lurkers are lurking - sometimes in plain sight

one doesn't need to look very far or hard to find the dodger making his way onto joe mccarthy's 1993 conlon collection tsn card

dodger manager burleigh grimes gets some foreground respect in the photo from 1938.  not sure when/where this would have been taken, as mccarthy's yankees faced (and beat) the cubs in the '38 fall classic.

grimes gets a mention on the back of that particular card, but that is usually not the case with lurkers.  take this 1999 fleer ultra jeff bagwell card, for example

tom prince is just as much of the card as is bagwell, but he gets no acknowledgement which is as it should be.

jose offerman finds his way onto kurt stillwell's 1993 donruss card

and eric karros (with a cloud of dust) enhances kevin higgins' 1994 topps card

i don't consider the stillwell card to be a double play turn because i can't verify it as such, even though it looks like it might be one.  offerman didn't get on base a whole lot against the padres in 1992, and when he did, he was often sacrificed to second with stillwell covering first.

now here's a blurry lurker.

that's dodger first base coach john shelby in the background on miguel batista's 2003 topps card.  i wish there were more cards like this featuring manny mota or, these days, davey lopes.

here are a couple of hall of fame lurkers - eddie murray shows up on scott stahoviak's 1996 score card

and we get half of cal ripken jr on rickey henderson's 1983 topps record breaker card

this card would have qualified as a 'classic combo' by topps' 2007 standards.

sunday morning target dodgers - wampum edition

sadly, dick allen's card from the 1990 target dodgers 100th anniversary giveaway set features him as a member of the chicago white sox.  that was the team to which the dodgers traded allen (for tommy john), and the team with which allen subsequently went and won the most valuable player award.  still, allen leads off this week's trip through a sheet of 15 cards in the set, although the 15th card (of double dipper vito tamulis) gets a separate post later on.

dick allen

allen had played for one year in saint louis as the cardinals' first baseman following his best years in philadelphia before joining the dodgers for the 1971 season.  the dodgers moved him back to third base,  and he hit .295 over 155 games with 23 home runs and 90 rbi.  the dodgers, of course, had steve garvey and ron cey waiting for a chance to play third base, but it was al campanis' desire to bring frank robinson to los angeles that may have spurred the consummation of the allen for john deal prior to the 1972 season.

willie crawford

crawford was a local standout athlete when he signed a contract with the dodgers in 1964 as a 17-year old.  he debuted for the big club that same season, shortly after turning 18.  at 19, crawford was playing the world series, getting a hit in one of two appearances against the twins.  he was in the majors for good in 1969, and stayed with the dodgers through the 1975 season.  with a .268 average in 989 games as a dodger, crawford was traded to the cardinals prior to the 1976 campaign for ted sizemore.  oddly enough, sizemore was one of the players the dodgers had given up in order to get dick allen prior to the 1971 season.  crawford did return to the dodgers for spring training in 1978, but was cut by the team before he had a chance to become, like sizemore, a double dipper.

tommy davis

davis was another local prospect signed by the dodgers, but he was a brooklyn-ite, signed while the club was still playing in ebbets field.  davis didn't make it to the majors until the dodgers were in los angeles, first appearing in one game during the 1959 season before becoming a regular sometime during the 1960 season.  davis led the league in batting average in both 1962 and 1963, setting the dodger franchise record for rbi (153) in 1963.  his career was sidetracked by a broken ankle suffered in 1965, and davis wound up as a bit of a journeyman after being traded by the dodgers in november of 1966.

al ferrara

the bull, as ferrara is known, played for the dodgers from 1963-1968, although he didn't appear in the majors during the 1964 season.  the only world series that ferrara played in was the 1966 fall classic, in which the dodgers were swept by the orioles.  he did manage to get a hit in his lone at bat, however.  ferrara was also one of the many dodger players to get some side work on tv, appearing in episodes of gilligan's island and batman, among others.  he was selected by the padres in the expansion draft prior to the 1969 season, and became the team's first pinch-hitter when he substituted for longtime friend and teammate johny podres in the friars' second game.

burleigh grimes

ol' stubblebeard is back.  he was a pitcher for the robins from 1918-1926, and later succeeded casey stengel as the manager of the dodgers in 1937.  the photo on the card above must come from grimes' two-year stint as the dodger skipper.  grimes was inducted into the hall of fame as a pitcher (he won a total of 270 games, with 158 as a dodger) in 1964.

luke hamlin

hamlin was a pitcher who won 20 games for the dodgers in 1939.  he was 20-13 that year, following campaigns in which he was 11-13 and 12-15 for the dodgers despite posting consistent era's around 3.60.  goes to show how little a win-loss record tells you.  hamlin was 17-16 for the dodgers in 1940 and 1941 combined, and was dealt to the pirates in the arky vaughan trade in december of '41.

fielder jones

jones played for the bridegrooms and superbas from 1896 through 1900.  he hit over .300 (with a high of .354 in 1896) in four of those years, batting .285 in the other. at first i thought that perhaps his nickname was ironic, because he made 144 errors in his career, including 14 in his rookie year, but that is actually his first name.

rafael landestoy

landestoy bookended his career with stops in los angeles.  he was a rookie on the 1977 nl champion squad and then returned to the club for the 1983 and '84 seasons.  he played for houston and cincinnati in between.

cy moore

moore began his big league career with the robins in 1929, and pitched for the franchise through the 1932 season when they became known as the dodgers again.  he was 4-8 over those four seasons in 76 games, in which moore started only 6.  he finished his career with two seasons in philadelphia.

ray moore

no known relation to cy, ray moore pitched for the dodgers in 1952 and 1953.  he amassed a record of 2-3 in 15 games as a dodger, and he went on from there to find greater success in the bullpens of the white sox, senators, and twins.  with the chisox, moore faced the dodgers in the 1959 world series, giving up one of chuck essegian's pinch-hit home runs.

bob ramazzotti

ramazzotti played in 62 games as a 29-year old rookie in 1946, but didn't make it back to brooklyn until 1948.  he appeared in only 4 games that year, and was on the field for the dodgers in only 5 games in 1949 before he was traded to the cubs.

willie randolph

randolph joined the dodgers in what turned out to be a swap of free agent second basemen - steve sax went to the yankees following the 1988 season, with randolph leaving the bronx to sign with the dodgers.  randolph hit .282 in 144 games for the dodgers in 1989, making the all-star team in his return to the national league.  in 1990, he began the season as the dodgers' second baseman but was traded to the a's in may in exchange for stan javier.  it worked out well for willie, as he was able to return to the postseason for the first time since 1981.

ellie rodriguez

rodriguez began his big league career in 1968 with the new york yankees, but was taken by the royals in the expansion draft and became the first catcher in team history the following spring.  that year he was also the first royal all-star, although he did not get into the game.  after stints in milwaukee and anaheim, rodriguez was dealt at the end of spring training in 1976 to the dodgers in a rare trade between the clubs.  rodriguez wound up playing in 36 games, spelling steve yeager behind the plate.  he had an obp of .400 which is probably partially due to hitting in front of the pitcher - he was walked 19 times in 90 plate appearances.  rodriguez was released by the dodgers in may of 1977 without having appeared in a game.

mack wheat

mack wheat stands beside dave sax as probably the most forgettable dodger teammate brother in history.  zack's younger brother hit .191 in parts of five seasons with the robins from 1915-19, while zack hit .300 in that span, including a league-leading .335 in 1918.  mack was picked up by the phillies following the 1919 season, and had his best campaign in 1920 when he hit .226 with 20 rbi.

the legend of dazzy vance

was dazzy vance one of baseball's greatest pitchers, as this 1982 tcma card suggests?

i'm not sure.  i am sure, however, that dazzy vance was a dodger double dipper.

[this is the seventyfourth 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, george smith, johnny cooney, jim fairey, frenchy bordagaray, doc casey, waite hoyt, luis olmo, clyde sukeforth, willie keeler,  harry howell, germany smith, johnny allen, marv rackley, bobo newsom. and maury wills.]

vance was 31 with an 0-4 lifetime record when he debuted for the brooklyn robins in 1922.  he won 18 games that season, and led the league in strikeouts.  he would continue to lead the league in strikeouts in each of the following six seasons, becoming the first (and still the only) national leaguer to claim seven straight strikeout titles.  in 1923, vance again won 18 games, and then in 1924, he achieved the pitcher's triple crown - a league leading 24 wins, 2.16 era, and 262 strikeouts.  he also won the league mvp award that year.  vance led the league with 22 wins in 1925, and he led the league in era in 1928 and 1930, but never won another triple crown.

following the 1931 season, wilbert robinson retired and the robins became the dodgers.  at 41, vance pitched in 27 games for the dodgers in 1932, but was just 12-10 with a 4.20 era.  after the season, he was traded to the cardinals.  vance helped the cardinals win the pennant in 1933, and he made an appearance in game 4 of the world series.  the cardinals lost that game, but beat the tigers to give vance a world series title in his only trip to the postseason.  the following year, vance began the season with the reds, but returned to the cardinals in june of 1935.  they released him in the spring of 1936, and he was quickly signed by the dodgers.

in his second stint with brooklyn, vance was used exclusively as a reliever, posting a record of 3-2 in 20 appearances with an era of 4.41.  he retired following that 1936 season.  19 years later, in 1955, vance was elected to the baseball hall of fame as noted on his 2003 upper deck sp legendary cuts card

remember, only two of vance's 12 seasons with brooklyn occurred when the team was known as the dodgers, so it is fitting that the robins are his team noted on the front of the card.  one of vance's teammates for about half of his time with the robins was fellow hall of famer burleigh grimes, who was also featured in the 2003 upper deck sp legendary cuts set.

grimes never pitched for the franchise when they were known as the dodgers, so i was disappointed to not see 'robins' on the front of the card.  what is even worse is that the back of grimes' card has nothing but robins - both at the top and then again with each season that he pitched for the franchise

the back of vance's card also has robins up top, which is consistent with the front of his card, but the yearly stat rows should also say robins from 1922 through 1931 instead of dodgers

overall, vance won 190 games for the franchise, more than any other brooklyn pitcher and behind only don sutton and don drysdale in franchise history.  his 1918 strikeouts for the team are also the most of any brooklyn pitcher, and he trails only the two dons and sandy koufax on the franchise leader board in that category.  so, even if vance is not one of baseball's greatest pitchers, he most certainly is one of brooklyn's greatest.

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.

1955 type collection

i was lucky (yes, oh so lucky) enough to win the fifth anniversary giveaway contest at number 5 type collection.  if you read that blog, and you should, you know that matthew appreciates the fifth card from a set and vintage.  here's most of what my winnings included

1955 bowman gil hodges

hodges' face is framed by the creases nicely, and i am one card closer to finishing the 1955 bowman dodger team set

staying in 1955, here's a '55 topps bert hamric

wonderfully rounded corners and miscut top to bottom. i will leave it to more curious minds which player hamric is sharing space with.  whenever i see the green bottom on a '55, i think of ted williams, but he had appeared in more than 200 games.

a few interesting things to note here.  first, we have firearms on the back of the card.  second, we have a full name of 'odbert'.  you may have noticed the facsimile auto on the front also showing that bert was short for odbert.  hamric is, to date, the sole big leaguer to have been named odbert.

enough about the name - the text on the back brings us to the conclusion that hamric can hit.  if i had been a brooklyn youngster in 1955, i would have been excited to see this minor league success story with the big club.  well, hamric made it to brooklyn, but was given just one at bat - as a pinch hitter - and he struck out.  his only other appearance that year was as a pinch runner.  three years later, hamric resurfaced in baltimore where he struck out in 5 of his 7 at bats.  he did get a base hit, however, so all was not lost.  add in a pop out, and you have hamric's big league career - 8 at bats, each of which came as a pinch hitter.

oh, i couldn't resist.  it's joe coleman who is creeping on to hamric's card.

unibrow alert!  here's a 1961 post wally moon card

the card is shaped more like a backwards nebraska than a colorado, but i'm not complaining. it's got character!  and again, it's another card crossed off of the want list.

here's a 1977 tcma renata galasso burleigh grimes card

grimes played for the dodgers when they were known as the robins, but he did manage the dodgers for a couple of seasons in the 1930's.  his hall of fame plaque has a 'b' on the cap, but i don't know if the dodgers have any sort of acknowledgement of grimes at the stadium like they do for the other dodger hall of famers.  the most obvious recognition are the retired numbers, but grimes played for the franchise before numbers were worn.  i suppose they could do something like the giants have done for the likes of john mcgraw and just put the 'b' logo in a circle for him.  same goes for zach wheat and others, now that i think about it.  in a similar vein, number 2 is retired for tom lasorda, of course, but i suppose supporters of leo durocher could see that as his number as well.  kind of a yankees/bill dickey/yogi berra number 8 thing.

and, while we are on the topic of numbers, here is the back of a card numbered 4 in its set - a 1981 topps squirt steve garvey card

so close to being a part of the number 5 type collection!  instead, matthew is stuck with a reggie jackson card.  man - look at those stats from 1974 through 1980.  i really thought that we would see number 6 in the rafters at dodger stadium.

thanks for the cards matthew! and here's to many more years of number 5's!

the first robin of spring

i'm told that it's spring now. it doesn't look like it up here. the temperature is in the single digits and there is at least a foot of snow still on the ground. i walked by target field yesterday afternoon and found it hard to believe that opening day will take place there in less than two weeks. anyway, i picked up this card a while back - when it was 'still' winter - and figured now was a good time to show it off.

it's a 2005 donruss diamond kings hall of fame heroes of brooklyn robins great, burleigh grimes.

grimes pitched for the dodgers - sorry, robins - from 1918 through 1926. he won 158 games wearing the brooklyn uniform, and led the league in victories in 1921 with 22. it's nice to see grimes, let alone the robins, get some modern day baseball card attention. the spitballer is enshrined in cooperstown as a brooklyn-ite, although it doesn't appear that his plaque mentions the robins.

i picked up a couple more cards from this insert set, both of which feature another dodger franchise hall of fame (obviously) hurler. it's don sutton, everybody!

so he's in angels' gear there even though he is enshrined in cooperstown as a dodger. that's ok, though - the back is all about some stuff that he did while wearing the angel uniform, including notching his 300th career win.

maybe his second card in the set will have him in dodger blue.

nope.  the back addresses his career start total, but it also mentions his 300th win again.

that's lame, and i don't get the sepia tone. it's not a parallel or a variation, it's another card in the same insert set. not sure if grimes there has a sepia too.

anyway, it's spring and there's the robin to prove it.

and a very pleasant good evening to you, wherever you may be

yesterday was vin scully's 85th birthday.  i celebrated by opening my mail and finding this card waiting for me.  first, i'll show the back

i was so pleased to see scully included in the 2012 panini cooperstown release, i quickly picked one of his cards up on ebay.  here's the front

it's an insert set - there's also a red barber card that i will need to get at some point.  i am by no means complaining about a real honest to goodness card of the dodger broadcaster (the first since fleer's 2004 announcing greats card), i just sort of wish that they had used a later image of scully.  i am being selfish here, but i picture scully more like he is today.  i know panini did use a later 'in action' photo for his autographed card, but i don't think i will lay out the cash for one of those unless the prices settle a bit.  to say the first few have been volatile is putting it mildly.  i was watching several copies of the autographed card on ebay, and the first one went for $410.  then there was a bin for $300 that someone quickly snagged, followed by another for $175.  there's one up now at around $250 (as i type this on friday morning) and another at about $150, but both have a couple of days left yet.

anyway, there are several dodgers in the set that i also picked up over at sportlots.  i believe the only dodger i am missing is duke snider (can you help a blogger out?), although there are a number of hall of famers who played for the dodgers that may be featured in a dodger uniform.  because panini had to remove all indications from the unis, maybe rickey henderson is shown from his time as a dodger.  heck, maybe the duke of flatbush is really a met on his card.  i am guessing, though, that panini tried to match the image with the team that each player is enshrined under in cooperstown.  that would leave jim hunter hatless.

it's easy to know what team is represented on these cards.  walter alston

 spent his entire managerial career with the dodgers, as did tommy lasorda

i believe lasorda got special dispensation from the hall which is why he was inducted without the usual 5-year waiting period following retirement.  alston up there had to wait until 1983 (7 years after he retired) to get in.

don sutton had a longer wait

but he's in now, whether reggie jackson likes it or not.  he is obviously shown as a dodger here, pitching in candlestick even, and i thank panini for not using a photo of him as a brewer.

roy campanella was only ever a dodger in the big leagues

and i can't believe that he wasn't inducted until 1969.

pee wee reese

came to the dodgers from the red sox organization, but i doubt that this is a 1939 minor league photo of the captain.  he joined the hall as a veterans committee selection in 1984, the same year don drysdale was inducted.  speaking of which, there are no cards in the set for big d or sandy koufax, although both maury wills (not in the hall) and shawn green (on the ballot for the first time this year) are both featured in autograph insert sets.

here's jackie robinson

jackie was the first player voted in by the writers since joe cronin and hank greenberg in 1956.  i think that's the longest stretch the hall has gone without a player be admitted by the writers.

during that stretch, zach wheat

had been voted in by the veterans committee in 1959, and although he spent his final season in philadelphia with the a's, that is definitely a brooklyn uniform wheat is wearing.  here's his teammate and fellow hall of famer burleigh grimes similarly dressed

the dodgers (and robins) wore pinstripes for much of the 1910's and 20's which would have covered the time that both wheat and grimes played for brooklyn.  here's a 1983 donruss hall of fame heroes card of grimes showing the 1964 veterans committee inductee in a robins uniform, circa 1919.

i like this panini set.  it reminds me of the cramer legends sets from the early 1980's which i collected (at least the first 3 sets - there might be a 4th i am missing).  i won't chase the whole set, but i definitely am looking for the snider and the barber insert.

happy bday vin; i can't wait to hear you say 'dodger baseball is on the air' in 2013.