don baylor's 1979 season was a year too late for me

two of the first memories i have surrounding major league baseball are the pack of 1977 topps cards that my uncle gave me and the 1977 world series.  the 1978 season was the one during which i really took notice of cards and the game itself.  living where i did, we had the dodgers on kttv and the radio, as well as the angels on ktla and the radio.  as a burgeoning baseball fan, i watched a fair amount of angels baseball that year, with don drysdale and ron fairly (two former dodgers, my dad would point out) doing the halos' tv broadcasts.  still, ours was a dodger-first household, and i listened to a high number of games while sitting at the table with my dad and his transistor radio.  my dodger fandom was certainly secured by those moments, and it didn't hurt to have vin scully calling games, nor to have the dodgers en route to another world series.

1979 came along and the dodgers were seemingly out of contention by the beginning of summer.  meanwhile, the angels were in first place by then, working towards their first playoff berth in franchise history.  as i mentioned above, my dodger fandom was secure, but i did find myself pulling for the angels and their left fielder, don baylor.

baylor's 1978 topps card was one of my favorites, and he became my first favorite non-dodger player as he tore up the american league in 1979.  my family went to an angels game that year while on a disneyland visit, and i created a don baylor t-shirt for the occasion (i'm sure my dad has a picture of me in it somewhere, but i don't have access to it at the moment).  baylor's final line - 36 home runs, 139 rbi, .296 batting average, 120 runs scored - netted him the league mvp.  

i was truly saddened to learn that baylor had cancer after he suffered a broken leg on opening day, 2014 - he had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2003, but i guess i had missed that news. at the time of the injury, baylor was the angels' hitting coach, and had tried to catch the ceremonial first pitch thrown by the only other angels' mvp (up to that point), vladimir guerrero.

baylor coached through the 2015 season before retiring, and he passed away in august of 2017 at the age of 68.  the angels quickly added a 'baylor 25' patch to their jerseys in his memory.  here's a 2017 topps now albert pujols card that shows the patch

although it is partially obscured by the medallion pujols is wearing.  here's a better look at pujols with the patch, courtesy of topps series 2:

thanks to his being acquired by the angels at the end of august, justin upton's 2018 cards show the patch pretty well.  here's his 2018 topps card

and his 2018 topps gypsy queen card

it's the latter that i have in my official memorials collection.

along with my fandom of the game, my card collecting hobby holds a strong connection with baylor.  yes, i was a big fan of his 1978 card, but i also have 3 of his 1971 rookie card - one for my dodger team set (tom paciorek is also on the card), one for my evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers collection (dusty baker is also on the card), and one for my 1971 complete set.  and who knows - if i had not started following baseball until 1979, perhaps i would have had a blog named 'baylor carew ryan grich'.