Rick Sutcliffe's MLB Debut

Rick Sutcliffe is an excellent color man for ESPN, and a cancer survivor.  Rick Sutcliffe won the 1984 NL Cy Young Award, going   16-1 for the Cubs after a mid-season trade from Cleveland.  Rick Sutcliffe was the 1979 NL Rookie of the Year for the Dodgers.  But three years before that, at the age of 20, he made his major league debut, on a Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium against the Astros in the final days of the 1976 season.  Before 11,600 fans, he got the start and tossed five shutout innings.  He didn't start another game in the majors until his rookie campaign in 1979.  He retired in 1994 with a lifetime record of 171-139.

1977 Topps Steve Garvey

Things just look different when you're a kid. Steve Garvey looked like a baseball superhero.  He had those (for the time) impressively muscular forearms.  He had that supernatural self-confidence.  He always seemed to get the big hit, and flash that big smile in the post-game interview, saying all the right things about helping the team.  He was a certain Hall-of-Famer, right?

Of course, it turns out he was all Hollywood flim-flam.  A politician in cleats.  John Edwards batting cleanup.  But, at the time, this card epitomized everything that I thought was right about baseball.

Clayton Kershaw

Of course it's not fair that a 23 year old is constantly compared to Sandy Koufax.  But Koufax retired four years before I was born, so I'm perfectly happy to root for him to be the Koufax of the current generation.  He's certainly not disappointed this season, putting himself at the head of the Cy Young Award discussion with a month to go, in a league that includes Halladay, Lee and Lincecum. It's amazing that the Dodgers have a potential Cy Young winner and MVP, Matt Kemp, in a season that sees them struggling to reach the .500 mark.  I hope we have a chance to see Kershaw on the mound in Dodger Blue in a World Series someday.

1982 Fleer Pete & Re-Pete

Pete and Re-Pete are on a baseball field.  Pete gets busted for gambling.  Who's left?

Re-Pete.

Pete and Re-Pete are on a baseball field.  Re-Pete gets busted for selling steroids.

Not exactly the fantasy of kids everywhere when this card came out, at about the time I was playing first base for the Phillies in Mira Costa Little League.  We all viewed Re-Pete with envy.  Of course, I wouldn't throw any big-league career back if you gave it to me.  Even a 2-for-16 (.143) cup o' coffee.

Strat-O-Matic Baseball

What does Tommy Lasorda know that I don't?  I could have been a great big-league manager, given the chance.  Me, and a million other kids guiding teams of perforated paper cards to the World Series in our bedrooms.  Actually, if most of us ever got as far as a World Series, it was because we skipped ahead through at least a portion of the 162-game schedule.  I mean, it was a fun game, and all.  But, Jeeze, 162 games?  That would have taken all summer.  And I had to spend at least a little time on the beach, working on that future melanoma.  Plus, I didn't want to miss The Young and the Restless!

1980 Topps Don Sutton

I stole this card from Burt (Bert?) Ramsey when I was 10 years old.

1980 was my first year collecting baseball cards.  I had all of the Dodgers... except for Don Sutton.  I made several trade offers to Burt (Bert?), willing to nearly empty the vault to satisfy my obsession.  But, being ten years old, the power to withhold the prize from me was worth more to Burt (Bert?).

So I stole it.  And I was happy/guilt-ridden until his mom made me give it back to him.

Fear not.  I soon found the card in a pack.

Vin Scully

The Dodgers announcer since 1950.  I hear in his voice late nights lying in bed next to my sleeping Grandfather, the cool Southern California ocean breeze on my face as I ride my bike along the coast, the thwack of a tennis ball thrown hundreds of times against a brick wall.  Home.  1988.  The year I left the only home that I'd ever known, and clung to the Dodgers like a life raft in October.  "In a year of the improbable, the impossible has happened!"  I don't want to imagine a world without Vin Scully.  The fact that he will return for 2012 is absolutely one of my favorite things.  "A very pleasant good evening to you, wherever you may be."