a steve garvey oddball that makes the 1975 dodger yearbook even stranger

the first dodger yearbook i recall seeing was the 1977 version (which i still own) that featured an animated collage of dodger greats celebrating the team's 20th year in los angeles. it wasn't until a few years later that i first saw the 1975 team yearbook.  it looks like this:

even when i first saw this yearbook, i was puzzled by the photo selection.  dave winfield is ducking as steve garvey elevates to catch a wayward throw at first base.  the ball is obviously not going to be caught, and so for a team that had just won its first pennant in eight seasons, the photo was a curious choice to adorn the yearbook cover.

at one point, i tracked down the most likely play that was captured for posterity.  on saturday, september 21, 1974, winfield reached on an error in the top of the 6th inning.  he was immediately forced at second by future dodger derrel thomas, but that is irrelevant.  the player who made the bad throw? no, it's not bill russell - it was ron cey (happy birthday penguin!).

anyway, a few years ago i became aware that the dodgers had created a postcard of sorts for the subject of my most robust pc - steve garvey.  this is the type of postcard that is typically used at team sponsored appearances, and is made to be signed by the subject. i have a few twins versions of these (including jack morris), and picked up lee lacy's the last time i was at dodger stadium.  i was recently able to get my hands on garvey's:

we'll come back to the front in a moment.  here's the back:

so you can see that it's not really a postcard.  still, for simplicity, i will call it a postcard.

the postcard photo is obviously the same play as the one featured on the yearbook, but from a slightly different angle, and from a split second sooner.  in this photo, it looks like the garv might actually catch the ball, even though you can see a bit of the 'ice cream cone' effect.

i am left to wonder if someone in the organization meant to go with the postcard photo for the yearbook, but marked the wrong one on the negative sheet.  still, it seems strange for the photo to have made it all the way through the printing process, especially when they could have used this one from the 1974 world series

instead.