sunday morning target dodgers - that's babich, not babip

here's another sheet (15 more cards) from the 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary set. enjoy.

johnny babich

babich broke into the majors with the dodgers in 1940 and pitched for them for two seasons.  he won 7 games in each, but lost a total of 25 with a cumulative era of 5.46.  when i first saw this card on the sheet, being the forward thinking analytical fan that i am (not really), i immediately thought of 'babip'.  that's batting average on balls in play in case you didn't know.  i don't know what babich's babip against was during his time with the dodgers, but in his last two seasons as a member of the philadelphia a's, his .267 babip was below the league average of .292.  as a batter, his career babip was .243, but in his final season, he had an incredible .476 babip.  thanks baseball reference!

jim campanis

campanis spent parts of 3 seasons (1966-1968) with the dodgers as a backup catcher before his dad, general manager al campanis, sent him to the royals prior to the 1969 season.  campanis was the first pinch-hitter in kansas city royals history, and he recored the first pinch-hit and pinch-hit rbi in franchise history as well.  i appreciate the fact that the union 76 logo is visible atop the left field pavilion in dodger stadium in the background of campanis' card.

bob darnell

darnell pitched six innings of scoreless relief in his major league debut on august 10, 1954, although he did allow an inherited runner to score.  he got the start in his next appearance (which came against the same club - the phillies - against whom he had thrown those scoreless innings and wound up lasting only two frames.  he pitched in only four more games that season and just one in 1956, and that was the total of darnell's big league career.

john dobbs

dobbs was an outfielder for the superbas from 1903-1905, which also happened to be the last 3 seasons of his big league career.  he hit .247 over that time which was about 40 points lower than he had hit in the first two seasons of his career.  after retiring as a player, dobbs became a successful manager in the minor leagues.

clise dudley

dudley was 8-18 as a member of the brooklyn robins from 1929-1930. he is better known as a member of the 'home run in first major league at bat' club.  in fact, dudley homered on the first pitch he saw at the big league level.

mariano duncan

in 1985, duncan was the heir apparent to bill russell as the dodger shortstop, as he made 120 starts at short and finished third in the rookie of the year voting.  after two more seasons, duncan had fallen out of favor with manager tom lasorda, and was banished to the minor leagues for the entire 1988 season.  with alfredo griffin at short, duncan returned to the bigs in 1989, but was traded during the season to the reds in the kal daniels deal.  duncan went on to win a world series title with the reds in 1990 (plus one with the yankees in 1996) while the dodgers haven't been back to the fall classic since '88.  duncan eventually returned to the franchise as a minor league coach, and became the dodgers' first base coach during grady little's managerial tenure.

herman franks

first off, this is the same photo that topps used of franks for the inset photo on his 1978 topps card. this increases the likelihood that the photo shows franks in a dodger uniform (a question that i had pondered as a youth back in '78) as he played for the team in 1940 and 1941, but i still don't know for sure.  in addition to the dodgers, franks played for the cardinals, a's, and giants, although it was as a dodger that he played the most, appearing in 122 of his 188 games wearing the brooklyn uniform.  franks was on the 1941 pennant winning team and ended game 1 of the world series with a gidp in his only appearance in the fall classic.  perhaps franks could have held on to strike 3 in game 4 of the series had he been behind the plate instead of mickey owens, but we will never know.

tony giuliani

giuliani was another backup catcher on those 1940 and 1941 dodger teams after previously playing for the browns and senators.  his total dodger experience came in the form of one appearance and one at bat in 1940 and 3 appearances with 2 at bats in 1941.  he did not appear in the 1941 world series.

derrell griffith

the dodgers won the pennant in three of the four seasons in which griffith played for them, but he did not appear in the postseason in any of those years.  griffith debuted with the 1963 world champion club as a 19-year old, seeing action in one late-season game.  he was back in 1964, playing in 78 games and hitting .290.  in 1965 and 1966, both pennant winning seasons for the dodgers, griffith hit .171 and .067, respectively, while playing in just over 20 games each season.  after that, he was traded to the mets with tommy davis, but never returned to the majors.

johnny hall

like griffith above, hall was from oklahoma. he pitched for the dodgers during the 1948 season, his only season in the majors. in three appearances, hall logged 4.1 innings pitched and posted an era of 6.23.

stu pederson

pederson was a late season call-up with the 1985 dodgers after hitting over .300 in the minor leagues since being drafted in 1981.  he made 8 appearances during the last month of that season, but was 0 for 4 with a sacrifice fly at the plate.  pederson spent the next couple of seasons back in the minors for the dodger organization, and then moved on to the blue jays' minor league system, but was unable to return to the majors.  he should be spending some time at chavez ravine this year, however, as his son joc is poised to make the team out of spring training as one of the dodgers' outfielders.

arky vaughan

the hall of fame shortstop finished his career with four seasons as a dodger.  in 1942, with pee wee reese at short, vaughan was used as the dodgers' third baseman despite having played there only 5 times during his previous 10 years with the pirates, and he made the all-star team.  in 1943, with reese serving in the military, vaughan returned to shortstop for most of the time, and he led the league in runs scored and stolen bases.  after that season, vaughan retired rather than continue to play for manager leo durocher.  when durocher was suspended for the 1947 season, vaughan returned to the team as an outfielder and hit .325 in 64 regular season games, plus he was 1 for 2 in the world series.  vaughan played in 65 games for the dodgers in 1948 and hit .244 after which he spent the 1949 season in the pacific coast league and then retired a second time.  sadly, he died three years later in a boating accident.  vaughan is largely regarded as one of the greatest shortstops of all-time, perhaps sitting behind only honus wagner on that list.

jack warner

warner had played for the tigers for four years before joining the robins for the 1929 season.  as a backup shortstop, warner appeared in 21 games that season.  in 1930, he was used mostly as a pinch-hitter, although he played some third base, too, and he hit .320 in 28 plate appearances.  the following season, his last with brooklyn at the major league level, saw him hit .500 in 4 at bats over 9 games played.

ron washington

the dodgers gave washington a call-up late in the 1977 season, and in 10 games played, he hit .368 and scored 4 times.  still, he couldn't quite make the roster with bill russell firmly entrenched at short and was eventually traded by the dodgers to the twins in 1980.  wash played for the twins, orioles, indians, and astros before retiring as a player and moving into coaching.  he was a highly respected coach for the a's prior to becoming the manager of the rangers, leading texas to their two lone world series appearances.

kaiser wilhelm

wilhelm's real name was irvin, which i would have preferred to kaiser, given the actions of germany's kaiser wilhelm in the early 1900's.  brooklyn's wilhelm pitched for the superbas from 1908 through 1910, and although his record during that time was just 22-42, his era for the same period was 2.62.  in fact, wilhelm lost 22 games in 1908 despite a 1.87 era.  wilhelm's playing career outlasted the other kaiser wilhelm's reign in germany, as he pitched as a 47-year old in 1921, three years after the german ruler had been exiled to the nederlands.

guess who sent me these cards...

i am guessing that nick at dime boxes kept a copy of this 1999 topps stadium club chan ho park card

for his collection before sending one to me.  it's the type of whimsical card that i would add to a trade package before sending it his way, if it weren't a dodger card that i needed.  shortly after he burst onto the scene, nick became one of my favorite trade partners largely because of how much fun it is to put a trade package together for him.  however, the stuff he sends in return is always great, too.

here's a 1999 skybox premium raul mondesi card

if you look at that card a certain way, it looks like rauuuuuuuuuuul is running backwards.  pick up your coach, raul - don't look at the ball.

before target red bordered parallels, there were still red bordered parallels.  this is a 2003 topps bazooka chad billingsley red bordered parallel.

this was before billingsley became seemingly susceptible to injury, and had all the promise in the world.  i am hoping for a big comeback from bills in 2015, but it doesn't look like it will be with the dodgers.

how about a 2004 topps cracker jack jose lima card?

the late jose lima was the only dodger between orel hershiser (in 1988) and derek lowe (in 2009) to win a postseason game.  he shut out the cardinals in the 2004 nlds to break an 0-8 postseason skid for the dodgers.

here's a 1996 topps stadium club antonio osuna card that i love for a couple of reasons.

first, it shows the license plate that osuna wore around his neck (it's askew on the left neckline of his jersey). i remember watching osuna pitch on tv in one of his first appearances and seeing that thing sway around like a tire swing.  you will have to remember that this is the mid 1990's, before there were a bunch of big pendants on chains worn by athletes during games.  the other reason that i really like this card is that i am pretty certain that padre first base coach davey lopes is lurking in the background.

here's the guy that lopes replaced as the dodgers' first base coach a few years ago on a 1986 fleer star sticker card.  it is, of course, mariano duncan

duncan was supposed to replace bill russell as the dodger shortstop when he came up in 1985.  while he was the team's primary shortstop that year, things didn't quite work out after that as tommy lasorda turned out to not be much of a fan.  duncan spent the entire 1988 championship season in the minors, but eventually won world series rings with the reds in 1990 and the yankees in 1996.

outfielder mike marshall, seen here on his 1989 topps uk mini card,

was a part of the dodgers' 1988 world championship team (he hit .231 with a homer in the fall classic against the a's), but his final postseason appearance came with the red sox in 1990.

here's the last card of this post, a 1977-84 renata gallaso carl furillo card

it was a great card to see in the trade package for many reasons - it's a carl furillo card, and there aren't too many of those; it's a card that i didn't previously have; and it features the right-handed furillo posing as a lefty.  it's the type of card that i would send to nick if i didn't need it for my collection.  thanks nick!

the evolution of the shortstop, part 2

it's been awhile and i need to finish off these position evolution posts.  here's the second installment of the shortstop evolutionary chain - this time from anderson to izturis.

dave anderson (1984)

andy started 111 games at short in 1984, replacing the dean of the dodgers, bill russell, as the team's first primary shortstop not named wills or russell in 15 years.  he hit .251, and the following year spent more time at third base than short.  that's because the dodgers promoted mariano duncan.

mariano duncan (1985-1987)

duncan appeared at shortstop in 123 games (120 starts) for the dodgers in 1985.  he hit .244 with 38 steals and helped the dodgers reach the playoffs, although he hit just .222 in the nlcs against the cardinals.  in 1986, duncan appeared in 106 games as the dodgers' shortstop, and while he stole 48 bases, his batting average dropped to .229 and he was losing favor as the dodgers' shortstop of the future.  in 1987, duncan's average dropped to .215 and he played at shortstop only slightly more (538 innings to 499) than anderson.  he was demoted to the minor leagues for the entire 1988 season, as the dodgers went out and brought in alfredo griffin.

alfredo griffin (1988-1991)

griffin, seen above admiring one of his mammoth home run blasts on his 1991 topps stadium club card, barely gets the nod in 1988 thanks to his 89 starts at short compared to anderson's 72 starts.  he hit a lousy .199 on the season, and then was even worse at the plate in the postseason - .160 in the nlcs and .188 in the world series - but the dodgers won it all anyway.  griffin had better seasons as the dodgers' primary shortstop in 1989 (136 games, .247 average), 1990 (141 games, .210 average), and 1991 (109 games, .243 average) before returning to the blue jays in 1992.

jose offerman (1992-1995)

offerman hit in the .260's in both 1992 and 1993 as the dodgers' everyday shortstop.  unfortunately, he made 42 and 37 errors in those seasons respectively, earning his nickname 'e-fferman'.  at least that's what i called him.  he lost a fair amount of playing time to rafael bournigal in 1994, but still managed to be the team's primary shortstop.  in his final season as a dodger (1995), offerman remained the everyday shortstop, and even made the all-star team thanks to a .303 average at the break (he wound up hitting .287 on the season).  offerman was traded to the royals after the 1995 season, and kc immediately moved him out of the shortstop position and reaped the offensive benefits that followed.  no joke - offerman averaged .306 over his three seasons with the royals.

greg gagne (1996-1997)

gagne came over from the royals after the 1995 season, but not in the offerman trade - it was his signing as a free agent actually made offerman expendable.  over the course of the next two seasons, gagne missed only 52 games (that's what passed for stability at this position back then) and hit .253 with a little pop.  he finished his career as a dodger, retiring after the '97 season.

jose vizcaino (1998)

el viz returned to the dodgers for the 1998 season, and he wound up leading the team with 65 starts at the position while hitting .262.  juan castro, wilton guerrero, alex cora, and even adrian beltre also spent time there, but vizcaino got the nod most often.  until the dodgers made a trade deadline deal, that is.  after that, mark grudzielanek took over the position.

mark grudzielanek (1999)

the g-man appeared in 123 games for the dodgers in 1999, 119 (118 starts) as a shortstop.  he also hit a robust .326 on the season.  yes, his 2002 upper deck card shown above lists him as a second baseman, and for good reason - he switched to second in 2000.

alex cora (2000-2001)

cora played short for the dodgers in 101 games in 2000 and 132 games in 2001.  he didn't do much offensively, and was an average fielder, but jim tracy played him.  like grudzielanek, cora later moved over to second base.

cesar izturis (2002-2005)

the dodgers went out and acquired izturis in a trade with the blue jays after the 2001 season.  i recall hearing him advertised as a slick fielding prospect and so was not really surprised when he posted obp numbers below .300 during his first two seasons as the dodgers' primary shortstop.  in 2004, however, his third year at the top of the depth chart, izzy put it all together, hitting .288 with an obp of .330 and 25 steals.  he also won the gold glove that year - the first dodger shortstop to do so since maury wills in 1962.  in 2005, izturis again was the dodgers' primary shortstop, at least until an injury sidelined him for the season in august. the following year, he found his starting job lost and was traded to the cubs for greg maddux.

i'll wrap up the shortstop evolution in a couple of days.  stay tuned.

dime box dodgers by proxy

nick from dime boxes didn't just send me double play cards recently, he sent a few dodger oddballs and parallels, too.  here is a smattering.

1982 fleer stamps steve garvey

i had avoided stamps and stickers for a long time when it came to my garvey collection.  i caved on stickers about 10 years ago or so, but i did not have one of these until nick sent it my way.

1985 topps tiffany rj reynolds

ditto with the tiffany cards.  i still don't have more than a few in my collection.

1986 fleer mini mariano duncan

i did pick up sets of the fleer minis back in the early 2000's - primarily as an easy way to get the garveys and dodgers.  i appreciate the fact that fleer used different photos - the sets weren't just a shrunken down version of the flagship set.

1989 woolworth's mike marshall

why topps didn't include postseason cards in their 1989 set is beyond me.  instead, we have fleer, o-pee-chee and woolworth issuing those cards.  and two of those three manufacturers had relationships with topps!

1991 conlon tsn zach wheat

mr. wheat led the national league in slugging percentage in 1916!  that looks more like the dodgers' 1912 uni than the robins' 1916 jersey.  wheat also played for the franchise when they were the superbas.

here's a 1992 bazooka card that had me scratching my head

a 1953 topps style 4-in-1 in a 1992 bazooka product?  at least some kids got to see preacher roe on cardboard.

the last card for this post is a 1995 upper deck collector's choice special edition silver signature parallel of ramon martinez

the silver/grey border actually works nicely with this card.

thanks nick, but i'm not done yet...

filling in a gap - a topps dodger autograph project update

i was happy and surprised to see a small saspwe in my mailbox yesterday.  outside of that mike schmidt ttm request, i haven't mailed any out recently.  my outstanding steve garvey request will (hopefully) make it's way back in a larger mailer.  anyway, the card inside was this 1985 topps traded mariano duncan card

that's cool for many reasons - first, i sent it in september of 2012 c/o the tennessee smokies where duncan was a coach, but it came back postmarked from orlando.  second, it's a great card with the rookie duncan taking a lead under the watchful eye of lurking coach joe amalfitano.  third, it fills a gap in my topps dodger autograph project.

as you will recall, i tried to get a signed copy of a dodger card from each year of topps cards through the mail.  i didn't count traded sets towards the completion of the project, but they were nice to have.  and, with this duncan, if i were to count the traded and update sets, the project would be complete through 1988 topps.

here's an updated tally of the topps dodger autograph project:

1951 topps - preacher roe (purchased)

1952 topps - rocky bridges

1953 topps - bobby morgan

1954 topps - billy herman (purchased)

1955 topps - don zimmer (purchased)

1956 topps - randy jackson

1957 topps - carl erskine

1958 topps - joe pignatano

1959 topps - fred kipp

1960 topps - chuck essegian

1961 topps - bob aspromonte

1962 topps - norm sherry

1963 topps - ed roebuck

1964 topps - ken mcmullen

1965 topps - dick tracewski

1966 topps - john kennedy

1967 topps - phil regan

1968 topps - jim campanis

1969 topps - jeff torborg

1970 topps - al mcbean

1971 topps - sandy vance

1972 topps - manny mota

1973 topps - wes parker

1974 topps - claude osteen

1974 topps traded - jim wynn

1975 topps - ron cey

1975 topps mini - joe ferguson

1976 topps - bill russell

1976 topps traded - dusty baker

1977 topps - steve garvey

1978 topps - dave lopes

1979 topps - charlie hough

1980 topps - jerry reuss

1981 topps - doug rau

1981 topps traded - ken landreaux

1982 topps - dave goltz

1982 topps traded - jose morales

1983 topps - ron roenicke

1983 topps traded - rafael landestoy

1984 topps - fernando valenzuela

1984 topps traded - mike vail

1985 topps - burt hooton

1985 topps traded - mariano duncan

1986 topps - enos cabell

1986 topps traded - franklin stubbs

1987 topps - steve sax

1987 topps traded - matt young

1988 topps - len matuszek

1989 topps - mickey hatcher

1990 topps - kal daniels

1990 topps traded - juan samuel

1991 topps - tim belcher

1992 topps - roger mcdowell

1993 topps - dave hansen

1993 topps traded - tim wallach

1994 topps - jody reed

1995 topps - chris gwynn

1996 topps - todd hollandsworth

1997 topps - brett butler

1998 topps - greg gagne

1999 topps - jose vizcaino

2000 topps - jeff shaw

2001 topps - chan ho park

2002 topps - andy ashby

2002 topps traded - joel hanrahan

2003 topps - jim tracy

2003 topps traded - ron coomer

2004 topps - edwin jackson

2004 topps traded - milton bradley

2005 topps - chad billingsley

2005 topps update & highlights - jason phillips

2006 topps - bill mueller

2007 topps - james loney

2007 topps update & highlights - andy laroche

2008 topps - delwyn young

2008 topps update & highlights - casey blake

2009 topps - matt kemp

2009 topps update & highlights - brad ausmus

2010 topps - juan pierre

2010 topps update & highlights - ronnie belliard

2011 topps - hong-chih kuo

2011 topps update & highlights - matt guerrier

2012 topps - nathan eovaldi

2012 topps update & highlights - matt treanor

2013 topps - randy choate

thanks mariano!

many minis

i didn't bother with the mini leader cards that topps put out in the late 1980's and into the 90's when they first came out, but i have picked up a few in trades over the past few years and i now appreciate them for what they are: cards featuring dodgers!

i took advantage of an opportunity to add more of them to my collection recently.  i was able to acquire the 1990 eddie murray

i like the fact that the design of this card is in line with the 1990 flagship issue, but it's not a exact copy duplication.  plus, the photo is different.  in case you are wondering, murray ranked fifth in walks in 1989 - that's the leader stat on the back.

orel hershiser was also featured in the 1990 mini leaders set

and not because he led the league in losses.

here's some from 1986.  these i don't like as much because the design is more along the lines of the team leader subset in 1986 topps, rather than the base design itself.

orel hershiser

was 3rd in era, 3rd in shutouts, and 5th in wins in 1985.

mike scioscia

was 2nd in on-base percentage, and fernando valenzuela

was 2nd in complete games, 3rd in shutouts, and 4th in strikeouts

on to 1987.  again, the design is similar but not exactly the same as the flagship set.  it's obviously a companion set and not just a miniature duplication.  i appreciate that.

mariano duncan

was 4th in stolen bases, while steve sax

was 2nd in batting average, 2nd in hits, and 3rd in on-base percentage.  meanwhile, fernando

was 1st in wins, 1st in complete games, 2nd in strikeouts, and 3rd in strikeouts.  he was also 2nd in innings pitched according to the text on the back.

1988 is the worst of the bunch, in my opinion.  the design has nothing to do with the flagship set, and looks too much like the 1986 minis.  i'll keep them anyway.

pedro guerrero

was 2nd in batting average, 2nd in hits, and 5th in on-base percentage in 1985.  bob welch

was 3rd in strikeouts and 5th in wins, and the card also mentions that he tied for first in shutouts and was in the top 10 in a few other categories.  my favorite part of the card is the union 76 sign peeking through.

the 1989 minis incorporated the flagship design, but again were different enough to be interesting.  orel hershiser is back, of course,

as he was 2nd in the majors in wins, 1st in complete games, 3rd in innings pitched, and 1st in shutouts in 1988.

steve sax

was 4th in hits and 1st in at bats

all cards here were provided courtesy of the chronicles of fuji.

duh.  thanks mark!