sunday morning target dodgers - not sure how ted power wound up with this group, especially that merkle character

this week's sheet of 15 cards from the 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary giveaway set features a bunch of guys who played during the early years of the franchise.  and ted power.

doug baird

baird was picked up by the robins on waivers late in the 1919 season.  he appeared in 20 games and hit only .183, but they brought him back in 1920.  he was 2 for 6 in 6 games that year before his contract was purchased by the new york giants for whom he played out the remainder of the season.

glenn chapman

chapman spent one season in the major leagues, and that was 1934 with the dodgers.  he appeared in 67 games for casey stengel's squad, hitting .280 with a home run and 10 rbi.

fats dantonio

dantonio debuted in 1944 with the dodgers, and made it into 3 games, going 1 for 7 at the plate.  he was back with brooklyn in 1945, this time playing in 47 games and hitting .250.  in those 47 games, however, dantonio made enough errors (12) to lead the league in errors by a catcher.  he did not appear in the majors after the 1945 season, but he continued to play minor league ball and eventually retired with a .300 career batting average as a minor leaguer.

bil doak

doak was acquired by the robins during the 1924 season, and he posted a record of 11-5 in the 21 games in which he pitched for them that year.  it looks like he took a couple of years off before returning to the team in 1927 when he was 11-8 in 27 games, and his time with the franchise ended after the 1928 season in which he was 3-8 in 28 appearances.  doak was one of the spitballers who was allowed to continue throwing the pitch after it was outlawed in 1920.  doak may be best known, however, not as a pitcher who twice (1914 and 1921) led the league in era, but rather as the inventor of the modern fielder's glove as he worked with rawlings in 1919 to add a webbing to the gloves of his era.

gil hatfield

hatfield took some time out from his family's feud with the mccoy's to play for the 1893 brooklyn grooms.  no, that's not true - he had spent 1892 managing a minor league team in seattle following a decent few years playing for the giants and a couple of other clubs.  with brooklyn, hatfield was a .292 hitter in his 34 games played.  he returned to the minors in 1894, but finished his big league career in 1895 with the louisville colonels.

bob higgins

higgins was a backup catcher for the dodgers in 1911 and 1912.  he appeared in four games in 1911, hitting .300 (3 for 10), and then made a singular appearance in 1912, finishing his career with an 0 for 2 day.  he continued to play minor league ball into the 1920's and then managed for a couple of years as well.

george hunter

hunter was 4-10 with a 2.46 era in the 16 games in which he appeared as a pitcher for the 1909 superbas.  he also played a few games in the outfield that year, and overall hit .228 in 44 total games played.  he returned in 1910, but only appeared in one game (as a fielder) and did not have a plate appearance, although the timing of his short career was such that he was included in the 1909-11 t206 set.

fred merkle

boner.

all right, i won't let that be the only thing i say about merkle, especially since his famous baserunning mistake didn't occur during his short time with the brooklyn robins.  merkle was traded to the robins by the giants during the 1916 season, and then the cubs purchased his contract from brooklyn early in the 1917 campaign.  in between, merkle appeared in 25 games and hit .221 for uncle robbie's teams.

jimmy pattison

pattison pitched in 6 games for the 1929 brooklyn robins, and that was the sum of his major league career.  he was 0-1 in those games, all featuring pattison in relief, and the team was winless in those contests as well.

ed pipgras

pipgras' major league career spanned a month at the end of the 1932 season.  he first appeared in a game on august 25 against the cubs, pitching a third of an inning in relief while allowing a couple of runs to score.  pipgras pitched in a total of five games for the dodgers that season, including his final appearance on september 25 against the braves. that appearance came with pipgras as the starting pitcher for the only time in his career, and he took the loss with a 5 inning, 8 run (3 earned) performance.

norman plitt

plitt's first taste of major league baseball action came on april 26, 1918 when he pitched the last two innings of a game for the robins against the new york giants.  he allowed a run to score, but also got a hit and drove in a run in his lone at bat, so it wasn't necessarily a bad debut.  unfortunately for plitt, he would have to wait until the 1927 season to get another chance in a big league game.  in '27, the robins used him in 19 games (8 as a starter), and he posted a record of 2-6 with a complete game.  the giants wound up picking him up on waivers, and he finished the season (and his major league career) with john mcgraw's squad.

ted power

power was a hard throwing reliever who began his career with a call-up for the dodgers in september of 1981.  he threw three scoreless innings against the giants in his debut (he struck out jack clark in his last inning of work), and tommy lasorda used him in four other games down the stretch (including two starts).  power was 1-3 in those games, losing both of his starts, and he did not appear in the postseason as the dodgers won the world series.  he was back with the big club in 1982, however, and was 1-1 in 12 appearances, four of which were starts.  after the season ended, power was traded to the reds, and he went on to be a closer for a few different teams over the course of his career.

hap smith

smith was apparently happy to have been acquired by the superbas early in the 1910 season in a trade with the cubs, because the brooklyn team brought him to the big leagues for the first time.  he wound up playing in 35 games, hitting .237, and that was it for his major league career.  it was enough, however, for smith to be immortalized like george hunter in the t206 card set.

tommy tucker

this tucker has a better mustache than this tom tucker, let's get that straight at the start.  this tucker also spent 13 seasons at the major league level in the late 1800's, including a stint with the brooklyn bridegrooms.  tucker played for brooklyn for the first half of the 1898 season, batting .279 in 73 games, before joining the st. louis browns for the second half of the campaign.  he was adept at being hit by the pitch, still sitting third all-time in that category behind hughie jennings and craig biggio, and ahead of don baylor, ron hunt, and everyone else who ever played.

tex wilson

wilson's major league career consists of 3.2 innings pitched in 2 games for the 1924 brooklyn robins.  he allowed 6 earned runs, but did strike a guy out which is nice.  he pitched in the minors for a few more seasons after his time in the majors was over, and i'll assume that's where this photo was taken, if in fact it really is wilson.

i'll look for a sheet with more modern players next week...

sunday morning target dodgers - from allen to zimmer

another sunday, another 14 cards from a sheet of the 1990 target dodger set.  let's get right to it.

frank allen

allen pitched for the dodgers, superbas, and robins - in that order.  he broke into the majors in 1912 as a dodger (the franchise used that name in 1911 and 1912) and went 3-9 in 20 games.  in 1913, the team went back to being knows as the superbas, and allen was 4-18 despite a 2.83 era in 37 appearances.  wilbert robinson took over the managing duties in 1914, and the team became known as the robins as a result.  allen's results were about the same - he was 8-14 with a 3.10 era in 36 appearances before moving to the federal league to finish out the season.  he returned to the national league a couple years later, but with the boston braves, not the robins.

ralph bryant

bryant played in a total of 79 games for the dodgers from 1985-1987.  he hit .253 with 8 home runs, and found greater success in japan.

roger craig

craig made his big league debut as a dodger in their championship season of 1955.  he started and won game 5 of the world series that year, earning the first of his three championship rings (he also won titles with the dodgers in 1959 and the cardinals in 1964).  after seven seasons with the dodgers, craig was selected by the mets in the expansion draft, and became the first starting pitcher in the franchise's history, losing their inaugural game 11-4 to the cardinals.  sadly for dodger fans, craig later became a successful manager for the giants of all teams.

brad havens

havens came to the dodgers in the 1987 trade that also brought john shelby to the club in exchange for tom niedenfuer.  he had no record in 31 games that season for the dodgers, recording one save and making a start as well.  he posted a 4.66 era in 9 appearances to start his 1988 season, and was released by the dodgers in may of that year.

dutch henry

henry debuted as a 19-year old for the saint louis browns.  after two seasons with the browns, he was traded to the robins.  in his two seasons with brooklyn, henry was 5-8 in 33 games, 13 of which were starts.  he threw two shutouts as a robin, and also hit .236 for the team.  following his stint with brooklyn, henry pitched for the giants and the white sox.

willard hunter

hunter pitched in exactly one game for the dodgers.  it came in april of 1962 at candlestick park.  he allowed the first three batters he faced to reach base, with the third giant being willie mays who hit a 3-run homer off of him.  he retired the next three batters, but was roughed up in the following inning, his last as a dodger.  in all, hunter allowed 10 runs (9 earned) in two innings of work.  he was soon thereafter traded to the mets as the player to be named later in the charley neal/lee walls deal.

tom hutton

hutton came up with the dodgers as a first base prospect, getting a cup of coffee with the team in 1966.  he returned in 1969, playing in 16 games and hitting .271.  stuck in the minors behind wes parker, bill buckner, and steve garvey, hutton was traded to the phillies following the 1971 season for larry hisle, who himself got stuck in the dodger minor leagues for his lone season with the organization as well.

hal lee

lee spent the 1930 season, his first in the majors, with the robins.  he hit .162 in 22 games, many of which he appeared in as a pinch-hitter.  in fact, he hit his first big league home run while pinch-hitting for the robins that year.  lee is better known as the player on the 1935 boston braves who replaced babe ruth in the bambino's final big league game.

morrie martin

martin had a 10-year big league career, the first of which was spent with the dodgers in 1949.  he was 1-3 with a 7.04 era in 10 games that year, and spent the entire 1950 season back in saint paul with the dodgers' affiliate.  he was lost in the rule v draft following the season to the philadelphia a's.

otho nitcholas

i would have guessed that target misspelled 'otto nicholas', but no - this guy really was named otho nitcholas.  he appeared in 7 major league games, all for the 1945 brooklyn dodgers.  he was 1-0 with a 5.30 era, but found far greater success both before and after his time with the dodgers in the minor leagues, where he won over 250 games over the course of his career.

derrel (not derrell) thomas

thomas was a member of the 1981 world championship dodger team who was best known for his ability to play all around the diamond.  i, in fact, was in attendance at one of the four games in which thomas started as the dodgers' catcher during the 1980 season (i was at the april 18 game - the one that saw thomas hit his lone home run of the season).  thomas was a dodger for 5 of his 15 seasons in the majors.

jeff torborg

torborg spent 7 seasons with the dodgers, from 1964 through 1970.  he began as the backup catcher to john roseboro, and remained a backup even after roseboro was dealt to the twins following the 1967 season.  even so, torborg caught sandy koufax's perfect game in 1965 and bill singer's no-hitter in 1970.  torborg joined the angels prior to the 1971 season and stayed with them through 1973, catching nolan ryan's first no-hitter in 1973 to become one of two catchers to catch a no-no in each league, and the only person to catch a no-hitter thrown by koufax and ryan.  torborg later became a manager, and won the 1990 american league manager of the year award for his work leading the chicago white sox.

john ward

ward, known as 'monte' thanks to his middle name being 'montgomery', was a brooklyn groom in 1891 and 1892.  he led the league with 88 steals in his second year with the team, but that was less than the 111 steals he had with the giants to lead the league in 1887.  earlier in his career, ward had been a pitcher, but was converted to a fielder by the giants.  he finished his hall of fame career with a second stint with the giants in 1893 and 1894.

don zimmer

the late zimmer had two separate stints with the dodgers.  he began his career with the brooklyn dodgers in 1954 and moved to los angeles with the team in 1958.  following the 1959 season, he was traded to the cubs and later became an original met, becoming their first third baseman.  in fact, along with craig and zimmer, the mets had former dodgers charley neal and gil hodges in their inaugural game lineup.  zimmer returned to the dodgers in 1963, but had his contract purchased by the senators later in that season.  zimmer passed away earlier this year, and was remembered as a baseball lifer - his affiliation with the league lasted 60-plus years.