What a card: This card commemorates Steve Garvey's errorless streak at first base. Garvey finished the 1984 season with 188 straight errorless games, a record for first basemen. He would extend the streak in 1985 to 193 straight games. Kevin Youkilis now holds the record with 238 straight errorless games from 2006-08.
My observation on the front: Speaking as a Dodger fan, Garvey always looked completely out of place in a Padre uniform. Also, I'm dying to know what that weird sunburst is behind him. Is it a team logo? Is it the biggest beach ball ever?
More opinion from me: You won't notice this until you see the back of the card, but the point at which Topps decided to mention this mark -- at the end of the season -- is odd to me. He actually set the record with his 179th straight errorless game, since the previous record was 178 straight by Mike Hegan. Garvey's 179th game without an error was on Sept. 20, 1984, a 5-4 victory over the Giants in San Diego. Garvey played in only one inning of that game before being replaced by Kurt Bevacqua to start the second inning.
Something you might know: The "RAK" that appears on Garvey's left uniform sleeve is in memory of former Padres owner and the man who built the McDonald's franchise, Raymond Albert Kroc. He died in January 1984 and the Padres wore his initials on their uniforms for three seasons.
Something you might not know: The error that ended Garvey's streak came in the ninth inning of an 8-3 loss to the Giants on April 15, 1985. With just two outs left in the game, he dropped a foul pop up by Bob Brenly. Brenly made sure Garvey didn't feel too bad about it by proceeding to strike out.
My observation on the back: "Initial Sack"? Is that when multiple defenders tackle the quarterback? The first guy in gets the "initial sack"?
The blog wants to speak now: I've updated the tabs for "TV," "News" and "Pop Culture." So far, pop culture is a lot of births and sports stuff. I hope to expand it to other things as I add more dates and other stuff. But, meanwhile, I hope finding things like "Street Hawk" is as much a rush for you as it is for me.
13 comments:
That's not the best term for first base. My first thought on the sundisk was a retired number, but I really have no idea.
It looks like the old Padres logo with the swinging Padre.
http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/gooniies12/old_padres_logo.jpg
"Initial Sack"...looks like somebody pulled out their Roget's thesaurus.
Looking like a home uniform, so must have been Jack Murphy stadium, god knows I spent enough time in that place from 83 to 88 when I was in college and going to school at SDSU. But, other than Jeff's suggestion of the friar logo, I can't think of anything else.
Also, trivia for you, it can't be a retired Padres number because... Garvey was the first Padres number to be retired!
Looks like the sunburst is the Astros logo, blurred out.
That was kind of Mr. Brenley. The 1985 season was not kind to Giants fans.
Garvey should be in the HOF. He was the only all-star ever voted in as a write in plus the consistancy of over 1000 straight games played. Not very respected in LA either.
Oh, the sunburst is the old Padres logo with the swinging Friar.
Wow - after seeing the comments - that definitely has to be the Pads logo in the background.
It's interesting that he only played one inning in the game when he broke the record. Almost as if there was fear he would muff one and have to settle for the tie. Man, though, that Garv really knew how to handle that initial sack.
Initial Sack reminds me of how many times I read Second Base described as the "Keystone Bag" by writers back in the 70s and 80s. Third Base was of course the Hot Corner. Now THAT was a good nickname.
I'm going to second the Astros logo comment from JBJ. Jack Murphy had the logos of the other NL clubs on the taller outfield fence in those days.
Some very cursory research reveals that it might be the Giants logo: https://www.google.com/amp/s/friarsonbase.com/2014/10/24/looking-back-padres-1984-world-series-game-two/amp/?source=images
...and while I'm not positive that this great pic of local hero Tim Flannery is from 1984, it appears that the Swingin' Friar wall logo of that era had a yellow outlining circle... https://padres.mlblogs.com/no-29-flannery-was-popular-as-padre-player-coach-17f25467ce89?gi=6907c3340daf
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