sunday morning target dodgers - the penultimate sheet edition

so far, i've shown 1,060 cards from the 1990 target dodgers 100th anniversary giveaway set.  that means that there are only two more sheets of 15 cards to show.  here's the next to last sheet:

ed goodson

when i started following the dodgers in 1977, i recognized that ed goodson had the unenviable job of being a backup first baseman on the team for which steve garvey played.  goodson played in the field in only 17 games for the dodgers in '77 (13 at first, including one complete game in which garvey only appeared as a pinch hitter, and 4 at third).  however goodson did play several games at third base for the blue in 1976 after being acquired along with dusty baker from the braves.  still, he was used primarily as a pinch-hitter in his two seasons with the club, hitting .273 in 62 plate appearances in that role in '76, but just .182 in 45 pinch-hitting plate appearances in '77.

dixie howell

not to be confused with another dixie howell who played at the same time, the dodgers' howell was originally signed by the team in 1938.  he didn't reach the big leagues until 1947, however, following a trade with the pirates.  he eventually returned to brooklyn in a 1952 trade, and played for the dodgers in 1953, 1955, and 1956.  howell did not appear in the world series in any of those seasons, and he hit just .250 in 24 regular season games for the dodgers.

lyn lary

as lary's 12-year big league career was coming to a close, he played for three teams during the 1939 season. he began the year with the indians and finished it with the cardinals, but in between, he played in 29 games for the dodgers.  he hit .161 with a double, triple, and a single rbi for the man who holds the yankee season record for rbi (107) by a shortstop.

al lopez

hall of fame catcher al lopez caught more games than anyone else up until bob boone broke his record in the late 1980's.  of his 1.918 games caught, close to 750 came with the robins/dodgers from 1928 through 1935.  he played in a total of 762 games for the franchise over that timeframe, but spent a few complete games in the infield and had some other appearances as a pinch-hitter.  he hit .279 for brooklyn overall, and hit the last 'bounce' home run in major league history in 1930 while with the robins.

lee magee

magee's given last name was hoernschemeyer, which is longer than hollandsworth and would have been the longest surname in franchise history.  however, he opted for magee.  playing for brooklyn towards the end of his career, magee began the 1919 season with the robins, and hit .238 in 45 games. he was traded to the cubs in june after the robins' organization heard rumblings of his association with gamblers and rumors of magee betting against his team while he was with the reds in 1918. following the 1919 season, magee did admit that he had bet on a game (he claimed he bet on the reds while other evidence showed he had bet against them and did indeed try to throw the game) and he was banned.  a few months later, the black sox scandal was brought to light.

mike a. marshall

marshall, or general soreness, never faced the other mike marshall, although their careers did overlap in 1981.  this mike marshall was one of the dodger prospects that i, along with legion other dodger fans, were anxiously awaiting in 1981.  he had hit .373 in triple-a albuquerque with 34 homers and 137 rbi that year (good enough to win the pcl triple crown), and received a september call-up.  yes, even though he was a first baseman and i was a huge fan of steve garvey, i wanted to see marshall in the majors.  i figured the dodgers would move him to the outfield anyway, which they eventually did.  however, they also let garvey go after the 1982 season.  whatever, marshall stayed with the dodgers through the 1989 season, after which he was traded to the mets.  he had struggled with injuries throughout his career (even reportedly sitting out a game due to general soreness), but did lead the 1988 dodgers with 82 rbi.  my lasting mike marshall memory comes from 1988.  i was at the dodger/met game on august 24 that year.  orel hershiser was 17-7 going into the game, and the mets were the best team in the national league. me and some friends were able to wrangle tickets a few rows up from the dodger dugout from another friend's dad (a longtime season ticket holder) and headed to the game.  marshall hit an rbi double off of future dodger bob ojeda in the fourth to score the first run of the game.  hershiser was dealing zeroes through seven, and it was feeling very much like a playoff game.  leading off the top of the 8th, mookie wilson hit a fly ball to right that i believe marshall misplayed.  wilson wound up on third with a triple, and the mets scored two runs that inning and beat orel and the dodgers 2-1.  it turned out to be the second of hershiser's eight straight complete games as well as his last loss of the regular season, and it was during his next start (in the 5th inning, to be exact) that the bulldog began his record breaking scoreless streak.

russ meyer

meyer pitched for the dodgers from 1953-1955, and he appeared in both the '53 and '55 world series.  in the latter, meyer threw 5.2 innings of scoreless relief in game 6.  he was 32-13 for the dodgers during the regular season over those three years, despite an era of 4.47.

dee moore

moore's big league career began in 1936 with the reds. he pinch-hit in a couple of games, but in his first appearance as a defensive player in a major league game, moore was not catching, but pitching.  he threw five innings in relief (allowing an unearned run) and later was the starting pitcher in the reds' final game of the season, pitching two scoreless innings.  moore didn't pitch in the majors again after that, and after being out of the big leagues for a few years, he found himself with the dodgers for the start of the 1943 season.  he hit .253 in 37 games for brooklyn as a catcher and third baseman before the phillies selected him on waivers.

walt moryn

the pride of saint paul, minnesota, moryn was signed by the dodgers in 1948 and eventually got to play in his home town when the dodgers moved their triple-a affiliate from montreal to the saintly city.  he was called up to the show by the dodgers in 1954 and again in 1955, although he didn't see playing time in the world series in '55.  following the 1955 season, moryn was traded to the cubs where he was an all-star in 1958.

john purdin

purdin pitched for the dodgers in 1964 and 1965, and then again in 1968 and 1969 after being held in the minors in 1966 and 1967.  the second appearance of his career, his first career start, resulted in a two-hit shutout of the cubs on september 30, 1964, and he earned his second win a few days later on the last day of the season.  purdin won two games again in 1965, but his era jumped from 0.56 to 6.75, and his next two seasons were spent in the minors. purdin spent all of 1968 with the big club, winning (again) two games - this time with a more respectable 3.07 era.  1969 was his last season in the majors, and purdin was held decision-less for the first time, appearing in only nine games for the dodgers.  purdin wound up with the white sox (and was included in the 1971 topps set), but he never returned to the majors after the 1969 season.

vicente romo

there was no romo-mania in 1968 when romo made his big league debut with the dodgers, or in 1982 when he returned to the club to fulfill his double dipper destiny. i wrote about the adventures of romo here, if you are interested in learning more.

harry smythe

smythe began the 1934 season with the yankees, but was acquired by the dodgers in late may. with brooklyn, he pitched in 8 games, winning one and losing one.  smythe then returned to the international league where he continued his previous success, and ultimately was elected to the il hall of fame.

joe vosmik

after spending the entire 1930's playing in the american league, vosmik brought his .311 lifetime average to brooklyn where he promptly hit a respectable .282 in 116 games.  in 1941, however, vosmik was batting just .196 after appearing in 25 games and was released by the dodgers.

hank webb

acquired from the mets for rick auerbach, webb pitched in 5 games for the 1977 dodgers (which means i created a 1978 topps burger king dodgers/update card that should have been for him). in 8 innings of relief work over the course of those 5 games, webb allowed only two runs but earned no decisions.  webb's son, ryan, was acquired by the dodgers in april, but was released soon thereafter and is now pitching for the indians.

whitey witt

witt was the third outfielder in the yankee outfield of the early 1920's, playing alongside babe ruth and bob meusel until earle combs came along in 1925.  he was released by the yanks on july 4, 1925, and was later signed by the brooklyn robins.  witt played in 63 games for brooklyn in 1926, hitting .259 with just 2 extra base hits.

i'll have the final sheet of the set next week. stay tuned...

empirically, these cards are fantastic

i recently had the opportunity to meet brian, he of everybody's favorite new blog highly subjective and completely arbitrary at the local monthly card show.  we had agreed to meet near one of the vintage bargain bin dealers that i have written about so frequently and swap some cards.  it turned out to be a fitting location, as one of the cards brian dropped on me was this one:

clemente, carty, and aaron.  card number 1 in the 1965 topps set - a set which i am making slow progress towards completing.  like i said in the title - fantastic.

there were a bunch of dodgers, too, like a 2015 topps clayton kershaw rainbow foil parallel

a 2014 topps stadium club clayton kershaw field access insert

(which uses a photo that very well could wind up on a panini release), and another kershaw - this time with sandy koufax, warren spahn, and steve carlton on a 2013 topps archives 1969 4-in-1 decal insert

that's heady company for the dodger ace, but he's deserving of it.  here's another dodger lefty who garnered some high praise early in his career, fernando valenzuela on a 2915 topps baseball history insert

among the things that brian and i discussed was the appeal of o-pee-chee.  brian already knew about my  opc blog, and is actually collecting the 1965 o-pee-chee set.  he included a 1979 opc burt hooton card in the trade

which was again, fantastic. 1979 may be my favorite o-pee-chee set because of the logo in the ball.  the logo appeared again in 1982, but i prefer '79 to that set.  the only drawback to the '79 set is that there is no french on the front.

here's a 1993 topps gold jay howell parallel

and a 2008 topps gold foil casey blake parallel

and a 2003 upper deck 40 man card of paul quantrill

that quantrill would fit nicely in brian's sunglasses mini collection, but i am happy to have one of the few cards of quantrill as a dodger.

this was the second blogger i've met in person (paul from carl crawford cards is the other), and it was fun to connect with another collector like that. especially when cards like these were exchanged.  thanks brian - looking forward to the show next month!

sunday morning target dodgers

let's dive right into another sheet of 15 dodger cards from the 1990 target 100th anniversary giveaway set.  actually, only 14 cards. i found another dodger double dipper.

del bissonette

i am guessing that bissonette is wearing a portland pilots uniform. that was the team that he managed in his home state of maine in the late 1940's. before that, however, he was a ballplayer touted as a babe ruth type talent, largely because he was both a left-handed pitcher and a skilled batter.  he hurt his arm at some point before signing with brooklyn, and so focused solely on hitting.  as a rookie for the robins in 1928, bissonette played in a league-leading 155 games, and hit .320 with 25 home runs and 106 rbi.  he was the robins' first baseman for the next three seasons as well, and after his first four years in the majors, bissonette owned a .308 career batting average with a .376 on-base percentage and a ops of .870. not ruthian, but not bad, either.  unfortunately, bissonette severed his achilles tendon in a spring training volleyball mishap in 1932, and he missed the entire season. he was back in 1933, but underperformed and was traded away.  he failed in his attempts to return to the majors, and eventually went into managing - both at the minor and major league level.

billy earle

earle was an early version of craig biggio for the 1894 brooklyn grooms.  he played both catcher and second base (and had played outfield and other infield positions for teams earlier in his career) while hitting .340 in 50 at bats.  although he was just 26 when the season ended, and he owned a .286 lifetime average in addition to his positional flexibility, earle did not continue to play in the majors after his brooklyn experience.  some believe that this was due to his penchant for studying things such as hypnosis which made his teammates uncomfortable.

duke farrell

farrell was a member of the brooklyn superbas for four of his 18 years in the big leagues, playing for them from 1899-1902.  he helped the superbas win the pennant in 1899 and 1900, and then played for the first world champions in 1903 - the boston pilgrims.

freddie fitzsimmons

fitzsimmons finished his 19-year career with 7 in  brooklyn.  he pitched for the dodgers from midway in the 1937 season through 1943, amassing a record of 47-32 in that time.  his best season by far was 1940 when he was 16-2 with a save in 20 appearances (18 starts), finishing fifth in the league mvp voting.  the following season, fitzsimmons helped the dodgers return to the world series for the first time since 1920, and earned a no-decision in game 3 of the fall classic despite pitching 7 scoreless innings against the yankees.

joe gallagher

gallagher joined the dodgers during the 1940 season, and played in 57 games for them.  he hit .264 with 3 homers and 16 rbi during that time.  when 1941 rolled around, gallagher enlisted in the armed forces rather than return to the diamond.  he did return to baseball following world war ii, and roomed with jackie robinson at montreal in 1946.

jay howell

howell was obtained by the dodgers prior to the 1988 season, and he formed a closer tandem with jesse orosco in their championship season.  unlike orosco, howell remained with the team for a few seasons, saving a total of 85 games for the dodgers from '88 through 1992.

bill lohrman

lohrman was a dodger for less than a calendar year. he was obtained in a trade with the new york giants in july of 1943 and dealt to the reds in may of 1944.  in between, lohrman pitched in 9 games for the dodgers, going 0-2 with 2 complete games in 2 starts.

lew malone

you know what those checkered uniforms mean...yes, malone was a member of the 1917 brooklyn robins.  he appeared in only one game that season (as a pinch-runner), but returned in 1919 to play in 51 games for the robins.

buck marrow

marrow pitched for the dodger in 1937 and 1938.  in 21 appearances, he had a cumulative record of 1-3 with a 5.50 era.

teddy martinez

martinez was a member of the team of my youth, playing for the dodgers from 1977 through 1979. he played 3 of the four infield positions (no first base for teddy), and spelled ron cey, bill russell, and davey lopes for a total of 202 games during his tenure with the dodgers. a veteran of two postseasons prior to joining the dodgers, martinez did not appear in either the 1977 or 1978 playoffs or world series.

al nixon

nixon played in 21 games for the robins over the 1915, 1916, and 1918 seasons. he hit .333 over those games, but didn't play in the majors again until 1921 when he was a member of the boston braves.

jorge orta

orta joined the dodgers prior to the 1982 season in the deal that sent rick sutcliffe to cleveland, and the dodgers traded him to the mets for pat zachry a little over a year later. in his lone season in los angeles, orta hit .217 in 86 games.  despite what his card above says, orta played zero games for the dodgers as an infielder.

willie ramsdell

ramsdell was a knuckleball pitcher (hence his nickame - willie the knuck) who debuted for the dodgers as a 31-year old rookie in 1947.  he was 1-1 that season in two games, and then went 4-4 for the dodgers in 1948 while appearing in 27 games.  he had a cumulative era of 5.26 over those two seasons, but when he returned to the majors in 1950, he posted an era of 2.84 in his five apparances for the dodgers.  ramsdell later pitched for the reds and cubs, and in june of 1952, he pitched the last 6.2 innings for the cubbies in a game against the dodgers in which carl erskine threw a no-hitter.  oisk missed a perfect game by walking one batter in the third inning.  that batter was willie ramsdell.

mike sandlock

sandlock played for the dodgers in 1945 and 1946.  he appeared in a career high 80 games in 1945, playing primarily at catcher and, of all places, shortstop.  he hit .282 that season, but just .147 the next, and didn't appear in the majors again until 1953 when he was with the pirates.  sandlock is currently 99 years old, and is quite possibly the oldest living major leaguer.

the 15th player from the sheet will show up a bit later today.  stay tuned.

more cards to your mother's

i'm going to the mother's cookie jar one more time today, to show a few cards from some of the sets sent my way by mr. haverkamp.  these sets are great for back of the roster guys, but that's not all i will show.

from the 1988 set comes this steve sax card

'88 was saxy's last year with the dodgers, and when he left a part of my fandom went with him. he was a sort of link to the infield of my youth, having played with garvey, cey, and russell in 1982.

also from the 1988 set is a nice card of reliever ken howell

howell had 21 plate appearances as a dodger, going 1 for 19 with 2 sacrifices.  that's why this card is so great.

here's kirk gibson's card from the 1990 set

he may have been to ornery to pose for the cameras, so they had to use an action shot which is a true rarity in these sets.  i love to see the low corner railing in dodger stadium on cards!

here's a don aase card, also from the 1990 set.

alphabetically, he's first in the dodger book.

like aase, gary carter has a few cards as a dodger, but his 1991 mother's card

is still nice to have.

if it weren't for the dodger police set and the mother's set from 1991 (which gives us this card),

i wouldn't have any cards of barry lyons in a dodger uniform.  he played in just 9 games as a dodger during the first couple of months of the '91 season before moving down the 5 to anaheim.

darryl strawberry's 1992 mother's card

provides a view of the empty bat rack.  a bat rack as empty as daaaaaa-rryl's production in '92.

congratulations to hall of famer pedro martinez, who has this card in the 1993 set

which is also a good representative of the tim crews memorial patch.

i'll end with a few of the more obscure dodgers from a couple of these sets.  from the 1994 set, here's al (not to be confused with antonio) osuna

osuna joined the dodgers at the end of spring training (march, 1994) in a deal with the astros.  he went 2-0 for the dodgers over 15 appearances that season, despite having an era over 6.  he was released by the dodgers in 1995. 

perhaps one reason for osuna's release was that the dodgers had joey eischen on their roster for 1995.  this is eischen's 1995 mother's dodgers card

this is also eischen's first appearance on the blog.  looking into things further, it is clear that eischen had nothing to do with osuna's release.  osuna was let go in april, while eischen was acquired in may of '95 in the trade that sent henry rodriguez to montreal.  eischen pitched for the dodgers in '95 and part of '96 before being traded to detroit for chad curtis at the trade deadline.

like eischen, rick parker is making his debut on the blog, thanks to the 1995 mother's dodgers set.

parker was an outfielder for the dodgers in both '95 and 1996, although he didn't appear in the postseason in either of those years.  i'm glad he made the mother's cookie checklist, though.

harry howell was a brooklyn franchise double dipper

[this is the sixtyeighth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, babe herman, joe medwick, juan castro, ron perranoski, clyde king, paul waner, hughie jennings, ron negray, broadway aleck smith, george smith, johnny cooney, jim fairey, frenchy bordagaray, doc casey, waite hoyt, luis olmo, clyde sukeforth, and willie keeler.]

harry howell, seen below on his 1990 target card, began his big league career with his hometown brooklyn bridegrooms in 1898.

he pitched in two games, beating the phillies twice, yet found himself pitching for the baltimore orioles in 1899.  after that team folded, he returned to brooklyn where he pitched for the superbas in 1900.  he was 6-5 in his return to the franchise, but was once again sent to baltimore who had been awarded a new franchise in the american league.  he stayed with them even as they moved to new york where they would eventually become known as the yankees, however howell achieved his greatest success with the saint louis browns, who ironically enough would later become the baltimore orioles.

known for throwing a wet spitball, howell posted an era of 2.06 with the browns, good even for the deadball era.  his career era is 2.74, which currently stands as the 87th best of all-time.