feeling complete, except for some cards that should have been that i didn't make

i certainly didn't think this would happen, but i completed my 1955 topps brooklyn dodger team set recently by adding ed roebuck's card to my collection.

that means that my topps flagship/update dodger team sets are complete from 1954 through 2013, including variations (except for those super short printed 2012 topps update cards of the red sox three), and through 2015 if we are just considering the base cards.  add in a 1955 bowman team set, a 1963 fleer team set, and what i believe to be 1960 and 1961 fleer team sets, and i'm feeling pretty good about that part of my collection.

speaking of 1955 topps and completion, quite a while back i completed the 1995 topps archives brooklyn dodgers set, which includes some cards that should have been, including a 1955 topps tom lasorda card

topps created backs for these cards, too

because of this card, a 1955 topps lasorda card was never on my list of 'cards that should have been' to create, but 1956 and 1957 topps lasorda cards were.  bob lemke created a 1956 card, but i've never gotten around to a '57 lasorda.  speaking of '57's, jackie robinson was on my list of cards to create, since 1957 would have been a final tribute year with jackie's last season coming in 1956.  bob lemke has a '57 jackie, but he's in giants gear which is frankly disturbing.  still, i haven't made the time to finish that card that should have been, either.  other cards on my list were also final tributes that i haven't gotten around to, such as a 1980 topps willie davis card, and a 1995 topps steve sax card. some of the cards on that list, however, have been created by others.

for instance, here's a 1958 topps roy campanella

created by bob lemke

a 1959 topps pee wee reese

that would fit right in with the '59 set. unfortunately, i've misplaced the source for this card. if you know who created it, please let me know and i'll update the post.

a 1965 topps duke snider

created by cards that never were.  only slightly less disturbing than seeing jackie in giants gear.  and to think that the duke actually suited up for the nocals.

it's not just final tributes that were on my list - there are some cards just plain missing from history, like this 1977 topps reggie jackson

created by bob lemke, although i believe that there is a test/proof of this as an actual topps card out there (in keith olbermann's collection?).

still, most of the cards i wanted to create were final tributes, like this 1978 topps brooks robinson

created by uncle doc's card closet - when topps had (base)balls also created a final tribute for brooks, who was given the al kaline treatment and just had a season highlight card in what should have been his final tribute set.

in keeping with the oriole theme here at the bottom of the post, here are some cards that i made for ryan at o no another orioles blog a while back.  they are all of o's pitcher jamie walker.  i made a 2007 topps

a 2008 topps

and a 2009 topps

for ryan, who, like me, lamented the lack of cards given to non-closer relievers in sets these days.

as for all of the other cards i've created, i think there are some good ones in there, and certainly there are a lot of talented folks out there making their own cards that should have been, never were, or just need to be.  one of the best is travis from punk rock paint/the baseball card blog.  i still think that topps should pick up his 'pugilists & other pugnacious princes of play' idea and give us a real copy of this chan ho park card

made with a 2009 topps allen & ginter-ish feel.  come on, a set with that card, juan marichal wielding a bat, alex rodriguez getting punched by jason varitek, and aj pierzynski getting clocked by michael barrett among others? it's a no-brainer set that really ought to be made.  i'd collect the whole thing.

los angeles dodger managerial autographs managed

the los angeles dodgers have had only 9 managers in their 58-year history. compare that to the marlins, who have employed 13 managers (including two interim guys with just one game apiece) in their 23 years of existence.  all but one of the la dodger managers are still with us, and so obtaining autographs from each is not too difficult.

i've finally found the final piece to this collection, and so i will now display a complete set of la dodger manager autographed dodger cards.

1968 topps team (walt alston)

smokey passed away in 1984, so this card is obviously one that i purchased.  he first started managing the dodgers in 1954, and he won a total of 7 pennants and 4 world series, with 5 of those pennants and 3 of the world series titles coming in los angeles.  alston was at the helm for 2040 dodger wins - most all-time - and is enshrined in the hall of fame.  he gave way at the end of the 1976 season to tommy lasorda.

1978 topps tom lasorda

tommy signed this card for me through the mail, which was fantastic.  from the last four games of the 1976 season until his heart attack during the 1996 season, lasorda's dodgers won 1599 games, 4 pennants, and two world series titles, and lasorda himself was twice named the national league manager of the year.  he is second behind alston on the franchise's all-time managerial wins list, and he, too, is in the baseball hall of fame.  following the aforementioned heart attack in 1996, lasorda retired and bill russell took over.

1987 topps bill russell

like lasorda, russell signed this card (a final tribute) through the mail.  there is one card of him as a manager, and it comes from the 1997 mother's dodgers set.  i will try to get that one signed, but i don't believe ropes is signing through the mail anymore.  anyway, russell took over for lasorda in 1996 and led the team to a wild card berth. they were swept in the nlds, and were out of the playoff picture the following year which was russell's only full season at the helm of the club.  after 74 games in 1998, russell was fired by the fox regime about a month after the mike piazza trade.  it was the first time since leo durocher was relieved of his duties in 1948 that a dodger manager was fired during the season.  russell's 173 wins as the dodger skipper puts him 17th on the franchise list, and his winning percentage of .537 is good enough for 9th all-time (7th if we ignore interim managers clyde sukeforth and ray blades who won all three games they managed).  russell was replaced by glenn hoffman

1988 topps glenn hoffman

hoffman is (currently) the last of the former dodger players to manage the club.  he signed his 1988 topps card for me through the mail, and i may try to get him to sign a 1998 mother's dodgers card as well - it's the only one of him as a big league manager.  hoffman's dodgers finished out the 1998 season with 47 wins in 88 games, and those wins are the 25th most (out of 31) among the franchise's managers.  his .534 winning percentage puts him at 11th (or 9th), just a tick ahead of joe torre.  after the 1998 season, the fox boys were looking for a name, and they hired davey johnson to be the dodger manager.

2001 topps davey johnson

once again, the dodger manager in question signed a card for me through the mail.  johnson's debut as the dodger manager was a game for the ages.  on opening day, raul mondesi hit a 3-0 pitch into the stands for a game-tying three-run homer with two outs in the 9th, and then hit a two-run homer to walk-off the diamondbacks in the bottom of the 11th.  good times.  johnson wound up managing the team for two years, and the dodgers were 163-161 during his tenure (163 wins puts johnson 19th among the franchise's managers).  in 2000, they finished well behind the giants for second place in the nl west, and were 8 behind the mets for the wild card, and so johnson was fired after the season ended.  jim tracy was hired to take over.

2002 topps jim tracy

this is another through the mail autograph success, by the way.  tracy managed to manage the dodgers for five seasons, with the team winning 93 games and the nl west in 2004. although they lost to the cardinals in the nlds that year, they did win their first postseason game since 1988 (thanks to lima time!).  overall, tracy's dodgers were 427-384, and if it weren't for an awful 2005 season (you'll not be able to convince me that tracy wasn't trying to get fired that year - the second worst season for any la dodger team), his winning percentage would have been better. tracy ranks 6th all-time in wins for the franchise, behind five hall of famers, but he will probably be passed by don mattingly later this season.  the dodgers hired grady little to replace tracy following the 2005 season.

2007 topps grady little

i had to purchase this signed card.  

*update* little returned my ttm request after a fair amount of time with both his 2007 topps card 

and 2006 upper deck card 

signed.  very happy to have this success! *end update*

little's 170 wins in his two seasons as the team's manager puts him right between bill russell and davey johnson on the franchise's all-time list.  the dodgers won the wild card in 2006, but were swept in the nlds, and then finished 3rd in 2007.  little resigned as the team's manager after the 2007 season as it seemed apparent that frank mccourt wanted to hire joe torre to take over.

2009 topps joe torre

hall of fame manager torre, who signed this card through the mail, came aboard and led the club to two straight nl west titles and national league championship series berths.  the team faltered in 2010, however, and torre retired after that season. his 259 wins are 12th best among the franchise's managers, and his winning percentage is sandwiched by hoffman's and little's on the leader board. torre's bench coach, don mattingly, was picked to be his successor.

2014 topps heritage don mattingly

this card was the final card i needed for this post.  i had previously received a couple of signed mattingly cards through the mail with some help from reader cory, but i wanted a card of mattingly in dodger gear signed as well.  turns out i had to buy one.  mattingly is the current dodger skipper, and he has the team in first place this year, his fifth at the helm.  the team has won the nl west and made the postseason each of the last two years under mattingly, and they made it to the nlcs in 2013.  mattingly currently ranks 7th in managerial wins and tenure for the franchise, but should pass jim tracy in both of those categories by game 2 of the 2016 season.  after that, he's looking up at five hall of famers - alston, lasorda, wilbert robinson, durocher, and ned hanlon.  that's not bad managerial company.

on the road with octavio dotel

i realize that this is a topic that has been done before, but i've already done these types of posts for tommy davis, bob miller, and mike morgan, so i would feel remiss to leave out the most well-traveled player of all-time, octavio dotel.  especially since he was, for a short time like the others mentioned, a dodger.

dotel's big league career began with the mets (that's one team) in 1999 (here's a 2000 upper deck card)

even winning a game in the nlcs against the braves that year.  however, dotel was traded to the astros (two) in december of 1999 in the mike hampton deal, so he got an astros card in the later series of that same set

the astros converted dotel to a reliever, and he pitched for them for four-plus seasons before he was sent to the a's (three) during the 2004 campaign in the three-team deal that netted the 'stros carlos beltran.  this is a 2005 fleer tradition card

showing dotel in the green and gold.  from there, dotel became a free agent after the 2005 season and signed a one year deal with the yankees (four).  he signed another free agent deal after the 2006 season, this time with the royals (five).  topps issued a card of him wearing the kansas city uniform as part of the 2007 topps set

but he was again traded midseason, this time to the braves (six).  so, topps put him in the update & highlights set that year (this is the gold parallel)

and the photographer had him pose such that dotel has a light standard growing out of the side of his face.

after finishing out the 2007 season with the braves, dotel spent 2008 and 2009 with the white sox (seven) before joining the pirates (eight) for the start of the 2010 season.  at the trading deadline that year, the dodgers (nine) sent james mcdonald and andrew lambo to pittsburgh for dotel.  topps was kind enough to fake him into a dodger uniform for the 2010 update set (here's the walmart black parallel)

even though the dodgers traded dotel to the rockies (ten) in mid-september.  for the record, dotel pitched in 19 games as a dodger, going 1-1 with a save and a 3.38 era.

dotel began the 2011 season with the toronto blue jays (eleven). here's his 2011 topps card

once again, however, dotel was traded during the season.  this time, he was headed to the cardinals (twelve), and was included as such in the 2011 topps update set (this is a cognac parallel)

dotel won a world series ring as a member of the 2011 cardinals.  he pitched in all three postseason series, winning a game in both the nlds and nlcs, but losing one in the fall classic.

he was back in the world series again in 2012, but this time it was as a member of the detroit tigers (his thirteenth team - a major league record).  here's his 2012 topps update card showing him as a motor city kitty

the tigers lost that series, but brought dotel back for the 2013 season.  unfortunately, he remained unsigned after the season ended, and his big league career was over.

13 teams in 15 seasons is pretty impressive, and i'm glad dotel came through los angeles on his tour of duties, even if ned gave away mcdonald and lambo for six weeks of a replacement level reliever.

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!

one man carries the torch for both the penguin and davey lopes

the last pitcher ron cey faced as a major leaguer was juan nieves.  it was july 12, 1987, and cey was a member of the oakland a's at the time as his 1987 topps traded card attests.

nieves struck cey out in the 7th inning, and later in that game, the penguin was pinch-hit for, denying him one more big league at bat.  the player who hit in cey's place? none other than former nemesis reggie jackson.

juan nieves didn't last much longer than cey. as it turned out, nieves missed the entire 1989 season due to injury, so his last appearance came in 1988.  he still received a card in 1990 from topps, and from o-pee-chee, which is what is shown below.

nieves pitched in his final game on october 2, 1988, again facing the a's.  in that game, the last batter nieves faced was terry steinbach, who drew a walk.

now let's take a minute to see what was going on with davey lopes' torchbearers.  like cey, lopes last played in 1987.  he was with the astros - here's his 1987 fleer card -

when he pinch-hit for nolan ryan on october 4, 1987.  lopes flew out against the reds' tom browning, and that was it for his career.

tom browning finished his career in 1995 (this is his 1995 score card)

with two starts for the kansas city royals, the last of which came on may 19.  browning didn't make it out of the 5th inning that day, as he was removed from the game following an rbi single hit by terry steinbach.

so, steinbach had the honor of carrying the torch for both cey and lopes.  he wound up going home to minnesota to finish his career, and did so in october of 1999 (here's his 2000 topps card)

with a double off of james baldwin of the white sox.

baldwin, who pitched for the dodgers in 2001 after leaving chicago (this is his 2002 upper deck victory card)

bounced around a bit and eventually landed in baltimore in 2005.  actually, he began the season with the orioles, was picked up on waivers by the rangers, but then later returned to the orioles on another waiver claim.  the second time around with the orioles included his final big league appearance - a relief appearance against the yankees on september 29.  the last batter he faced was bernie williams who was retired on a comebacker.

williams, seen here on a 2007 topps hit parade insert

retired following the 2006 season, doubling off of scott downs in his final big league appearance (during the regular season, anyway).

scott downs, who was an angel on his 2013 topps card,

spent 2014 as a member of the kansas city royals.  he just became a free agent following the world series, and if he doesn't sign with anyone for next season, then the torch is passed to the last batter he faced in the bigs - cleveland's zach walters - but i won't count the loogy out just yet.

the kirby puckett memorial patch

yesterday was the 19th anniversary of kirby puckett's final major league game.  on september 28, 1995, he was hit in the face by dennis martinez in his first at bat of the game (the second player martinez had plunked in the inning) and was replaced by chip hale.  the twins' starter hit albert belle with a pitch in the following inning for what it's worth.  some believe that martinez's pitch contributed to puckett's deteriorating eyesight, but most agree that the glaucoma that was discovered the following spring was not related to his injury.  without vision in his right eye, puckett retired.  he was inducted into the hall of fame in 2001, but passed away from a stroke suffered just five years later, in march of 2006.  during the 2006 season, the twins wore a '34' patch on their right sleeves.

here's a 2007 fleer justin morneau year in review insert showing the patch

the card uses the same photo as morneau's base card from 2007 fleer

morneau is showing the patch again on this 2009 upper deck team leaders card

note that the twins were still wearing the latter puckett era 'm' hats on the road, even though their helmets had reverted to the old 'tc' logo.  here's jason kubel's 2006 upper deck card that also features the puckett patch

as does joe nathan's 2007 fleer ultra card

carlos silva's 2007 topps card

and torii hunter's 2007 bowman card

the twins sometimes wore a vest jersey at home in 2006, and when that was the case, the patch moved to the chest.  there aren't any cards that i could find showing this (nobody wanted to come to the metrodome to take pictures for cards, i guess), but here's a photo from getty images that shows matt garza in the vest jersey.

the card that represents the patch in my collection is hunter's 2007 upper deck spectrum card

hunter is typically considered the heir to puckett's kingdom, although puck had moved to right field a couple of seasons before he was forced into retirement.  still, hunter is a good flag bearer of this particular memorial.

in his 12-year career, puckett amassed over 2300 hits and at the time of his retirement, his .318 career average was the highest for a right-handed hitter since joe dimaggio.  puckett was not quite 46 years old when he died.