sunday morning target dodgers - i didn't know jacklitszch

the secondary title of this post should make sense about half way through.  here are 15 cards from a sheet that was part of the 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary set given out at dodger stadium 25 years ago.

lady baldwin

i almost went with 'dude looks like a lady' for the secondary title, but there are so many people on this sheet that i didn't know of (thanks baseball reference) that the other title won out.  baldwin, given name charles, was a member of the 1890 brooklyn bridegrooms.  that was their first year as a national league club (hence the 100th anniversary set in 1990), and he pitched in 2 games for them. he had also been used as an outfielder occasionally earlier in his career (even as he won a record 42 games in 1886), but he was soley a pitcher for brooklyn.  after appearing in those two games, in which he was 1-0 with a 7.04 era, he joined buffalo in the players league for the remainder of the season.

win ballou

ballou was a member of the 1929 robins. he had previously pitched for the senators and browns before joining brooklyn.  for the robins, he was 2-3 in 25 games and his big league career came to a close. he continued to pitch in the pacific coast league, however, and thus we have the photo used for his card above.

boom-boom beck

our first dodger of the day, beck was known as walter until one day in 1934 when casey stengel tried to remove him from a game. instead of handing the ball over to his manager, beck threw it into right field where it caromed off of a tin facade, making a fair amount of noise. supposedly, dodger outfielder hack wilson had not been paying attention and thought that it was a batted ball, so he tracked it down and threw the ball in to the infield.  anyway, boom-boom pitched for the dodgers in 1933 and 1934, losing 20 games in '33.  he had to wait until 1939 to appear in the majors after the '34 season, but he did make it back, this time with the phillies.

greg brock

the usurper.

i thought about leaving it at that, but brock deserves better.  he was the heir apparent at first base when steve garvey left town, and his gaudy numbers from albuquerque in 1982 (44 homers, 138 rbi, and a .310 average) gave dodger fans hope.  brock hit 20 homers in his rookie season, but drove in only 66 and hit just .224.  he finished 7th in the rookie of the year voting, breaking the 4-year hold the franchise had on the award.  the dodgers did make it to the nlcs in his rookie year, and again in 1985 with brock at first, but he was eventually traded to the brewers after the 1986 season.

red downs

downs played in 9 games for the 1912 dodgers. he hit .250 in 34 plate appearances, before he was claimed by the cubs in may.

bones ely

ely had a sweet mustache, let's get that settled up front. he was an infielder with the 1891 brooklyn grooms who appeared in 31 games and hit just .153 in them. a couple of years later, he returned to the majors as a shortstop with the cardinals and after that, with the pirates - eventually becoming known as the man that honus wagner replaced at short for pittsburgh.

roy evans

it's too bad evans played for the superbas in 1902 and 1903 - well before the time of roy rogers and dale evans, because i'm sure he would have been called trigger if he had played during the heyday of the king of the cowboys.  or maybe not.  as it is, evans was 10-15 for brooklyn with an even 3.00 era during his time on their staff.

fred jacklitzch

it is true - i didn't know jacklitzsch before this, just as i didn't know about any of the guys above except for greg brock.  but, thanks to bbref.com, not i do.  jacklitzsch (which is more difficult to spell that grudzielanek or yastrzemski, in my opinion), even when baseball reference spells it without the 'z', played for brooklyn in 1903 and 1904. he caught, but also played second, first, and the outfield, hitting .257 in 86 games for the club.

frank kane

i believe that this photo of someone is blurry for a reason. the only frank kane that comes up in baseball reference's database was an outfielder for the 1919 new york yankees who also played in the federal league for the 1915 brooklyn tip-tops.  this set has nothing to do with brooklyn's federal league team.  there is no frank kane or kahn or cain or cane listed in the dodger franchise player roster.  i looked at the back of the card, and it says that kane did indeed play for brooklyn (the robins, not the tip-tops) in 1915.  apparently target didn't know jacklitszch about this guy and added him to the set erroneously.

john kelleher

after first appearing in the majors at the age of 18 with the 1912 cardinals, kelleher got his next opportunity as a member of the 1916 brooklyn robins. he appeared in 2 games, and was 0 for 3 at the plate. he did not appear in the postseason.  he next showed up in the majors with the cubs in 1921.

lou koupal

koupal spent 1928 and the first part of the 1929 season with the robins. he was 1-0 in 17 games in 1928, and 0-1 in 18 games in 1929.  his record, and departure from the club by way of a trade with the phillies, may have had something to do with a 2.41 era in '28 and a 5.36 era for brooklyn in '29.

curly onis

onis is the rare player (roy gleason is another) to have a career 1.000 batting average in the major leagues.  he appeared in just one game during the 1935 season, getting a single in his only at bat.  he is further distinguished by having a higher career batting average than fielding average, as he made an error on one of his two chances in the game, ending with a fp of .500.

bill sayles

sayles' two-year big league career came to an end with 5 games with the 1943 brooklyn dodgers. sayles earned no decisions in those games, but compiled a 7.71 era with 10 walks and 5 strikeouts.

tommy tatum

tatum had a cup of coffee with the 1941 brooklyn dodgers (he appeared in 8 games and was 2 for 12 at the plate) before serving in world war ii.  he returned to the dodger organization in 1946, and earned a call-up to the big club in 1947.  however, after playing in 4 games and going hitless in his 6 at bats, he was lost to the reds who purchased his contract.

earl yingling

believe it or not, earl here is not the only major league player to have the surname 'yingling'.  from the looks of it, however, he may have been the only one to not have any eyes.  yikes.  yingling pitched for the dodgers in 1912, and the superbas in 1913, posting a record of 14-19 and a 3.11 era in his 51 games for the franchise.

that's all for this week - hopefully next week's sheet will have a few more recognizable names.

sunday morning target dodgers - i don't know any of these guys

it's crazy that i can look at baseball-reference and find out about each and every one of these players, none of which i had heard of before preparing this post.  in fact, i thought about just making stuff up for these 14 men from a sheet of the 1990 target dodgers set (the 15th card gets its own post later today), but that would be a disservice.  so, off to baseball-reference i go.

erve beck

beck was a 20-year old rookie who played in 8 games for the brooklyn superbas in 1899.  he was 4 for 24 in those games and next appeared in the major leagues in 1901 with the cleveland indians of the upstart american league.  that season, beck's 6 home runs counted for half of the indians' total of 12.

bill collins

collins, shown here in a 1911 boston rustlers (later known as the braves) road uniform, played for the superbas in 1913.  he hit .189 in 32 games for brooklyn and moved on to the buffalo buffeds of the federal league for the 1914 season.

dan daub

daub pitched in the major leagues for six seasons, spending the final five of those with brooklyn.  from 1893-1897, daub pitched for the grooms/bridegrooms, compiling a record of 44-50.  daub later went on to coach the baseball team at ohio wesleyan university, where one of his players was branch rickey.

pat deisel

deisel appeared in a total of 3 games during his big league career.  two of those were with the reds in 1903, and the other one came with the brooklyn superbas in 1902.  in his lone appearance for brooklyn, deisel came to bat 5 times.  he struck out once, walked once, was hit by a pitch, and had two base hits.  in the following season, he walked in his only plate appearance, giving deisel a career on-base percentage of .833.

bert haas

haas made his big league debut in 1937 as a brooklyn dodger.  he played in 16 games that year, hitting .400 (10 for 25) while striking out only once.  the following year, he only appeared in one game, and it appears that he was only announced at that - he didn't take the field or make a plate appearance.  he didn't appear as a dodger again, as the team traded him to the cardinals during the 1940 season in the trade that netted them joe medwick.  haas does not appear to be any relation to the bill haas who appeared on a 1963 topps rookie card as a dodger, or moose haas for that matter.

pat hurley

not sure where 'pat' comes from - baseball-reference only lists this member of the 1907 superbas as jerry hurley.  he played in one game for the franchise, going 0 for 2 with a walk and 2 strikeouts.  that's two of the three true outcomes!

joe kustus

kustus' big league career consists of just about 3 months of service with the 1909 brooklyn superbas.  he appeared in 53 games, hitting .145 with a home run and 11 rbi.

frank lamanske

while kustus' big league career lasted about three months, lamanske's lasted only about a week.  he pitched in two games for the 1935 dodgers - one on april 27 and the other on may 1. in his debut, the dodgers were facing the boston braves who had a certain former yankee hall of fame slugger in their lineup.  what's even cooler is that, if the data on baseball-reference is correct, lamanske struck babe ruth out that day for his first and only career k.  imagine having that tidbit to throw around at dinner parties!

dolf luque

luque was a cuban-born player who won 194 games in the major leagues during a 20-year career.  he pitched for the brooklyn robins in 1930 and 1931, winning 14 and 7 games those years, respectively.  luque, who had began his professional career in the negro leagues, returned to cuba following his major league playing days and managed tommy lasorda at one point.

pryor mcelveen

mcelveen, nicknamed 'humpty', played everywhere but pitcher during his three seasons with the superbas/dodgers from 1909-1911.  he hit better than .200 in just one of those seasons, however, sandwiching a .225 average in 1910 between .198 and .194 clips in his other seasons.

john miller

miller came to the dodgers at the start of the 1967 season from the yankees as one of the players in exchange for john kennedy.  he had only two hits in his 6 games with the yankees in 1966, but one of those was a home run that he hit in his first big league at bat.  in fact, miller was 2 for 3 after his first three at bats in the big leagues, but went 0 for his next 20 and never appeared in another game for the yankees.  after joining the dodgers, miller wasn't called up until 1969 when he played in 26 games as a dodger.  in what would be the last at bat of his career, miller hit a pinch-hit home run.  i have to believe that he is the only player to homer in his first and last big league at bats without hitting one in between.

glen moulder

moulder pitched in one game for the brooklyn franchise.  it was his big league debut in 1946 when he relieved curt davis (in what was davis' last big league appearance) and pitched the final two innings of a 10-4 loss to the new york giants.  moulder allowed a walk and two hits in his two innings of work, with one of those hits a solo home run by buddy blattner. moulder was selected by the browns in the rule v draft after the season, and spent 1947 in saint louis.  he finished his big league career with the white sox in 1948, but returned to the dodger organization in 1949 and continued a minor league career for several more seasons.

tony smith

smith played on the 1910 and 1911 brooklyn teams, hitting well below .200 in each season.  with the superbas in 1910, he hit .181 in 106 games, and then hit just .150 in 13 games in 1911 for the dodgers.  he and pryor mcelveen from above were teammates, and both were featured in the 1911 t205 set.  someday i'll get one of those cards for the collection.

bull wagner

wagner missed out on being teammates with mcelveen and smith, and the t205 set, as he joined the superbas in 1913.  he appeared in 18 games that year, earning a record of 4-2.  he was 0-1 in 6 games the following season, and that was all she wrote for his big league career.

and, that's all she wrote for this installment of sunday morning target dodgers.  i'll be sure to find some more recognizable folks for next week's post.