bringing the steve garvey binders up to the present

steve garvey has maintained a presence in card sets since he last played in a big league game in 1987, and i am happy for it.  i don't have a lot of his recent cards - mostly due to the vast number of parallels - but i have some.

here is sheet 71 from my steve garvey binders:

those cards are:

1. 2013 topps museum collection jumbo lumber relic /30
2. 2013 topps tribute tribute to the stars autograph /24
3. 2014 panini classics significant signatures silver autograph /199
4. 2014  panini immaculate collection immaculate ink /49
5. 2014 topps 75th anniversary stamped 1975 topps mvp buyback
6. 2014 topps 75th anniversary stamped 1979 topps buyback
7. 2014 topps museum collection jumbo lumber relic /25
8. 2014 upper deck goodwin champions
9. 2014 upper deck goodwin champions mini

not much difference between the 2013 and 2014 museum collection relics, is there?  getting back to the parallels, there are three different versions of the 2013 topps tribute tribute to the stars, each numbered to 24, plus purple parallels of each numbered to 1.  lots more parallels of most of the other cards on the sheet, too.  i can't find any information on the 75th anniversary buybacks as far as which garvey cards were part of the buyback, but i am happy to have two of them.

here are the backs:

only three cards on this last sheet as of now, although cards will get pushed as i add some 2005 donruss studio parallels and other cards that i've picked up in the last couple of weeks, and find that 2013 panini hometown heroes card that went awol.

here's sheet 72:

those cards are:

1. 2014 upper deck goodwin champions autograph
2. 2015 donruss signature series blue autograph /49
3. 2015 topps original stamped 1979 topps buyback

looks like topps bought a few of the 1979 topps card - it was a double print, after all.

here are the backs:

so that brings an end to the 9-pocket pages, but don't worry, there are still a few more sheets to be shown.  stay tuned...

obectively, brian earned some vintage

i received a package from brian, the brains behind highly subjective and completely arbitrary, a couple of weeks ago now.  i had just sent out 12 packages and a couple of pwe's of my own to various folks, but now need to compile a return package for brian.  there will be vintage included in that package, because brian sent me some older dodgers.  i asked 'who wants to deal for vintage?', and brian responded.  have a look.

1963 topps peel-offs don drysdale

hadn't seen these before.  the backs actually encourage the kids who bought these packs to peel the back off and stick big d on folders and the like.  i'm glad that the kid who got this one didn't follow directions.

1971 topps tattoos wes parker

i did not realize the the mid-80's tattoos were a revival of a previous issue, but here you have tattoos from 1971.  nice of brian to send my way.

1954 bowman carl erskine

there was also a 1954 bowman george shuba card which is a nice upgrade for me, but the erskine was new to my collection. i realized after i opened the package that i hadn't deleted shuba from the want list.  that is sloppy want list maintenance, folks. i'll try to do better.

brian also included some more modern pieces, although still quite interesting.  this is a 1982 national baseball hall of fame sandy koufax card

it's the type of thing you might see in a panini set these days. it's really simple, but way cool, to have hall of fame plaques on a standard card rather than a postcard.

speaking of sandy, here's a 2015 topps archives card that brian also sent

how cool are those two kids over sandy's shoulders?  it would be great to see myself on a card like this.

from koufax to kershaw, with a 2015 panini diamond kings clayton kershaw card

i see now that kershaw (as of 7/9) had the lowest career era of any starter over the last 100 years.  lower even than koufax.

2015 topps heritage hyun-jin ryu holofoil parallel

another dodger lefty, though he hasn't realized as much success as the previous two.

2003 donruss studio hideo nomo studio stars

studio stuck with the credit card insert for many years. too many, in my opinion.

last card of this post is a 2015 donruss carl crawford jersey kings relic card

the card says 'los angeles' but the relic screams 'tampa bay'.

thanks brian!  i'll pull some cards together to send back your way soon!

the garvey train moves onward

i've posted all of the pages from my steve garvey oddball binder, as well as all of the pages of cards from his playing days.  as i begin to show off the sheets that contain his post-active career cards, i'll take a moment to display some of my most recent garvey acquisitions.

the garv is featured in the 2015 panini donruss signature series insert set, and i have obtained only the blue variation

it's numbered to 49.

i've also snagged a few msa discs that will find their way to the aforementioned oddball binder shortly.  here's the 1976 crane disc

which i like because they replaced the generic stars on the front with the 'crane' name.  here's the back

that looks like the vlasic pickle mascot.

this is a 1976 msa blank back disc

told ya.

and this is a 1977 dairy isle disc. the front looks like the blank back (except for the copyright date)

but the back looks like this

i do not know what sort of creature that is supposed to be under the 'dairy'.

i was surprised to find out that i didn't have this 1981 topps sticker

so i'm glad i dropped ten cents for it at the card show i attended recently.  i do have the o-pee-chee version, so you can understand my confusion.  perhaps.

here are a couple of cards from 2011 in the game heroes and prospects.  the first is a dual relic card of garvey and trayvon robinson

robinson was hitting well in triple-a in 2011 after batting. 300 the previous two seasons when the dodgers traded him to seattle.  after playing for the m's in 2011 and 2012, robinson was dealt to the orioles where he played in their system for a year.  he then spent last year at triple-a for the dodgers, but is now in the diamondbacks system after a quick spin with the padres this winter.  whew.

this is a solo card of the garv, featuring a large jersey swatch and an auto

it has a supposed print run of 9 (it's a silver parallel apparently), but there is no serial numbering on the card.  hey - card companies!  for print runs that low, please stamp the cards. thank you.

the last card in this post is stamped, although it's a 2014 topps 75th anniversary buyback of garvey's double printed 1979 topps card

the only other 2014 buyback i have is of garvey's 1975 topps 1974 nl mvp card which he shares with jeff burroughs, so i'm glad to have a solo card.  still, this is the same one topps stamped as part of the 2015 topps originals inserts

which i also have in my collection.  how about some variety?  in fact, topps, i've got some cards i'd be happy to sell you.  just let me know.

lots more garvey goodness to come - stay tuned!

well, that didn't last long

when 2015 topps series one was released, i expressed my happiness over the fact that 'series one' was added to the backs of cards. even if it only showed up on the base cards and not the inserts, it was a step in the right direction as far as being able to identify which set a certain card came from.  upper deck had done this for at least three years, and i am very thankful for it.

well, when i opened a pack of 2015 topps opening day, i was disappointed.  here's the back of adrian gonzalez's card from that set.

there is no mention of the set anywhere on the back.  granted, the front of the card

features the opening day logo, but i still lobby for set information on the backs.

here are some other 2015 cards that i've procured through a few pack purchases.

2015 donruss yasiel puig

these are not attractive cards, but flipping the inserts covered the cost of my jumbo pack, and so i got this puig for free.  i do not know what panini is obscuring by pasting into the picture a different group of fans above the brick wall, but i'm guessing it had something to do with logos.

how about some heritage? yes, i bought another 35-card box of 2015 topps heritage recently, and was rewarded with my first howie kendrick as a dodger card

plus the clayton kershaw/adam wainwright nl aces card

and a yimi garcia card

this is not the format for multi-team rookie cards in the 1966 set, by the way.

here's another rookie card from 2015 topps heritage that i picked up on sportlots.

it features the dodgers' centerfielder, joc pederson.

i've also gone and picked up a fair number of the dodger cards from the aforementioned 2015 topps series one set, including mr. pederson

and mr. garcia

who were given cards all to themselves by topps in this set.

here's andre ethier

who looks to be the odd man out in the outfield again this year.

here are yasiel puig on his base card

and his archetypes insert

lots of running photos for puig.

i assume topps is running out of photos to use of sandy koufax because they paired fernando valenzuela with kershaw on this inspired play insert

here's one of kershaw's league leader cards

and here's his base card

i picked up a few gold parallels on sportlots, including kershaw's

and hyun-jin ryu's (but first his base card)

ditto for carl crawford

and matt kemp

although i also picked up kemp's toys r us purple parallel

i thought about doing a rainbow of kemp's last dodger card, but i've sort of lost interest.

here's a-gon's gold parallel

which we know is from series one because it says so on the back.

i'll have to remember a few years from now that these first pitch inserts of suzy

and jeff bridges

are also from series one and not opening day (which has featured presidential first pitch inserts in the past) because topps apparently doesn't think consistently putting set information on the back is worthwhile.  maybe next year?