jaybarkerfan's junk sends the blues

it's hard not to be excited when a package from wes at jaybarkerfan's junk shows up at your doorstep.  now, i have not been drawn into one of his trade wars (thankfully, as i know i would not be able to keep up), but we've traded several packages over the last couple of years.  this latest return from wes was certainly no disappointment.

first up is perhaps the bluest card i've seen - it's a 2002 donruss cesar izturis rookie crusade card

good golly miss molly, that's a blue card.

onelki garcia's 2014 topps chrome blue refractor parallel

pales in comparison.

but then there is this 2014 bowman platinum chrome prospects zach lee sapphire parallel card

that is pretty blue.

the blues end there, sort of, as we still have dodger cards, but they aren't of the same hue.  this is an emerald parallel of chris anderson's 2014 bowman platinum chrome prospects card

that brings the green rather than the blue.

there were some regular cards in the package as well, including a 1988 fleer mini kirk gibson card

and a 2005 topps roger craig dem bums insert

craig is fortuitously flashing his bum on the card, by the way.

wes also hit my list of most wanted cards, sending two of the remaining jackie robinson story inserts from 2015 topps that i needed my way

two pretty important milestones there.

i'll finish up with some more hued parallels - these are of the dodger first baseman of the moment, adrian gonzalez.  first is his 2013 bowman chrome purple parallel

and next is his 2013 topps triple threads emerald parallel

both are pretty colorful, bun not as colorful as this 2014 donruss gonzalez elite dominator card

which was not part of the package wes sent, but fits in nicely with this post.

thanks wes, for another great trade!

sunday morning target dodgers - with a misspelled (and a backwards?) name

i haven't run out of sheets yet from the 1990 target dodger giveaway set.  so, here are another 15 cards.  enjoy!

ed amelung

yes, amelung's last name is misspelled on his card, which is unfortunate because i believe that this is his only dodger card.  amelung had some good minor league stats, but in two brief major league stints totalling 42 games in 1984 and 1986, he hit a combined .193 with 4 rbi and 7 runs scored.

ferrell anderson

anderson appeared in 79 games for the 1946 brooklyn dodgers, giving him his first taste of the major leagues (although he wouldn't be back in the bigs until 1953 with the cardinals). just out of the armed services, ferrell hit .256 with a couple of home runs and 14 rbi.  more interesting, however, is that he caught ed head's no-hitter against the braves on april 23 - but we'll get into that later as ed head is also on this sheet of cards.

tim belcher

belcher was the first overall pick in the 1983 draft (by the twins), but didn't sign.  six months later, the yankees took him first overall in the 1984 january secondary draft, and he did sign with them.  unfortunately for yankee fans, the a's claimed belcher as their free agent compensation pick for losing tom underwood to the orioles in february of 1984.  so, the a's got a number 1 pick from the yankees because the orioles signed a free agent, just as the mets lost tom seaver to the white sox because dennis lamp signed with the blue jays.  you've got to love the concessions that came as a result of the 1981 player's strike.  anyway, belcher was eventually traded by the a's to the dodgers for rick honeycutt, and all he did in his first full season (1988) was go 12-6 with a 2.91 era, four complete games, a shutout, and 4 saves.  he also finished third in nl roy voting, and started games 1 and 4 of the world series after going 2-0 in the nlcs against the mets. belcher led the league in complete games (10) and shutouts (8) in 1989, and he wound up pitching for the dodgers through the 1991 season.  with a 50-38 record and 2.99 era over his dodger career, belcher was traded to the reds along with john wetteland for eric davis and kip gross.

pete browning

browning finished his 13-year big league career with 3 games in 1894.  the first two of those contests came as a member of the st. louis cardinals, but the last one featured browning as a member of the brooklyn grooms.  in that game, browning was 2 for 2 with a run scored, a walk, and 2 rbi.  not a bad way to go out, and not totally out of character for a man with a .341 career batting average (13th best all-time).

lave cross

cross spent the majority of the 1900 season with the brooklyn superbas, after starting the season with the st. louis cardinals.  in 117 games for brooklyn as their third baseman, he hit .293 with 73 runs scored and 67 driven in. he was regarded as a good fielder, and led the league among third basemen in that category while with the superbas.  for the 1901 season, cross went to play for the philadelphia a's in the american league, having previously played for them when they were in the american association as well as the player's league.  cross had also played for the phillies in the national league, so he had all of his bases covered when it came to playing in the city of brotherly love.

bobby darwin

it's not too often that you see a card of a player whose position is listed as both a pitcher and a fielder.  such was the case with bobby darwin. darwin is a native of los angeles (he celebrated his 72nd birthday this past monday, by the way) who was signed out of high school by the hometown angels.  he made his debut for them on the mound as the starter in the last game of the 1962 season and took the loss.  he didn't make it back to the majors until 1969 when he was pitching for the other hometown team, the dodgers.  they used darwin early in the '69 season in three games as a pitcher and three as a pinch-runner, with the results on the mound being unimpressive.  so, darwin went back to the minors and worked at converting to an outfielder.  now, the back of darwin's 1977 topps card gives the credit for the conversion to tommy lasorda (tommy was the manager at spokane, the dodger's triple-a affiliate at that time, and darwin did play one game in the outfield for spokane in 1969), but but darwin had played some outfield in the orioles' system in between his stints with the angels and dodgers, and he really cut his teeth out there with the class a bakersfield dodgers in 1969.  darwin was back playing for tommy in spokane in 1971, and he hit .293 as an outfielder that year.  he also earned a call-up back to the majors, playing in 11 midseason games, including 4 as the starting right fielder.  in those games, darwin hit his first big league home run - a 3-run pinch-hit job. following the season, the dodgers traded darwin to the twins, who used him as one of their everyday outfielders for the next three seasons.

hod ford

hod (short for horace) was a shortstop on the 1925 brooklyn robins. he played in 66 games and hit .273 and was then traded by the robins to the minneapolis millers of the american association.

greek george

now, i was sure that target got this name backwards.  george greek makes more sense, right?  well, yes, it does, but this guy really was known as greek george, although i was relieved to discover that greek was just a nickname - he was actually charles peter george.  he was also a backup catcher on the 1938 dodgers who appeared in 7 games and was 4 for 20 in those games.  he did hit his first career triple that year, which may or may not have involved a collision in the outfield if he ran like most catchers from that era.

jim gilliam

i've written about gilliam several times on the blog. he was the 1953 nl rookie of the year and a 4-time world series champion with the dodgers during his playing career - a career that overlapped with his tenure as a dodger coach.  gilliam was the first base and hitting coach for the team of my youth up until he suffered a stroke near the end of the 1978 season and later died the day after the dodgers claimed the pennant. his number 19 is the only numbered that the dodgers have retired for a person not in the hall of fame.

mike griffin

griffin was one of the regular outfielders for the grooms/bridegrooms from 1891 through 1898. in 988 games during that span, griffin hit .305.  he also stole 264 bases, after stealing 179 in just three seasons with the orioles earlier in his career.  griffin was highly regarded apparently, as his 1908 new york times obituary stated (according to baseball-reference) that he was "one of the best known baseball players in the country...the best centre (sp) fielder in the league."

ed head

as mentioned above, head threw a no-hitter for the dodgers in 1946 against the braves. it came in his first start of the season, and in the team's 7th game of the year.  head, who had also pitched for the dodgers in 1940 and every season from 1942 on, made 12 appearances for the dodgers in 1946 after his no-no, but did not pitch in the majors again after that.  he may have suffered an arm injury during the season, but did pitch in the minor leagues in 1947 before hanging up his spikes and taking over as a manager in the dodger minor league system for several years beginning in 1948.

kevin pasley

the dodger representative on dale murphy's 1977 topps rookie card, pasley was a catcher who played for the dodgers in 1974, 1976, and 1977.  he was the dodgers' regular catcher during the last month of the 1976 season with steve yeager injured and the other catchers on the roster at that time being sergio robles and ellie rodriguez.  after appearing in 3 games for the dodgers in 1977, pasley had his contract purchased by the mariners. those three games earned pasley a spot on the team of my youth, and in my 1978 topps burger king/update set.  the last time i posted some pasley cards, i got a lead on a ttm opportunity but sadly the cards have not been returned yet. i still have hope, however!

max west

west was an outfielder for the 1928 and 1929 robins who hit .276 in a total of 12 big league games for the franchise. not sure what the houston uniform is - west was from texas, but never played in the minors (or college) for a team that would be obviously known as 'houston'.  he did pass away in houston in 1971, so i am willing to give target the benefit of the doubt that the photo is, in fact, of max west the former brooklyn robin. i shouldn't have given target the benefit of the doubt - the photo is of the 'other' max west who played for the boston (not houston) bees during his major league career that spanned from 1938 through 1948.  thanks eric.

jim winford

winford was a cardinals' pitcher for five seasons in the 1930's before joining the dodgers in september of 1938. he had spent the entire season up to that point in the cardinals' minor league system, and made his first big league start of the season for the dodgers against his former team.  winford lasted just 4 innings, allowing 7 runs (4 earned), and took the loss.  he made just one more appearance for the dodgers, pitching poorly in relief, and spent the rest of his career in the minor leagues.

whit wyatt

wyatt pitched for the dodgers towards the end of his 16-year career. from 1939 through 1944, wyatt was a part of the dodger rotation, earning all-star berths in each of his first four seasons with the club.  during that stretch, wyatt led the league in wins (22 in 1941), shutouts twice (5 in 1940 and 7 in 1941), and whip (1.058 in 1941). and, although he wasn't an all-star in 1943, he led the league in winning percentage and whip that year, too. his cumulative era in those first five years with brooklyn was a tidy 2.71, but the wheels came off in 1944 when his era ballooned to 7.17 over 9 starts.  that was the end for wyatt in brooklyn, although he did pitch for the phillies in 1945.

that's all for this week!

john anderson double dipped and did it quickly

honest john anderson played for the brooklyn bridegrooms from 1984 through 1899, including two stints with the club during the 1898 campaign.

[this is the eighty-first installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, babe herman, joe medwick, juan castro, ron perranoski, clyde king, paul waner, hughie jennings, ron negray, broadway aleck smith, george smith, johnny cooney, jim fairey, frenchy bordagaray, doc casey, waite hoyt, luis olmo, clyde sukeforth, willie keeler,  harry howell, germany smith, johnny allen, marv rackley, bobo newsom, maury wills, dazzy vance, ray hayworth, zack taylor, john cronin, art herring, brian falkenborg, and bill reidy.]

here's his 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary card

anderson had played in 345 games for the bridegrooms through the 1897 season, accruing 436 hits and a .310 batting average.  after hitting .143 in six games for the club in 1898, anderson was sent to the washington senators.  he played for them into september of 1898, slugging .516 in 110 games.  even with that performance, he was returned to brooklyn for the last few weeks of the season.  in 19 games during his second stint with the club, he hit .275.  even with his subpar brooklyn stats, anderson was able to lead the league in slugging.

anderson was a bridegroom again in 1899, but then moved on to the milwaukee brewers.  the now-superbas brought him back from the minor league team after the 1900 season, but he returned to the brew crew before the 1901 season began, narrowly avoiding a triple-dipping.

a random sampling of dodger cards

you might recognize ron hunt

and paul popovich

from yesterday's first installment in the dodgers' second baseman evolution series.  the popovich especially, as his 1969 topps card shown above uses the same photo as his 1968 topps card which i used in the aformentioned post.  at least hunt's 1968 topps card at the top of the post is completely different from his 1967 topps issue that i showed yesterday, although his dazed and confused look doesn't make for the best card.

i've got too many cards scanned and ready to go that don't really have a purpose.  here's the guy who caught the last out of the 1981 world series, ken landreaux, on his 1987 donruss card

1987 was landreaux's final big league season (and he was with the dodgers until the end of the year), but neither fleer nor donruss issued a card of him in 1988.  donruss did issue a card of dave anderson in 1988, however

which made sense because he was still very active, although he lost the starting shortstop job that year to newcomer alfredo griffin, seen here on his 1988 score card

griffin hit only .199 in '88, but the dodgers won the world series, anyway.  two dodgers hit home runs in game 1 of the fall classic that year - mickey hatcher (shown here on his 1988 score card)

and kirk gibson (shown on a 1989 o-pee-chee sticker back)

gibby's was more dramatic, of course, and it probably took him ten times as long to round the bases than it did hatcher, who literally sprinted from home to home in the first inning.

another world series hero for the dodgers is tommy davis.  this 1993 ted williams card takes us back to 1963

when davis won the second of his back-to-back national league batting titles, but also hit .400 in the fall classic against the yankees.  he drove in the only run of game 3 in that series with a first inning single off of jim bouton - that was all don drysdale needed to set the dodgers up for a series sweep the next day.

raul mondesi, seen here on a 1995 fleer flair card,

never made it to the world series, but he was the first dodger player to go 30/30, and he did it twice.  he was my favorite dodger for a while, too.

i'll finish up this random post with jason phillips' 2005 topps chrome update & highlights card

phillips was one of jim tracy's 'ja(y)sons' of choice in 2005, along with werth, repko, and grabowski.  he spent time behind the plate and at first base that year, but left as a free agent after the season ended.

was that random enough for you?

the evolution of the shortstop, part 2

it's been awhile and i need to finish off these position evolution posts.  here's the second installment of the shortstop evolutionary chain - this time from anderson to izturis.

dave anderson (1984)

andy started 111 games at short in 1984, replacing the dean of the dodgers, bill russell, as the team's first primary shortstop not named wills or russell in 15 years.  he hit .251, and the following year spent more time at third base than short.  that's because the dodgers promoted mariano duncan.

mariano duncan (1985-1987)

duncan appeared at shortstop in 123 games (120 starts) for the dodgers in 1985.  he hit .244 with 38 steals and helped the dodgers reach the playoffs, although he hit just .222 in the nlcs against the cardinals.  in 1986, duncan appeared in 106 games as the dodgers' shortstop, and while he stole 48 bases, his batting average dropped to .229 and he was losing favor as the dodgers' shortstop of the future.  in 1987, duncan's average dropped to .215 and he played at shortstop only slightly more (538 innings to 499) than anderson.  he was demoted to the minor leagues for the entire 1988 season, as the dodgers went out and brought in alfredo griffin.

alfredo griffin (1988-1991)

griffin, seen above admiring one of his mammoth home run blasts on his 1991 topps stadium club card, barely gets the nod in 1988 thanks to his 89 starts at short compared to anderson's 72 starts.  he hit a lousy .199 on the season, and then was even worse at the plate in the postseason - .160 in the nlcs and .188 in the world series - but the dodgers won it all anyway.  griffin had better seasons as the dodgers' primary shortstop in 1989 (136 games, .247 average), 1990 (141 games, .210 average), and 1991 (109 games, .243 average) before returning to the blue jays in 1992.

jose offerman (1992-1995)

offerman hit in the .260's in both 1992 and 1993 as the dodgers' everyday shortstop.  unfortunately, he made 42 and 37 errors in those seasons respectively, earning his nickname 'e-fferman'.  at least that's what i called him.  he lost a fair amount of playing time to rafael bournigal in 1994, but still managed to be the team's primary shortstop.  in his final season as a dodger (1995), offerman remained the everyday shortstop, and even made the all-star team thanks to a .303 average at the break (he wound up hitting .287 on the season).  offerman was traded to the royals after the 1995 season, and kc immediately moved him out of the shortstop position and reaped the offensive benefits that followed.  no joke - offerman averaged .306 over his three seasons with the royals.

greg gagne (1996-1997)

gagne came over from the royals after the 1995 season, but not in the offerman trade - it was his signing as a free agent actually made offerman expendable.  over the course of the next two seasons, gagne missed only 52 games (that's what passed for stability at this position back then) and hit .253 with a little pop.  he finished his career as a dodger, retiring after the '97 season.

jose vizcaino (1998)

el viz returned to the dodgers for the 1998 season, and he wound up leading the team with 65 starts at the position while hitting .262.  juan castro, wilton guerrero, alex cora, and even adrian beltre also spent time there, but vizcaino got the nod most often.  until the dodgers made a trade deadline deal, that is.  after that, mark grudzielanek took over the position.

mark grudzielanek (1999)

the g-man appeared in 123 games for the dodgers in 1999, 119 (118 starts) as a shortstop.  he also hit a robust .326 on the season.  yes, his 2002 upper deck card shown above lists him as a second baseman, and for good reason - he switched to second in 2000.

alex cora (2000-2001)

cora played short for the dodgers in 101 games in 2000 and 132 games in 2001.  he didn't do much offensively, and was an average fielder, but jim tracy played him.  like grudzielanek, cora later moved over to second base.

cesar izturis (2002-2005)

the dodgers went out and acquired izturis in a trade with the blue jays after the 2001 season.  i recall hearing him advertised as a slick fielding prospect and so was not really surprised when he posted obp numbers below .300 during his first two seasons as the dodgers' primary shortstop.  in 2004, however, his third year at the top of the depth chart, izzy put it all together, hitting .288 with an obp of .330 and 25 steals.  he also won the gold glove that year - the first dodger shortstop to do so since maury wills in 1962.  in 2005, izturis again was the dodgers' primary shortstop, at least until an injury sidelined him for the season in august. the following year, he found his starting job lost and was traded to the cubs for greg maddux.

i'll wrap up the shortstop evolution in a couple of days.  stay tuned.

a spin around dodger stadium

no surprise - fleer is going to lead this tour around chavez ravine.  let's start with a 1982 fleer jim bibby

with the scoreboard in right center field over his left shoulder.  now we are moving clockwise as the scoreboard is over bill dawley's left shoulder on this 1985 fleer card

this 1982 fleer silvio martinez card gets us to the right field corner,

with the visitor's bullpen just at the edge of the card oner his right shoulder, and the field level scoreboard at the other edge over his left shoulder.  that's the same scoreboard that gary woods is hanging out near on his 1982 fleer card

always nice to see the friendly dodger stadium ushers and their straw hats!

mike lacoss is playing catch in front of the dugout seats on his 1982 fleer card

as is his teammate (and future dodger) mike vail

those seats are long gone, and may be best remembered as the location where mike brito would stand with his radar gun and cigar during games.  brito, by the way, is the scout who signed fernando and yasiel puig, along with at least a couple dozen other major league players.

next up is reggie jackson's 1981 donruss card (one of them, anyway) which gets us to the camera well next to the dodger dugout

i am guessing that this photo is from the 1980 all-star game which was played at dodger stadium.

jose oquendo's 1985 fleer card gets us further up the line to the end of the camera well

and juan eichelberger's 1982 fleer card features the start of the field level scoreboard on the third base side

here's the end of that scoreboard on frank pastore's 1982 fleer card

this card is almost identical to bob welch's 1983 fleer card - with ray knight playing the role of ron cey.  john smoltz has a very similar looking card, too.

i can't let this post go by without using some dodger cards, so here is chan ho park's 2000 topps card with the low rail down in the left field corner

with a touch of the dodger bullpen gate also visible.

this 1994 mother's piazza card of (who else) mike piazza shows the other end of the bullpen with the left field pavilion and the diamondvision board

dave anderson's 1989 upper deck card picks up where piazza's card left off (note the 370 sign on the outfield wall)

and we'll end up in right-center with tony gwynn on a 1992 fleer ultra insert card

gwynn, who played right field as you all recall, has gone to his right to catch a ball up against the outfield fence in dodger stadium.  this is likely from april 12, 1991 as the dodgers hosted the pads on opening day.  these banners (seen better on this other gwynn card from 1992 fleer ultra)

were put up to commemorate the dodgers' world series titles on the opening day games that i attended, at least.  i don't recall seeing them otherwise.

so there you have it, a virtual tour of dodger stadium.  now here's an aerial shot courtesy of the good year blimp 1988 fleer

i am quite thankful for fleer and their use of photos from dodger stadium in their sets.  much like i imagine a cubs fan appreciates 1981 donruss or a yankee fan appreciates every topps set from the 60's and 70's.