sunday morning target dodgers - uncle robbie pays a visit

it must be sunday because here's another 15 cards from a sheet in the 1990 target dodgers 100th anniverary giveaway set. let's get right to it.

doyle alexander

alexander was part of the dodgers' hugely successful 1968 draft class.  he was taken in the 9th round and was pitching in the major leagues three years later.  after going 6-6 with four complete games for the 1971 dodgers, alexander was traded to the orioles in the frank robinson deal.  he may be best remembered for being traded by the braves to the tigers in 1987 for john smoltz.

lloyd brown

brown began his career with the robins in 1925, but found better success with the senators later on. in his lone year with brooklyn, brown was 0-3 in 17 appearances (five starts). from 1928-1932, brown was 58-49 for the senators, and he also pitched for the browns, red sox, indians, and phillies during his big league career.

hal gregg

gregg pitched for the dodgers from 1943-1947.  he won 18 games for the club in 1945 after losing 16 the previous season.  overall, gregg was 37-41 as a dodger during the regular season, and 0-1 in postseason play (he pitched in three games during the 1947 world series) before he was traded to the pirates in the trade that  also sent dixie walker to pittsburgh.

roy henshaw

the dodgers traded for henshaw in 1937 after he had gone 21-11 with a 3.68 era for the cubs over the previous three seasons. with the dodgers, however, henshaw was just 5-12 with a 5.07 era in 42 appearances.  as a result, he was dealt to the cardinals after the season ended in the deal that brought leo durocher to brooklyn.

george kelly

'high pockets' kelly belongs to that list of hall of famers (greg maddux and rickey henderson are recent examples) who are not typically remembered for their time with the club, but ended their career playing for the dodger organization.  for kelly, that was 1932, and he joined the dodgers after spending the 1931 season in the minors.  kelly hit .243 in 64 games for brooklyn, and netted his 1000th career rbi while doing so.  he was elected to the hall of fame in 1973 by the veteran's committee, although he is often cited as the least worthy hall of famer.

ken lehman

lehman was a september call-up in 1952, and struck out the first batter he ever faced in the big leagues (sam jethroe).  he was 1-2 in his four appearances that month, and impressed folks enough that he was added to the dodgers' postseason roster.  he appeared in one world series game against the yankees, and pitched two scoreless innings.  lehman returned to the majors in 1956, pitching in 25 games for brooklyn, but he appeared in just 3 games for them in 1957 before the orioles purchased his contract.

eddie miksis

speaking of the orioles, i think of miksis as one because his 1958 topps card (which featured him as an oriole) was one of the first '58 cards i ever owned.  anyway, miksis started his big league career as a dodger in 1944 when he was just 17.  he hit .220 in 26 games that year, and then returned to the majors in 1946 after a stint in the navy, but hit only .146 in 23 contests.  miksis improved in 1947, hitting .267 and appearing in the world series. he remained with the dodgers into the 1951 season until he was traded to the cubs in the andy pafko deal.

earl naylor

naylor, who had spent a couple of years with the phillies earlier in the decade, appeared in three games for the 1946 dodgers, although he did not play in the field. he pinch-ran and scored a run in his dodger debut, and then was used as a pinch-hitter twice - he grounded into a double play and struck out.

wilbert robinson

uncle robbie, who had a 17-year playing career as a catcher, was the manager of the brooklyn baseball club from 1914 through 1931.  as the team had no official nickname, it took on the name 'robins' during robinson's tenure in reference to the manager.  his robins teams won more than 90 games three times, twice claiming the national league pennant.  for his career, robinson won 1399 games as a manager (1375 with brooklyn and 24 with baltimore when he was a player-manager in 1902) and lost 1398 (1341 with brooklyn and 57 with baltimore).  he was elected to the hall of fame in 1945, and is one of seven brooklyn/los angeles managers so honored for their managerial careers.

dave sax

the older brother of steve sax, dave sax made his big league debut in september of 1982 - the year after his younger brother first played in the majors.  he appeared in just two games that year, going 0 for 2 and seeing action in left field in his second game (most likely due to the fact that it was the 16th inning and tommy lasorda was running out of players - luckily steve garvey hit a walk-off homer to win the game in the bottom of the 16th).  sax was back with the dodgers in 1983 and finally saw some action behind the plate at his regular position, and at the same time that his brother was playing second base.  unfortunately, he was 0 for 8 with an rbi during his stints with the dodgers that year, and didn't make it back to the majors until 1985 with the red sox.

joe simpson

simpson was a september call-up for the dodgers in each season from 1975 through 1978, although he did get a couple of midseason call-ups during that time as well.  he hit .188 in 71 games for the dodgers during that time, and had his contract purchased by the mariners prior to the 1979 season.  simpson is best known these days as one of the braves' broadcasters, as he's been performing that function since 1992.

milt stock

stock joined the robins in 1924 following 11 years with the giants, phillies, and cardinals.  he hit .242 as the team's third baseman his first year, and then moved to second base in 1925 and hit .328.  at one point that year, stock had four consecutive 4-hit games, which is considered to be a record.  stock finished his playing career with just three games in 1926 for the robins, and he went on to manage in the minors and eventually coach in the majors, including for the dodgers in 1949 and 1950.

bill sudakis

sudakis was a third baseman who was drafted by the dodgers in 1964 and made his debut for them in 1968. he was their primary third baseman in 1969, and his 14 home runs were second best on the team that year. in 1970, billy grabarkewitz got most of the playing time at third, and so the dodgers had sudakis play other positions, including catcher - a position that sudakis had not previously played at the big league level, and had only played for a handful of games in the arizona instructional league. it was also curious because he had bad knees.  the mets picked sudakis off of waivers prior to the 1973 season, and he went on to spend time with them, the yankees, the rangers, the indians, and the angels before retiring after the 1975 season.

elmer valo

the owner of one of my favorite non-dodger baseball cards was himself a dodger in 1957 and 1958.  acquired in a trade with the phillies, valo played in 81 games for the brooklyn dodgers in their final season.  in fact, he was the second to last dodger batter at ebbetts field, grounding out before gil hodges struck out to end the 8th inning on september 24, 1957.  the following year, valo played in 65 games for the los angeles dodgers in their first season. it was the second time that valo had played for a team that relocated while he was on the roster (he had previously played for the philadelphia/kansas city a's), and wouldn't be the last (he would later play for the washington senators/minnesota twins).

sandy vance

another member of the dodgers' 1968 draft class, vance pitched in 30 games as a major leaguer - all with the dodgers in 1970 and 1971. he was 7-7 as a rookie in 1970 with two complete games and a 3.13 era.  in 1971, however, he was just 2-1 with a 6.92 era. vance continued to pitch in the minors through 1973, but was unable to return to the majors.

there are only two sheets left in the 1990 target set to show, so we are definitely close to the end.  i'll have one of those sheets next week.  stay tuned….

so much galasso, so little time

tony from off hiatus sent me some cards a while back, and i'm just getting to posting them today.  in an earlier post, i showed off some good stuff like a 1954 bowman billy loes card and some oddballs, but there were enough 1977-84 renata-gallaso cards in the package to make up a post of their own.  keep in mind that all these cards cost me were some brewers cards. 

roy campanella

campy has a couple of different cards in the set - this one celebrates his third mvp award while the other  is more of his base card

max carey

and tony cuccinello

carey and cuccinello were part of the first all-star game which was played in 1933.  carey, the dodger manager, was a coach on the national league squad helmed by john mcgraw, and cuccinello was a reserve.  cuccinello did make it into the game, however he struck out as a pinch-hitter for carl hubbell against lefty grove to end the game.

here are some more recognizable dodgers from the set:

don drysdale

gil hodges

sandy koufax

jackie robinson

dazzy vance

and, not a galasso, but instead - a nolasco

a 2014 topps toys r us purple parallel, to be exact.

thanks tony!

a 52 card pick up, 13 at a time

not too long ago, i showed off some new to me steve garvey cards.  one of those came from a deck of playing cards - the dodgers' version of the 2005 baseball hero deck.  i later went out and bought the whole deck of cards, and figured they were worth showing off.

i noted in the title that it was a 52 card pick up, but actually, there are 55 cards in the set.  three 'jokers' are included - long time managers walter alston and tommy lasorda, along with even longer-time broadcaster, vin scully.

each suit is broken up into specific teams/eras of the franchise, with the clubs focusing on the brooklyn years - and primarily the 'boys of summer' years of the late 1940's and early 1950's.  let's see what we have in this suit.  aces are low in this deck, as the card values mirror the fielding positions...

don newcombe as the ace of the staff, plus roy campanella behind the plate. gil hodges, jackie robinson, billy cox, and pee wee reese make up the infield, with hall of famers zack wheat and duke snider sharing the outfield with rightfielder carl furillo.  the high cards have dazzy vance, clem labine, and carl erskine in the bullpen, plus jake daubert coming off the bench.

most of these cards represent the latter years of the brooklyn franchise, with the outliers being zack wheat, dazzy vance, and jake daubert. it's nice to see them getting some attention though.

this is daubert's first appearance on the blog, so i'll go ahead and note that he was the first franchise player to win the mvp award (1913), and the second to win a batting title (also 1913) after dan brouthers was the first in 1893.  daubert followed up that season by winning the batting title again in 1914.

a black armband for charles ebbetts

dodgers' owner charles ebbets passed away in april of 1925.  ebbets, who also managed the team for part of one season, was featured in yesterday's sunday morning target dodger post so i figured today would be a good day to post about the memorial that the team wore in his honor.  believe it or not, both the robins (as the brooklyn club was then known) and the new york giants wore black armbands during the 1925 season in ebbets' memory according to the hall of fame's website.  here's a 2002 upper deck sp legendary cuts card of dazzy vance showing the robins' version of the memorial 

i've been unable to find even a photo of a giants' player wearing an armband in 1925, let alone a card.  it is possible that the giants wore the armband for just a short time or even a single game.  anyway, i'm glad to have the vance card in the collection.  the patch on the front of the jersey, by the way, was worn by all national league teams in 1925.  it recognizes the 50th year of national league baseball.

ebbets worked his way up the brooklyn organization from a bookkeeper to director of baseball operations, naming himself manager for the latter part of the 1898 season.  he bought out ned hanlon (the former owner of the baltimore orioles) in 1902 and began his ownership tenure; a tenure that included financing and building ebbets field, the home of the dodgers from 1913 through 1957.  ebbets was 65 years old when he died.

the legend of dazzy vance

was dazzy vance one of baseball's greatest pitchers, as this 1982 tcma card suggests?

i'm not sure.  i am sure, however, that dazzy vance was a dodger double dipper.

[this is the seventyfourth 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. and maury wills.]

vance was 31 with an 0-4 lifetime record when he debuted for the brooklyn robins in 1922.  he won 18 games that season, and led the league in strikeouts.  he would continue to lead the league in strikeouts in each of the following six seasons, becoming the first (and still the only) national leaguer to claim seven straight strikeout titles.  in 1923, vance again won 18 games, and then in 1924, he achieved the pitcher's triple crown - a league leading 24 wins, 2.16 era, and 262 strikeouts.  he also won the league mvp award that year.  vance led the league with 22 wins in 1925, and he led the league in era in 1928 and 1930, but never won another triple crown.

following the 1931 season, wilbert robinson retired and the robins became the dodgers.  at 41, vance pitched in 27 games for the dodgers in 1932, but was just 12-10 with a 4.20 era.  after the season, he was traded to the cardinals.  vance helped the cardinals win the pennant in 1933, and he made an appearance in game 4 of the world series.  the cardinals lost that game, but beat the tigers to give vance a world series title in his only trip to the postseason.  the following year, vance began the season with the reds, but returned to the cardinals in june of 1935.  they released him in the spring of 1936, and he was quickly signed by the dodgers.

in his second stint with brooklyn, vance was used exclusively as a reliever, posting a record of 3-2 in 20 appearances with an era of 4.41.  he retired following that 1936 season.  19 years later, in 1955, vance was elected to the baseball hall of fame as noted on his 2003 upper deck sp legendary cuts card

remember, only two of vance's 12 seasons with brooklyn occurred when the team was known as the dodgers, so it is fitting that the robins are his team noted on the front of the card.  one of vance's teammates for about half of his time with the robins was fellow hall of famer burleigh grimes, who was also featured in the 2003 upper deck sp legendary cuts set.

grimes never pitched for the franchise when they were known as the dodgers, so i was disappointed to not see 'robins' on the front of the card.  what is even worse is that the back of grimes' card has nothing but robins - both at the top and then again with each season that he pitched for the franchise

the back of vance's card also has robins up top, which is consistent with the front of his card, but the yearly stat rows should also say robins from 1922 through 1931 instead of dodgers

overall, vance won 190 games for the franchise, more than any other brooklyn pitcher and behind only don sutton and don drysdale in franchise history.  his 1918 strikeouts for the team are also the most of any brooklyn pitcher, and he trails only the two dons and sandy koufax on the franchise leader board in that category.  so, even if vance is not one of baseball's greatest pitchers, he most certainly is one of brooklyn's greatest.

sunday morning target dodgers

time for another sheet of cards from the set that keeps on giving - the 1990 target dodger stadium giveaway set.  as always, thanks to baseball reference for providing some information about some of these heretofore unknown to me players.

don demeter

demeter's first major league hit came in his second big league at bat, and it was a home run off of don liddle of the cardinals in september of 1956.  demeter only appeared in three games that season for the dodgers, but he returned to the majors in 1958 and stayed with the dodgers until he was traded to the phillies early in the 1961 season.  in 1959, he hit three home runs in a game agains the giants - one was an inside the park job, and the third one was a walk-off.

jack dunn

dunn was a pitcher who also played in the field from time to time.  he entered the big leagues with the brooklyn bridegrooms in 1897 and remained with the franchise until he went to the phillies during the 1900 season.  he hit .238 in his 3-plus seasons for brooklyn, but also won 56 games, including 23 in 1899.  dunn later replaced hughie jennings as the manager of the baltimore orioles in the eastern league, and actually became the team's owner a couple of years later.  they moved to the international league, and dunn led them to seven straight titles.

lee grissom

grissom pitched six seasons for the reds, culminating in a world series appearance against the yankees in 1939.  the reds lost, but grissom must have made an impression on new york as he was traded to the yankees in january of 1940.  he appeared in five games for the defending world champions, pitching 4.2 scoreless innings, before he was claimed on waivers by the dodgers.  with brooklyn the rest of the way, grissom went 2-5 despite a 2.81 era, and he threw a 2-hit shutout against the phillies on the final day of the season.  in 1941, he pitched in four games for the dodgers and had an era of 2.38, but was traded to the phillies.

danny heep

heep was the guy the mets received when they traded mike scott to the astros, straight up, in 1982.  a lopsided trade in hindsight, but heep did help the mets win the world series in 1986, so it wasn't all bad.  following his triumph in 1986, heep signed with the dodgers and played for them in 1987 and 1988.  he was used mostly as a pinch hitter but also made starts at first base and in the outfield.  he even got to pitch in a game during the 1988 season - he threw two innings against the astros in july, giving up a 2-run homer to ken caminiti in the process.  he had some pinch hit appearances in the 1988 postseason for the eventual world champion dodgers, and served as the dh in game 4 of the world series.

burt hooton

happy hooton was the mvp of the 1981 nlcs as he won both of his starts against the expos without allowing an earned run.  he joined the dodgers in 1975 and remained a fixture in the rotation through the 1983 season.  in 1984, he spent most of his time pitching out of the bullpen and left the dodgers for the rangers prior to the 1985 campaign.  as a dodger, however, hooton won 112 games with a 3.14 era, and he nearly wrecked this fan's shoulder thanks to my trying to throw a knuckle-curve like hooton.

johnny hopp

target gave hopp an extra 'n' in his name there.  hopp was involved in the 1949 trade with the pirates that sent marv rackley to pittsburgh, but was voided a few days later.  as a result, rackley became a double dipper, and hopp only appeared in 8 games for the dodgers.  in those games, he was held hitless in 14 at bats.  maybe burt shotton had the trade voided due to hopps' performance.

ken landreaux

landreaux is best remembered by me and many other dodger fans for catching the final out of the 1981 world series.  he was also the main guy that the twins received from the angels in the rod carew trade prior to the 1979 season.  two years later, the dodgers acquired landreaux for mickey hatcher and a couple of minor leaguers.  landreaux spent seven seasons with the dodgers, most of which were spent as the team's regular center fielder.

ken mcmullen

i've told mcmullen's story before so i won't rehash it here.  suffice it to say that the pride of oxnard has had a big impact on dodger team collectors, thanks to his rookie card companion.

judge mccreedie

mccreedie (baseball reference spells his name 'mccredie') was an outfielder for the 1903 brooklyn superbas.  he hit .324 in 56 games for brooklyn before he was traded to baltimore in july.  somewhat curiously, he never made it back to the major leagues.  in 1904, he found himself in portland playing in their pacific coast league team that wound eventually be known as the beavers.  in 1905, judge took the reins and became their player/manager, a role he held through the 1913 season after which he gave up playing and was just their manager (save for a couple of appearances in 1916 and 1917).  in all, he spent 20 years managing in the pacific coast league, most of which was spent in portland.  he is a member of the pcl hall of fame.

simmy murch

murch played in 6 games for the 1908 brooklyn superbas following a couple of seasons with the cardinals.  he hit .182 with a double while playing first base in his stint with brooklyn, his last in the major leagues.

boots poffenberger

poffenberger obviously played for the tigers - he did so in 1937 and 1938 - but the dodgers claimed him on waivers at the start of the 1939 season.  for brooklyn, boots (real name cletus) pitched in three games, including one as a starter.  he had no record and an era of 5.40 in those appearances.  and yes, this boots was made for walking - he walked two of the four batters he faced in his dodger debut.

craig shipley

shipley became the second australian (and first in over 100 years) to debut in the major leagues when he appeared in a game for the 1986 dodgers.  he hit .111 in 12 games for the blue, and returned in 1987 to hit .257 in 26 contests.  the dodgers traded him to the mets, and he later found success playing for the padres and working in the front office for the red sox.

dwain sloat

aka lefty sloat.  he pitched in four games for the 1948 dodgers, including one as the starter.  he was 0-1 with an era over 6.  he was claimed by the cubs in the rule v draft prior to the 1949 season and did not return to brooklyn.

alex trevino

in a rare trade with the giants, the dodgers acquired trevino in exchange for candy maldonado prior to the 1986 season.  trevino spent the '86 and '87 seasons with the dodgers, playing catcher behind mike scioscia.  he received some significant playing time for a backup, appearing in 161 games over his two seasons with the club.

dazzy vance

hall of famer dazzy vance had two stints with the brooklyn franchise, so you know what that means…

…a double dipper post coming up later!

and you shall know them by their yellow backs

i caught myself by surprise a couple of years ago when i realized that i had a complete dodger team set of 1970 o-pee-chee cards.  i am not really sure how that happened, but it did.  one day i was cross checking lists with my early 70's dodger binder and there they were - all the gray bordered dodger goodness that o-pee-chee bothered to issue.  helped, of course, by the fact that there are six fewer dodgers in the o-pee-chee set than the topps - no canadian versions of jim lefebvre, maury wills, tom haller, don sutton, jim brewer or al mcbean.

i didn't have the same luck with 1971 o-pee-chee at the time, but i did pick up a large lot of dodger cards from the set a year or so ago, plus a few of the high numbers here and there since then to help me get closer to knocking another team set off the want list.

i'll show the lower numbered cards first...

claude osteen

everytime i see a '71 osteen, i wonder what the heck is going on in the background.  here's the back of osteen's card - it's yellow, but of course you already knew that because you followed along as i posted all about o-pee-chee over at oh my o-pee-chee, right?

it's been well over a year since things wrapped up over there, and i kind of miss posting and learning about the variations.  i'm not starting another blog though, especially since timeless teams is floundering.

here's sandy vance

the 'lesser' sandy, if you will

i really like the 'sunburst' behind the photos on the back.  it's different from the rectangular insert photo on the backs of the 1971 topps cards, and in my opinion, better.

von joshua

it's worth noting that on these cards, the french text comes first.

joshua was a dodger double dipper, by the way.

billy grabarkewitz

good to see the holman stadium seats in the background there.  jerry stephenson is hanging out, too, but i don't know who the seated dodger is.

it's too bad that grabarkewitz and mark grudzielanek played three decades apart.  harry caray wouldn't have known what to do if they were involved in a double play turn.

manny mota

this is a photo from shea stadium, like so many other cards in the 1971 set

the back of mota's card notes that he is 'a good hitter' who topped .300 in 4 of the previous 5 years.  he hit over .300 in 1971, too, as well as 1972 and 1973.

bill singer

if only the photographer had snapped the picture a moment earlier, i wouldn't be wondering who is walking behind singer.

no surprise that the back of the card mentions singer's no hitter thrown in july of 1970.  a joule sans coups, as it were.

duke sims

yankee stadium on a dodger card?  yes, thanks to the power of the o-pee-chee team variation!

nice to read that he was a yankee killer, too.

al downing

another team (and text) variation, which features a first year brewers uniform. 

downing would go on to have the best season of his career in 1971.

bob valentine/mike strahler

both guys had some big league stats prior to 1971, but topps still went with the minor league numbers on the back.

valentine and strahler (and grabarkewitz and singer as well) would be traded to the angels after the 1972 season with frank robinson in exchange for andy messersmith and ken mcmullen.

alan foster

i'm somewhat on the fence about including this card with my team set for obvious reasons.  foster was the guy traded to the indians for duke sims.

andy kosco was the player traded to the brewers for al downing, but his card came in a later series, so topps already had him as a brewer with a magic hat thus eliminating the need for an o-pee-chee variation.

bill russell

still an outfielder on the card, russell's conversion to the infield began in 1971

he actually played more second base than any other position in '71, but was moved to shortstop in 1972.

bill sudakis

it's too bad sudakis had bad knees.  on the other hand, had he been healthy, would steve garvey and later ron cey have been given a shot at third?  or joe ferguson behind the plate?  the mind boggles.

sudakis' co-mvp in the 1968 texas league was jim spencer who was the first player ever drafted by the california angels.

joe moeller

moeller was in his second stint with the dodgers when this card was issued

he was one of the few players on the team that had been a teammate of duke snider's.

jeff torborg

with danny ozark hitting fungoes behind him

singer's no hitter gets mentioned again, as does sandy koufax, as torborg was the catcher for sandy's perfect game as well as singer's masterpiece.    he later caught nolan ryan's first no hitter.

steve garvey

canadian rookie goodness!

and what's with all the black batting gloves?

don sutton

still pre-perm

and it still bothers me that he was released by the dodgers in august of 1988.

i'll show the rest of my 1971 o-pee-chee dodgers in a post later on today...