he made a marc on my collection

i read the news yesterday that marc hill passed away on sunday. he never played for the dodgers, but i knew about him because he played for the giants when my fandom was beginning, and because he was featured prominently on steve garvey's 1979 topps card

my neighborhood friends and i were enamored with this card when we first pulled it from packs. the 1978 topps set (the first that i collected) had most of the dodger cards featuring candid, spring training, pre-game, or posed shots. this card featured some honest to goodness in-game action (sort of) and we loved it. we quickly identified the giants' catcher as hill, who caught the majority of the nocal's games in 1978.

garvey and hill don't look like they are looking at the same thing. hill seems to be looking into the giants' dugout (it was on the first base side at candlestick) for a sign. garvey seems to be looking further down the line. anyway, that card example is a bit worn; here's a nice 1979 o-pee-chee card

there was no baseball reference back then, so i don't think we ever even thought about when the photo might have been taken. today, i looked at the website and see that may 27, 1978 was a day game at candlestick (garvey is wearing the away grays) as was august 5, 1978. it could have been either one of those games. it's not spring training, as the giants trained in scottsdale while the dodgers were in vero beach back then.

hill was kind enough to sign one of his 1978 topps cards

for me through the mail many years ago. i wonder if he would have signed a 1979 garvey card, too.

rest in peace marc hill!