a partial run through the 1998 mother's cookies dodger set

earlier today i posted some cards from the 1997 mother's cookies dodger team set.  it was the first year that the set went away from full-bleed photos, and the 1998 set followed suit.  here's glenn hoffman's lone card as the dodger skipper.

tripp cromer gets a dodger card

thanks to this set - one of two cromer as a dodger cards that i have (the other comes from the 1999 keebler dodgers set)

mark guthrie

joined the dodgers in the 1995 trade that sent ron coomer to the twins and brought kevin tapani to los angeles. he pitched for the dodgers in 205 games over 4 seasons, but the only cards i have of him in a dodger uniform come from this set, the 1996 leaf signature series set, and the 1998 pacific online set.

the same goes for darren hall

who pitched in 83 games for the dodgers over 3 years, and trenidad hubbard

except that his dodger cards are limited to this set, the '99 keebler set, and the '98 pacific online release.

scott radinsky shows up in these sets, plus the pacific online set as a dodger, and he

almost had a 1999 fleer card as a dodger, but i had to settle for a cardinal wearing a dodger uniform.

i'll end this post with the coaches

john shelby replaced reggie smith as the first base coach, but charlie hough took over for dave wallace, so the number of players from the team of my youth on the staff remains the same.  mickey hatcher shows up in place of longtime coach mark cresse although he was the hitting coach.  1998 was cresse's last year as the bullpen coach, but he didn't make the card for some reason.  rick dempsey took over for cresse as the bullpen coach in 1999.

an abbreviated run through the 1997 mother's cookies dodger set

1997 was all about the 50th anniversary of jackie robinson's major league debut, and the mother's cookies dodger set that year included a special card with the anniversary logo.

that's the logo that the dodgers wore - remember, while all teams wore a similar patch, the dodgers, marlins, and expos put their own twist on it.

here are a few more cards from the 1997 mother's cookies dodger set

bill russell

the manager!

and his coaches!

plus, the five straight rookies of the year - eric karros

mike piazza

raul mondesi

hideo nomo

and todd hollandsworth

here's the current diamondbacks manager, chip hale

in what may well be his only dodger card

darren hall

has a couple of dodger cards, but not many.

does anyone recall nelson liriano as a dodger?

he played in 76 games for the 1997 dodgers, and his lone home run in dodger blue was a 9th inning game winner against the cubs.

here's one more - scott radinsky

if it weren't for these mother's sets, i don't think i would have more than one card of the pulley lead singer and current dodger minor league pitching coach.

thanks again to mr. haverkamp for brokering the deal that netted me these sets.

someday my prince will come

back in the day, topps, with their 726 card set, made cards for middle relievers and third string catchers.  the dodger team set from 1978 features three catchers (steve yeager, jerry grote, and johnny oates) and several relievers (terry forster, charlie hough, elias sosa, lance rautzhan, and mike garman).  then, sometime in the 1990's, there was no love for the non-starters, and in many cases, non-stars. 

topps and fleer and donruss and upper deck and everyone else figured i would much rather have multiple mike piazza cards than get a single card of a guy like tom prince.  thankfully, we have 1998 pacific online.

in 1997, prince played in 47 games while piazza starred for the dodgers in what was an mvp-worthy season.  in his 5 seasons as a dodger, that was the greatest number of games in which prince had played, and this pacific card may be the only one produced by any of the card companies.  he played in 3 games at atlanta in '97, but i am too lazy to look them up to see which game may have conjured up the photo used on his card.

i decided to send a copy of this card off to prince c/o the pirates, for whom he works these days as the manager of their gulf coast team.  more about that later.  here are some other gems from the dodger set.
darren hall

hall pitched in 63 games for the dodgers in 1997.  his 2.30 era was second only to antonio osuna's 2.19 that year on the dodger staff.  still, no darren hall cards other than this one.
did you know thomas howard played for the dodgers in 1998? or ever?

i don't blame you if you didn't.  thomas joined the team as a free agent prior to the season but was released at the end of june after hitting a forgettable .184 in 47 games.  thank you pacific for recognizing his service as a dodger, as bad as it was.
scott radinsky

that is a nice looking card, except for the web addresses and all the frivolous pacific glitz.  it's a nice photo i guess is what i am saying.  radinsky did get a 1999 fleer card, but he was on his way to the cardinals on that one.  i also sent a card to radinsky c/o the indians, but haven't heard back.

so, back to prince.  i sent the card to him in september of 2010 after seeing some successes on sports card forum.  almost 13 months later, he returned the card, signed nicely.

awesome.  thanks, pacific, for the backup catcher love.  i miss the old topps.  and topps total.

the evolution of the closer, part 3

here are parts 1 and 2 if you care to refresh your memory of the long and winding road the dodgers have used to close out games.

ready for part 3?  ok.

roger mcdowell (1992)
mcdowell took over closing duties for the worst dodger team of my lifetime.  the 1992 squad lost 99 games and had just 29 saves as a team.  mcdowell had 14 of them.  he appeared in 65 games and finished 39 of them.  he also won 6 and lost 10.

jim gott (1993)
even though the dodgers signed todd worrell prior to the 1993 season, gott was the one who claimed the closer role.  he saved 25 games with a 2.32 era.  worrell managed 5 saves but had an era of over 6.

todd worrell (1994-1997)
worrell began to regain his status as an elite closer in the strike shortened 1994 season.  he had 11 saves to lead the dodgers when the season ended in august.  his era was still over 4, but his strikeouts were up to over 1 per inning pitched.  in 1995, worrell had 32 of the dodgers 35 saves, with a 2.02 era to boot.  it was the first time in franchise history that a pitcher saved over 30 games.  the following year, worrell saved 44 games as the dodgers made a postseason appearance in back-to-back years for the first time since 1977/78.  of course, there were no saves to be had as they were swept in the nlds both years.  worrell saved 35 games in 1997, but his era was pretty high - 5.28 - and he retired after the season ended.  worrell sits in third place in the dodgers' career saves leaders with 127, just ahead of jim brewer at 125.
scott radinsky (1998)

scott radinsky began the 1998 season as the dodgers' closer, and posted 12 saves (and 7 blown saves) by the all start break, which is when the dodgers traded for jeff shaw.

jeff shaw (1998-2001)
shaw made his first appearance as a dodger in the 1998 all-star game, giving up a run on 3 hits.  he had 23 saves for the reds going into the break, and posted another 25 as a dodger.  in 1999, he had 34 saves, followed by 27 in 2000.  his final season in the majors was 2001 when he saved 43 games and returned to the all-star game, this time pitching just one-third of an inning in a national league loss.  with 129 saves, shaw ranks second all-time for the dodgers.

eric gagne (2002-2005)
gagne moved to the bullpen in 2002 and became 'game over' as he promptly blew most dodger relief records away.  he saved 52 games and posted 114 strikeouts in 82.1 innings - a 12.5 k/9 ratio - and finished 4th in the cy young voting.  he ended the season with 8 straight saves, carrying that streak into 2003.  in 2004, gagne saved 55 games, breaking his own dodger record set the previous year and coming within 2 of the all-time record (which has since been broken).  of course, gagne saved all 55 without blowing a single one (unless you count the all-star game) meaning he set a record with 63 consecutive saves (passing tom gordon who had 54 in a row).  he also won the cy young award that year, the second time a dodger reliever had won.  he again pitched in 82.1 innings, but this time, he struck out 137 batters for a closer record k/9 ratio of 15.  2004 was more of the same, with gagne saving 21 games in a row to bring his streak to 84 before blowing a save in july.  once again, he pitched in exactly 82.1 innings, and he struck out 114 just as he did in 2002.  he finished the season with 45 saves, and while the dodgers were back in the postseason, there were no saves to be had in the nlds.  gagne missed the first month of the season in 2005, but returned to save 8 games in 8 chances before his season ending injury in june.

yhency brazoban (2005)
brazoban stepped into the closer's role in gagne's absence and posted 21 saves on the year.  he also blew 6 save opportunities and lost 10 games in relief.  still, he was pegged as 'ghame over' at the dodger thoughts forum.

takashi saito (2006-2008)
the dodgers weren't frightened by the nori nakamura disaster of 2005 and signed japanese pitcher saito to a contract for 2006.  saito responded with 24 saves and 107 strikeouts in 78.1 innings as the dodgers won the wild card.  they were swept by the mets, though, so there were no postseason saves.  saito saved 39 games in 2007 and pitched a scoreless inning in the all-star game.  he started the 2008 season as the closer, and had 17 saves through mid-july, but jonathan broxton was ready to take over.  saito finished the season with 18 saves and left as a free agent after the season ended.

jonathan broxton (2008-present)
broxton saved 14 games for the dodgers in the second half of the 2008 season, and he saved the game 3 clincher against the cubs in the nlds.  in 2009, broxton had 36 saves and two more in the postseason - 1 against the cardinals in the nlds and one against the phillies in the league championship series.  although he earned the save in the 2010 all-star game, broxton struggled last year and was temporarily replaced as closer by hong-chih kuo.  we'll see how long the leash is that don mattingly gives broxton in 2011.

so, from joe black to jonathan broxton, there you have the evolution of the dodgers' closer.

taste like dodgers

i recently completed a trade with taste like dirt.  here is but a sampling of the dodger goodness i received.

1993 upper deck jose offerman

offerman was coming off of his first full season as the dodgers' shortstop in 1993.  i remember hoping that he had forgotten that he had hit a homerun in his first big league at bat and that he would start hitting the ball on the ground more.  but alas, his gb/fb ratio worsened (to a low of 0.78 in his final year as a dodger).  i blame dennis martinez.

1999 fleer tradition roger cedeno

this is awesome.  not cedeno - the card.  cedeno is listed as a met but still in dodgers' clothing.  this card doesn't show up on any team set checklist, so i would never have sought it out. the dodgers sent cedeno to the mets in the deal that brought todd hundley to la (the first time).  like cedeno, he had his better years away from the dodgers, including his 1999 season with the mets when he stole 66 bases and hit .313.

1999 fleer tradition scott radinsky

similar to the cedeno, this radinsky card is really a card on card, as radinsky joined the cardinals as a free agent.  unlike the cedeno card, i actually did seek this card out a few months ago since it's one of the few radinsky cards ever made.

1999 fleer tradition eric weaver

here's another awesome card - awesome in the same way that the cedeno card is awesome (i would never have suspected there was an eric weaver card, let alone one of him in a dodger uniform) but also awesome because we see the outfield fence at dodger stadium.  in particular, we see the homage to the world champion 1959 dodgers.  weaver pitched pretty well for the dodgers in 1998 - he went 2-0 in 9+ innings of work with a 0.93 era and 1.14 whip.  the dodgers traded him to the mariners for scott prouty, a 19 year old prospect who didn't pitch professionally after the trade.  not sure what happened there.

i should note that there was another dodger uniformed/non-dodger affiliated card in the package, but it was bobby bonilla so i won't bother to show it.

instead, here's a 1999 topps dave mlicki

the dodgers acquired mlicki from the mets in the hideo nomo deal.  he pitched fairly well for the blue in 1998, going 7-3 in 20 starts.  the dodgers traded him to the tigers in mid-1999 for some middle relief.

2007 topps heritage wilson betemit

man, the braves seemed to sour on betemit pretty quickly, didn't they?  one minute he was uber-prospect, and the next minute he's being traded for danys baez and the unstable aybar brother.  over at jon weisman's dodger thoughts, references to betemit during his stint with the dodgers were often made with pearl jam's 'better man' included.  i find it interesting that the royals play that song when he comes to bat.

2007 topps update & highlights hong-chi kuo

that's all star hong-chih kuo to you.  it's too bad that kuo is probably scheduled to blow his elbow out any day now.  he has made george sherrill even more obsolete than sherrill has made himself this year.

2008 upper deck baseball heroes nomar garciaparra

ooh - the charcoal parallel.  if only nomar could have swung a hot stick in the playoffs.  he was the tying run in game 2 of the 2007 nlcs and lidge made him look bad.  not just bad, but old.  that sucked.  this card doesn't suck, though.

thanks jim!