i chose wisely

i mentioned in the earlier post today that i chose what turned out to be a dud of a rack pack of 2015 topps stadium club from the target shelves, but that i had also ordered some singles off of sportlots.  being able to choose specific cards means that i was not disappointed with the subsequent envelope that showed up in my mailbox.  have a look.

2015 topps stadium club fernando valenzuela

i have wanted this card ever since it was first shown on the sell sheets for the set.  it features fernando up in one of the pavilions at dodger stadium signing autographs, and is a great card with a great image from a great time in dodger history.

2015 topps stadium club yasiel puig

another great dodger stadium shot that showcases something not usually seen on cardboard - clouds and a nice socal sunset.

2015 topps stadium club dusty baker

another shot from dodger stadium - vintage johnnie b. baker.  much better than baker as a brave which was the case with allen & ginter previously

2015 topps stadium club josh beckett

i was really happy to see that beckett got a card in the set.  it's a final tribute, too, so here are the stats on the back

in addition to adrian gonzalez on the front of the card, we get a glimpse of drew butera.  this may be the only cardboard on which butera (who has never hit over .200 in any season) appears as a dodger.

speaking of lurkers, here's don newcombe lurking on jackie robinson's 2015 topps stadium club card

and here's robinson lurking on larry doby's card from the set.

but we aren't done with dodger lurkers yet, as alfredo griffin makes a cameo on former dodger lenny harris's 2015 topps stadium club card

that card features a play at second, but not a double play.  i did grab a couple of twin killing cards, however, including carlos baerga

and brandon crawford

both feature world series double plays, too.

last but not least is this 2015 topps stadium club kevin gausman card

that i purchased due to the fact that he's wearing the alternate black jersey, and so it has the orange text tom clancy memorial patch.  i've updated the post specific to that patch, by the way.

it's tough for me to refrain from purchasing packs every once in a while, and i won't go back to swearing off packs as i did at some point in the past, but it does make a lot more sense to pick cards up on the secondary market.

sunday morning target dodgers - with a misspelled (and a backwards?) name

i haven't run out of sheets yet from the 1990 target dodger giveaway set.  so, here are another 15 cards.  enjoy!

ed amelung

yes, amelung's last name is misspelled on his card, which is unfortunate because i believe that this is his only dodger card.  amelung had some good minor league stats, but in two brief major league stints totalling 42 games in 1984 and 1986, he hit a combined .193 with 4 rbi and 7 runs scored.

ferrell anderson

anderson appeared in 79 games for the 1946 brooklyn dodgers, giving him his first taste of the major leagues (although he wouldn't be back in the bigs until 1953 with the cardinals). just out of the armed services, ferrell hit .256 with a couple of home runs and 14 rbi.  more interesting, however, is that he caught ed head's no-hitter against the braves on april 23 - but we'll get into that later as ed head is also on this sheet of cards.

tim belcher

belcher was the first overall pick in the 1983 draft (by the twins), but didn't sign.  six months later, the yankees took him first overall in the 1984 january secondary draft, and he did sign with them.  unfortunately for yankee fans, the a's claimed belcher as their free agent compensation pick for losing tom underwood to the orioles in february of 1984.  so, the a's got a number 1 pick from the yankees because the orioles signed a free agent, just as the mets lost tom seaver to the white sox because dennis lamp signed with the blue jays.  you've got to love the concessions that came as a result of the 1981 player's strike.  anyway, belcher was eventually traded by the a's to the dodgers for rick honeycutt, and all he did in his first full season (1988) was go 12-6 with a 2.91 era, four complete games, a shutout, and 4 saves.  he also finished third in nl roy voting, and started games 1 and 4 of the world series after going 2-0 in the nlcs against the mets. belcher led the league in complete games (10) and shutouts (8) in 1989, and he wound up pitching for the dodgers through the 1991 season.  with a 50-38 record and 2.99 era over his dodger career, belcher was traded to the reds along with john wetteland for eric davis and kip gross.

pete browning

browning finished his 13-year big league career with 3 games in 1894.  the first two of those contests came as a member of the st. louis cardinals, but the last one featured browning as a member of the brooklyn grooms.  in that game, browning was 2 for 2 with a run scored, a walk, and 2 rbi.  not a bad way to go out, and not totally out of character for a man with a .341 career batting average (13th best all-time).

lave cross

cross spent the majority of the 1900 season with the brooklyn superbas, after starting the season with the st. louis cardinals.  in 117 games for brooklyn as their third baseman, he hit .293 with 73 runs scored and 67 driven in. he was regarded as a good fielder, and led the league among third basemen in that category while with the superbas.  for the 1901 season, cross went to play for the philadelphia a's in the american league, having previously played for them when they were in the american association as well as the player's league.  cross had also played for the phillies in the national league, so he had all of his bases covered when it came to playing in the city of brotherly love.

bobby darwin

it's not too often that you see a card of a player whose position is listed as both a pitcher and a fielder.  such was the case with bobby darwin. darwin is a native of los angeles (he celebrated his 72nd birthday this past monday, by the way) who was signed out of high school by the hometown angels.  he made his debut for them on the mound as the starter in the last game of the 1962 season and took the loss.  he didn't make it back to the majors until 1969 when he was pitching for the other hometown team, the dodgers.  they used darwin early in the '69 season in three games as a pitcher and three as a pinch-runner, with the results on the mound being unimpressive.  so, darwin went back to the minors and worked at converting to an outfielder.  now, the back of darwin's 1977 topps card gives the credit for the conversion to tommy lasorda (tommy was the manager at spokane, the dodger's triple-a affiliate at that time, and darwin did play one game in the outfield for spokane in 1969), but but darwin had played some outfield in the orioles' system in between his stints with the angels and dodgers, and he really cut his teeth out there with the class a bakersfield dodgers in 1969.  darwin was back playing for tommy in spokane in 1971, and he hit .293 as an outfielder that year.  he also earned a call-up back to the majors, playing in 11 midseason games, including 4 as the starting right fielder.  in those games, darwin hit his first big league home run - a 3-run pinch-hit job. following the season, the dodgers traded darwin to the twins, who used him as one of their everyday outfielders for the next three seasons.

hod ford

hod (short for horace) was a shortstop on the 1925 brooklyn robins. he played in 66 games and hit .273 and was then traded by the robins to the minneapolis millers of the american association.

greek george

now, i was sure that target got this name backwards.  george greek makes more sense, right?  well, yes, it does, but this guy really was known as greek george, although i was relieved to discover that greek was just a nickname - he was actually charles peter george.  he was also a backup catcher on the 1938 dodgers who appeared in 7 games and was 4 for 20 in those games.  he did hit his first career triple that year, which may or may not have involved a collision in the outfield if he ran like most catchers from that era.

jim gilliam

i've written about gilliam several times on the blog. he was the 1953 nl rookie of the year and a 4-time world series champion with the dodgers during his playing career - a career that overlapped with his tenure as a dodger coach.  gilliam was the first base and hitting coach for the team of my youth up until he suffered a stroke near the end of the 1978 season and later died the day after the dodgers claimed the pennant. his number 19 is the only numbered that the dodgers have retired for a person not in the hall of fame.

mike griffin

griffin was one of the regular outfielders for the grooms/bridegrooms from 1891 through 1898. in 988 games during that span, griffin hit .305.  he also stole 264 bases, after stealing 179 in just three seasons with the orioles earlier in his career.  griffin was highly regarded apparently, as his 1908 new york times obituary stated (according to baseball-reference) that he was "one of the best known baseball players in the country...the best centre (sp) fielder in the league."

ed head

as mentioned above, head threw a no-hitter for the dodgers in 1946 against the braves. it came in his first start of the season, and in the team's 7th game of the year.  head, who had also pitched for the dodgers in 1940 and every season from 1942 on, made 12 appearances for the dodgers in 1946 after his no-no, but did not pitch in the majors again after that.  he may have suffered an arm injury during the season, but did pitch in the minor leagues in 1947 before hanging up his spikes and taking over as a manager in the dodger minor league system for several years beginning in 1948.

kevin pasley

the dodger representative on dale murphy's 1977 topps rookie card, pasley was a catcher who played for the dodgers in 1974, 1976, and 1977.  he was the dodgers' regular catcher during the last month of the 1976 season with steve yeager injured and the other catchers on the roster at that time being sergio robles and ellie rodriguez.  after appearing in 3 games for the dodgers in 1977, pasley had his contract purchased by the mariners. those three games earned pasley a spot on the team of my youth, and in my 1978 topps burger king/update set.  the last time i posted some pasley cards, i got a lead on a ttm opportunity but sadly the cards have not been returned yet. i still have hope, however!

max west

west was an outfielder for the 1928 and 1929 robins who hit .276 in a total of 12 big league games for the franchise. not sure what the houston uniform is - west was from texas, but never played in the minors (or college) for a team that would be obviously known as 'houston'.  he did pass away in houston in 1971, so i am willing to give target the benefit of the doubt that the photo is, in fact, of max west the former brooklyn robin. i shouldn't have given target the benefit of the doubt - the photo is of the 'other' max west who played for the boston (not houston) bees during his major league career that spanned from 1938 through 1948.  thanks eric.

jim winford

winford was a cardinals' pitcher for five seasons in the 1930's before joining the dodgers in september of 1938. he had spent the entire season up to that point in the cardinals' minor league system, and made his first big league start of the season for the dodgers against his former team.  winford lasted just 4 innings, allowing 7 runs (4 earned), and took the loss.  he made just one more appearance for the dodgers, pitching poorly in relief, and spent the rest of his career in the minor leagues.

whit wyatt

wyatt pitched for the dodgers towards the end of his 16-year career. from 1939 through 1944, wyatt was a part of the dodger rotation, earning all-star berths in each of his first four seasons with the club.  during that stretch, wyatt led the league in wins (22 in 1941), shutouts twice (5 in 1940 and 7 in 1941), and whip (1.058 in 1941). and, although he wasn't an all-star in 1943, he led the league in winning percentage and whip that year, too. his cumulative era in those first five years with brooklyn was a tidy 2.71, but the wheels came off in 1944 when his era ballooned to 7.17 over 9 starts.  that was the end for wyatt in brooklyn, although he did pitch for the phillies in 1945.

that's all for this week!

sunday morning target dodgers featuring one of the greatest catchers of all-time and one of the greatest dodger franchise players ever

and no, i'm not referring to roy campanella even though he fits the bill on both counts.  this particular sheet of cards from the 1990 target set recognizing the 100th anniversary of the dodger franchise's national league membership happens to contain some notable and interesting folks.

deacon mcguire

mcguire was acquired by the superbas in a trade with the senators during the 1899 season.  he was then a 35-year old catcher with 14+ seasons under his belt.  still, he hit .298 in 202 games for brooklyn, and then left them to play for the tigers in 1902, successfully challenging the reserve clause along the way.  following his two-plus years with the superbas, mcguire played in 9 more seasons, setting a record of 26 seasons that was not tied until tommy john came along in 1989.  it was later broken by nolan ryan who played in his 27th season in 1993.  mcguire also held the record for most teams played for in a career (11) until matt stairs played for his 12th team in 2010.  he still holds records, however, for runners caught stealing (and for stolen bases allowed) in a career, assists by a catcher, and was the all-time leader in games caught until ray schalk broke that record in 1925.  mcguire is also credited with being the player who added padding to the catcher's glove in the late 1890's, no doubt out of necessity. still, his hands bore the brunt of his occupation - google his xray and see for yourself.

zack wheat

wheat broke in with the superbas in 1909 and by the time he finished his run with the franchise as a robin in 1926, he had claimed a whole bunch of franchise records.  for the record, wheat finished out his big league career by playing the 1927 season with the philadelphia a's, but for 18 of his 19 years in the majors, he belonged to brooklyn.  as a superba/dodger/robin, wheat amassed over 2800 hits and a .317 lifetime average.  he led the league with a .335 average in 1918, and led the robins to the pennant in 1916 and 1920.  no one has played in more games, had more plate appearances, had more total bases, had more hits, more triples, more doubles, or more singles for the franchise than zack wheat.  and, when he left the club following the 1926 season, he was also the franchise leader in runs scored and walks.  wheat was enshrined in the hall of fame by the veterans committee in 1959.  

sammy bohne

bohne finished up his big league career by playing the second half of the 1926 season with the robins.  he had previously played for the cardinals and reds.  he hit an even .200 in 47 games for the robins in '26

kiki cuyler

like bohne, cuyler finished his major league career with a short stop in brooklyn.  unlike bohne, cuyler's career was later determined to have been worthy of the hall of fame.  cuyler spent the 1938 season with the dodgers, following 17 seasons with the pirates, cubs, and reds.  he hit .273 in 82 games for the dodgers, falling just one hit short of reaching 2300 for his career.  the black armband he is wearing, by the way, is for the club's president stephen mckeever, but i'll cover that in a different post.

kal daniels

man, was i excited when kalvoski daniels joined the dodgers in a trade with the reds during the 1989 season.  sure, the dodgers gave up mariano duncan and tim leary, but they had alfredo griffin and rookie ramon martinez, and they needed someone to replace the injured and/or ineffective kirk gibson and john shelby in the outfield.  daniels did just that for about two weeks, hitting .342 in 11 games for the dodgers before he was injured and lost for the season just like gibby, who had shifted to center to replace shelby.  daniels returned in 1990 to hit .296 with 27 homers and 94 rbi, but the 26-year old had ancient knees and was not the same in 1991 or 1992 when he was traded to the cubs.

wild bill donovan

donovan hurled for the superbas from 1899 to 1902.  the first two seasons were not impressive - he had a record of 2-4 and an era of 5.63 in that span - but in 1901 he led the league with 25 victories.  he completed all but 2 of his 38 starts that year, and appeared in 10 other games as a reliever.  in 1902, donovan went 17-15 and then bolted for the detroit tigers.  with the tigers, he appeared in three straight world series from 1907-1909, although ty cobb and the boys lost all three times.  he retired in 1912 and managed in the international league, including a team in 1913 that had a first-year player named babe ruth.  donovan eventually managed in the majors, leading the yankees from 1915-17 and the phillies in 1921.  he died in the december, 1923 wreck of the 20th century limited train ("the most famous train in the world") on his way to the baseball winter meetings where he was expected to be named the manager of the washington senators.

solly drake

i'm not sure if there was a transaction involved, but drake played for the dodgers' affiliate in saint paul in 1956 according to baseball reference, even though he appeared in the majors with the cubs at different times throughout that season.  no matter, the dodgers did bring drake into the fold officially in 1958, and he reached the majors with the club in 1959.  drake appeared in only 9 games as a dodger, however, batting .250 in 8 at bats.  his contract was purchased by the phillies in june of 1959, just in time for him to take the field against the dodgers - drake's first at bat as a phillie was as a pinch hitter for sparky anderson against the dodgers' stan williams.

alfredo griffin

griffin joined the dodgers in that big 3-team trade prior to the 1988 season that involved three of the four teams that would make the postseason in '88 (the mets, a's, and dodgers).  although he hit only .199 in his first season with the dodgers, they beat the mets in the nlcs and the a's in the world series with griffin on the field.  he was re-signed following the season, and hit better in 1989.  griffin left the dodgers after the 1991 season, returning to toronto where he was part of their back-to-back championship teams in 1992 and 1993.  he's currently the angels' first base coach.

charlie hargreaves

hargreaves was a robin from 1923 into 1928 when he was dealt to the pirates.  he hit .407 for the robins in 1924, but he only played in 15 games so it doesn't really count. overall he hit .267 in 231 games for brooklyn.

cookie lavagetto

lavagetto was acquired from the pirates in the late 1930's and he quickly took up residence for the dodgers at third base.  lavagetto was an all-star for the dodgers in each of the four seasons from 1938 through 1941, but he missed the four subsequent seasons as he was serving in the military during world war ii.  lavagetto returned to the dodgers for the 1946 and 1947 seasons, and returned to the hot corner although he eventually gave way to spider jorgensen in 1947.  lavagetto's last appearance in the majors came in the 1947 world series.  even though the dodgers lost that series to the yankees, lavagetto is remembered for his game 4 two-out 9th inning walk-off pinch-hit double that not only won the game for the dodgers, but broke up bill bevens' no-hit bid.

gene mauch

mauch, better known as a big league manager than player, was a dodger double dipper who missed out on the 1947 world series and lavagetto's heroics because he spent the last half of that season in pittsburgh following an early season trade.  he returned to the dodgers shortly after the world series as part of the infamous dixie walker deal.

doc newton

newton pitched for the superbas in 1901 and 1902, amassing a record of 21-19 in 44 games.  he also pitched for the reds and highlanders (later known as the yankees).  i find it interesting that he left the majors after pitching for the superbas in 1902 in order to join the los angeles angels of the pacific coast league.  he won 39 games for the angels in 1904, which must have caught the attention of the highlanders who brought newton back to the majors.

jose vizcaino

vizcaino had 7 games as a dodger to his name when this set was produced.  he appeared in only 37 more before he was traded to the cubs following the 1990 season.  he eventually returned to the dodgers in the late 1990's, but was dealt away again during the 2000 season.  he was a dodger double dipper.

tommy warren

warren spent one year in the big leagues, and it was with the 1944 dodgers.  he was 1-4 in 22 games with a 4.98 era.  he had allowed only one earned run in his first 8 innings of work in the majors, spanning his first four appearances, when he was used in relief in the first game of a doubleheader against the giants on april 30.  he came out to start the fourth inning, already the fifth dodger pitcher of the day, and was likely told by manager leo durocher that there would be no reliever following him.  he allowed 15 runs (11 earned) in his five innings of work that day as the dodgers lost 26-8.  on the bright side, they won the nightcap.

tom winsett

winsett had a lifetime average of .218 over 78 games when the dodgers traded three players for him in 1936.  he had put up big numbers in the minor leagues the previous few seasons, so the dodgers sent frenchy bordagaray, dutch leonard, and jimmy jordan to the cardinals.  winsett gave them a .241 average in 152 games spanning the 1936 through 1938 seasons, and he was left to be picked up on waivers by the new york giants.

an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of giants collectors

i believe economist adam smith would agree that a baseball card is only worth what someone is willing to give up to obtain it.  well, i was willing to send some giant cards to another smith - arpsmith - of arpsmith's sportscard obsession in order to obtain some random dodger cards.  smith also noted that individuals who own surplus stock would generally look to gain from the excess, and arpsmith clearly subscribes to that theory because he sent me some of his collection's excess - mainly these (and a few more) dodger cards.

1967 topps ron fairly

it's always nice to see some vintage in these blind trades.  even better when the dodger is wearing number 6 which means it's either a carl furillo, fairly, or steve garvey card.  those three were the only dodgers to wear the number from 1946 through 1982.

1988 topps traded alfredo griffin

when i saw this card i thought of baseball card vandals and wondered if they had changed this into a nate griffin card yet.

1993 score select henry rodriguez

outfielders that the dodgers kept instead of henry rodriguez (who hit 140 home runs over the five and a half seasons following his 1995 trade from the dodgers to the expos) included can't miss prospects billy ashley, roger cedeno, and karim garcia who between them had 33 home runs for the dodgers (although power admittedly was not cedeno's thing).

2001 pacific shawn green

and 2001 pacific jim leyritz

thank goodness for pacific.  i have plenty of shawn green dodger cards, but only a couple of leyritz in dodger blue - this one and a 2001 upper deck victory card.  i don't know if any others even exist.

2001 pacific private stock adrian beltre

beltre will be inducted into the hall of fame, i have no doubt.  he is 7 home runs shy of 400 and about 450 hits shy of 3000 (just 41 behind steve garvey) and is signed through next season with a vesting option for 2016.  it is likely that he would get his 3000th hit in 2017 at the age of 38 if things stay relatively the same.  if he does it as a ranger, that would mean that he would have played as many seasons in texas as he did in los angeles, and so i would guess that he would be inducted wearing a rangers' hat.  we will have to wait and see what happens.

2013 topps joe blanton gold parallel

smith was a critic of mercantilism which endorsed the keeping of gold reserves as part of a country's economic stability.  i guess i disagree in that i will hoard all gold parallels of dodger cards.  even those of joe blanton, who was 2-4 with a 4.99 era in his 10 games as a dodger.

2014 donruss matt kemp power plus insert

here's a card dealing with surplus - a surplus of talent, a player not one-dimensional, making dodger fans happy, while providing financial gain for the individual to the tune of a $160-million contract through 2019.  i actually already owned this card, so perhaps i will attempt to turn my surplus into gain by trading with a fellow dodger collector…

thanks for the trade adam!  i'll have some excess giant cards headed your way soon!

sometimes card backs give more than the stats

i thought it was weird when i first saw a photo on the back of a baseball card.  i was used to stats and text, with the occasional cartoon or game (like 1978 topps).   so, some of the early kellogg's releases and 1983 fleer with their small player portraits did nothing for me.  even 1988 score, with their color portraits on the back, was wasting space as far as i was concerned.  then came upper deck.

they sacrificed stats to give us bigger photos on the back, and a lot of times, the photos on the back were more interesting than the ones on the front.  i recently went through a 1991 upper deck set and pulled a few cards.  i found a trio of reds' cards that tell a story.  here's the back of tom browning's card

he's obviously giving the ball up to manager lou piniella at dodger stadium.  that's alfredo griffin lurking in the background.  the guy standing to browning's left is barry larkin.  i know this because this is the back of larkin's 1991 upper deck card

put them together, and you get somewhat of a panoramic shot, although they are two different photos taken at slightly different moments.

and, if you look at piniella's foot, you can see the top of the catcher's cleat and the bottom of his shinguard.  that's joe oliver, because i know that those two photos came from the june 3, 1990 game between the reds and dodgers, and oliver was the catcher.  the reds were leading 2-0 in the bottom of the 8th when mike scioscia chased browning with a double that moved griffin to third with no one out.  randy myers came in and shut the dodgers down, getting the final 6 outs.

he shows up on the back of oliver's 1991 upper deck card, getting the postgame handshake.

we are back in dodger stadium on the back of jim presley's 1991 upper deck card,

with half of joe amalfitano's rear and a dodger whom i believe to be kal daniels thrown out trying to steal third on july 29, 1990.

the back of andre dawson's 1991 upper deck card shows what i believe to be a double play turn

i think the photo comes from august 1, 1990 in which dawson was forced at second on a 4-6 play based on the fact that jay bell was the shortstop that day, and bell wore pony cleats.  dwight clark was safe at first, but i will assume that bell tried to complete the dp.

i am not convinced that the back of junior felix's 1991 upper deck card shows a double play, however.

looks more like a steal to me.

sometimes, the backs tell a different story, like the back of this 2002 donruss originals adrian beltre card

it's a sample!  most likely from a beckett mag if i recall correctly.  good thing i looked at the back - otherwise i would have put it with my doubles.  here's the front, by the way.

there's one more 1991 upper deck card back i want to show, and it is this one

whether staged or opportunistic, this is a nice photo.  it fits in nicely with a new mini-collection that i am pretty sure i am starting up.

so, the message here is: don't forget to look at the card backs!