let's remember some guys

it's almost the new year and time for auld lang syne, which, if harry burns and sally albright are to be believed, encourages us to remember that we've forgotten some people. while i haven't forgotten the people in this post, clearing out some cards from my scanned folder gives me an opportunity to remember them.

here are don drysdale, roy campanella, and don newcombe

on their respective 1985 tcma award winners cards. i bought these cards to complete the team set - nick had sent me the maury wills card at some point - but failed to post them during the postseason awards announcements.

1996 topps mystery finest mike piazza

i remember pulling a few of these cards from packs back in '96. while the card front was covered, you could figure out who was featured by looking at the images on the back

as the card fronts were slightly embossed.

1997 fleer ex 2000 raul mondesi

obligatory "rauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuul"

2000 topps gold label shawn green the treasury insert

fitting for green to be on a currency themed insert

2004 donruss team heroes eric gagne

game over!

2004 topps darren dreifort gold parallel

i saw dreifort pitch in person in 1997 and he was throwing darts. injuries suck.

2004 topps cracker jack edwin jackson variation and mini

modeling a forgetful jersey from the davey johnson and jim tracy eras

2007 bowman orange matt kemp

kemp isn't getting any love from the bbwa, not that he belongs in the hof, but i thought he might get a vote or two

2008 topps chrome derek lowe xfractor

quick - who was the last dodger to lead the league in wins prior to clayton kershaw doing so?

2013 topps randy choate gold parallel

acquired by the dodgers as part of the hanley ramirez trade, choate led the national league in appearances in 2012, combining his time with the marlins and dodgers. no dodger has led the league in that category since.

2015 topps juan uribe rainbow foil

two-time world series champion!

2015 topps heritage dee gordon retail foil

i think this was the only time prior to this year that there were foil parallels in heritage

2016 topps chrome kenta maeda refractor

he hit a home run in his second big league at bat

2021 topps edwin rios gold parallel

not sure why i scanned the back, but here you go

now i remember - rios hit the first two-run homer to lead off an inning in major league history as a result of the 2020 extra inning rules.

2022 topps tribute albert pujols

one of the goats, and i'm glad he played part of a season for the dodgers.

defense

prior to this past weekend, only twice in my lifetime the dodgers had won back-to-back national league pennants - 1977-78 and 2017-18. neither of those instances presented an opportunity for the franchise to repeat as world series champions - in fact, the dodgers lost all four of those world series matchups. the franchise has only had two opportunities previously to repeat as world series champions - 1955-56 and 1965-66 - but fell short each time. this year, the dodgers will once again truly be able to defend their title and perhaps join a short list of franchises who have successfully done so.

the yankees, of course, but also the blue jays, reds, a's, and red sox have repeated as world series champions, and in the divisional era, you can remove boston from that list. 

anyway, on saturday morning i looked through my scanned folder to see how many dodger cards i had showing people playing defense. non-pitcher dodgers, as subject of the card, wearing a fielding glove, basically. out of 199 scanned cards, these are the ones that fit the criteria (save 1 or 2 that will show up in future posts with specific topics)

2013 topps chrome yasiel puig refractor

sure, the game's over, but puig has his glove

2021 topps cody bellinger 1986 all-star

2020 world series excitement from cody!

2021 topps mookie betts 1952 redux chrome

mookie is actually making a defensive play!

2022 topps tribute justin turner

third base defense in action!

2023 topps big league mookie betts wrapper redemption

one of the five tools on display from mookie!

2023 topps flagship collection max muncy

another actual defensive play on cardboard

2023 topps x j-rod mike piazza

definitely playing defense here

2024 leaf press pass premium retro base reflector prismatic blue

could be a shot from between innings warmups, but still. this one is numbered to 20

which is a high print run for leaf releases these days.

2024 topps chrome mookie betts all-etch

another mookie card brings us to the grand total of ten cards. that is fewer than i expected, but hey, chicks dig the long ball and card companies prefer swings.

the world series starts on friday, and i am sure i will have another post or two before then. but just in case, here's a 2003 topps tribute world series edition steve garvey gold parallel

i picked up recently. it's one for the dodger collection, meaning i now own 2% of the print run

63 is not meaningful in terms of garvey, but it is a year that the dodgers won the world series (by sweeping the yankees). a couple of weeks from now we will know if the dodgers were able to defend their title successfully or not!

not quite mainstream

2022 marked the third time that steve garvey was included as part of topps' allen & ginter's/ginter release over the course of that brand's run.  the first time, in 2013, he was included only as part of the relic subset

and was a short print at that. 

the next time, in 2021, he was included in the historical hits insert set

thanks to his 1984 nlcs walk-off home run. 

this time, he finally received a base card, 

but was part of the high numbered short prints. still not quite making the cut for the true "base" set! of course, even having a short printed card means that it still gets all the parallels, including the "hot box" version:

and the minis - base:

black bordered:

gold bordered:

you all know what the backs of minis look like, but here's a view anyway

so that i can show you the a&g back parallel

and the brooklyn back parallel

i don't know that i have seen anyone write "11" that way in a long, long time.

not parallels, but rather a completely separate issue, is allen & ginter x. i have garvey's base

and mini 

from that set as well. 

however, because the chrome version of this set only features the first 300 cards of the regular set, garvey is not included in that release. like i said, not quite mainstream.

i mentioned in a post awhile back about stadium club that garvey will likely never find his way in to the base checklist for that set due to the sheer number of dodger options that exist for topps to choose from. he is not going to replace jackie robinson - the only retired dodger featured in this 2022's stadium club release. 

the other dodgers that topps has been using in recent years include hall of famers roy campanella, gil hodges, duke snider, sandy koufax, don sutton, and mike piazza. garvey isn't going to supplant any of them i don't think. so, i will be content with cards like these and surprises like the 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary set that allowed for a number of seldom seen dodgers from the past to be included in a base set.

maybe he will show up in a future archives release. 2016 was the last time he was featured in that release, and it was as a short print, too.

of course, garvey received a fair amount of checklist space as an autograph subject last year, including in topps museum collection

those are the "base" and "copper" autographs

and topps tribute

that's the purple version that i added to the "base", "blue", and "green" versions i already had.

i am wondering if garvey and other retired fan favorites will get more play in panini releases like donruss now that those checklists will only be retired players and prospects. i know i would definitely rather have more base to chase than autographs at this point, but player collectors can't be choosers if they want to continue to add cards to the collection.

rank and filing on tcdb

i recently spent some time entering my player collections on tcdb, and have since begun entering my dodger collection. i am up to 2002 in that regard, so still have two decades worth of cards to add!  anyway, i figured i would share where things stood with my player collections before i added any cards from the dodger collection.

steve garvey:

according to the database, i own 1,195 of the 2,513 listed garvey cards available. there are many cards in my collection that aren't in the database - some that surprise me and some that don't. my collection spans from the 1971 dell's today stamp to the 2022 topps tribute autographs seen below.  

those are the base, blue, and green parallels.

this total has me at #2 among collectors in the database - just 2 behind the leader. clearly, mrmopar doesn't have his collection entered on tcdb.

don sutton:

after entering my non-dodger sutton cards, including my newly acquired 1981 topps squirt card above, i ranked #7 with 115 cards.

steve yeager:

i was #211 after only entering my non-dodger yeager cards

davey lopes:

using only my non-dodger lopes cards, i was already #1 on the site. to celebrate, i added this 2001 topps gold parallel:

ron cey:

i have 84 ron cey cards (that are in the database) from his time with the cubs and a's. that was good enough for #5

bill russell:

29 non-dodger cards of the shortstop of the team of my youth was enough for #100 among collectors on tcdb. these are his minor league managerial cards, most of which feature him in the dodger organization, but i split them out in to the pc instead.

dusty baker:

i was #6 using just my post-dodger baker cards (no braves). that surprised me, but he does have quite a few managerial cards - the newest of which is this 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary card:

my post-dodger baker collection stands at 79 cards in the database.

rick monday:

i only have one post-dodger rick monday card - it comes from his time as a padres announcer - and it's not in the database.

reggie smith:

using only giant (san francisco and yomimuri) and team usa cards, i ranked #187 among smith collections.

tom lasorda:

my non-dodger lasorda cards only got me to #639. these are only team usa cards, since lasorda has no cards featuring him as a member of any mlb team other than the dodgers.

jimmie hall:

i have 20 jimmie hall cards (not counting those in my 1965 and 1970 complete sets). that's good for #1 on the site.

vladimir guerrero:

this 2005 donruss studio portraits diamond kings red (numbered to 55)

is my latest addition to the pc, and my 586 vladdy cards put me at #6 on the database. 

i haven't catalogued my other player collections - bill simas, mark brunell, wayne gretzky, and luc robitaille, but other than the brunell collection, they are small potatoes.

now that i have begun entering my dodger collection, my database rankings for most of these players have skyrocketed. for example, i am now number 1 for dusty baker cards, and there are a lot more yet to be entered. once i finish with the dodger collection, i'll share some updates. then i will have the mini-collections and sets to add.

well, here's another sad postscript. as i am sure you know, maury wills passed away yesterday.  i was too young to know maury as an active player, but i sure appreciated his career once i began to learn about him in the late 1970's. i was happy to see him appear in a couple of card sets as the mariners' manager in 1981 and even more excited to see his card in the 1982 kmart set.  i had this card

in my blog banner over at garveyceyrusselllopes, even though it was mostly obscured.

i have long hoped that will would be elected to the national baseball hall of fame (and subsequently have his number retired by the dodgers), but have resigned myself to the fact that it will likely not happen. he was a trailblazer who brought the stolen base back into the limelight rather than a longterm, dominant player which counts against his candidacy. he is, however, one of five current "legends of dodger baseball" which is the dodgers' way of recognizing important players in their history who won't get their numbers retired.  rest in peace, maury wills!