postcards from paradise

a funny thing happened on the way to this post.  i misplaced all of my dodger postcards.  i had scanned them, some of which are shown below, but i had planned to further investigate and try to determine the exact years that they were issued using the information on their backs and some of the very scattered data available on the interwebs.  oh well, i'll have to tackle that task another time.  in the meantime, it's summer, and i assume some traveling folks are still sending postcards to the poor saps that are stuck back at home working.  in that vein, here are some dodger postcards that i will classify as 1962 (circa) to 1971 (circa) dodger team issue postcards.

big d!

i chose 1962 because that is the season that dodger stadium opened, and beautiful chavez ravine is the backdrop for many of these.  some, including the don drysdale postcard above, the ron perranoski postcard below,

this larry sherry postcard

and this maury wills postcard

all feature the three sisters palm trees closed up as they were first installed.

these next two are certainly from 1967, as that was the only season that ron hunt

and gene michael suited up for the dodgers.

plus, the palm trees have opened up!

i figure that these wes parker

and jeff torborg postcards

are from 1966, but that's only based on the relative youthfulness of torborg and this website.

sadly, the postcards moved out of dodger stadium later in the decade to what i assume to be vero beach.  these al ferrara

and bill singer postcards

are assumed to be from 1968 based on the fact that the singer photo is essentially the same as this mudcat grant photo

and this zoilo versalles postcard (i think) has the same info on the back

i wish i could find these things to confirm.  anyway, grant and versalles were only dodgers in 1968, so it's pretty easy to figure those, just like the hunt and michael.  same goes for these next couple - maybe - as long as the dodgers didn't wait to use these photos several years after they were taken.

billy grabarkewitz

and bill sudakis

are both wearing the mlb 100th anniversary patch from 1969, so i figure these to be 1970 postcards, although they could also be 1969 items if the dodgers were really on the ball and published these right after the photos were taken during spring training.

i'm not quite as sure of this tom haller postcard

since he was a dodger from 1968 through 1971, but this dick/richie allen postcard is certainly from 1971 (his lone year with the team)

and it's back in paradise - dodger stadium.

i may get back there yet this season, and if i do, maybe i'll drop a postcard in the mail...

i ran into the fuzz at the card shop

a new (yes, new!) card shop opened up in the twin cities about a year ago.  one of the owners is also one of the 'vintage bargain bin guys' from the local shows.  he's the one that sold me my 1955 topps sandy koufax card, in fact.

it took me a while to get over there, but i finally did a few weeks ago.  the store is packed with not just cards, but various pieces of memorabilia and pretty much every kind of sports collectible you could think of.  amid the bobbleheads and pennants, there was a shelf that had a bunch of smaller complete sets on it. boxed sets, like the fleer sets of the 80's and 90's, along with some mail-in sets and some stadium giveaway sets.  it was there that i found a 1993 dodgers police set for $3.

started in 1980, the police sets were, like the later mother's and keebler sets, a good way to get some of the deeper roster players on a card.  and, there were coaches!  i know i have belabored that point recently, but i'm not sorry about it.  here's the coaches card from the 1993 dodger police set

that's manny mota, joey amalfitano, ron roenicke, ben hines, tommy lasorda, ron perranoski, joe ferguson, and mark cresse.

lasorda also got a card of his own

with the one of the outfield pavilions in the background.

ramon martinez was still king of the hill at dodger stadium in 1993

and his little brother pedro was there with him

boyhood friends eric davis

and darryl strawberry

roamed the outfield at chavez ravine, with disappointing results.

the 1993 set was the one that featured lance parrish, despite the fact that he never did suit up in a big league game for the dodgers.  i've shown the front of parrish's card before - i bought it as a single to document his dodgerdom - so here's the back

one reason that parrish never got the call from the dodger brass was the play of a rookie catcher named mike piazza

piazza went on to win the rookie of the year award and hold the dodgers' catching job for about 5 years before he was traded to the marlins.

i'm not sure which card in the set is more desirable - the pedro or the piazza - but i am sure that jody reed's card

is probably not in the running.

diamond dodgers

here's the second suit from the 2005 baseball hero deck set i picked up recently.  the diamonds represent (primarily) the early los angeles dodger teams that reached the world series four times in their first nine years on the west coast. there are, however, a couple of obvious exceptions. have a look

a battery of sandy koufax and john roseboro, plus an infield of wes parker, jim gilliam (in a brooklyn dodger cap), bill buckner (?), and maury wills.  the outfield of tommy and willie davis, along with ron fairly won a championships in 1963 and 1965, although not in that complete configuration. fairly was the dodgers' first baseman in 1963, and he moved to the outfield in '65 which was the year that tommy davis was injured early on and didn't make it back until the following season.  the bullpen consists of ron perranoski, johnny podres, and don drysdale, with 1960 rookie of the year frank howard on the bench.

so, the big mystery here is bill buckner's inclusion.  it's great to see him in the set, but putting him with this group (and at the third base slot) is a bit puzzling.  however, the dodgers didn't really have a consistent third baseman in this era other than jim gilliam who was already featured at his other primary position. maybe jim lefebvre would have been an option.

next up, the 1970's!

more coaches man, coaches

i've extolled the virtues of coaches cards in mother's cookies and the dodger police sets before, and now with the bounty of mother's dodger sets that mr. haverkamp procured for me, i can show more of these great cards.  they aren't anything special in way of design, but they document the guys who don't show up on cardboard very much at all.  let's have a look at tommy lasorda's coaching staff, shall we?  be sure to enjoy the dodger stadium backdrop while we do so.

1988

that's joe ferguson, ron perranoski, bill russell, mark cresse, joe amalfitano, manny mota, and ben hines.

1988 was ferguson's first year on the coaching staff, although he had been serving as their 'eye in the sky' for the previous few seasons.  starting in '88, he was tommy's bench coach.

perranoski took over the pitching coach duties under lasorda in 1981, replacing the retiring red adams who had been the pitching coach for the dodgers since 1969.

russell joined the staff in 1987 following his retirement as a player.  he replaced the retiring monty basgall as the team's infield coach which seemed appropriate as basgall was instrumental in russell's conversion from the outfield to shortstop.

cresse had been the bullpen coach under walt alston for a couple of seasons before lasorda took over the managerial reins, and continued in that role on tommy's staff.

amalfitano became lasorda's third base coach in 1983, taking over (i believe) for danny ozark.

mota began coaching first base for the dodgers in 1980, and aside from a couple of late season appearances as a player, remained on the coaching staff in a variety of roles for some 35 years.

hines had been on lasorda's staff in 1985 and 1986, but took a break in '87.  he was back in '88 as the dodgers' batting coach, taking the role back from mota who had filled in during the previous season.

1990

yes, i skipped a year, although there was no change in the staff.  however, ferguson had taken over the first base coaching duties from mota who became a sort of roving instructor, and russell moved into the bench coach spot.

1991

still no change in personnel, and the roles remained the same as well.

1992

same staff except for the guy on the far right.  that's current brewers manager ron roenicke.  bill russell was sent down to manage triple-a albuquerque, and so roenicke joined the staff in his place, taking over as lasorda's bench coach.

1993

tommy employed the same staff as the previous season.

1994

some new (and old) blood was added to the staff for 1994.  you will notice that reggie smith, the right fielder for the team of my youth, in the back row, and bill russell, the shortstop for the team of my youth is back in the front row.  gone are ron roenicke and ben hines. roenicke began his managerial career in the lower levels of the dodger organization, and russell returned from the high minors to take over roenicke's previous role as tommy's bench coach.  smith took over for hines as the batting coach and also replaced ferguson as the first base coach.  ferguson went back to his role as the 'eye in the sky' positioning defenders from the press box.

1995

here we are in 1995, and ron perranoski is no longer on the dodger staff.  he moved up north to join the giants' organization for some strange reason.  dave wallace took over for perranoski as lasorda's pitching coach and appears in the top row on the coaches card. this was the staff for lasorda's final full season as the dodger manager.

the mother's lode

many moons ago, mr. haverkamp commented on a blog post somewhere that he had access to a purveyor of mother's cookies cards.  issued in team sets as stadium giveaways in the 1980's and 1990's, these card sets are good (and sometimes the only) ways to get cards of lesser known players in your favorite team's uniform, provided that your favorite team was one of the subjects of these sets.  for the dodgers, they weren't included until 1987, but had sets produced from then through 1998.  keebler picked up the production in 1999, and issued sets through 2003 as far as i can tell.  

anyway, i inquired with mr. haverkamp, and knowing that i already had the 1989 set, commissioned him to pick up as many of the other sets as he could.  he delivered. 

those are ten of the twelve sets issued from 1987 through 1998 - the aforementioned 1989 set and the 1996 set were the only ones missing.

the 1987 set came with a nice surprise - a card featuring dodger stadium.

that makes sense - it was the stadium's 25th anniversary in 1987.

the sets were consistent in their inclusion of a manager card, even as topps seemingly vacillated about their inclusion in the '90's.  here's tommy lasorda's card from the 1987 set.

the cards also feature photos almost exclusively taken inside chavez ravine, which is nice.

the sets also gave some love to the coaches, which is fantastic.  here we have tommy's 1987 staff

mark cresse, ron perranoski, don macmahon (who died during the season), the recently retired bill russell, joey amalfitano, and manny mota.

here's tommy in 1988

on the way to winning his fourth pennant and second championship, 

in 1990

with an effective slim-fast diet,

in 1991

with the three sisters in the background,

in 1992

with what is for these sets a rare non-dodger stadium photo,

in 1993

wearing the tim crews memorial patch,

in 1994

before the strike kept the first place dodgers from reaching the postseason for the first time since 1988,

and in 1995

in his final full season as the dodger skipper which resulted in a postseason bid as the nl west champs.

as i mentioned above, mr. haverkamp couldn't get his hands on a '96 set which features tommy for the last time.  in 1997, bill russell took over the manager's card.

and the sets lost their full bleed photo design.  that's ok, i'm just happy that the shortstop of the team of my youth actually had a manager card made by someone.

i'll show a bunch more of these mother's cards throughout the day.  they're great.

thanks for the help with these sets, mr. haverkamp - you (along with arpsmith and matt r) are giving giant fans a good name in these parts!

sunday morning target dodgers - featuring giants, astros, and yankees, too

let's get right to this week's 15 cards from a sheet in the 1990 target dodgers giveaway set.

bob bailor

bailor was part of the return the dodgers received when they sent sid fernandez to the mets prior to the 1984 season.  he spent two years in los angeles, hitting .261 in 139 games as a utility player.  his final appearance in the big leagues came in the 1985 nlcs against the cardinals.

billy bean

bean (who is a different billy bean(e) than the a's general manager) played in 51 games as a dodger in 1989. he hit only .197 and spent the next two seasons in albuquerque.  he was picked up by the angels, but didn't return to the majors until 1993 when he was with the padres.  he retired from baseball in 1995, and a few years after that acknowledged that he is gay.  bean was recently selected by commissioner bud selig to lead major league baseball's efforts towards inclusion, providing guidance and training to help combat prejudice, homophobia, and sexism in baseball.

al campanis

campanis appeared in 7 games for the 1943 brooklyn dodgers, getting 2 hits in 20 at bats.  the photo used for his card, however, comes from his time as the team's general manager, a position he held from 1969 into 1987 when he was essentially forced to resign following an appearance on 'nightline' in which he stated that african americans "may not have some of the necessities to be, let's say, a field manager" when asked why there were so few minority managers in the big leagues 40 years after jackie robinson broke the color barrier as a player.  as the dodgers' gm, campanis oversaw the teams that won four pennants and a world series, and even traded his own son to kansas city early in his tenure.

hank deberry

deberry was a catcher for the robins from 1922 through 1930, having been acquired from the new orleans pelicans in the same deal that brought dazzy vance to the robins.  he never appeared in more than 85 games in a season, but he became vance's personal catcher.  as such, he caught vance's no-hitter in 1925, and helped vance lead the league in strikeouts for seven straight seasons.  overall, deberry hit .267 in 608 games for the robins and later moved on to coaching, joining the new york giants in 1934 (hence the uniform he is wearing in the photo used on his card above).  he was a manager in the giants' organization in 1938, and then scouted for the giants until his passing in 1951.

alan foster

in his first 7 big league games (which included 5 starts and spanned the 1967 and 1968 seasons), foster was 1-2 for the dodgers despite an era of 1.95, a whip of 0.804, and a strikeout to walk ratio of 5.  over the next two seasons, foster was 13-22 in 57 games with a 4.30 era and a whip of 1.424, and his ratio was a mere 1.29.  he was traded to the indians in the duke sims deal prior to the 1971 season, and may be best remembered as the pitcher who served up the first home run to be hit out of dodger stadium (willie stargell accomplished the feat against foster in 1969).

merwin jacobson

jacobson was an outfielder who had a couple of short stints in the majors with the giants and the cubs in 1915 and 1916, respectively before resurfacing with the robins in 1926. he played in 110 games that season, hitting .247, but went hitless in 11 games (7 plate appearances) for brooklyn in 1927.  jacobson did his best work in between his major league seasons, playing mostly for baltimore of the international league from 1917 to 1925.  he hit over .300 every season between 1919 and 1925, including a .404 clip in 1920.  he is a member of the international league hall of fame.

bob lillis

lillis was signed by the brooklyn dodgers as a 21-year old in 1951, but he didn't make it to the big leagues until the age of 28 when he suited up for the 1958 los angeles dodgers.  as a shortstop, lillis saw  limited playing time, but hit .391 in the 20 games in which he did play that first year.  he continued to see a little bit of playing time in 1959 and 1960 (he did not appear in the 1959 world series), and after just 19 appearances in 1961, lillis was traded to the cardinals for daryl spencer.  after that season ended, he was drafted by the colt .45's in the expansion draft and finished his career in houston.  he retired as a player in 1967 and became an astro coach, a role he returned to in the early 1970's following a few years as a scout.  in the early 1980's lillis managed the club for a few seasons before joining roger craig's coaching staff in san francisco.

jim lyttle

lyttle had been released by the expos in july of 1976 after three-plus seasons in montreal that followed time with the yankees and white sox.  the dodgers were in need of an outfielder since reggie smith was injured in early august, and so they picked lyttle up to fill the void.  he wound up appearing in 23 games as a dodger over the remainder of the 1976 season, replacing both smith and later dusty baker in the outfield.  he hit .221 with no home runs and wound up finding great success in the japan league beginning in 1977.

mike marshall

there are only six pitchers who have every pitched in 90 games or more in a single season, and mike marshall (along with kent tekulve) has done it 3 times.  marshall, however, is the only pitcher to have pitched in over 100 games, having thrown in 106 contests during the 1974 season.  he won the national league cy young award that year, and helped the dodgers reach the world series for the first time since 1966 as well.  marshall broke his own record of 92 games, set the previous season when he was with the expos.  he is a doctor of kinesiology, and today provides training to pitchers in the hopes of reducing strain and injury through what are considered to be untraditional pitching motions.

joe mulvey

in 1895, mulvey appeared in 13 games for the brooklyn grooms, hitting .306 in the process.  that season marked the end of a 12-year big league career, spent mostly in philadelphia.

ron perranoski

perranoski was a dodger double dipper, appearing in a total of 457 games as a dodger.  his best season was 1963 when he was 16-3 with a 1.67 era and 21 "saves" while pitching exclusively in relief.  he finished fourth in the league mvp voting that year.

rick rhoden

rhoden was a member of the team of my youth, and was only 25 when the dodgers traded him to the pirates for jerry reuss.  rhoden had a record of 42-24 as a dodger, with a 3.40 era when he was traded following the 1978 world series.  he went on to pitch pretty well for the pirates and later the yankees, but never did make it back to the postseason.  besides being a decent starting pitcher, rhoden could hit - he had a career average of .238 with 9 home runs and 3 silver slugger awards.  he remains to this day the only pitcher to get a start as a designated hitter in a game.  oh, by the way, i am pretty sure that those are steve garvey's legs getting a cameo on the card.

vince sherlock

sherlock's big league career consisted of 9 games played for the 1935 brooklyn dodgers.  in those games, he was 12 for 26 with a walk and 6 rbi, meaning that he boasts a .462 lifetime batting average, and a career on base percentage of .481.  among players with at least 16 plate appearances in their career, sherlock ranks third in batting average behind cliff dapper (another former dodger), and troy mattes, a pitcher for the expos in 2001.

george shuba

shotgun shuba played for the brooklyn dodgers from 1948 through 1955, although he spent the entire 1951 season in the minors.  he may be best remembered for shaking jackie robinson's hand in 1946 when they were teammates at montreal and jackie hit a home run in his first game as a royal.  although he played in the minors for a couple more seasons, shuba's big league career ended with the dodgers' world series victory in 1955.  shuba passed away just three weeks ago at the age of 89.

kemp wicker

wicker was 1-2 with a "save" in 16 games pitched for the 1941 brooklyn dodgers.  he had previously been with the yankees where he was a part of the 1936 and 1937 world championship teams that defeated the new york giants in the world series. after the 1941 season, the dodgers traded wicker to the cardinals, but he did not make it out of their minor league system.

well, that's another sheet of cards accounted for.  more to come next week.