sunday morning target dodgers - you can call him shirley

here's another sheet of cards from the 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary giveaway set. enjoy.

luis alcaraz

alcaraz showed plenty of pop in the minors, hitting 22 homers in 1967 at albuquerque, which would have been unusual for middle infielders of the time.  however, when he reached the majors as a september '67 dodger call-up, he slugged just .250 with one extra base hit.  1968 was worse - he slugged .217 in 41 games for the dodgers with a double and two home runs.  his contract was purchased by the royals after that season, and he played in kansas city for a couple more years.

bill antonello

antonello was a brooklyn native who made his way to the big leagues with the dodgers in 1953. he appeared in 40 games for the club, hitting .163 with a home run, triple, and a double to his credit. although he was with the team all season, antonello did not appear in the 1953 world series.

steve bilko

bilko had played parts of six seasons in the majors before he joined the los angeles angels of the pcl in 1955.  he had hit 21 homers for the cardinals in 1953, but really found his power stroke in the pcl, as he hit 37, 55, and 56 home runs in 1955, 1956, and 1957, respectively.  the reds purchased his contract for the 1958 season, and then traded bilko to the dodgers in june of that year.  over the course of the remainder of the season, bilko hit .208 with 7 home runs for the dodgers. he spent the 1959 season back in the minor leagues, and was then drafted by the tigers in the rule v draft following the '59 season.

carl erskine

erskine was a pitcher for the dodgers for 12 seasons - from 1948 into 1959.  he helped the club win their first world series title in 1955, although he pitched better in other fall classics.  in the 1953 world series, erskine set a record by striking out 14 yankees in game 3. he had won 20 games during the regular season that year, and finished 9th in the mvp voting. erskine has two career no-hitters to his credit, throwing one in 1952 and the other in 1956.

george fallon

fallon was 2 for 8 with the 1937 brooklyn dodgers in what was his first taste of the big leagues. he returned to the majors in 1943 with the cardinals, and played for saint louis through the 1945 season. he had a couple of at bats in the 1944 world series with the cards, and so earned a ring following their defeat of the crosstown browns.

pete mikkelsen

mikkelsen spent the last four years of his nine year major league career with the dodgers. he pitched out of their bullpen from 1969-1972, compiling a record of 24-17 with 20 saves in 155 appearances. i previously lamented the fact that, despite his regular presence in the bullpen each of those years, topps never put him on a baseball card as a dodger.  i'm glad to have this card.

bobby mitchell

mitchell did get a card from fleer in 1982, even though his dodger career consisted of 13 plate appearances in 19 games over the previous two seasons.  he was included in the trade that sent bobby castillo to the twins following the 1981 season, and played for two years as a twin.

paul richards

richards was 0 for 8 as a member of the 1932 brooklyn dodgers, appearing in 3 games that season. he got his first big league hit the following year, although he was a member of the new york giants then.  richards went on to play for the a's and tigers as well, and he was detroit's starting catcher in the 1945 world series in which they defeated the cubs in 7 games.  in fact, hit was his 3-run double in the first inning that put game 7 out of the cubs' reach.

don ross

in between stints with the tigers in 1938 and again from 1942-45, ross spent some time with the brooklyn dodgers. he appeared in 10 games for the club in the 1940 season, hitting .289 with a home run and a couple of doubles.

steve shirley

shirley spent about a month in the majors. the dodgers called him up in june of 1982, and he appeared in 11 games between june 21 and july 30.  he was 1-1 in those games with a 4.26 era, and in one of them he was allowed to bat.  on june 25 against the astros, shirley relieved bob welch in the 2nd inning, and when the pitcher's spot came up in the top of the 4th, tommy lasorda let shirley hit. in his only career at bat, shirley singled off of mike lacoss, so he is among the very few players to have a career batting average of 1.000.  later in the game, shirley was relieved by terry forster, himself one of the best hitting pitchers in the history of the game.  shirley went on to pitch in japan for a couple of seasons before returning to the states where he pitched in triple-a for several organizations (including the dodgers) through the 1988 season.

jerry stephenson

stephenson appeared in 3 games for the 1970 dodgers, pitching 6.2 innings and posting an era of 9.45 after putting up some pretty good numbers (18-5, 2.82 era) in triple-a spokane.  not good, but enough to earn him a card in the 1971 topps set for which i am thankful.  i'm guessing the photo used for the card comes from 1971 spring training (stephenson pitched in the dodger organization through 1973), as that was the year the team added the shoulder and neck piping to their jerseys.

stuffy stewart

stewart was a member of the 1923 brooklyn robins, appearing in 4 games and going 4 for 11 at the plate with a double and a home run. despite being a prolific base stealer in the minor leagues, stewart did not attempt a steal with the robins, nor had he tried to swipe a bag in his previous big league appearances with the cardinals or pirates (as far as baseball reference knows).  when he returned to the majors in 1925 as a senator, however, stewart did start to steal.

bert tooley

tooley spent 1911 and 1912 in the major leagues with the dodgers. in fact, he was their primary shortstop in 1911.  following the 1912 season, he was sent back to newark of the international league where he played through the 1915 season.

george watkins

watkins finished up his seven year big league career, and the 1936 season, with the brooklyn dodgers. he had begun the 1936 campaign with the phillies, but joined brooklyn in may.  in 105 games for the dodgers, watkins hit .255 with 4 homers and 43 rbi.

les webber

webber pitched for the dodgers from 1942 into the 1946 season.  he led the league in saves (although not an official category) in 1943 with 10.  overall, webber was 22-18 with a 3.89 era for the dodgers, and he had a 2.30 era in the 1946 season when he was claimed on waivers by the cleveland indians.

more of yesterday's 1971 los angeles dodgers

here's the rest of the dell's todays 1971 los angeles dodgers album.  the second of two stamp sheets

we have jim brewer, mike strahler (on what might be his lone solo dodger issue other than the 1990 target set), billy grabarkewitz, and bill russell.  the grabarkewitz photo is the same one used on his 1970 topps card, complete with lurking danny ozark. 

in the second row, it's pete mikkelson, duke sims, tom haller, and rich allen. or dick allen, if you prefer.  this is a pretty cool row.  unlike strahler, mikkelson was completely ignored by topps during his tenure as a dodger despite pitching in 155 games over four years for them.  duke sims got a dodger card in the 1972 topps set, but was in transition when the 1971 set was issued.  he was acquired in a december, 1970 trade with the indians so it's nice that he was able to get down to chavez ravine and put on a dodger uni in time for this release.  unlike al downing on the first stamp sheet of this album.  it's always good to see tom haller actually wearing a dodger uniform and there simply aren't enough items with rich allen in dodger blue.

the last row is a bastion of early 70's dodger goodness with claude osteen, don sutton, bill buckner and steve garvey.

here's the back to the stamps

rich allen is listed as an outfielder who also plays first base - so the dodgers played him mostly at third.  it's not all good news, as mikkelson is noted as having a history of control problems.  and, there's not a lot to say about strahler, so let's bring up kidney surgery.  quite the tidbit there.
there's a bit of a problem with the stat sheet

bill russell was not "nim" in 1969.  he debuted in april of that year and had 48 hits and a .226 average.  other than that the numbers look alright.
next page is an ad for all of the albums

the logos are color-corrected, unlike the envelope we saw earlier today.

here's the inside of the back cover.

these are more along the lines of 'dodger all-time stars' rather than la dodger all-time stars, but that's kind of picky.  i wonder what this page looked like for the expos, padres, brewers and royals.
back cover time

pretty cool to see scheduled double headers.  those were the days.  the days with todays 1971 los angeles dodgers.

forsakken pete mikkelsen

pete mikkelsen finished his career in dodger blue.  he pitched for the dodgers from 1969 through 1972, appearing in 155 games over those four seasons.  he had previously pitched for the yankees, pirates, cubs and cardinals over his 5 seasons in the big leagues before he joined the dodgers.

as a dodger, mikkelsen won 24 games and saved 20 others.  but you wouldn't know that thanks to topps.  mikkelsen's last topps card was issued in 1968, and it showed him as a cub.  if you have been reading this blog for a while, you know where i am headed with this...

yes, it's time for me to display the 1973 topps pete mikkelsen card that should have been, featuring an image culled from the fantastic steve's baseball photography page.

mikkelsen does appear on the 1973 topps dodgers team card

that's him in the middle of the back row between don sutton and bill singer.  singer is one of those guys who is in the 1973 set, but not as a dodger (i corrected that a while back).  come to think of it, there are a number of people in the photo who aren't dodgers on their 1973 cards or are left out altogether (some of whom i've already made cards that should have been), including jim lefebvre, mike strahler, bobby valentine, billy grabarkewitz, ron perranoski, maury wills, frank robinson, and chris cannizzaro.  looks like i still have some work to do.

sadly, mikkelsen passed away in 2006.

here's to you, pete!  definitely not forgotten...