sunday morning target dodgers - super bowl sunday edition.

like clockwork, here's another edition of the sunday morning target dodgers featuring 15 more cards from a sheet in the 1990 target 100th anniversary giveaway set.  just because it's super bowl sunday doesn't mean i'm doing anything different or exciting.  i honestly couldn't think of anything different or exciting.  enjoy.

bert abbey

abbey had a record of 9-30 as a major league pitcher when he joined the brooklyn grooms during the 1895 season.  he went 5-2 in 8 games for the club that year, and then posted an 8-8 record for brooklyn the following season, which turned out to be his last in the majors. abbey then returned to coach baseball at his alma mater, the university of vermont.

johnny butler

butler didn't debut in the majors until 1926 when he was a 33-year old infielder with the brooklyn robins.  he hit .269 in 147 games that year, and then played in 149 games for the robins the following season, although his batting average dropped to .238.  he was picked up by the cubs for the 1928 season, and finished his big league career with the cardinals in 1929.

ivan dejesus

the dodgers signed dejesus as an amateur free agent out of puerto rico in 1969.  he appeared in 3 games during the 1974 season as a late season call-up for the dodgers, and then saw some playing time as a backup to bill russell in 1975 and 1976.   in fact, dejesus and rick auerbach filled in for the injured russell during a good stretch of the 1975 season.  ultimately, however, dejesus was expendable, and he was traded with bill buckner to the cubs for mike garman and rick monday prior to the 1977 season.  dejesus later was traded by the cubs to the phillies for larry bowa and a throw-in named ryne sandberg.

harry eisenstat

eisenstat was a brooklyn native who made his big league debut for the local nine in 1935, when he was just 19 years old.  he was 0-1 in his 2 relief appearances that season, but earned his first big league win (against 3 more losses) the following year.  in 1937, his last year with the dodgers, eisenstat was 3-3 in 13 games.  he went on to pitch for the tigers, for whom he took a no-hitter into the 8th inning on the last day of the 1938 season, beating bob feller of the indians who struck out 18 tigers that day.  coincidentally, the indians traded for eisenstat the following year, and he pitched in cleveland for the remainder of his career.

don elston

elston threw 757.2 innings as a major league pitcher, 756.2 of which came as a member of the chicago cubs.  he was acquired by the dodgers from chicago prior to the 1957 season, but was dealt back to the cubbies after pitching just one inning as a member of the brooklyn dodgers.  in that lone dodger appearance, elston took over for sandy koufax and pitched a scoreless 9th inning against the milwaukee braves. in addition to this card, elston also shows up as a dodger in the 1957 topps set which is nice given his short tenure with the team.

jim gentile

i don't think i knew that diamond jim gentile began his big league career with the brooklyn dodgers in 1957.  he also played for the los angeles dodgers in 1958, amassing a .139 batting average in 16 games over those two seasons.  his first big league hit was a home run off of the phillies' robin roberts, which was not a bad way to start.  i knew of gentile more because of his big 1961 season with the orioles in which he hit 46 home runs and earned a spot on the 1962 topps home run leader card with roger maris, mickey mantle, and harmon killebrew.  gentile also hit .302 with 141 rbi that season.

jerry grote

grote came to the dodgers late in the 1977 season as a third catcher and sometimes third baseman.  he remained with the team through the 1978 season, playing in the nlcs and world series both years. in fact, grote was on deck when ron cey scored the pennant winning run in the 1978 nlcs, and so is featured prominently in one of the celebratory photos that i used to make the 1979 topps card that should have been.  grote was also a dodger double dipper, as he returned to the club for the 1981 pennant run after coming out of retirement earlier that year to join the kansas city royals.

joe harris

harris was acquired by the robins via trade with pittsburgh during the 1928 season.  he appeared in 55 games for brooklyn, hitting .236 in what would be his final stint in the major leagues.  his was a career that lasted 10 seasons over 15 years, but had been sidetracked early on when commissioner landis banned him from the game for life due to harris playing in an independent league in ohio during the 1920 season rather than return to the cleveland indians for whom he had played in 1917 and 1919.  harris was obviously later reinstated, and became the first player to hit a home run in his first world series at bat.

butch henline

henline was the player that the robins received in return when they traded burleigh grimes to the giants in 1927. henline came from the phillies, who were the third team in that trade.  he served as the backup catcher for three seasons, hitting .243 in 149 games as a robin.

rube melton

melton kinda sorta looks like ted williams here, don't you think?  he was a pitcher for the dodgers for two years before and after serving in world war ii.  he joined the dodgers in 1943 and had a combined record of 14-21 over the '43 and '44 seasons.  melton spent 1945 and some of the 1946 season in the armed forces, but posted a 1.99 era with a 6-3 record for the portion of the '46 campaign that he did play in.  he pitched in just 4 games in 1947, collecting only a loss to go with a 13.50 era in those appearances.

andy pafko

pafko is best known as the guy who is on the first card in the 1952 topps set, which features him in a brooklyn uniform thanks to a june, 1951 trade with the cubs.  pafko also played for the dodgers in the 1952 season, hitting .287 in a career high 150 games.  he was traded to the braves prior to the 1953 campaign.

jimmy ripple

ripple had played in 417 games and two world series as a member of the new york giants when he was dealt to the dodgers in september of 1939.  he hit .330 for the dodgers in 28 games over the course of the last few weeks of that season, but the club still finished 12.5 games behind the reds in the standings.  ripple returned to the dodgers in 1940, but only appeared in 7 games before the aforementioned reds claimed him on waivers in august.  ripple went on to help cincinnati win the world series that year.

jack smith

smith pitched for the dodgers in 1962 and 1963, although he earned no decisions in his 12 appearances (all in relief) during that time.  he did not appear in the 1963 world series, either, and was soon thereafter lost to the braves in the rule v draft.

carl warwick

warwick began his career in 1961 as a member of the dodgers. he debuted on april 11 of that year, pinch-hitting for wally moon against ken lehman of the cardinals and promptly hit an rbi single into left field.  it turned out to be the only hit warwick would record as a dodger.  he was 0 for his next 10 (although he did draw 2 walks) and was traded to the cardinals on may 30.

bob welch

welch was the dodgers' number 1 pick in 1977, and he made his big league debut a year later.  he famously struck out reggie jackson to save game 2 of the 1978 world series and was a member of the 1981 team that finally beat the yankees in the fall classic.  as a dodger, welch was 115-86 over a 10 year stretch that ended with him being traded to oakland prior to the 1988 season.  i remember seeing him during the introductions prior to game 1 of the 1988 world series that paired the dodgers against the a's and felt sad that he was no longer on 'my' team.  i didn't feel too badly for him, however, as i obviously wanted the dodgers to win.  welch got the start in game 3, which was the only game the a's won in the series, but he got his second ring in 1989 when the a's beat the giants (although welch did not pitch in the world series that year). to cap things off, welch won 27 games in 1990 en route to the cy young award.  sadly, welch passed away during last season at the age of 57.

an armband for gil hodges

gil hodges passed away of a heart attack while golfing towards the end of spring training, 1972.  his wonderful 1972 o-pee-chee card gives us the hard facts about the manager of the mets.

to honor hodges, the mets retired his number and wore black armbands during the 1972 season.  i don't believe that the dodgers wore any memorial for their former first baseman, and number 14 is still available to be worn by any tom, dick, or mark ellis, as the case may be.  anyway, here is a 1973 o-pee-chee card of jerry grote with the armband present

and 1973 topps cards of willie mays

and ted martinez

but it's ken boswell who gets to represent this memorial in my binder

thanks to the faraway look in his eyes and the prime location of the armband in the photo.

jerry grote, master lurker and dodger double dipper

[this is the forty-third 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, and tim wallach.]

before jerry grote first put on a dodger uniform in 1977, he had established quite a career for himself.  he had a world series championship in 1969 and a reputation as one of the game's best defensive catchers. he was also a master of appearing on other players' baseball cards.  like joe morgan's 1971 topps card.

now morgan himself was found lurking on tommie agee's 1971 topps card

but grote's presence as a lurker on morgan's card was so epic, topps actually used that same photo for grote's own 1971 baseball's greatest moment card (which i do not own, unfortunately)

that is some serious lurker cred.  grote appeared on another 1971 topps card, that of norm miller

but he unfortunately lost an opportunity for yet another appearance in the set via ray sadecki's card

because gil hodges gave duffy dyer got some playing time.  no matter, grote was back again in 1973, appearing on one of the greatest baseball cards of all time, the 1973 topps roberto clemente card

it was duffy dyer, however, who was behind the plate when clemente stroked his 3000th career hit off of jon matlack.  

here's grote again, i believe, on bob didier's 1973 topps card

or at least, his shinguards.  

grote was once again an on deck lurker in 1974, thanks to this world series card.

grote was on deck in the second inning when john milner drove cleon jones in with a single for the game's first run.  grote later scored the second run of the game after starting a two-out rally with a single in the 6th inning.

grote is back behind the plate where he belongs on this 1974 topps world series card

here, grote can only squat and watch as bert campaneris collects one of his three hits in the clincher.

grote wasn't always a lurker, though, as this 1978 sspc card attests.

grote came to the dodgers from new york in a trade late in the 1977 season.  he didn't play much, but he was soon up to his old tricks, getting some time on darrell evans' 1979 topps card

grote retired after the 1978 season, but was coaxed back to the big leagues by the royals prior to the 1981 season.  i made a 1981 topps traded card that should have been to commemorate the occasion.

he was released by the royals late in the season, but the dodgers re-signed him as they needed another backup catcher and no longer had joe ferguson on the roster.  grote only appeared in one game for the dodgers in 1981, but that was enough for him to qualify as a double dipper.  after the dodgers made the postseason, grote was released although i would imagine he has a ring from that world championship.  his playing career was over, so he wasn't included in any 1982 sets.  here's a 1982 topps card that should have been, paying final tribute to a fantastic career

here's the back with grote's career stats

and, lest we forget, here is yet another card showing off grote's lurking prowess - a 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams lou brock card

and yes, i will get back to that blog very very soon.

here's to you jerry grote!

vic davalillo (among others) was missed in 1981 topps

he wasn't alone, either.  even though both davalillo and manny mota were active in 1980, mota was absent from a topps set for the first time since 1963.  that was also the first year davalillo was featured in a set, although he missed out from 1975 through 1977 while he was playing in mexico, and was last included in a topps set in 1979.  you saw (i hope) the 1980 card i created for davalillo to fill the void that year, and now i present the 1981 topps vic davalillo card that should have been.

the photo i used was taken from one of the dodgers' photo albums from the late 1970's.  here's the back, with his complete career stats - a true final tribute.

whoever set that type must have been drunk.

davalillo actually had a final tribute card in 1981, thanks to fleer which included cards for both davalillo (front)

(back)

and mota

in their 1981 set.  mota also got some love in the 1981 donruss issue.

but alas, there was not topps card for the (at that time) man with the most career pinch hits.  you'll note that donruss lists him as a coach, so i made two versions of the 1981 topps manny mota card that should have been - coach

and player

mota did nothing but pinch hit once he was reinstated late in the 1980 season.  he would retire again after the season, but, as the back of his 1981 donruss card predicted,

mota was called into duty by the dodgers once again, although it wouldn't be until 1982.

last but not least, jerry grote also came out of retirement to play in 1981, and should have been included in the 1981 topps traded set (in my opinion).  i mean, if doug rau gets a card despite not playing in a game after june of 1981, then grote deserved to be in there.  although not at the expense of the only doug rau as an angel card - that would not have been good.
here is the 1981 topps traded jerry grote card that should have been.

that's grote's image from his 1979 topps card.  i reversed it and added the 'kc' to his cap.  like mota, grote first entered the topps set in 1964. and, like davalillo, he was not part of the 1977 or 1980 sets thanks to a couple of bouts with retirement.  he missed the entire 1979 and 1980 seasons before agreeing to terms with the royals for the 1981 campaign.  they wound up releasing him in august, but he signed on with the dodgers (who had released joe ferguson earlier in the year) to help back up steve yeager and mike scioscia.  as a result, grote won his second world series ring as the dodgers beat the yankees in the fall classic, even though his second turn as a dodger amounted to just 2 at bats in 2 regular season games.

so, now we are caught up with how things were and how they should have been for the 1978 topps dodgers in 1981.  we'll move on to 1982 soon.

why weren't there postseason cards in 1979 topps?

1979 was, i believe, the first year since 1959 that there were no postseason cards included in the topps set.  for twenty years, collectors had come to expect a subset highlighting the past season's postseason heroics.  i certainly expected it when i was opening wax back in '79.  i must have opened more than a box worth of cards before i realized that i would not see any recognition of the team of my youth winning their second straight pennant, and i was sorely disappointed, even though i knew that with the nlcs card there would be a world series card touting the back-to-back champion yankees.  i was further frustrated, of course, when topps brought the cards back in 1981 and then promptly stopped making them until 1998 (i think).  even o-pee-chee realized how dumb that was and made their own world series highlight card subset for their 1989 set.  oh, and you can bet your sweet arse there will be a whole mess of 1982 topps cards that should have been before i'm done.

but i digress.  today, the lack of these cards in the 1979 set gives me an opportunity to rewrite history and create some cards that should have been.  oh, how i wish these cards had been...

card 727 - nlcs summary

what a great photo.  jerry grote greeting ron cey at home plate after the penguin scored the pennant winning run in game 4.  i love seeing davey lopes in the background, along with a civilian who just might beat lopes to the plate.

here's the back

you knew i had to get steve garvey in there somewhere, right?  in fact, all four members of the infield are represented on the card.

i suppose i have to create an alcs version, too - just to be completist about things.

card 728 - alcs summary

here's the back

i don't know why the american league didn't name an mvp for their championship series until 1980 (the nl started in 1977 with dusty baker taking the honors).  anyway, it would almost certainly have been reggie jackson, who hit .462 with 2 homers and 6 rbi.  still, i didn't want to do another reggie jackson card, so i chose that photo of willie wilson bowling into thurman munson in game 2.

and, card 729 - world series summary (with a dodger twist)

ha ha. reggie jackson almost falls down while striking out.  the joke was on me as i thought a 2 games to none lead was too big to be blown and in my second year of fandom i would be rewarded with a world series winner.  not so fast.  here's the back.

bucky freakin' dent.  still, i would have gladly taken these cards back then. wouldn't you?