taking the trade train from p-town

tom from waiting 'til next year let me know that he had found some oddball dodger card, and asked if i would be interested. of course i would! so, the cards were sent my way, and my collection is all the better for it.

the package included some 'swell' cards, including actual swell cards, of which one was this 1990 swell baseball greats steve garvey card

i've got one in the garvey binders, but needed one for the dodger binders.  excellent.

there were also quite a few 1975 (some say 1976) sspc cards, such as willie crawford

crawford was traded after the 1975 season to make way for reggie smith in the outfield so i can't really complain about the dodgers not keeping him around, but he had some solid years as their right fielder.  crawford won a world series ring at the age of 18 in 1965, and helped the club return to the fall classic in 1974, too.  he almost became a double dipper as part of the team of my youth, but didn't make the club out of spring training in 1977.

there were a bunch of pacific legends, too, like this 1990 clem labine card

labine was a 2-time all-star and a key cog on the dodgers' 1955 world championship team, so i'm glad to see him get some cardboard appreciation.

here's a very cool 2009 tristar obak duke snider card

he's shown as a member of the fort worth cats, which puts this image from 1946.  snider spent that season with the dodgers' double-a affiliate, playing alongside future dodger coach monty basgall.

tom was kind enough to include an insert card of the reigning cy young award winner and mvp, clayton kershaw - a 2014 donruss diamond kings card

modeled after the 1984 version of the diamond king subsets.  you all know who the first dodger diamond king was, don't you? yes, it was steve garvey.

here's a 2012 bowman chrome prospect card of o'koyea dickson

he was a 12th round pick in 2011, and spent 2014 at double-a chattanooga.  will he make the jump to okc in 2015?  let's wait and see.

here are a couple more cards from the package that may not otherwise have warranted a scan - 1994 donruss billy ashley

and 1987 donruss brian holton

this may well be the first time anyone has bothered to scan a 1987 donruss brian holton card.  you're welcome.

thanks for the cards tom!

the return of sunday morning target dodgers

i don't know how many of the 1000 or so cards from the 1990 target dodger sga set i will get around to posting, but i recently scanned a few more sheets, so here goes.  this set was given away at dodger stadium in five separate 'series'.  the cards number 15 to a page and are a bitch to store due to their unusual size unless you separate the cards.  i haven't done that yet so my sheets are loose.  the set includes a card for every player and manager who appeared in a game for the dodger franchise through 1989.  that's 100 years of bridegroom/superba/robin/dodger goodness!  on with the post.

carlos diaz

diaz came to the dodgers prior to the 1984 season in the trade that sent sid fernandez to the mets.  as far as i know, it is the only trade to involve two hawaiians.  diaz attended junior college in my hometown, for what it's worth, so his dodger arrival was kind of a big deal.  he pitched for the dodgers through the 1986 season, compiling a 7-3 record with a save.

tex erwin

erwin played for brooklyn from 1910-1914, during which time they were the superbas, dodgers, and then robins.  he was a backup catcher for the team.

art fowler

fowler, shown in los angeles angel gear, was one of the players that the dodgers received from the reds in the don newcombe deal.  his dodger experience lasted just one season - 1959.  fowler appeared in 36 games (all in relief) and had a record of 3-4.  unfortunately, he didn't appear in the dodgers' world series win over the white sox, and he eventually had his contract purchased by the angels before he could return to the big leagues.

al glossop

glossop arrived in brooklyn with lloyd waner prior to the 1943 season.  he was picked up by the reds at the end of the season, so glossop's dodger tenure included just 87 appearances and a .171 batting average.

tommy griffith

griffith was an outfielder for the robins from 1919 after he was acquired from the reds, until early in the 1925 season when he was traded to the cubs.  that means that he was part of the robins team that lost the 1920 world series to the indians.

lenny harris

harris was an active dodger when this set was released.  he joined the team during the 1989 season as a result of the trade with the reds that also included kal daniels, mariano duncan, and tim leary.  harris stayed with the dodgers through the 1993 season before returning to the reds.  he finished his career as a pinch hitter, setting the major league record with 212 career pinch hits.

joe hatten

hatten was 59-39 for the dodgers over the course of 5-plus seasons, beginning in 1946.  his best season (record wise) came in 1947 when he was 17-8 and helped the dodgers reach the world series.  he helped them return to the fall classic in 1949, but both times they lost to the yankees.  hatten was traded to the cubs in 1951 in the andy pafko deal.

brian holton

holton, who was a first round pick of the dodgers in 1978 and made his debut in 1985, was a member of the dodgers' 1988 world championship team, but he was traded to the orioles in the eddie murray deal shortly after the postseason ended.  that 1988 season was his best - he had a 1.70 era in 45 appearances, plus a 1.50 era over 4 appearances in the postseason.

len koenecke

koenecke was the dodger who was killed in an airplane after being sent home by the team.

irish meusel

meusel obviously also played for the giants, but he finished his career in 1927 with a lone season as a brooklyn robin.  he hit .243 in 42 games that year.

joe moeller

moeller's big league career spanned from 1962 through 1971.  he did not appear in a major league game for anyone other than the dodgers, although he spent a short time after the 1967 season as a member of the houston astros.  yes, he was a dodger double dipper.  overall, moeller was 26-36 in 166 appearances for the dodgers.

johnny oates

oates was the backup catcher to steve yeager and joe ferguson from 1977 through 1979.  he was part of two pennant winning teams (the teams of my youth) but is probably best remembered as the manager of the orioles and rangers.

nick polly

polly was a third baseman who appeared in all of 10 games for the dodgers in 1937.  he hit .222 in 18 plate appearances.  the only other big league experience polly had came in 1945 when he played in 4 games for the boston red sox.

johnny roseboro

perhaps the star of this post, roseboro took over the dodger catching duties following roy campanella's auto accident.  roseboro remained the dodgers' catcher for a decade, helping the team get to four world series during that span.  he was traded to the twins after the 1967 season with ron perranoski for mudcat grant and zoilo versalles.

bill shindle

was a member of the brooklyn bridegrooms from 1894-1898.  he was acquired in the trade that sent wee willie keeler to the baltimore orioles.  in his five seasons in brooklyn, the third baseman hit .274 with 13 homers and 373 rbi.  brooklyn would later reacquire keeler, but that's a post for another day.

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?