i'd really like to find one more auto card from 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic for the steve garvey binder

here are the other two 8-pocket pages from my steve garvey binders. they contain the thicker cards that just don't fit in the standard 9-pocket sheets.  you'll see what i meant in the title of this post when you see these sheets.  here's the first one:

those cards are:

1. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic signatures gold stitch black ink autograph /99
2. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic signatures gold stitch blue ink autograph /50
3. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic signatures barrel blue ink autograph /75
4. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic signatures barrel black ink autograph /50
5. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic dual signatures gold stitch black ink autograph (with reggie smith) /15
6. 2008 topps sterling jumbo patch relic (dodgers - 36) 1/1
7. 2008 topps sterling jumbo patch relic (dodgers - 13) 1/1
8. 2010 topps update manufactured bat barrel /99

there are plenty more sweet spot classic auto cards to be had, too, as there are red stitch and black stitch and leather cards in various quantities out there, including a red stitch version of the former most wanted dual auto with reggie smith card.  i recently missed out on a leather version of the garvey auto, which is too bad becasuse i don't have one of those, and also because it would have greatly improved the feng shui of the sheet.  those two sterling cards are serial numbered 1/1, but there are a number of them.  there are both dodger and padre versions, and there are at least 36 of the dodger version, since i have one numbered on the back as "sgd36" and the other is "sgd10".

here are the backs:

yes, the gold stitch/black ink card was a graded card when i obtained it. i've kept the grading info for posterity, but the card itself has long been free from its plastic cage.

here's the next sheet:

those cards are:

1. 2010 topps update manufactured bat barrel /25
2. 2011 topps marquee acclaimed impressions dual relic autographs (with '6' inscription; red patch and gray jersey) /126
3. 2011 topps marquee acclaimed impressions dual relic autographs (blue patch and gray jersey) /126
4. 2011 topps update commemorative patch
5. 2012 topps gold world series champions pin
6. 2013 topps museum collection primary pieces four player quad relics (with andre ethier, matt kemp, and sandy koufax) /99
7. 2013 topps museum collection primary pieces four player quad relics copper (with andre ethier, matt kemp, and sandy koufax) /75

once again, i have two versions of the marquee dual relic auto card because of the nice red patch.  speaking of patches, even though i only have the /99 and /75 versions of the museum collection card, i have seen versions from those print runs with patches on the ethier and/or kemp relics.  the /25 gold version definitely features patches from those two.

here are the backs:

so, one more card would fill out the 8-pocket sheets nicely, not that they are too bad to begin with, i suppose.

the cuts are legendary in the next installment of sheets from the steve garvey binders

the first five cards of sheet 64 in the steve garvey binders feature a photo (well, two photos) of him wearing the dual-ear flap batting helmet.  if i were to ever have a conversation with garvey, i would ask him about wearing that type of helmet that was usually reserved for switch-hitters and amateurs.  here is sheet 64:

those cards are:

1. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts baseball chronology materials relic
2. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials relic /225
3. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials relic /199
4. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials relic /99
5. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials relic /15
6. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts memorable moments materials relic /225
7. 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts when it was a game silver /550
8. 2006 upper deck ultimate collection ultimate ensemble signatures quad auto (with ron cey, don sutton, and dusty baker) /25
9. 2007 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials relic /199

looks like padre relics on cards 1 and 6 (which are dodger cards), which always bugs me a bit.  there are a number of other parallels, and a relic version of card 7, that i am missing from the 2006 legendary cuts set.  the 2007 legendary cuts set has two versions of the legendary materials cards for garvey - one is a padres version and the other is the dodger version that i have.

here are the backs:

moving on to sheet 65:

those cards are:

1. 2007 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary materials dual relic /125
2. 2007 upper deck sp legendary cuts masterful materials relic
3. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic /575
4. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic classic memorabilia relic
5. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic classic memorabilia patch relic /55
6. 2008 dodger pocket schedules (with james loney)
7. 2008 donruss threads
8. 2008 donruss threads century proof silver parallel /100
9. 2008 donruss threads jerseys relic (yellow swatch) /150

so there is the padre version of the legendary materials card, although it is the dual relic version.  there are also quad relic versions of both the dodger and padre cards, but i don't have either.  i was disappointed back in 2007 to see garvey as a padre in the sweet spot classic base set and jersey insert checklist, but at least they got the relic swatches matched up with the team this time.  and, at least they had garvey as a dodger on the signature cards in the set (more on those in a future post).

i suppose that the pocket schedule really belongs in the oddball binder, but it fits nicely here in a 9-pocket page, so here it remains.  there are a number of versions of the schedules with then-current dodgers and past dodgers matched by position as is the case with loney.

here are the backs:

you can see on the back of card 8 that i have the /100 version of the donruss threads parallel, and that i am still looking for the /250 version.  that card is target number 1 on the nefarious 9.

there's a new most wanted card in town

for a long time, perhaps for as long as i have had the nefarious 9 (my most wanted cards) listed on the sidebar of this blog, the card at the top of the list was a 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic steve garvey/reggie smith dual signatures card.

now i have one.

this is a gold stitch version which is numbered to 15.  and, it's 08/15 which means it's an ebay 1/1, since that's reggie smith's jersey number.  good thing there don't seem to be any reggie smith supercollectors. i am joking about the ebay 1/1 nonsense, but i am happy about the lack of competition for this card as i picked it up for less than i had anticipated.  the signatures are bleeding, but at least they are not completely faded like some cards from this set.

i suppose i still am on the lookout for the regular version of the card, but i've removed it from the most wanted list. that means that anyone who finds a 2008 donruss threads steve garvey /250 parallel will be rewarded!

seventy? seriously?

this is crazy, but don sutton - the lone hall of famer from the team of my youth - turns 70 years old today.  to celebrate, here are seven cards of his that i've not shown before.

2007 upper deck sp legendary cuts

2005 donruss throwback threads

2005 upper deck sp legendary cuts

2013 panini hometown heroes rivalry

1987 o-pee-chee box card

2007 upper deck sweet spot classic relic

2012 panini cooperstown credentials

as you can see, i don't discriminate when it comes to sutton - i'll take angels, a's, brewers, and even astro cards featuring the curly haired hof'er.

if it's sutton's 70th birthday, that means that it is also reggie smith's 70th birthday.  unfortunately, i am ill prepared with reggie's cards as he doesn't appear in many modern sets like sutton does.  i'll have to make it up to the right fielder of the team of my youth another time.

happy birthday to two of my favorite dodgers!

this is no time for jersey swatch measuring

i am well aware that the size of relic pieces embedded in cards, be they jerseys, pants, or bat chips, vary from set to set.  most recently, topps museum collection cards have featured pretty big pieces of bats.  i did find it interesting, however, that the three relics i received in the mail from matthew at bob walk the plank recently featured jersey swatches that got smaller with the newer releases. 

here's a 2002 upper deck sweet spot jersey swatch of kaz ishii

that's a good sized swatch, and a decent design.

in 2005, ishii was still getting relic cards produced, including this 2005 donruss leather & lumber card

but the piece of jersey is smaller.  gotta conserve that fabric for future releases back in japan, i guess.

moving on to 2008, upper deck gave us a tiny piece of fabric on this 2008 ud baseball heroes brad penny light blue parallel relic card

even though it would appear that penny's uniform is comprised of a large amount of fabric.

i'm not concerned about the size of the swatch; i just found it interesting that one might have assumed from this package that relic sizes over time have gone the opposite way of the regular sized soft drink at your local fast food joint.

there was a fourth card in the package, and it was the star.  it wasn't really a relic card - it was this 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic steve garvey 'bat' auto

the best thing about this card is not the garv or the dodger stadium background, it's that the auto won't fade since it's on a wood chip. i've got one in the garvey collection, but this will look nice in the dodger binder next to the don sutton auto.  i could use another one for the dodger stadium collection, too, but i don't want to be considered a hoarder.  would 3 be hoarding?

thanks for another great trade, matthew! i'm sure we'll swap again soon!

a memorial patch for junior gilliam

it's been 36 years since jim gilliam passed away.  he died on october 8, 1978 following a stroke he suffered in mid-september.  he was, at the time of his death, the team's first base coach and hitting instructor, but he meant a lot more to the franchise than that.  here's my 1954 bowman card of gilliam

gilliam had just come off his rookie season when this card was published - a season that saw him take over at  second base for jackie robinson and the dodgers and win the 1953 rookie of the year award.  gilliam went on to play for the dodgers through the 1966 season, winning four world series rings and playing in three other fall classics.  he had actually retired as a player following the 1964 season to become a coach, but injuries led to the dodgers activating him in both 1965 and 1966.  beginning in 1967, however, gilliam served the dodgers solely as a coach.

gilliam was known as a mentor to the infielders, including the likes of ted sizemore and, of course, steve garvey, ron cey, bill russell, and davey lopes.  lopes held gilliam in high regard and delivered one of the eulogies at his funeral.  then, in game 1 of the world series, lopes hit two home runs and as he circled the bases, he raised his fingers to the sky in tribute - perhaps the first time that the now commonplace salute was made.

here's a postcard from 1979 showing lopes at bat during the 1978 world series, wearing gilliam's number '19' in a memorial patch that the team added to the uniforms for the fall classic.

i used that photo a while ago to create a card that should have been from 2001 upper deck decade the 1970's

in large part because there weren't any world series highlight cards in the 1979 topps set, nor were any photos from the series used for any other cards that year.  that meant i had to wait until the early 2000's to see the patch on an honest to goodness baseball card.

this 2002 upper deck sweet spot classics card of steve garvey

shows the patch as he records an out at first base.  thurman munson is the runner, i believe, as this photo (including munson approaching the bag) was featured in sports illustrated.  upper deck used the photo on garvey's jersey relic insert, too

although it is paired on that version with a padres' jersey swatch.

in 2001, i got my first glimpse of the patch on a card, again thanks to upper deck.  they inserted this don sutton all-star game salute relic card in the flagship release

and used the photo again on the back

a similar photo was used on this 2004 upper deck sp game used edition patch card of sutton

although that's clearly a patch from one of sutton's oakland a's jerseys.

i've also found a few photos from the series online that show the patch, including this pregame photo of garvey

 this photo of lopes, ron cey, and reggie smith,

 and this photo of tommy lasorda arguing about reggie jackson's interference

that's the dodgers' reggie on whose uniform the patch is visible, which leads me to the card that represents gilliam's memorial patch in my binder.  it's this 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic reggie smith card

it's pretty fantastic.

gilliam passed away on the same day that the dodgers won the pennant, and the team retired his number 19 prior to game 1 of the world series.  gilliam remains the only dodger to have his number retired without being enshrined in the hall of fame.  he was just a few days shy of his 50th birthday when he died.

ain't 2007 the sweetest spot

upper deck debuted sweet spot in 2001, and my collecting mind was blown by the inclusion of signed pieces of baseballs included in some packs.  in fact, it was later versions of the sweet spot releases that included the first thick cardboard blanks because it had previously been too easy to find the packs that included the autos.  at least that is what i was told by a clerk at one of the local card shops in the early 2000's.  anyway, the format of the autos was a bit clunky from that first year through 2005 - they were framed into the card by a non-descript border with a small player photo somewhere on the card.  in 2006, upper deck added a generic stadium shot as the background, but in 2007, they did it right - they went to team specific stadium shots.  here's a don sutton auto card from 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic

it's the wood version, numbered to 75, and the stadium in the background is none other than dodger stadium.  awesome.  i'm still looking for a reggie smith/steve garvey dual auto from this set, by the way.

there are the fading issues with some of the later releases, including 2007, as either the ball material or the pens used by some of the players were not the right types, but the wood versions that i have seen do not suffer that fate.  i recall a signing i went to where harmon killebrew and i simultaneously chastised a guy who offered the killer a sharpie to sign a ball with.  you would think that upper deck would have made sure that the cards were signed properly, you know, if in fact they had a representative witness the signings.  oh wait.

anyway, 2007 is my favorite sweet spot year, even though steve garvey is included in the classic set as a padre.  there are plenty of dodgers on the checklist, though, including the aforementioned sutton

i guess the only bad thing here is that each base card is serial numbered, as they were in some of the previous sets.

here are some of the other dodgers from the 2007 ud sweet spot classic set

roy campanella

campy suttons.

pee wee reese

both the campy and reese use photos that are now quite familiar to us.

here's don drysdale

in the type of photo that we would not have seen on a card back in his playing days.  i'm glad upper deck didn't try to lighten the shadow under his bill.

maury wills

still looks like he's ticked at topps.

the set also included more 'modern' dodgers, such as their former manager tom lasorda

and a welcome appearance by a pitcher from the team of my youth, burt hooton

it's not too often we see hooton in card sets.

the regular 2007 sweet spot set had some dodgers, too, but the card i want to show is this adam laroche auto card

that includes some plastic-injected molded helmet thingy and a faux wood signing area.  this is not so much my favorite, but it is somewhat unique.

i have a bunch of other sweet spot cards in the scanned folder, so i'll show them even though they are from the 2005 set.  also not so much my favorite.

jd drew

eric gagne

dj houlton numbered to 99

i think that's a parallel as opposed to a shorter printed rookie subset

jeff kent

derek lowe

and one of the very few cards made of one of the biggest busts in dodger history - norihiro nakamura

i think the 66 looks better on puig - he certainly has done more while wearing it.  and, i think the 2007 sweet spot looks better than any of the other versions before or after it, thanks in large part to the pavilion roof and palm tree on the dodger auto cards.

thank you jackie robinson

no time like the present to show the few jackie robinson cards that i've had in my scanned folder for a while…

2001 fleer greats of the game

2007 upper deck sweet spot classic

2010 topps national chicle - a short print, i believe

2012 topps a cut above insert

2012 topps career day insert

and, what the heck.  let's see it again.  1952 topps

thank you jackie robinson!