sunday morning target dodgers - with a member of the infield and a yankee black armband for ray chapman

i don't know how long i will keep these posts going, but there are plenty more sheets to be shared.  here's another one featuring 15 men who wore the brooklyn/los angeles franchise's uniform between 1890 and 1990, including the dean of the los angeles dodgers and shortstop of the team of my youth, bill russell.

russell's name appears high on many of the 'softer' franchise career leader lists.  among los angeles dodgers, he is first in defensive war, first in games played, second in at bats, third in hits, fourth in doubles, first in singles, first in sacrifice hits, first in intentional walks (hitting 8th will do that for you), and, fairly obviously, first in outs made.  when you factor in the brooklyn players, russell still ranks pretty highly in those same categories.

joe beckwith

beckwith was a dodger double dipper and won a world series ring in 1985 with this next guy's brother.

ken brett

in another case of the 'wrong brother' history of the dodgers (see the martinez brothers, guerrero brothers, and the gwynn brothers, among others), ken, and not george, brett wore dodger blue.  the elder brett joined the dodgers in 1979 after a short stint in minnesota, and went 4-3 with 2 saves in 30 relief appearances for the club.  in one of those appearances, he was pinch-hit for by manny mota, who used the opportunity to set the record for career pinch hits.  brett was himself a good hitter, and was 3 for 11 at the plate as a dodger.  unfortunately, brett was hurt in spring training the following season, and the dodgers released him.  a few months later, ken would join brother george in kansas city for the last couple months of the 1980 season.

bill buckner

billy buck was squeezed out of the dodger outfield despite a .289 average in 773 games for the blue when the team acquired dusty baker and reggie smith to man the corner positions.  as a result, he was dealt to the cubs for center fielder rick monday (and reliever mike garman) prior to the 1977 season.  the cubbies moved buckner to first base and the rest, including his 1980 national league batting title and his error in game 6 of the 1986 world series for the red sox, is history.  buckner finished his career with 2,715 hits - a total surpassed by only 61 other players in the history of the game.

moose clabaugh

clabaugh had a prodigious minor league career spanning 16 seasons.  he hit 346 home runs while maintaining a .339 batting average in the minors, according to this thorough post.  in the majors, not so much.  the robins brought him up to the big leagues in 1926 following a 62 home run season in the low minors, but he hit only .071 (1 for 14) with his lone hit being a double.

bud clancy

clancy played first base for the dodgers in 53 games during the 1932 season.  he had previously played for the white sox (as evidenced by his uniform above) and later joined the phillies.  his timing as a member of the dodgers was good, because he was featured as a member of the team on his 1933 goudey card, which happens to be the oldest dodger card that i own.

wes covington

covington finished his major league career (which began in 1956 with the milwaukee braves) with a stint as a dodger in 1966 following an early season release from the cubs.  he hit only .121 in 37 games for the dodgers, but was a part of their world series roster and made his final big league appearance against the orioles in the fall classic.

bill f. hart

i believe we have a case of mistaken identity here.  william franklin hart pitched for the brooklyn grooms in 1892.  william woodrow hart was an infielder who played for the brooklyn dodgers from 1943-45, and is certainly the player pictured on the card.  there is a card for bill w. hart in the set, so we'll have to see what photo that card features if and when i get to that sheet.  in the meantime, i'll ignore the photo and note that bill f. hart was 9-12 despite a 3.28 era for the grooms in his lone season with the team; a season in which the grooms went 95-59.

alex kampouris

kampouris was the pride of sacramento, as vin scully might say.  he was born in sacramento, played minor league ball in sacramento, worked in sacramento after his baseball career was over, and died in sacramento.  in between stints with sacramento's pacific coast league team, kampouris played for the dodgers, among other big league teams.  he spent 2-plus seasons with brooklyn from 1941 to 1943, hitting .267 in 45 games as a backup second baseman to billy herman.

wayne lamaster

lamaster was traded from the phillies to the dodgers during the 1938 season.  he wound up 0-1 in his three appearances for the dodgers.

steve lembo

lembo was a backup catcher who appeared for the dodgers in a handful of games in 1950 and 1952.  while he didn't appear in a game for the team in 1951, he did spend time with the big club and was the bullpen catcher who warmed up ralph branca in the third playoff game against the giants.  lembo later became a scout for the team and signed, among others, tommy davis and john franco.

don newcombe

newk began his major league career in 1949 with a shutout against the reds.  he went on to win the rookie of the year award, and then won the first cy young award (along with the mvp) in 1956.  he wasa 123-60 for the brooklyn dodgers from 1949 through 1957 (including two seasons lost to military service), but was 0-6 for the los angeles dodgers in 1958, a record that prompted a trade to the aforementioned reds.  he retired after the 1960 season with a career .271 batting average, and later even played a year in japan as a fielder, not a pitcher.

danny richardson

richardson spent 1893 with the brooklyn grooms, hitting .223 in 54 games.  he had previously played for the new york giants from 1884-91 and the washington senators in 1892.

hank thormahlen

thormahlen was a teammate of babe ruth's in new york before he was traded to the red sox in the deal that sent hall of famer (and dodger double dipper) waite hoyt to the yankees following the 1920 season.  in fact, i believe that the photo used for thormahlen's card comes from the 1920 season, as he is sporting a black armband (maybe two black armbands?) on his left sleeve, and the yankees were one of several teams to do so that year in honor of ray chapman, the indians' shortstop who died after being hit by a pitch in a game against the yankees in august of that year.  thormahlen actually relieved carl mays, the yankee pitcher who hit chapman, in that game.  as for thormahlen's tenure with the brooklyn squad, he was with the robins in 1925 when he appeared in five games, starting two of them.  he wound up with an 0-3 record, but did hit a triple in his final big league at bat.

dick whitman

whitman was almost a dodger double dipper.  he began his big league career with brooklyn in 1946, and remained with the club through 1949, hitting .266 in 191 games during that span.  his contract was then purchased by the phillies, but they traded him back to brooklyn after two seasons.  unfortunately, whitman never made it out of the minor leagues during his second tour with the organization and so left my dodger double dipper criteria unfulfilled.  he did play in back-to-back world series, however - with the dodgers in 1949 and with the whiz kids in 1950 - falling to the yankees each time.

it comes in colors everywhere

yes, it's like a rainbow.  i guess not technically 'everywhere', but certainly in my mailbox, thanks to daniel from it's like having my own card shop.  his end of a recent trade had this beauty - a 1953 bowman color carl erskine

that's only the second card from the set that i own - here's the other -  and i was pretty surprised to see it arrive in a trade package for a bunch of chrome diamondbacks.  awesome.

the goodness didn't end there, as oisk's teammate gil hodges was along for the ride on this 2002 topps tribute card

hodges did indeed surpass 1250 rbi in his career.  in fact, he had 1254 as a dodger, and an additional 20 in his time with the mets at the end of his playing career.

more color - this time a blue parallel of the silver fox - on a 2004 fleer greats of the game card

and then a 2001 pacific private stock eric karros bat card

plus a 2013 topps chrome clayton kershaw orange refractor

just a great group of colorful cards that daniel sent.

there was one more card in my mailbox, although daniel didn't send it to me.  tom from angels, in order was kind enough to share an address for former dodger pitcher dave patterson with me, and yesterday i received my 1980 topps dodgers future stars card back from patterson.

i now have two signed copies of this card (the other is autographed by joe beckwith).  i sent a third copy to mickey hatcher about three years ago, but never got it back.  i might give it another shot with hatcher since he signed some cards for me earlier this year.

patterson is the only guy on the card not to double dip with the dodgers.  his career in la lasted only one season - 1979 - when he was 4-1 with a 5.26 era in 36 appearances, all in relief.

thanks for the trade daniel. and for the addy tom!  and thanks for signing my card mr. patterson!

on the links with a dodger double dipper

[this is the forty-ninth 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, and guillermo mota.]

joe beckwith was drafted and signed by the dodgers in the 1977 june draft.  two years later, he made his big league debut in a game against the expos at dodger stadium.  beckwith wound up pitching in 17 games during the 1979 campaign, all in relief.  he finished the season with a 1-2 record, a couple of saves, and a 4.34 era. he was in the 1980 topps set

and back with the big club that same year, pitching in 55 games - again all in relief - and posting a 3-3 record with a 1.96 era.  things were looking good for beckwith heading into the 1981 season until an eye injury suffered in spring training caused him to experience double vision and miss the entire season.  he was able to return in 1982 after having eye surgery.

a footnote to history - the cubs and dodgers were in discussions about a trade that would have sent mickey hatcher (another double dipper) and beckwith to chicago for old friend bill buckner, but that fell through when beckwith's vision problems surfaced.  instead, the dodgers sent hatcher to minnesota for ken landreaux, and buckner did not join the pantheon of dodger double dippers.

anyway, beckwith returned to the majors in july of 1982, and stayed there with the dodgers through the 1983 season.  he was 5-5 with 2 saves over the course of those two seasons, and got his first taste of postseason action in the 1983 nlcs with 2.1 scoreless innings in 2 games against the phillies.  after the 1983 season, however, beckwith was traded to the royals for three minor leaguers.  here's his 1984 fleer update card

beckwith appeared in a career high 49 games in each of his seasons as a royal, going 8-4 with a 3.40 era in 1984, and 1-5 with a 4.07 era in 1985.  but, although 1984 was the better season for him individually, it was in 1985 that he was able to pitch in the world series for the only time in his career.  beckwith appeared in one game of the fall classic against the cardinals (game 4) and recorded three strikeouts while allowing no runs and just one hit in 2 scoreless innings of work.  it was his final appearance as a royal, as he was released by kansas city the following spring.  he soon after signed on with the blue jays and was assigned to their aaa affiliate where he pitched until the dodgers purchased his contract on july 31, 1986.

back in la, beckwith appeared in 15 games and did not earn a decision.  his first and last outings were by far his worst of the season, allowing multiple runs while recording just one out, and he was released after the season ended.  sadly, there are no 1986 traded or update cards featuring beckwith as a dodger, nor were there any cards made for him in 1987.

i do have, however, a few cards that he signed for me through the mail, including his 1980 topps rookie card

his 1981 topps card

his 1984 fleer card (hello chavez ravine)

and his 1984 topps card

on a personal note, beckwith was the celebrity in my dad's golf foursome in the don sutton celebrity golf tournament that was held on the central coast back in 1980.  he signed the back of the tournament dinner ticket for me

i'll show the front of that sucker in a future post.

here's to you joe beckwith, thanks for double dipping and signing stuff for me!

mickey hatcher, double dipper

mickey hatcher began his big league career with the dodgers in 1979.  in a game i listened to on the radio, hatcher (pictured here on his 1980 topps rookie card)

replaced ron cey at third base in a laugher against the giants.  he came to bat in the bottom of the 7th inning in cey's cleanup spot with the bases loaded.  i recall jerry doggett commenting on the fact that hatcher had the rare opportunity to hit a grand slam in his first major league at bat.  alas, he did not, but he did draw a walk to 'drive in' burt hooton.  he made his first big league start the next day, and had a walk and two singles before making an out.  reaching base the first four times at bat in the big leagues was not a bad way to start a career.  also interesting from that game, all three of the guys featured on the 1980 card appeared in the game, with patterson picking up the victory in relief of beckwith.

hatcher played for the dodgers through the 1980 season, hitting 1 home run with 5 rbi in each of his two campaigns in la.  with rudy law in tommy lasorda's doghouse and the dodgers in need of a center fielder, hatcher was sent to minnesota just before the start of the 1981 season in exchange for ken landreaux.

as a twin, hatcher began to play more regularly and had some good seasons as a result.  in 1983, he hit .317 in 106 games with a career high 9 homers.  the following year, he hit .302 in 152 games with a career high 69 rbi.  here's his 1984 fleer card

love those baby blues!  after 6 pretty solid seasons in minnesota, the twinkies released hatcher right before the start of the 1987 season.  a few days later, the dodgers signed him to a contract.  still, hatcher seemed to be cursed with poor timing - he was traded away from the dodgers prior to the 1981 season, and they won the world series.  then, he was released by the twins before the 1987 season, and they went on to win the world series.  but, as we know now, it all worked out for mickey as he finally got a ring with the dodgers in 1988.

in all, the dodgers missed out on 26 home runs, 260 rbi and 671 hits that hatcher accumulated during his time with the twins, but i would argue that they got the biggest hits of his career.  he hit .277 in 368 games in the four seasons he spent back in la before retiring after the 1990 season (here's his 1990 upper deck card, by the way).

he may well have been the mvp of the 1988 world series had orel hershiser not been so dominant.  his 7 hits, 2 home runs, and 5 rbi led the team, and his 1.137 ops was tops among the dodger regulars in the series (only hershiser and kirk gibson posted a higher ops). 

[this is the sixth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, and chris gwynn.]

here's to you mickey hatcher, you double dipping stuntman!