987 m&m's
2. 1987 o-pee-chee
3. 1987 o-pee-chee stickers
4. 1987 ralston purina
5. 1987 ralston purina cookie crisp
6. 1987 sportflics
7. 1987 sportflics (factory set)
8. 1987 sportflics team preview
9. 1987 topps

the only difference between the 1987 sportflics card and the 1987 sportflics (factory set) card is that the factory set card has a copyright 1986 mark on the back, while the other card does not.

and, here are the backs

1987 sportflics was the first set to have color photos on the back. go figure.

and here is the last page of playing day cards of the garv - sheet 25

those cards are:

1. 1987 topps tiffany
2. 1988 score
3. 1988 score glossy

i recognize that garvey did not play in in 1988, but i include his final tribute card with the playing days cards.

here are the backs:

so, very soon we will start to see some of the way more than 25 sheets of steve garvey cards that have been issued after his retirement.  stay tuned.

a double play junkie gets his fix

so, quite a few of the cards that the junior junkie has sent me over the last few months have been cards that feature double plays.  that is fine by me.  here are a few of them as the junkie takes over the gcrl airwaves today.

1987 sportflics ozzie guillen

i assure you, that is a double play card.  take a look from another angle

and another

and another

double play lenticular goodness!

1990 leaf mike gallego

i did not have much 1990 leaf in the collection, so this gallego is appreciated.

i can't believe, however, that i did not have a 1991 score casey candaele card

or a 1992 score jose lind card

or a luis river card from the same set

prior to the package arriving.

same goes for this 1992 upper deck jose oquendo

with ryno sliding in.  actually, i did have this oquendo, but it is part of a complete set so i am happy to have another.

here are a couple of jay bell cards - 1993 donruss triple play

and 1993 leaf

the dirt on the triple play card is largely what gives me reason to recognize the card as a dp turn.

here's another 1993 leaf card, this one of the royals' keith miller

i like this 1995 topps stadium club mike bordick card very much

more than this 1994 donruss ozzie smith

that features craig biggio, or this 1995 leaf ozzie

that features way too much busy-ness

the final card for this post is another card from 1995 leaf, but this one is of barry larkin

and comes from a great gloves insert set.

thanks again, thomas.  more cards coming soon!

2012: some trade oddities

there are two dodger short prints in the 2012 topps archives release.  one is a sandy koufax card and the other is brett butler.  i am still in need of the koufax, but tom from waiting 'til next year was kind enough to send me the butler

the rest of the package was made up mostly of oddball cards, which was great.  there were a lot of cards that i had not seen before, like this brett butler card from 1992 topps kids

it's pretty cool, actually.  the cartoon guys in the dugout remind me of the bazooka inserts from the mid-2000's. i wonder if the artist consciously drew a guy sleeping in the dugout because tommy lasorda was supposedly known to nod off now and then during a game.

there aren't a whole lot of bill madlock as a dodger cards aside from his regular issue donruss/fleer/topps cards from 1986 and 1987.  here's a 1987 sportflics card featuring the two-time national league batting champ

same goes for john tudor, who was with the dodger for a short time (only 15 appearances over 1988 and 1989).  here's his 1989 sportflics card

there are even fewer tudor as a dodger cards as he was not even featured in the flagship releases of donruss, fleer, or topps in 1990. both fleer and topps included him in their update/traded sets that year, but by that time, tudor was back with the cardinals.

how about a 1989 score young superstars tim belcher card?

and a 1990 topps toys 'r' us john wetteland card?

both of them supremely oddball.  and, both were cards missing from my collection.

here's a 1988 fleer baseball's exciting stars card of orel hershiser

the bulldog is just sitting on a milk crate in dodger stadium.  no big deal.  his pose belies the excitement that one might anticipate from a card touting 'exciting stars'.

and then there is this 1990 fleer baseball mvp card of hershiser

this was a set that didn't actually feature mvp's exclusively, although hershiser did win that award in the 1988 nlcs and world series.  still, one might have expected kirk gibson (the 1988 national league mvp) to make an appearance in the set.  he did not.

finally, there was this 1991 topps mike scioscia glossy all-star insert

i had no idea this card existed prior to seeing it in the package.  i am assuming it was a rack pack insert just like the glossy all-star cards had been dating back to 1985 (i believe).  always nice to have another scioscia card in the collection.

thanks tom for a really odd (in a good way) trade!

padrographs package - a well balanced meal!

this has taken me far too long to post. sorry about that, rod.

rod at padrographs sent me a fantastic, well balanced package a while back. he hit the five main collecting groups - garvey, dodgers, double plays, dodger stadium backgrounds, and plays at the plate, with even a final tribute for good measure. i love receiving any of these types of cards, but rod really put some thought into it. enough of that, let's see some cards!

1987 donruss barry bondsa dodger stadium background. and an auto! wowza. nice hat, too. in his first full series in the majors, the dodgers held bonds to 1 hit in 10 at-bats, and struck him out 5 times. of course, they also walked him 5 times. i remember bobby bonds being in the booth with vin scully or ross porter at one point during the series and being deservingly proud of his son.

1987 donruss barry larkinanother dodger stadium shot of a former nl mvp. i spent many a game out there in the pavilion. good good times.

1995 topps craig shipleythe aussie turns two. craig began his career with the dodgers, and was involved in that 12-player deal that sent ken caminiti to the padres in 1994, setting up that great finish to the 1996 season where they swept the dodgers to win the nl west by one game. of course, the dodgers won the wild card and both teams were swept in the first round anyway.

1989 topps padres leadershere's the play at the plate. nice that gary carter, a met, is more recognizable on the padres leaders card than the padre shown. why not just have a smiling tony gwynn photo and be done with it?

2009 upper deck russell martinnice.

2008 upper deck documentary russell martinnice, but documentary still sucked.

and a ton of garveys. sure, they were padres garveys, but that's ok.

1987 fleer mini steve garveyyou can shrink steve garvey, but you can't defeat him.

1987 sportflics steve garveythese cards don't scan well at all. but you get the idea.

the final tribute was garvey's 1988 score, which i have posted before, so i won't show it again here, even though it's a favorite of mine.

rod - thanks for taking the time and putting together such a great package!