sunday morning target dodgers - i didn't know jacklitszch

the secondary title of this post should make sense about half way through.  here are 15 cards from a sheet that was part of the 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary set given out at dodger stadium 25 years ago.

lady baldwin

i almost went with 'dude looks like a lady' for the secondary title, but there are so many people on this sheet that i didn't know of (thanks baseball reference) that the other title won out.  baldwin, given name charles, was a member of the 1890 brooklyn bridegrooms.  that was their first year as a national league club (hence the 100th anniversary set in 1990), and he pitched in 2 games for them. he had also been used as an outfielder occasionally earlier in his career (even as he won a record 42 games in 1886), but he was soley a pitcher for brooklyn.  after appearing in those two games, in which he was 1-0 with a 7.04 era, he joined buffalo in the players league for the remainder of the season.

win ballou

ballou was a member of the 1929 robins. he had previously pitched for the senators and browns before joining brooklyn.  for the robins, he was 2-3 in 25 games and his big league career came to a close. he continued to pitch in the pacific coast league, however, and thus we have the photo used for his card above.

boom-boom beck

our first dodger of the day, beck was known as walter until one day in 1934 when casey stengel tried to remove him from a game. instead of handing the ball over to his manager, beck threw it into right field where it caromed off of a tin facade, making a fair amount of noise. supposedly, dodger outfielder hack wilson had not been paying attention and thought that it was a batted ball, so he tracked it down and threw the ball in to the infield.  anyway, boom-boom pitched for the dodgers in 1933 and 1934, losing 20 games in '33.  he had to wait until 1939 to appear in the majors after the '34 season, but he did make it back, this time with the phillies.

greg brock

the usurper.

i thought about leaving it at that, but brock deserves better.  he was the heir apparent at first base when steve garvey left town, and his gaudy numbers from albuquerque in 1982 (44 homers, 138 rbi, and a .310 average) gave dodger fans hope.  brock hit 20 homers in his rookie season, but drove in only 66 and hit just .224.  he finished 7th in the rookie of the year voting, breaking the 4-year hold the franchise had on the award.  the dodgers did make it to the nlcs in his rookie year, and again in 1985 with brock at first, but he was eventually traded to the brewers after the 1986 season.

red downs

downs played in 9 games for the 1912 dodgers. he hit .250 in 34 plate appearances, before he was claimed by the cubs in may.

bones ely

ely had a sweet mustache, let's get that settled up front. he was an infielder with the 1891 brooklyn grooms who appeared in 31 games and hit just .153 in them. a couple of years later, he returned to the majors as a shortstop with the cardinals and after that, with the pirates - eventually becoming known as the man that honus wagner replaced at short for pittsburgh.

roy evans

it's too bad evans played for the superbas in 1902 and 1903 - well before the time of roy rogers and dale evans, because i'm sure he would have been called trigger if he had played during the heyday of the king of the cowboys.  or maybe not.  as it is, evans was 10-15 for brooklyn with an even 3.00 era during his time on their staff.

fred jacklitzch

it is true - i didn't know jacklitzsch before this, just as i didn't know about any of the guys above except for greg brock.  but, thanks to bbref.com, not i do.  jacklitzsch (which is more difficult to spell that grudzielanek or yastrzemski, in my opinion), even when baseball reference spells it without the 'z', played for brooklyn in 1903 and 1904. he caught, but also played second, first, and the outfield, hitting .257 in 86 games for the club.

frank kane

i believe that this photo of someone is blurry for a reason. the only frank kane that comes up in baseball reference's database was an outfielder for the 1919 new york yankees who also played in the federal league for the 1915 brooklyn tip-tops.  this set has nothing to do with brooklyn's federal league team.  there is no frank kane or kahn or cain or cane listed in the dodger franchise player roster.  i looked at the back of the card, and it says that kane did indeed play for brooklyn (the robins, not the tip-tops) in 1915.  apparently target didn't know jacklitszch about this guy and added him to the set erroneously.

john kelleher

after first appearing in the majors at the age of 18 with the 1912 cardinals, kelleher got his next opportunity as a member of the 1916 brooklyn robins. he appeared in 2 games, and was 0 for 3 at the plate. he did not appear in the postseason.  he next showed up in the majors with the cubs in 1921.

lou koupal

koupal spent 1928 and the first part of the 1929 season with the robins. he was 1-0 in 17 games in 1928, and 0-1 in 18 games in 1929.  his record, and departure from the club by way of a trade with the phillies, may have had something to do with a 2.41 era in '28 and a 5.36 era for brooklyn in '29.

curly onis

onis is the rare player (roy gleason is another) to have a career 1.000 batting average in the major leagues.  he appeared in just one game during the 1935 season, getting a single in his only at bat.  he is further distinguished by having a higher career batting average than fielding average, as he made an error on one of his two chances in the game, ending with a fp of .500.

bill sayles

sayles' two-year big league career came to an end with 5 games with the 1943 brooklyn dodgers. sayles earned no decisions in those games, but compiled a 7.71 era with 10 walks and 5 strikeouts.

tommy tatum

tatum had a cup of coffee with the 1941 brooklyn dodgers (he appeared in 8 games and was 2 for 12 at the plate) before serving in world war ii.  he returned to the dodger organization in 1946, and earned a call-up to the big club in 1947.  however, after playing in 4 games and going hitless in his 6 at bats, he was lost to the reds who purchased his contract.

earl yingling

believe it or not, earl here is not the only major league player to have the surname 'yingling'.  from the looks of it, however, he may have been the only one to not have any eyes.  yikes.  yingling pitched for the dodgers in 1912, and the superbas in 1913, posting a record of 14-19 and a 3.11 era in his 51 games for the franchise.

that's all for this week - hopefully next week's sheet will have a few more recognizable names.

the evolution of the dodgers' first baseman, part one

it is well known that jackie robinson began his major league career as the dodgers' first baseman in 1947.  unfortunately, i do not own a 1947 bond bread card of jackie's, nor do i own a 1948 leaf card to show in this space.  with that being the case, i'll start the evolution of the dodgers' first baseman with the guy who replaced jackie at first in 1948, gil hodges. this is not a departure from the norm, using a fantastic 1952 bowman card to kick off an evolution post (this is a baseball card blog and i don't have many pre-1950's cards in my collection), but it sure would have been nice to see that leaf card of jackie up top.  maybe someday.

gil hodges (1948-1959)

yes, hodges' 1952 bowman card is fantastic.  i enjoy having it in my collection.  the dodgers enjoyed having hodges' bat in their lineup following his conversion from catcher to first baseman in 1948.  he hit a total of 361 home runs for the dodgers, including 344 during the 12-year span in which he was the team's primary first baseman.  the club also won two world championships (and 6 pennants) with him at first.

norm larker (1960-1961)

norm!  larker (shown on his 1961 topps card) took over for hodges in 1960 and promptly went out and finished second in the national league batting race, .002 behind dick groat and .004 ahead of willie mays.  he was an all-star that year, but came back to earth in 1961, hitting .270 in just 95 games.  he was drafted by the colt .45's in the expansion draft prior to the 1962 season, and he became the very first first baseman in houston's history.  if there were an astros blogger out there doing this same sort of post, larker would be at the very start.

ron fairly (1962-1964)

with larker gone, fairly moved to first from the outfield.  yes, i am showing his 1965 topps card even though he was back in the outfield when the 1965 season rolled around.  before that, however, he enjoyed three solid seasons as the dodger first baseman, averaging 12 homers and 74 rbi.  he was playing more outfield by the end of the '63 season, making way for bill skowron.  as a result, he made only late-inning appearances during the 1963 world series.

wes parker (1965-1972)

skowron left the dodgers after one season, and fairly moved back to the outfield with wes parker taking over at first.  he became part of the team's all switch hitting infield (with jim lefebvre, jim gilliam, and maury wills) and helped the dodgers win the world series against the twins.  parker also won gold gloves in 6 of his 8 seasons spent playing primarily at first (including 1971 - the year of the topps card shown above).  in 1970, he led the national league with 47 doubles, but he was always better known for his skill with the leather, compiling a career .996 fielding percentage as a first baseman.  he retired following the 1972 season at the age of 32.  parker is the only non-hall of famer on rawlings' all-time gold glove team.

bill buckner (1973)

buckner's 1974 topps card lists him as a first baseman because he played in 93 games (83 starts) at the position in 1973.  he hit .275 and played in 140 games overall that year, and was moved back to the outfield in 1974, where he was seen climbing the wall in atlanta trying to get to hank aaron's 715th career home run.

steve garvey (1974-1982)

there aren't a lot of steve garvey cards from his playing days that i haven't shown on the blog yet, but that 1980 kellogg's card is one of them.  the garv took over the first baseman's job and wound up winning the all-star game and national league mvp awards in 1974.  he held on to the job until he left the club as a free agent following the 1982 season, amassing 8 consecutive all-star starts, 4 gold gloves, 4 pennants, and a world series championship during that 9-year span.

greg brock (1983-1986)

brock, shown on his 1986 o-pee-chee card, was a triple-a phenom who had the misfortune of being asked to replace garvey in the dodgers' lineup and maybe even continue the dodgers' string of rookies of the year (they had owned the award since rick sutcliffe won it in 1979, with steve howe winning in 1980, fernando valenzuela in 1981, and steve sax in 1982).  unfortunately, brock hit just .224 with 20 homers in 146 games in his rookie year, finishing 7th in the 1983 nl rookie of the year balloting.  the dodgers still won the west, however, and brock was 0 for 9 in his first taste of postseason play.  the following season, he hit .225 while playing in only 88 games, but still spent more time at first than anybody else.  in 1985, he helped the dodgers return to the postseason with what may have been his best season with the dodgers - he hit .251 with 21 homers and 66 rbi in 129 games.  he got his only postseason hit of his career that year, a home run in game 2 of the nlcs.  he was hitless in his other 11 at bats of the series.  following another lackluster season, brock was traded to the brewers for a couple of tims - crews and leary.

franklin stubbs (1987-1988)

stubbs had been the dodgers' left fielder in 1986, but moved to first to replace brock in 1987.  he had a 'brock-ish' season, however, hitting .233 with 15 homers and 52 rbi in 129 games, 111 of which included some time at first.  in 1988, stubbs appeared in 84 games at first for the dodgers, 54 of which were starts, which was more than mike marshall (54 games, 51 starts) so he gets the nod here for the year that was so improbable.  that's his 1988 score card, by the way.  stubbs started all five games of the '88 world series, hitting .294 with a couple of rbi. interestingly enough, stubbs went to the astros in a trade prior to the 1990 season, but signed with the brewers as a free agent for the 1991 campaign wherein he replaced greg brock as the first baseman for the brew crew.

eddie murray (1989-1991)

the dodgers were likely tired of a lack of production from the first base position since garvey's departure, so they traded for hometown guy eddie murray following their world series triumph over the a's.  steady eddie showed up in 1989 (i was excited to see him in dodger blue on his 1989 upper deck card shown above) and played in 160 games (159 at first) but hit only .247.  he did drive in 88 runs, however, and in 1990 he led all of major league baseball with a .330 average.  too bad for murray that willie mcgee was hitting .335 when he was dealt from the cardinals to the a's (mcgee hit only .274 with oakland, dropping his composite average to .324 for the season).  murray left the dodgers after the 1991 season as a free agent, opening the door for a rookie named eric karros to win the job even though the team had traded for todd benzinger just in case.

do iou?

i decided sometime in may that i needed a better way to track trades.  previously, i had used email folders to remind me of trades that had been agreed to - i had one folder for 'i have sent' and one for 'they have sent' and one for 'completed', and i would move the email around based on the status of the trade until it was in the 'completed' folder.  it worked for most of the last 5+ years, but now there are some packages that show up without warning (which is great), and so email is not all inclusive when it comes to trades.  

for example, i owed the writer's journey as jason sent me some cards unannounced.  included in his envelope was this 1983 donruss greg brock card

brock and i have a complicated relationship, thanks to the fact that he was supposed to replace steve garvey in 1983.  not his doing, but what was a 12-year old to do but wish that brock continued to be blocked by the nl iron man.  regardless of how i felt, this card was a hot commodity in my neighborhood in 1983 due to brock's 44 home runs in triple-a in 1982.  my friends and i were perplexed, however, by the text on the back - brock was a '1983 donruss rated rookie'

we didn't know what that meant.  the guy at the card shop didn't know either.  it became clear in 1984 when donruss moved the designation to the front of the cards that it was just another way of saying 'future star' and the like.

jason also sent a 1982 kellogg's ron cey

and a 2014 topps stickers carl crawford

i put together a return package and sent it off  - you can read about it here.

i also knew that i owed reader mark who sent some cards for my 1971 topps set

and i recently got the return package in the mail.

i know that i still owe dennis from too many verlanders for sending me a pwe with this card inside - a 2002 fleer fall classic steve garvey/tony perez rival factions insert

i've also received some cards from dennis as part of his recent giveaway that i will show off later.

anyway, in order to help me track my trades and not lose track of who i owe, i have added a 'trade tracker' gadget to the blog.  it's over there on the right (if you're reading this with the mobile version of the site, you need to select the web version to see what it).  it's pretty self explanatory, i think.  'incoming' are cards that i have received, and 'outgoing' are cards that i have sent.  (1) indicates which package was sent first to initiate the trade, and (2) indicates which package completed the trade.  any incoming packages marked with a (1) means that i owe cards to the sender.  so, you can see that i currently owe not only dennis, but also bo and pat at the hot corner (since march!), and you can also see that i have recently started and completed trades with fuji and the rhubarb runner.

i will probably leave completed trades up for a month or so (or until i publish the trade post which sometimes takes longer).  in addition to cards for dennis, bo, and pat, i am also working on packages for people (patp, nick, dollar store), and i don't know if these are return or initial packages to be honest.  i will assume that they are all return packages just in case.

the whole point to this is that i don't want to leave anyone who has sent me cards without a return package.  if i owe you cards, please leave a comment or send me an email, and i will add you to the tracker and send some cards.  like i said earlier, i tried my best to keep track, but i may have missed someone at some point.  and, if we haven't traded before (or even if we have - and thanks very much, by the way), rest assured that i will complete a trade so let's make it happen.

it's time for dodger stadium

tomorrow marks the beginning of the 52nd season of dodger stadium, if i did my math right.  it opened in april of 1962 and went through some major renovations during this past offseason.  most of the improvements won't necessarily be noticeable from the field - they upgraded concourses, entrance plazas, restrooms, clubhouses, etc. - but i'll still be interested to see what people think.

first, let's look at some cards featuring some dodger stadium backgrounds.  the corrugated fiberglass bullpen walls are now covered with greenery, but they were exposed in the 1980's as evidenced by nolan ryan's 1982 fleer card

and kelly downs' 1989 topps card

greg brock's 1984 donruss card

and bill madlock's 1985 donruss card

show us the outfield wall and the railing at the front of the outfield pavilions, while darryl strawberry's 1985 donruss card

shows the dugout and the field level, plus a classicly attired dodger stadium usher.

back to the pavilions - we see the roof structures on randy myers' 1988 donruss card

as well as the padres leaders card from 1988 topps

also from 1988 topps, former dodger candy maldanado takes a cut in dodger stadium

while the astros' chuck jacskon is most likely playing catch

1990 score features at least four astro cards with dodger stadium backgrounds - here's jim deshaies

and the old field level scoreboard with the unocal logo, bob forsch

and dave smith

with the bullpen people behind the gate, and gerald young

with the fence and pavilion railing.  1993 topps gave us another astro - xavier hernandez

with the bullpen gate and the low fence near the right field corner

here's a more recent card - from 2007 upper deck first edition, it's troy tulowitzki

that's the pavilion, but the outfield fence has been bastardized with ads thanks to the mccourts.

the last thing i'll show in this post was in an oddball lot i picked up a couple of months ago.  it's from a release called 1990 publications international hottest rookies stickers, if you can believe that.

the photo is taken from the players' parking lot behind the left field pavilion  a ferrari, a beemer, and some sort of off-road vehicle, among others.

i wish i could be there tomorrow - i haven't been to a dodgers home opener since 1998 which was the year after i moved out of the state.  i won't be going to the twins' opener either, even though i usually make it a point to attend.  temps in the low 30s have a way of discouraging me.

current events on the ttm front

in an effort to stay current with my ttm returns (which doesn't make sense when i have some ttm successes from 2009 that i haven't posted yet), here's a card i received in the mail on tuesday.  it's a 1983 topps traded greg brock card

the heir to steve garvey's position signed the card in about a week which is awesome.  thanks greg!

and don't worry - there is a much more interesting post in the hopper for this afternoon.  be sure to come back and check it out, if you like art.

war

11 days to go/day 3 of the countdown.  that means it's war.  u2's third album.  it was released in march of 1983, and thanks to some savvy friends, i was quickly made aware of it.  to be honest, i didn't think too much of it at the time - i was instead focused on the internal war going on within my baseball fandom.

steve garvey was no longer a dodger. 

i was truly confused.  i had been a dodger fan for the past 5 years and, like most other boys in my neighborhood, steve garvey was my favorite player.  i was in a baseball card shop in santa barbara the day he officially became a free agent, and the shop owner was the one who told me.  i had avoided the morning newspaper even though my dad told me not to get my hopes up, hoping that if i didn't know about it, it wouldn't really be true.  thanks baseball card shop owner.

that meant that this guy, greg brock

was going to get his shot filling garvey's shoes.  we had heard all about brock, and mike marshall, and candy maldonado, and all the other studs down at albuquerque waiting for their turns in the big leagues.  now, with garvey gone and ron cey traded as well, i had a decision to make - do i cheer for the name on the front of the jersey, or the name on the back?  i chose the front.  i recalled how quickly i had warmed to the idea of steve sax at second instead of davey lopes, and i figured what the heck.  it's only a game.  kidding. i did choose to remain a dodger fan, but i still mourned the loss of garvey and made sure my dad got us tickets to the first series that the padres played in la in 1983.  that was when i got my only garvey in person autograph while getting to see him break billy williams' nl consecutive games played record.

brock had a tough road to hoe in 1983, but he managed to hit 20 home runs and drive in 66.  he walked 83 times which was unheard of for a dodger first baseman (meaning garvey).  my apathy towards him waned as the season went on and the dodgers were in the pennant race.  by the time they clinched the nl west, i was openly cheering for brock.  once he got into the postseason, brock struggled as did the rest of the team, but he had shown me that there would be life for the dodgers after garvey.  he had won the war.

a couple of years ago, i sent some cards to brock and asked him to sign them.  he did so on two separate occasions.  here's his 1983 fleer

complete with the news van in the background (or is that spicoli's van?) on the dodger stadium field.  here's his 1985 topps

1986 topps,

and 1987 topps

thanks greg!