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.

a partial run through the 1998 mother's cookies dodger set

earlier today i posted some cards from the 1997 mother's cookies dodger team set.  it was the first year that the set went away from full-bleed photos, and the 1998 set followed suit.  here's glenn hoffman's lone card as the dodger skipper.

tripp cromer gets a dodger card

thanks to this set - one of two cromer as a dodger cards that i have (the other comes from the 1999 keebler dodgers set)

mark guthrie

joined the dodgers in the 1995 trade that sent ron coomer to the twins and brought kevin tapani to los angeles. he pitched for the dodgers in 205 games over 4 seasons, but the only cards i have of him in a dodger uniform come from this set, the 1996 leaf signature series set, and the 1998 pacific online set.

the same goes for darren hall

who pitched in 83 games for the dodgers over 3 years, and trenidad hubbard

except that his dodger cards are limited to this set, the '99 keebler set, and the '98 pacific online release.

scott radinsky shows up in these sets, plus the pacific online set as a dodger, and he

almost had a 1999 fleer card as a dodger, but i had to settle for a cardinal wearing a dodger uniform.

i'll end this post with the coaches

john shelby replaced reggie smith as the first base coach, but charlie hough took over for dave wallace, so the number of players from the team of my youth on the staff remains the same.  mickey hatcher shows up in place of longtime coach mark cresse although he was the hitting coach.  1998 was cresse's last year as the bullpen coach, but he didn't make the card for some reason.  rick dempsey took over for cresse as the bullpen coach in 1999.

an abbreviated run through the 1997 mother's cookies dodger set

1997 was all about the 50th anniversary of jackie robinson's major league debut, and the mother's cookies dodger set that year included a special card with the anniversary logo.

that's the logo that the dodgers wore - remember, while all teams wore a similar patch, the dodgers, marlins, and expos put their own twist on it.

here are a few more cards from the 1997 mother's cookies dodger set

bill russell

the manager!

and his coaches!

plus, the five straight rookies of the year - eric karros

mike piazza

raul mondesi

hideo nomo

and todd hollandsworth

here's the current diamondbacks manager, chip hale

in what may well be his only dodger card

darren hall

has a couple of dodger cards, but not many.

does anyone recall nelson liriano as a dodger?

he played in 76 games for the 1997 dodgers, and his lone home run in dodger blue was a 9th inning game winner against the cubs.

here's one more - scott radinsky

if it weren't for these mother's sets, i don't think i would have more than one card of the pulley lead singer and current dodger minor league pitching coach.

thanks again to mr. haverkamp for brokering the deal that netted me these sets.

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.

sunday morning target dodgers

here we are with the last installment of sunday morning target dodgers of the year, and unless i scan some more sheets, it will be the final one - period.  let's find out about 15 more players who suited up for the brooklyn/los angeles national league franchise, courtesy of the target set that was given away at dodger stadium in 1990.

ed chandler

chandler was a major leaguer for about two months in 1947. he debuted three days after jackie robinson, pitching in relief against the new york giants on april 18.  he appeared in 14 other games, including both ends of a doubleheader against the cardinals on june 14. the nightcap that day turned out to be chandler's last appearance in the majors.

pete coscarart

coscarart was with the dodgers from 1938-1941, and was their primary second baseman in 1939 and 1940.  he made the all-star team in 1940 and appeared in the 1941 world series against the yankees.  after that, however, he was traded to the pirates in the deal that netted brooklyn arky vaughn.  coscarart went on to play in pittsburgh for four-plus seasons.

lefty davis

davis spent the first part of the 1901 season with the brooklyn superbas and the second part with the pittsburgh pirates. he had been released by the superbas after hitting just .209 in 25 games, but went on to bat .313 for pittsburgh in 87 games that year.  davis passed away on his 44th birthday.

ben geraghty

geraghty was an infielder with the 1936 dodgers who hit .194 in 51 games.  baseball-reference notes that he missed the 1937 season due to injury, but was traded towards the end of the season to the senators.  after making it back to the majors with the braves in 1943 and '44, geraghty returned to the minors and was a member of the dodgers' affiliate in spokane in 1946.  as a result, he was on the bus that crashed, killing nine members of the team, including player-manager mel cole.  geraghty survived the crash, and became the team's manager in 1947. he later went on to manage for many years in the braves' organization.

harvey green

green's major league experience consists of two games in which he pitched for the dodgers in 1935.  both came against the cubs in chicago in september of that year - on the 12th, he pitched a scoreless 9th inning in a 13-3 loss, and on the 14th, he failed to retire any of the three cubs he faced in what would be a 18-14 dodger loss.

bill hall

hall was 19 years old when he pitched for the brooklyn superbas in 1913.  he appeared in 3 games, allowing 3 earned runs in 4.2 innings of work.

bill harris

a native of new brunswick, harris was given a late-season start by the dodgers in 1957.  it was the first game following their last game at ebbet's field, and came in philadephia against the phillies.  harris pitched 7 innings, allowing 3 runs, and was 1 for 2 at the plate.  unfortunately, the dodgers only mustered up 2 runs (on a 9th-inning homer by sandy amoros) so harris got the loss. interestingly enough, he was replaced on the mound by none other than sandy koufax.  a couple of years later, with the dodgers now playing in los angeles, harris appeared in his second and final big league game - this time as a reliever against the cubs.

lefty hopper

hopper made 2 starts for the 1898 brooklyn bridegrooms.  he was 0-2 with 2 complete games, although he pitched only 11 innings.  he allowed 11 runs, 6 earned in those games, and did not pitch in the majors again.

bob lee

lee was acquired by the dodgers from the angels in a december, 1966 trade.  he showed up as a dodger in the 1967 topps set, although he appeared in only four games for the blue before he had his contract purchased by the reds.  in those four games as a dodger, lee pitched 6.2 innings - all in relief.

phil lewis

lewis was the superbas' shortstop from 1905-08.  he hit .242 in those four seasons, but amassed a whopping total of 120 errors in his first two campaigns. lewis spent the remainder of his baseball career in the minors, playing through 1916.

mike w. mccormick

mccormick was one of the players that the dodgers received in the trade that sent pete reiser to the braves following the 1948 season. mccormick hit .209 for the dodgers in 1949, playing in 55 games.  he appeared in one game of the 1949 world series (he caught the last out of the dodgers' game 2 victory - their only win of the series), and was then released by the club.

walt miller

what we have here is a case of mistaken identity.  the walt miller shown on the card is actually jake miller (his given name was walter) who pitched for the white sox in 1933 (after hurling several years for the indians). the giveaway was the fact that the pictured miller is a lefty, while this card is supposed to feature a right-handed pitcher.  the correct walt miller was a dodger for about a week in 1911, pitching in three games and taking the loss in one of them.

dick siebert

siebert had a couple of cups of coffee with the dodgers - first in 1932 and then again in 1936 - in which he was 2 for 9 with a couple of walks.  he spent most of his career playing first base for connie mack and the philadelphia a's, and was an all-star in 1943.  siebert retired after the 1945 season and returned to the twin cities where he became the head coach at his alma mater - the university of minnesota - and led the golden gophers to the college world series title three times.  siebert coached dave winfield and paul molitor among others during his tenure with the gophers - a tenure that ended with his passing in 1978.  the gophers' baseball stadium is named siebert field in his honor.

ray thomas

thomas' big league career consisted of one game with the 1938 brooklyn dodgers.  thomas replaced the robins' starting catcher merv shea in the july 22, 1938 game against the cardinals in the early going, and wound up getting three at bats. thomas finished the day, and his major league career as it turned out, 1 for 3 with a run scored.

george treadway

treadway was one of the players that the brooklyn grooms received from the orioles in exchange for future hall of famer willie keeler following the 1893 season.  he played for the grooms in 1894 and 1895, hitting .330 in 124 games in '94 but only .259 in 87 games in '95. after spending a short amount of time with the louisville colonels in 1896, treadway was out of the majors due in large part to suspicions about his heritage, according to baseball-reference.