sunday morning target dodgers - one flap down edition

here's another sheet of cards from the 1990 target dodgers set.  let's get down to business.

george boehler

boehler didn't pitch for brooklyn until he joined the robins for the 1926 season - the last of his big league career that began in 1912.  he didn't spend all 15 years in between in the majors, however, as he spent a few full seasons in the minor leagues where he won over 20 games 7 times (including 38 in 1922). at any rate, he was 1-0 for the robins in 10 appearances in 1926.

jack burdock

burdock actually joined the brooklyn ballclub in 1888, a couple of years before they joined the national league.  he spent the next two years managing in the atlantic league, but returned to the grooms in 1891, their second year in the senior league.  he went 1 for 12 with a walk in three games, but earned a card in this set.

wes ferrell

ferrell was a two-time all-star who also finished second in the mvp voting in 1935 behind hank greenberg.  he was a good hitting pitcher (perhaps that's why a photo of him with a bat was used on his card) who retired with a .280 batting average.  ferrell signed with the dodgers as a free agent in 1940, but pitched in just one game for the team after which he was released. that followed his first appearance fot the dodgers in which he struck out as a pinch-hitter.

len gabrielson

gabrielson finished his major league career with 3-plus seasons as a dodger.  acquired in a trade with the angels during the 1967 season, gabrielson actually led the 1968 dodger team with 10 home runs.  year of the pitchers, indeed.

jack jenkins

jenkins grew up in virginia, so it must have been a thrill for him to break into the major leagues with the washington senators in 1962.  he was just 19 at the time, and the first team he faced was the other local squad - the baltimore orioles.  pitching in baltimore, jenkins struck out the first batter he faced, but later gave up a couple of home runs.  he relieved in another game at new york, and then got a start against the red sox in boston. he pitched a complete game, but it was of the 8.1 inning variety as the bosox walked off on a home run.  jenkins appeared in four games for the senators in 1963, and then didn't appear in the majors until 1969 when the dodgers purchased his contract and called him up.  he made just one appearance for the blue, pitching a perfect inning in relief against the astros on september 30.  the last batter he faced was hall of famer joe morgan, who was retired on a comebacker.  the following year, jenkins pitched in the dodgers' minor league system and he also found himself on a 1970 topps card, sharing space with bill buckner, but he never made it back to the big leagues.

lou johnson

sweet lou was acquired by the dodgers in 1964 from the tigers for larry sherry.  he didn't appear in the majors as a dodger until 1965, however, but helped the team win the world series by hitting .296 with a couple of home runs against the twins.  johnson also led all dodger regulars with four hits in the 1966 world series against the orioles.  he continues to be involved in the dodger community by making appearances for the team at various functions and signing autographs before select home games.

candy lachance

lachance was considered to be a good fielder, and was moved from catcher to first base after being called up by the grooms in 1893.  he played mostly first for brooklyn through 1898, amassing a .290 average in 559 games.  after one season with the cleveland blues in 1901, lachance played for the boston americans (later known as the red sox) and was a member of their 1903 team that won the first world series.

jeffrey leonard

leonard never got to trot around the bases with one flap down as a dodger.  the undrafted free agent was signed by the club in 1973 and made his debut as a dodger in september of 1977.  he was 3 for 10 with a triple and a walk in that time, but didn't hit a home run.  leonard was dealt to houston the following year for joe ferguson.

gus mancuso

mancuso began his career with the cardinals in 1928, and was the backup catcher on their pennant winning teams of 1930 and 1931 - they were world champs in the latter.  from there he went to the new york giants where he was the primary catcher on their 1933 world championship team, as well as their 1936 and 1937 pennant winning clubs, although he missed a fair amount of the '37 season due to injury.  the cubs traded for mancuso in december of 1938 and dealt him to the dodgers a year later.  in his one year in brooklyn, mancuso hit .229 in 60 games and the club decided they needed a different catcher.  so, in december of 1940, they sent mancuso to the cardinals in exchange for mickey owen.  sure, the dodgers would win the pennant in 1941, but owen would famously be unable to catch the third strike with two outs in the 9th inning of game 4 of the world series, allowing the yankees to rally and win a game that they should have lost.

jack perconte

perconte may be best known in these circles as the other guy on fernando valenzuela and mike scioscia's 1981 topps rookie card.  he had a couple callups with the dodgers, first in 1980 and again in 1981, but the team decided that steve sax was their second baseman of the future and so included perconte in the rick sutcliffe trade with the indians that followed the 1981 world series.

earl robinson

robinson played for the dodgers in his rookie year of 1958.  he appeared in 8 games and was 3 for 15 with a walk and then spent the next two seasons with the dodgers' triple-a affiliates.  after that, robinson had his contract purchased by the orioles, and he found some success at the big league level in baltimore during the early 1960's.

cotton tierney

tierney finished his 6-year major league career with a season in brooklyn in 1925.  previously a second baseman for the pirates, phillies, and braves, the robins used him mostly at third base.  he hit .257 in 93 games and was sent to minneapolis of the american association the following year. he must have kept in touch with former teammate zack wheat, because they opened a bowling alley together a few years later.  baseball reference also notes that tierney played in over 90 road games in 1923 as a result of being traded from the pirates to the phillies.

chris van cuyk

van cuyk pitched for the dodgers from 1950-52, the three seasons immediately following his brother johnny's three year run with the club.  chris was 7-11 with a 5.16 era in that time, although his career had begun with a complete game victory over stan musial and the cardinals in july of 1950.  thanks to the timing of his career, chris got a card in the 1952 topps set, and he seemed pretty happy about it.

ed vande berg

left-handed reliever vande berg was acquired by the dodgers after the 1985 season for the catcher of the team of my youth, steve yeager. straight up.  vande berg had been used by the mariners as a reliever (save for 17 starts in 1984), and he continued that role from the dodger bullpen in 1986.  pitching in 60 games, vande berg was 1-5 with a 3.41 era and was only given the opportunity to save a game once (he failed to hold the lead in an extra inning game against the reds).  after the season, vande berg was released by the dodgers and he signed with the indians as a free agent.  there wasn't much of a trade legacy for steve yeager, was there?

hack wilson

wilson was only one season removed from his record 191 rbi when the cardinals traded burleigh grimes to the cubs to acquire him.  however, before the 1932 season could begin, saint louis flipped wilson to the dodgers.  he did pretty well in '32, hitting .297 with 23 homers and 123 rbi, but his numbers slipped in 1933, and he was released by the team during another disappointing season in 1934.

see you next week (most likely) with another sheet...

sunday morning target dodgers - double dutch and some nice 'staches

another sunday, another sheet of cards from the 1990 target dodger sga set.  here are 13 more brooklyn franchise players with the 14th and 15th cards from the sheet to be shown later on today.

don crow

crow was a backup catcher with a sweet 'stache that played for the dodgers in 4 games during the 1982 season.  he was, like teammates ron cey and tom niedenfuer, a washington state alumni.  in fact, in the last of his four big league games, he caught niedenfuer and came to bat in the same inning as cey.  overall, crow was 0 for 4 as a big leaguer.

bob giallombardo

giallombardo spent just over a month in the big leagues with the 1958 dodgers.  he was 1-1 in his 6 appearances (5 starts) and posted a 3.76 era.  he got his lone major league hit in his final big league at bat - a single off of curt simmons of the phillies.

jose gonzalez

gonzalez was an active dodger when this set was produced, so i don't know why they spelled his name with an 's' instead of a 'z'.  anyway, he was a fairly highly touted prospect when he first came up to the dodgers in 1985 as i recall.  he played for the blue off and on from 1985 through 1989, going back and forth between la and albuquerque, but spent the entire season with the team in 1990.  in july of 1991, after hitting .227 in 379 games as a dodger and going 0 for 28 on the season to that point, he was traded to the pirates for mitch webster.

dutch leonard

during his four seasons with the dodgers (1933-1936), leonard was used by the dodgers primarily as a reliever.  he was 18-23 with a 3.50 era and what would have been 14 saves (including a league leading 8 in 1935) had that been an official stat back then.  as a youngster, i was confused about the dodgers' dutch leonard, not realizing that he was not the same dutch leonard who appeared on a 1979 topps card because of his 0.96 era in 1914.  after leaving the dodgers, leonard became a starter and all-star for the washington senators.

harry mcintire

here's another spelling error, i believe, as baseball reference has his last name spelled 'mcintire'.  either way, this guy was a pitcher for the superbas who lost 20 or more games in 3 of his 5 seasons with the team.  in 1906, his second year with brooklyn, mcintire once threw 10-2/3 innings of no-hit ball against the pirates before allowing a hit and losing the game 1-0.

bob miller

miller was a well-traveled hurler who pitched for the dodgers from 1963 through 1967, leading the league in appearances in 1964 and pitching in both the 1965 and 1966 world series.

wes parker

parker also played on those world series teams with miller, hitting .304 with a triple and a home run against the twins in the dodgers' 1965 victory.  however, parker is better remembered for his defensive prowess. he won gold gloves at first base in each season from 1967 through 1972, his last season in the big leagues and posted a career fielding percentage of .996 as a first baseman.  he was so well regarded as a fielder that he was voted to the rawlings' all-time gold glove team in 2007.

dutch reuther

two players nicknamed 'dutch' on one sheet!  just like the rubes last week!  this dutch (whose last name is spelled differently by baseball reference) pitched for the robins from 1921 through 1924.  he won 21 games for brooklyn in 1922.  he was a career .258 hitter who appeared as a pinch hitter in the 1925 world series although he did not pitch in the series that year, and finished his career as a member of the 1927 yankees.

fred sington

sington played for the dodgers in 1938 and 1939 following four years with the senators.  he hit .358 in 17 games with the blue in 1938 with an ops of 1.115.

harry stovey

stovey finished his storied playing career with a 48 game stint as a member of the 1893 brooklyn grooms.  when he retired, he had 122 home runs to his name, enough to be the all-time leader in that category at the time.  i expected a more elaborate mustache from this man.

dick tracewski

tracewski played in the dodgers' infield from 1962 through 1965, winning two world series rings along the way.  he was traded to the tigers shortly after the 1965 fall classic, and won a third ring with the 1968 detroit team.  tracewski was a long time tiger coach, and even managed the team for a couple of games between les moss and sparky anderson in 1979.

stan wall

wall was a member of the team of my youth, pitching for the dodgers in 1977 (and the two previous seasons as well).  you can read more about him here, after you enjoy that tremendous mustache.

ricky wright

another fine mustache!  wright debuted as a reliever for the dodgers in 1982, but his second appearance a few days later came as a starter.  he was the winning pitcher in that game thanks to a strong 6 innings against the reds.  he helped his own cause with an rbi double, and was further aided by a three-run home run off the bat of steve garvey.  in 1983, wright was one of the pieces (dave stewart was the other) that was sent to the rangers in exchange for rick honeycutt.

you might buy the grimes if you don't do the time

it's a relief to find out that a guy isn't featured as a dodger on a vintage card before you make the purchase.  the 1961 fleer burleigh grimes card had been on my nefarious 9 list for a while and i came close to buying it on ebay when i took a closer look at the card being offered (image pilfered from the internets). 

instead of the 'b' for brooklyn on the pinstriped uni (yes, the robins as they were known in grimes' day wore pinstripes) there was stylized text.  a quick review of grimes' uniforms courtesy of baseball reference confirmed that ol' stubblebeard is featured as a cub on that card. teamsets4u is usually pretty reliable, but it's always best to do some recon on your own.  i knew that the first card in the set, the home run baker/ty cobb/zack wheat checklist,

featured wheat, a dodger hall of famer (although he's in street clothes), even though that card is listed by teamsets4u down at the bottom and not within the team checklist.  i recently picked up that card, and as for the other 4 cards listed as dodgers, i own zack wheat's solo card, and the dutch leonard

which is strangely mis-cut.  leonard (not the one with the sub-1.00 era for the red sox in 1914) is probably better known as a washington senator, as he spent 9 years with them compared to 4 with brooklyn.  anyway, as far as i know, the only dodger i am missing is dolph camilli.  so, camilli has replaced grimes on the nefarious 9.  and yes, i have already confirmed that camilli is shown as a dodger.

the 1978 topps jeff leonard card that should have been

jeff leonard was the player to be named lated in the deal that brought joe ferguson back to the dodgers in july of 1978.  he spent the entire 1978 season in the minors, despite a promising debut in 1977, but those few games as a member of the 1977 dodgers earns leonard a 1978 topps burger king dodger/update card that should have been:

that's pretty bad ass, if you ask me.  here's the back

leonard was blocked in the outfield by dusty baker and reggie smith, and even rick monday to some extent.  though leonard did play some center during his career, he was much more a corner outfielder.  still, couldn't he have replaced monday in center instead of bill north, derrel thomas or rudy law?

in houston, leonard went on to finish 2nd (to dodger rick sutcliffe) in the 1979 nl rookie of the year voting and really hit his stride in san francisco in 1983.  that was also the year after reggie smith left the dodger outfield, opening a spot that was filled by mike marshall instead of leonard.  it's hard to argue with al campanis and the finishes the dodgers had in the '80's, so i'll stop there.  besides, i don't know if i would have liked to have seen 'one flap down' in chavez ravine.

leonard was also featured, sullenly of course, in the dodgers' 1978 yearbook.  here's the b&w card to keep pace with wash, landestoy and sut.

why the long face?  it's too bad the dodgers' 1977 yearbook featured such strangely resolutioned images, because leonard is actually smiling in that publication

i guess that's not quite as bad ass.

here's to you, jeff leonard, and your 1978 topps burger king dodgers/update card that should have been!