sunday evening target dodgers

another sunday, another sheet of cards from the 1990 target set which celebrated the franchise's 100th anniversary.  there are only 13 cards in this post, because the other two cards on the sheet belonged to the double dippers showcased earlier today.

mark belanger

after 17 years in baltimore, the slick fielding belanger became a free agent and signed with the dodgers prior to the 1982 season.  his leaving baltimore opened up the shortstop position, and eventually cal ripken jr took over.  in los angeles, however, bill russell was still the dodgers' every day shortstop, so belanger was limited to 54 games, only 12 of which were starts. while he hit .240 on the season, he was 2 for 2 in his final two career plate appearances, with his final hit being an rbi single against scott garrelts of the giants.  that's the best way for even an out of place dodger to go out.

ralph branca

like frenchy bordagaray and doc casey (the two double dippers from this sheet not included in this post), branca was himself a dodger double dipper.  i enjoyed seeing him on the big screen in the recent billy crystal movie where crystal played a minor league baseball announcer.  i won't bring up bobby thomson.

jackie collum

collum joined the brooklyn dodgers in 1957 following a midseason trade with the cubs.  he only pitched in three games for the dodgers that season (the first of which was against his former team), but stayed with the club as they moved west to los angeles.  in 1958, collum pitched in two games for the dodgers.  he spent the next couple of seasons in the minor leagues before moving on to the minnesota twins in 1961.

bruce edwards

edwards was the dodger catcher in 1946 and 1947, putting up big numbers in the latter.  he hit .295 with 80 rbi that year, and finished 4th in the mvp voting.  in 1948, however, edwards lost his starting job midseason to roy campanella.  he stayed with the dodgers as the backup catcher and sometimes outfielder/third baseman until he was traded to the cubs in 1951.

ned hanlon

hanlon is enshrined in the hall of fame as a manager, and not as a grower of fantastic moustaches as you might have guessed.  he enjoyed prolonged success at the helm of the baltimore orioles in the late 19th century before taking over the reigns of the superbas in 1899.  hanlon managed the club for seven seasons, leading them to first place finishes in both 1899 (with 101 wins) and 1900.  by his final season in 1905, however, the team was in last place and lost 104 games, still the most losses in franchise history.

ken howell

howell was used primarily as a reliever (190 games in relief and 4 as a starter) during his dodger tenure which spanned from 1984 through the 1988 season.  he appeared in the 1985 playoffs, but not the 1988 postseason.  he was traded to the orioles in the eddie murray deal following the 1988 season, but was quickly dealt by baltimore to the phillies where he was used exclusively as a starter for two seasons.  i believe howell is still the dodger bullpen coach, a position he has held since 2008.

charlie manuel

chuck manuel as he was then known was traded by the twins to the dodgers after the 1973 season.  he appeared in 4 games for the dodgers in 1974 (none in the postseason) and 15 in 1975; all 19 appearances were as a pinch hitter.  manuel's final big league appearance came on september 21, 1975 when he ended the game with a strikeout at the hands of jr richard.  he went to japan the following season, and played there for six seasons before returning to the us to begin his managerial career.  manuel, of course, managed the phillies when they eliminated the dodgers in the 2008 and 2009 nlcs.

joe mcginnity

hall of famer joe 'iron man' mcginnity spent one season with the brooklyn superbas - his sophomore season of 1900 - and went 28-8 (his 28 victories led the league for the second year in a row) with a 2.94 era in 44 games (37 starts).  he also threw 32 complete games and a league leading 343 innings, but his nickname originated from his offseason job in an iron foundry rather than his rubber arm.  mcginnity, of course, spent the majority of his career with john mcgraw and the new york giants, winning 30 games a couple of times, and the world series in 1905.  after his big league career ended with 246 wins, mcginnity continued to pitch in the minors, racking up another 200 or so victories.  he retired from playing at the age of 54 and later coached for the dodgers.

lance rautzhan

rautzhan was a member of the team of my youth, pitching for the dodgers in 1977 and 1978.  he pitched for them again in 1979, but had his contract purchased by the brewers in may of that year.  he is best remembered (by me at least) as the winning pitcher in game 3 of the 1977 nlcs - the 'black friday' game as it is known in philadelphia.

pete richert

imagine that - four double dippers on this sheet.  richert did indeed double dip with the dodgers, but i have told that story before, so he's here with the other guys from the sheet.  it is worth noting that richert  once struck out four batters in an inning while en route to striking out the first 6 batters he faced in the major leagues.

joe riggert

riggert was an outfielder who split the 1914 season between the brooklyn robins and saint louis cardinals (only one of those teams is named for a bird, by the way).  as a member of the robins, he hit .193 in 27 games.

ed roebuck

like collum, roebuck was a dodger pitcher who made the move with the team from brooklyn to los angeles.  roebuck, however, had more success with the dodgers than did collum.  he pitched in 7-plus seasons for the dodgers from 1955 to 1963 (he did not appear in the majors in 1959), making just one career start in 322 games with the club.  roebuck is also a member of the fraternity of pitchers who allowed a world series home run to mickey mantle, having joined the club in 1956.

fresco thompson

thompson joined the brooklyn franchise for the 1931 season following a four year stint with the phillies (he had been with pittsburgh and  the new york giants previously).  he appeared in 74 games for the robins, and then just three games for the re-named dodgers in 1932.  he resurfaced in the majors in 1934, back with the giants, but appeared in only one game before being released after declining bill terry's invitation to pinch run - 'i'd like to' said thompson, 'but i just had my shoes shined'.  thompson managed in the minor leagues following his playing days, including in the dodger organization.  in 1968, he became the dodgers' general manager succeeding buzzie bavasi, but passed away only 5 months into his tenure, with al campanis taking his place.

the continuing evolution of the out of place guy

i left off the last time with don stanhouse.  definitely out of place as a dodger.  his former teammate, mark belanger also joined the dodgers in the early 80's - 1982 to be exact.

after 17 years of playing shortstop for the orioles, belanger was displaced by cal ripken jr and so he headed west for his final season.  he took his 8 gold gloves and hit .240 for the defending world champs in 54 games.

a couple of years later, prior to the 1985 season, the dodgers traded for al oliver

oliver was just 2 years removed from leading the league in hitting when the dodgers signed him.  he hit .253 for them until they sent him to toronto in july of '85 for len matuszek.  when i think of oliver i think of him as a pirate or an expo.  not a dodger.  he was out of place, even though it was for just a short time.

in '86 the dodgers picked up a couple of veterans to play third base - enos cabell and bill madlock.  i don't consider them out of place simply because they stuck around for more than one season.  but, there was another third baseman in the mix in '87:  phil garner.  the dodgers traded for garner during the 1987 season, and scrap iron took to the dodgers like a fish out of water.

he hit a buck-ninety after joining the dodgers in mid-june, pinch hitting and playing some second base, short and of course some third base.  in fact, he was their primary third baseman for the last part of the season.  he signed as a free agent with the giants for the 1988 season, ending his turn as the dodgers' out of place guy after just 70 games.

after the dodgers' 1988 world championship, the dodgers and yankees essentially traded second baseman, although steve sax and willie randolph were both free agents

randolph spent 1989 as the dodgers' second baseman, and he did so admirably.  he hit .282 and made the all=star team.  donruss even made him a 'diamond king' in 1990.  speaking of 1990, the dodgers traded randolph to the a's in may of that year since they had juan samuel to play second.

the dodgers then acquired another short-timer for the 1990 season in hubie brooks

brooks was the dodgers' right fielder in 1990 and didn't do too badly - he tied his career high of 20 home runs and drove in 91, but the dodgers signed darryl strawberry for the 1991 season, so brooks was sent packing.

they replaced brooks as the out of place guy for the 1991 season with a hall of famer - gary carter!

carter had been with the giants in 1990 after bottoming out with the mets in '89.  he caught (as mike scioscia's backup) but also played some first base for the dodgers.  he hit .246 with 6 home runs and was re-acquired by the expos for a farewell tour in time for the 1992 season.

in the ensuing seasons, the dodgers employed the services of a few different players who didn't stick around long - todd benzinger, jody reed, jeff treadway, roberto kelly, mike blowers, darren lewis, and otis nixon to name most of them.  but the next truly out of place guy was bobby bonilla.

acquired in the mike piazza trade, i don't think the dodgers could get rid of bobby bo quickly enough.  they really wanted sheffield and were ready to commit to 19 year old adrian beltre at third base.  still, bonilla matched beltre's production although just barely.  bonilla was traded to the mets after the season ended and steve phillips went nuts.

coming soon, the out of place guys of the 2000's!

now this was o-pee-chee...

back in my day, being an o-pee-chee card meant something dang-gummit! we were shown in our old team's uniforms and we liked it! well, i did anyway. after being disappointed with upper deck's resurrection of the o-pee-chee brand, let's renew our love of the variation, shall we?

1979 tommy john.

this card was unfathomable to me. a dodger on the yankees? no way. of course, it worked both ways, as andy messersmith and gary thomasson were yankees on the dodgers in this set. john had the same bad luck don sutton did in regards to the world series, although he at least appeared in the 1981 matchup. he was famously removed from game 6 early, and the dodgers went on to beat the yankees.

1980 joe morgan. the big red machine was almost completely dis-assembled after morgan returned to the astros. the astros released him a year later, which set the stage for him to go to the giants where he would eventually destroy my hopes for the 1982 season.

speaking of 1982, here's mark belanger.the defensive specialist was displaced in baltimore by cal ripken jr, and brought his gold gloves to the dodgers for a year. he made an uncharacteristic 4 errors in 86 chances at short, and retired after the 1982 season.

1985 rickey henderson. who would have thought that rickey would leave oakland? i was a big fan of 'billy-ball' and so had quite an interest in henderson, dwayne murphy, mike norris and the others. so i was surprised when rickey was traded to the yankees for jose rijo and a few other players, including eric plunk. in 1989, the yankees would trade him back to oakland for some players, including eric plunk.

1986 steve yeager.

aside from bill russell, yeager was the last of the dodgers from the 1978 team that i was so connected to. interestingly enough, he was a 'sign and trade' free agent, as the dodgers signed him and traded him a couple weeks later to the mariners for ed vandeberg. yeageer got to seattle just in time to play in roger clemens' first 20-k game. he only struck out once, though, out of two at-bats.

1987 greg brock. man, did i not care for greg brock. simply because he was garvey's replacement. it wasn't his fault, although he didn't do much of anything in the postseason the way garvey did. brock had his best season in 1987 for the brewers, where he had the pressure of replacing cecil cooper! if only greg had followed joe shlabotnik instead of two franchise favorites, he might not have had all the pressure.

i've enjoyed this trip down o-pee-chee memory lane, and i have a bunch more variations that i'll post in the future.

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!