sunday (maurice) morning (wills) target dodgers

this particular sheet of 15 players from the 1990 target dodger stadium giveaway set is a pretty interesting one.  i'll kick it off with maury wills, whose middle name if you didn't already know is 'morning'

i haven't done wills' double dipper post yet - i'll get to it someday - but he played for the dodgers from 1959 through 1966, and then again from 1969 through 1972.  he won the nl mvp award in 1962 after stealing a record 104 bases that year (since surpassed by lou brock and rickey henderson), and helped the dodgers win four pennants during his first tenure with the team.  for me, his most interesting record is 165 games played in 1962.  i don't see that being broken.

babe birrer

birrer, who debuted for detroit in 1955 (he's wearing his tiger duds in the photo used for this card), finished his major league career with 16 appearances for the 1958 los angeles dodgers.  he had no record, although he recorded what would have been a save in his final big league game if that stat had been around in 1958.  birrer's role with the dodgers looks like it was as a long relief/mop up guy, so he wound up getting some at bats and made the most of them - in 8 plate appearances, birrer was 4 for 7 with a double and a walk.

dan brouthers

first baseman dan brouthers had a fantastic mustache.  he also may well have been the best player in the late 19th century.  he spent two seasons of his hall of fame career with the brooklyn grooms (1892 and 1893) and led the league in hits (197), rbi (124), and batting average (.335) in his first season with the franchise.  as a member of the brooklyn grooms over two seasons, he reached base at a .438 clip, and his career on-base percentage of .423 is the 14th best all-time.

jack coombs

coombs, who had won 31 games for connie mack's a's in 1910, 28 in 1911, and world series titles in each of those seasons, joined the brooklyn robins for the 1915 season.  he wound up pitching for the robins through the 1918 season, posting a record of 43-43 in that span.  he won 15 games in his first season with the club, however, and was 13-8 in 1916 with a 2.66 era, helping the team win the national league pennant.  he was the starter and winning pitcher in game 3 of the series against the red sox - the only game the robins won.

tony cuccinello

cuccinello was the dodgers' second baseman from 1932 through 1935, although he saw some playing time at third base as well.  he was named to the all-star team in 1933, and pinch hit for carl hubbell in the 9th inning.  unfortunately, lefty grove struck him out to end the game.

bob fisher

fisher broke into the major leagues with the 1912 brooklyn dodgers.  he hit .233 in 82 games while playing short, second, and third.  in 1913, he played in 132 games, exclusively at shortstop, and hit .262.  fisher moved on to the chicago cubs, and later switched to second base playing alongside a young shortstop named rogers hornsby on the saint louis cardinals in 1918.

johnny frederick

frederick roamed the outfield for brooklyn from 1929 through 1934.  he never played in fewer that 100 games, and led the league with 52 doubles as a rookie in 1929.  frederick also had 10 homers in his rookie season, giving him a record 82 extra base hits as a rookie - a record that stood until albert pujols broke it in 2001.  injuries ate into frederick's playing time in the outfield, and he was often used as a pinch hitter.  in 1932, frederick hit 6 pinch hit home runs, a record that was eventually broken by the dodgers' dave hansen in 2000.

charlie fuchs

fuchs was 1-0 for the dodgers in 1944, the final season of his 3-year big league career.  he pitched in 8 games for brooklyn, posting an era of 5.74.

brad gulden

gulden appeared in three games for the 1978 dodgers, going 0 for 4 at the plate.  with steve yeager, joe ferguson, and johnny oates all on the roster, there was not much room for another catcher, and gulden was dealt to the yankees prior to the 1979 season for gary thomasson.  gulden was recalled by the bronx bombers following the death of thurman munson in august of 1979, and wound up playing in 40 games that year for the yankees.  gulden's last year in the majors was 1986, when he appeared in 17 games for the giants.

kirby higbe

higbe had been an all-star for the phillies in 1940 before joining the dodgers, and he promptly pitched brooklyn to the world series in 1941 by winning a league high 22 games.  higbe won 29 games over the next two seasons, and then spent two years in combat with the us army.  when he returned from service, he won 17 games for the 1946 dodgers, and was again named to the all-star team.  unfortunately, when higbe entered the game, he was greeted by a ted williams home run.  higbe was one of the players who signed dixie walker's petition asking that the dodgers trade jackie robinson in 1947, and wound up being traded away to the pirates early in the season as a result.

lerrin lagrow

the dodgers acquired lagrow from the white sox early in the 1979 season, and he posted a 5-1 record with 4 saves for them the rest of the way.  lagrow moved on to the phillies for the 1980 season, but was released in july and so did not get to pitch in the world series that year.

harry lumley

lumley spent his entire 7-year major league career with the brooklyn superbas, playing outfield for them from 1904-1910.  in 1904, he led the league as a rookie in both triples (18) and home runs (9), a feat no one has managed since.  lumley had a big year in 1906 as well, hitting .324 with 9 homers and a league leading .477 slugging percentage.  lumley became the team's player/manager in 1909, but after losing 98 games he returned to just player status in 1910.

dick nen

nen had 1 hit in 7 games as a rookie september call-up for the 1963 dodgers, and it was a game-tying, 9th inning home run against the saint louis cardinals.  nen spent all of 1964 in the minors, and then was included in the trade with the senators prior to the 1965 season that netted the team claude osteen.

john tudor

tudor was acquired by the dodgers late in the 1988 season in exchange for pedro guerrero.  he was 4-3 with a 2.41 era for the blue down the stretch, and made a start in both the nlcs and the world series for the club.  his world series start was cut short after four outs due to injury, but he retired all four batters he faced.

dixie walker

i mentioned walker above as the initiator of the player petition aimed at forcing the dodgers' hand to trade jackie robinson prior to the 1947 season. he was also a great ballplayer, hitting over .300 in each of his full seasons with the dodgers, including a league leading .357 in 1944.  walker also led the league with 124 rbi in 1945.  even with his petition, walker remained with the dodgers through the 1947 season before being traded to the pirates following the world series.

world series imposter!

i somehow acquired a few 1970 and 1971 fleer world series cards as a kid. while not licensed, fleer got away with using cartoons of some pretty recognizable faces. then,  a few months ago at the local card show, i found most of the dodger cards i was missing. or so i thought. 

here's the 1971 version of the 1916 world series

featuring brooklyn pitcher jack coombs.  coombs was the winning pitcher in the only game brooklyn won in the series.  he had previously won games in the 1910 and 1911 fall classics for the athletics, hence his 'terrific series record'.  speaking of series records, here's the 1970 take on 1916:

babe ruth.  he pitched a 14 inning complete game.  brooklyn's pitcher, sherry smith, also pitched a complete game, although his was only 13.1 innings.  ruth had only 5 at-bats all series and was held hitless.  he did drive in the first boston run in the 14 inning game with a ground out.  i should mention that the dodgers were actually the robins back then.

on to 1920, 1970 style 

and 1971

no dodger (or robin) love from fleer.  just spitballer stan coveleski and grand slammin' elmer smith.  curiously enough, this was one of the series that took 5 games to win.

we'll skip the dodgers' appearance in the 1941 series (previously posted here), and check out the 1970 homage to the equally depressing 1947 matchup against the yankees.

al gionfriddo, a mid-season acquisition, robbed joltin' joe dimaggio of a game 6 tying home run, forcing game 7. the dodgers lost, of course, but gionfriddo turned dimaggio into a dirt kicker, and that was tough to do.  according to fleer, kirk gibson's home run wasn't the only time 'the impossible has happened' for the dodgers in the world series.

the dodgers and yankees were back at it in 1949, with 1970 fleer giving us this

allie reynolds and preacher roe back to back 1-0 complete games.  don newcombe pitched game one for the dodgers and had matched reynolds until tommy henrich led off the bottom of the 9th with a home run to win the game.

here's the 1971 card:

in which roe's effort gets all the glory.

the dodgers were back for more yankee punishment in 1952 and 1953.  here's the 1971 card for the 1953 series

the yankees hit 9 home runs as a team (berra, collins, mantle 2, martin 2, mcdougald 2, woodling) and the dodgers hit 8 (campanella, cox, furillo, gilliam 2, hodges, shuba, snider).  the yankees also won 4 games to the dodgers' 2.

finally, 1955 arrived.  the 1970 card

shows johnny podres, who won game 7 with a 2-0 shutout, and the 1971 card shows a smiling duke snider

who hit 4 home runs in the series.  duke had also hit 4 in the 1952 series.

the dodgers lost to the yankees in 1956, but the silver fox was smiling again on the 1971 card for the 1959 series against the white sox

while the 1970 version chose to highlight chuck essegian

and his two pinch-hit home runs.  he was 2 for 3 in the series with a walk which means his ops for the series was 3.417!  he certainly made the most of his only career post season appearance!

the dodgers' winning way continued in 1963 as seen on the 1970 card

with moose skowron taking out some aggression against his former team.

two years later, the dodgers were back, this time against the twins, who get the cartoon on the 1971 card

that's ok though, the dodgers won the series.

they weren't as lucky in 1966, though when the orioles shut them out in 3 of the games.  here's the 1971 card comemmorating that series:

i guess a caricature of jim palmer or moe drabowsky would have been too difficult.

1966 was the last dodger appearance in the world series prior to 1974, so that's the end of the line for the 1970 and 1971 sets. 

then, as i was getting the cards set up to scan, i noticed this on the back of one of the cards

dangit.  and it wasn't even the 1966 series.  it was the back of the 1965 card.  so, i picked up a 1980 fleer world series card by mistake.  that year, fleer reprinted the card fronts, put stickers on the back, and added the years that were missing up to 1979.  nice of the dealer to mix it in with the vintage.

luckily, i was able to find a real 1971 card for the 1965 world series.  see?  here's the back:

much better than seeing that bird again!