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.

the evolution of the shortstop - from reese to russell

only three positions left to address in these evolutionary posts - first, second, and short.  let's check the 6 in dodger history.

for me, dodger shortstops begin with…

pee wee reese (1941-42, 1946-56).  aside from the time he spent serving our country in world war ii, pee wee was a mainstay at short for the dodgers.  here's his 1954 bowman card

pee wee came over from the red sox organization in 1939, but only appeared in the majors as a dodger. during his time as the team's primary shortstop, he appeared in over 2000 games, scored over 1200 runs, had over 2000 hits, and reached base another 1100 or so times by walks.  he helped lead the team to 7 world series (all against the yankees), and hit .272 in 44 postseason games, the most by any dodger.  pee wee went with the team to los angeles, but shifted to third base in 1957, opening up the shortstop position for

charlie neal (1957)

i know that's neal's 1955 bowman card, but i hadn't shown it yet on the blog.  neal played shortstop in 100 games during the dodgers' final season in brooklyn.  he hit .270 with 12 homers, but was moved to second base when the team went west.  that means that neal replaced two dodger legends in the field in two consecutive years.  it also meant that the team had a new primary shortstop in los angeles...

don zimmer (1958-59)

yes, i know that's don zimmer's 1955 topps rookie card that i am using to mark the los angeles dodgers' first primary shortstop.  actually, pee wee reese was the first dodger to play shortstop in la, but zimmer replaced him in the team's second game and wound up playing in 114 games at the position in 1958.  the following year, zimmer appeared in 88 games (70 starts) at short so he gets the positional nod here over the other dodger to start 70 games at the position in '59, maury wills.

maury wills (1960-66)

how awesome is that 1962 bell brand maury wills card, by the way?  wills actually took over at short in june of 1959 and helped the dodgers get to the world series (and win) for the first time since 1955.  he manned the position for 7 and a half seasons before he was dealt away to the pirates.  during those years, wills earned an mvp award and led the league in steals six straight years.  he also set a record that will never be broken (unless the owners get really greedy and expand the season) by playing in 165 regular season games in 1962.  with wills traded to the pirates after the 1966 season, the door was opened for one of the players obtained in return to be the dodgers' shortstop

gene michael (1967)

although he only appeared in 83 games (66 starts) as the dodgers' shortstop in 1967, michael gets the nod over nate oliver, dick schofield, bob bailey, and tommy dean as the most used shortstop on the dodger roster in 1967.  he hit just .246 with 7 rbi, and his contract was purchased by the yankees after the season ended.  michael went on to be their primary shortstop for several years, while the dodgers went out and picked up someone else to fill the void.

zoilo versalles (1968)

i guess versalles had impressed the dodgers in the 1965 world series, as they traded bob miller, ron perranoski, and john roseboro to the twins to get him and mudcat grant.  unfortunately, versalles hit only .196 as the dodgers' everyday shortstop in 1968, and was taken by the san diego padres in the expansion draft after the season.  time for the dodgers to right the wrong that they had done a couple years earlier

maury wills (1969-1971)

yes, maurice morning wills returned to the fold by way of trade during the 1969 season.  an honorable mention goes out to ted sizemore, who started the season as the dodgers' shortstop, but moved to second base when wills was acquired, and wound up winning the nl rookie of the year.  wills was able to secure his spot as the team's primary shortstop in '69 by appearing in 104 games at the position, about 60 more than sizemore.  wills held on to the spot through the 1971 season in which he finished 6th in the league mvp voting.  while he was still with the dodgers in 1972, he was no longer the everyday shortstop, giving way to a converted outfielder...

bill russell (1972-1983)

ropes brought stability back to the shortstop position, holding on to the spot for 12 seasons.  he was named to three all-star teams during that run, and helped the dodgers win 4 pennants and 1 world series.  he was the shortstop of the team of my youth.  but, all good things must come to an end, and russell was eventually replaced as the everyday shortstop in 1984.  i'll get to that next time.

when tom hutton signs, people listen

i posted a while back about this card - a 1967 topps dodgers rookie stars -

that gene michael was kind enough to sign and return.  i sent it back out, this time to tom hutton, and he quickly signed and returned it as well.

hutton also signed his 1976 topps

and 1978 topps cards for me

which is awesome in and of itself.  i love love love getting some 1978 topps signed.

hutton debuted in the majors for the dodgers in 1966.  he went 0 for 2 in 3 games for the nl champs.  his first two games were games in which koufax was pitching, and his third was in a drysdale shutout.  he replaced willie crawford in the 9th inning of his major league debut, and got his first at-bat a few days later when he replaced wes parker in the 7th inning.  he grounded out against the phillies' john morris, but at least he moved the runner over.

hutton didn't appear in the big leagues again until 1969 when he was called up for a two-week stint to replace the injured parker at first.  hutton got his first big league hit (a single) in his first game back against hank aguirre of the cubs.  when parker returned, hutton was sent down and never appeared as a dodger again.

in october of 1971, the dodgers traded hutton to the phillies for larry hisle and hutton quickly became the phils' regular first baseman.  he had hits in his first 3 at-bats for the phillies, including a game winning, walk off single.  after 6 seasons in philadelphia, including two trips to the postseason, hutton was purchased by the blue jays in december of 1977.  i have always wondered why he didn't get a card in the 1978 o-pee-chee set - there was plenty of time after the transaction occurred to include him and get the team and text variation set, especially since he was going to one of the two canadian teams.  speaking of which, hutton played for both teams - toronto and montreal - in 1978.

back to that 1967 card.  it bothers me that topps didn't take the time to airbrush a dodger hat on gene michael.  i found a team issued postcard and replaced the photo to create the 1967 topps dodgers rookie stars card that should have been

much better.

thanks tommy!

gene michael through the mail success!

11 days is all it took for former dodgers shortstop to sign and return his 1967 topps rookie cardand his 1987 topps managers card.michael was acquired by the dodgers from the pirates in the maury wills trade. he played one year for la (1967) in which he batted .202 with no home runs as part of a platoon with dick schofield. his contract was purchased by the yankees after the 1967 season, and he took over as their regular shortstop shortly thereafter. he would go on to manage the yankees in 1981 and 1982 and the cubs in 1986 and 1987.

thanks gene!