sunday morning target dodgers - the old perfessor holds court

sundays come around too quickly lately.  here's another sheet of 15 cards from the 1990 target set that features most of the players who played for the brooklyn/los angeles franchise during it's first 100 years in the national league.  managers are included in the set, too, including the old perfessor, casey stengel.

stengel also qualifies for this set as a player, but didn't get a separate card.  he began his big league career as an outfielder with the robins, playing for brooklyn from 1912-1917.  following his retirement in 1925, he became a manager in the minor leagues and was brought back to brooklyn as a big league coach in the early 1930's.  stengel took over as the team's manager in 1934 and held that post through the 1936 season.  stengel's best finish as the brooklyn manager was in 1935 when the dodgers were 5th in the national league, but they did not post a winning record under his leadership.  in fact, among the 9 teams stengel managed prior to taking over the yankees in 1949 (he managed the boston braves following his sting with the dodgers) only the 1938 boston braves finished over .500 with stengel at the helm.  with the bronx bombers, of course, stengel's teams won five straight world series titles in his first five years as their manager and he was on his way to the hall of fame. 

whitey alperman

alperman played all four of his big league seasons as a brooklyn superba, from 1906-1909.  he led the league in triples with 16 in 1907 but, as a career .237 hitter with a disdain for walks, he didn't get on base much.  his career obp was .268, and in fact, alperman was hit by a pitch more often in his career (39 times) than he drew a walk (only 30 bases on balls in 1758 plate appearances).

john butler

there were two john/johnny butlers who played for brooklyn - one was a catcher and one was a pitcher.  this card is for john butler, the backup catcher, but features a photo of johnny butler, the pitcher.  i'll write about the catcher john butler and maybe get to the pitcher johnny butler in a later post.  following a couple cups of coffee with milwaukee and saint louis, john butler appeared in one game for the 1906 brooklyn superbas, and then 30 games in 1907 for the club.  he hit .127 with an on-base percentage of .216 that year and his big league career was over.

leo callahan

callahan was a member of the 1913 brooklyn superbas.  he appeared in 33 games and hit .171.  he also played for the phillies in 1919.

bull durham

durham's real name was louis, but people called him bull, i guess.  he was from pennsylvania, not north carolina, but perhaps the name stems from the bull durham tobacco that was popular in the late 1800's.  at any rate, durham pitched for the brooklyn superbas of 1904, winning both of his starts - the only games in which he appeared as a superba.  he took his perfect big league record to the washington senators and later, the new york giants, and did not spoil it.  he didn't pick up any additional victories, but he did  not suffer any losses, either.

mike hechinger

hechinger was 2 for 11 in his 9 games as a brooklyn superba in 1913.  he had previously played for the cubs in 1912 and earlier in the 1913 season, but was out of the majors following his stint with brooklyn.

ed householder

householder appeared in 12 games for the 1903 superbas, hitting .209 (9 for 43) in his only major league action.

jimmy johnston

johnston spent a decade in brooklyn (1916-1925) playing pretty much all over the diamond for the robins.  he was one of their primary outfielders early in his tenure, and then was their primary third baseman for a couple of seasons, shades of pedro guerrero.  johnston was obviously part of the robins' pennant winning teams in 1916 and 1920, and was one of the few players to manage a hit off of babe ruth in game 2 of the 1916 world series.  he hit over .300 three times for the robins, and had over 200 hits in a season twice.  in 1923, he had a streak of 6 consecutive games with 3 or more hits, tying for the big league record with sam thompson and george brett.

elmer knetzer

knetzer began his major league career with 4 seasons in brooklyn - 1909 through 1912.  in that time, he was 26-29 for the superbas/dodgers with a 3.67 era.  he later found greater success pitching in the federal league for a couple of seasons (winning 20 and 18 games in those seasons) before returning to the national league in 1916.

jack quinn

quinn enjoyed a 23-year big league career, pitching until the age of 50 in 1933.  his time with the brooklyn franchise came in 1931 and '32, when he was one of the best relievers in the league despite his advanced (for baseball) age.  in those two seasons with the robins, he was 8-11 with a 3.03 era and 22 'saves' (saves were not an official statistic back then, but he would have led the league in both of his seasons as a robin).  he even got some mvp votes in 1931.  quinn was one of the last 'legal' spitball pitchers, and holds a number of age-related records: the oldest american league player to homer, the oldest pitcher to start a world series game, and the oldest player to have more than 1 hit in a season among others.  he had also been the oldest pitcher to record a win until jamie moyer won a game in april of 2012.

jack radtke

radtke had 3 hits in 31 at bats in the 33 late-season games that he played in for the 1936 brooklyn dodgers.  he was traded to the senators in 1937, but did not appear in the big leagues beyond those 33 contests with the dodgers.

frank robinson

robinson spent just one season in dodger blue - 1972 - following a trade with the orioles.  the future hall of famer hit 19 home runs (one a walk-off and two in one game against the giants) in 103 games and then was dealt to the angels.  the dodgers gave up, among others, doyle alexander to acquire robinson.  alexander, later in his career, was the guy the braves traded to the tigers to get john smoltz.  while a dodger, robinson passed mel ott, eddie mathews, ernie banks, and ted williams on the all-time home run leader board.

jim romano

romano, shown in his saint paul saints cap, was one of several young pitchers hurling for the 1950 dodgers.  he pitched in 3 games, including one start, but had no record. in the end, the dodgers went with the likes of don newcombe, carl erskine, ralph branca, and clem labine over romano, and he did not pitch in the big leagues again.

george sharrott

sharrott pitched for the brooklyn grooms in 1893 and 1894.  he had a record of 4-7 in his 16 games played.

zeke wrigley

there was some controversy surrounding wrigley back in 1899 when he hit .204 in his 15 games played for the superbas.  as far as i can tell, he had previously played for syracuse in the eastern league, and then for the new york giants, but brooklyn purchased his contract from syracuse before he played for them.  whatever the issue, wrigley was returned to syracuse and the major league games in which he played were vacated by brooklyn, forfeiting all of the games in which he appeared and/or was on the roster.  the superbas again (legitimately this time, i assume) purchased his contract from syracuse in 1900, but he did not appear in a game for the club.  this all came to light earlier this season when the dodgers won their 10,000th game, and there were questions as to whether they had already reached that milestone previously or had yet to attain it.

sunday morning target dodgers

there is an obscure rule here at garvey cey russell lopes that anytime an older gentleman with suspenders appears on a baseball card, he leads the post.  that rule is in full effect today, as we review another sheet of cards from the 1990 target dodger sga set.

mickey o'neil

o'neil was a catcher who appeared in 75 games for the 1926 brooklyn robins, hitting .209.  he had previously spent seven seasons with the boston braves, and finished his career in 1927 with the senators and new york giants.  he later coached for the indians, scouted for the pirates, and for many years managed in the minor leagues.

orel hershiser

the bulldog had some great seasons for the dodgers (1985, 1988), and some great postseasons for the blue and the indians, too.  he was 7-0 in postseason play before losing game 1 of the 1995 world series to greg maddux and the braves, but got some redemption in game 5 as he outdueled maddux for the win. as a dodger in the postseason, hershiser was 4-0 in 8 games (7 starts) with a save and an era of 1.71.  he threw 4 complete games for the dodgers in the postseason, two of which were shutouts.  he was a dodger double dipper, too.

george hildebrand

hildebrand's big league career consisted of 11 games played for the superbas in 1902 in which he hit .220, as well as 22 years spent as an american league umpire, from 1913 through 1934.

ron hunt  

hunt was one of the players the dodgers received from the mets in the tommy davis deal prior to the 1967 season, but was dealt to the giants for tom haller after just one season in la.  he is best known for his prowess in being hit by pitches, having led the league in that category in each of his final 7 seasons.  with the dodgers in 1967, he was hit by a pitch 10 times, good enough for second in the league.  when hunt retired, he held the modern record for hbp (243) until don baylor passed him in the late 1980's.

fred ivy johnston

johnston appeared in four games for the 1924 robins, and was 1 for 4 at the plate.  that is the sum total of his major league career.

earl mattingly

like johnston, mattingly's big league career was quite brief - he pitched in 8 games for the 1931 robins, going 0-1 despite a 2.51 era in those appearances.

lew mccarty

mccarty began his big league career in 1913 as a member of the brooklyn superbas.  he stayed with the team until he was traded to the new york giants during the 1916 season, amassing a .260 average in 238 games for the franchise prior to the trade.  who did brooklyn receive from the giants in exchange for mccarty you might ask?  none other than fred merkle.

ray moss

moss spent the first 5+ seasons of his career with brooklyn, from 1926 to 1931.  he pitched in 100 games for the team, posting a record of 21-15 with a 5.00 era.  he finished his career in 1931 with 12 games pitched for the boston braves, and after retiring he founded the golden gallon chain of convenience stores.

george pinckney

pinckney (or pinkney as baseball reference knows him) was an original national league brooklyn bridegroom player.  he was with the club for a few seasons prior to their joining the national league in 1890 as well.  as the franchise's 'first' third baseman, he hit .309 and scored 115 runs in 126 games for the club in 1890.  known as somewhat of an 'iron man', pinckney once played in 5,152 consecutive innings for brooklyn, a record eventually broken by cal ripken, jr.

stan rojek

rojek made it into one game for the dodgers in 1942 (he pinch ran in the bottom of the 9th in a game against the giants and scored the tying run to force extra innings) before serving in the military during world war ii.  following his service, he returned to the dodgers for the 1946 and 1947 seasons, playing shortstop behind pee wee reese.  the pirates purchased his contract following the 1947 season, and rojek went on to have his best season, hitting .290 while leading the league in games played and at bats.  he finished his career with short stints in saint louis - with the cardinals for part of 1951 and the browns in 1952, and was dealt back to brooklyn following the '52 season.   unfortunately, rojek never made it out of the dodgers' minor league system after his return to the franchise and retired as a player after the 1955 season.

larry see

see was the dodgers' third round pick in 1980, and he reached the majors as a september call-up in 1986.  in 13 games with the dodgers that year, he hit .250 with a pair of doubles and two rbi.  he had began his professional career as a third baseman, but played only first base when in the field for the dodgers, who really could have used a third baseman back then.  see was back in the minors in 1987 when the dodgers traded him to the rangers for jose mota, manny's son.  see made it back to the big leagues in 1988 for 13 games with texas, but hit just .167.

larry sherry

back-to-back larrys!  this half of the sherry brothers spent six seasons in the dodger bullpen, posting a record of 34-25 with 39 'saves' from 1958 through 1963.  he was, of course, the mvp of the 1959 world series, winning 2 games in relief while 'saving' the other two dodger victories.  following the dodgers' world series win in 1963 (sherry did not pitch in the series), he was dealt to the tigers for sweet lou johnson.

dave stewart

stew made his big league debut in 1978 for the dodgers, and struck out the first batter (jim beswick) that he faced.  he didn't return to the majors until 1981, however, but went 4-3 with 6 saves and helped the team reach the postseason.  he did not pitch well in the division series against the astros that year (he was 0-2 with a 40.50 era) but did make two scoreless appearances against the yankees in the world series.  in 1982, the team used stewart as a starter for a while, but ultimately decided to keep him in the bullpen.  he was pitching well again for the dodgers in 1983 (5-2, 2.96 era) when he was traded to the rangers for rick honeycutt.  the rangers made him a starter, and he responded with a 5-2 record and a 2.14 era in his 8 starts that year.  unfortunately, he struggled for them in 1984 and 1985 and was traded to the phillies.  he eventually wound up in oakland where everything came together.  all told, stewart is a three-time world series champion.

al todd

todd didn't reach the big leagues until 1932 when he was 30 years old, however, he went on to have several productive seasons as a catcher with the phillies, pirates, dodgers, and cubs.  he spent one year with the brooklyn dodgers, 1939, and hit .278 in 86 games while sharing time behind the plate with babe phelps.  his 86 rbi for the pirates in 1937 still stands as that franchise's highest total from a backstop.

so that was 14 cards from the 1990 target set.  the 15th card on the sheet is coming up a bit later, thanks to the double dipper status of its subject and his heretofore untold tale...