here's another way i can link don baylor and steve garvey in my collection

i've mentioned before that don baylor was my first favorite non-dodger player. it was natural for me to pay attention to the angels as i lived in their broadcast area as well as that of the dodgers. the angels were on ktla with dick enberg and don drysdale (and later ron fairly and bob starr after enberg left), and the dodgers were on kttv with vin scully, jerry doggett, and ross porter. we were still a dodger household, but i followed the angels, too, especially as the 1979 season got underway.

i've also mentioned before that the 1979 all-star game was a seminal event in my early fandom. this was largely due to dave parker's cannon in right nailing jim rice at third base (tag applied by ron cey!) and brian downing at home plate (tag applied by gary carter), but also due to the fact that both baylor and garvey were in the starting lineups.

here's a card that features both garvey and baylor that i recently acquired 

that's a 2021 leaf lumber midsummer classic card. it's the bronze parallel of the card representing the 1979 all-star game, in fact, and it's number 6/20 which is cool, i guess, because that's garvey's jersey number.

i also bought the emerald parallel version

because i got confused. there are four of these cards that garvey is featured on - 1974, 1976, 1979, and 1984, and i lost track of which ones i had already acquired.  oh well, i'm happy to have them both in my garvey collection.

all eight of the players featured on the card along with garvey and baylor - davey lopes, jim rice, dave parker, fred lynn, mike schmidt, frank white - were in the starting lineups for the game played in seattle. baylor wasn't voted in as a starter, but replaced fellow angel rod carew, who was injured. to further clarify, carl yastrzemski had been voted in as a starter, and he moved to carew's first base position so that baylor could slot in in the outfield.

here are the cards i have representing don baylor in my favorite non-dodger collection:

1978: o-pee-chee

1979: topps

baylor was injured early on in the 1980 season and missed about six weeks as a result. my attention turned to pete rose as far as my favorite non-dodger player was concerned. at least until steve garvey became a non-dodger, that is. before we get there, here are the garvey cards that are in my mini-collection of my favorite dodgers through the years:

1978: o-pee-chee

1979: topps

1980: topps

1981: kellogg's

1982: donruss (diamond kings)

here's where garvey moves to my favorite non-dodger collection, and the first card helps to ease the transition

1983: o-pee-chee

1984: fleer (superstar special)

1985: topps

1986: topps glossy send-in

1987: donruss opening day

the sobering thing about these collections is that i realize that garvey was my favorite dodger for the same number of seasons (5) as he was my favorite non-dodger. sure, his 1987 season (and his career) ended early due to injury, but i still count him as my favorite that year.

i still followed baylor, and rooted for him in 1982 when he helped the angels get back to the alcs. he did all he could to help them beat the brewers, but it wasn't meant to be. then, in 1986, i was happy for him to be a part of the red sox pennant winning team even though i was rooting for the angels in that series, too. i was glad he won a ring with the twins in 1987, because his last trip to the world series came in 1988 with the a's and there was no way i was going to be pleased with baylor winning that series, even if he had been my favorite non-dodger at one time.