stay sterling, san diego

i mentioned a few days ago that there have been (and continue to be) a number of rare-ish large patch steve garvey cards show up on the bay lately.  i picked up two more for my collection, but the ones currently for sale are definitely priced out of reach.

this first one is from 2007 topps sterling, and features a 'big a' from a padres jersey

it comes from a 1984 padres jersey like this one below

in fact, it might just be this exact jersey.

the next one is from 2008 topps sterling

and features the 'p' from a different padres jersey like this one from 1987:

again, it could be this one as it, like the jersey above, this one was featured in an auction a few years back.

i once again went to photoshop to confirm the obvious:

 and

obviously awesome.

unless those prices drop, these may well be the last of the sterling 1/1's i add to my collection, and if that is the case, they're not a bad note to end on.

archives and series 2 mini collection hits

one of the things i do when a new card set is released is search out images, usually by team, on ebay.  this helps inform me regarding cards that might fit in one of my mini-collections.  i'll often head to sportlots to pick up singles that i've identified, but this time i had some help from one of my favorite ebay sellers who was offering up lots of archives singles and packs.

first up are some double play cards, including a 2010 topps derek jeter reprint

an ian kinsler card featuring brian dozier

and an addison russell card featuring justin turner

meaning that this card also belongs in my dodger lurker collection

archives also gave me another david ortiz final tribute card

that features all of his non-twins season stats

plus his full career totals on the bottom line.

adam eaton is sliding into home on tatooine

which might represent the first 2017 card added to my tatooine collection. i appreciate that the 1992 design allows the dirt to spill out beyond the inner borders.

and, thanks to archives featuring the 1992 topps design, i get dodger stadium on the back of yasmani grandal's card

for my dodger stadium collection.

i was lucky enough to get a few dodger stadium cards from my series 2 blaster.  this dexter fowler card

even features tommy lasorda sitting in his reserved seat.

matt wisler is pitching in dodger stadium

rob segedin is throwing from right field in dodger stadium

near where the spot that milton bradley spiked a water bottle and eric davis was running on his 1993 upper deck card

and, of course, the dodgers are saluting vin scully in dodger stadium

with bench goach bob geren front and center.  i like coach cards so much, maybe i should start one more mini-collection.

there may be no 'i' in team, but there are dodgers of my youth on team cards

a while back, i showed the 2001 topps tampa bay devil rays team card because it features the shortstop of the team of my youth, bill russell, on it as a coach.  russell is not the only player from the team of my youth to appear on team cards in a coaching or managerial capacity, so i figured that equal time was due.  charlie hough should be on the mets' 2002 team card as he was their 2001 pitching coach, but i wasn't able to verify that, so i'll stick with davey lopes and dusty baker for this post.  also, i apologize in advance for some seriously crooked scans.

lopes first appeared on a team card in 2000, courtesy of this fleer tradition padres team card.  he's the fourth guy in a padres jersey from the right.

i'm realizing now that i should have circled lopes in photoshop before posting these cards, but oh well. generally, lopes will be the shortest guy in the front row.

here's the 2001 topps brewers card, which features lopes as the team's manager. he's right above the brewers' logo, so the short guy in the front row approach proves true.

more of the same in 2002 topps

but that was the end of line for lopes in milwaukee.  in 2004, lopes was back on the padres' team card

he's second from the right in the front row there, but moved to fourth from the right for the 2005 topps team card

and he's even further to the right (closer to the left) on the 2006 topps padres team card

lopes left san diego and joined the washington nationals' coaching staff in 2006, and so showed up on the 2007 topps team card

and 2007 topps heritage team card, too

both featuring the same photo.

from there, lopes joined the phillies' coaching staff and was on the 2010 team card in topps heritage

although he did not get the 'hands on knees' memo

lopes finished up his run of team card appearances to date with the phillies' 2011 topps heritage card

since then, lopes has been the first base coach for the dodgers and now the nationals, but with the way topps does team cards these days, he has been absent from the flagship and heritage sets.

dusty baker's team card appearances follows the same arc, mostly because that's when the team cards were reintroduced to card sets.  so, here are dusty's cards...

...as manager of the giants in 2000 fleer tradition

2001 topps

2002 topps

and 2003 topps, which featured dusty on his last card as the giants' manager

he had to wait until 2005 topps to be featured on the cubs' team card as their manager

and unlike the padres, the cubs got a team card in 2005 heritage as well

2006 topps

the cubs' heritage love continued in 2006, too

2007 topps

and, what do you know, 2007 topps heritage

and 2008 topps heritage

as well.

dusty moved on to manage the reds and so was featured once again in topps heritage in 2009

2010

2011

and 2012

like lopes, dusty is with the nationals these days (as their skipper), but unlike lopes, baker also had managerial cards of his own during this run.

this one is not so bad, but still, avert your eyes because it has friends

my fascination with cut autos, and tristar signa cuts in particular, struck again in the form of a purchase of this 2008 tristar signa cut card of steve garvey

which features a chopped-up 1981 fleer card that he signed.  it looks more familiar on its side

even though garvey's signature lines up well with the card's orientation thanks to his penchant for signing cards vertically.

there has been a recent uptick in rare-ish garvey cards being posted on ebay lately.  in the span of a week, there were three different cut auto cards from 2014 leaf history of baseball listed.  i wound up with one of them that features a nice blue signature on a black & white photo

i thought i knew the photo that this came from, but i was wrong. i was thinking it was one of the team promo shots used on the 1982 builder's emporium 8x10 giveaway, but it is not.

another cut auto that i picked up is from something called 2013 historic autographs the decades - 1970's.

i've seen these before, but hadn't picked one up until now.  the cut auto is surrounded by 1970's references, including a misspelled thurman munson ("munsen") reference.  the auto comes from a signed cachet, but not this one commemorating garvey's 1000th consecutive game, 

nor is it this one from garvey's 1,118th consecutive game

which features billy williams during a postgame ceremony. this was a game that i attended, by the way.  instead, the cut auto comes from this cachet

which fetes the same milestone event.

last, but not least, is a cut auto from 2016 panini prime cuts harmon killebrew card

i think the design of this card is outstanding with the photo selection panini used and the way it's paired with the 1996 mlb alumni card. this strengthens my opinion that not all cut auto cards are abominations!