Showing posts with label dietz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dietz. Show all posts

17 May 2015

sunday morning target dodgers - the longest name edition

here are more players from another sheet in the 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary giveaway set.

mike devereaux
devereaux was a 5th round pick of the dodgers in 1985, and he was in their outfield a couple of years later.  and then again a few years after that.  i've told his tale before, so i won't go into details again here.  devereaux is currently a coach in the rockies' system.

dick dietz
dodger fans know dietz from his days as a giant, particularly his failure to get out of the way of a don drysdale pitch during big d's scoreless innings streak.  dietz was deemed to have not tried to evade the pitch, and was not awarded first base. that was significant because the bases were loaded at the time.  drysdale got dietz out after the non-hbp, and went on to set the record for consecutive scoreless innings.  dietz joined the dodgers for the 1972 season, but injuries limited him to just 27 games.

snooks dowd
in 1919, dowd played in 13 games for the a's and one for the tigers.  seven years later, he appeared in two games for the brooklyn robins, going 0 for 8. not much to say about dowd, so instead i will note that mlb should bring back the sweaters.

jim golden
golden was acquired by the dodgers from the phillies in 1958 in the deal that sent sparky anderson to philadelphia.  he debuted with the dodgers a couple of years later, starting and beating the cubs in his big league debut and only appearance of the 1960 season. the following year, golden pitched in 28 games, winning 1 and losing 1, although he was used exclusively in relief.  after the season, golden was selected by the houston colt .45's in the expansion draft, and he went on to pitch for them for a couple of years.  he was traded to the white sox for nellie fox following the 1963 season.

don lund
lund was a standout athlete at the university of michigan, and chose baseball over football by signing with the dodgers rather than the chicago bears. he appeared in four games for brooklyn in 1945, and then hit .300 in 11 games for them in 1947. the following year, lund was hitting just .188 when the browns selected him on waivers in late june. he eventually returned to michigan as a member of the tigers, and later coached baseball at his alma mater, leading them to the college world series in 1962.

cal mclish
that would be calvin coolidge julius caesar tuskahoma mclish.  just cal, for short.  mclish first appeared in the majors with the dodgers in 1944 as an 18-year old.  he was 3-10 in 23 games (13 starts) that year, with all three of his wins coming in complete game performances. after a year of military service, mclish appeared in just one game in 1946, and was included in the may 1947 trade with the pirates that netted the dodgers al gionfriddo.

clarence mitchell
mitchell pitched for the robins from 1918 through 1922, which means that he was a member of the 1920 national league champions.  he was 5-2 during the regular season that year, and pitched in just one of the world series games (game 5) without figuring in the decision.  mitchell also played the outfield and first base when he wasn't pitching, and had a batting average of .277 in well over 400 at bats during his time with the robins.

gene moore
moore had three different stints with the brooklyn dodger organization, but only appeared in the majors for them in one of them, so he did not achieve true double (or triple) dipper status.  he was first brought into the fold in september of 1935 after playing for the reds and cardinals, but he was traded to the boston bees prior to the start of the 1936 season.  following the 1938 campaign, the bees sent him back to the dodgers, and he played in 117 games for brooklyn over the 1939 and 1940 seasons until his contract was purchased by the bees in may of '40.  the bees eventually traded moore to the yankees, and the dodgers purchased his contract a couple of months later, in february of 1942.  moore spent most of 1942 with the dodgers' triple-a team in montreal, at least until the senators came calling at the end of august and brought him back to the majors.

mike morgan
morgan was well traveled in his major league career, pitching for the dodgers from 1989 through 1991. he was 33-36 as a dodger, and represented the club at the 1991 all-star game - the only all-star selection of his career.

mike munoz
munoz began his 12-year big league career with the dodgers in 1989, and pitched for them again in 1990.  following that season, he was traded to the tigers, but he eventually returned to the nl west with the rockies, with whom he spent the majority of his career. a lefty specialist, munoz appeared in 453 games (all in relief) and pitched a total of 364.1 innings in his career.

charlie neal
neal played mostly second base for the brooklyn and los angeles dodgers from 1956 through 1961.  he was an all-star in 1959 and 1960, and led the league in triples in the former.  neal hit .370 with a couple of home runs in the 1959 world series, but the dodgers traded him to the mets in the fall of 1961.  with the mets, neal was their inaugural second baseman, and he drove in the first run in franchise history on opening day, 1962.

bill north
north was a two-time stolen base champion for the oakland a's and a two-time world series champion (he was with the a's in 1973, but did not appear in the postseason due to injury, and played against the dodgers in the 1974 fall classic).  he began his career with the cubs, which is why he's wearing cub gear in the card photo.  i don't know why a photo of him from the early 1970's was used for his card, unless someone really wanted to make sure we acknowledged those sweet muttonchops.  anyway, north joined the dodgers in a may of 1978 trade (the trade that sent glenn burke to oakland) and took over in center field for rick monday.  he helped the dodgers win the nl west that year, but was 0 for 8 in the nlcs and 1 for 8 in the world series against the yankees, and he chose to leave la via free agency for the 1979 season.

lee rogers
rogers spent one year in the majors - 1938.  he was 1-1 in 14 games for the red sox, and then, following an august trade with the dodgers, he went 0-2 in 12 games for brooklyn.

dick smith
smith was originally signed by the dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1957, but he made his big league debut with the mets in 1963.  he returned to the dodgers for the 1965 season, and he was 0 for 6 with a sacrifice in 10 games.  he did not appear in the 1965 world series, although he was traded to the twins (the 1965 american league champions) prior to the 1967 season, after spending all of 1966 in the minors.

ben wade
similar to dick smith, wade signed his first professional contract in 1940 with the dodgers, however he made his big league debut as a cub in 1948.  the dodgers re-acquired the hurler prior to the 1950 season, and he marked his return to the majors two years later - this time with brooklyn.  he was 19-15 in the 2-plus seasons that he spent with the dodgers, and got to pitch in the 1953 world series for them as well.  after his playing days were over, wade became a scout for the dodgers, and he eventually served as their scouting director from the late 1970's into the '90's.  no word on whether or not he bought into sabermetrics, though.

30 January 2011

the dodgers' journey

more dodgers in the mail thanks to jason at the writer's journey. all i had to do was send him some reds, including a couple of chris sabo cards, and wait for the dodgers to come rolling in.  here's a sampling:

1986 fleer stickers box bottom dodgers logo
i don't understand why the dodgers were featured.  they were nl west champs in 1985, but lost to the cardinals in the nlcs (first base was open tommy!) and the royals beat the cards in the series (the blue jays were the other postseason team).  maybe it's part of that royals/dodgers confusion that night owl has been writing about.  anyway, there is a checklist on the back which lists the 4 cards found on the bottom of the boxes.  in addition to the dodger logo, there is this card

1986 fleer stickers box bottom steve garvey
garvey was card number 1 in fleer's first star sticker set (1991) which was cool.  and, it's cool that he was included in the box bottom set.  but i still wonder why - he was clearly past his prime in 1985, although he made the all star team, and the pads were nl champs in 1984, not '85.  there were bigger stars to be had for sure.  donruss was putting dwight gooden on the bottom of their boxes in 1985.  anyway, i'm glad to have another garvey card to collect.

here's a true sticker, the fernando valenzuela 1988 topps sticker
along with a 1986 donruss highlights fernando
and a 1987 donruss all stars valenzuela
the card is 3x5.  both the 1986 highlight and the 1987 all star card deal with fernando's incredible appearance in the 1986 all star game when he struck out 5 american league all stars in a row - don mattingly, cal ripken, jesse barfield, lou whitaker, and teddy higuera.  what was the pitcher doing being allowed to bat in the all star game, you might ask.  well, that was back when the starters went 3 innings and so did their first replacements, although neither dwight gooden nor fernando came to bat thanks to the national league's offensive ineptitude for the first 6 innings of the game.

jason also sent some auto'd cards - a 1990 bowman jose offerman
this is way cool since i don't think e-fferman will ever return to the states in an mlb role.  i think there are  some dealers at the local card show that have some auto'd cards from his twinkie days, but i never thought to buy any.  so, this card is much appreciated.

as is this 1990 fleer lenny harris
and this 1990 topps lenny harris
lenny is back with the dodgers in a minor league hitting role and hopefully recovered from some health issues a year ago.  these are my first harris autos.

1973 topps dick dietz
dietz is one of those guys who was acquired in a trade with the giants.  it's a small club.  i think of dietz as a giant all the way, even though he was obviously a dodger.  i think that's because the first card of his i owned was his 1972 topps in action card.  plus, he was the guy who thought he had broken don drysdale's scoreless inning streak when he was hbp with the bases loaded.  the umpire ruled that dietz didn't try to get out of the way, so he wasn't awarded first.  ha ha - stupid giant.

we'll end with a guy i don't feature enough - shawn green on a 2004 bowman heritage card
green recently addressed some dodger rookies about the right way to play and be a big leaguer at their winter workouts.  i hope he told them not to be like him and instead sign through the mail.

thanks jason!