sunday morning target dodgers - an ox, a rabbit, and el toro

only 13 players from this particular sheet of cards featured in the 1990 target dodger anniversary giveaway set.  the other two played for the franchise in two separate stints, so they get their own double dipper posts later.  don't fret - there are a couple of hall of famers and some other interesting tidbits with these guys.

jimmy archer

there was a jimmy archer who played for the 1918 brooklyn robins.  he was an irish bloke who spent most of his career with the tigers and cubs (he played in the 1907 world series with the former and the 1914 fall classic with the latter) before splitting the '18 season between the pirates, robins, and reds.  in his 9 games with brooklyn, archer hit .273.  the photo used on the card, however, is of jim archer - a guy who pitched for the kansas city a's in the early 1960's.  oops.

chuck churn

that is, in fact, chuck churn on his card, standing inside the los angeles memorial coliseum which served as home to the 1959 los angeles dodgers.  1959 was the only year that churn pitched for the club, going 3-2 in 14 relief appearances.  he also pitched in one game of the 1959 world series, which turned out to be his last major league appearance.

ox eckhardt

eckhardt was a minor league legend.  he appeared in only a few big league games - 8 with the 1932 boston braves and 16 with the 1936 brooklyn dodgers - but in his 14 years in the minors, eckhardt recorded over 2700 hits.  his stint with the dodgers, in which he hit .182 with a home run and 6 rbi, came after eckhardt had recorded 200 hits or more in 7 straight minor league seasons, including 315 hits in 1933.  with a .367 career minor league average and several big seasons, he outhit joe dimaggio when both were in the pacific coast league, and was entered into the pcl hall of fame in 2003.

candy maldonado

what i recall most about maldonado is that he seemed to check his swing on every pitch.  he was one of the highly touted prospects in albuquerque that didn't quite live up to those expectations once he reached the majors in the early 1980's.  maldonado had cups of coffee with the dodgers in 1981 and 1982, an expanded stay in 1983, and was a relative fixture on the roster in 1984 and 1985.  the dodgers dealt him to the giants in a rare trade between the two teams (the last had been in 1968 involving nate oliver and tom haller) prior to the 1986 season, and maldonado went on to achieve greater success than he had with the giants.  perhaps the highlight of his career came in 1992 when he was a member of the world champion blue jays.

rabbit maranville

maranville spent just one of his 23 big league seasons in brooklyn.  he was a robin in 1926, appearing in 78 games and batting .235.  from there he went to saint louis, where he helped the cardinals reach the world series in 1928.  maranville was voted into the hall of fame in 1954, and depending upon when the voting results were announced, he may not have known he was a hall of famer, as he passed away in january of that year.

rube marquard

that's hall of famer rube marquard, by the way.  although best remembered as a new york giant thanks to his success from 1911-1913 with the national league pennant winners, marquard joined the robins late in the 1915 season (after starting that year by no-hitting brooklyn for the giants) and pitched for them through 1920. as such, he pitched in the world series against the red sox in '16 (he lost 2 games) and against the indians in 1920 (he lost once).  marquard was selected for the hall of fame by the veteran's committee in 1971.

carmen mauro

mauro was an outfielder that the dodgers picked up from the cubs following the 1951 season.  after a year in the minors, the dodgers brought mauro up to the big club for the 1953 season.  he appeared in 8 games, going 0 for 9, before they traded him to the senators for ken wood.

les munns

munns pitched for the dodgers in 1934 and 1935.  he amassed a record of 4-10 in that time, and then went to the cardinals for whom he was 0-3 in 1936.

nate oliver

from 1963-1967, oliver was a backup infielder for the dodgers who hit .234 in that span.  the club won three pennants and two world series titles in that timeframe, but oliver only appeared in the 1966 fall classic, which was the one that the team lost.  oliver was traded to the giants after the 1967 season in the  aforementioned tom haller deal (two trades with the giants in one post - yikes!).

nap rucker

rucker pitched for brooklyn for his entire 10-year career which spanned from 1907 through 1916.  he won 22 games in 1911, and then lost 21 the following year.  his career record wound up being an even 134-134 despite a nice 2.42 era.  rucker made his final big league appearance in game 4 of the 1916 world series when he threw 2 scoreless innings in relief in one of the aforementioned games that marquard lost.

greg shanahan

shanahan may be best known to card collectors as one of the guys on dave freisleben's 1974 topps card that is one of the washington nat'l league variants in the set.  shanahan pitched for the dodgers from september of 1973 through september of 1974.  he didn't appear in the '74 postseason, and finished his minor league career with the royals' triple-a affiliate in 1977.

wayne terwilliger

twig joined the dodgers during the 1951 season as part of the andy pafko trade.  he played in 37 games for brooklyn after the trade, hitting .280.  terwilliger spent 1952 in the minors at the dodgers' saint paul affiliate, and was picked up on waivers by the senators when the season ended, bringing his dodger experience to a close.  his baseball career was still in its infancy, however, as he went on to play in the majors into 1960 and then worked as a coach with the senators/rangers under ted williams.  following another stint with the rangers, terwilliger returned to minnesota and joined the twins' staff under tom kelly, playing a part of their two world championship teams.  in 1995, he joined the staff of the independent league saint paul saints and coached there for several years.

fernando valenzuela

el toro took the baseball world by storm in 1981, thanks to a torrid start to the season in which he won his first 8 starts, 5 by shutout, and pitched 9 innings in all of them - the only start in that stretch in which he did not throw a complete game was his sixth start in which he threw 9 innings and the dodgers won the game for him with 5 runs in the top of the 10th inning.  of course, valenzuela was only 5-7 over the remainder of the season, but we don't talk about that.  fernando wound up throwing a couple more complete games in the postseason, including one against the yankees in the world series, and he capped his rookie year with a world series title to go along with his cy young and rookie of the year awards.  fernando pitched for the dodgers for 11 seasons, posting a record of 141-116.  he is currently a spanish radio analyst for the club.

candy, candy, candido

it's about that time to get the candy bowl ready for the goblins, ghouls, and ghosts.  ah, who am i kidding? it's more like iron man, disney princess, and embarrassing tea party candidate around these parts.  along with the teenagers who show up later wearing their high school football jerseys with their extra long pillow cases looking for some treats.

anyway, what's your favorite candy to give out to trick or treaters?

john 'candy man' candelaria?

tom 'some sort of nickname with candy in it' candiotti?

or candido 'actually i go by candy' maldonado?

actually, i prefer plain m&m's.  happy halloween!

you can look if you want to...

...but tristar signa cuts are still a bit of an abomination.  in this case, it's a 2008 tristar signa cuts card of candy maldonado, using his 1985 topps card as the muse.

the card celebrates the candy man's cycle, hit in 1987 when he was a member of the giants.  below is my version of his 1985 topps card, as it was signed through the mail.

not a whole lot of similarities there between the signatures, is there?  still, i prefer my card whole.  that's not to say that i won't keep picking up these types of signa cuts, as long as the price is right.

candy

no, they're not sugar plums (whatever those are), but they are still sweet visions of candy for this christmas eve.  i sent some cards down to puerto rico for candido maldonado to sign, and he came through for me. 

here's his 1983 fleer card

with dodger stadium as a backdrop.  candy was hot stuff coming out of the minors, and was given every opportunity to win a starting spot in the outfield.  here's a 1984 topps card signed by the candy man

maldonado spent the 1984 season as the dodgers' primary right fielder, and then moved over to center field in 1985.  speaking of which, here's his 1985 topps card

at first i wondered if topps used photos from the same at bat on both his 1984 and 1985 cards.  they didn't, as candy has sleeves in 1985 that weren't there in 1984.  plus, it looks like the photo for 1984 was taken in montreal based on the uniforms of the players in the dugout, while the photo on the 1985 card makes it look like we are seeing into the dodgers' dugout.  is that shea stadium?

i remember it being hard for me to believe that candy hit only 11 home runs as a dodger in his time in la, although i was quickly learning that pcl numbers coming out of albuquerque didn't necessarily translate to the big leagues.  after the 1985 season, the dodgers traded maldonado to the giants and he went on to put up the power numbers we waited for in la.

thanks candy!

the evolution of the right fielder, part 2

we begin part 2 (here's part 1 if you missed it or want a refresher) with perhaps one of the greatest right-handed hitters in dodger history, who was eventually traded away and revealed to be a 'clubhouse cancer'.  come to think of it, we'll end part 2 the same way.

pedro guerrero (1981-1982)

petey took over for the injured reggie smith in 1981, although he wound up finishing the season as the dodgers' third baseman.  guerrero's .300 season (an all-star season, at that) helped the dodgers advance to the postseason, where he was playing third in the nlds against the astros, too. he hit only .176 in that series, although he did have a big solo home run in game 4 to give the dodgers the lead.  he was worse in the nlcs against the expos while playing right and center, but came up big in the world series where he was one of the triumvirate of mvp's as the dodgers beat the yankees.

in 1982, guerrero had his first monster season.  he hit 32 home runs, drove in 100, stole 22 bases, hit .304 with a .914 ops and finished 3rd in the mvp voting.  however, with the loss of ron cey in the offseason, guerrero was moved to third base for 1983, opening the right field door for...

mike marshall (1983, 1985-1989)

man, i was ready for marshall.  he had won the aaa triple crown in 1981 with some monster numbers, and was hitting .388 in albuquerque when he was called up for good in 1982.  now with a full-time gig in right, i was looking forward to some huge big league numbers.  what we got was pretty good.  in 1983, marshall produced a line of 17/65/.284, and capped his season with a 10th inning walk-off grand slam against the reds in september.  then, after a year in left, marshall went 28/95/.293 in 1985.  he had some ups and downs the following four seasons as the dodgers' primary right fielder, but had a big up in game 2 of the 1988 world series.  he drove in 3 runs with a triple and a home run to keep the momentum going that kirk gibson had created in game 1.  after the 1989 season, the dodgers traded marshall to the mets.  before that, however, another dodger minor league wonder patrolled right field.

candy maldonado (1984)

while mike marshall spent his sabbatical in left field after the loss of dusty baker, candido maldonado played right. he hit .268 with 5 home runs in 116 games in 1984, before joining in the game of musical outfielders and moving to center in 1985.

hubie brooks (1990)

so, the dodgers traded marshall to the mets for juan samuel after the 1989 season, and then signed another former met to play right field for them in 1990.  brooks came in and hit 20 home runs, drove in 91, and had an average of .266.  and, for the third season in a row, struck out exactly 108 times.  then, for the second year in a row, the dodgers traded their primary right fielder to the mets and signed a former met to take his place.

darryl strawberry (1991-1992)

it was christmas in november when the dodgers signed strawberry.  his first season was decent - 28 home runs, 99 rbi, .265 average in 139 games, and he made the all-star team for the eighth straight year (and final time in his career).  he helped the dodgers win 93 games in 1991, although they finished a game behind the braves in the standings.  they were actually up 1 game with 4 to play, but lost 3 in a row to lose the nl west crown.  i recall some griping in the local rags about strawberry's performance in the last couple of losses, as he was just 1 for 8 with 3 strikeouts.

1992 was supposed to be better, but he missed a lot of time due to injury, as was the case in 1993. still, strawberry made more starts (39) than any of the other 9 players the dodgers used in right in 1992. then, in 1994, he failed to show up for the freeway series and was found to have entered rehab. 

cory snyder (1993)

in strawberry's absence, the corndog took over most of the right field responsibilities in 1993, making 107 starts there to go along with his other appearances all over the diamond.  he helped the dodgers get back to .500 after their historically bad 1992 season, but was only a temporary stopgap as the dodgers had rauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuul ready to go.

raul mondesi (1994-1997, 1999)

mondesi won the rookie of the year award in 1994, and spent the next 3 seasons continuing to kick ass in right field.  he led the league in outfield assists in 1994 and 1995, and won gold gloves in '95 and '97.  1997 was the year he became the first dodger to reach 30/30, and he matched the feat in 1999 when he returned to right from a year as the dodgers' centerfielder.  1999 was also the year when he hit the most dramatic opening day home run since saxy's leadoff job in 1988.  in fact, he had 2 dramatic home runs that day.  first, with the dodgers down 6-3 in the bottom of the ninth in davey johnson's first game as manager, mondesi came up with two outs and two men on base.  he launched a 3-0 pitch into the bullpen to tie the game, and then, in the 11th, he hit a 2-run walk-off to win the game.  still, he was seen as tempermental and was traded to the blue jays in the offseason for shawn green.

gary sheffield (1998)

before we get to green (in part 3), we need to recognize that gary sheffield roamed in right for the dodgers in 1998 while mondesi was patrolling center for a season. or, at least part of a season, as that all happened after the mike piazza trade went down in may of '98.  as a dodger, sheffield played in 90 games in 1998, and hit .316 with a .979 ops.  his next three seasons (as the dodgers' leftfielder) were monsters, but he had worn out his welcome and was traded to the braves, just as pedro guerrero was traded to the cardinals in 1988.

orioles begat dodgers

a while back i completed a trade with an orioles collector named ed. i'm always interested in turning other teams' cards into dodgers, and ed did not disappoint. here are just a few from the box he sent me.

1997 topps gallery eric karros.

this is a nice card, and ed included a few other dodgers from the set. i really like the hero shot with the top of busch stadium in the background. this is what you might call 'context sensitive design' - the stadium reflects the st. louis arch in it's architecture. very nice. i was very impressed with busch stadium when i visited in 1999. i expected much less from a former multi-sport stadium. back to the card, look closely and you will see italian american superstar slugger mike piazza lurking in the background.

1995 stouffers pop-up don drysdale.

i would have guessed that this card was from the early 80's at the latest. i haven't yet pulled the tab to make big d pop-up, and i don't think i will.

1985 topps candido maldonado.

some friends and i call candy 'check swing'. he seemed to check his swing at every pitch, except for those he actually swung at. maldonado was one of those guys who tore up the pcl for the dukes (along with greg brock and mike marshall) in the early 80's. although he didn't do the same in the majors, he was a member of the 1992 world champion toronto blue jays. good for him.

another 1985 topps card, this time it's rick honeycutt.

the current dodger pitching coach, honeycutt was a holdover from grady little's staff. i guess joe torre couldn't convince mel stottlemyre to head west with him.

1983 topps mark belanger.

displaced by cal ripken jr in baltimore, belanger spent one season in la with the dodgers. this gave the dodgers two no-hit shortstops. the 1983 cards are true final tributes for belanger, who retired after the 1982 season. i've always wondered if that last season was worth it to him, as it was the only one he didn't play as an oriole. sadly, belanger died in 1998 of cancer.

1971 topps bill buckner.

buckner's second multi-player rookie card, a feat matched by the penguin in 1973. here, he is the only player featured in a non-airbrushed hat. buckner debuted at age 19 in 1969, pinch-hitting for jim brewer against gaylord perry. he popped out to second.

1963 topps walt alston.

i like the managers' cards in the 1963 set. instead of the inset photo, they have the team logo (except for the colt .45's). here alston looks annoyed. notice the rotary phone in the upper right hand corner. true vintage.

ed also included some nice dodger stadium shots, such as this 1990 donruss jeff treadway card,

and some double plays such as this beautiful 1991 topps stadium club kurt stillwell card.
i have a feeling i should just become a stillwell super-collector because all of his cards i have seen are double play turns!

thanks ed! if you are reading this, i am amassing another batch of orioles for you!