daves to be different

i happened to be adding cards to my sportlots inventory, and it's a pain when the new cards are of older stature. i have to go into the monster boxes on the bottom of my stack to get them in the right place, knowing full well that the likelihood of someone actually buying a card from 1990 topps is pretty low.

all was not lost, however, as i took some time to peruse some of the other cards already in my inventory and found a couple of anomalies worth a few words here. first up is dave dravecky's 1990 score card

this is, at face value, an interesting card because the photo shows dravecky waving his cap with his arm in a sling. for those of us who remember, dravecky broke his arm during a game following recovery from surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. so, the photo is to be respected as a record of that and not just a random photo of him pitching in a game. what really sets the card apart from the rest of the set, however, is the back

rather than a portrait shot like every other card, score used a photo of dravecky warming up before making his first start after surgery, and even captioned the photo for us. this sort of willingness to vary from the norm should be appreciated, applauded, and replicated on more cards to this day.

the card also opted for more text than stats in order to explain the challenges that dravecky faced. unfortunately, he did not return to the majors in 1990, so the card is effectively a final tribute for him.

the other card i pulled to scan is dave clark's 1989 fleer card

it is the only card i am aware of in the set (to be fair, i have not completed this set nor seen every card in the set) that lists "rookie" as part of an individual player card. the designation does not appear on the back

i didn't bother to peruse comc's library to see if there are others like this in 1989 fleer. even if there are, it's fun to find some anomalies among the monotony of junk wax era sets.

i can't leaf stuff like this alone

i have several saved searches on ebay, and sometimes these searches lead me down a rabbit hole and i wind up with cards that i wouldn't normally be seeking out. a few months ago, my saved "garvey" search brought up an odd mix of 57 cards from a seller. the main photo included a 1972 topps steve garvey card, 

which is why the lot hit my saved search.

there were other cards shown, and i think you will agree that the buy it now was reasonable with an all-in total cost of about $59. these are some of the other cards that were shown in the main photo for the lot:

strangely enough, the title only mentioned garvey and don money. 

once i saw the 1981 o-pee-chee alan trammell card

and the 1985 leaf greg luzinski card, i began to wonder if the 1975 george brett or 1976 ron guidry rookie cards might be o-pee-chee? obviously the garvey (no o-pee-chee high numbers in 1972) and the 1975 mini gary carter rookie are topps, and the 1977 rod carew card is topps (no all-star banners on o-pee-chee cards in '77), but the brett and guidry cards could be.

here's a closer look at that gary carter rookie

and the carew

which was in pretty good condition.

unfortunately, neither the guidry

nor the brett

were canadian varieties. however, the 1970 larry bowa rookie card

was!

there was another photo that showed delino deshields' fantastic 1988 o-pee-chee exclusive card

being included as part of the set, but what really sold me on making the purchase was this photo

more leaf and o-pee-chee cards were shown, and this bunch wound up including a 1987 leaf rafael palmeiro rookie card

but what got my attention was the card showing in the lower left of the photo. that's a 1989 fleer billy ripken card, and i figured it was worth taking a shot at getting the "f-ck face" version. i do not own, nor have i ever owned, any variation of the card, and i had minor regret after passing up a black box variation in a dollar bin at a card show last year. so, i paid my money and crossed my fingers, just as i had with the brett and the guidry.

it turned out to be the black box version

still, i was not disappointed with the lot even though, in the end, this is the only card that has (so far) found its way into my permanent collection:

and that's because of the dodger stadium background on jerry koosman's 1985 leaf card

i'm calling it

for the past several years, the number one most wanted card on my "nefarious 9" list has been the 1989 fleer orel hershiser box bottom card with the white back. 

i no longer think it exists.

i have never seen one offered on ebay, and there is no record of it ever being on comc. after years with no luck, i finally took the time to look into this more closely, and found out that i should have consulted tcdb a long time ago.

tcdb tells me that the hershiser was only available as a cello pack box bottom. those came in the six card configuration seen below. 

the other cello pack box bottom option had cards for wade boggs, frank viola, fred mcgriff, and kevin seitzer, along with red sox and yankee logo cards. i can't find any record of these 12 cards being available with white backs.

the other 16 cards in the box bottom "set" were available as four panel box bottoms for wax packs. so it seems that only the wax pack bottoms, which included the only other dodgers in the set (kirk gibson and the dodger logo cards), came in both gray and white backs.

and so, i am deleting the white back hershiser card from my most wanted list. it has been replaced by another hershiser card - his 1994 upper deck electric diamond parallel. as for the top spot, kevin brown's 2002 upper deck sweet spot card which is standing between me and team set completion now sits there. check it out and see if you can help a blogger out!

i had a field day on camera day

upper deck used photos from "camera day" at dodger stadium on cards a few times, including jim eisenreich's awesome 1999 card

(when's the last time you saw a calculator watch on a baseball card?), and ismael valdes' 1997 card:

which features a lot of people on one piece of cardboard. there's a couple of mike piazza inserts in 1997 collector's choice that feature photos from the same day as valdes' card, and the back of gary sheffield's 1998 series 2 card uses an image from 1998's camera day festivities. 

i have been to at least two or three camera days at dodger stadium, including the 1997 game against the expos. there are no obvious cards featuring photos from that year that i have seen, although i have always suspected that vladimir guerrero's 1998 card

features a photo from that day. there's just no way to tell.

now, camera day is a bit misleading. it's not a giveaway like "dodger helmet weekend" or "batting glove day", but rather a day for fans to bring their cameras and get on the field to see players sort of up close.  the first one i recall attending was on july 30, 1978.

one of the things i remember most about that day was how big the numbers on the outfield wall were up close and in person. as you might recall, the distance measurements on the dodger stadium outfield wall were large, blocky numbers as seen on this 1990 upper deck tom foley card

we were ushered on to the field and allowed to walk along the outfield grass and warning track as i recall. i walked past the spot where ron fairly caught the final out of game 3 of the 1963 world series, as immortalized on this 1964 topps card

and stood under the 360 marker to the left of the visitor's bullpen, a spot seen on this 1975 dodgers postcard of don sutton

in fact, here's a photo

this obviously occurred prior to the addition of the windows in the wall that allowed the bullpen folks to hang out in shade and still see the goings on out on the field. the window is visible on this 1989 fleer chris sabo box bottom card

and it has been modified a few times since then.

we didn't really have any photos of players because it was pretty near impossible to get to the front. i was ok with that as it was cool to be on the field.  here's a polaroid photo that we took which gives you some idea of the mass of humanity that was there vying for space

i think we took that photo as we approached our seats in the right field corner and prior to going on the field.

later on, after the field was cleared of fans, the pirates came out to warm up and i took a photo of jerry reuss

i assure you that is reuss. i later learned through an email with him that he would do his work in between starts on the right field side of the field, a practice he continued even when he was a dodger.

reuss eventually made his way closer to the stands, and my dad took a much better photo of him

i later found it interesting that the player we got closest to on camera day wasn't a dodger...yet.  

[actually, i found some more photos from that day featuring dodgers!

terry forster

denny lewallyn

johnny oates

bill russell

and steve yeager

good stuff!]

bonus info!:  i didn't make it down to the dodger stadium field again for many years. our high school team would have played there had we advanced further in the playoffs than we did, so i waited until an eric clapton/elton john concert in august of 1992 before i set foot on the field again. this time, i was able to walk around the infield and even collect a bit of dirt from where davey lopes and steve sax positioned themselves. i had even brought an empty film cannister with me

to collect some of the infield clay. i keep it next to a similar cannister that has a chip from the berlin wall that my brother had collected for me shortly after its fall in late 1989. 

it's been almost 30 years since i was on the field at dodger stadium, but maybe someday i'll get back for the father's day catch. i have been down on the field of the metrodome and target field before a game, as well as the superdome in louisiana and most recently us bank stadium in minneapolis, but those are stories for another day.

a retired favorite

paul molitor reaches retirement age tomorrow. at least, what standard retirement age used to be: 65. i believe molitor has stated that he is, in fact, retired from managing, but with tony larussa returning to the dugout at the age of 76, who knows for sure whether or not molitor could be lured back to a uniformed position.

i followed molitor's career pretty closely from start to finish. he was a rookie in the 1978 topps set - the first set i ever saw and collected - and had enough early success that i quickly paid attention. he finished his career playing for his hometown team, and the timing of his return to minnesota pretty much coincided with my move to the land of 10,000 lakes.

once steve garvey's career ended, i anointed molitor as my favorite non-dodger. he remained so until the strike in 1994, after which i started paying attention to shawn green. here are the cards of molly that i have in my "favorite non-dodger of the year" mini-collection:

1988 score

1989 fleer

1990 donruss baseball's best

1991 topps

1992 upper deck

1993 fleer flair

1994 topps black gold

i tried for some variety amongst manufacturers to get some different designs in the collection, but there is only so much that can be done from this peak of the junk wax era. it's a little bit daunting to see people i followed as a youngster hit milestone ages, but time waits for no man. happy 65th molly!

here are some cards from a game i attended 32 years ago tonight

shortly before i closed up shop at garvey cey russell lopes, i shared some photos that my dad and i took at dodger stadium 32 years ago tonight. we had the great fortune of being in attendance at game 1 of the 1988 world series bearing witness to kirk gibson's pinch-hit home run, and for a couple of years, those photos and my ticket stub, along with the vhs recording my mom had made of the game at home, were the only physical reminders of what we had seen.

1989 was the year that i collected cards the least, only buying one box of topps cards that year. of course, topps didn't bother to recognize the 1988 world series in that set, and i think it was another year or two before i saw the upper deck and fleer and o-pee-chee cards that had been issued that year.  then, in 1995, more cards were made featuring kirk gibson's famous home run, and the upper deck sp championship card from that year was my most wanted card until late in 1999 when i found out about ebay and finally obtained one for my collection.

anyway, since then, there have been a huge number of cards that feature photos from that particular game. i, of course, am trying to obtain them all in duplicate or triplicate (or more) as the case may be for this and other mini-collections, and my dodger collection, too.

here's a list of the cards i am aware of that feature photos from that game, and they are not all of gibson.  cards that i have in this mini-collection are shown below, although i do have most of the others (except for the numbered parallels) in my dodger collection.

1989 fleer world series #1 mickey hatcher

1989 fleer world series #3 jose canseco

1989 fleer world series #5 dennis eckersley/kirk gibson

1989 fleer world series glossy #1 mickey hatcher

1989 fleer world series glossy #3 jose canseco

1989 fleer world series glossy #5 dennis eckersley/kirk gibson

1989 o-pee-chee #382 kirk gibson

1989 topps woolworth #24 kirk gibson

1989 upper deck #662 kirk gibson

1989 upper deck #666 kirk gibson

1995 upper deck sp championship series classic performances #cp3 kirk gibson

1995 upper deck sp championship series classic performances die-cut #cp3 kirk gibson

1998 fleer sports illustrated world series fever #29 kirk gibson

i appreciate the fact that a different photo was used on the back of the card

1999 upper deck century legends memorable shots #hr3 kirk gibson

2001 topps #382 kirk gibson

2001 topps gold #382 kirk gibson /2001

2001 topps home team advantage #382 kirk gibson

2001 topps chrome #307 kirk gibson

2001 topps chrome refractor #307 kirk gibson
2002 topps american pie #8 kirk gibson

2002 topps tribute #88 kirk gibson

2002 topps tribute memorable materials #mem-kg kirk gibson
2002 topps tribute memorable materials blue #mem-kg kirk gibson /88
2003 topps tribute #141 kirk gibson

2003 topps tribute gold #141 kirk gibson
2003 topps tribute world series signature relics #ssa-kg kirk gibson
2003 topps tribute world series memorable match-ups relics #mmr-eg dennis eckersley/kirk gibson /88
2004 topps world series stitches relics #ssr-kg kirk gibson
2004 topps world series highlights #ws-kg kirk gibson

2004 upper deck legends timeless teams #278 kirk gibson

2004 upper deck legends timeless teams bronze #278 kirk gibson /50
2004 upper deck legends timeless teams gold #278 kirk gibson /5
2004 upper deck legends timeless teams autograph #278 kirk gibson
2004 upper deck legends timeless teams autograph gold #278 kirk gibson /5
2005 fleer classic clippings official box score #5 kirk gibson /1988

2005 fleer classic clippings official box score gold #5 kirk gibson 
2005 topps etopps classic events #ce9 kirk gibson
2005 upper deck classics classic moments #cm-kg kirk gibson /1999

2005 upper deck classics classic moments materials #cm-kg kirk gibson
2005 upper deck classics classic moments autograph #cm-kg kirk gibson
2006 topps etopps event series #kigi kirk gibson
2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts memorable moments swatch #mm-kg kirk gibson /225
2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts memorable moments autograph #mm-kg kirk gibson /25
2007 upper deck masterpieces #6 kirk gibson

2007 upper deck masterpieces artist proof #6 kirk gibson
2007 upper deck masterpieces glossy #6 kirk gibson
2007 upper deck masterpieces windsor green #6 kirk gibson
2007 upper deck masterpieces green linen #6 kirk gibson
2007 upper deck masterpieces serious black #6 kirk gibson /99
2007 upper deck masterpieces black linen #6 kirk gibson /99
2007 upper deck masterpieces deep blue linen #6 kirk gibson /75
2007 upper deck masterpieces pinot red #6 kirk gibson /75
2007 upper deck masterpieces blue steel #6 kirk gibson /50
2007 upper deck masterpieces rusted #6 kirk gibson /50
2007 upper deck masterpieces ionised #6 kirk gibson /50
2009 upper deck goudey #104 kirk gibson

2009 upper deck goudey mini #104 kirk gibson

2013 panini cooperstown #65 vin scully (back)

2013 panini hometown heroes curtain calls #cc10 kirk gibson

2013 panini hometown heroes curtain calls gold border #cc10 kirk gibson
2020 topps decades' best 1980s #db-57 dodgers

2020 topps decades' best 1980s blue #db-57 dodgers

2020 topps decades' best 1980s green #db-57 dodgers

2020 topps decades' best 1980s black #db-57 dodgers /299

2020 topps decades' best 1980s gold #db-57 dodgers /50

2020 topps decades' best 1980s red #db-57 dodgers /10

2020 topps decades' best 1980s platinum #db-57 dodgers /1

2020 topps decades' best 1980s chrome #db-57 dodgers

that is a lot of the impossible happening! it's good to see some variety in the photos used, especially with the 2020 topps decades' best card. this is one event i will never tire of seeing commemorated on cardboard.