more autograph successes to celebrate

one of the last ttm requests i sent out in 2014 was to former dodger pitcher greg shanahan.  he was featured on a 4-player rookie card in the 1974 topps set, and so i asked him to sign one of my doubles.  he obliged in quick fashion.

i appreciate him staring down the giant pitcher on the card, and i appreciate him signing for me, too.

a few months earlier, i received a return of my 2004 topps dave roberts card signed by the former dodger and current padres bench coach

and, a couple of years before that, i received a return of my 2008 topps allen & ginter james loney card from the former dodger first baseman

i hadn't bothered to show this before because i have another one just like it that reader cory got signed for me at spring training that same year.

i've been holding on to this next one for even longer - i'd say 6 years or so.  it's a royals' team issue print, as far as i can figure, signed by former manager whitey herzog

herzog has a couple of my 1978 topps cards that i don't expect to see back since he signs for a fee - something i didn't realize when i sent the cards to him.  this autograph was given to me by a coworker who attended a work related conference at which herzog was signing.  i've attended the same annual conference in the past, and picked up autographs from ron santo and kent hrbek in the process, but i missed this particular one in kc.  my coworker/friend folded the sheet to more easily carry it around in his coat pocket, but i don't mind - it's the thought that counts.

finally, here is a 1990 topps card signed by alejandro pena

alas, this card was part of a lot of signed cards that i purchased a few years ago.  still, i am happy to have it in the collection.

thanks, as always, to those who take the time to sign cards for us collectors!

trades in spades

the tail end of 2014 was fairly productive for me in terms of trades initiated and completed.  just check out the trade tracker to the right if you don't believe me!  here are some of the cards that i've reecently received from some great trading partners:

from tom at the angels in order, i received (by request) a 1990 fleer league leaders tim belcher card

and a forlorn looking steve sax to boot

i kind of collect all steve sax cards. sort of.  not officially or anything, but if i see one, i will usually pick it up or ask for it, as was the case here.

thanks tom!

now on to a trade i made with zippy zappy.  you know what that means - i now own a 2013 sega card gen card!  so what if mine is a ronald belisario card?

sure, he's stinking it up with the chisox now, but beggars can't be choosers when it comes to these hard to find cards.

belisario was joined by some stateside manufactured dodger cards, like this 2011 topps jackie robinson prime 9 insert

and a 2005 topps update & highlights russell martin card

i had hoped that the dodgers would reacquire martin for 2015, but i guess yasmani grandal will have to do.

here are a couple more from zippy zappy - a 1990 topps fernando valenzuela

featuring the always fantastic shot from the first base side photographer's well at dodger stadium, and a 1989 topps traded eddie murray card

i had high hopes for the dodgers in 1989 after they acquired murray, but there were just too many injuries. i couldn't and didn't complain, though - 1988 got me through even the terrible 1992 season.

thanks kenny - i hope you enjoyed our first trade as much as i did!

one more trade to show - this one comes from dennis at too many verlanders.  he found a davey lopes card and thought of me for some reason.  it's a 2001 upper deck prospect premieres lopes heroes of baseball relic card

with a photo taken from that same photographer's well as the fernando card.  very nice - thanks dennis!

i'm prepping a few packages that will go out shortly to the likes of catching up with collecting, the angels in order, too many verlanders, cards on cards, night owl, and am holding some cards for a couple of others.  let me know if you want in on the trading in 2015!

mike schmidt was final tribute worthy

as a collector in 1988, i was disappointed with the lack of final tributes - cards issued the year following a player's last season - for my beloved infielders steve garvey, ron cey, and davey lopes who had each played their final game in 1987. bill russell, who finished his playing career in 1986, was properly included in the three major 1987 releases, while garvey and lopes both appeared in 1988 score. only lopes received a card in 1988 topps, and cey was shut out altogether. 

come 1989, i was specifically looking for don sutton final tributes (a big thanks to score and a 'you were so close, why didn't you do it correctly' to topps). as cool as i thought these cards were, i had not recalled seeing cards specifically identified as final tributes until mike schmidt retired (i don't count the 1988 score reggie jackson subset - that was more of a career retrospective, and yes i think that there is a difference between the two). in fact, fleer included their mike schmidt final tribute in their 1989 update set.

here's the back

schmidt famously called it quits in midseason after deciding that he was unable to play at the high level he expected of himself. i recall that it was an emotional press conference for schmidt as he announced his retirement. the following year, donruss included schmidt in their checklist

and we received his full career stats on the back

here's upper deck's entry - more of a season highlight themed card

here's the back

now, you know that i was a ron cey fan, and the penguin always got my all-star vote(s), but schmidt eventually replaced pete rose (who had replaced cey) as the league's all-star representative at third base, and deservedly so. schmidt was so highly thought of that he was voted in as the league's starting third baseman for the 1989 all-star game, which was played 6 weeks following his retirement (he did not play in the game). 

i was even a sort of schmidt fan (except for 1983 when his phillies finally beat the dodgers in the nlcs) because my very first glove was a rawlings michael jack schmidt model. speaking of rawlings, schmidt won the gold glove award for national league third basemen 10 times. back to the cards. topps, as it is wont to do, fell short. they had a card of schmidt in their 1990 set

but it was a 'turn back the clock' card rather than a tribute, and failed to even mention his retirement

schmidt was a 3-time nl mvp who led the league in home runs 8 times. he was also the 1980 world series mvp, and his 548 career home runs rank 15th all-time today, and were good enough for 7th all-time when he retired. i suppose that's why he warranted special attention from the card companies, three of which really delivered solid cards for my mini-collection.

upper deck also included schmidt in their 1995 flagship set with a designated final tribute card

that coincided with schmidt's enshrinement in the hall of fame. 

this was the same set that featured belated final tributes for george brett, nolan ryan, and robin yount. i appreciated the effort, but much prefer the real time final tributes that upper deck provided in the following years.

a black armband and a memorial patch for a. bartlett giamatti

25 years ago today, baseball commissioner a. bartlett giamatti died at the age of 51.  unfortunately, he may be most often remembered as the commissioner who presided over the pete rose betting on baseball scandal as he died of a heart attack 8 days after rose agreed to be added to baseball's permanently ineligible list.  that was in august of 1989, and when the world series began that october, the players on each team wore black armbands in giamatti's honor.  here's a 1990 score world series highlight card that features the armbands on the a's and giants' players

it also features 'actual world series action photography'.  thanks score.

fleer also issued insert cards with world series highlights in 1990, such as this fantastic double play card featuring walt weiss and terry kennedy

kennedy makes his third appearance in a row on this card from the 1990 fleer insert set

the armbands aren't noticeable on that card, but if you look closely at the umpire's right sleeve, you will notice something below the number.  that's the 'abg' patch that the umpiring crew wore in giamatti's memory during the series.  you get a much better look at the patch on this 1990 t&m umpires card of all of the world series umps

i did not realize until looking into this memorial that there were umpire cards issued from 1988-1990.  who knew?  luckily this one was easy to find as it is the best example of this memorial and deserves a spot in my memorials binder.

the 1990 t&m umpires set also included a card of the seventh commissioner as well

the back of which features a poem written by the executive director of major league umpires at the time, richard g. phillips

score also had a giamatti card in their set

and they published the first and last paragraphs of an essay by giamatti himself on the back

giamatti wrote 'the green fields of the mind' in 1977 the day after the red sox season ended, and shortly before he became the president of yale university.

1990 donruss

and 1990 topps

also featured memorial cards of the late commissioner, who also served as national league president from december of 1986 until his tenure as commissioner began in april of 1989.  the backs of both cards also reference 'the green fields of the mind'.  here's the back of the topps card

and summer is gone, indeed.

1990 topps cards that should have been of 1978 topps dodgers

there was only one, as far as i can tell.  i couldn't come up with any reason, even remotely, that there should have been a steve garvey card issued by topps in the 1990 set, except perhaps as part of the turn back the clock subset.  hmmmmm.

anyway, here's the card i missed the most from the 1990 topps set - the tommy john final tribute card that should have been!

here's the back with lots of tiny text

john finished his career with a start in new york just a couple days after his 46th birthday.  he went 5.1 innings that day, allowing 5 runs, and didn't factor into the decision.  he fell 12 wins short of 300, but amassed 164 of his 288 victories after returning from his landmark surgery.  there are only 7 men who started more games at pitcher than john, although only one of them (nolan ryan) pitched in as many or more seasons than did john.

furthermore, only two pitchers have won more games than john in the modern era without being elected to the hall of fame, and i would imagine that eventually roger clemens and randy johnson (who will be eligible for the first time next year) get in, leaving john as the winningest non-hall of famer of the modern era. it was a heckuva career.

random rules the day

here's a smattering of randomness from the scanned folder.  no rhyme or reason, just some dodger cards…

1980 topps ken brett

when ken brett joined the dodgers, it was the first time that i became aware of the 'wrong brother' syndrome. not that i wanted george brett to join the dodgers and mess up the infield thing they had going on, but i still recognized that the younger george was the better player.  that wasn't what was expected, however, as ken brett was thought to be the best athlete in the family when he joined the red sox in the late 1960's.  with the dodgers, brett pitched in 30 games during the 1979 season and was released during spring training the following year.

1983 dodgers police tom lasorda

i used this photo for one of lasorda's cards that should have been.  i still have a few of those to make.

1984 ralston purina pedro guerrero

i found it odd that the same company that made dog food also made cereal.  anyway, i had a bunch of these mail in sets. or were those the cereal series cards that were mail ins?  i don't remember.  we ate a lot of chex cereal in 1984.

1987 baseball's all-time greats carl erskine

erskine threw 2 no-hitters (one against the giants) and struck out 13 yankees in a single world series game.  that's my kind of dodger.

1989 upper deck juan bell

more 'wrong brother' syndrome here.  bell was the younger brother of blue jays' slugger george bell.  the younger bell didn't actually play for the dodgers - he was part of the 'haul' that the orioles received in the eddie murray trade.

1990 topps mike morgan (in dodger stadium)

and 1991 topps stadium club mike morgan

i'm working on a 'on the road with mike morgan' post.  stay tuned.

1990 upper deck lenny harris

i could do a similar post for harris, i think.  although he only played for 8 franchises (morgan wore 12 different uniforms), he made multiple stops in cincinnati and new york.  no player has been used as a pinch hitter more than harris, and no player has more pinch hits than harris.

1990 upper deck mike marshall

between this mike marshall (who was a met when this card was issued) and the other mike marshall, there was a mike marshall in the major leagues from 1967 through most of the 1991 season.  i guess that's not that impressive, since nolan ryan was in the bigs from 1966 through 1993.

1992 donruss triple play roger mcdowell

to me, the oddest thing about this card is mcdowell's hair - forget about the sandpaper sticking out of the bottom of his pantlegs, what is that thing on his head?

the 1978 topps dodgers in 1990

there were only three members of the 1978 topps dodgers featured in the 1990 topps set.  a slimmed down tom lasorda was one of them.

he was also the only one to be featured in a dodger uniform.  lasorda brought the team back over .500 in 1990, leading the dodgers to a record of 86-76.  unfortunately, the team finished in second place in the nl west, 5 games behind the eventual world champion cincinnati reds.

as in 1989, lasorda received a box bottom card in 1990

this one was in recognition of his 2000th game managed in the majors, which occurred on august 2, 1989.  the dodgers beat the giants in that game, 7-4.

charlie hough was still going strong for the rangers in 1990

in what would be his final season in texas, the 42-year old hough went 12-12 with a 4.07 era in 32 starts. for the first (and only) time in his career, hough allowed more non-intentional bases on balls (117) than he recorded strikeouts (114).  he also led the league in batters hit by pitch with 11.  following the season, hough became a free agent and signed with the chicago white sox.  he left texas as the franchise's leader in many career pitching categories, and is still on top of the heap when it comes to starts, innings, wins (and losses), strikeouts, and complete games, but not walks thanks to bobby witt.

rick rhoden was the third and final 1978 topps dodger to make an appearance in the 1990 set.

rhoden became a free agent after the 1989 season ended, and didn't sign with anyone for 1990.  it was nice of topps to give us a final tribute, complete with his career stats on the back

they weren't the only card company to do so, however.  donruss wasn't on board, but fleer was

and they went so far as to add his triple-a stats on the back

i was so pleased to find rhoden cards in 1990, that i was duped into picking up a 1990 fleer canadian version of the card as well

the only difference is the copyright line on the bottom of the back

no french to be found!

here's upper deck's entry for the rhoden final tributes

with only 5 years of stats

rhoden went on to become a successful golfer on the pro-am/celebrity tours.  i believe he is now looking for an opportunity to return to baseball in some capacity. here's hoping.

while i was happy to see rhoden in the set, i was disappointed that tommy john was not given the same courtesy.  that means i'll be making a card that should have been for him, including some really small font on the back. until then, here is the yearly tally of appearances to date:

baker 17 (1971-1987)
burke 2 (1978-1979)
cey 16 (1972-1987)
davalillo 14 (1963-1974, 1978-1979)
forster 16 (1972-1987)
garman 8 (1971-1973, 1975-1979)
garvey 17 (1971-1987)
goodson 6 (1973-1978)
grote 15 (1964-1976, 1978-1979)
hooton 15 (1972-1986)
hough 19 (1972-1990)
john 26 (1964-1989)
lacy 16 (1973-1988)
lasorda 16 (1954, 1973-1974, 1977-1981, 1983-1990)
lopes 16 (1973-1988)
martinez 9 (1971-1976, 1978-1980)
monday 18 (1967-1984)
mota 18 (1963-1980)
oates 10 (1972-1981)
rau 9 (1973-1981)
rautzhan 2 (1978-1979)
rhoden 16 (1975-1990)
russell 18 (1970-1987)
smith 17 (1967-1983)
sosa 10 (1974-1984)
sutton 23 (1966-1988)
yeager 15 (1973-1987)

teams represented so far: 23 (dodgers, indians, colt .45's, pirates, white sox, astros, mets, a's, red sox, angels, expos, cardinals, braves, cubs, orioles, giants, phillies, yankees, rangers, tigers, padres, brewers, mariners)