moving into the '10s in the steve garvey binders

sheet 66 of my steve garvey binders starts where sheet 65 left off, with cards from 2008 donruss threads, but we'll soon get to cards from the current decade.  have a look:

those cards are:

1. 2008 donruss threads jersey relic (white swatch) /150
2. 2008 donruss threads college greats insert
3. 2008 donruss threads century collection materials relic /100
4. 2008 donruss playoff prime cuts
5. 2008 topps triple threads
6. 2008 topps triple threads sepia parallel /525
7. 2008 topps triple threads emerald parallel /240
8. 2008 topps triple threads relics combos (with duke snider and russell martin) /36
9. 2008 topps triple threads relics combos (with reggie jackson and willie randolph) /36

the first donruss threads relic is from the same serial numbered run as the one i showed last time (with a yellow swatch), meaning there aren't two distinct 150-card runs for each color.  the century collection relic is a nice dodger card marred by the padres' yellow swatch.  i'm missing a few of the triple threads parallels - well, more than a few - but they are hard to come by especially now.

here are the backs:

i don't believe there were any non-topps garvey cards in 2009.  i don't have any, anyway, as we'll see on sheet 67:

those cards are:

1. 2009 topps ring of honor insert
2. 2009 topps sterling /250
3. 2009 topps sterling framed white parallel /50
4. 2009 topps tribute
5. 2009 topps tribute blue parallel /219
6. 2009 topps tribute black parallel /99
7. 2010 topps cards your mom threw out insert
8. 2010 topps cards your mom threw out (original back) insert
9. 2011 in the game heroes and prospects heroes memorabilia jersey silver (print run 160)

there's a gold parallel numbered to 50 from 2009 topps tribute that i would like to find.  i don't really need any of the other sterling parallels, though.  there are 18 garvey cards from the 2011 in the game heroes and prospects release, and i have a couple more that will show up on the next sheet.  there are quite a few 1/1's that i will never see, let alone own, and that's ok.

here are the backs:

the 'original back' of the cymto is much brighter than the actual 1971 topps backs.  easier to read now, i suppose, but more likely a function of the cardstock used these days.

stay tuned for more goodness from the steve garvey binders!

a new type collection?

i am not completely sure that i am going to add another mini collection, but i do know that i enjoy most cards that show players' names and numbers on their back.  it's fairly subjective - not as cut and dried as say, my dodger stadium in the background collection - as i don't like every card that features a players name/number on the back.  anyway, here are some cards that would definitely make the cut in my 'nob' collection. if i were to officially add it, that is.  

1999 topps gallery vladimir guerrero

1994 topps stadium club rickey henderson rainbow foil parallel

1998 topps paul molitor

1995 topps stadium club sandy alomar jr best seat in the house insert

2009 upper deck derek jeter

2011 topps marquee stan musial

so, the bulk of the cards would be like those above - action shots, and usually at the plate.  sometimes there are non-action shots that fit the bill as well.

1999 upper deck karim garcia

2012 topps kyle blanks

there are also those cards that meet the letter of the law regarding the collection, but just don't resonate with me for some reason.  here are two examples

2010 topps alex rios

2011 topps update jered weaver

luckily, that rios card fits in my tatooine mini collection, and i may make a spot for the weaver in my lurker collection, thanks to former dodger alfredo griffin hanging out in the background.

i think what i like about these cards is that they use images that are similar to what i see as a fan when i go to a game.  watching on tv, we get different camera angles that focus on the action from the front.  or, perhaps they are just cards featuring good action (for the most part) photography.

jim thome through the mail success!

straight outta glendale, arizona - i received a sase in the mail on saturday.  i thought that maybe it was from the injured chris withrow or perhaps a certain cy young and mvp award winning pitcher, both of whom have (or should have) received a request from me this spring.  i was wrong.

that's a 2010 topps jim thome card, signed by the one time dodger pinch-hitter.  thome works for the white sox now, and the chisox share the space with the dodgers at camelback ranch. i sent this card to thome ℅ the white sox in mid-february as some others have reported success during previous spring trainings.  needless to say, i was pretty excited when i opened the envelope.

thome was a huge fan favorite here in minny, and the only appearance he made at a twins autograph party was met with lines longer than those for guys named mauer, morneau, and even killebrew.  he hit the first walk-off home run in target field history, and about a month later he tagged the flag pole beyond the bleacher seats in right with a monster blast.  i only wish he had hit a home run as a dodger.

as an aside, i am pretty sure that's frank mccourt's smug mug right in front of thome's shin guard.

thanks for signing my card, thome!

one does not simply post random cards on friday

unless one lacks inspiration for a proper post, and there are still a bunch of cards sitting idly in the scanned folder.

such is life.

2002 topps tribute zach wheat

wheat actually had 476 career doubles, which was still about 300 shy of the all-time leader (tris speaker) when he retired.  speaker is still on top of the list, with wheat way down at 81st all-time (and about to be passed by torii hunter) now.

2004 topps heritage don newcombe flashback

newk won exactly 20 games in 1955 (as he had in 1951), but was 27-7 in 1956 to win the cy young and mvp awards.  he lost game 1 of the '55 world series, so i guess that's why the flashback card references the 1955 regular season.  always good to see don newcombe cards in newer releases!

1985 donruss ken landreaux

i liked '85 donruss at the time. definitely more than i liked '85 fleer (and i am a fan of the 1970 topps gray border set).  landreaux here is swinging away in dodger stadium, while delino deshields is in vero beach on his 1996 upper deck card

1996 upper deck got a little too fancy for me.  there are some nice cards in the set, but all the gold foil didn't do much for me so i bought very little of this back then.

2002 topps chrome davey lopes refractor

that's a shiny card of the former dodger second baseman who was fired by the brew crew 15 games into the 2002 season.

2002 topps chrome traded brian jordan

i don't know if the chrome traded veteran cards are short printed, but i was pretty ticked that topps did that with the regular traded set that year.

2010 upper deck jonathan broxton biography insert

broxton was indeed 6-0 after june 5, 2009 with 13 saves to his credit to boot.  after the game on august 18, 2009, broxton was 7-0 with 26 saves.  he took the loss the next day.

2010 topps cards your mom threw out 1953 topps johnny podres

this is the 'original back' version

at some point between 1953 and 1978, people stopped using the phrase "pulls a rock". i had not heard that until reading the back of this card.

2005 topps carl erskine 'dem bums' insert

oisk is trying to run away from this post as fast as he can. i don't blame him.

a set worthy of the hall of fame

today was the day we learned who would be enshrined into the hall of fame.  the results were not too surprising, with craig biggio making the grade after falling short previously, and first-ballot guys randy johnson, pedro martinez, and john smoltz also getting enough of the vote.  i had anticipated mike piazza joining that group, but as the brooklyn fans of yesteryear used to cry, "wait 'til next year!"

still, here's a 2014 topps triple threads card of the strongest man in socal; the italian-american superstar slugger mike piazza

it's too bad he'll likely go in as a met when he does get 75% of the vote, and it's equally as unlikely that the dodgers will retire number 31 in his honor.  

i'm guessing we'll see some new cards over the next few months of the fab four that are headed for cooperstown as part of sets like triple threads, allen & ginter, and archives, but in 2005, upper deck dedicated a full 100-card set to the hall of fame.  it included six dodgers - i don't yet have jackie robinson's card from the set (it should be on its way by the time this gets posted), but here are roy campanella 

don drysdale

pee wee reese

duke snider

and don sutton.

had piazza joned pedro going in this year, it would have marked the second time since pee wee and big d were inducted in 1984 that two dodgers were enshrined at the same time.  as it stands, former dodgers gary carter and eddie murray were the only other pair to be inducted in the same year (2003) since '84, and neither went in wearing the interlocking 'la' on their caps.

anyway, i figure now is a good time to show a couple of randy johnson final tributes. the first one is from 2010 topps and features an unorthodox photo

 but it does have all of the stats on the back

with a lot of red. you can see that johnson got his control figured out in the early 90's and went on to lead the league in strikeouts 9 times.

here's his other tribute card - it comes from 2010 topps heritage and features him as a giant

the big unit sort of hung on to get his 300th win.  if the complete career stats on the back were at all legible, you would see that he finished with 303 career victories

i guess the last cartoon makes it pretty clear.  johnson needed five wins to reach 300, and the 45-year old signed with the giants to make it happen.  he wasn't the dominant pitcher of his earlier years, but more power to him, as he was able to reach the milestone with a win in june against the nationals.

johnson didn't get a card in the 2010 upper deck set, but he did have a couple in the biography insert set.  that's the only place that pedro appeared in 2010, and smoltz was featured there as well as in both the topps flagship and heritage sets.  i don't have any of those cards to show, but i congratulate them nonetheless.

the calendar turns with some double play turns

looks like we made it through another year, and what better way to celebrate than to show some double play turns.  i've found a few more that are new to my collection, and none may be better than this 1991 pacific senior league jerry terrell card

it's a coach card to boot!

i had overlooked this 1997 upper deck neifi perez

double play turn due to the over application of foil, but now it has had its status upgraded in my collection from monster box fodder to double play binder material.

similarly, i had previously failed to show the back of mike bordick's 1993 upper deck sp card

even though i had shown the front a long time ago.

here's a 1998 pacific online scott spiezio card

i've shown the red foil parallel before, but not the base.

how about some derek jeter for all the fan boys out there.  here's his 2005 topps card

plus a 2006 upper deck

and a 2008 upper deck superstar card

i'm actually looking forward to some decent final tributes in 2015.

alfonso soriano was, at one time, jeter's double play partner.  here's a 2001 leaf rookies & stars card of the former yankee second baseman

i had almost forgotten he was once an infielder.

now how about some trevor plouffe?  here's a 2012 topps golden sparkle parallel,

a 2012 topps walmart blue parallel,

and a 2012 topps mini card

of the twins' current third baseman.  now, instead of turning double plays, plouffe hits doubles - he had 40 in 2014, which was good for fourth in the league.

i picked up this 2010 topps robin yount short print a while back

it would have looked nice as a 1978 or 1979 topps card, i think.

fast forward to 2014, and we have the somewhat rare double play card whose subject is the base runner - jordan danks in this case

and a pretty standard double play turn, although it is a red hot foil parallel, featuring the marlins' donovan solano

i'm hoping to see some photoshopped dee gordon as a marlin double play turns in 2015.

manupatches, man. manupatches.

when i started posting about memorials (armbands and patches) worn by teams to honor players and other people, i also considered starting a series on patches worn by the dodgers.  the first special patch i recall seeing on the dodger jerseys was the jim gilliam memorial patch, but i also remember noticing the 1980 all-star game patch the dodgers wore, as well as the 1981 city of los angeles bicentennial patch.  anyway, if i were to do a sort of dodger patch series, this one might be my favorite. 

that's the patch (a replica of it, actually) that the dodgers wore in 2012 for the 50th anniversary of dodger stadium.  it's featured on a 2013 topps manufactured patch card of adrian gonzalez, who wore the patch for about a month after he was acquired by the dodgers.

before i get started on the idea of manufactured patches, here's a manupatch card from 2010 topps that doesn't feature a dodger, but rather a memorial patch worn by the marlins in their inaugural season

in honor of their team president carl barger.  i don't know of any other memorial patches reproduced as manupatches by the card companies, but i'd be interested to find out if any others exist.

the idea of manufactured or commemorative patches first came to my attention in the early 2000's with upper deck. i was on the lookout for patch cards featuring dodger blue or red, and began to see cards that were touted as patch cards, but not of the game used variety.  although these were not the first i encountered, here are a couple of good examples from 2004 upper deck sweet spot classic - leo durocher

and jackie robinson

the logo on the jackie patch is obviously the dodgers' brooklyn logo, but the durocher patch features a design created by upper deck.  the 1936 all-star game was played in boston at the braves' home stadium, and durocher was the starting shortstop for the national league.  of course, he was on the cardinals at the time.  anyway, at least the 'b' in the logo matches the braves' boston 'b', and not the dodgers' brooklyn 'b'.

i briefly considered collecting the 2012 topps commemorative patch set that focused on retired numbers, but settled for the three dodgers in the set - jackie robinson (42), sandy koufax (32), and tommy lasorda (2)

that set was, to me, an improvement on the 2011 topps commemorative patch effort that included putting modern players, such as matt kemp, on cards with old logos

i don't believe the dodgers ever wore a 'brooklyn' sleeve patch

before all that, however, there were these sorts of patches that were part of upper deck's 2003 sweet spot classic release, in addition to the game used variety.  steve garvey was featured as both a dodger

and a padre

on the logo manupatches, with the san diego version being hand numbered.  these were made to look like they were taken from the team hats, but they were not.  the garvey dodger card, by the way, features the 1981 la bicentennial patch i mentioned earlier.

in addition to the hat logos, garvey had two more manupatches in the set - this 1977 themed patch

and this 1981 patch

neither one is close to the official mlb world series logo from either year, although anything would be an improvement on the 1977 logo.

the 1981 world series patch upper deck created was first seen in the 2002 upper deck world series heroes set as part of the patch collection inserts - some of which were signed, like this one featuring the autograph of steven patrick garvey, who happened to turn 66 years old yesterday.  

here, you can see that the 2003 garvey manupatch card above actually has a condensed version of the patch.  the back of this card confirmed that the patch was 'specially created for the upper deck company'

i know manupatches are loathed by some, but obviously, i've got a few in my collection, and i am ok with that.  maybe someday topps will make a series featuring the dodger hero patches from 1999. i'd be all-in for that.