if peter piper picked a pack of player pictures...

so with the packets of postcards that were in my giant dodger box, any doubt that i had about the mix and match approach the team took towards selling postcards has been dissolved. i have long been similarly suspicious with the 5x7 black and white photos that the team sold in "player picture packets", and so i finally sat down to do some sleuthing.

my dad bought me one of these packets back in 1978 and i had a few of the photos pinned up one of the walls in my room. 

yes, that's my wall as it was in 1979.  

the photos in question are way to the left - i see ron cey, rick monday, and steve yeager. there's don sutton and steve garvey black and white photos, too, but they are not from one of these packets. there's a matt keough photo as well from a meet and greet that my dad helped organize with a local bank. not pictured are my other posters - i had don sutton, a 1978 american league all-star montage, and a gordie howe poster below garvey and cey. i also had a "signed" darth vader promo photo from when some guy dressed as vader made an appearance at a local department store and a los angeles rams poster of no player in particular.

anyway, my set from back then is long gone, but my dad did pass along one that he had buried in a box from 1973. i know it is from 1973 because it has both andy messersmith and pete richert in it, and they were only teammates in 1973. this is what the garvey photo from that set looks like

here's the packet envelope:

for the record, the dodger players (and manager and coaches) in this packet are:

red adams

walt alston

jim brewer

bill buckner

willie crawford

willie davis

al downing

steve garvey

jim gilliam

tommy john

von joshua

tom lasorda

ken mcmullen

andy messersmith

claude osteen

tom paciorek

doug rau

pete richert

bill russell

don sutton

aside from the pictures that i had back in the late 1970's, this is the only complete packet i have ever seen. that will soon change as you will see...

now, natural intuition tells me that these pictures were not redone every year - there are not 12 different steve garvey pictures, for example - but i figured i would take a deeper dive.  i found that the dodgers had been selling these sorts of pictures for decades - far back in to their brooklyn days, in fact. 

when they moved to los angeles, the familiar packaging was developed, and, in 1959 at least, they actually identified them with a specific year on the envelope. after that, as far as i can tell, the reference to year was gone. this makes sense, similar to how topps left off specific year numbering on their early cards of the 1950's - it extends the shelf life of the product.  

anyway, i wound up purchasing a couple more envelopes over the last few weeks. first up is one from 1974. i know it is from 1974 because it has both greg shanahan and jim wynn in it, and they were only teammates in 1974. the garvey from that one looks like this:

both photos shown so far are from 1969, for whatever that is worth.

here's the envelope:

right away the theory of reusing photos from year to year was confirmed, as pitching coach red adams' photo was the same as the one in the 1973 packet i already owned. same for manager walter alston.  here's the full list of dodgers in this packet:

red adams (same photo as 1973)

walt alston (same photo as 1973)

monty basgall

jim brewer (different photo than 1973)

bill buckner (different photo than 1973)

ron cey

joe ferguson

steve garvey (different photo than 1973)

jim gilliam (same photo as 1973)

von joshua (same photo as 1973)

dave lopes

mike marshall

andy messersmith (same photo as 1973)

manny mota

doug rau (same photo as 1973)

bill russell (same photo as 1973)

greg shanahan

don sutton (same photo as 1973)

jim wynn

geoff zahn

next, i bought a packet that is from 1977. i know it is from 1977 because it has rick monday (the same photo that was on my wall) and ed goodson. those two were only teammates in 1977. the garvey from that set looks like this:

here's the packet envelope:

you can see that the price doubled at some point between 1974 and 1977.

there are a lot of new faces in this packet, but still some from the previous sets i've shown. some of those subjects have new photos and some do not. here's the full list of dodgers in this packet:

dusty baker

ron cey (different photo than 1974; same photo as on my wall)

steve garvey (different photo than 1973 or 1974)

ed goodson

burt hooton

charlie hough

tommy john (same photo as 1973)

lee lacy

tom lasorda (same photo as 1973)

dave lopes (different photo than 1974)

ted martinez

rick monday

manny mota (different photo than 1974)

johnny oates

doug rau (different photo than 1973/1974)

rick rhoden

bill russell (different photo than 1973/1974)

reggie smith

don sutton (different photo than 1973/1974)

that's only 19, which is a bummer. based on what i had on my wall, i would say that steve yeager is the missing player, although since i think it is clear that these were mix and match from previous years, it could be that some other player or coach was in this packet when it was originally purchased.

you might have noticed that garvey is the only one with a different photo in each of these three packets. that is by design, as i was seeking out different garvey poses. speaking of which, i also bought a packet of these pictures from 1982. i know it was from 1982, because mark belanger was among the photos, and he was only a dodger in 1982.

this is what garvey's photo looks like in this packet:

here's belanger's photo

just for kicks. and here's the envelope:

another price increase!

the photo subjects in this set are:

dusty baker (different photo than 1977)

mark belanger

ron cey (different photo than 1974 and 1977)

terry forster

steve garvey (different photo than 1973 and 1974 and 1977)

pedro guerrero

burt hooton (different photo than 1977)

steve howe

ken landreaux

tom lasorda (different photo than 1973/1977)

rick monday (different photo than 1977)

tom niedenfuer

jerry reuss

bill russell (different photo than 1973/1974 and 1977)

mike scioscia

derrel thomas

fernando valenzuela

bob welch 

steve yeager

again, only 19 pictures. i've seen a set online that includes a dave stewart photo, so i would guess he or maybe steve sax would be the missing subject here. in fact, i've seen a set that has both a stewart and sax photo, along with different photos of thomas and yeager. that set didn't have the howe in it. a second set from 1982 with both sax and stewart in it that i've seen also had a different garvey photo from any that i've shown here in this post. i am definitely on the lookout for that one, but not at the crazy price that particular seller is asking.

[edit - i picked up another 1982 set whose player contents were identical to the list above, with the addition of steve sax. the garvey in that packet looked like this:

this is the fifth and final version of garvey player pictures that i have seen. for the record, the photos for dusty baker, terry forster, garvey, steve howe, jerry reuss, bill russell, mike scioscia, derrel thomas, fernando valenzuela, bob welch, and steve yeager were different from the other 1982 packet.]

for good measure, i also picked up a 1971 set that had the same garvey photo as my dad's 1973 set. i know this set was from 1971 since it had dick rich allen 

in it.

allen in dodger duds is the good stuff.

any other thoughts or knowledge about these 5x7 items is appreciated!