i ran into the fuzz at the card shop

a new (yes, new!) card shop opened up in the twin cities about a year ago.  one of the owners is also one of the 'vintage bargain bin guys' from the local shows.  he's the one that sold me my 1955 topps sandy koufax card, in fact.

it took me a while to get over there, but i finally did a few weeks ago.  the store is packed with not just cards, but various pieces of memorabilia and pretty much every kind of sports collectible you could think of.  amid the bobbleheads and pennants, there was a shelf that had a bunch of smaller complete sets on it. boxed sets, like the fleer sets of the 80's and 90's, along with some mail-in sets and some stadium giveaway sets.  it was there that i found a 1993 dodgers police set for $3.

started in 1980, the police sets were, like the later mother's and keebler sets, a good way to get some of the deeper roster players on a card.  and, there were coaches!  i know i have belabored that point recently, but i'm not sorry about it.  here's the coaches card from the 1993 dodger police set

that's manny mota, joey amalfitano, ron roenicke, ben hines, tommy lasorda, ron perranoski, joe ferguson, and mark cresse.

lasorda also got a card of his own

with the one of the outfield pavilions in the background.

ramon martinez was still king of the hill at dodger stadium in 1993

and his little brother pedro was there with him

boyhood friends eric davis

and darryl strawberry

roamed the outfield at chavez ravine, with disappointing results.

the 1993 set was the one that featured lance parrish, despite the fact that he never did suit up in a big league game for the dodgers.  i've shown the front of parrish's card before - i bought it as a single to document his dodgerdom - so here's the back

one reason that parrish never got the call from the dodger brass was the play of a rookie catcher named mike piazza

piazza went on to win the rookie of the year award and hold the dodgers' catching job for about 5 years before he was traded to the marlins.

i'm not sure which card in the set is more desirable - the pedro or the piazza - but i am sure that jody reed's card

is probably not in the running.

more coaches man, coaches

i've extolled the virtues of coaches cards in mother's cookies and the dodger police sets before, and now with the bounty of mother's dodger sets that mr. haverkamp procured for me, i can show more of these great cards.  they aren't anything special in way of design, but they document the guys who don't show up on cardboard very much at all.  let's have a look at tommy lasorda's coaching staff, shall we?  be sure to enjoy the dodger stadium backdrop while we do so.

1988

that's joe ferguson, ron perranoski, bill russell, mark cresse, joe amalfitano, manny mota, and ben hines.

1988 was ferguson's first year on the coaching staff, although he had been serving as their 'eye in the sky' for the previous few seasons.  starting in '88, he was tommy's bench coach.

perranoski took over the pitching coach duties under lasorda in 1981, replacing the retiring red adams who had been the pitching coach for the dodgers since 1969.

russell joined the staff in 1987 following his retirement as a player.  he replaced the retiring monty basgall as the team's infield coach which seemed appropriate as basgall was instrumental in russell's conversion from the outfield to shortstop.

cresse had been the bullpen coach under walt alston for a couple of seasons before lasorda took over the managerial reins, and continued in that role on tommy's staff.

amalfitano became lasorda's third base coach in 1983, taking over (i believe) for danny ozark.

mota began coaching first base for the dodgers in 1980, and aside from a couple of late season appearances as a player, remained on the coaching staff in a variety of roles for some 35 years.

hines had been on lasorda's staff in 1985 and 1986, but took a break in '87.  he was back in '88 as the dodgers' batting coach, taking the role back from mota who had filled in during the previous season.

1990

yes, i skipped a year, although there was no change in the staff.  however, ferguson had taken over the first base coaching duties from mota who became a sort of roving instructor, and russell moved into the bench coach spot.

1991

still no change in personnel, and the roles remained the same as well.

1992

same staff except for the guy on the far right.  that's current brewers manager ron roenicke.  bill russell was sent down to manage triple-a albuquerque, and so roenicke joined the staff in his place, taking over as lasorda's bench coach.

1993

tommy employed the same staff as the previous season.

1994

some new (and old) blood was added to the staff for 1994.  you will notice that reggie smith, the right fielder for the team of my youth, in the back row, and bill russell, the shortstop for the team of my youth is back in the front row.  gone are ron roenicke and ben hines. roenicke began his managerial career in the lower levels of the dodger organization, and russell returned from the high minors to take over roenicke's previous role as tommy's bench coach.  smith took over for hines as the batting coach and also replaced ferguson as the first base coach.  ferguson went back to his role as the 'eye in the sky' positioning defenders from the press box.

1995

here we are in 1995, and ron perranoski is no longer on the dodger staff.  he moved up north to join the giants' organization for some strange reason.  dave wallace took over for perranoski as lasorda's pitching coach and appears in the top row on the coaches card. this was the staff for lasorda's final full season as the dodger manager.

sunday morning target dodgers

here are 14 more cards (all from the same sheet) from the 1990 target dodgers set.  you know what that means, the 15th card on the sheet will get its own post later today.  let's see what baseball reference call tell me about these folks.

i'll start with the star of the sheet, carl furillo

a nice photo selection for skoonj there.  probably one of the more candid cards in the set.  furillo, of course, was the right fielder for the dodgers during their 'boys of summer' days.  he led the national league with a .344 batting average in 1953.

al epperly

epperly made his big league debut as a cub in 1938.  he pitched in 9 games compiling a record of 2-0.  he didn't appear in the majors again until 1950 when, as a dodger, he pitched in 5 games without recording a decision.

neal 'mickey' finn

neal 'mickey' finn's real name was cornelius francis finn.  he made his big league debut with the brooklyn robins in 1930 and played with the team for three seasons.  he played mostly second base for the team, and appeared in a career high 118 games in 1931.

larry french

this is a guy i know about.  he finished up his 14 year big league career with the dodgers in 1941 and '42.  before that, he pitched for the pirates and the cubs, for whom he appeared in the 1935 and 1938 world series.  in the 1935 fall classic, french took 2 losses, and was the game 6 pitcher for the cubs who made it through 8.2 innings before giving up goose goslin's series winning base hit.  as a dodger, french helped the club to the 1941 world series after pitching in just 6 games for brooklyn following his arrival off of the waiver wire in august.  i had heard about french before because of a postseason oddity that year - he pitched in two games against the yankees, recording three outs by facing just one batter.  in game 3, he came in with one out and runners on first and third in the eighth, but got bill dickey (who had homered off of french in the 1935 world series) to ground into a double play.  the next day, french entered the game with two outs in the 4th inning and phil rizzuto on second. rizzuto proceeded to run the yankees out of the inning (caught stealing, i presume), and french had his third out of the series by retiring just one batter.

dick gray

gray, who played for the dodgers in 1958 and 1959, is best known for being the first third baseman in los angeles dodger history, and for hitting the first home run in los angeles dodger history.  he also had the misfortune of being traded to saint louis during the 1959 season, and so did not get a chance to play in the first world series for the los angeles dodgers.

hunkey hines

hunkey's real name was henry, by the way.  he played in two games for the brooklyn grooms in 1895 (the only big league games of his career), so it's pretty cool that there is a photo of him in uniform.  he was 2 for 8 with 2 walks in those games, for a nice lifetime obp of .400.

jim hughes

hughes pitched for the dodgers exclusively as a reliever from 1952 until may of 1956 when his contract was purchased by the cubs.  in that time, he appeared in 143 games including a league best 60 in 1954. as the dodgers' "fireman", had there been an official statistic, hughes would have led the league in saves that year as well.  after he retired from baseball, he became a more traditional fireman in chicago.

frank kitson

kitson was with the superbas from 1900 through 1902, amassing a record of 53-37 in those three seasons.  baseball reference notes that he 'jumped' from brooklyn to detroit after the 1902 season, and  so was a teammate of ty cobb when the georgia peach joined the club in 1905.

elmer klumpp

klumpp played in 5 games for the dodgers during the 1937 season, going 1 for 11 with 2 rbi.  his only other big league experience had come in 1934 when he played in 12 games for the senators.

alejandro pena

if you were to name dodger pitchers who led the league in era, i am sure you would get koufax and kershaw, but what about johnny podres, dazzy vance, kevin brown, and don sutton?  or alejandro pena, who led the national league in era in 1984?  it's too bad a shoulder injury late in that season pretty much ended his career as a starter, although he did have success as a reliever over the remainder of his career.

ted savage

savage played for the dodgers for just one season - 1968.  he hit .206 with a pair of home runs, the first of which was a pinch hit blast.

tom seats

seats pitched for the dodgers in 1945 after seeing big league action with the tigers in 1940.  in his lone year with the dodgers, he appeared in 31 games, starting 18, and threw 6 complete games, 2 of which were shutouts.  his record was 10-7 with a 4.36 era, but the most interesting thing i found about seats is that on september 3, 1945, he won both ends of a doubleheader.  after pitching a shutout against the braves in the first game, seats returned to pitch a scoreless 10th in the nightcap and earn the win when the dodgers scored in the bottom of the inning.

daryl spencer

spencer was acquired by the dodgers in 1961 and split time between third and short for them until he was traded away early in the 1963 season.  all told, he played in 144 games as a dodger, with 10 homers.  his first two home runs as a dodger were of the walk off variety, including one against juan marichal and the arch-rival giants.

nick willhite

i have told the tale of nick willhite, dodger double dipper before.  it's the perfect segue to the next post which features the 15th player from this sheet of cards who also double dipped.  stay tuned...

coaches man, coaches

one of the fun things about the keebler, mother's cookies, and police department issues of the 1980's and '90's (and 1960 topps plus a couple of early 1980 donruss releases) is the inclusion of coaches in the sets.  of all the folks in uniform, the coaches seem to get the least amount of respect - right behind the third string catcher and the long relief guy.

not here, not today.  here are some cards of coaches that i treasure, starting with a 1989 mother's rangers card.

why a rangers card?  well, there's dave lopes in the bottom right, just a season removed from his playing career.  he joined the rangers as a coach starting in 1988 after retiring following the 1987 season.  he stayed in texas through 1991, and then coached in baltimore from 1992 through 1994.  then he was off to san diego where he coached until he became the manager of the brewers in 2000.  after the brew crew fired him during the 2002 season, lopes returned to the padres for the 2003 season.  he stayed there until 2006 when he coached for the nationals, and then in 2007 he moved to philadelphia where he coached until he returned to los angeles for the 2011 season.  whew.  if anybody has any lopes cards from his other coaching stops after texas, you know i would be interested in them.

here's the dodgers' coaching staff in 1986, courtesy of the dodgers police set

there's ron perranoski, monty basgall, manny mota, joe amalfitano, don mcmahon, mark cresse, and ben hines.

in 1986, bill russell was still active, so he got his own card in the set

but, when 1987 rolled around, russell was on the coaches card in the dodgers police set from that year

this time, tommy lasorda makes an appearance, so it's perranoski, lasorda, amalfitano, mcmahon, mota, russell, and cresse.  mcmahon passed away during the 1987 season after suffering a heart attack while pitching batting practice at dodger stadium.

aside from the loss of mcmahon, it's pretty much the same crew that appears on the 1989 dodgers police coaches card, with two exceptions

hines is back, perranoski, lasorda, amalfitano, joe ferguson returns to the dodgers, cresse, russell, and mota. those same coaches appear on the 1989 mother's dodgers coaches card, too.

as well as the 1991 dodgers police card.

today, this card would look a lot different.  manny mota is the only one left, and he would be joined by mark mcgwire, rick honeycutt, ken howell, tim wallach, dave lopes, trey hillman, and chuck crim.  that wouldn't be a bad card to have.