a dodger black armband for team owner and president stephen mckeever

here, once again, is the 1990 target dodgers 100th anniversary set card of hall of famer kiki cuyler.

cuyler, who spent just one season (1938) with the dodgers, is wearing a black armband in honor of team president stephen mckeever, who had died in march of '38.  the curious thing about the jersey cuyler is wearing is the fact that 'brooklyn' appears in block lettering rather than the familiar cursive script, and that it appears at all. the hall of fame's website does not show this as one of the jerseys worn by the club in 1938, but rather shows three uniform tops that all say 'dodgers' on them.  thankfully, uni-watch sorted this out in 2010, noting that it was likely that the dodgers wore their 1937 uniforms during 1938 spring training.

speaking of spring training, dodger john winsett graced the cover of life magazine in april of 1938

with a photo from clearwater (where the dodgers trained in 1938) showing the armband, the 'brooklyn' uniform, and the same fence as is seen on the kiki cuyler card.

here's another card showing the black armband - it's leo durocher's 2014 panini classics card

and features a photo with the same fence in the previous two photos, but without the 'brooklyn' on the jersey.  1938 was also durocher's first season with the dodgers, so even without any text on the jersey thanks to panini's lack of a license, there is little doubt that the photo comes from 1938 and the armband is for mckeever.

mckeever, along with his brother edward, had bought half of the club in 1912 as a way for charles ebbets to finance the construction of ebbets field.  when ebbets passed away in 1925, edward mckeever became team president, but his tenure lasted only a few days before he too died.  at that time, the team's manager wilbert robinson took over the role until 1930, and was succeeded by frank york (the mckeever's lawyer).  in 1932, stephen mckeever was elevated to the role of team president and held the position until his death at the age of 84.  as the team's president, mckeever also filled the role of general manager, and so would have been responsible for the signing of cuyler in february of 1938.  mckeever's final transaction may have been the acquisition of dolph camilli from the phillies which occurred on march 6, the day before mckeever's death.

manupatches, man. manupatches.

when i started posting about memorials (armbands and patches) worn by teams to honor players and other people, i also considered starting a series on patches worn by the dodgers.  the first special patch i recall seeing on the dodger jerseys was the jim gilliam memorial patch, but i also remember noticing the 1980 all-star game patch the dodgers wore, as well as the 1981 city of los angeles bicentennial patch.  anyway, if i were to do a sort of dodger patch series, this one might be my favorite. 

that's the patch (a replica of it, actually) that the dodgers wore in 2012 for the 50th anniversary of dodger stadium.  it's featured on a 2013 topps manufactured patch card of adrian gonzalez, who wore the patch for about a month after he was acquired by the dodgers.

before i get started on the idea of manufactured patches, here's a manupatch card from 2010 topps that doesn't feature a dodger, but rather a memorial patch worn by the marlins in their inaugural season

in honor of their team president carl barger.  i don't know of any other memorial patches reproduced as manupatches by the card companies, but i'd be interested to find out if any others exist.

the idea of manufactured or commemorative patches first came to my attention in the early 2000's with upper deck. i was on the lookout for patch cards featuring dodger blue or red, and began to see cards that were touted as patch cards, but not of the game used variety.  although these were not the first i encountered, here are a couple of good examples from 2004 upper deck sweet spot classic - leo durocher

and jackie robinson

the logo on the jackie patch is obviously the dodgers' brooklyn logo, but the durocher patch features a design created by upper deck.  the 1936 all-star game was played in boston at the braves' home stadium, and durocher was the starting shortstop for the national league.  of course, he was on the cardinals at the time.  anyway, at least the 'b' in the logo matches the braves' boston 'b', and not the dodgers' brooklyn 'b'.

i briefly considered collecting the 2012 topps commemorative patch set that focused on retired numbers, but settled for the three dodgers in the set - jackie robinson (42), sandy koufax (32), and tommy lasorda (2)

that set was, to me, an improvement on the 2011 topps commemorative patch effort that included putting modern players, such as matt kemp, on cards with old logos

i don't believe the dodgers ever wore a 'brooklyn' sleeve patch

before all that, however, there were these sorts of patches that were part of upper deck's 2003 sweet spot classic release, in addition to the game used variety.  steve garvey was featured as both a dodger

and a padre

on the logo manupatches, with the san diego version being hand numbered.  these were made to look like they were taken from the team hats, but they were not.  the garvey dodger card, by the way, features the 1981 la bicentennial patch i mentioned earlier.

in addition to the hat logos, garvey had two more manupatches in the set - this 1977 themed patch

and this 1981 patch

neither one is close to the official mlb world series logo from either year, although anything would be an improvement on the 1977 logo.

the 1981 world series patch upper deck created was first seen in the 2002 upper deck world series heroes set as part of the patch collection inserts - some of which were signed, like this one featuring the autograph of steven patrick garvey, who happened to turn 66 years old yesterday.  

here, you can see that the 2003 garvey manupatch card above actually has a condensed version of the patch.  the back of this card confirmed that the patch was 'specially created for the upper deck company'

i know manupatches are loathed by some, but obviously, i've got a few in my collection, and i am ok with that.  maybe someday topps will make a series featuring the dodger hero patches from 1999. i'd be all-in for that.

sunday morning dodgers - tommy used to work on the docks

today's sheet of 15 brooklyn/los angeles ballplayers is not a bad one.  some big names and some good stories.  here goes another installment of cards from the 1990 target dodgers set that celebrated the franchise's 100 years of membership in the national league.

tommy brown

if brown looks young on his card, that's because he is young on his card. after quitting school at the age of 12 to work on the docks with his uncle, brown was signed by the dodgers at an open tryout, and he debuted as a major leaguer in 1944 at the ripe old age of 16.  i believe that he is the youngest position player to appear in the major leagues (reds' pitcher joe nuxhall was younger), and he is certainly the youngest to ever hit a home run in the big leagues, having connected in 1945 at the age of 17.  over the course of 7 seasons with the dodgers, brown appeared in 272 games and hit .237.  it appeared that he might finally realize his potential when, in 1952, he hit .320 for the cubs, but he regressed in 1953 and his 9-year major league career came to an end at brown's ripe old age of 25.  he continued to play in the minors, and set a record by reaching base safely in 20 consecutive plate appearances.

sid bream

bream, who debuted as a dodger in 1983, was never really a threat to greg brock as the dodgers' first baseman in their post-steve garvey days. he played in a total of 66 games for the dodgers from '83 to '85, hitting .159, before he was traded to the pirates in the bill madlock deal.  bream had some solid years as the pirates' first baseman, but he is best remembered as a brave - the brave who scored on francisco cabrera's pinch-hit single in game 7 of the 1992 nlcs against the pirates to send atlanta to the world series.

lindsay brown

this brown played in 48 games for the 1937 dodgers, hitting .270 and playing shortstop in 45 of those games. his cap suggests that he was also affiliated with the cleveland indians or more likely the cincinnati reds, for whom he played some minor league ball following his lone year in the majors.

tom drake

like ted williams, tom drake hit .400 in 1941.  drake, however, was just 2 for 5 at the plate that year, as he pitched in just 10 games for the dodgers. drake was 1-1 in those appearances with a 4.38 era which marked the sum total of his experience as a member of the dodgers.

don drysdale

big d! drysdale never hit .400 in a season, although he did hit .300 in 1965 along with 7 homers.  drysdale led the league in wins and strikeouts in 1962 en route to the cy young award, and famously threw 8 shutouts in 1968 (his final full season in the majors) while setting a record of 58 and 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings.  drysdale was elected to the hall of fame in 1984 and sadly passed away in 1993 while serving as a dodger broadcaster on a road trip in montreal.

leo durocher

leo the lip, like tommy lasorda (and bill russell and glenn hoffman), both played for and managed the dodgers, but his card in the set is clearly about his managerial stint(s).  as a player, durocher joined the franchise in 1938, and became the team's manager the following season, even as he continued to play.  overall, durocher appeared in 345 games as a dodger between '38 and 1945, and he represented them in two all-star games.  he led the team to the pennant in 1941, but following a second place finish in 1946, the league suspended durocher for associating with known gamblers. durocher returned in 1948 as the dodgers' manager, but was allowed by branch rickey to be lured away by the giants, for whom he won his only world series as a manager in 1954. durocher did return to the dodgers as a coach in the early 1960's while in between other managerial assignments.  he was posthumously inducted into the hall of fame as a manager in 1994.

jack graham

graham was the son of peaches graham, a major leaguer from the early 1900's.  while a minor leaguer in 1940, this graham was traded to the dodgers by the yankees, and he eventually made his big league debut for the brooklyn club in 1946.  he was 1 for 5 in his two games as a dodger before the new york giants purchased his contract. after finishing the season with the giants, graham spent two seasons in the minors before finishing his major league career with the browns in 1949.  he did play for more seasons in the minors, racking up a career total of over 350 minor league homers.

joe kelley

hall of famer kelley, known as a good hitter with speed, was one of the players that ned hanlon brought with him from baltimore to brooklyn when he became a stockholder in the club prior to the 1899 season.  hanlon's arrival, by the way, was the reason for the name change from bridegrooms to the superbas in 1899 - apparently there was a popular vaudeville act known as "hanlon's superbas", and if the name fits…  as for kelley, he brought his .342 lifetime average and wound up hitting .317 as a superba in his three seasons in brooklyn.  he returned to baltimore for the 1902 season, but was pilfered by the reds during the season when the orioles' owner had to sell during the season to pay other debts.  the story of the 1902 orioles is pretty interesting, as this was the club that sort of became the new york yankees.

dennis lewallyn

i've told lewallyn's tale before. as a double dipping member of the 1977 and 1978 dodgers, he's good by me.  even if he's wearing bobby welch's number in the photo used for his 1990 target dodgers card.

tom paciorek

paciorek was one of the players that the dodgers selected in their historically awesome 1968 draft class. he did his best to crack the big league roster, debuting in 1970 and appearing in 264 games between then and the end of the 1975 season, but wound up as a piece in the trade with the braves that netted the dodgers dusty baker.  funnily enough, paciorek and baker shared space on the same 1971 topps rookie card.

jesse petty

although we can't see it, there's a black armband on petty's left sleeve, don't you know.  1925, the year represented in petty's photo (we know this thanks to the national league 50th anniversary patch that teams wore that season), was the first of four seasons in which petty pitched for the robins.  overall, he was 54-59 with a 3.52 era.  his 17 losses in 1926 (when he had an era of 2.84) led the league, although he lost 18 games the following year (with a 2.98 era) without suffering the shame of leading the league again.

jim roberts

big jim roberts (no relation to big jim slade or just plain ol' big jim) pitched for the robins in 1924 and 1925. he was 0-3 in 1924, pitching in 11 games, 5 of which were starts.  roberts made it into only one game in 1925, giving up an unearned run in his lone inning of work.

johnny schmitz

schmitz spent parts of the 1951 and 1952 seasons with the dodgers.  he joined the club in '51 via the same trade that netted the dodgers andy pafko, and left the club in a trade with the yankees in august of '52 for wally hood, son of double dipper wally hood.  overall, schmitz was 2-5 in 26 games for the dodgers, but the best part of his tenure was that he was included as a dodger in the 1952 topps set.

ted sizemore

like lewallyn, sizemore was a dodger double dipper, so i've told his story before.  the 1969 rookie of the  year was traded by the club to the cardinals for dick allen, and then reacquired in a trade with the redbirds involving joe ferguson.  the dodgers later traded sizemore away as the player to be named later in the move that brought johnny oates on board from the phillies.

steve yeager

speaking of ferguson and oates, here's the guy who led that catcher quadfecta (jerry grote was the other dodger backstop) in 1978 (after the dodgers reacquired ferguson).  yeager was the catcher of the team of my youth, playing 14 of his 15 big league seasons for the dodgers.  he was a part of four pennant winning teams - 1974, 1977, 1978, and 1981 - and was a co-mvp of the 1981 world series with ron cey and pedro guerrero.  he is the player i think of when i think of the number 7 (sorry mickey mantle), and i recently posted about having just entered the 'yeager' year of this blog.

like i said up top, that was a pretty good sheet of cards.  we'll have to see what next week brings.

a beast of a sase

if you haven't sent a sase (or, as i did, a few sases) to wes at jaybarkerfan's junk yet, what are you waiting for?

the first of my self-addressed stamped plain white envelopes was returned to me last week.  it was a beast - literally and figuratively.  i have sent three cards by way of a single forever stamp before, but wes was able to turn my 46 cents into 8 cards (!) plus a dodger hologram.

first up is the guy who helped popularize 'beast mode', matt kemp

that is a very nice looking 2013 bowman chrome green parallel.

here's that hologram i mentioned - it's from 1989 upper deck.

as are the next few cards.

jose gonzalez is just hanging out in the dugout

while orel hershiser is out throwing shutouts

and kirk gibson is winning games and the mvp

now, that gibson card features a photo from the aftermath of his game 1 pinch-hit walk-off home run, but the card is really all about his winning the national league mvp (yes, he deserved it mets fans).  there is another card of gibson in the set that celebrates the famous home run, and it carries the mark of the beast

upper deck describes me as 'frantic' (i was in the right field pavilion that night).  nervous, anxious, hopeful, and then frenzied for sure.  anyway, you are all familiar with upper deck and it's obsession with assigning card number 666 to the dodgers, right?

but wait, there was another.  this 2003 upper deck sp legenday cuts card of leo durocher is numbered to 1299

which means that someone (meaning me) has to have the one numbered '666'.  or, in this case, '0666'.  that's ok - i don't mind.  to me, the number means simply 'garvey-garvey-garvey'.  or  maybe these days, 'garvey-puig'.

one more serial numbered card from the envelope, but it's 311.  it's a 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic don drysdale

the 8th card sent was this 2000 skybox autographics angel pena auto card

so that was it for the first sase.  however, wes had also sent me a couple of cards as part of a trade.

2008 topps stadium club blake dewitt  photographer's proof auto

and 2008 upper deck sp authentic chad billingsley by the numbers auto

thanks for all the cards wes!