sunday morning target dodgers - mr. ebbets would like a word with you

another sunday, another sheet of 15 cards from the 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary set.  this one features a wide range of folks, including one of their owners, who gets a card because he also managed the team for part of a season.

charlie ebbets

an architect by trade, ebbets was also a member of brooklyn's city council who went to work for the brooklyn baseball franchise when they were still a member of the american association.  by the time the bridegrooms joined the national league in 1890, ebbets was a shareholder of the team.  he took over the operations of the club in the 1890's and installed himself as the team's manager for the latter part of the 1898 season.  the team finished 10th, and ned hanlon, who had purchased an interest in the club, took over managerial duties in an attempt to turn things around.  hanlon did just that, and brooklyn won the pennant in 1899 and 1900.  ebbets bought hanlon out in 1902 in an effort to keep the team in brooklyn, and in 1912, ebbets went a step further by selling shares in the team to help finance what would become ebbets field.  he continued to own the team with the mckeever brothers until his death in 1925.

jack banta

banta spent four seasons at the big league level, all with the dodgers.  he pitched in a total of 69 games from 1947-1950, posting a record of 14-12 with a 3.78 era.  banta appeared in 3 games during the 1949 world series, unfortunately they were all games that the dodgers lost.

lu blue

beginning with his debut with the tigers in 1921 through his release by the white sox prior to the 1933 season (he also played for the browns), blue had been his team's primary first baseman - averaging 134 games each season and hitting at a clip near .300 most years while drawing a lot of walks.  the dodgers signed him for the 1933 campaign following his release from chicago, but something happened and he had only one plate appearance for the club.  after making an out in that lone at bat, the dodgers released blue and his big league career came to an end.

alta cohen

cohen went 2 for 3 in his big league debut as a robin in 1931, so he entered the 1932 season with a .667 career batting average.  however, he hit just .156 in 9 games for the dodgers that year, and he found himself with the phillies for the 1933 season as a result.

nick cullop

cullop's nickname (according to baseball-reference) was 'tomato face'.  based on the photo that target used for his card, i suppose i could see the nickname making sense - he's looking a bit ruddy.  anyway, cullop played for the robins in 1929, one season of his five spent in the majors.  cullop had debuted for the 1926 yankees, but there was no room for him on murderer's row, so he was sent to the senators.  cullop also played for cleveland prior to joining brooklyn, where he hit .195.  following the 1929 season, cullop played for the reds as he finished out his big league career in cincinnati in 1931.

eddie dent

dent pitched for the superbas in 1909, and then was back with the dodgers in 1911 and 1912.  he was 4-5 with a 4.46 era in 12 appearances for the franchise, which is 6 times the number of appearances the next guy in the post had.

john duffie

duffie could be a poster boy for hard luck pitchers.  he made two appearances in the big leagues - both as a starting pitcher for the 1967 dodgers - and he has a career 0-2 record.  his career era is a nice 2.79, but the dodgers scored only two runs in his debut and just one in his final game.  in duffie's first game, he was facing the mets' rookie sensation tom seaver, and he allowed the first run to score thanks to his own error.  however, the mets scored two more unearned runs and beat duffie and the dodgers 7-2.  duffie's second and final start was at home against the phillies, and he allowed a lead-off home run to cookie rojas and a second run in the fifth inning, and the 1967 dodgers weren't going to come back from that kind of deficit.

jeff fischer

i do not recall fischer as a dodger, largely because he only pitched in two games for them at the tail end of the forgettable 1989 season after being acquired in a trade with the expos in which the dodgers gave up gilberto reyes.  fischer's first appearance for the blue was a disaster - five earned runs allowed in 1.1 innings of work against the astros - but his second (and last) was almost perfect.  after allowing a leadoff double to the padres' roberto alomar on september 23, 1989, fischer retired the next 6 padres he faced, including a couple by strikeout.  it would turn out to be his final big league appearance.

sid gautreaux

with a name like that, you know that gautreaux was from louisiana, and sure enough, he hailed from schriever, la.  gautreaux played for the dodgers in 1936 and 1937, appearing in a total of 86 games and putting up a .247 average.  other than that, all of gautreaux's time was spent in the minor leagues where he played until he was 40 and then spent a few seasons as a manager.

billy grabarkewitz

poor grabarkewitz has the misfortune of getting his name spelled incorrectly by the folks at target.  billy g was a utility infielder for the dodgers from 1969 through 1972, although he was the team's primary third baseman in 1970.  that year, grabs played in 156 games (95 starts at third) and earned a spot on the national league all-star team thanks to a hefty .341 batting average at the break.  unfortunately, he hit just .232 in the second half, and finished the season with a .289 average.  grabarkewitz was traded to the angels in the frank robinson for andy messersmith deal prior to the 1973 season.

shawn hillegas

hillegas was still active when this set was released, although he was pitching for the white sox at the time.  he had the misfortune of being traded by the dodgers to the chisox at the end of august, 1988 for ricky horton. as such, hillegas missed the chance to be a part of the dodgers' world series run.  he had been the dodgers' first round pick in the 1984 secondary draft, and debuted for the club in 1987.  he pitched in 23 games for the dodgers, posting an era of 3.85 with the club.

fred kipp

kipp moved west with the dodgers in 1958. having appeared in one game for the 1957 brooklyn club, he pitched in 40 games for the 1958 los angeles dodgers.  he was 6-6 that year and wound up appearing in just two games the following season for the eventual world champs, although he did not appear in the world series.  kipp was traded to the yankees prior to the 1960 campaign, and he finished his big league career that year with the pennant winning bronx bombers, although he again missed the world series.

ernie koy

koy was one of those guys whose rookie year turned out to be his best year.  in 1938, as a 28 year old rookie outfielder for the dodgers, koy appeared in 142 games, hitting .299 with 11 homers and 76 rbi.  he also scored 78 runs, stole 15 bases, and had 156 hits, 13 of which were triples.  all of those numbers except the batting average (he hit .301 in 1940) turned out to be career highs for koy.  he played in 125 games for the 1939 dodgers, but was traded to the cardinals during the 1940 season in the deal that brought joe medwick to brooklyn.  koy also played for the reds and phillies, and he lived to be 97 years old, passing away on new year's day, 2007.

bill mccarren

mccarren's lone season of big league experience came as a member of the 1923 brooklyn robins.  playing mostly third base, mccarren appeared in 69 games that season, hitting .245.  mccarren later became a scout for the red sox. 

bob milliken

milliken spent two seasons pitching in the major leagues (1953 and 1954), but was in the dodger organization from 1947 through 1959 (excluding military service in 1951 and 1952).  he had a big league record of 13-6 with 4 saves (including an 8-4 record in 1953), and he appeared in the 1953 world series, throwing two scoreless innings against the yankees.

that's it for this week - there should be another 15 tales to tell next sunday. stay tuned.

recap the repack

out of boredom (is there any other reason?) i picked up a fairfield 100 card repack recently.  it's pretty cool to pull a pete rose out of a pack in 2013.

even if he's rocking the double chin.

here are the cards that i was dealt, so to speak.

1978 topps jose baez
1977 topps steve luebber
1978 topps tom paciorek

there are my three vintage cards right out of the gate.  a former dodger farmhand (and cousin of manny mota), a random twin, and a former dodger.  speaking of which...

1988 score mike morgan (he's shown with seattle at this point in his career)
1992 donruss hensley meulens
1994 classic julio santana
1989 upper deck andre dawson
1989 upper deck gene nelson
1989 upper deck john cerutti
1988 topps padres leaders (tony gwynn and benito santiago - in dodger stadium!)

1987 donruss ken howell

1980 topps miguel dilone
1980 topps dick davis
1988 donruss eric show
1988 donruss todd worrell
1988 donruss shawn hillegas - with the don mcmahon memorial patch

1988 donruss curt ford
1987 donruss scott mcgregor
1987 donruss scott mcgregor
1988 donruss greg swindell
1988 donruss greg swindell
1988 donruss billy hatcher (in dodger stadium)

1988 donruss chris bando
1994 upper deck trot nixon
1990 score jose alvarez
1990 score carlos martinez
1990 score tim laudner
1990 score george brett
1990 score domingo ramos
1990 score bill ripken
1990 score bert blyleven
1990 score todd burns
1990 score shawon dunston
1990 score jim presley
1997 upper deck sp edgar renteria
1994 topps steve dreyer
1997 fleer sports illustrated todd hundley
1997 upper deck sp mark mcgwire
1994 topps mark mclemore
1997 topps stadium club donne wall
1997 upper deck sp geronimo berroa
1993 topps gregg olson
1989 donruss mvp will clark
1995 upper deck collector's choice todd hollandsworth
1993 upper deck eddie taubensee
1995 upper deck collector's choice special edition jose valentin
1992 fleer eddie murray

1990 upper deck eddie murray - this is the back

1991 donruss highlights eddie murray

1992 upper deck eddie murray (400 home run club)
1988 topps mark mcgwire record breaker
1988 topps eddie murray
1985 topps don aase
1981 fleer larry christenson

on to the second part of the rack pack

1989 topps bazooka jose canseco
1989 topps cap'n crunch andre dawson
1987 topps rookies ruben sierra
1987 topps rookies rafael palmeiro
1996 fleer ultra gold medallion edition julian tavarez
1987 topps rookies pete incaviglia
1987 topps rookies dave magadan
1987 topps jim dwyer
1987 topps mike lavaliere
1997 topps randy myers
1997 upper deck collector's choice paul wilson - hey mets fans.  before you get too excited about matt harvey and zach wheeler, remember the wilson, bill pulsipher, and jason isringhausen hype.

1987 topps ed lynch - giving pete rose a run for his double chin money

1992 topps tracy jones
1992 topps john olerud
1991 upper deck mike devereaux
1988 fleer mike sharperson

1992 topps ben mcdonald
1988 fleer lee tunnel
1996 upper deck collector's choice tyler green
1987 topps ronn reynolds
1989 donruss roberto kelly
1988 donruss harry spilman
1993 topps stadium club bob wickman
1993 topps bj surhoff
1993 topps tim raines
1992 leaf milt thompson
1989 topps mike gallego
1990 topps kmart howard Johnson
1986 topps shawon dunston
1988 topps mike bielecki
1988 topps willie hernandez
1990 upper deck gerald perry
1990 upper deck todd burns
1988 fleer bill ripken - one year away from f*ck face.  can someone explain to me why beckett referred to the 1989 fleer bill ripken card as 'rick face'?  when i saw that in the price guide back then, i assumed that they switched out a 'd' for the 'r'.  wouldn't it have made more sense to say 'puck face'? or 'duck face'?  whatever.  here's the 1988 card with a harmless number 3 on his bat knob.

1990 upper deck jeff reed
1986 topps wayne krenchicki
1984 milton bradley championship baseball pete rose - as seen up top
1987 topps wayne krenchicki
1993 fleer ultra frank seminara
1990 upper deck glenn braggs
1987 topps eric davis
1990 fleer dickie thon
1990 upper deck steve searcy
1989 fleer tim jones
1992 fleer ultra mike gallego
1986 topps dwight gooden (record breaker)
1988 fleer jeff ballard
1990 upper deck scott sanderson
1991 donruss matt williams
1992 fleer ultra dale murphy

2008 topps michael barrett

that's it.  until next time i have some cash to waste.

third time's a hill-egas

for the second time in recent weeks, the third ttm try turned out to be the lone success.  first, will 'the thrill' clark returned the third 1987 topps card i had sent to him over the last 4 years.  then, just the other day, shawn hillegas signed and returned a card after i made three attempts for his autograph during the same time span.

truth be told, this 1988 topps card

was included in each of the three requests i sent, so it could be from any of them.  this last time, however, it was the only card i sent - unencumbered by a 1988 donruss card.  let's face it, who wants to get a 1988 donruss card in the mail.  and, in the interest of further disclosures, the first time i sent cards to the former dodger pitcher, they were marked rts as i must have had an old address.

hillegas was traded to the white sox during the 1988 season for ricky horton, and is probably best known in card collecting circles for having his photo on a brian holton card in the 1989 upper deck set.

thanks for signing my card shawn!

who's who?

it's not that rare, i don't think, for the wrong person to be featured on a baseball card.  think of the 1969 aurelio rodriguez (a bat boy posed), 1985 topps gary pettis (his younger brother), 1990 donruss john smoltz (tom glavine), 1995 topps traded juan lebron (carlos beltran), etc.  i think it is rarer that the card gets corrected.

case in point.  here's brian holton's 1989 upper deck card, complete with dodger stadium goodness.

here's the original version.

good lord, that's shawn hillegas! in an road uni!  in a generic stadium setting!

how about 1991 topps, which included this (correct) version of jose gonzalez

but don't forget about the error version, which featured bill bean

at least upper deck had two right-handed pitchers whose last names began with 'h'.  gonzalez and bean had completely different uniform numbers and hit from the opposite sides of the plate!  the interesting thing here is that bean didn't appear in the majors for the dodgers in 1990 (he had 71 at bats with them in 1989) so topps was presumably digging in the photo archives for a jose gonzalez shot, even though he appeared in over 100 games for the dodgers in 1990.  curious.

there was another case of mistaken identity in 1991 topps - here's wes chamberlain

and here's louie meadows, the guy topps tried to pass off as wes chamberlain

or is it the other way around?