sunday morning target dodgers - the final edition

one of the first things one notices about the 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary giveaway set is that there is no order to the sheets. the card numbers are seemingly randomly assigned to them, and so there is no first or last sheet to the set.  fittingly, i've been scanning and posting the cards in a unorganized manner, so there is really no rhyme or reason as to why this is the last sheet to be posted. there are no big names that i've been saving, just 15 men who wore the uniform of the franchise at some point during their first 100 years in the national league.  let's have a look.

joe bradshaw

bradshaw played in two games for the 1929 brooklyn robins.  that was it as far as his big league career went. two games, four innings pitched, two runs allowed.  i do not know why he is wearing what seems to be a new york giants uniform in the picture on his card, nor do i even know whether that photo is indeed bradshaw or not.

larry burright

burright shared time with jim gilliam as the dodgers' second baseman in his rookie season of 1962.  he appeared in 115 games and hit .205.  after the season, burright was traded to the mets for travelin' bob miller.

george crable

crable was a pitcher for the 1910 brooklyn superbas who, like bradshaw up top, saw action in only two big league ball games.  according to baseball reference, he started (and completed) one, and then relieved in the other, but somehow pitched only 7.1 innings and earned no decisions.  i'll venture a guess that his complete game was a rain shortened tie.

pea ridge day

henry clyde was his given name, but day grew up in pea ridge, arkansas, and so was dubbed pea ridge. true to his arkansas roots, day would apparently give a hog call following a strikeout of an opposing batter.  he brought his arm to the brooklyn robins in 1931 following a couple of seasons with the cardinals and one with the reds in the 1920's.  he was 2-2 for the robins in 22 appearances, but his career was ended due to arm problems and day turned to the bottle.  in 1934, day took his life by slashing his own throat.

bert delmus

baseball reference spells his last name 'delmas', but either way, this guy was a member of the 1933 brooklyn dodgers and he hit .250 in 12 games.  he played nothing but second base, so i don't know why his position is listed on the card as the generic 'inf' for infielder.  he didn't field particularly well - 3 errors in 34 chances - and all 7 of his hits were singles.

alex ferguson

ferguson finished off his 10-year major league career by pitching in 3 games for the 1929 brooklyn robins.  he was 0-1 with a 22.50 era in two innings pitched over those three games, and so it was likely easy to see the end of the line.  ferguson had previously pitched for the yankees (in two separate stints), red sox, senators, and phillies. he started two games for the senators in the 1925 world series, and in doing so, he became the pitcher with the highest regular season era (6.18) to start a postseason game.  this record has since been surpassed by oliver perez in 2006 (6.55).  this is a bit misleading, as ferguson began the 1925 season with poor performances for the red sox and the yankees before joining washington and amassing a nice 3.25 era in his seven appearances for the senators down the stretch.

tom fitzsimmons

in four games for the 1919 brooklyn robins, fitzsimmons was 0 for 4 with a walk and a run scored.  that is the sum total of his major league career.

john grim

grim was a member of the brooklyn grooms/bridegrooms/superbas from 1895 through 1899.  he caught a total of 310 games over that span, while also playing some first base and outfield.

bob hall

hall played for the phillies in 1904 and then began the 1905 season with the new york giants. after playing in one game for them, the giants loaned him to the brooklyn superbas for the remainder of the season. while the giants went on to win the world series, hall appeared in 56 games for the 8th place superbas, hitting .236 along the way.

joe klugman

klugman hit .165 for the 1924 robins, appearing in 31 games and playing mostly second base.  the following year, he hit .329 in 38 games for the indians. go figure.

tom lovett

lovett was an original brooklyn national leaguer, playing for the club in 1889 during their final season in the american association, and staying on in 1890 as they joined the senior circuit.  he won 30 games in 1890, and had a nice 2.78 era to boot.  the following season, lovett was 23-19 with a 3.69 era.  after sitting out the 1892 season, lovett returned to brooklyn for the 1893 campaign, but was only 3-5 in 14 games with an era over six.

gene mccann

mccann was a pitcher on the 1901 and 1902 superbas.  he went 3-5 in 9 appearances over those two seasons, which were the only two of his big league career.  mccann later managed in the minor leagues for several years and then became a scout for the yankees.

lefty o'doul

o'doul began his big league career in 1919 as a pitcher with the yankees.  arm troubles forced him to reinvent himself as a position player, and he began the second phase of his major league career in 1928 with the giants, but the robins acquired o'doul from the phillies following the 1930 season.  it was in 1929 that o'doul hit .398 for philadelphia to lead the league, and he had hit a robust .383 for them in 1930 (fourth best in the league) so brooklyn certainly had high hopes despite the fact that o'doul was 34 years old heading into the season.  o'doul did not disappoint - he hit .336 in 1931 for the robins and then led the league with a .368 batting average in 1932 for the dodgers.  he finished 3rd in the mvp voting that year, but was traded to the giants during the following season.  o'doul retired with a .349 batting average (4th all-time) but is not in the hall of fame due to having only seven seasons as a position player.

ray schmandt

schmandt played for the robins from 1918 through 1922.  he was 0 for 1 in the 1920 world series, but hit .270 overall for the robins during his five seasons with the club.

henry schmidt

schmidt is the only player in major league history to win at least 20 games in his only big league season.  coming from oakland of the california league where he won 35 games in 1902, schmidt joined the superbas for the 1903 campaign and went 22-13 in 40 appearances. of those 40 games, schmidt started 36 (completing 29 - 5 by shutout), and finished the other four as a reliever.  he also appeared in another game as an outfielder, logging an assist on his only fielding chance from that position.  following the season, schmidt decided that he preferred to pitch on the west coast, and he rejoined his oakland ballclub (who had moved to the pacific coast league) and promptly won 26 games in 1904.

it's fitting that this sheet of obscure brooklyn/los angeles ballplayers is the last in the set to be featured here.  these sorts of sheets were my favorite for the simple reason that i learned something new about my favorite franchise and its players.  i hope you did, too.

sunday morning target dodgers - featuring a trojan dodger

there's only one los angeles dodger on this particular sheet of cards from the 1990 target 100th anniversary set, yet the best known person on the sheet is known for wearing a different uniform in la.  oh, and there are only 14 people in this post because one of the guys on the sheet was a double dipper - he gets a separate post later.  enjoy.

leon cadore

cadore is known primarily as the brooklyn robins pitcher in the famous 26-inning, 1-1 tie with the braves during the 1920 season (friday was the 95th anniversary of the feat).  however, in addition to pitching 26 innings that day, cadore won 68 games during his 9 seasons with the robins, and appeared in one game of the 1920 world series against the indians as well.  still, that marathon game is his claim to fame, and it even got him a card in the 1961 topps set, which is nice.

andy carey

carey spent 10 seasons in the american league before joining the dodgers in 1962. he won three world series rings with the yankees (in 1953, 1956, and 1958 - although he did not play in the '53 series), and appeared in two other fall classics (1955 and 1957) as well.  with the dodgers, carey hit .234 in 53 games during the 1962 season, which was the last of his career.

raoul dedeaux

known better as 'rod', dedeaux was the legendary manager of the usc trojans baseball team from 1942-1987 and of the us olympic team in 1984 (earning himself a card in the 1985 topps set as a result). before all of that, however, dedeaux was a baseball player, and he appeared in two games for the brooklyn dodgers in 1935.  he was 1 for 4 with an rbi at the plate as a major league player, but went on to collect over 1,300 wins and 11 collegiate titles as the coach at southern cal.

carl doyle

doyle pitched for the dodgers in 1939 and part of 1940. he had a sparkling 1.02 era over his five games pitched in 1939 (including a shutout of the phillies), but he had just a 1-2 record to show for it. in 1940, he pitched in 3 games for the dodgers and had an era of 27.00 before he was traded to the cardinals in the ducky medwick deal.

dick durning

durning pitched in two major league games - one in 1917 and one in 1918.  both came as a member of the brooklyn robins, both were in relief, and both were as the final pitcher of the game. in his big league debut, durning pitched a perfect inning.  in his final appearance, he allowed 5 runs to score (3 earned) with 3 hits and 4 walks allowed over two innings.  perhaps he should have quit while he was ahead.

chauncey fisher

fisher pitched for the bridegrooms in 1897. he was 9-7 that year with a 4.23 era.  fisher also pitched for the reds, giants, cardinals, and cleveland spiders during his career.

nig fuller

fuller appeared in three games over a 12-day span in 1902 with the superbas, and was 0 for 9 with an rbi and a sacrifice in them.

carden gillenwater

gillenwater spent time in the major leagues over five different seasons, playing for four different teams. one of those teams was the 1943 brooklyn dodgers, for whom he played in 8 games and hit .176.

ed konetchy

a good fielding first baseman, konetchy spent the first 7 years of his career (1907-1913) with the cardinals, where he put up numbers that topped the franchise leader board in many categories until rogers hornsby surpassed them.  one number, his 151 steals as a cardinal, stood until lou brock passed him in the 1960's.  he joined the robins in 1919 after spending time with the pirates, braves, and one season in the federal league. konetchy helped the robins reach the world series in 1920 by hitting .308 in the regular season, although he hit just .174 in the fall classic.

john mcdougal

mcdougal made his big league debut with the brooklyn grooms in 1895, earning what today would be considered a save despite allowing four runs over three innings of work.  he did not pitch in the big leagues again until 1905, when he was a member of the cardinals.

darby o'brien

o'brien was a member of the 1890 brooklyn bridegrooms in their inaugural year as a national league team. he had joined the club in 1888, actually, and remained a member of the team through 1892. he hit .314 for the national league champion bridegrooms in 1890, but well below .200 during the postseason exhibition that year.

charlie schmutz

schmutz pitched for the robins in 1914 and 1915.  he was 1-3 in 18 games during the 1914 season, and had no record in the lone appearance he made in 1915.

tommy sheehan

sheehan spent the 1908 season as a member of the brooklyn superbas following a couple of years with the pirates and a single game with the giants back in 1900.  he appeared in 146 games, a career high, but hit only .214.  actually, that .214 clip was slightly better than the team's average of .213, so maybe i shouldn't say 'only' when referring to the deadball era.

danny taylor

taylor joined the dodgers in may of 1932 after starting the season with the cubs, for whom he had played since 1929 (he also had a cup of coffee with the senators in 1926). taylor patrolled the dodger outfield through july of 1936, and had an even .300 batting average over his tenure with the club.

sunday morning target dodgers

let's dive right into another sheet of 15 dodger cards from the 1990 target 100th anniversary giveaway set.  actually, only 14 cards. i found another dodger double dipper.

del bissonette

i am guessing that bissonette is wearing a portland pilots uniform. that was the team that he managed in his home state of maine in the late 1940's. before that, however, he was a ballplayer touted as a babe ruth type talent, largely because he was both a left-handed pitcher and a skilled batter.  he hurt his arm at some point before signing with brooklyn, and so focused solely on hitting.  as a rookie for the robins in 1928, bissonette played in a league-leading 155 games, and hit .320 with 25 home runs and 106 rbi.  he was the robins' first baseman for the next three seasons as well, and after his first four years in the majors, bissonette owned a .308 career batting average with a .376 on-base percentage and a ops of .870. not ruthian, but not bad, either.  unfortunately, bissonette severed his achilles tendon in a spring training volleyball mishap in 1932, and he missed the entire season. he was back in 1933, but underperformed and was traded away.  he failed in his attempts to return to the majors, and eventually went into managing - both at the minor and major league level.

billy earle

earle was an early version of craig biggio for the 1894 brooklyn grooms.  he played both catcher and second base (and had played outfield and other infield positions for teams earlier in his career) while hitting .340 in 50 at bats.  although he was just 26 when the season ended, and he owned a .286 lifetime average in addition to his positional flexibility, earle did not continue to play in the majors after his brooklyn experience.  some believe that this was due to his penchant for studying things such as hypnosis which made his teammates uncomfortable.

duke farrell

farrell was a member of the brooklyn superbas for four of his 18 years in the big leagues, playing for them from 1899-1902.  he helped the superbas win the pennant in 1899 and 1900, and then played for the first world champions in 1903 - the boston pilgrims.

freddie fitzsimmons

fitzsimmons finished his 19-year career with 7 in  brooklyn.  he pitched for the dodgers from midway in the 1937 season through 1943, amassing a record of 47-32 in that time.  his best season by far was 1940 when he was 16-2 with a save in 20 appearances (18 starts), finishing fifth in the league mvp voting.  the following season, fitzsimmons helped the dodgers return to the world series for the first time since 1920, and earned a no-decision in game 3 of the fall classic despite pitching 7 scoreless innings against the yankees.

joe gallagher

gallagher joined the dodgers during the 1940 season, and played in 57 games for them.  he hit .264 with 3 homers and 16 rbi during that time.  when 1941 rolled around, gallagher enlisted in the armed forces rather than return to the diamond.  he did return to baseball following world war ii, and roomed with jackie robinson at montreal in 1946.

jay howell

howell was obtained by the dodgers prior to the 1988 season, and he formed a closer tandem with jesse orosco in their championship season.  unlike orosco, howell remained with the team for a few seasons, saving a total of 85 games for the dodgers from '88 through 1992.

bill lohrman

lohrman was a dodger for less than a calendar year. he was obtained in a trade with the new york giants in july of 1943 and dealt to the reds in may of 1944.  in between, lohrman pitched in 9 games for the dodgers, going 0-2 with 2 complete games in 2 starts.

lew malone

you know what those checkered uniforms mean...yes, malone was a member of the 1917 brooklyn robins.  he appeared in only one game that season (as a pinch-runner), but returned in 1919 to play in 51 games for the robins.

buck marrow

marrow pitched for the dodger in 1937 and 1938.  in 21 appearances, he had a cumulative record of 1-3 with a 5.50 era.

teddy martinez

martinez was a member of the team of my youth, playing for the dodgers from 1977 through 1979. he played 3 of the four infield positions (no first base for teddy), and spelled ron cey, bill russell, and davey lopes for a total of 202 games during his tenure with the dodgers. a veteran of two postseasons prior to joining the dodgers, martinez did not appear in either the 1977 or 1978 playoffs or world series.

al nixon

nixon played in 21 games for the robins over the 1915, 1916, and 1918 seasons. he hit .333 over those games, but didn't play in the majors again until 1921 when he was a member of the boston braves.

jorge orta

orta joined the dodgers prior to the 1982 season in the deal that sent rick sutcliffe to cleveland, and the dodgers traded him to the mets for pat zachry a little over a year later. in his lone season in los angeles, orta hit .217 in 86 games.  despite what his card above says, orta played zero games for the dodgers as an infielder.

willie ramsdell

ramsdell was a knuckleball pitcher (hence his nickame - willie the knuck) who debuted for the dodgers as a 31-year old rookie in 1947.  he was 1-1 that season in two games, and then went 4-4 for the dodgers in 1948 while appearing in 27 games.  he had a cumulative era of 5.26 over those two seasons, but when he returned to the majors in 1950, he posted an era of 2.84 in his five apparances for the dodgers.  ramsdell later pitched for the reds and cubs, and in june of 1952, he pitched the last 6.2 innings for the cubbies in a game against the dodgers in which carl erskine threw a no-hitter.  oisk missed a perfect game by walking one batter in the third inning.  that batter was willie ramsdell.

mike sandlock

sandlock played for the dodgers in 1945 and 1946.  he appeared in a career high 80 games in 1945, playing primarily at catcher and, of all places, shortstop.  he hit .282 that season, but just .147 the next, and didn't appear in the majors again until 1953 when he was with the pirates.  sandlock is currently 99 years old, and is quite possibly the oldest living major leaguer.

the 15th player from the sheet will show up a bit later today.  stay tuned.

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!