sunday morning target dodgers - featuring the 'other' sandy

it's sunday again.  here are another 15 players from a sheet of cards featured in the 1990 target 100th anniversary dodger giveaway set.

sandy amoros

amoros is known throughout dodgerdom as a hero of the 1955 world series.  in game 7, he was inserted   into the lineup in the 6th inning after don zimmer had been lifted for pinch-hitter george shuba. jim gilliam shifted from left field to second base, and amoros entered the game in left.  with the dodgers ahead 2-0, billy martin walked and gil mcdougald singled to start the yankees' half of the inning. the next batter, yogi berra, hit a ball down the line that amoros was able to catch by stretching his arm out after running from left-center. he then threw the ball to pee wee reese who relayed it to gil hodges to force mcdougald for a double play.  it is largely believed that the fact that amoros wore his glove on his right hand made the catch possible.  amoros stayed with the dodgers through their move to los angeles until he was dealt to the tigers during the 1960 season. he later returned to his native cuba, but fell on hard times after refusing fidel castro's request to manage a cuban team.

jack fimple

fimple was a backup to steve yeager and mike scioscia in 1983, 1984, and 1986. he played a bit down the stretch in '83, and actually started a couple of games in the 1983 nlcs against the phillies.  i still believe that he hit a home run that year with a broken finger on his hand. i don't think i would have remembered that if it had not happened, but who knows.

mudcat grant

jim 'mudcat' grant pitched (and hit a home run) against the dodgers in the 1965 world series as a member of the minnesota twins, and he must have made an impression because they traded for him just a couple of years later.  with the dodgers for the 1968 season, grant posted an era of 2.08 in 37 games (4 starts). unfortunately for the dodgers, grant was lost to the expos in the expansion draft that followed that season.

kent greenfield

greenfield pitched in six games for the 1929 brooklyn robins - the last six appearances of his 9-year career. he had begun the season in boston with the braves, but joined the robins on waivers near the end of june.  in his six games for brooklyn, greenfield posted an era of 8.31, allowing 8 runs in 8.2 innings of work.

chris gwynn

gwynn was a dodger double dipper. he was also the younger brother of tony gwynn, and after his second tour of duty with the dodgers ended in 1995, gwynn signed with his brother's team for the 1996 season.  his last appearance as a major league player came in game 3 of the 1996 nlds, wherein gwynn singled as a pinch-hitter and was driven home by his big brother.

phil haugstad

haugstad made his big league debut in september of 1947. he pitched in 6 games for the dodgers, and went 1-0 with a 2.84 era. he made one appearance in 1948, and then didn't return to the majors until 1951 when he went 0-1 in 21 appearances for the dodgers. haugstad finished his career with the reds in 1952.

fred heimach

heimach had pitched in the majors for nine seasons when he joined the robins in 1930. he had been a member of the 1928 world champion yankees (he's wearing the pinstripes in the photo used on his card), although he did not appear in the world series.  heimach wound up pitching for brooklyn for four seasons, winning 9 games in both 1931 and 1932, but failing to post a victory in 1930 or 1933.

charlie kress

kress was traded to the dodgers by the tigers in june of 1954. he played in 13 games for brooklyn, going 1 for 12 with 2 rbi at the plate. you can see that he also played for the reds, and he was at one time a member of the white sox, as well.

mike j. mccormick

there was a mike mccormick that played for the dodgers, but it's not this guy.  baseball reference lists this mccormick as being actually named 'mccormack', which is probably correct. anyway, this player spent just one year in the majors - 1904 - and he spent it as a member of the brooklyn superbas. as the team's primary third baseman that year, mccormick/mccormack hit just .184 in 105 games.  he was only 5'-3", which would make him shorter than freddie patek, who is always my bellweather for vertically challenged ballplayers.

otto miller

miller spent his entire 13-year big league career with the superbas/robins/dodgers, beginning in 1910.  miller caught for both the 1916 and 1920 pennant winning teams, although he hit poorly in each of the world series.  he played in 927 games for the club, and later became a coach following his playing days.

buster mills

mills debuted as a cardinal in 1934, but spent most of the 1935 season in the minors.  the dodgers purchased his contract from saint louis, and he spent most of the last month of the '35 season with brooklyn.  he hit .214 in 17 games as a dodger, but went on to hit .295 in 1937 (he spent 1936 back in the cardinals' organization) as a regular in the red sox outfield.

bobby morgan

morgan played for the dodgers in 1950, 1952, and 1953.  in each of those seasons, he hit exactly 7 home runs.  he appeared in both the 1952 and 1953 world series, but was held hitless in his 2 at bats. after the 1953 season, morgan was traded to the phillies.

jim peterson

peterson pitched for the a's in 1931 and 1933, and then made the majors with the dodgers in 1937.  he pitched in only 3 games for brooklyn, however, and allowed 5 runs in 5.2 innings of work.

bart shirley

shirley was a double dipper, sandwiching stints with the dodgers around a run with the mets in 1968.  he also graces the 1966 topps grant jackson rookie card that always seems to run a pretty penny.  i like this card of shirley because he's standing in a young dodger stadium with some nicely pulled stirrups.

danny walton

it's interesting that walton is listed as an outfielder on his card.  sure, that's where he spent most of his time during his 9 years in the big leagues, but he also played some third base, first base, and even catcher.  for the dodgers, however, walton was only used as a pinch-hitter.  during the 1976 season, walton got 17 plate appearances for the dodgers (he was announced but not used as a pinch-hitter in an 18th game).  overall, he was 2 for 15 with a walk and a sacrifice fly.

we'll have to wait and see what random selection of players show up on next week's sheet...

bo goes lurking for murray, molitor, and lopes - oh my!

as promised, here are some more cards that i received from bo at baseball cards come to life.  this time, we are looking for eddie murray lurking on other people's cards.  like the back of chris gwynn's 1990 upper deck card

and the back of dave martinez's 1990 upper deck card

with the dodger stadium pavilions in the background.

steady eddie also showed up on rudy may's 1978 topps card

and eric plunk's 1995 fleer ultra card

meanwhile, hall of famer paul molitor is lurking in the shadows on ted higuera's 1989 fleer card

and he is also hanging out behind joe carter on carter's 1995 upper deck collector's choice se card

probably the favorite of the lurker cards bo sent is this 2004 topps pedro astacio card

there are not one, but two former dodgers on that card - astacio shares the space with the second baseman from the infield of my youth, davey lopes!  lopes was the padres' first base coach for a while, and topps was kind enough to get him onto a card for me.

thanks bo!

thanks for the gold

i have received some nice golden cards lately.  some by request and some just because.  emerald  diamond gems sent me a 2013 topps clayton kershaw gold parallel

along with a few other cards.

robert at $30 a week habit sent along some other 2013 topps dodgers - mark ellis

and josh beckett

also just because.  in fact, this fantastic 2011 topps howie kendrick gold double play card was a nice add to the package as well.

 that's because i had only requested these three cards - a 2013 topps danny espinosa gold parallel

which fits nicely into my double play, dodger stadium, and lurker collections (hello, tony gwynn jr) - a 2013 topps jason kipnis gold parallel

also desired due to the double play turn - and lastly a 2011 topps freddy sanchez gold parallel

now you might be asking yourself why, on god's green earth, would i request a card of a giant with no obvious redeeming qualities?  well, the answer there will have to wait a few days, although i think i have hinted at it a few times.

thanks guys for the trades!

turning two never gets old

especially when there are new dp turns to show off.  well, not all are new - just new to my collection - like this 1993 donruss spirit of the game insert of carlos baerga, and, i suppose, gary gaetti

with a reference to a sly stallone movie about arm wrestling to boot!  front and back dp goodness is tough to beat.

here's a decent 1998 topps stadium club derek jeter card

that is pretty decent - a bit dark, but still nicely done.

here's a dusty 1994 ted williams billy martin card

i saw this card for the first time over at dime boxes a few weeks ago, and went straight to sportlots to get one for myself.

here's some newer stuff - a 2013 topps danny espinosa with tony gwynn rolling in

i also picked up the target red

and emerald versions of this card

i don't think i am going for the full rainbow, but i would accept a walmart blue and a gold version if offered.

here's another 2013 topps card - this one is howie kendrick

those base cards looked familiar to me so i almost didn't pick them up.  but then i checked and saw that i only had the opening day versions.

similarly, this 2009 topps update & highlights matt tolbert card was one i surely thought was already in my dp binder

turns out, i had tolbert sign my lone copy, so it was in one of my ttm/ip/non-cert auto binders.

finally, a 2012 bowman chrome ian kinsler

and a 2012 topps golden giveaway card with troy tulowitzki's base card on it

that counts, too.

i have several more new (to me) double play cards to showcase.  eta on the greatest double play card of all time tournament is fall-ish.  i hope.

od dp's

as much as i enjoy seeing some variations between the topps flagship set and their opening day release, i am happy to see many of the same double play cards in both sets.  this one is a strong candidate for my favorite dp card of the year - it's danny espinosa

he's elevated over tony gwynn jr at dodger stadium, which is very nice.  not sure that tg2 is going to get a card in series 2 or update (he's in minor league camp and not on the 40-man roster) so it's good to see him on espinosa's card.  by the way, if this play is from the 1st inning on april 28, 2012 (and i'm pretty sure it is as that was bryce harper's big league debut with lots of cameras on hand), then gwynn failed to break up the double play.

now here's aaron hill with yadier molina apparently doing what gwynn could not.

even though hill is still holding the ball, i put this card (and others like it) in my double play binder.  that's part of what i like about the play at second - there needs to be a decision made as to whether the turn can be completed or not.  sometimes, it's best to hold on to the ball and jump.

on a quick tangent, here's a baseball fun card of hill that i also pulled from a pack

i had not seen the double-bubble shower before.  thankfully it's not abc gum.

jason kipnis' opening day card is the same as his series one card

as is howie kendrick's

but marco scutaro's is not

scutaro had a world series highlight card in series one, but his regular base card will be in series 2, i assume.  perhaps this is a preview of it.  i like the chevron cars from the phone booth in the background, but it's too bad that the coke bottle is so high up in the left field stands.  it would be nice to see that on a card once in a while.  not that i want more giants cards.

here's another tangent - as i mentioned earlier today, the opening day packs i purchased had a 'bonus' pack of series one cards.  i was duped into thinking that i had pulled an 'out of bounds' short print of ryan raburn

until i found a second one in one of the other 'bonus' packs.  it's still a nice looking card.

back to opening day, here are a couple of play hard inserts - david freese

and alex rodriguez

it seems like it's been awhile since arod has been featured prominently in any set, doesn't it?

the last of the opening day cards i'll show is this brandon phillips ballpark fun card

i suppose it is fun to clinch the division.

hold on - i'm not done with this post yet.  seeing that danny espinosa card reminded me of another double play card. this 1990 upper deck bill doran card

features tony gwynn sr sliding in to second, trying to break up a twin killing.  no word on whether he was successful or not.

while i'm at it, i'll show a few more double play cards that i have recently acquired.  here's a 1994 topps stadium club geronimo pena

and a 1994 pinnacle pena as well

they are nice, but not as nice as pena's topps and collector's choice cards from that year.

finally, here is a 2011 topps short print of phil rizzuto

i tried to convince myself that ted williams is the bosox player sliding by, but i can't quite do it.  the number on the back of the player looks more like '8' than '9', but i'm not completely sure. what do you think?