padrographs gave me the finger

my business travels have taken me all over the lower 48 in the last 15 years or so. i see it as a perk, so i don't mind it at all.  i get to see some different cities, and on a few occasions, i've been able to get to a new ballpark and meet some new people during my visits.  eighteen months ago or so, i was in portland and arranged an in person trade with gavin at baseball card breakdown.  he was the third blogger i had met in person (paul from carl crawford cards and brian from highly subjective completely arbitrary were the others).  fast forward to 2018, and i found that i would be travelling to portland again. i reached out to gavin, and he arranged a meet up featuring the two of us, plus kerry from cards on cards, ken from cardboard hogs, and rod from padrographs.  it was a blast.

rod was someone that i've traded with before, but it had been a while, so it was great to exchange cards in person.  one of the cards rod handed over was a 1981 fleer ron cey card (finger on back variation)

the "finger" (sometimes referred to as a "hand") is that mark in the lower right corner of the stat box.  it's some kind of scratch or other imperfection from the printing i assume, and there are a few cards in the set that have it.  although i was looking for the "craig" nettles error, i didn't bother with these back in 1981, and to be honest, i'm not entirely sure whether or not i have any in my complete set that i put together back then.  i did not have any in my dodger team collection, and so now with the cey in hand, i am looking for the davey lopes finger on back variation card to complete the set.

while rod didn't provide that davey lopes card, he did give me two great cards of the former infielder.  he had both the 2004 upper deck padres team set

and 2005 upper deck padres team set

lopes cards for me.  as fate would have it, a recent focus on my post-dodger collections of lopes and other members of the team of my youth meant that i had just purchased the 2004 card at the beckett marketplace a week or two earlier, but the 2005 card was new to me and much appreciated.

lopes just recently announced his retirement from baseball after a 45-year career in the game - quite a career! he played for the dodgers, a's, cubs, and astros, and coached for the rangers, orioles, and padres before managing the brewers.  after that, he returned to coaching for the padres, nationals, phillies, dodgers, and finally back to the nationals.  i am glad that i had the opportunity to tip my cap to him (and get a thumbs up from him) last fall in washington dc. by the way, that was a different work trip.

thanks rod! and thanks to gavin, ken, and kerry, too.  i'll show other cards i picked up at blogger con nw 2018 in future posts.