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.

more random cards from the scanned folder

i'm doing some spring cleaning (although it's still winter here) of my scanned folder.  enjoy the randomness.

1961 topps nl batting leaders

that's quite a collection of players - two hall of famers, plus dick groat and the dodgers' norm larker.  groat hit .300 or better a few other times, but 1960 was the only season that larker surpassed that mark, missing the league title by just one hit. still, to be featured on a card with willie mays and roberto clemente is a pretty good consolation.

1966 topps derrell griffith

a young robin williams makes an appearance.  or, if you prefer, glenn quamire.  giggity.  griffith played in parts of four seasons for the dodgers, who won the pennant in three of those years, but he did not appear in any postseason games.

1979 hostess burt hooton

hooton was coming off a 19-win season and a second place finish in the cy young voting when this card came out.  still, i was paying more attention to tommy john, don sutton, and bobby welch fan at the time.

1981 topps steve garvey (back)

i'm not sure why i scanned the back of this card, but look at that run of hit totals from 1974 through 1980!

1985 topps mike scioscia

bracing for impact, no doubt.

1995 score cory snyder

technically, this card is a final tribute, although the corndog did spend some time in the minors with the red sox and padre organizations after the strike ended in 1995.  1994 was the last time he saw big league action, however, and he did it as a dodger.  the highlight of his final season was easily his 3-home run/7 rbi game against the pirates in april.

2004 leaf certified materials don sutton 'k force'

i used to watch 'battle of the planets' which had g-force protecting us from the evil of zoltar and planet spectra. too bad this wasn't a 'g force' card - sutton is currently 7th all-time in k's, but 3rd all-time in g's (games started, that is).

2005 fleer ultra eric gagne

gagne broke the dodgers' cy young drought in 2003 - they hadn't had a winner since 1988, which was the longest drought in franchise history.  they had been the only team to have a cy young award winner in each decade until they were shut out in the 1990's.  just like they were shut out in world series appearances that decade for the first time since the 1930's.

2005 fleer ultra milton bradley gold medal edition

that's one heckuva rounded corner!

the return of sunday morning target dodgers

i don't know how many of the 1000 or so cards from the 1990 target dodger sga set i will get around to posting, but i recently scanned a few more sheets, so here goes.  this set was given away at dodger stadium in five separate 'series'.  the cards number 15 to a page and are a bitch to store due to their unusual size unless you separate the cards.  i haven't done that yet so my sheets are loose.  the set includes a card for every player and manager who appeared in a game for the dodger franchise through 1989.  that's 100 years of bridegroom/superba/robin/dodger goodness!  on with the post.

carlos diaz

diaz came to the dodgers prior to the 1984 season in the trade that sent sid fernandez to the mets.  as far as i know, it is the only trade to involve two hawaiians.  diaz attended junior college in my hometown, for what it's worth, so his dodger arrival was kind of a big deal.  he pitched for the dodgers through the 1986 season, compiling a 7-3 record with a save.

tex erwin

erwin played for brooklyn from 1910-1914, during which time they were the superbas, dodgers, and then robins.  he was a backup catcher for the team.

art fowler

fowler, shown in los angeles angel gear, was one of the players that the dodgers received from the reds in the don newcombe deal.  his dodger experience lasted just one season - 1959.  fowler appeared in 36 games (all in relief) and had a record of 3-4.  unfortunately, he didn't appear in the dodgers' world series win over the white sox, and he eventually had his contract purchased by the angels before he could return to the big leagues.

al glossop

glossop arrived in brooklyn with lloyd waner prior to the 1943 season.  he was picked up by the reds at the end of the season, so glossop's dodger tenure included just 87 appearances and a .171 batting average.

tommy griffith

griffith was an outfielder for the robins from 1919 after he was acquired from the reds, until early in the 1925 season when he was traded to the cubs.  that means that he was part of the robins team that lost the 1920 world series to the indians.

lenny harris

harris was an active dodger when this set was released.  he joined the team during the 1989 season as a result of the trade with the reds that also included kal daniels, mariano duncan, and tim leary.  harris stayed with the dodgers through the 1993 season before returning to the reds.  he finished his career as a pinch hitter, setting the major league record with 212 career pinch hits.

joe hatten

hatten was 59-39 for the dodgers over the course of 5-plus seasons, beginning in 1946.  his best season (record wise) came in 1947 when he was 17-8 and helped the dodgers reach the world series.  he helped them return to the fall classic in 1949, but both times they lost to the yankees.  hatten was traded to the cubs in 1951 in the andy pafko deal.

brian holton

holton, who was a first round pick of the dodgers in 1978 and made his debut in 1985, was a member of the dodgers' 1988 world championship team, but he was traded to the orioles in the eddie murray deal shortly after the postseason ended.  that 1988 season was his best - he had a 1.70 era in 45 appearances, plus a 1.50 era over 4 appearances in the postseason.

len koenecke

koenecke was the dodger who was killed in an airplane after being sent home by the team.

irish meusel

meusel obviously also played for the giants, but he finished his career in 1927 with a lone season as a brooklyn robin.  he hit .243 in 42 games that year.

joe moeller

moeller's big league career spanned from 1962 through 1971.  he did not appear in a major league game for anyone other than the dodgers, although he spent a short time after the 1967 season as a member of the houston astros.  yes, he was a dodger double dipper.  overall, moeller was 26-36 in 166 appearances for the dodgers.

johnny oates

oates was the backup catcher to steve yeager and joe ferguson from 1977 through 1979.  he was part of two pennant winning teams (the teams of my youth) but is probably best remembered as the manager of the orioles and rangers.

nick polly

polly was a third baseman who appeared in all of 10 games for the dodgers in 1937.  he hit .222 in 18 plate appearances.  the only other big league experience polly had came in 1945 when he played in 4 games for the boston red sox.

johnny roseboro

perhaps the star of this post, roseboro took over the dodger catching duties following roy campanella's auto accident.  roseboro remained the dodgers' catcher for a decade, helping the team get to four world series during that span.  he was traded to the twins after the 1967 season with ron perranoski for mudcat grant and zoilo versalles.

bill shindle

was a member of the brooklyn bridegrooms from 1894-1898.  he was acquired in the trade that sent wee willie keeler to the baltimore orioles.  in his five seasons in brooklyn, the third baseman hit .274 with 13 homers and 373 rbi.  brooklyn would later reacquire keeler, but that's a post for another day.