the next two sheets from the steve garvey binders mark the end of the century

sheet 28 in my first of two primary steve garvey binders picks up where we left off with sheet 27.  have a look:

those cards are:

1. 1994 upper deck all-time heroes 125th anniversary parallel
2. 1994 upper deck all-time heroes (heroes of baseball) 125th anniversary parallel
3. 1995 sonic baseball greats
4. 1994 upper deck the american epic
5. 1995 upper deck sp championship (october legends)
6. 1995 upper deck sp championship (classic performances)
7. 1995 upper deck sp championship series (october legends) die-cut parallel
8. 1995 upper deck sp championship series (classic performances) die-cut parallel
9. 1996 danbury mint

and so begins the glut of parallels.  it was great to have a couple of parallels to find back in the late 1990's, but it is quite tedious today.  i see that i have a card out of sequence on this sheet, but i'll fix that later.  lots of good stuff on this sheet, but the highlight may well be the pete rose card from the 1994 upper deck the american epic set (a companion set to ken burns' baseball documentary) that features garvey lurking in the background as rose celebrates hit number 4192.

here are the backs:

the next sheet includes the first certified garvey autograph cards, one of which is the first card i ever purchased on ebay. here's sheet 29:

those cards are:

1. 1998 fleer sports illustrated world series fever
2. 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game
3. 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game autograph
4. 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game cover collection (dodgers)
5. 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game cover collection (padres)
6. 1999 upper deck retro
7. 1999 upper deck retro gold parallel
8. 1999 upper deck retro inkredible auto
9. 2000 nabisco all-stars

garvey has been on the cover of sports illustrated four times, and three of those covers are represented on this sheet.  the first card features a cover from 1974 during the world series between the a's and dodgers.  that's garvey in the lower left corner of the montage.  the other two cards featuring covers showcase the 1976 and 1983 covers, respectively, with the '83 cover also being used for the autograph insert.  the only garvey si cover not used for a card is the april, 1982 baseball preview issue cover.

in other news,  the inkredible auto from 1999 ud retro was the first card i ever purchased on ebay.  i had gone onto the site to find a 1995 upper deck sp championship kirk gibson card that i had seen somewhere, and i discovered that the garv had an autographed card on the market.  the first of many, as it turns out.

here are the backs:

i appreciate fleer's bold coa on the back of the greats auto.

the 2000 nabisco all-star card was the last card of garvey in the 20th century, and it is the 36th post-playing career card in the binders.  that's an average of about 3 new garvey cards per year.  the 21st century would blow that ratio out of the water.  stay tuned.

a memorial patch for the singing cowboy

gene autry, the signing cowboy who owned the angels from the day the expansion franchise was awarded prior to the 1961 season until 1997, died on october 2, 1998 at the age of 91.  he had sold part of his ownership to the disney corporation in 1995 and a controlling interest to them soon after.

in 1992, the team retired the number 26 in autry's honor, as he was considered the 26th man on the team's roster.  he was their biggest booster, but the team never could make it to the world series under his leadership - they came oh so close in 1979, 1982 and 1986, but…

the angels, whose uniforms had been 'disney-fied' in 1997 to coincide with their taking over the controlling ownership, added a caricature patch of autry in 1999 along with the number 26 to their jerseys.

this 2000 topps andy sheets card

and this 1999 upper deck mvp card of troy percival

show the patch on the right sleeve of the home whites and away grays, respectively, because there is an 'anaheim/big a' patch on the left sleeve.

they also wore the patch on the left sleeve of their batting practice jerseys (i don't think they were game alternates) as seen on mo vaughn's 1999 upper deck retro card (gold parallel version)

and this 1999 upper deck ultimate victory troy glaus parallel.

i have both the sheets and this 1999 upper deck retro tim salmon card

in my binder.  the salmon is by far the best example of the patch.

autry was a mult-talented entertainer, spanning the industry from film to radio to television, and in fact has 5 stars on the hollywood walk of fame for those three endeavors as well as live theater and recording.  during his career, he wrote and/or recorded a number of classic songs such as 'here comes santa claus', 'rudolph the red nosed reindeer', and 'back in the saddle again', appeared in 93 movies and 91 television episodes of the gene autry television show and made over 600 records.  he also had a true passion for baseball, and it really was too bad that the angels couldn't win one for the cowboy.

two very happy returns

do you remember my modest 1978 topps dodger autograph project?  the one i finally completed when i found an ed goodson autographed card online?  well, i was admiring the cards in my binder shortly after that final acquisition and noticed that the garvey in the collection was ballpoint rather than sharpie. i do have a sharpie signed copy that i picked up from kit young about 20 years ago, but i was hoping for one signed ttm.  so, i packaged up 4 cards, a donation to the garv's charity (youth baseball of palm desert) and waited for the bubble mailer to return.

the check was cashed, but the cards did not arrive and i assumed the package had been lost in the mail.  so, a couple months later, i sent a single copy of the 1978 topps card and not too long after that, received a familiar looking pwe.  it contained my card, although it was once again signed in ballpoint.

that's ok, because how often do you get a signed card in the mail from your favorite player of all-time?  well, more often than you might think, as the very next day, my bubble mailer showed up containing these beauties

a 1978 topps card

1999 upper deck retro

(sweet dodger stadium shot)

2001 fleer greats of the game

these cards look fantastic signed, and i am happy that he added his number.  i think i might now have base cards signed by all of the surviving dodgers in this set - garvey, cey, wills, craig, erskine, and parker, plus a duke snider card, too!  oh, crap.  i forgot about tommy lasorda and don sutton.

here's the last of the garveys - a 2012 topps golden moments insert

for the sake of comparison, here is the short printed certified autographed edition of that card that topps put out.

it took me a while to track a copy down, but i did.  still, i prefer the on-card ttm version.

i am left feeling happy and a little relieved.  i never take ttm for granted, but i was really looking forward to this return.

thanks steve!

upper deck in the community

i recently participated in the group break hosted by community gum.  it was an all upper deck break, and i received a decent stack of dodgers for my entry fee.  from 2004 upper deck sweet spot i landed a couple of cards, including this hideo nomo

this was the first time i had seen these cards, so already i am ahead as far as adding new cards to my collection goes.  then, there was this card from 2002 upper deck 40 man - a shawn green numbered relic.

it might be nicer if the card were blue instead of red, but it's a new green relic for me which is pretty surprising given the fact that i used to buy shawn green relics like they were going out of style.  which they weren't as there were seemingly three or four different jersey cards for him in every set issued in the early 2000's.

almost as nice as 40man was 2003 upper deck victory.  it was cheap and featured a good number of dodgers. here's adrian beltre.

looks like he's channeling gary coleman.

i also picked up a rainbow of sorts featuring hideo nomo - base black border

parallel green border,

and a parallel orange border

i wonder how long it has been since i featured a card of odalis perez.  look at his 2006 upper deck first pitch card while i find out.

it's only been five months.  i would have guessed it had been longer.

here's a cool card from 2007 upper deck elements.  it's a rafael furcal card from the petg themed subset.

that's polyethylene terephtalate glycol for all you people wondering.  the card is plastic.

the next cards come from 1999 upper deck vintage.  surprisingly, they didn't rip off a topps design for this set.  here's kevin brown

he's running to catch his contractually provided private jet that has already started to take off without him.

next up, it's steve garvey himself.

it's always nice to get a garvey in a group break or a trade package, for that matter.  but what's even better is getting all four of the infielders

that's the power of a set like 2004 upper deck legends.

thanks for hosting guys!

the steve garvey pentafecta

someday i will have all of my steve garvey cards scanned.  until then, it's mostly the new stuff that makes it on to the blog as it is much easier to scan cards on the way in than to go grab the garvey binders and extract a card to be scanned.  anyway, i do have enough scans to finish my first post of any of the trifectas or quadfectas or pentafectas that i own.

so, the pentafecta includes a 1/1, a patch, an auto, a relic, and a rookie card of the same player.  here's one of the garvey 1/1 cards i own - a 2008 topps sterling card

look at how small the photo is up there!  now, this is a 1/1 only because of the patch, i believe.  there are other garvey 1/1 cards from this set (i've seen a lot of padres versions) that are pretty ridiculous with the patch layout.  still, it says 1/1 and therefore meets the criteria.

i've shown another patch card of the garv before, and i'll show it again because it is my favorite - his 2001 leaf certified materials fabric of the game card, numbered 6/6

love the red wool patch.

for the autograph, i will show this card - a 1999 upper deck retro card

that was the first card i ever purchased on ebay.  maybe the second, but i do recall it being the first card that arrived after my initial ebay buying spree.

here's a plain ol' jersey card that i own - a 2011 topps marquee titanic threads card

with another tiny photo

finally, garvey's rookie card - his 1971 topps

i'm not sure who else i have reached the pentafecta level with - bill russell maybe.  i'll have to look and see.  i'll have to get around to pulling cards from binders, though, and that might take a while.

mo vaughn was perfect

on his 2001 topps stadium club card, anyway.this is one of my favorite cards. i am a sucker for the photo from behind the player - it has a sort of retrospective quality. plus, in this case, you get to see the field rather than people in the stands. here we get a view of the renovated angels stadium. i had moved out of orange county before the renovations were completed, so i wasn't too familiar with the 'disney-fied' area beyond center field. then there is the moment of contact that is captured, in all its glorious potential. most of all, though, i love that he wore 42 in honor of jackie, and that the number is so prominent on this card. it's perfect.

i also like this 1999 upper deck retro vaughn card although i wouldn't say it's one of my favorites. i like it because you can see the gene autry uniform patch the players wore after the singing cowboy passed away. i really wish the angels could have made it happen in 79, 82 or 86 for mr. autry.

here's to you mo!