jaybarkerfan's junk sends the blues

it's hard not to be excited when a package from wes at jaybarkerfan's junk shows up at your doorstep.  now, i have not been drawn into one of his trade wars (thankfully, as i know i would not be able to keep up), but we've traded several packages over the last couple of years.  this latest return from wes was certainly no disappointment.

first up is perhaps the bluest card i've seen - it's a 2002 donruss cesar izturis rookie crusade card

good golly miss molly, that's a blue card.

onelki garcia's 2014 topps chrome blue refractor parallel

pales in comparison.

but then there is this 2014 bowman platinum chrome prospects zach lee sapphire parallel card

that is pretty blue.

the blues end there, sort of, as we still have dodger cards, but they aren't of the same hue.  this is an emerald parallel of chris anderson's 2014 bowman platinum chrome prospects card

that brings the green rather than the blue.

there were some regular cards in the package as well, including a 1988 fleer mini kirk gibson card

and a 2005 topps roger craig dem bums insert

craig is fortuitously flashing his bum on the card, by the way.

wes also hit my list of most wanted cards, sending two of the remaining jackie robinson story inserts from 2015 topps that i needed my way

two pretty important milestones there.

i'll finish up with some more hued parallels - these are of the dodger first baseman of the moment, adrian gonzalez.  first is his 2013 bowman chrome purple parallel

and next is his 2013 topps triple threads emerald parallel

both are pretty colorful, bun not as colorful as this 2014 donruss gonzalez elite dominator card

which was not part of the package wes sent, but fits in nicely with this post.

thanks wes, for another great trade!

sunday morning target dodgers

here we are with the last installment of sunday morning target dodgers of the year, and unless i scan some more sheets, it will be the final one - period.  let's find out about 15 more players who suited up for the brooklyn/los angeles national league franchise, courtesy of the target set that was given away at dodger stadium in 1990.

ed chandler

chandler was a major leaguer for about two months in 1947. he debuted three days after jackie robinson, pitching in relief against the new york giants on april 18.  he appeared in 14 other games, including both ends of a doubleheader against the cardinals on june 14. the nightcap that day turned out to be chandler's last appearance in the majors.

pete coscarart

coscarart was with the dodgers from 1938-1941, and was their primary second baseman in 1939 and 1940.  he made the all-star team in 1940 and appeared in the 1941 world series against the yankees.  after that, however, he was traded to the pirates in the deal that netted brooklyn arky vaughn.  coscarart went on to play in pittsburgh for four-plus seasons.

lefty davis

davis spent the first part of the 1901 season with the brooklyn superbas and the second part with the pittsburgh pirates. he had been released by the superbas after hitting just .209 in 25 games, but went on to bat .313 for pittsburgh in 87 games that year.  davis passed away on his 44th birthday.

ben geraghty

geraghty was an infielder with the 1936 dodgers who hit .194 in 51 games.  baseball-reference notes that he missed the 1937 season due to injury, but was traded towards the end of the season to the senators.  after making it back to the majors with the braves in 1943 and '44, geraghty returned to the minors and was a member of the dodgers' affiliate in spokane in 1946.  as a result, he was on the bus that crashed, killing nine members of the team, including player-manager mel cole.  geraghty survived the crash, and became the team's manager in 1947. he later went on to manage for many years in the braves' organization.

harvey green

green's major league experience consists of two games in which he pitched for the dodgers in 1935.  both came against the cubs in chicago in september of that year - on the 12th, he pitched a scoreless 9th inning in a 13-3 loss, and on the 14th, he failed to retire any of the three cubs he faced in what would be a 18-14 dodger loss.

bill hall

hall was 19 years old when he pitched for the brooklyn superbas in 1913.  he appeared in 3 games, allowing 3 earned runs in 4.2 innings of work.

bill harris

a native of new brunswick, harris was given a late-season start by the dodgers in 1957.  it was the first game following their last game at ebbet's field, and came in philadephia against the phillies.  harris pitched 7 innings, allowing 3 runs, and was 1 for 2 at the plate.  unfortunately, the dodgers only mustered up 2 runs (on a 9th-inning homer by sandy amoros) so harris got the loss. interestingly enough, he was replaced on the mound by none other than sandy koufax.  a couple of years later, with the dodgers now playing in los angeles, harris appeared in his second and final big league game - this time as a reliever against the cubs.

lefty hopper

hopper made 2 starts for the 1898 brooklyn bridegrooms.  he was 0-2 with 2 complete games, although he pitched only 11 innings.  he allowed 11 runs, 6 earned in those games, and did not pitch in the majors again.

bob lee

lee was acquired by the dodgers from the angels in a december, 1966 trade.  he showed up as a dodger in the 1967 topps set, although he appeared in only four games for the blue before he had his contract purchased by the reds.  in those four games as a dodger, lee pitched 6.2 innings - all in relief.

phil lewis

lewis was the superbas' shortstop from 1905-08.  he hit .242 in those four seasons, but amassed a whopping total of 120 errors in his first two campaigns. lewis spent the remainder of his baseball career in the minors, playing through 1916.

mike w. mccormick

mccormick was one of the players that the dodgers received in the trade that sent pete reiser to the braves following the 1948 season. mccormick hit .209 for the dodgers in 1949, playing in 55 games.  he appeared in one game of the 1949 world series (he caught the last out of the dodgers' game 2 victory - their only win of the series), and was then released by the club.

walt miller

what we have here is a case of mistaken identity.  the walt miller shown on the card is actually jake miller (his given name was walter) who pitched for the white sox in 1933 (after hurling several years for the indians). the giveaway was the fact that the pictured miller is a lefty, while this card is supposed to feature a right-handed pitcher.  the correct walt miller was a dodger for about a week in 1911, pitching in three games and taking the loss in one of them.

dick siebert

siebert had a couple of cups of coffee with the dodgers - first in 1932 and then again in 1936 - in which he was 2 for 9 with a couple of walks.  he spent most of his career playing first base for connie mack and the philadelphia a's, and was an all-star in 1943.  siebert retired after the 1945 season and returned to the twin cities where he became the head coach at his alma mater - the university of minnesota - and led the golden gophers to the college world series title three times.  siebert coached dave winfield and paul molitor among others during his tenure with the gophers - a tenure that ended with his passing in 1978.  the gophers' baseball stadium is named siebert field in his honor.

ray thomas

thomas' big league career consisted of one game with the 1938 brooklyn dodgers.  thomas replaced the robins' starting catcher merv shea in the july 22, 1938 game against the cardinals in the early going, and wound up getting three at bats. thomas finished the day, and his major league career as it turned out, 1 for 3 with a run scored.

george treadway

treadway was one of the players that the brooklyn grooms received from the orioles in exchange for future hall of famer willie keeler following the 1893 season.  he played for the grooms in 1894 and 1895, hitting .330 in 124 games in '94 but only .259 in 87 games in '95. after spending a short amount of time with the louisville colonels in 1896, treadway was out of the majors due in large part to suspicions about his heritage, according to baseball-reference.

sunday morning target dodgers - talkin' baseball...bunny, ducky, and the duke

woo hoo.  we're gonna learn about some new players today!  here's another installment of 15 cards from the 1990 target dodgers set that was given away in installments at dodger stadium that year.  each sheet features 15 players or managers that wore the uniform (or sat in the dugout in burt shotton's case) during the franchise's first 100 years in the national league.  we've got some hall of famers and some interesting names to get to today...

jesse barnes

nicknamed "nubby", barnes led the national league in wins in 1919 with 25 while pitching for the new york giants, although he also led the senior circuit in losses in both 1917 and 1924 when he was a member of the boston braves (he double dipped).  barnes was a member of the giants' world series championship teams in 1921 and 1922 as they defeated babe ruth's yankees both times.  he finished his career with two forgettable seasons in brooklyn - in 1926, barnes was 10-11 with a 5.24 era, and in 1927 he went 2-10 with a 5.72 era.

jim bucher

bucher made his big league debut in 1934 as an infielder with the dodgers.  he stayed with brooklyn through the 1937 season but was then traded to the cardinals in the deal that netted the dodgers leo durocher.  during his stay in brooklyn, bucher hit .269 and appeared in 405 games.

cannonball crane

crane (give name "ed") began his career in 1884 as an outfielder.  he converted to pitcher when it became apparent  that he wasn't a good hitter.  according to baseball reference, he was a hard thrower whose fastball was nicknamed "cannonball", and while he threw hard, he also lacked control.  in fact, his career k/w ratio is less than 1, and he led the league in wild pitches twice.  his brooklyn career consisted of two games (the last two of his career) in 1893 for the grooms.  he started both games and took the loss in each (although one was a complete game), allowing 15 earned runs in 10 innings of work and issuing 9 walks.  he also hit a batter and uncorked a wild pitch.

rick dempsey

dempsey joined the dodgers as a free agent prior to the 1988 season.  a few days after he was acquired, the dodgers released mike scioscia's backup from the previous season (alex trevino), and the job was given to dempsey.  dempsey appeared in 77 games and hit .251 during the regular season in that role, but also made some big starts, especially in the postseason.  tommy lasorda gave dempsey the start at catcher in the pivotal game 5 of the nlcs against the mets' sid fernandez, and dempsey opened the scoring with a 2-run double in the 4th inning as the dodgers went on to win the game 7-4.  dempsey, who was the 1983 world series mvp for the orioles, also got to start game 5 of the fall classic and had a rbi double in that game, too.  he also got to run out and hug orel hershiser after the last out was recorded and the dodgers had claimed the title.  dempsey remained with the dodgers through the 1990 season, and later managed in their minor league system for a few years.

bunny fabrique

fabrique played for the robins in 1916 and 1917. he appeared in just 2 games for the club in 1916, but saw action in 25 contests the following year.  being a shortstop, it is likely that his 18 errors in those 25 games greatly contributed to the early demise of his big league career.  by they way, he's wearing the checked brooklyn unis i mentioned the other day.  i do hope the dodgers do a throwback or two in 2016 to these things.

john gochnaur

gochnaur played in 3 games for the 1901 brooklyn superbas, although he looks to be wearing a different team's uniform in his photo.  it's probably from a minor league stop as the only other majore league team he played for (cleveland) had distinguishing lettering on their dark, collared jerseys that would have been visible in this photo.  in those 3 games in which he played for brooklyn, gochnaur was 4 for 11 with a walk and 2 rbi.

gerald hannahs

gerry hannahs was a member of the team of my youth, but just barely as he made one appearance for the club in 1978 following his acquisition by al campanis in the deal that sent mike garman to the expos.  he pitched two innings against the padres in that lone outing, allowing a couple of runs but also striking out 5 padre batters, including dave winfield.  the gerry hannahs appearance that i remember very clearly, however, came in 1979 when he came in to pitch against the big red machine.  hannahs had earned a september callup, and made his first appearance of the season on september 7 in a game against the reds.  called on to preserve a 1-run lead in the bottom of the 9th, hannahs struck out joe morgan, dave concepcion, and george foster to end the game and earn the save.  i remember listening to the game in our living room on my dad's trusty transistor radio, and hearing hannahs being interviewed following the game by jerry doggett.  good times.  hannahs only pitched in 3 more games for the dodgers that season, which turned out to be his last in the majors.

frank howard

hondo was the 1960 national league rookie of the year, and he turned out to be one of the better roys in terms of his overall career production.  howard lasted with the dodgers through the 1964 season (he won a ring with the 1963 squad, even homering in the world series against the yankees) after which he was traded to the senators in the claude osteen deal.  with washington, howard twice led the league in home runs and he earned his nickname as the "capitol punisher".  howard retired following the 1973 season with 382 career home runs, and only 63 men who have played the game have hit more in their career.  and, i believe that was a top 20 all-time total at the time howard retired.

leron lee

lee played for the dodgers in 1975 and 1976, mostly as a pinch-hitter and sometimes outfielder.  following his release from the team after the 1976 season, lee left for japan and wound up finding great success there as he hit a total of 283 home runs in 11 seasons.

tony malinosky

malinosky was with the dodgers in the big leagues for about 2 and a half months during the 1937 season.  in that time, he appeared in 25 games and hit .228.

joe medwick

ducky medwick had two stints with the dodgers, and helped them win the pennant in 1941 - their first since 1920.  he was better known as a member of the gashouse gang in saint louis, where he won a world series in 1934 and the triple crown in 1937.

rich rodas

rodas pitched for the dodgers during the 1983 and 1984 seasons.  in his big league debut, he struck out the first batter he faced (terry kennedy) and later retired tony gwynn on a groundout.  rodas relieved starter burt hooton in that game, and on june 19, 1984, hooton relieved rodas (who had taken over for carlos diaz who relieved starter fernando valenzuela) in what turned out to be rodas' last big league appearance.

duke snider

the duke.  snider played for the dodgers from 1947 (he debuted two days after jackie robinson) through 1962, and holds many franchise records, such as offensive war (career), home runs (career), rbi (career), and strikeouts (career), although matt kemp with pass him in 2015 in that last category unless he is traded away.  snider was elected to the hall of fame in 1980 and his number 4 has been retired by the team ever since.

don sutton

back-to-back hall of famers!  sutton was the ace of the staff as far as i was concerned during my first few years of dodger fandom.  he wound up leaving the team before they won it all in 1981, but returned for their 1988 championship season.  unfortunately for him, the dodgers released him in august of 1988 so he did not get a chance to finally win a world series.  like snider, sutton holds a lot of franchise records, such as wins, strikeouts, starts, shutouts, games pitched, and games started.

rene valdes

valdes' only major league experience came with the dodgers in 1957 and consisted of 5 games.  he debuted against the pirates in april of '57 and retired roberto clemente twice in his 3.2 innings of hitless and scoreless relief.  valdes had taken over for don newcombe in that game, and was himself relieved by sandy koufax.  overall, valdes was 1-1 with a 5.24 era as a major league pitcher.

sunday morning target dodgers - from allen to zimmer

another sunday, another 14 cards from a sheet of the 1990 target dodger set.  let's get right to it.

frank allen

allen pitched for the dodgers, superbas, and robins - in that order.  he broke into the majors in 1912 as a dodger (the franchise used that name in 1911 and 1912) and went 3-9 in 20 games.  in 1913, the team went back to being knows as the superbas, and allen was 4-18 despite a 2.83 era in 37 appearances.  wilbert robinson took over the managing duties in 1914, and the team became known as the robins as a result.  allen's results were about the same - he was 8-14 with a 3.10 era in 36 appearances before moving to the federal league to finish out the season.  he returned to the national league a couple years later, but with the boston braves, not the robins.

ralph bryant

bryant played in a total of 79 games for the dodgers from 1985-1987.  he hit .253 with 8 home runs, and found greater success in japan.

roger craig

craig made his big league debut as a dodger in their championship season of 1955.  he started and won game 5 of the world series that year, earning the first of his three championship rings (he also won titles with the dodgers in 1959 and the cardinals in 1964).  after seven seasons with the dodgers, craig was selected by the mets in the expansion draft, and became the first starting pitcher in the franchise's history, losing their inaugural game 11-4 to the cardinals.  sadly for dodger fans, craig later became a successful manager for the giants of all teams.

brad havens

havens came to the dodgers in the 1987 trade that also brought john shelby to the club in exchange for tom niedenfuer.  he had no record in 31 games that season for the dodgers, recording one save and making a start as well.  he posted a 4.66 era in 9 appearances to start his 1988 season, and was released by the dodgers in may of that year.

dutch henry

henry debuted as a 19-year old for the saint louis browns.  after two seasons with the browns, he was traded to the robins.  in his two seasons with brooklyn, henry was 5-8 in 33 games, 13 of which were starts.  he threw two shutouts as a robin, and also hit .236 for the team.  following his stint with brooklyn, henry pitched for the giants and the white sox.

willard hunter

hunter pitched in exactly one game for the dodgers.  it came in april of 1962 at candlestick park.  he allowed the first three batters he faced to reach base, with the third giant being willie mays who hit a 3-run homer off of him.  he retired the next three batters, but was roughed up in the following inning, his last as a dodger.  in all, hunter allowed 10 runs (9 earned) in two innings of work.  he was soon thereafter traded to the mets as the player to be named later in the charley neal/lee walls deal.

tom hutton

hutton came up with the dodgers as a first base prospect, getting a cup of coffee with the team in 1966.  he returned in 1969, playing in 16 games and hitting .271.  stuck in the minors behind wes parker, bill buckner, and steve garvey, hutton was traded to the phillies following the 1971 season for larry hisle, who himself got stuck in the dodger minor leagues for his lone season with the organization as well.

hal lee

lee spent the 1930 season, his first in the majors, with the robins.  he hit .162 in 22 games, many of which he appeared in as a pinch-hitter.  in fact, he hit his first big league home run while pinch-hitting for the robins that year.  lee is better known as the player on the 1935 boston braves who replaced babe ruth in the bambino's final big league game.

morrie martin

martin had a 10-year big league career, the first of which was spent with the dodgers in 1949.  he was 1-3 with a 7.04 era in 10 games that year, and spent the entire 1950 season back in saint paul with the dodgers' affiliate.  he was lost in the rule v draft following the season to the philadelphia a's.

otho nitcholas

i would have guessed that target misspelled 'otto nicholas', but no - this guy really was named otho nitcholas.  he appeared in 7 major league games, all for the 1945 brooklyn dodgers.  he was 1-0 with a 5.30 era, but found far greater success both before and after his time with the dodgers in the minor leagues, where he won over 250 games over the course of his career.

derrel (not derrell) thomas

thomas was a member of the 1981 world championship dodger team who was best known for his ability to play all around the diamond.  i, in fact, was in attendance at one of the four games in which thomas started as the dodgers' catcher during the 1980 season (i was at the april 18 game - the one that saw thomas hit his lone home run of the season).  thomas was a dodger for 5 of his 15 seasons in the majors.

jeff torborg

torborg spent 7 seasons with the dodgers, from 1964 through 1970.  he began as the backup catcher to john roseboro, and remained a backup even after roseboro was dealt to the twins following the 1967 season.  even so, torborg caught sandy koufax's perfect game in 1965 and bill singer's no-hitter in 1970.  torborg joined the angels prior to the 1971 season and stayed with them through 1973, catching nolan ryan's first no-hitter in 1973 to become one of two catchers to catch a no-no in each league, and the only person to catch a no-hitter thrown by koufax and ryan.  torborg later became a manager, and won the 1990 american league manager of the year award for his work leading the chicago white sox.

john ward

ward, known as 'monte' thanks to his middle name being 'montgomery', was a brooklyn groom in 1891 and 1892.  he led the league with 88 steals in his second year with the team, but that was less than the 111 steals he had with the giants to lead the league in 1887.  earlier in his career, ward had been a pitcher, but was converted to a fielder by the giants.  he finished his hall of fame career with a second stint with the giants in 1893 and 1894.

don zimmer

the late zimmer had two separate stints with the dodgers.  he began his career with the brooklyn dodgers in 1954 and moved to los angeles with the team in 1958.  following the 1959 season, he was traded to the cubs and later became an original met, becoming their first third baseman.  in fact, along with craig and zimmer, the mets had former dodgers charley neal and gil hodges in their inaugural game lineup.  zimmer returned to the dodgers in 1963, but had his contract purchased by the senators later in that season.  zimmer passed away earlier this year, and was remembered as a baseball lifer - his affiliation with the league lasted 60-plus years.