postcards from paradise

a funny thing happened on the way to this post.  i misplaced all of my dodger postcards.  i had scanned them, some of which are shown below, but i had planned to further investigate and try to determine the exact years that they were issued using the information on their backs and some of the very scattered data available on the interwebs.  oh well, i'll have to tackle that task another time.  in the meantime, it's summer, and i assume some traveling folks are still sending postcards to the poor saps that are stuck back at home working.  in that vein, here are some dodger postcards that i will classify as 1962 (circa) to 1971 (circa) dodger team issue postcards.

big d!

i chose 1962 because that is the season that dodger stadium opened, and beautiful chavez ravine is the backdrop for many of these.  some, including the don drysdale postcard above, the ron perranoski postcard below,

this larry sherry postcard

and this maury wills postcard

all feature the three sisters palm trees closed up as they were first installed.

these next two are certainly from 1967, as that was the only season that ron hunt

and gene michael suited up for the dodgers.

plus, the palm trees have opened up!

i figure that these wes parker

and jeff torborg postcards

are from 1966, but that's only based on the relative youthfulness of torborg and this website.

sadly, the postcards moved out of dodger stadium later in the decade to what i assume to be vero beach.  these al ferrara

and bill singer postcards

are assumed to be from 1968 based on the fact that the singer photo is essentially the same as this mudcat grant photo

and this zoilo versalles postcard (i think) has the same info on the back

i wish i could find these things to confirm.  anyway, grant and versalles were only dodgers in 1968, so it's pretty easy to figure those, just like the hunt and michael.  same goes for these next couple - maybe - as long as the dodgers didn't wait to use these photos several years after they were taken.

billy grabarkewitz

and bill sudakis

are both wearing the mlb 100th anniversary patch from 1969, so i figure these to be 1970 postcards, although they could also be 1969 items if the dodgers were really on the ball and published these right after the photos were taken during spring training.

i'm not quite as sure of this tom haller postcard

since he was a dodger from 1968 through 1971, but this dick/richie allen postcard is certainly from 1971 (his lone year with the team)

and it's back in paradise - dodger stadium.

i may get back there yet this season, and if i do, maybe i'll drop a postcard in the mail...

sunday morning target dodgers - brought to you by the number 0. or is it the letter o?

two sundays into the new year, and i still haven't run out of sheets of cards from the 1990 target dodger set to show off.  i think i have enough to go for about 20 more weeks at which time i will have shown the entire set.  not sure if i'll make it that long, though.  here are this week's players:

bob barrett

barrett was 0 for 1 with a ribbie in his lone appearance for the robins in 1925. he had been acquired from the cubs in may, played in that one game, and was sent to the minors. he remained in the minors for the entire 1926 season, but returned to brooklyn in 1927.  that year, barrett hit .259 in 99 games.  he finished his big league career in 1929 with the red sox.

mace brown

the dodgers purchased the contract of mace brown from the pirates in april of 1941 and dealt him to the cubs in august of that same year. in between, brown appeared in 24 games for the dodgers pitching exclusively in relief.  he was 3-2 with a 3.16 era in those games. like barrett, brown finished his playing career as a member of the red sox, and later became their pitching coach and then a scout.  it was in the latter role that he discovered and signed hall of famer jim rice for the bosox.

gino cimoli

cimoli began his career in 1956 with the dodgers, and was an all-star for brooklyn in 1957.  he moved with the club to los angeles in 1958 (where he struck out as the first batter in a west coast major league baseball game), but was traded to the cardinals after that season as part of the wally moon deal.  as a dodger, cimoli had hit .269 in 324 games.  he also played for the pirates, braves, a's, orioles, and angels during his 10 year career.

ron davis

i don't remember ron davis as a dodger, probably because he only pitched in four games for them during the latter part of the 1987 season.  to me, ike's dad is a yankee, as he pitched for them from 1978 through 1981 when he faced the dodgers in the world series.  after i moved to minnesota, where davis pitched from 1982 into 1986, i came to know him as 'whiplash', as in the pain that twins' fans suffered as they followed a davis pitch approaching home plate and then being swatted into the outfield seats.  that's a bit of an exaggeration, as davis averaged 1 home run/9 innings pitched over his career, which is cole hamels-ish.  davis gave up no home runs as a dodger, but did walk 6 in his four innings of work for the blue.

art decatur

decatur was used as both a starter and a reliever for the robins from 1922 through 1924.  he also made one relief appearance in 1925 before he was traded to the phillies.  overall, decatur was 16-16 for brooklyn, with a 3.31 era.

jack fournier

fournier was the robins' first baseman from 1923 into the 1926 season.  he finished 9th in the league mvp voting in 1924 when he led the league with 27 home runs. the following year, he led the league with 86 walks and had a career high on-base percentage of .446.  he was regarded as a poor fielder, and his high error totals supported the reputation.

tom haller

haller was a two-time all-star for the giants when the dodgers traded for him following the 1967 season.  he was an all-star again in 1968, hitting .285 in 144 games for his new team.  haller remained with the dodgers until he was dealt to the tigers in december of 1971.  along the way, he hit .276 and caught in over 440 games as a dodger.  haller later became the giants' general manager, and was responsible for the signing of reggie smith.

billy herman

herman was a hall of fame second baseman who established himself with the cubs during the 1930's. he joined the dodgers via a trade made between the two clubs during the 1941 season, and played second in brooklyn through the 1943 season.  after missing two years due to military service during world war ii, herman returned to the dodgers in 1946, but was traded to the braves near the end of the season.  he eventually returned to brooklyn to coach the dodgers from 1952 through 1957.

hy myers

myers played for brooklyn beginning in 1909. he had a second cup of coffee with the club in 1911, and then became a regular in 1914.  he was a fixture in the robins' outfield through the 1922 season, after which he was traded to the cardinals for john fournier, profiled above.  for brooklyn, myers hit .282 and twice led the league in triples. he helped the club win two pennants, and was responsible for the only run that the team scored off of babe ruth in the 1916 world series thanks to his first inning solo home run.

al oliver

oliver, the man who wore number 0 for the dodgers, brought his .305 career batting average to los angeles following a february, 1985 trade with the phillies.  as a dodger, oliver fairly quickly lost his left fielder job and was used mostly as a pinch-hitter after the first month of the season.  he was traded to the blue jays in early july after compiling a .253 batting average in 35 games.

john ryan

ryan was a catcher who played for the 1898 brooklyn bridegrooms, hitting .189 in 87 games.  he played in a total of 13 seasons, although the last two each consisted of a single at bat while coaching for the washington senators.

frank skaff

skaff broke in with the 1935 dodgers, and hit .545 (6 for 11) in the 6 games in which he played.  he did not appear in the majors again until 1943 when he hit .281 for the philadelphia a's.  skaff later became the manager of the tigers in 1966, following the deaths of chuck dressen and interim manager bob swift.

roy spencer

spencer finished his 12 year career with the dodgers in 1937 and 1938.  he hit .222 as a dodger in 67 games during that span.

terry whitfield

whitfield had spent three years playing in japan where he had helped the seibu lions win a couple of championships before the dodgers signed him as a free agent for the 1984 season.  prior to that, he had found success with the giants, hitting .289 as a member of their outfield from 1977 through 1980.  as a dodger, whitfield hit .242 as a reserve outfielder and pinch-hitter from 1984 into 1986.  he was announced as a pinch-hitter in  the 9th inning of game 3 of the 1985 nlcs, but was pinch-hit for when the cardinals made a pitching change.  that was as close as whitfield got to postseason mlb action in his career.

pat zachry

zachry was acquired by the dodgers from the mets in december of 1982 in exchange for jorge orta.  he had been a starter for his entire career until the mets moved him to the bullpen during the '82 season, and the dodgers left him there (aside from one spot start in 1983 in which he was the winning pitcher) for the next two years.  zachry relieved in a total of 97 games for the dodgers, posting a record of 10-7 with 2 saves in that role.  he was traded to the phillies following the 1984 season in exchange for al oliver, which marks the second time a pair of players on this particular sheet of cards were traded for each other.  i really wish i knew what, if anything, the people who put these sheets together took into account when doing so.

yeah, their backs are all yellow

continuing on from this morning's post, here are the rest of my 1971 o-pee-chee dodger cards.  they are easy to spot because the reverse side is all yellow...

maury wills

the 1962 nl mvp was in his second run with the dodgers in 1971

but he was definitely slowing down, as he stole only 15 bases in 1971

dodgers team card

the only year they took the team photo in the pavilion seats, as far as i know.

not too many updates to the franchise record holders other than the pennant winners list.  mike marshall's 106 games would be on there instead of bob miller's 74, and shawn green's 49 home runs eclipses duke snider's 43.  interesting that willie keeler was thought to have had 179 singles in 1900, as baseball reference credits him with 175.  even stranger is that he had 190 in 1899, but that is nowhere to be seen on the back of the card.

wes parker

parker made a run at johnny frederick's franchise doubles record of 52 in 1970, hitting 47

he also had a career best 111 rbi in '71

jim lefebvre

again with the black batting gloves

lefebvre replaced jim gilliam as the dodgers' first base coach late in the 1978 season after gilliam suffered what turned out to be a fatal brain hemhorrage.

jerry stephenson

stephenson was a member of the 1967 red sox and pitched for them in the world series that year against the cardinals

after retiring as a player, he spent almost 40 years as a scout for the dodgers and red sox.

willie crawford

with two black batting gloves!

this is the last of the 'sunburst' backs for the dodgers.

this is where the bill buckner card would be if i owned a copy.  it's listed on my nefarious 9 - help a blogger out!  you will be rewarded big time for this card.

jim brewer

brewer pitched in three world series games - one each in 1965, 1966, and 1974.  he struck out harmon killebrew in his 1965 appearance.

not only do the cards from these last series lack the sunburst photos, but we get no french text either.  at least the backs are still yellow!

walt alston

i found alston's card on ebay from a seller who labeled it as a topps card.  luckily they included an image of the back to let me know that it was the o-pee-chee version

it's a bit banged up, but i'll take it for only a couple of bucks as opposed to twenty or so.

willie davis

3 dog chokes up a bit on his bat

davis made the all-star team for the first time in 1971, and also won his first gold glove that year.

tom haller

1971 was haller's last season with the dodgers.  with duke sims, bill sudakis, and some kid named joe ferguson with the club, haller was expendable.

that's a haller back, yo.

rich allen

a fantastic dodger stadium shot with dead grass and the knee of the photographer.

allen was traded to the white sox after just one season with the dodgers for tommy john, and he went on to win the american league mvp in 1972.  the dodgers did ok with john, too.

jose pena

this card has some circular scuffs, but i don't need to spend a ton of money for an upgrade.

pena was effective in his first 12 outings of 1970 as the text notes, but in his other 23 outings that year, he gave up 26 earned runs.

tom paciorek

i thought for sure that this card would be the last one i would acquire, thanks to the rookie presence of  johnnie b. baker and don baylor.  paciorek was included in the trade that brought dusty to los angeles, much to my excitement.

there were just over 100 minor league home runs at the time between the three of them, but they combined to hit more than 650 big league home runs.  that's a powerful card.

i'll keep an eye out for the billy buckner rookie, but i will also turn my attention to the 1972 o-pee-chee dodgers.  thank goodness the o-pee-chee set from that year tops out at number 525 - no steve garvey, don sutton, hoyt wilhelm, or frank robinson cards to worry about!