I received one of those mammoth flat-rate boxes from Johnny's Trading Spot recently. I don't have time to go through it all today, but the play-by-play is coming soon, maybe even tomorrow.
What I have today is just a small segment of that package.
Pocket schedules.
I've mentioned before that pocket schedules might be the collectible that most closely resembles baseball cards. They're about baseball, they're different every year while still containing some of the same elements, and for the most part, they fit in nine-pocket pages just like trading cards.
I don't go out of my way to add pocket schedules. Every one that I have that is Dodger-related has been sent to me by someone. (I have a few random ones from games I've attended or covered). But it would be nice if I could own a Dodgers pocket schedule for each year.
So Johnny sent a few that I had and a few that were new. I've included them in pages already, so let's quickly go through what I own.
1974-89
These schedules cover the glory days of the '70s and '80s, where most my affection for the Dodgers lies. Johnny contributed the 1979 schedule in the top center and the '86 schedule at the middle right. In some cases I have more than one schedule -- with a different look for each -- for the same year. I haven't given much thought how to store those -- sometimes I put them in the same pocket, sometimes I display them side-by-side.
1990-99
Several schedules here came from Johnny, the entire middle row and the 1998 schedule at bottom center. He also sent a 1999 schedule, which is at bottom right. I had a pocket sked for that year already -- my brother sent it to me when he went to Dodger Stadium -- but the backs are different for each.
Also, behind the 1997 Hideo Nomo schedule is a larger one with Mike Piazza on the cover. You can see that the '90s was when they started putting individual players on the schedules (at least for the examples I have).
2002-13
Individual players (or manager) are the go-to cover from this point forward. In fact different schedules are issued with different players on it, kind of variations but for pocket schedules. I guess stuff like that is a sign that people collect these.
You can see with the 2010 schedule I have both the English and Spanish versions. Kind of neat.
2014-18 (plus schedules from Dodgers minor league teams, current and past)
Oklahoma City and Albuquerque bring up the rear.
One of the best parts of pockets schedules are the back, where you get advertising or various listings, like promotional events or the Dodgers' radio network.
So it's always nice to add a few of these, but I doubt I'll ever chase them seriously.
I do also accumulate pocket schedules at work for the local teams we cover. Usually they just sit somewhere on my cluttered desk and I'm sure I've thrown some of them away.
I'm really only about the cards, guys.
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