sunday morning target dodgers - a sheet chock full of fantastic folks like dusty, forster, and the toy cannon

this is a heckuva sheet that i'm posting today - bookended by two guys traded for each other.  it comes from the 1990 target dodgers 100th anniversary set, and features 15 players from the franchise's history as a national league team.  let's take a look.

dusty baker

johnnie b was the left fielder for the team of my youth.  he played for the dodgers from 1976 through 1983, helping them win four division titles, three pennants, and a world series championship.  he was the 1977 nlcs mvp and also one of four dodgers to hit 30 or more home runs in that same season.  so what if he eventually played for (and managed) the giants? dusty is one of my favorite dodgers.

mike davis

davis was part of the dodgers near-complete revamping of their outfield for the 1988 season.  he joined kirk gibson as a free agent signing, but hurt his ankle during spring training and slumped at the start of the season.  tommy lasorda never seemed to regain any confidence in davis, and he was relegated largely to a pinch-hitting/late inning replacement role.  i recall when the dodgers opened the second half of the season with a series in chicago, davis was seen holding a sign saying 'mike davis is alive and well in los angeles'.  anyway, davis got some redemption in the 1988 world series.  he drew the two-out walk off of dennis eckersley to make the impossible possible, and then homered in the decisive game 5.  he returned to the dodgers in 1989, his last year in the big leagues.

chick fewster

fewster had spent 9 seasons in the american league before he joined the robins prior to the 1926 season.  he was their primary second baseman that year, playing in a career high 105 games and hitting .243.  he played in only four games for the robins in 1927, however, and thus ended his major league career.  according to baseball reference, fewster was the first player to have an official at bat in yankee stadium.

terry forster

forster joined the dodgers prior to the 1978 season, taking over the closer duties from charlie hough.  like hough had in 1977, forster led the team with 22 saves in '78.  forster also posted an era of 1.93 and went 4 for 8 at the plate (he retired with a career batting average of .397, don't you know).  he battled injuries, but stuck with the dodgers through 1982, pitching in both the 1978 and 1981 postseasons.  his career postseason era is 0.00 in 8 appearances, although he did allow a couple of inherited runners to score during the 1978 world series, including the tying run in game 4.

pepe frias

frias, like many shortstops, hailed from san pedro de macoris in the dominican republic.  he joined the dodgers via trade with the rangers towards the end of the 1980 season (the dodgers sent denny lewallyn to texas), and he returned to the club for the 1981 season as well.  he even got a 1981 fleer card out of the deal.  even so, frias was released by the dodgers at the end of august, so he missed out on their championship postseason run.

jim j hughes

hughes was the first of two (so far) jim hughes to play for the dodgers.  the other came along in the 1950's, 50 years after this jim hughes pitched for the superbas.  one of the players that ned hanlon brought with him from baltimore, hughes won 28 games for brooklyn in 1899, his first year with the club, and that was good enough to lead the national league.  he didn't appear in the majors in 1900 (he went home to sacramento), but returned in '01 and '02, and won 17 and 15 games respectively.  with a 60-28 record and a 2.93 era in his three seasons with brooklyn, hughes decided to retire from the major leagues and return to the west coast where he played minor league ball for a few more seasons.

ira hutchinson

hutchinson was acquired by the dodgers from the boston bees following the 1938 season, and he pitched in 41 games for them in 1939.  he was 5-2 with an era over 4, and was returned to the minors for the 1940 season, during which he was claimed by the cardinals who promoted him to the major league club.

ernie krueger

krueger was a catcher for the robins from 1917 through 1921.  obviously, the photo of him used for his card (if in fact it is krueger - how would i know?) came well after his playing days were through.  krueger hit .267 in 258 games for the robins over the course of his 5 years in brooklyn, and was 1 for 6 in the 1920 world series against the indians.

andy messersmith

messersmith was the ace of the 1974 pennant winning staff (sorry, don sutton).  he led the league with 20 wins (tied with phil niekro and one more than sutton), but finished second in the cy young voting to teammate and reliever mike marshall.  messersmith started the all-star game in '74 and was on the squad again in 1975, won the gold glove both of those seasons, and then challenged the reserve clause and became a free agent.  he signed with the braves, but eventually returned to the dodgers for another stint, but i'll get into that in messersmith's very own dodger double dipper post.

ed reulbach

reulbach was a member of the 1907 and 1908 world champion chicago cubs, but was traded to brooklyn during the 1913 season.  he pitched well for the superbas, posting an era of 2.05 in 110 innings, although his record was just 7-6.  reulbach was still with the club, now called the robins as wilbert robinson took the managerial reins, in 1914, and was 11-18 with a 2.64 era for uncle robbie.  he jumped to the federal league in 1915, but returned to the majors in 1916 with the braves. that's the 1914 robins uniform he is sporting, by the way.  reulbach retired with a 2.28 era, which puts him just behind babe ruth at 18th all-time.

preacher roe

roe was part of return the dodgers received from the pirates in one of the trades following jackie robinson's 1947 rookie season that attempted to purge the roster of players opposed to jackie's presence on the team.  pitching for the dodgers from 1948 through 1954, roe won 93 games against just 37 losses (including an incredible 22-3 record in 1951).  he pitched well in the world series, too, recording a shut out of the yankees in a start in 1949, and beating them again with a complete game in 1952.  he took a loss in another complete game start against new york in 1953, and didn't get a chance to exact revenge against the bronx bombers in 1955 as he was dealt to the orioles before the season began.

dick schofield

man, i can't even get a dick schofield card showing him in a dodger uniform in this dodger-centric set!  he's certainly not wearing a dodger uniform on his only other dodger card (1967 topps).  he is most likely wearing one on his 1968 topps card, but he's designated as a cardinal on that one.  he's shown as a cardinal here, and he spent just the latter part of 1966 and all of 1967 with the dodgers before rejoining st. louis, the team for which he played from 1953-1958.  as a dodger, schofield hit .225 in 104 games as the team struggled to replace maury wills.  schofield was the first of his line to play for the dodgers, but his son (dick schofield) and grandson (jayson werth) have both done so since.

karl spooner

the debut of karl spooner is the stuff of legend.  he made two starts in 1954 and pitched two shutouts.  in his major league debut, he failed to retire either of the first two giants he faced, but went on to strike out 15 of them (a record for a debut matched only by jr richard), including six consecutively at one point, while beating the dodgers' rivals 3-0 on a 3-hitter.  four days later, in the final game of the season, spooner threw a 4-hitter against the pirates, this time striking out 12.  expectations had to be high heading into the 1955 season, and despite injuring his arm during spring training, spooner responded by throwing one more shutout late in the season against pittsburgh, although overall he was just 8-6 with a 3.65 era.  he did get to pitch in the world series, however, shutting down the yankees in relief over 3 scoreless innings during game 2, but taking the loss in a game 6 start in which he recorded just one out and gave up all five yankee runs.  that appearance turned out to be the last of his big league career.

don thompson

thompson was an outfielder for the dodgers in the early 1950's.  he began his career with the braves in 1949, but was dealt to brooklyn that same year.  often used as a pinch-runner or hitter, he appeared in a total of 210 games as a dodger in 1951 and 1953-54, hitting .220 with a homer and 19 rbi.  he had been a pitcher in the minors, but was converted to a fielder because of his bat.  thompson recorded an outfield assist in game 4 of the 1953 world series, throwing billy martin out at home to end the game.

jimmy wynn

had i been more aware of the dodgers in 1974 (i was 3), jimmy wynn might well have become my favorite player.  he joined the club in a trade with the astros for claude osteen, and went on to hit 32 home runs and drive in a career high 108 rbi while helping the dodgers win the pennant.  he also started the all-star game for the national league in center field, and did so again in 1975.  that year, he hit just 18 homers with 58 rbi, but actually improved his on base percentage despite a 30-point drop in his batting average.  as fate would have it, wynn was traded to the braves for dusty baker after the 1975 season, and steve garvey caught my attention in 1977.

a pwe to please me

so, jeff at 2x3 heroes and i are playing hot potato with the pwe's these days (there's one in the mail for you today, jeff).  here are some (yes, jeff fit more than just these cards in a pwe) of the cards that i received in his last missive.

1996 upper deck hideo nomo vj lovero showcase insert

that's a rarely used viewpoint that never gets old.  plus, it qualifies as a 'tatooine' card.  more of those a bit later.

here's a 1986 o-pee-chee card of steve garvey

and a 1987 topps boardwalk and baseball card of the garv as well

those cards make up two-thirds of the pwe's garvey content.  the b/b card is from a boxed set featuring 'top run makers' and was all about each players' "runs produced average" which was just (runs scored + rbi)/games played.  real scientific sabermetric stuff back in 1987.

this is a 1995 fleer ultra pedro astacio card

which, when considered from the standpoint of the envelope's contents as a whole, was kind of out of place.

there were other dodgers, but they were from the 2000 fleer greats of the game set, and included this fantastic preacher roe card.

just a beautiful thing.

here's a less interesting card from the same set featuring gil hodges

now back to tatooine cards.  joe randa is looking for droids on his 2003 donruss card

as is morgan ensberg on his 2004 upper deck card

and jason michaels as well, on his 2007 topps card

thanks jeff - you're it!

in the year 2000

i used to watch conan every once in a while, and i recall the first time i saw his 'in the year 2000' bit.  it was in late 1999 and he predicted that in the year 2000, zombies would feast on human flesh and when they got hungry later, they would go to olive garden.  i found that to be quite funny.

this post has nothing to do with conan or his skits, however.  instead, i give to you a few cards that were produced in the final year of the 20th century.

2000 fleer focus jeff shaw

on which we clearly see the don drysdale hero patch.  i think of cards from this set as fleer's knockoff of 1981 topps.  oddly enough, upper deck would bring the cap design element back to cards in 2006 under the fleer banner.

2000 topps jeff shaw

the first topps gray border set since 1970.  it was a nice break from two years of gold borders.

speaking of gold, 2000 upper deck gold reserve kevin brown

aside from the full bleed, there were some similarities between the topps card design and the upper deck card design in the year 2000.

2000 upper deck sp authentic

there were a heckuva lot of kevin brown cards in the year 2000.

2000 pacific angel pena

pena is wearing the roy campanella patch, as any catcher should.  note that paul loduca wore the mike scioscia patch.

2000 pacific paramount devon white

yes, devon white was a dodger in the year 2000.  and in 1999 as well, when he wore the jackie robinson patch.  here's the back of his 2000 topps stadium club card

looks like devo played his best at dodger stadium.  he finished his career with 34 leadoff home runs, including one hit for the dodgers in the year 2000.

2000 skybox dominion adrian beltre

beltre was 21 in the year 2000, and he hit 20 home runs for the first time.  he's about to turn 35 and is about 600 hits shy of 3000.  i wonder if he will make it.

i really liked that skybox dominion set when it came out, but my favorite set of the year 2000 was the fleer greats of the game release.  fleer had put out the first gotg set in 1999 as a sports illustrated fueled set, complete with an autographed card in every pack.  that was cool, but i really liked the look and feel of the 2000 set over the gloss of the 1999 set.

here are a few of the dodgers from the set - tommy john

al lopez

preacher roe

and fernando valenzuela

the set featured on card autos, too.  not of fernando, unfortunately.  had there been one, it might well have been my favorite card of the year 2000.

the only card that would reach me was this card of the preacher man

it helps if you channel your inner dusty springfield when you read that title.

i was too late to claim the fantastic 1954 bowman don newcombe card that joe at the sandlot used as trade bait, but i was able to claim this 1953 topps preacher roe card.

i was able to obtain that slice of cardboard goodness for some ny metropolitans that joe needed.  he added a few other cards to the package, including this 1998 topps gallery eric young card

that does a better job of correlating the subject and the text (in this case, 'expressionists') than fleer did with their emotion releases.  not quite the same concept, i know, but still.  night owl sent me an emotions card (trade post coming soon) of raul mondesi that said 'pounding' on it.

this 2008 bowman chrome prospects jaime pedroza card was also part of the trade fodder

pedroza made it to aa for the dodgers in 2010 and 2011, and spent the last two seasons in the braves organization.  2014 will be his age 27 season, so the clock is ticking on this prospect.

here's a james mcdonald 2009 topps card

mcdonald was traded to the pirates at the trade deadline in 2011 for short-timer octavio dotel.  he is currently a free agent after a disappointing second half in 2012 and a shortened season in 2013.  he's only 28, and it would seem that he is worth a flyer.  i'm hoping he lands somewhere and returns to his early 2011 form.

here's a true 'prospects' card from 2001 topps opening day

back then, these were three of the hottest prospects around.  i was super excited about chin-feng chen, and i know cub fans were drooling over the corey patterson hype.  and then there was the number 1 pick josh hamilton.  unfortunately for the dodgers, chen was a bust.  patterson has managed to have a career in the big leagues, and of course josh hamilton pulled things together and has had the greatest success of this prospect triumvirate.

last but not least, joe included a 2013 topps chipz clayton kershaw chip.  it had the dodger logo sticker on it

kershaw was underneath

 here's the back, just to be complete about things.

i bought a pack or two of these things but got rid of the ones i pulled - either by trade or sale - since they weren't dodgers.  i'll hang on to kershaw.

thanks for the trade joe!

my pared down 1954 topps sampler

earlier today i (hopefully) posted my 1954 topps sampler.  since scanning and writing that post, i have extricated the non-dodgers and reassembled the remaining cards.  so, my 1954 topps sampler is now a 1954 topps dodger partial team set.  here's how it looks:

as with my 1953 topps sampler to team set, i have added a card in between.  this time, it's duke snider's card

i picked this one up at the last card show i went to.  my vintage bargain bin guy was there and gave me a good deal on duke.

i think all of these players have been featured on the blog before, except charlie thompson.

thompson was better known as tim thompson, and his big league career as a dodger began and ended with a 10 game stint in 1954.  he was later traded to the kansas city a's and also spent some time with the tigers.  welcome to the blog charlie.  i mean tim.

i only need three dodgers to complete the 1953 topps team set, but one of them is jackie robinson.  if anyone has an extra jackie, or a ben wade or jim hughes card to spare, please let me know!

dime box dodgers by proxy

nick from dime boxes didn't just send me double play cards recently, he sent a few dodger oddballs and parallels, too.  here is a smattering.

1982 fleer stamps steve garvey

i had avoided stamps and stickers for a long time when it came to my garvey collection.  i caved on stickers about 10 years ago or so, but i did not have one of these until nick sent it my way.

1985 topps tiffany rj reynolds

ditto with the tiffany cards.  i still don't have more than a few in my collection.

1986 fleer mini mariano duncan

i did pick up sets of the fleer minis back in the early 2000's - primarily as an easy way to get the garveys and dodgers.  i appreciate the fact that fleer used different photos - the sets weren't just a shrunken down version of the flagship set.

1989 woolworth's mike marshall

why topps didn't include postseason cards in their 1989 set is beyond me.  instead, we have fleer, o-pee-chee and woolworth issuing those cards.  and two of those three manufacturers had relationships with topps!

1991 conlon tsn zach wheat

mr. wheat led the national league in slugging percentage in 1916!  that looks more like the dodgers' 1912 uni than the robins' 1916 jersey.  wheat also played for the franchise when they were the superbas.

here's a 1992 bazooka card that had me scratching my head

a 1953 topps style 4-in-1 in a 1992 bazooka product?  at least some kids got to see preacher roe on cardboard.

the last card for this post is a 1995 upper deck collector's choice special edition silver signature parallel of ramon martinez

the silver/grey border actually works nicely with this card.

thanks nick, but i'm not done yet...