30-day baseball card challenge, two more days at a time

i'm way behind on the 30-day baseball card challenge, so i'm going to combine a couple of days into this post.

day 4 was supposed to feature a rookie card of one of your favorite players.  there are a few players that could fit this bill, from the obvious to the more obscure.  to me, rookie cards are generally multi-player cards, so i decided to go with ron cey's 1972 topps card

as it is the first multi-player rookie card for any member of the infield of my youth.  another reason that i chose this card is that cey's inclusion on a multi-player rookie card in 1973 gets more attention than this, his true rookie card.  and then there is the text from topps that lists the penguin as an outfielder.  i used to take this as gospel, as bill russell was a converted outfielder and jim gilliam also worked his magic with garvey's move from third to first, so why not have the dodger third baseman of my youth be a transplant from another position?  besides, topps wouldn't mislead a young collector, would they? well, with baseball reference logging minor league position stats, i now see that cey appeared in a total of 3 minor league games as an outfielder.  what makes this more confusing on topps' part is that the card is not a 'rookie outfielders' card, just a 'rookie stars' card. curious.

day 5 was supposed to feature a certified autograph card of one of your favorite players, and for this one i chose a recent steve garvey pick-up for my collection.  it's a 2004 topps originals buyback autographed card - specifically his 1985 topps card - numbered to 129.

it's been broken out of its case (which included some stickers further identifying the set), but it does still have the hologram on the back

so we know it's legit.  i suppose i would have preferred to have this card still encased to match the others i have from this set, but it obviously wasn't a deal breaker. i also appreciate the fact that there is no mention of the padres' 1984 nl championship run on the back of the card.  no, it's still better to mention the batboy story and the junior high school than garvey's nlcs mvp performance or the first world series berth for the padres.

i'm really trying not to have this 30-day challenge turn into a bunch of garvey cards, so i'll try to mix it up a bit going forward.