sunday morning target dodgers - russell and yeager, but not that russell or yeager

happy mother's day!  here are some more cards from a sheet of 15 that was part of the 1990 target dodgers giveaway set.

bob aspromonte

aspromonte was a brooklyn native who signed with the dodgers in 1956, and actually got an at bat that same year as an 18-year old.  he next appeared in the big leagues for the los angeles dodgers in 1960.  after playing in 68 games for the dodgers over the 1960 and '61 seasons, aspromonted was picked by the houston colt .45's in the expansion draft, and he went on to play for that franchise for several seasons.  in fact, he was their franchise's inaugural third baseman, first batter, first batter to get a hit, and  first batter to walk.

ike boone

boone played for brooklyn from 1930-1932.  he appeared in 59 games over that span, hitting .268 with 3 homers and 15 rbi.  in his two full seasons in the majors (with the red sox in 1924 and 1925), boone had hit .337 and .330, respectively. that's not too surprising i suppose, since his career minor league batting average was around .370 over 13 seasons.

eddie brown

brown - nicknamed 'glass arm' for some reason, played for the robins in 1924 and 1925.  he hit .308 in 114 games the first year, and .306 in 153 games the next.  in 1926, brown was playing for the braves, and he hit .328 while leading the league with 201 hits.

george culver

culver had a 9-year major league career, spent mostly in the bullpen.  the dodgers picked him up towards the end of spring training in 1973, and culver pitched in 28 games for them that year - his second-to-last in the majors.  he was 4-4 with 2 saves and a 3.00 era through august 1, but was put on waivers and claimed by the phillies a few days later.

sid fernandez

el sid was thought to be the next fernando valenzuela by some dodger fans in 1983. he was a lefty, but whereas el toro was from mexico, fernandez was from hawaii.  he made two appearances (one start) for the dodgers in '83, going 0-1 with a 6.00 era.  after the season, the dodgers traded fernandez to the mets in the deal that netted them bob bailor and carlos diaz.  fernandez had his best seasons with the mets, helping them to a world championship in 1986.

mickey hatcher

hatcher was a dodger double dipper - you can read all about it here - who seemed to have some bad luck before helping the dodgers win the world series in 1988.  in march of 1981, the dodgers traded hatcher to minnesota, and then went on to win the world series.  six years later, the twins released hatcher, and then they, too, went on to win the fall classic.

johnny hudson

they called him…mr. chips, supposedly because he was a good person to have around when the chips were down according to baseball reference. hudson was a member of the dodgers from 1936-1940, and he appeared in the first night game at ebbets field, which was also the second of johnny vander meer's consecutive no-hitters (hudson was 0 for 1 with a strikeout) in 1938.

chief meyers

meyers was a catcher who had two top-five mvp finishes for the new york giants in 1912 and 1913. he joined the dodgers in 1916, and helped them win the pennant.  meyers was 2 for 10 against babe ruth's red sox in the world series that year, and he returned to the robins for the 1917 season.

fred norman

this may well be the only dodger card of fred norman featuring him in a dodger uniform.  he's still wearing his dodger jersey on his 1971 topps card, but his team affiliation is noted as the cardinals, as he pitched in one game for saint louis in 1970 after they claimed him on waivers from the dodgers late that september.  he had only made his dodger debut earlier that season, and his 1970 topps card shows him wearing a jersey that i believe to be from the kansas city a's (his previous major league team) although he is listed as a dodger. i believed that, but i was wrong - he's wearing his spokane indians minor league jersey on his 1970 topps card (thanks eric).

phil ortega

i can't believe i haven't featured a dodger card of phil ortega on the blog before.  i included him in a post about the frank howard to the senators trade that took place following the 1964 season, but he was a senator on his 1965 topps card that was featured in that post.  ortega was 7-13 with the dodgers over parts of five seasons prior to the aforementioned trade.

jim russell

jim (not bill) russell was with the dodgers in 1950 and 1951. he hit .216 over that span, although that average is somewhat skewed by his 0 for 13 season in 1951.

dick scott

scott pitched for the dodgers in 1963, although not in the world series.  he made an appearance in nine games for the dodgers that year, and he recorded a couple of saves.  after the season, scott was traded to the cubs (that explains his jersey in the photo that was used for the card), and 1964 turned out to be his last in the majors.

don stanhouse

stan the man unusual  was the closer for the american league champion baltimore orioles, when the dodgers signed him to a free agent contract for the 1980 season.  it was a bust of a signing, as stanhouse pitched in just 21 games for the dodgers, amassing an era of 5.04 in 1980.  he didn't pitch at all during the second year of the contract in 1981, and he attempted a comeback with the orioles in 1982.  the dodgers were on the hook for over $400k a year through 1984, however, and some feel that the failed free agent signings of stanhouse and dave goltz made the dodgers gun shy on the free agent market for a few years - until they signed kirk gibson in 1988.

sammy strang

strang was with the brooklyn superbas in 1903 and 1904.  he was their primary third baseman in 1903, hitting .272 in 135 games that year, but he was moved to second base in 1904, and played in only 63 games while hitting .192 in doing so.

joe yeager

joe (not steve) yeager did indeed play both the field and pitch while with the brooklyn franchise from 1898 through 1900.  he was 12-22 on the mound in 1898 when he completed 32 of his 33 starts (he also pitched as a reliever in 3 games) with an era of 3.65, and he also played some shortstop, outfield, and second base. in 1899, yeager played more games at short (11) than he did at pitcher (10), but in 1900, he pitched in two of the three games in which he played.

that's it for this week - take your mom to brunch if you can!

sunday morning target dodgers - the spy who played baseball edition

here are 15 cards from a sheet in the 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary set.  some pretty interesting stories here, starting with this guy - moe berg

berg was an ivy-leaguer (he attended princeton and columbia) who spent his first year in the majors (1923) with the brooklyn robins.  he hit only .186 as a 21-year old infielder, but later found a niche in the big leagues with other teams as a backup catcher.  he also improved at the plate, and was able to carve out a 14-year major league career with four american league clubs following his one year in brooklyn.  the most interesting part of berg's story, however, is that he was a spy.  berg was fluent in several languages, and was added to the connie mack all-star team that was to make a tour of japan in 1934.  berg may have seemed out of place on such a team that featured babe ruth, lou gehrig, and others, but he was there to spend some time doing some recon for the us government.  other missions berg completed included a trip to switzerland to assess the germans' likelihood of developing the atomic bomb.

dolph camilli

i don't know that i've seen camilli's name spelled with an 'f' instead of the 'ph' before.  anyway, camilli (father of future dodger doug camilli) played for the dodgers from 1938 until july of 1943 when he was traded to the giants (in true rivalry fashion, he refused to report to the club).  during his dodger days, camilli was a two-time all-star and led the league in home runs and rbi in 1941, earning the national league's mvp award - the first dodger to win the award since dazzy vance in 1924.

chuck essegian

essegian had the good fortune to be traded to the dodgers during the 1959 season.  as a result, he was able to appear in the 1959 world series against the white sox, and he made the most of his appearances. after striking out as a pinch-hitter in the dodgers' game 1 loss, he hit a game-tying solo home run in the 7th inning of game 2 which the dodgers went on to win.  essegian pinch-hit again in game 5, drawing a walk in a losing effort, but came up big with his second pinch-hit home run of the series (hitting for duke snider of all people) in the 9th inning of the dodgers' 9-3 series clinching game 6 victory.

chico fernandez

fernandez was signed by the dodgers in 1951 and worked his way through the minors to the point where some thought the good fielding shortstop would eventually replace pee wee reese at the position for the dodgers.  fernandez was called up and debuted in july of 1956 and finished the season with a .227 batting average in 34 games.  the dodgers decided to deal fernandez following the season, and he became the phillies regular shortstop after they acquired him for elmer valo and a few other players.  he went on to play for the tigers, too, before they traded him to the braves on may 8, 1963.  later that same day, the braves dealt fernandez to the mets and he finished out his big league career that year with new york.

ned garvin

garvin joined the superbas late in the 1902 season, earning a win and a loss in his two starts for the club that year.  in 1903, he was 15-18 for brooklyn, and in 1904 he had a record of 5-15 (despite a 1.68 era) before he was picked up on waivers by the new york highlanders with whom he finished out the season.  bill james recognizes garvin as perhaps the "hard-luck pitcher of all-time" due to his consistently poor record and low era.

gail hopkins

local boy hopkins attended pepperdine and ucla in the 1960's but was signed by the white sox rather than the dodgers in 1965.  following a total of six seasons spent in the majors with the chisox and kansas city a's, hopkins joined the dodgers during the 1974 campaign.  he only appeared in 15 games for the 1974 national league champs, hitting .222 with 4 singles in 18 at bats.  he went on to play in japan for a couple of seasons and returned to the states to earn an m.d. and ph.d and practiced medicine in california and illinois for many years. his card features the left field pavilion of dodger stadium in the background, which is nice.

jim lindsey

lindsey had pitched for the indians, cardinals (in two different stints), and reds before joining the dodgers in 1937.  he pitched in 20 games for brooklyn, amassing a record of 0-1 with a 3.52 era.  that was the end of his big league career, although he continued to pitch in the minors for many more seasons.

jesse orosco

orosco had two stints with the dodgers, including that glorious 1988 season.  he is the all-time leader in games pitched with 1,252.  the only active pitcher with at least 1,000 games pitched is latroy hawkins who is right at the 1,000 mark.

phil regan

regan pitched for the tigers, often as a starter, from 1960 through 1965 when he joined the dodgers via trade prior to the 1966 season.  walter alston moved regan to the bullpen, and the pitcher responded with a tremendous season.  regan pitched exclusively in relief, appearing in 65 games and earning a record of 14-1 with what would have been a league-leading 21 saves had that been an official statistic back then.  regan was an all-star that year, as well as the comeback player of the year and reliever of the year, and he wound up pitching in two games of the world series as well.  regan's 1967 season was not quite as spectacular, and he was traded to the cubs just a few games into the 1968 campaign.  he did return to the dodger organization following his retirement as a scout and later as manager of the triple-a dukes in 1996.

packy rogers

rogers hit .189 in 23 games for the 1938 dodgers which was the only time he appeared in the major leagues.  he returned to the minors and eventually managed there for a few seasons following his service during world war ii.

sherry smith

smith had a record of 69-70 over his 7 seasons with the brooklyn robins spanning from 1915 into the 1922 campaign (he did not pitch in 1918 for some reason), but his era as a robin was 2.91 and he twice won 14 games in a season.  he was a big part of the robins' pennant winning teams of 1916 and 1920, and he threw 13.1 innings in game 3 of the 1916 fall classic only to surrender the winning run and take the loss opposite the bosox starting pitcher, babe ruth.  smith was 1-1 in the 1920 series against cleveland, giving up just one earned run in 17 innings of work in the robins' losing effort.

mike strahler

i think of strahler as one of the other guys on charlie hough's 1972 rookie card.  he pitched in parts of three seasons for the dodgers - 1970 through 1972.  in total, he appeared in 31 games as a dodger, earning a record of 2-3 with a save and an era of 2.76.  he made 2 starts for los angeles (both in 1972), one of which turned out to be a complete game victory for strahler in his final dodger appearance.  after  the '72 season ended, strahler was traded to the angels in the frank robinson for andy messersmith deal, and the halos traded him soon after that to the tigers.

dick stuart

stuart could hit. he hit .272 with 192 home runs in his first seven seasons, which were spent with the pirates and red sox between 1958 and 1964.  in fact, stuart led the american league in rbi in 1963 while with the red sox, and drove in 114 the following year.  unfortunately, he was not the best fielder.  in fact, stuart led his league in errors by a first baseman in each of those same seven seasons mentioned above.  after a down year with the phillies in 1965 (in which he finished second with 17 errors and hit just .234), stuart joined the mets for the start of the 1966 season, which is where the photo used on his card above comes from.  he was ultimately released by the mets during the season and was signed by the dodgers.  stuart hit .264 with 3 homers in 38 at bats for the dodgers, and even managed a couple of plate appearances for them in the 1966 world series.

lee walls

walls joined the dodgers following the 1961 season in a deal that sent charlie neal to the expansion mets.  he spent three non-descript seasons with the dodgers as a utility player/pinch-hitter, although i found his final big league appearance to be fairly interesting.  on the final day of the 1964 season, walter alston replaced his starting catcher (john roseboro) following the first inning with rookie jeff torborg.  roseboro had reached base, stolen third, and scored on a wild pitch prior to being removed from the game, but i don't know if his removal had to do with an injury or if it was just because it was the last game of the year and the dodgers were leading the colt .45's 5-0 after one inning of play.  anyway, torborg played through the eighth inning, but was replaced at catcher by walls for the 9th.  it was the first (and only) time walls had caught in a big league game, and it was also the last time he wore a big league uniform - the dodgers released him 10 days later.

robert wilson

wilson joined the dodger organization in 1950, but spent only two days in 1958 on the field in the big leagues.  he may have been up with the dodgers for longer than that, but his actual playing career consists of 3 games over 2 days in saint louis in may of 1958.  on saturday, may 17, wilson made his debut when he pinch-hit for stan williams against the cardinals' larry jackson and stroked a single.  he was replaced at the start of the following inning in the lineup by don drysdale.  the next day, in the first game of a doubleheader, wilson again pinch-hit (this time for clem labine), but struck out against the cards' billy muffett.  in the nightcap, wilson got the start in right field, but was replaced late in the game by gino cimoli following an 0 for 3 performance at the plate.  and that was that for wilson's big league career.

dime box dodgers

here are some more cards that nick from dime boxes sent to me recently.  you didn't think he sent just double play cards, did you?

i will admit, i coveted the don mattingly and darryl strawberry cards from 1984 donruss more than i wanted sid fernandez's card 30 years ago

even though sid's was the only one of the three to have the coveted rated rookie banner.  it also features a dodger stadium as the background.  1984 was, of course, the first year that donruss added the rated rookie moniker to the front of the card.  in 1983, at least, it was noted on the back of the cards.  a waste of ink, that was.

here's a 1995 upper deck star rookie subset card of another dodger prospect from mexico, antonio osuna

and yet another mexican dodger prospect from 1996 pacific, karim garcia

sadly, there were no fernando valenzuela or dennis reyes cards in the package.

there were some cards of retired dodger stars, including this other pacific card from their 1988 legends set of frank howard

and a 1990 swell baseball greats of don newcombe

nick is good at finding cards from the 1992 conlon tsn set, and he sent me a johnny cooney (a dodger double dipper)

and a burleigh grimes

from the set.  my favorite grimes card of the package, however, was this 2001 upper deck legends of new york card

which comes with the fuzzy 'b'.  grimes was a hall of fame pitcher for the brooklyn robins and later a manager of the brooklyn dodgers, including the 1937 squad which was the year that conlon took those photos seen on the cooney and grimes cards.  so, upper deck should have listed grimes as a robin on their card since he is identified as a pitcher, not a manager.  still, i'll take all the grimes cards i can get.

thanks nick!  i've got some cards heading your way soon.

some beauties of a bowman

not too long ago, i posted about dodger double dipper clyde king.  i used a 1952 bowman card of his in the post - a card that i had purchased but not yet received.  i figured i might as well show the card again once it was in my possession, and i will, but first let's see this 1952 bowman cal abrams card that accompanied king on his journey.

abrams' card is superior to king's

but any 1950's bowman card is a fantastic add to my collection.  here are some other ones that i have picked up over the past few months.

1951 bowman carl furillo

and a 1951 bowman charlie dressen

i picked up the dressen at the most recent card show i attended.  i like how the card is cropped.  it looks like dressen is poking at the boundary of his two-dimensional cage.  kind of a-ha-ish.

here's a 1954 bowman george shuba

according to baseball reference, george 'shotgun' shuba was earning $13k in 1954.  i wonder if that's why he made his s look like a dollar sign.

i prefer his 1954 bowman card to his 1955 bowman card, but i bought one anyway at the same show i found the dressen

it's somewhat distressed, but that's ok.  1955 was a magical year for the dodgers, and i am very close to completing this team set.  1955 was shuba's last year in the majors, so he went out on top - making his final big league appearance in game 4 of the world series.

chico fernandez's rookie card is in much better shape

fernandez didn't debut for the dodgers until 1956, and his dodger career included only 34 apperances. he was traded to the phillies in 1957.

walt moryn

was traded after the 1955 season to the cubs, but still didn't appear in the 1955 fall classic.

charlie neal

like fernandez, made his debut in 1956. he stayed with the dodgers until he was traded to the expansion mets in december of 1961.  he also missed the 1955 world series, but he did stay with the dodgers long enough to play in the 1959 world series.

ken lehman

didn't pitch for the dodgers in 1955 (he spent the year in the minors), and the orioles purchased his contract in 1957.  he debuted in 1952, however, and got to pitch two innings in that year's world series against the yankees.

i was somewhat dismissive of early bowman during my formative collecting years.  now i recognize that these cards are pretty f'n cool.

a bfd from the real dfg

a while back, i received a healthy 'box full of dodgers' (bfd) from the real dfg.  the dude knocked out one of my 'nefarious 9' - the 1986 donruss rookies reggie williams card - and added a boatload of other dodger goodies in return for a mess of pittsburgh pirates and maybe a few steelers and penguins.

one of the favorite items i received was the 1966 topps ruboff i featured in this post, but there were plenty of other cards to enjoy.

like this 1979 topps bobby welch card

the best rookie card ever.

here's another rookie card that i was happy to own in 1984, it's sid fernandez on his 1984 donruss rated rookie

we all thought el sid was the second coming of fernando, even though he was from hawaii, not mexico.  i would say that this card was on par with the ron darling rookie in the set in terms of my coveting and hoarding. it would have been equal to the the mattingly and strawberry rookies except for the fact that fernandez was a met by the time i acquired any 1984 donruss.  yes, i was disappointed when campanis traded him to the mets for bob bailor and fellow hawaiian carlos diaz.  still, he was a dodger and the card features the left field bullpen at chavez ravine, so it's still a nice piece of cardboard.

there was something strange afoot at the circle k in 1985, as they entered the trading card fray, and the dfg included a couple of specimens for me - gil hodges

and his brooklyn dodger counterpart, duke snider.

not exactly bill and ted, although they did have an excellent adventure together as long time dodger teammates.

here's a card that doesn't scan too well.  it's a 1995 topps embosesed tim wallach.

not as bad is this 1996 fleer metal universe mike blowers

blowers is still shown in his seattle mariners' uniform, but the team affiliation on the card is the dodgers.  perhaps he could have used some uniform stickers from the 1988 panini set that were also included in the box.

it's strange and cool at the same time that the sanitary socks were included.

here's a 1981 fleer terry forster

which i chose to show because i am left to wonder if that thing he's picking his teeth with is the same thing sticking out of his mouth on his 1983 fleer card.

forster wore number 51 for the dodgers, as did terry wells as we can see on his 1991 score card.

wells, acquired from the astros for franklin stubbs, started 5 games for the dodgers in july of 1990, and they were the only games he ever pitched in during his major league career.  meaning, when this card came out, wells was not a 'rookie prospect' but a 'former major leaguer'.  on a completely unrelated note, terry looks like the principal from east dillon high.

here's another lefty 'rookie prospect' from 1991 score, jim poole.

poole appeared in 16 games for the dodgers in 1990 and was traded to the rangers in december of that same year.  so, like sid fernandez 7 years before him, poole was no longer a dodger when his rookie card came out.  still, he was at one point, and that's good enough for me.

thanks dfg!  too bad your penguins got bounced, but at least it seems that there might be some hope with the pirates.