box bottoms, blank backs, belcher, bulldog

it's not quite "bears, beets, battlestar galactica", but there is a common thread here in this post that made me think of that scene from the office.

tonight is the night that the dodgers retire fernando valenzuela's number, and i realized that i had failed to add this card

to my post the other night. it was the card that was going to tie the post together, as the title of the post (if you've got a sombrero, throw it to the sky) was a quote from vin scully and his call of fernando's no-hitter - the no-hitter that is the subject of the card! the card comes from 1991 fleer (obviously) and it is a box bottom card. unfortunately, the back of the card is blank:

that reminded me of another card that i picked up sometime in the last few months - yes, it's another 1978 topps steve garvey card

except this one has a blank back!

now, i don't know if this is a printing error or if it was cut from a sheet or what the story is, but it is a nice "parallel" oddball of my favorite card of all time.

back to box bottoms, here is a 2003 topps kazuhisa ishii box bottom card

with a standard card back

the card is identical to his regular base card, which is pretty lame.

i also picked up the one 1990 fleer box bottom card i was missing from my dodger collection

that would be tim belcher, who shares panel space with the giants' logo, tony gwynn, and kevin mitchell. i didn't scan the backs, but these have the standard card back text and stats. at least the photo on the front is different from his base card.

the other dodger who has a 1990 fleer box bottom card is orel hershiser, and while i already had that card, his 1989 fleer box bottom (white back) card still sits atop my "nefarious 9" most wanted cards list. to be honest, i am not sure that it exists, but it would be weird if it didn't.  and, while i am writing about hershiser, i want to share this image that i screenshotted while watching the reds pummel the dodgers on july 30

hershiser was inducted in to the dodgers' legends of dodger baseball the night before, and they had his monument up behind the left field pavilion. i was happy to see them show it on the broadcast so that i could see what card they used. obviously, that is the bulldog's 1987 topps card - not a more recent topps insert or archives release (here's a link to my post that included the other legends of dodger baseball monuments and cards).

i am hoping to see whether fernando gets a new monument with his number retirement - i'll be watching!