sunday morning target dodgers - featuring an honorary member of the infield

another sunday, another 15 cards from a 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary set sheet given away at dodger stadium in 1990.  enjoy.

rick auerbach

auerbach filled in for the injured bill russell for the first three months of the 1975 season.  he first appeared as a dodger during the 1974 season, although the team acquired him from the brewers in april of 1973.  auerbach spent the rest of that season in albuquerque and had his contract purchased by the brewers in september. a month later, the dodgers purchased his contract back, and he made the big league roster for the 1974 season and even appeared in the postseason that year.  very nearly a dodger double dipper, auerbach stayed with the dodgers through the 1976 season and was traded to the mets for hank webb prior to the 1977 campaign.

billy cox

cox was the dodgers' third baseman from 1948 through 1954.  this 'boy of summer' was acquired in a trade with the pirates following the 1947 season that was prompted in part by the aversion some dodgers had to playing with jackie robinson. unfortunately for cox, he was traded to the orioles prior to the dodgers' world championship season of 1955.

tim crews

along with tim leary, tim crews was part of the return package that the dodgers received from the brewers in exchange for greg brock.  crews was part of the dodger bullpen from 1987 through 1992, although he did make 4 spot starts over that span.  he also had 15 saves in a total of 281 appearances as a dodger.  following the 1992 season, crews signed with the indians as a free agent, but died in a boating accident during spring training.  both the dodgers and indians wore memorial patches for crews (the indians' patch also honored steve olin who was also killed in the accident) during the 1993 season.

fred frankhouse

kudos to frankouse's parents for not naming him frank.  fred frankhouse pitched 10 seasons for the cardinals and braves before joining the dodgers prior to the 1936 season. used primarily as a starter, frankhouse was 13-10 the first season with the dodgers, and then flipped that record the next.  1938 was his last season with the club, and he posted a 3-5 record while pitching mainly out of the bullpen.

harry harper

harper pitched for the senators from 1913-1919, showing some success with decent era in most of those seasons.  he also led the league in losses in 1919 with 21, thanks in part to the poor team for which he played and his career worst (up to that point) era of 3.72.  harper was traded to the red sox for the 1920 season, and then dealt again to the yankees in the waite hoyt deal prior to the 1921 season.  after sitting out the 1922 campaign, harper joined the robins in 1923 and made a solitary start for them.  he lasted 3.2 innings against the giants on may 8, allowing 6 earned runs, as his big league career came to an end.

tommy holmes

holmes was the national league home run champion in 1945 as a member of the boston braves.  he hit 28 homers that year, and also drove in 117 runs, both career highs.  while he still hit for average in the next three seasons, he never approached those power numbers again.  in fact, holmes had hit a total of 38 home runs over the next 6 seasons before signing with the dodgers in 1952.  he failed to hit any home runs as a dodger, although he played in only 31 games during that '52 season.  holmes hit .111 for the dodgers during the regular season, and then was 0 for 1 in his final appearances as a dodger during the 1952 fall classic.

charlie irwin

irwin finished his 10-year big league career with a season and a half as a member of the brooklyn superbas. acquired after being released by the reds during the 1901 season, irwin played third base and hit .253 over the remainder of his career.

von joshua

joshua was a dodger double dipper whose last appearance in his first go-around as a dodger came with him making the final out in the 1974 world series. the second time, the dodgers brought joshua back to the majors from the mexican league in 1979.  overall, joshua appeared in more games with the dodgers than any other team for which he played, although his best season was probably his 1975 campaign spent with the giants.

brickyard kennedy

according to baseball reference. kennedy's nickname was actually 'roaring bill', not brickyard.  strange.  he pitched for the grooms/bridegrooms/superbas from 1892 through 1901, winning as many as 25 games in 1893 and more than 20 four times.  he was 177-149 for brooklyn overall before spending the 1902 season with the new york giants and the 1903 campaign with the national league champion pittsburgh pirates. in fact, kennedy's final major league appearance came with the pirates in the inaugural world series, starting (and losing) game 5.

bill krueger

krueger's dodger career consisted of three appearances over the course of two seasons.  he was acquired by the club from the a's during the 1987 season and made 2 relief appearances as a dodger in september.  he re-signed with the dodgers for the 1988 campaign, but began the year in albuquerque.  krueger was eventually called up and was given the july 4 start against the cardinals, his lone big league appearance of the season.  krueger allowed 3 runs in 2.1 innings of work that day and was sent back down to triple-a. the dodgers traded him to the pirates for jim niedlinger following the end of the regular season.

paul minner

in 1946, and then again in 1948 and 1949, minner was a pitcher on the dodgers' roster.  he appeared in a total of 58 games and posted a record of 7-5 with a 3.16 era.  you can learn much more about minner in this post, courtesy of another dodger blogger.

joe pignatano

pignatano, a brooklyn native, debuted with the dodgers in 1957 - the team's last year in brooklyn.  he remained with the team as they moved to los angeles, and served as the team's backup backstop through the 1960 season.

ron roenicke

roenicke was dodger #3 on the 1982 topps steve sax/mike marshall rookie card.  he was also an outfielder on the team who played in 212 games for the dodgers from september of 1981 through july 18, 1983 when he was released.  roenicke went on to play for the mariners, padres, giants, phillies, and reds before rejoining the dodger organization as a minor league manager and later a big league coach. he is currently the manager of the milwaukee brewers, adding one more manager to the list who played for tommy lasorda.

joe shaute

shaute pithed for the robins/dodgers from 1931-33 after spending 9 seasons with the indians.  he was 21-19 for brooklyn in that span, with a 4.32 era compiled over 100 appearances.  while with the indians, shaute struck out only 402 batters in 1,447 innings pitched, but babe ruth accounted for over 30 of those k's according to baseball reference.

bobby valentine

bobby v was the dodgers' first round pick in their vaunted 1968 draft.  he made his big league debut just over a year later, and would appear in 5 games as a 1969 september call-up.  he returned to the majors in 1971 and 1972, playing all over the outfield and everywhere in the infield except for first base.  after hitting .274 in 119 games in 1972, valentine was included in the trade that sent frank robinson to the angels.  valentine was just 23 and was hitting .302 when he tore up his knee in may of '73 after getting his spikes caught in the angels' outfield fence. the injury plagued him for the remainder of his playing career that included post-anaheim stints in san diego, new york, and seattle.  valentine never played for lasorda in the majors (he did in the minors), but he did go on to manage in the majors and according to reports, would have been tommy's choice to guide the dodgers instead of davey johnson had valentine not already been managing the mets.  we also have valentine to thank for making tommy a coach on the 2001 national league all-star team which brought us the fantastic footage of tommy getting upended in the third base coaches box by a wayward bat.

and you shall know them by their yellow backs

i caught myself by surprise a couple of years ago when i realized that i had a complete dodger team set of 1970 o-pee-chee cards.  i am not really sure how that happened, but it did.  one day i was cross checking lists with my early 70's dodger binder and there they were - all the gray bordered dodger goodness that o-pee-chee bothered to issue.  helped, of course, by the fact that there are six fewer dodgers in the o-pee-chee set than the topps - no canadian versions of jim lefebvre, maury wills, tom haller, don sutton, jim brewer or al mcbean.

i didn't have the same luck with 1971 o-pee-chee at the time, but i did pick up a large lot of dodger cards from the set a year or so ago, plus a few of the high numbers here and there since then to help me get closer to knocking another team set off the want list.

i'll show the lower numbered cards first...

claude osteen

everytime i see a '71 osteen, i wonder what the heck is going on in the background.  here's the back of osteen's card - it's yellow, but of course you already knew that because you followed along as i posted all about o-pee-chee over at oh my o-pee-chee, right?

it's been well over a year since things wrapped up over there, and i kind of miss posting and learning about the variations.  i'm not starting another blog though, especially since timeless teams is floundering.

here's sandy vance

the 'lesser' sandy, if you will

i really like the 'sunburst' behind the photos on the back.  it's different from the rectangular insert photo on the backs of the 1971 topps cards, and in my opinion, better.

von joshua

it's worth noting that on these cards, the french text comes first.

joshua was a dodger double dipper, by the way.

billy grabarkewitz

good to see the holman stadium seats in the background there.  jerry stephenson is hanging out, too, but i don't know who the seated dodger is.

it's too bad that grabarkewitz and mark grudzielanek played three decades apart.  harry caray wouldn't have known what to do if they were involved in a double play turn.

manny mota

this is a photo from shea stadium, like so many other cards in the 1971 set

the back of mota's card notes that he is 'a good hitter' who topped .300 in 4 of the previous 5 years.  he hit over .300 in 1971, too, as well as 1972 and 1973.

bill singer

if only the photographer had snapped the picture a moment earlier, i wouldn't be wondering who is walking behind singer.

no surprise that the back of the card mentions singer's no hitter thrown in july of 1970.  a joule sans coups, as it were.

duke sims

yankee stadium on a dodger card?  yes, thanks to the power of the o-pee-chee team variation!

nice to read that he was a yankee killer, too.

al downing

another team (and text) variation, which features a first year brewers uniform. 

downing would go on to have the best season of his career in 1971.

bob valentine/mike strahler

both guys had some big league stats prior to 1971, but topps still went with the minor league numbers on the back.

valentine and strahler (and grabarkewitz and singer as well) would be traded to the angels after the 1972 season with frank robinson in exchange for andy messersmith and ken mcmullen.

alan foster

i'm somewhat on the fence about including this card with my team set for obvious reasons.  foster was the guy traded to the indians for duke sims.

andy kosco was the player traded to the brewers for al downing, but his card came in a later series, so topps already had him as a brewer with a magic hat thus eliminating the need for an o-pee-chee variation.

bill russell

still an outfielder on the card, russell's conversion to the infield began in 1971

he actually played more second base than any other position in '71, but was moved to shortstop in 1972.

bill sudakis

it's too bad sudakis had bad knees.  on the other hand, had he been healthy, would steve garvey and later ron cey have been given a shot at third?  or joe ferguson behind the plate?  the mind boggles.

sudakis' co-mvp in the 1968 texas league was jim spencer who was the first player ever drafted by the california angels.

joe moeller

moeller was in his second stint with the dodgers when this card was issued

he was one of the few players on the team that had been a teammate of duke snider's.

jeff torborg

with danny ozark hitting fungoes behind him

singer's no hitter gets mentioned again, as does sandy koufax, as torborg was the catcher for sandy's perfect game as well as singer's masterpiece.    he later caught nolan ryan's first no hitter.

steve garvey

canadian rookie goodness!

and what's with all the black batting gloves?

don sutton

still pre-perm

and it still bothers me that he was released by the dodgers in august of 1988.

i'll show the rest of my 1971 o-pee-chee dodgers in a post later on today...

von joshua, double dipper and ttm signer

[this is the nineteenth 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, and denny lewallyn.]

some may have thought, back in 1975, that von joshua's final act as a dodger was making the last out in the 1974 world series. that's because, in game 5, joshua bounced the ball back to rollie fingers, and the dodgers' season was ended. after the season, the giants picked joshua up on waivers, and he spent the next one and a half seasons patrolling centerfield in candlestick park, although topps kept him in a dodgers' uniform for their 1975 set.

joshua began his career in 1969 after signing with the dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1967. he appeared in 14 games for the blue in '69, then spent about half the 1970 season with the big club. such a large amount of playing time meant that he was included in the 1971 topps set, as seen here on my card that he kindly signed through the mail.

in 1971, he saw action in just 11 games, and didn't appear for the dodgers at all in 1972. over the next two seasons, joshua played about half the time, seeing action at all three outfield spots. over his first stint with the dodgers, joshua had exactly 100 hits and a .246 average in 253 games.

as a giant, he flourished as a full-time player. he hit .318 with 10 triples and 20 steals in 1975, but had his contract purchased by the brewers in june of 1976. here's his 1977 topps card to document his time as a brewer.

and, while we're at it, here's his 1976 topps card that he also signed,

as well as his 1978 topps card.

through 1977, joshua hit .264 for the brew crew, and played in 251 games as their primary center fielder. however, the brewers decided to release joshua after spring training in 1978, and he went to the mexican leagues.

that's where, in 1979, the dodgers found him and brought him back to la. he again played all three outfield spots, and also saw time as the dodgers' left-handed bat off the bench. unfortunately, while he hit .329 as a starter, joshua was only 9 for 48 (.188) as a pinch-hitter. still, he played enough to warrant a card in topps' 1980 set as a dodger.

here's one that he signed for me.

perhaps the highlight of joshua's return to the dodgers was the 9th inning home run he hit off of the reds' tom hume on may 20, 1979 which broke a 4-4 tie. the dodgers wound up winning the game 6-4. it's not a walk-off or some other dramatic play, which means that, for most fans, joshua will still be remembered as the guy who made the last out of the 1974 world series.

here's to you, von joshua!  thanks for signing my cards!

i will also remember him as a dodger double dipper. here's to you, von joshua, and thanks for signing my cards.