the almost daily dodger - bob welch

tomorrow is the anniversary of bob welch's world series debut. he relieved terry forster in the 9th inning of game 2 of the 1978 world series with the dodgers leading the yankees 4-3. there was one out and two on when welch entered the game. he got thurman munson to fly out to reggie smith and then struck out reggie jackson to end the game.

here's his 1984 topps tiffany card

that has been sitting in my scanned folder ever since i added it to my collection a few months ago. it is the only 1984 topps tiffany card that i have in my dodger collection.

there was so much joy in my neighborhood following that strikeout of jackson, and welch's save gave the dodgers a 2-0 lead in the series. unfortunately for me and my friends, the dodgers wound up losing the next four. that was when i really began to understand the "wait 'til next year" mentality.

the birds and the betts

there was no monthly collector's club show in july here in the twin cities and after attending the august show a couple of weeks ago, i think i know why. the building that the show is held in is an old armory in a first tier suburb and has no air conditioning. it was stuffy in august and would have been unbearable in july.

at any rate, i found some cards as usual. i am sure that from the title you expect to see some blue jay or cardinal cards, but actually i was thinking about this 1977 hostess mark fidrych card that i found in a 5/$1 box

it is poorly cut but that's ok.

there were a bunch of hostess cards in the box, and i grabbed a couple others including this horrendously cut 1976 hank aaron

worth twenty cents for sure. still, i wonder if someone was using their toes to work the scissors with this one.

the other part of the title is more obvious - i added a few mookie betts cards to my collection at the show. here's a 2015 topps "robbed" insert

and a 2019 factory set exclusive all-star game variation

i was also happy to find a cache of 2022 topps uk edition cards, including the "career year" inserts that were only found in that release. here's betts' card from that set

and here is the lone dodger in the set, clayton kershaw

2014 was not a triple crown year for kershaw, but it was the year that he won both the cy young and mvp award.

this same seller also had dollar boxes that were really 71 cent boxes and then even less when all is said and done as this guy gives pretty good discounts.

i found a few parallels from these boxes such as a green foil miguel rojas 2024 topps card

and a 2001 fleer ultra tom goodwin gold medallion edition card

one of my favorite card finds was a 2017 topps rediscover topps buyback card of joel skinner from 1992 topps

i appreciate this card because back in 2001, i pulled a 1992 joel skinner card from a pack of topps. they were inserting buyback cards in packs back then, but not marking them in any way. so, while i beat the odds, what i really had was just another 1992 common. so, i appreciate the stamping of buybacks these days.

other cards of interest that came from this seller include a 2016 topps heritage clay buchholz card

it's not a variation as far as i can tell, but buccholz is wearing the 4th of july hat and uni from 2015

here's the original 1967 design but it's a diamond cut vada pinson card

i also randomly picked up a 1997 upper deck collector's choice ken griffey jr checklist

that explains the difference between a subset and an insert

i was an annual collector of collector's choice but i don't remember these checklists.

there's another regular seller with dime boxes that i typically spend some time with, and i found some keepers there this month. this 1993 pacific nolan ryan texas express 27 seasons card

goes into my retired number collection as a sort of header card. i suppose it could also be a lurker card as rod carew is featured along with ryan.

a couple of new to me double play cards include a 2023 topps heritage brandon drury card

and a 2013 topps asdrubal cabrera purple parallel

here's another 2013 topps purple parallel that i picked up - it's carlos pena

i have cooled my pursuit of tatooine cards, but the color combo on this card appealed to me.

i also found some vladimir guerrero cards for my collection including this 1998 fleer ultra kid gloves insert

and then there is one for my name/number on the back collection from 2023 topps black & white

my first thought when i saw this card was when did cody bellinger play for the rockies?

another seller had some cheap autos and relics, and i bought the 1996 leaf signature series steve sparks card

just because of the knuckleball grip he is sporting

there were some in person autos in the box, and while i tend to shy away from these, i did pick up two bob welch signed cards

and one davey lopes card

for the collection. those were just under two bucks apiece.

the last dealer i stopped at had vintage bargain bins filled with oddballs. i chose a 1963 topps tommy davis peel off

and a 1975 hostess twinkies don sutton panel

with plenty of black bar showing on the back

that was the most expensive card of the day for me with a tag of $5

the last card i bought was another "bird" - a 1975 fleer cloth patch old hoss radbourn card

featuring his famously extended middle digit. here is the back:

as i was asking the seller about reducing the price of the sutton panel, i heard the person to my left say my name. it was none other than brian from highly subjective completely arbitrary! i've met up with him at this show many times, but didn't think to check with him before heading out to this one.

as always, brian had some cards for me, which brings me to even more mookie betts cards!

2024 topps heritage white border parallel

2023 topps stadium club mookie betts chief fantasy professional insert

and a 2024 topps royal blue parallel

that also features freddie freeman

a non-mookie card from brian that was great to see was this 2016 topps bunt joc pederson moon shots insert

it's numbered to 50 which belies the low end product that bunt was thought to be back then.

my favorite cards of the year - 1979 edition

i recently introduced my mini collection focusing on my favorite cards from each year that i've been a collector. the basic gist is that i wanted to create a space for the cards that i most appreciated having in my collection in the year that they were released. these were cards that i acquired in the year that they were issued, and that i considered to be my favorites at the time. i have disallowed (most) cards that are already in other mini collections in order to avoid having a mini collection consisting of more steve garvey, double plays, and dodger stadium cards.

1979 was my second year of collecting, and i fully expected the topps set to use the 1978 topps football design. i had transitioned from baseball to football in the fall of '78, but couldn't wait to open new packs of baseball cards. i was surprised at the design when the cards were released, but happy with the contents.

favorite non-dodger card: topps hits all-time record holders george sisler and ty cobb

being a steve garvey fan from the start, hits were an important stat to me. when i found this card in a pack of cards in the spring of 1979, i was first excited to have a ty cobb card, but i was more interested in turning the card over to see if garvey showed up under the season hit leaders. alas, his career high of 210 hits in 1975 didn't come close to making the list as the lowest hit total featured was earl averill with 232 hits in 1936. after i saw that garvey wasn't listed, i immediately took note of roberto clemente having exactly 3000 hits, and i recall being thankful that he reached the milestone before his untimely passing.

favorite dodger card: topps bob welch

welch cemented his status as a dodger hero in game 2 of the 1978 world series when he struck out reggie jackson to end the game and give the dodgers a two games to none lead in the fall classic. and, although they dropped the next four games to the bronx bombers, welch's star was untarnished in my eyes. finding that he had his own card in the 1979 topps set was a great surprise, and it was definitely my favorite dodger card from that year.

up next, 1998. stay tuned!