sunday morning target dodgers - from abrams to zahn

let's go from a to z with this sheet of cards from the 1990 target dodger set.

cal abrams

abrams was a part-time player who debuted as a dodger in 1949.  he peaked in 1951when he hit .280 in 67 games. with a fantastic obp of .419  the following year, the dodgers traded abram to the reds after he had appeared in just 10 games for the blue.  abrams was reportedly buried in his brooklyn dodgers uniform following his death in 1997.

jack billingham

billingham was 3-0 with 8 saves and a 2.14 era as a rookie for the dodgers in 1968, however, he was lost to the team when the expos selected him in the expansion draft prior to the 1969 season.  montreal was forced to flip billingham to the astros before the season began because donn clendenon refused to report to houston after he was traded as part of the package that netted the expos rusty staub.  eventually, billingham made his way to the reds, where he won back-to-back world series titles in 1975 and 1976.

ben cantwell

cantwell's career began in 1927 with the new york giants, although he spent most of the next 10 years with the boston braves during which time he won 20 games once and also lost 25 games in a single season.  in 1937, he returned to the giants, but was claimed by the dodgers after one bad start.  with brooklyn, cantwell had no record as he appeared in 13 games, all as a reliever.

vic davalillo

davalillo was one of the professional pinch-hitters employed by the dodgers when i began my fandom.  he and manny mota filled that role on the dodgers (davalillo from 1977-1980), and it was davalillo's pinch-hit bunt that got things going with 2 outs in the 9th on black friday in philadelphia during the 1977 nlcs.

johnny gooch

gooch spent time with the robins during the 1928 and 1929 seasons. he was acquired by the robins via a trade with the pirates during the '28 season, and was traded away to the reds early in the '29 campaign.  as a robin, gooch played in 43 games and hit .314.

babe herman

the robins'/dodgers' babe.  one of them, anyway.  herman was a franchise double dipper who had his best years as a robin, hitting .381 in 1929 and a franchise record .393 in 1930, but finishing second in the batting average race both years.

john hummel

hummel, who played with the superbas/dodgers/robins from 1905 through 1915, was best known as being one of the first utility players in the major leagues.  he played everywhere but pitcher, catcher, and third base, and did spend a couple of seasons as brooklyn's primary second baseman.

max macon

macon joined the dodger system in 1939 following his first taste of big league ball in 1938 with the cardinals for whom he pitched and played the outfield.  he didn't appear as a dodger until 1940, and even then he played in just two games, both as a pitcher only (he was 1 for 1 at the plate, by the way).  macon returned to the majors as a dodger in 1942, and was used as a pitcher and pinch-hitter.  he pitched in 14 games and had an era of 1.93 while he pinch-hit 12 times and was 5 for 11 in that role.  macon pitched (and hit) for the dodgers again in 1943 before being selected by the braves in the rule v draft following the season's conclusion.

fritz ostermueller

ostermueller spent the first part of the 1943 season with the browns, but was traded to the dodgers in july.  he was 1-1 in 7 games for the dodgers over the remainder of the season, and was 2-1 in 10 games for the dodgers in 1944 when he was dealt to the pirates at the end of may.

paul popovich

popovich was traded to the dodgers by the cubs for lou johnson following the 1967 season.  he spent 1968 with the dodgers, playing in 134 games and batting .232.  the dodgers traded popovich to the expos a couple of months into the 1969 season in the deal that brought manny mota and maury wills to the dodgers (back to the dodgers in wills' case).  the expos flipped popovich to the cubs that same day, so popovich was around to witness the infamous collapse of leo durocher's cubbies.

dave sells

sells joins rick waits and davey lopes as players whose names make full sentences.  sells spent the majority of his career with the angels, pitching in 85 of his 90 big league games for the halos.  the other five were spent as a dodger during the last part of the 1975 season following a trade that sent jim brewer to the angels.  sells was 0-2 for walter alston's team in those five games, and he spent the following season in triple-a albuquerque.

bill skowron

skowron spent just one season with the dodgers - 1963 - and he helped his new team defeat his former club in the world series.  skowron hit .385 in the 1963 fall classic for the dodgers against the yankees, with whom skowron had won four rings, including the previous two seasons.  following the series, skowron was picked up by the senators who later traded him to the white sox.

rick sutcliffe

sutcliffe, who made his big league debut in 1976, was the first dodger to win the rookie of the year award since ted sizemore (1969) when he claimed it in 1979 (the longest stretch the dodger organization had ever gone without one of their players winning the award).  even so, sutcliffe seemed to be in tommy lasorda's dog house, and he was used mainly as a reliever the following two seasons.  sutcliffe trashed lasorda's office after being left off of the 1981 postseason roster, and was traded to the indians soon thereafter.

jimmy wasdell

wasdell was a member of the dodgers in 1940 and 1941.  he hit .289 in 171 games for the dodgers over those two seasons, and he saw some action in the 1941 world series as well.

geoff zahn

zahn was a member of the dodgers' famous 1968 draft class.  he made it to the bigs in 1973, going 1-0 in his six appearances that season.  in 1974, zahn pitched in 21 games for the nl champs, but did not appear in the postseason.  he started the 1975 season with the dodgers, but was traded to the cubs in the burt hooton deal early on.  i approve of that deal.

see you back next week with another sheet from the 1990 target dodgers set...

a random sampling of dodger cards

you might recognize ron hunt

and paul popovich

from yesterday's first installment in the dodgers' second baseman evolution series.  the popovich especially, as his 1969 topps card shown above uses the same photo as his 1968 topps card which i used in the aformentioned post.  at least hunt's 1968 topps card at the top of the post is completely different from his 1967 topps issue that i showed yesterday, although his dazed and confused look doesn't make for the best card.

i've got too many cards scanned and ready to go that don't really have a purpose.  here's the guy who caught the last out of the 1981 world series, ken landreaux, on his 1987 donruss card

1987 was landreaux's final big league season (and he was with the dodgers until the end of the year), but neither fleer nor donruss issued a card of him in 1988.  donruss did issue a card of dave anderson in 1988, however

which made sense because he was still very active, although he lost the starting shortstop job that year to newcomer alfredo griffin, seen here on his 1988 score card

griffin hit only .199 in '88, but the dodgers won the world series, anyway.  two dodgers hit home runs in game 1 of the fall classic that year - mickey hatcher (shown here on his 1988 score card)

and kirk gibson (shown on a 1989 o-pee-chee sticker back)

gibby's was more dramatic, of course, and it probably took him ten times as long to round the bases than it did hatcher, who literally sprinted from home to home in the first inning.

another world series hero for the dodgers is tommy davis.  this 1993 ted williams card takes us back to 1963

when davis won the second of his back-to-back national league batting titles, but also hit .400 in the fall classic against the yankees.  he drove in the only run of game 3 in that series with a first inning single off of jim bouton - that was all don drysdale needed to set the dodgers up for a series sweep the next day.

raul mondesi, seen here on a 1995 fleer flair card,

never made it to the world series, but he was the first dodger player to go 30/30, and he did it twice.  he was my favorite dodger for a while, too.

i'll finish up this random post with jason phillips' 2005 topps chrome update & highlights card

phillips was one of jim tracy's 'ja(y)sons' of choice in 2005, along with werth, repko, and grabowski.  he spent time behind the plate and at first base that year, but left as a free agent after the season ended.

was that random enough for you?

the evolution of the dodger second baseman - beginning with jackie

just two positions left to review in my evolutionary posts.  this one is special to me because i spent most of my playing days at second base, and even though i was a steve garvey fan, i marveled at the dodger lineage at second base.  as a little leaguer, i traced it back from dave lopes to jim lefebvre to jim gilliam to jackie robinson.  i later learned that it wasn't quite that clean, but still.  at some point, it traces back to jackie, which is where i will start.  besides, it gives me a reason to show my 1952 topps jackie robinson card again, now freed from its plastic cage.

jackie robinson (1948-1952)

jackie was named the rookie of the year in 1947 when he was the dodgers' first baseman.  in 1948, brooklyn traded their second baseman, eddie stanky, to boston and gil hodges took over at first with jackie moving to second.  he stayed there for five seasons, winning the mvp award in 1949 and leading the league with a .342 average as well.

jim gilliam (1953-1957)

like jackie, gilliam was named the rookie of the year, but he won the award as the dodgers' second baseman in 1953.  that's his 1954 topps card - i unfortunately don't have a copy of his 1953 topps issue.  although gilliam also played some outfield in 1955 and 1956, he was the team's primary second baseman through 1957.  he finished fifth in the league mvp voting in 1956, when he hit .300 and helped the dodgers return to the world series.

charlie neal (1958-1961)

gilliam moved to the outfield in 1958 as the dodgers moved west, and so charlie neal moved from short to second.  he remained the dodgers' second baseman until he was traded to the mets following the 1961 season.  he made two all-star teams for the dodgers in his tenure as their second baseman, including the 1960 team as noted on his 1960 topps all-star card, and he also won the gold glove at the position in 1959.

jim gilliam (1962-1963)

with neal in new york, jim gilliam returned to the position in 1962, which is the year that the bell brand card shown above was issued.  he finished 6th in the mvp voting in 1963 as the team's second baseman, but once the world series came along, he moved to third base and dick tracewski played second in the dodgers' four game sweep of the yankees.

nate oliver (1964)

oliver was a second year player in 1964 when he hit .243 in 99 games and played more second base than any other dodger.  tracewski and gilliam also spent time at the position that season, but oliver started 97 contests there.  in 1965, however, he played second in only 2 games at the big league level.

jim lefebvre (1965-1966)

another dodger second baseman to win the rookie of the year award, lefebvre (shown on his 1965 topps rookie card) hit .250 with 12 homers en route to the honor.  he did better in 1966, hitting 24 homers with a .274 batting average while being named to the all-star team for the only time in his career.  he also began playing some third base, and spent most of the 1967 season at the hot corner.

ron hunt (1967)

hunt was acquired by the dodgers after the 1966 season from the mets in the tommy davis trade.  topps was abel to get him into the 1967 set as seen above, although the card is a bit of a high number (525).  he spent the 1967 season in los angeles before being traded to the giants prior to the 1968 campaign.  during his stint with the dodgers, hunt started 89 games at second base batting .263 while hitting 3 homers and driving in 33 runs.

paul popovich (1968)

with hunt going to the giants, the dodgers turned to popovich, an offseason acquisition from the cubs, to man second base in 1968.  his 1968 topps card there identifies him as an infielder, and he lived up to that billing by playing second, short, and third in '68.  still, his 80 starts at second base is what qualifies him for a spot in the team's evolutionary chain.  he hit only .232 on the season, and was traded to the expos early in the 1969 season, meaning that the merry-go-round of dodger second basemen would continue...