eighty lopes

today is davey lopes' 80th birthday. he is the oldest of the infield foursome that featured steve garvey, ron cey, and bill russell alongside lopes himself. the three other guys were all born in 1948, by the way. it's a big number for lopes, and reminds me that time waits for no man. here's my newest davey lopes card - his 2004 topps all-time fan favorites autograph

here's the back:

i've been somewhat focused on dodger archives and atff autos over the past few months after finding a ron cey auto at a card show for 3 bucks.

i am reminded that i missed another 80th birthday about a month ago. that would be lopes' teammates reggie smith and (the late) don sutton. they were both born on april 2, 1945 and so a belated happy birthday to "my" reggie.

i added a couple of items for those birthday buddies in a recent comc order:

those are their 1982 fleer stamps, and they are decent additions to my post-dodger collections of the two former dodger all-stars.

i think the oldest member of the 1978 topps dodgers is manny mota, who turned 87 in february, and i believe that rick monday will be the next to hit 80 - in november. today, however, belongs to lopes, and so happy birthday to the second baseman of the team of my youth!