Showing posts with label rucker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rucker. Show all posts

02 November 2014

sunday morning target dodgers - an ox, a rabbit, and el toro

only 13 players from this particular sheet of cards featured in the 1990 target dodger anniversary giveaway set.  the other two played for the franchise in two separate stints, so they get their own double dipper posts later.  don't fret - there are a couple of hall of famers and some other interesting tidbits with these guys.

jimmy archer
there was a jimmy archer who played for the 1918 brooklyn robins.  he was an irish bloke who spent most of his career with the tigers and cubs (he played in the 1907 world series with the former and the 1914 fall classic with the latter) before splitting the '18 season between the pirates, robins, and reds.  in his 9 games with brooklyn, archer hit .273.  the photo used on the card, however, is of jim archer - a guy who pitched for the kansas city a's in the early 1960's.  oops.

chuck churn
that is, in fact, chuck churn on his card, standing inside the los angeles memorial coliseum which served as home to the 1959 los angeles dodgers.  1959 was the only year that churn pitched for the club, going 3-2 in 14 relief appearances.  he also pitched in one game of the 1959 world series, which turned out to be his last major league appearance.

ox eckhardt
eckhardt was a minor league legend.  he appeared in only a few big league games - 8 with the 1932 boston braves and 16 with the 1936 brooklyn dodgers - but in his 14 years in the minors, eckhardt recorded over 2700 hits.  his stint with the dodgers, in which he hit .182 with a home run and 6 rbi, came after eckhardt had recorded 200 hits or more in 7 straight minor league seasons, including 315 hits in 1933.  with a .367 career minor league average and several big seasons, he outhit joe dimaggio when both were in the pacific coast league, and was entered into the pcl hall of fame in 2003.

candy maldonado
what i recall most about maldonado is that he seemed to check his swing on every pitch.  he was one of the highly touted prospects in albuquerque that didn't quite live up to those expectations once he reached the majors in the early 1980's.  maldonado had cups of coffee with the dodgers in 1981 and 1982, an expanded stay in 1983, and was a relative fixture on the roster in 1984 and 1985.  the dodgers dealt him to the giants in a rare trade between the two teams (the last had been in 1968 involving nate oliver and tom haller) prior to the 1986 season, and maldonado went on to achieve greater success than he had with the giants.  perhaps the highlight of his career came in 1992 when he was a member of the world champion blue jays.

rabbit maranville
maranville spent just one of his 23 big league seasons in brooklyn.  he was a robin in 1926, appearing in 78 games and batting .235.  from there he went to saint louis, where he helped the cardinals reach the world series in 1928.  maranville was voted into the hall of fame in 1954, and depending upon when the voting results were announced, he may not have known he was a hall of famer, as he passed away in january of that year.

rube marquard
that's hall of famer rube marquard, by the way.  although best remembered as a new york giant thanks to his success from 1911-1913 with the national league pennant winners, marquard joined the robins late in the 1915 season (after starting that year by no-hitting brooklyn for the giants) and pitched for them through 1920. as such, he pitched in the world series against the red sox in '16 (he lost 2 games) and against the indians in 1920 (he lost once).  marquard was selected for the hall of fame by the veteran's committee in 1971.

carmen mauro
mauro was an outfielder that the dodgers picked up from the cubs following the 1951 season.  after a year in the minors, the dodgers brought mauro up to the big club for the 1953 season.  he appeared in 8 games, going 0 for 9, before they traded him to the senators for ken wood.

les munns
munns pitched for the dodgers in 1934 and 1935.  he amassed a record of 4-10 in that time, and then went to the cardinals for whom he was 0-3 in 1936.

nate oliver
from 1963-1967, oliver was a backup infielder for the dodgers who hit .234 in that span.  the club won three pennants and two world series titles in that timeframe, but oliver only appeared in the 1966 fall classic, which was the one that the team lost.  oliver was traded to the giants after the 1967 season in the  aforementioned tom haller deal (two trades with the giants in one post - yikes!).

nap rucker
rucker pitched for brooklyn for his entire 10-year career which spanned from 1907 through 1916.  he won 22 games in 1911, and then lost 21 the following year.  his career record wound up being an even 134-134 despite a nice 2.42 era.  rucker made his final big league appearance in game 4 of the 1916 world series when he threw 2 scoreless innings in relief in one of the aforementioned games that marquard lost.

greg shanahan
shanahan may be best known to card collectors as one of the guys on dave freisleben's 1974 topps card that is one of the washington nat'l league variants in the set.  shanahan pitched for the dodgers from september of 1973 through september of 1974.  he didn't appear in the '74 postseason, and finished his minor league career with the royals' triple-a affiliate in 1977.

wayne terwilliger
twig joined the dodgers during the 1951 season as part of the andy pafko trade.  he played in 37 games for brooklyn after the trade, hitting .280.  terwilliger spent 1952 in the minors at the dodgers' saint paul affiliate, and was picked up on waivers by the senators when the season ended, bringing his dodger experience to a close.  his baseball career was still in its infancy, however, as he went on to play in the majors into 1960 and then worked as a coach with the senators/rangers under ted williams.  following another stint with the rangers, terwilliger returned to minnesota and joined the twins' staff under tom kelly, playing a part of their two world championship teams.  in 1995, he joined the staff of the independent league saint paul saints and coached there for several years.

fernando valenzuela
el toro took the baseball world by storm in 1981, thanks to a torrid start to the season in which he won his first 8 starts, 5 by shutout, and pitched 9 innings in all of them - the only start in that stretch in which he did not throw a complete game was his sixth start in which he threw 9 innings and the dodgers won the game for him with 5 runs in the top of the 10th inning.  of course, valenzuela was only 5-7 over the remainder of the season, but we don't talk about that.  fernando wound up throwing a couple more complete games in the postseason, including one against the yankees in the world series, and he capped his rookie year with a world series title to go along with his cy young and rookie of the year awards.  fernando pitched for the dodgers for 11 seasons, posting a record of 141-116.  he is currently a spanish radio analyst for the club.

15 March 2014

i collect what steve garvey items i can, and what i can't, i can

over the course of a couple of packages, reader mark sent me an eclectic mix of cards - dodgers and double plays and players from the team of my youth that were no longer dodgers.  however, the coolest thing he sent was a 1977 rc cola can
i used to drink royal crown cola, but i had forgotten what cans from back in those days were like.  steel and sturdy and sometimes with ballplayers on them.  this one features one steven patrick garvey.
now, this posed a dilemma for me.  i have, at times, owned some oddball, non-card items featuring the garv, but i haven't held on to all of them.  that mainly has to do with storage.  i do have a couple of bobbleheads, but i decided that the best thing to do here was to dismantle the can.  more on that later.

here's another sort of oddball - a 1969 mlb photo stamp of one and done dodger shortstop zoilo versalles
after playing for the dodgers in 1968, he was selected by the padres in the expansion draft but was traded to cleveland before the 1969 season began.  this magic hat seems more dodger that indian, so i will classify this as a dodger stamp.  cool.

i could have sworn that i picked up a copy of this 1980-88 baseball immortals sandy koufax card
a couple of years ago after seeing it on another blog, but it appears that i was mistaken.  i am very happy that mark sent me this card.

i'm not quite as excited about this 1992 score jose offerman rising star card
but, as a team collector, you take the good with the bad.

here's a 1994 conlon tsn card of nap rucker
rucker spent his entire 10 year career with the brooklyn franchise.  they were known as the superbas, dodgers, and robins during that time, and in 1915 (the year represented by the card), they were the robins.  he finished his career with a 134-134 record despite a nice 2.42 era.  i guess the franchise didn't provide much run support even back then.  anyway, rucker may or may not have been the inventor of the knuckleball.

i am not convinced that this 1992 upper deck jose lind card features a double play turn
but i do know that it features dodger stadium's low railing in the background!

here's a card of one of the 1978 topps dodgers and another knuckleballer, charlie hough
i have kind of/sort of expanded my collection of players from the 1978 topps dodger team from just topps releases to all releases, so this card is welcomed even if it is just a 1992 donruss card.

so, now back to the garvey can.  i was able to open it up pretty easily, but it's not quite as flat and smooth as one would like.
still, it will fit into a binder pretty nicely.

mark - thanks for the trades!

25 March 2010

cards with pictures on the front from stats on the back

i just discovered a group of scans from some trades completed quite a while back.  just when i thought i was getting caught up.  anyway, expect a smattering of trade posts as we head towards opening day.  today, i apologize for my tardiness in showing off some of the bounty i received from stats on the back.  they've been waiting patiently in digital purgatory, so let's get to it.

1909-1911 t206 dover reprint nap rucker
now, depending on which year this card came out, rucker could be representing either the brooklyn superbas (1909-1910) or the brooklyn dodgers (1911).  he also stuck around in brooklyn long enough to pitch for the robins.  let's go with the superbas.  after all, he did throw a no-hitter for them in 1908.  on the other hand, he appeared in the 1916 world series for the robins.  he is the brooklyn franchise all time leader in shutouts (38) and strikeouts in a 9 inning game (16).  he wound up with an even win-loss record for his career with 134 in each category.

1981 rick sutcliffe
i wonder who sut is cheering for on dwts...not that i watch that or anything.  did you know that the 1979 nl roy made his ml debut in 1976?  he pitched in one game that year, going 5 innings, allowing just 2 hits and no runs for a no-decision.

1985 fleer star sticker ron cey
the penguin stands alone, two empty folding chairs behind him, vacated like the hearts of those who always considered him to be a dodger only to see him get traded to the cubs.

1985 german rivera
rivera was the dodgers' opening day third baseman in 1984.  he had a good september in 1983, and an ok 1984 season, but was sent back to the minors to start the 1985 season before being traded to the astros for enos cabell later that year.  i remember my local card shop charging a whole quarter for this card when it came out just because it was a dodger rookie.  that's what winning all those roys will do for you, i guess.

1991 fleer ultra alfredo griffin
what an awkward swing.  ironically, griffin's worst year offensively for the dodgers was 1988 (he hit .199), the year they won the world series.

1991 leaf studio bert blyleven
having been in orange county during his stint with the angels, and now being in minny where he is the cable color guy on twins broadcasts, i have really grown to like bert.  he's worked his way into my top 10 favorite retired players that were not at one time my favorite dodgers or non-dodgers.  i'll have to do a post.

1998 upper deck hideo nomo history in the making insert

i think this is all about the game where nomo and shigetoshi hasegawa pitched against each other in the same game.  pretty sure i was there, although it occurred at dodger stadium so nomo should be in the home whites.  whatever, upper deck.

thanks mark! sorry it took so long to post.