dime box dodgers

here are some more cards that nick from dime boxes sent to me recently.  you didn't think he sent just double play cards, did you?

i will admit, i coveted the don mattingly and darryl strawberry cards from 1984 donruss more than i wanted sid fernandez's card 30 years ago

even though sid's was the only one of the three to have the coveted rated rookie banner.  it also features a dodger stadium as the background.  1984 was, of course, the first year that donruss added the rated rookie moniker to the front of the card.  in 1983, at least, it was noted on the back of the cards.  a waste of ink, that was.

here's a 1995 upper deck star rookie subset card of another dodger prospect from mexico, antonio osuna

and yet another mexican dodger prospect from 1996 pacific, karim garcia

sadly, there were no fernando valenzuela or dennis reyes cards in the package.

there were some cards of retired dodger stars, including this other pacific card from their 1988 legends set of frank howard

and a 1990 swell baseball greats of don newcombe

nick is good at finding cards from the 1992 conlon tsn set, and he sent me a johnny cooney (a dodger double dipper)

and a burleigh grimes

from the set.  my favorite grimes card of the package, however, was this 2001 upper deck legends of new york card

which comes with the fuzzy 'b'.  grimes was a hall of fame pitcher for the brooklyn robins and later a manager of the brooklyn dodgers, including the 1937 squad which was the year that conlon took those photos seen on the cooney and grimes cards.  so, upper deck should have listed grimes as a robin on their card since he is identified as a pitcher, not a manager.  still, i'll take all the grimes cards i can get.

thanks nick!  i've got some cards heading your way soon.

johnny cooney double dipped

johnny cooney first joined the dodgers out of the american association in 1935.  he had spent 10 seasons with the boston braves, but his time with the dodgers was the first big league action he had seen since 1930.  after three years in brooklyn, the dodgers traded him to the cardinals as part of a package for leo durocher.  cooney soon returned to the braves, but rejoined the dodgers for the 1943 campaign, becoming a dodger double dipper.

[this is the sixtieth 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, and george smith.]

this is the only card of cooney that i have - it comes from the 1990 target dodger set.

one of the most interesting things about cooney is that he was used quite frequently as a pitcher during his first run with the braves, but he had been converted to an outfielder when he joined the dodgers in 1935 and never pitched again.  he hit .287 during his five total seasons with the dodgers, and after he retired as a player, he became a coach for the braves, and even managed the club for a short time.