sunday morning target dodgers

here are this week's players from the 1990 target dodger giveaway set.  fourteen players are featured in this post, with the fifteenth member of the sheet making an appearance a little later.

dan bankhead

bankhead was the first african-american pitcher to appear in the major leagues.  his negro league and minor league success didn't translate to big league success, however, and he ended his major league career with a 6.52 era over 52 games.

buzz boyle

boyle spent three seasons (1933-35) patrolling the outfield for the dodgers.  he hit .305 in 1934 and had a 25-game hitting streak while doing so.  that streak stood as the longest in dodger history until joe medwick hit in 27 straight in 1942.  willie davis is the dodger with the longest streak to date, with 31 in 1969.

larry cheney

cheney was traded to the robins from the cubs in 1915.  the next season, he won 18 games and helped brooklyn reach the world series in which he appeared in game 4.  cheney remained with the robins into the 1919 season when he was picked up on waivers by the braves.

cliff dapper

i figured that the only thing i knew about dapper when i saw this card is that he played for the pirates in addition to the dodgers.  i was wrong.  dapper's  big league career began and ended with the dodgers in 1942.  he hit .471 over the course of two weeks early in the '42 season, an average that stands as the highest for any player with 8 or more hits, according to baseball reference.  he served in world war ii from 1943-45, and never made it out of the minor leagues after returning from service.  in 1948, the dodgers famously traded him to double-a atlanta for announcer ernie harwell. as far as i can tell, the pirates uniform comes from dapper's time as a minor league player/manager in the pirates' system.

al downing

downing was traded to the dodgers by the brewers prior to the 1971 season (the guy the dodgers gave up is also on this sheet, and shows up later in the post).  he immediately went out and won 20 games and finished 3rd in the league cy young award voting.  downing wore number 44 for the dodgers, which is the same number worn by hank aaron, who hit a downing pitch in 1974 for home run number 715.

jim hickman

hickman came to the dodgers in the deal that sent tommy davis to the mets.  he only played for la in 1967, and was then traded to the cubs.  hickman's 67 appearances for the dodgers in '67 did not yield any home runs - the only season in which hickman failed to hit a long ball - but did include his lone career pitching performance.  in two innings of work against the giants on june 23, hickman allowed just one run - a home run by willie mays.

gil hodges

hodges is the star of the sheet, no doubt, even though there's a hall of famer on the sheet.  he came up as a catcher, but moved to first base for the dodgers in 1948 when jackie robinson moved to second (the guy that jackie replaced at first is also on this sheet).  hodges stayed at first for 14 seasons, helping the dodgers to 6 world series and hitting 360 home runs in that span.  he was selected by the expansion mets following the 1961 season, and hit the first home run in the team's history in their inaugural game.  he was traded to the senators during the 1963 season who wanted him as their manager.  a few years later, the mets would trade to get hodges back to be their skipper, and they were rewarded as he led them to their 1969 world championship.

rick honeycutt

honeycutt joined the dodgers in august of 1983 following a trade with the rangers that sent dave stewart to texas.  his 2.42 era for the rangers wound up leading the league that year, although his total era for the season was 3.03 - higher than mike boddicker's 2.77.  this was a similar situation to eddie murray's lost batting title in 1990 when willie mcgee was traded to the a's and wound up with a lower batting average overall than did murray, but maintained a higher national league average.  these days, the titles are won based on overall averages, not intraleague stats, which would have been good for murray but bad for honeycutt.  anyway, honeycutt pitched for the dodgers for almost exactly four years before being traded to oakland in august of 1987.  the dodgers received tim belcher in exchange, and wound up beating honeycutt and the a's thanks in part to belcher in the 1988 world series.  honeycutt returned to the dodgers as a coach following his retirement, and is currently don mattingly's pitching coach.

andy kosco

kosco spent two seasons with the dodgers - 1969 and 1970.  his 19 home runs and 74 rbi in 1969 led the team, but he was traded to the brewers following the 1970 season for al downing, straight up.

bob o'brien

o'brien gave up a home run to the first batter he faced in the big leagues (cito gaston), but also struck out the side in that same inning of work.  he pitched for the dodgers only in 1971, appearing in 14 games and earning a record of 2-2.  he made four career starts, the first of which ended in a 6-hit shutout against the cardinals.  o'brien made his lone topps appearance on the same 1972 rookie card as charlie hough and mike strahler, although his big league career was over at that point.

luther roy

roy pitched in two games for the brooklyn robins in 1929, giving up 2 runs in 3.2 innings.  those were the final two appearances of his career, a career that saw him post the highest era (7.17) for any player after 1900 who pitched more than 150 innings (since surpassed only by aaron myette).

ed stevens

stevens debuted for the dodgers in 1945, and was their primary first baseman in 1946.  he hit 10 home runs that year, good for second on the team behind pete reiser's 11.  in 1947, stevens was replaced at first base by jackie robinson, and spent most of the season at montreal.  after the season ended, his contract was purchased by the pirates, and he went on to play three more seasons in pittsburgh.

gary weiss

weiss is probably best known for being the last dodger to wear number 1 before it was retired in pee wee reese's honor.  he was a september call up for the dodgers in both 1980 and 1981.  he got into 8 games in 1980, all as a pinch runner, and then played in 14 games in 1981, including four consecutive starts at shortstop.  both of his career hits came in the same game - 9/20/81 against mario soto of the reds - and his lone career rbi was an eventual game winner - a sacrifice fly that scored steve garvey on 9/17/81.

larry white

white was acquired by the dodgers in the deal that sent rick sutcliffe to the indians.  he made his big league debut in 1983 for the dodgers, and pitched well in the four games in which he appeared, giving up just one run in 7 innings of work (the run came courtesy of an rbi single by nolan ryan).  in 1984, white had a couple cups of coffee with the dodgers, finishing the season with the club and striking out the last batter he would face in the big leagues - terry puhl on 9/25/84.

i saw the saenz - a few more from the flea market

here are a few more cards i picked up at that flea market last weekend.  just dodgers this time.

2005 topps total olmedo saenz

i think this is a silver parallel.  i couldn't leave olmedo the tomato in the dime box.  in fact, i would guess that this is one of about three olmedo saenz as a dodger cards i have in my collection.

here's a 2010 topps card your mom threw out 1956 jackie robinson.

original back, to boot!

even though i already have at least two copies of this card, i couldn't leave o-pee-chee behind.   i only wish there were more than just this 1985 o-pee-chee rick honeycutt.

here's a nice orel hershiser card from 1993 score.

and a 1996 ud collector's choice chad fonville arizona fall league card

i probably have about a dozen of the chan ho park afl card, but i don't think i had a chad until now.

here are a couple of 1999 ud collector's choice (or is it just ud choice?) - charles johnson

and ellis burks

the reason i bought a giant card is that i am pretty sure that cj is making an appearance there in the upper left hand corner.  giant cards are better when dodgers are present.

i like this 2004 upper deck sp authentic shawn green card

because of the dodger stadium image in the background.

that works for me better than upper deck's use of a '3' in place of a 'g' on this 2005 ud trilogy card

still, i always enjoy adding a jeff kent card to the collection.  especially for a dime.  from a flea market that i didn't know existed. that i only noticed because i was driving by at the right time.  or is that the ri3ht time.

many happy returns

it's good to have connections.  a couple of years ago, reader cory contacted me and let me know that he often attended dodger games in san diego and would also be heading out to arizona to catch some spring training games once the dodgers moved from florida.  he was a 'grapher and offered to do some 50/50 and trades to help me get some guys who don't sign ttm.

you may recall that he is the guy who got me my 1978 topps rick monday for my modest 1978 topps dodger autograph project (still need ed goodson, by the way).  anyway, here are a few of the cards that cory was able to get signed for me.

we'll start with the pitching coach, rick honeycutt, who signed his 1985 topps

1986 topps

and 1987 topps

cards.  i had sent some cards to honeycutt, but he did not return them so i was happy to have cory's help.  same story goes for the bullpen coach ken howell, who signed a 1987 donruss

1987 fleer

and 1988 topps

card for cory/me.  i have seen some ttm successes pop up recently for howell, but i was not so lucky.  cory's proximity to san diego also helped with a former dodger autograph success.  dave roberts, a padre coach, signed a 2003 upper deck vintage card

unlike the others, i have had a ttm success with roberts.

also in san diego, randy jones is doing as boog powell does in baltimore - slinging bbq at the ballpark and signing autographs.  here's my 1978 topps card that the former cy young award winner signed

i'm not sure if cory had to buy some pulled pork to get the auto, but there are no bbq sauce stains so i'll guess not.

i'll end this post with the bench coach at the time, don mattingly, who signed a 1988 topps

and a 1990 upper deck

i just wish donny ballgame had signed the 1985 fleer card i sent to him through the mail.  i'll show some more of the bounty i received over the next couple of days.

thanks again cory!

team collector dilemma - the rick honeycutt chronicles, volume 2

volume 1 of the rick honeycutt team collector dilemma was a slam dunk.  i'm not too sure about this one.  it's his 1988 score card:

he's a dodger, right?  well, look at the back:

honeycutt was traded to the a's late in the 1987 season for a player that turned out to be tim belcher.  not a bad deal for the dodgers.  while score was able to get a head shot of him in an a's cap, they chose to use a action shot of honeycutt still in a dodgers' uniform.  couple that with the lack of a team affiliation on the front of the score card, and you see the dilemma.  my take is that it's a dodger card.

these days, honeycutt is the dodgers' pitching coach

so that makes things easy.

here's to you, rick honeycutt, as long as i can tell which team you're on!

who's got next?

even before the season began, there was much talk about the future of the dodger manager.  would this be joe torre's last season?  would he retire?  would he rather be managing the mets?   who knows. 

torre has backed off speculation that he will retire after the season, saying that he will wait and see if he still has a desire to continue managing next season.  if he does, i have to believe that frank mccourt (or whomever owns the dodgers) would love to have him back.  but what if he is done?  who would be the likely person to take over?

the most obvious choice is hitting coach don mattingly.

during spring training, mattingly managed the stateside games while torre and some of the team were in taiwan.  at that time, he mentioned that, while he had interviewed for the cleveland managerial position and turned down an opportunity to do the same in washington, he had also discussed his future with the dodger braintrust (an oxymoron?) of ned colletti and mccourt and this leads me to believe that there is some sort of unwritten understanding that he would be the one to succeed torre.

there are some other internal candidates, however, such as third base coach larry bowa

or bench coach bob schaefer.  bowa has managed in the majors before (with the padres in the late 80's and the phillies from 2001 - 2004), but his temperment is so externally different from torre's that i wonder if it would not work well with the team that has become used to torre's style.  as for schaefer, i don't know too much about him, but it looks like he has served as an interim manager with the royals on two occasions which provides too little to judge him with.  the fact that neither bowa nor schaefer are mentioned as potential successors in the press probably speaks volumes about their chances.

it would seem, then, that donnie baseball's only real competition (from within the organization) is the dodgers' current aaa manager, tim wallach.

wallach was named the pcl manager of the year in 2009, his first year as a aaa manager, as he guided the albuquerque isotopes to a franchise high 80 wins.  he had spent two previous years (1998 and 2001) managing in high a ball and also served as the dodgers' hitting coach in 2004 and 2005. 

in my opinion, mattingly is the guy.  this is based solely on the idea that he is currently at the big league level, working with the veterans and the younger players, as well as the call-ups.  if you recall, before he replaced walter alston, tommy lasorda was promoted to alston's coaching staff as many of the players he managed in the minor leagues were also being promoted.  i have to believe there was some foresight and logic in that, and while wallach is doing a great job juggling his roster as guys are being recalled and sent down, mattingly is privy to the big picture. 

now if only we knew who the owner was going to be...

team collector dilemma, part 4 - the rick honeycutt files

this one is pretty easy - not much of a dilemma at all. clearly, only one of these three 1984 topps rick honeycutt cards makes it into my topps dodger team set binder for 1984, and it's this one.the other two cards celebrate his 1983 (american league) pitching prowess. there's this one recognizing him as the american league era leaderand this one, showing him as the texas rangers' leader (obviously) in the same category
this sort of thing is not unprecedented. in the 1978 topps set, larry hisle is shown as a twin on the league rbi leaders card (he drove in 119 as a twinkie in 1977) but his base card features him in an airbrushed brewers uniform, with whom he signed as a free agent during the offseason.

back to honeycutt - the dodgers traded future ace dave stewart, ricky wright and $200k for honeycutt late in the 1983 season, well after he had amassed enough innings to qualify for the league leader position. honeycutt went on to pitch rather poorly for the dodgers the rest of the way, giving up 6 homeruns and posting a 5.77 era in just 39 innings. poor mike boddicker would have been the al era leader if honeycutt's combined season era (3.03) had been considered. honeycutt would bounce back in 1984, though, and finish 6th in the league in era with a 2.84 era.

here's to you, 1984 topps rick honeycutt! all three of you!

orioles begat dodgers

a while back i completed a trade with an orioles collector named ed. i'm always interested in turning other teams' cards into dodgers, and ed did not disappoint. here are just a few from the box he sent me.

1997 topps gallery eric karros.

this is a nice card, and ed included a few other dodgers from the set. i really like the hero shot with the top of busch stadium in the background. this is what you might call 'context sensitive design' - the stadium reflects the st. louis arch in it's architecture. very nice. i was very impressed with busch stadium when i visited in 1999. i expected much less from a former multi-sport stadium. back to the card, look closely and you will see italian american superstar slugger mike piazza lurking in the background.

1995 stouffers pop-up don drysdale.

i would have guessed that this card was from the early 80's at the latest. i haven't yet pulled the tab to make big d pop-up, and i don't think i will.

1985 topps candido maldonado.

some friends and i call candy 'check swing'. he seemed to check his swing at every pitch, except for those he actually swung at. maldonado was one of those guys who tore up the pcl for the dukes (along with greg brock and mike marshall) in the early 80's. although he didn't do the same in the majors, he was a member of the 1992 world champion toronto blue jays. good for him.

another 1985 topps card, this time it's rick honeycutt.

the current dodger pitching coach, honeycutt was a holdover from grady little's staff. i guess joe torre couldn't convince mel stottlemyre to head west with him.

1983 topps mark belanger.

displaced by cal ripken jr in baltimore, belanger spent one season in la with the dodgers. this gave the dodgers two no-hit shortstops. the 1983 cards are true final tributes for belanger, who retired after the 1982 season. i've always wondered if that last season was worth it to him, as it was the only one he didn't play as an oriole. sadly, belanger died in 1998 of cancer.

1971 topps bill buckner.

buckner's second multi-player rookie card, a feat matched by the penguin in 1973. here, he is the only player featured in a non-airbrushed hat. buckner debuted at age 19 in 1969, pinch-hitting for jim brewer against gaylord perry. he popped out to second.

1963 topps walt alston.

i like the managers' cards in the 1963 set. instead of the inset photo, they have the team logo (except for the colt .45's). here alston looks annoyed. notice the rotary phone in the upper right hand corner. true vintage.

ed also included some nice dodger stadium shots, such as this 1990 donruss jeff treadway card,

and some double plays such as this beautiful 1991 topps stadium club kurt stillwell card.
i have a feeling i should just become a stillwell super-collector because all of his cards i have seen are double play turns!

thanks ed! if you are reading this, i am amassing another batch of orioles for you!