luis olmo, an unconventional dodger double dipper

to me, luis olmo was one of the players in the 1990 target dodger set that i knew nothing about.  to folks in the caribbean, and puerto rico in particular, he is one of the best known players of his time.  and, what the heck, i now consider him to be a dodger double dipper.

[this is the sixtyfifth 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, and waite hoyt.]

here is olmo's card from the 1990 target set

olmo was born in puerto rico in 1919, and debuted for the dodgers in 1943.  he hit .303 in 57 games that first season, and after a full season in 1944, went on to hit .313 in 141 games for the dodgers in 1945.  that same year, he led the league with 13 triples and also drove in 110 runs (3rd highest total in the league) and garnered some mvp votes as a result.  following that season, however, olmo opted to leave the dodger organization and go to the mexican league for a chance at a higher salary.

commissioner happy chandler wasn't pleased, and he suspended olmo and the other players who had also made the move from the major leagues.  eventually, olmo's eligibility was reinstated, and he rejoined the dodgers for the 1949 campaign.  he hit .305 in 38 games that season, and helped the dodgers win the pennant.  against the yankees in the world series, olmo hit .273 with a home run and 2 rbi, becoming the first puerto rican to play in the fall classic.  olmo spent the following two seasons he was with the boston braves after which he returned to the caribbean.

olmo won mvp honors in the 1951 caribbean series, while leading his team to the title.  he appeared in two other caribbean series, winning another title in 1955, and was enshrined into the caribbean baseball hall of fame in 2004.  olmo is still (hopefully) going strong at age 94.

here's to el jibaro, a dodger double dipper!

sunday morning target dodgers

for the second day in a row, i am leading off a post with a card of jim lefebvre! it's lefebvrepalooza time, apparently.  yes, jim lefebvre's card was on this week's sheet of 1990 target cards.  let's have a look (at 14 of the 15 from that sheet, anyway).

jim lefebvre

he's turning two!  i actually put this card in my double play binder - i bought a single online so that i could keep the sheets intact.  i think the only other target single i have is steve garvey.  anyway, lefebvre was the 1965 nl rookie of the year and he was also a henchman of the riddler on the batman tv show.  top that justin turner or dee gordon!

hal janvrin

janvrin was on the red sox team (along with babe ruth) that beat the brooklyn robins in the 1916 world series (he hit .217 in the series as the second baseman for the sox).  he joined the robins in 1921 following a midseason trade from the cardinals, and remained with the club through the 1922 season.

roy jarvis

jarvis may well be the shortest tenured of all the dodgers.  as an 18-year old in 1944, he had one solitary plate appearance and struck out (he also caught a few innings that day).  it was his only appearance as a dodger, although he did resurface in the major leagues with pittsburgh in 1946 and 1947.

tim jordan

jordan is the only member of the brooklyn/los angeles franchise to have led the league in home runs more than once - his 12 home runs led the national league in both 1906 and 1908.  jordan spent 4+ seasons with the superbas before his big league career ended in 1910.  he continued to play minor league ball until the age of 41.

frank kellert

kellert spent only one season with the brooklyn dodgers, but it was a good one.  he was acquired via trade from the orioles in march of 1955 in exchange for erv palica, and he went on to appear in the only world series that the brooklyn dodgers won.  kellert hit .325 in 39 games during the regular season, with many of his appearances coming as a pinch hitter.  in the world series, he was 1 for 3 (all appearances were as a pinch hitter) although each game he appeared in were games the dodgers lost.  after the series, kellert was claimed on waivers by the cubs which was unfortunate because topps then had time to put him in a cubs hat on his 1956 topps card.  kellert did get a dodger card in the 1995 topps brooklyn dodger archives set, though.

clyde king

this card would have been killer in color - it would be great in the 1957 topps set.  anyway, king is a dodger double dipper and a former yankee gm.

tony lazzeri

speaking of yankees, lazzeri is best known as the second baseman for the yankees (including the 1927 club), as he spent 12 seasons in new york and won 6 world series between 1926 and 1937.  lazzeri joined the cubs in 1938 and took them to the world series, where they lost to the cubs thanks to a called shot and a billy goat, supposedly.  in 1939, he returned to the east coast as a member of the brooklyn dodgers.  he hit .282 in 14 games for the dodgers and was released.

bill marriot

marriot played for the robins in 1926 and 1927.  he was the team's primary third baseman in 1926, hitting .267 in 109 games.

len matuszek

a modern era dodger!  matuszek came to the dodgers in 1985 in the al oliver trade with toronto.  he stuck with the team as a pinch hitter through the 1987 season, and was 1 for 1 in the 1985 nlcs.

fred mitchell

mitchell's contract was purchased by the superbas during the 1904 season.  he made 8 starts for them that year, and had a record of 2-5.  he returned for the 1905 season, and was 2-7 in 12 pitching appearances, although he also played in the field in more than a dozen other games.  he spent the next few seasons in the minors, but returned to the major leagues in 1910 with the new york highlanders (yankees) as catcher.  mitchell later turned to managing and led the 1918 chicago cubs to the world series in that role.

eddie morgan

morgan hit .188 in 31 games for the 1937 brooklyn dodgers following a cup of coffee with the 1936 saint louis cardinals.  morgan has the distinction of being one of the few players to hit a home run in his first major league at bat, and it was the only home run of his career.

val picinich

valentine here was a catcher who joined the robins in 1929 and stayed with the franchise until he was released during the 1933 season.  he appeared in a total of 187 games during that span, and hit .255 with 6 homers.

bill schardt

schardt's major league career consists of 46 games spread over the 1911 and 1912 seasons, all as a dodger.  he posted a record of 5-16 in those appearances and completed 10 of 22 starts.

nick tremark

tremark also spent his entire big league career with the dodgers.  he played in 35 games over the course of three seasons - 1934 through 1936.  he hit .247 and at 5'-5", he was the freddie patek of his day.

thanks as always to baseball reference for shedding light on these guys.  it makes the set much more enjoyable the more you know about the players.