sunday morning target dodgers - a few players short of a full sheet

today's post features cards from two different sheets issued as part of the 1990 target dodgers 100-year anniversary giveaway.  when i first started showing cards from this set, i wasn't doing it sheet-by-sheet. instead, i posted groups of cards with no care taken from a set organizational standpoint.  my current self regrets that very much.  so, i'm going to finish off the sheets that have, to date, only been partially shown.  here are the remnants of the first one.

boog powell

yes, i've shown this card before - in the evolution series (the 'out of place guy' post).  it's worth showing again in a proper target dodgers post.  powell was used almost exclusively as a pinch-hitter during his lone season with the dodgers (1977).  he had 10 hits (all singles) in 41 at bats, but his obp was .415 thanks to 12 walks.  powell was released on august 31, 1977 and so didn't get to experience the postseason as a member of the dodgers.  that's ok - he was there plenty with the orioles, including 1966 when the o's swept the dodgers in the world series.

now on to the players from this sheet that haven't made it to the blog before.

randy moore

moore spent the 1936 and part of the 1937 seasons with the dodgers, hitting .218 in a total of 55 games during his tenure.  you'll note that he is in a catcher's crouch on the card, although his position is given as an outfielder.  well, in his 8 big league seasons prior to joining the dodgers, and his first season with the dodgers, moore was used primarily (almost exclusively, really) as an outfielder.  however, the dodgers gave up hall of famer al lopez (a catcher in his playing days) in the trade that brought moore to brooklyn, so, despite him having played catcher in the big leagues only once before joining them, the dodgers used him primarily as a backstop in 1937.

john o'brien

o'brien was a native of new brunswick who played for the brooklyn grooms in 1891.  he was a second baseman who appeared in 43 games that season, and hit .246.  he would later be part of the 1899 trade between louisville and pittsburgh that sent honus wagner to the pirates.

john russell

this is one of the odder cards in the set.  it is an egregious case of mistaken identity.  the card shows former big league catcher john russell, who played for the phillies, rangers, and braves, and most recently managed the pirates a few seasons back.  the john russell who pitched for the dodger franchise did so in the 1917 and 1918 seasons as a member of the robins.  he was 0-1 in 6 games for brooklyn, and later pitched for the white sox in 1921 and 1922.

ray searage

searage signed with the dodgers in april of 1988, but he unfortunately spent the entire championship season at albuquerque.  he did spend most of 1989 and 1990 with the big club, however, pitching effectively out of the bullpen.  he was 4-4 as a dodger and i believe he is currently the pitching coach for the pirates, a job he started while john russell (the guy pictured on the above card, not the actual brooklyn pitcher) was the team's manager.

bill swift

swift pitched for the dodgers in 1941, after spending 8 seasons in pittsburgh and another in boston with the bees.  he appeared in 9 games for brooklyn, posting a 3-0 record with a save and an era of 3.27.

tim thompson

thompson was a good hitting minor league player who didn't make his big league debut until he was 30 when he appeared for the dodgers in 10 games early in the 1954 season.  he hit .154 with one double and an rbi in 14 plate appearances in those games, and didn't return to the majors until 1956 when he was with the kansas city a's.  thompson is known as the first national league catcher to wear glasses.

that's is for the first sheet.  the other players from this sheet are john wetteland and eddie stanky (featured here); pop corkhill and tex carleton and pop dillon (featured here); tom baker and william brennan (featured here); and glenn wright (featured here).

here are some cards from another sheet.  same story - for some reason a few players on the sheet haven't been addressed until now.

jim bunning's 1990 target card was previously shown in the same evolutionary post as boog's, but here it is again

bunning spent the latter part of the 1969 season with the dodgers, making 9 starts and posting a record of 3-1 with a 3.36 era.  the dodgers had beaten bunning twice earlier in the season while he was with the pirates, but traded for him anyway.  they released him following the season, and he was picked up by one of his former teams, the phillies.

walter alston

alston managed the dodgers for just shy of 23 seasons (he retired with two games to go in 1976 to give tommy lasorda a chance to get his feet wet as the team's manager).  in that span, the dodgers won 2040 games, seven national league pennants, and four world championships.  alston was elected to the hall of fame in 1983, and his number 24 was subsequently retired by the team.

don lejohn

if you were to only play in the major leagues for one season, you couldn't do much better than don lejohn did, as far as timing goes.  called up to the dodgers in late june of 1965, lejohn played a fair amount of third base for the club down the stretch as they held off the giants for the national league pennant.  lejohn began his big league career that season with a 5-game hitting streak, and finished it with a pinch-hit strikeout in game one of the 1965 world series.  the dodgers, of course, won the series, and so lejohn earned a ring in his only big league campaign.

jose pena

the dodgers selected pena in the 1969 rule v draft from the reds, and he was a part of their bullpen for the next two-plus seasons.  he posted a record of 6-3 with 5 saves in 55 games during his dodger tenure, and continued to pitch in the mexican league through 1984 with great success.  in fact, pena is a member of the mexican baseball hall of fame.

schoolboy rowe

rowe had won 105 games and pitched in three world series in 10 seasons with the tigers when the dodgers purchased his contract in 1942.  he pitched in 9 games for brooklyn that year, starting two, and finishing with a 1-0 record.  the phillies purchased his contract prior to the 1943 season, and so ended rowe's brooklyn tenure.  rowe was also a decent hitter, with a .263 lifetime average and 18 home runs to his credit.

rube walker

walker joined the dodgers in 1951 after three-plus seasons with the cubs.  he was roy campanella's backup from then through the 1957 season, and then backed up john roseboro for part of the 1958 campaign in los angeles.  he never played in more than 60 games in a season for the dodgers, and his cumulative batting average for the club was .214.  a few years after the end of his playing days, walker's teammate gil hodges added him to his coaching staff with the senators and later the mets.

matt young

the dodgers acquired young from the mariners prior to the 1987 season.  young had shown some flashes of potential with seattle, but they were a bad team and he was pretty inconsistent as a starter.  in 1986, the mariners moved young to the bullpen after a few bad starts, and he saved 13 games.  as such, the dodgers decided to use young exclusively in relief, and he wound up saving 11 games, tying alejandro pena for the team lead.  after the season, however, young was dealt to oakland with bob welch in the three-team trade that netted the dodgers alfredo griffin, jesse orosco, and jay howell.

the other players found on this particular sheet have been featured in earlier 'sunday morning target dodger' posts.  they are:  gary thomasson (featured here); gus getz and bob logan (featured here); jim baxes (featured here); cesar cedeno (featured here); tommy john and hank edwards (featured here); and then there is bill reidy, a double dipper who gets a separate post later today.

sunday morning target dodgers

a very pleasant sunday morning to you, wherever you may be.  time for another sheet of cards from the 1990 target dodger giveaway set.  only 14 players in this post, however, as bobo newsom gets his own post later on.

boyd bartley

bartley went to the dodgers straight from the big 10 in 1943.  after playing for the university of illinois, he suited up in 9 games for brooklyn, and went 1 for 21 with a walk and a sacrifice.  he served in the military after that, and returned to organization eventually managing in the minor league system for several seasons.  the rest of bartley's career was spent as a scout for the dodgers, and he was responsible for the signing of orel hershiser among others.

george cisar

cisar's big league career spanned more than two times the number of games than bartley's.  he appeared in 20 games for the dodgers in 1937, getting 6 hits in 29 at bats.  he was known as a base stealer in the minors, and stole 3 bags with the dodgers.

con daily

daily, first name cornelius, played for the brooklyn grooms from 1891 through 1896 as a backup catcher.  oddly enough, the player most similar to him according to baseball reference was another cornelius - the hall of fame manager connie mack.

leo dickerman

dickerman pitched for the robins in 1923 and 1924.  he was 8-12 in 42 games for brooklyn in that span, and was traded to the cardinals during the 1924 season for spittin' bill doak, the spitballer who also invented the modern fielder's glove.

buddy hassett

hassett broke into the majors as the dodgers' first baseman in 1936.  that year, he led the league in games played with 156 thanks to a couple of ties with the boston bees.  he hit .310 with 82 rbi that season, and followed it by hitting .304 in 1937.  he moved to the outfield in 1938 and hit .293, but was traded to the bees after the season ended.

bill hubbell

bill was no relation to carl, unfortunately.  hubbell finished his 7 year career in 1925 with the robins, going 3-6 in 33 appearances.

bernie hungling

hungling hit .225 in 39 games for the 1922 robins, and was 0 for 4 for the team in 1923. he was a backup catcher who recorded six of his 13 career rbi in a single game.

joe hutcheson

hutcheson's only big league experience came with the dodgers in 1933. in 59 major league games, this outfielder hit .234 with 6 homers and 21 rbi.

tommy mcmillan

mcmillan was a shortstop for the brooklyn superbas from 1908 until he was lost on waivers to the reds in 1910.  he hit .214 in a total of 174 games for brooklyn.

tiny osborne

usually when someone is nicknamed 'tiny', it's done in an ironic way.  that was the case with osborne, as he was 6'-4" and weighed 215 pounds when he pitched for the robins in 1924 and 1925.  he was 14-20 for the club in that span.

jim pastorius

pastorius posted a big league record of 31-55 over the course of his career which was spent exclusively with the superbas from 1906 through 1909.  he was 16-12 with a 2.35 era in 1907, but 4-20 in 1908, even though his era was 2.44.

paul ray powell

not sure why powell gets his middle name on the card - there wasn't another paul powell to have played for the dodgers.  anyway, powell joined the club following a trade with the twins that sent bobby darwin to minnesota.  he played in 2 games for the dodgers in 1973 (going 0 for 1 at the plate) and then made 10 appearances for the club in 1975, going 2 for 10.

joe stripp

stripp was the dodgers' third baseman from 1932 through 1937.  he joined the club following a trade with the reds that also netted the team future manager clyde sukeforth, and left the dodgers in a deal with the cardinals that brought them future manager leo durocher.  in between stripp hit .295 for the dodgers.

chink zachary

zachary made four appearances for the 1944 dodgers, which were the sum total of his big league experience.  two of those appearances were as the game's starting pitcher, and he received the loss both times.

sunday morning target dodgers

more cards from the impossible to store 1990 target dodger set.  unless you separate the individual cards, the sheets are not of a size that can be stored in plastic sheets and binders.  my set is in a box.  anyway, these guys all appear on the same panel as triple dipper hughie jennings, and many of them are short-timers.

pat ankenman

ankenman played in a total of 14 games for the dodgers over the course of the 1943 and 1944 seasons.  he also played in 1 game for the cardinals in 1936, meaning his big league career consisted of just 15 appearances.

tom catterson

catterson's career consisted of just a few more games than ankenman's - he appeared in 28 games for the superbas over the 1908 and 1909 seasons.  he was only 35 when he died in 1920.

paul chervinko

chervinko's big league career was longer, in terms of games played, than either of ankenman's or catterson's - we're making some progress.  yes, chervinko was a dodger for a little over a year - from may of 1937 when he was acquired from the cardinals until july of 1938 when he was sent to montreal of the international league.  during that time, he appeared in 42 games and hit .147.  after retiring as a player, chervinko managed in the dodger farm system for 8 seasons.

phil douglas

douglas spent just a portion of one season with the brooklyn franchise.  they were known as the robins in 1915 when douglas sandwiched his dodger tenure between time with the reds and the cubs.  he was 5-5 in 20 appearances for the robins and 7-11 on the season as a whole.  he later went on to pitch for the new york giants and led the league in era in 1922, a year after helping the giants beat the yankees in the world series.

al humphrey

humphrey was a dodger in 1911, and his career consisted of just 8 appearances that year.  it's a wonder there's a photo of him playing ball, although did spend a couple of seasons in the minors in addition to his brief big league stay.

maury kent

kent played for the dodgers in 1912 and the superbas in 1913.  his entire career consisted of the 23 games in which he appeared over the course of those two seasons, finishing his career with a 5-5 lifetime record.  he later went on to coach baseball for a few different big 10 schools.

billy mullen

mullen was a brooklyn robin in 1923.  he had 12 plate appearances in four games, going 3 for 11 with a sacrifice.  he also played for the browns and tigers, as you could tell by the uniform he is wearing on his card.

dennis powell

finally a modern player!  and, a shot of someone in dodger stadium!  powell appeared in a whopping 43 games as a dodger during the 1985 and 1986 seasons.  he was traded to seattle for matt young following the '86 campaign, and continued to pitch in the majors through 1993.

tot pressnell

tot's first name was forest, in case you were wondering.  he pitched for the dodgers for three seasons - 1938, 1939, and 1940.  during that time, he appeared in 98 games and amassed a record of 26-26.  he later pitched for the cubs.

doc reisling

doc's first name was frank, and he may or may not have been a dentist.  he pitched for the superbas in 1904 and 1905, and was 3-5 in his 9 appearances.  he later pitched for the washington senators as a teammate of walter johnson.

gilberto reyes

reyes made his debut for the dodgers in 1983, and had cups of coffee with the team in 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1988.  he was, of course, blocked by mike scioscia at the catcher position, so his career dodger totals included 35 games and only 9 starts behind the plate.  he was traded to the expos prior to the 1989 season.

max rosenfeld

rosenfeld's entire big league career was spent with brooklyn, and it spanned three seasons - from 1931 through 1933.  he played in 42 games and hit .298.

butts wagner

some of these cards are pretty harsh.  ol' butts here (first name albert) was a brooklyn bridegroom in 1898.  he had come over from the washington senators on loan towards the end of the season, and hit .237 in 11 games for brooklyn.

rube ward

rube (john) ward had one season of big league service in his career.  it came in 1902 as a superba.  in 13 games, he hit .290, and that's about all we know about him.

a big thanks to baseball reference for all of the information about these players of whom i knew pretty much nothing about, except for powell and reyes.

catching up on some cards that should have been - 1977 topps style

i hadn't produced any cards that should have been for quite a while, and i felt like i was falling behind.  my hope had been to keep up with the evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers series and fill in cards from the respective years shortly after posting the actual topps cards.  however, i hadn't posted any cards that should have been since 1975, and the most recent evolutionary post was for the 1979 cards.  i sat down last week and whipped a few cards up. i feel better now.

i decided to skip 1976, having previously made a 1976 topps traded reggie smith card, and went to 1977.  the biggest miss as far as i am concerned regarding the 1977 topps set is boog powell.  maybe the miss goes to o-pee-chee instead, since boog didn't sign with the dodgers until april 5 so topps can be forgiven for featuring him as an indian.  anyway, here's the 1977 topps card that should have been for john 'boog' powell.

if i had owned this image sooner, it would have been used for his 1978 topps card that should have been that i created as part of my 1978 topps burger king dodgers/update set.  what i like the best about it is that it has the facsimile auto that fits perfectly with the 1977 set.
i pulled the image from the dodgers' 1977 photo album

that features reggie smith on the cover with the third base umpire doing some adjusting.  this album was a treasure trove for images of players missed in the 1977 set, like al downing

downing was left out of the set completely having appeared in only 17 games during the 1976 season.  he wound up earning the final win of his career that year although he did return to the club for the 1977 season.  this is another image that i likely would have used for the 1978 topps burger king dodgers/update project since it is more 'of the period' than the picture i wound up using for downing's card.
here's mike garman, who was featured as a cub in the 1977 topps set

as he was part of the rick monday deal.
here's utility infielder ted martinez

who, like downing, didn't get a card in the 1977 topps set.  martinez had spent the entire 1976 season in the reds' minor league system and was selected by the dodgers in the december 1976 rule v draft.  he appeared in 67 games and hit .299 for the dodgers in 1977.

rick monday is a special case, because he does have a 1977 o-pee-chee card that features him as a dodger.  sort of.  it's up there in the header at oh my o-pee-chee! although i haven't yet featured it on that site.  it's really bad, so i was happy to get this card done

yes, that's much better.
johnny oates was a phillie in the 1977 topps set. here he is as a dodger

oates joined the club in december of 1976, so there was time for o-pee-chee to make the change, but oates didn't make their checklist and the opportunity was lost.

seeing that oates card, i am reminded of the other dodger catcher that joined the team in 1977 - jerry grote.  he wasn't featured in the 1977 photo album since he didn't join the team until late in the season.  instead, i used his 1978 sspc card and copied in his 1975 topps facsimile auto to make a 1977 card that should have been.

not too bad.  the image is almost certainly from 1978 during spring training, but that's ok.
i also picked up a couple of versions of the dodgers 1976  photo album

i am guessing one was from the stadium, and one was a promotional item at unocal station stores, hence the stylized '76.  one of them is incomplete with some of the photos removed, but it is also the one that denny lewallyn signed, so i'm keeping it.  anyway, i used one of the photos to make a card for danny walton

walton appeared in 18 games for the dodgers in 1976 - all as a pinch-hitter.  he had two hits and two rbi, and was traded to houston after the season ended.  he only played in 15 games for the astros in 1977, but topps still gave him a card in 1978.  why then, didn't 18 games warrant a card in 1977?  i blame the blue jays and mariners.  maybe i should have done a 1976 topps traded card  of walton instead, but hopefully these guys will get to that eventually.
finally, i just had to share a photo that was in the 1977 yearbook.  apparently the dodgers' opening day lineup had a photo shoot on the grounds of dodger stadium in their street clothes.  awesome.

between reggie's pants, sutton's glasses, and dusty's three-piece i almost didn't notice what appears to be a denim suit that bill russell is wearing.  

yep, this was the team of my youth.