the tommy lasorda managerial tree

with the brewers' firing of manager (and former dodger) ron roenicke the other day (he was replaced by another former dodger, craig counsell), i decided to finally finish pulling this post together.  in football, i used to hear a lot about the bill walsh coaching tree - all of the people who coached under bill walsh who went on to become head coaches themselves.  that tree is then expanded to include coaches under those head coaches who became head coaches, and so on.  my take on the tommy lasorda managerial tree is in regards to his players - not coaches, and this post will just look at the first tier of major league managers who spent some time playing under one thomas charles lasorda.

here's the man himself on a 2004 upper deck sp authentic card

that notes his managerial triumph in the 1982 all-star game in montreal while using a photo from about 20 years later.  incidentally, he had four future big league managers playing under him on that '82 all-star roster - dusty baker, tony pena, pete rose, and ray knight.

i'm focusing on his dodger players, however, and when tommy took over the dodgers late in the 1976 season, he had three future major league managers on his roster at that time:

dusty baker

davey lopes

and bill russell

who replaced lasorda during the 1996 season.

over the next 20-years, lasorda managed another 9 future managers.

johnny oates

ron washington

mike scioscia

ron roenicke

phil garner

 glenn hoffman

who took over for russell in 1998

kirk gibson

willie randolph

and juan samuel

this list does not include players such as bobby valentine, whom tommy managed in the minor leagues, nor does it include players such as joe ferguson, tommy john, gary carter, rick dempsey, mike marshall, or steve yeager who played in the majors under tommy and later managed in the minor leagues.

with the firings of kirk gibson last year and roenicke this year, scioscia is the only active manager to have played under lasorda. however, it is yet conceivable that this tree sprouts some new branches in the future, as such former "lasorda" dodgers and minor league managers bobby mitchell, brett butler, and tim wallach are currently working for big league teams as an instructor (mitchell) or big league coaches (butler and wallach).

and, in case you are wondering, bill russell's managerial tree's first tier consists solely of chip hale.

here's to more lasorda style hugs in the dugout!

the evolution of the dodger second baseman, part 2

when we last saw the dodger second baseman, he (paul popovich) was on his way to the expansion montreal expos, so someone needed to step up in 1969.  that someone was…

ted sizemore (1969-1970)

sizemore (seen with his topps rookie team trophy on his 1970 topps card) actually started the season at shortstop (jim lefebvre was at second), but he moved to second when lefebvre got hurt in mid april.  even though he returned to short when lefebvre came back, walt alston eventually switched sizemore back to second when the club reacquired maury wills to play shortstop.  sizemore played 118 of his 159 games in 1969 as the dodgers' second baseman, and hit .271 as he was named the national league's rookie of the year.  in 1970, he appeared in only 96 games, but made 81 starts at second for the dodgers so he retains his title as their primary second baseman.  he hit .306 that year and was dealt following the season to the cardinals in the dick (rich) allen trade.

jim lefebvre (1971)

look who's back.  lefebvre, who had been the team's primary second baseman in 1965 and 1966 and is a former rookie of the year himself, was back at the position in 1971.  that's lefebvre's 1972 o-pee-chee card, by the way.  he played in 102 games as the dodger second baseman in '71 (98 starts) and hit .245 with 12 homers.

lee lacy (1972)

once again, lefebvre began the season as the team's second baseman, but hit a rough patch in early may and gave way to bobby valentine.  soon thereafter, lee lacy (shown on his 1973 o-pee-chee card) was called up from the minors, and he went on to lay claim to the position.  lacy made 58 starts at second - about a dozen more than valentine and 20 or so more than lefebvre.  he hit .259 and scored 34 runs, but didn't play much in september, as the dodgers called up another guy to play some second.

dave lopes (1973-1981)

lopes (shown on a very crooked 1979 kellogg's card) made 11 starts during the last month of the 1972 season, and i guess alston saw enough.  he handed the position over to lopes in 1973, giving him 133 starts that year.  he dabbled in the outfield from time to time, but otherwise held the position through the 1981 world series.  along the way, he led the league in steals twice, won a gold glove, made four all-star teams, and helped the dodgers to four pennants and a world series title.  he was the second baseman on the team of my youth.

steve sax (1982-1988)

like lopes, sax held the dodgers' second base position until they won a world series title.  lopes, however, was traded prior to the 1982 season while saxy left after the 1988 campaign as a free agent.  before that happened, he was the fourth dodger second baseman to win the rookie of the year award, and he made three all-star teams, including the 1983 squad as alluded to on the 1984 topps glossy all-star card above.  in 1986, sax finished second to tim raines in the batting title race, hitting a career high .332 (raines hit .334).  he twice led the national league in errors while with the dodgers and much was made about his difficulties throwing to first base, but he was still my favorite dodger after steve garvey left town.  besides, i don't think of him defensively - my lasting steve sax memory is of him hitting the first pitch of the 1988 season into the left field bleachers at dodger stadium.

willie randolph (1989)

the yankees and dodgers essentially traded second baseman for the 1989 season, although both signed with their new teams as free agents.  with sax gone to the bronx, the dodgers signed willie randolph (seen on a 1989 fleer update card).  randolph appeared in 145 games in 1989, including 139 starts at second.  he hit .282 and was selected to the all-star team.  however, the dodgers traded him to the a's early in the 1990 season for stan javier.

juan samuel (1990-1991)

following the 1989 season, the dodgers traded mike marshall and alejandro pena to the mets for samuel.  they moved him back to his original position of second base (the mets were using him as their center fielder), and he made 101 starts there for the dodgers in 1990.  the following year, samuel started 150 games at second for the blue, and didn't sniff the outfield.  he made the all-star team that year as well, hitting .271 with 74 runs scored and 23 steals.  samuel began the 1992 season as the team's second baseman, but was released in july.  eric young was called up to take his roster spot, but there was another player who actually played second more than anyone else that year.

lenny harris (1992)

yes, i am using cards from 1992 fleer ultra for both samuel and harris in this post.  it's what i had handy.  deal with it.  the second baseman position in 1992 looked something like this:  samuel, 29 starts; mike sharperson, 33 starts; eric young, 35 starts; harris, 65 starts.  harris had been the team's primary third baseman in 1991, and he played some third as well as short and outfield in 1992 as well.  overall, harris hit .271 while fielding at a clip below league average for second basemen.  many thought that young would be the dodgers' second baseman of the future, but they weren't convinced as he was left unprotected in the 1993 expansion draft and was taken by colorado.  as a result, the dodgers worked out a deal with the rockies to acquire one of their later draft picks to fill the hole at second.  that set into motion events that would lead to one of the worst (thanks to hindsight) trades in dodger history.  stay tuned...

this card is on fire

i received a nice package of cards from marcus at all the way to the backstop recently.  adrian gonzalez was pretty excited about it - check out his 2014 topps opening day fired up insert

marcus told me he was sending a couple of yasiel puig cards, so i was pretty fired up, too.  here's a target red parallel of puig's 2013 topps update rookie debut card

and here's puig on his 2013 pinnacle card

i understand the erasing of the logos and team names, but does pinnacle really need to re-color the uniform numbers from red to blue?  they are not now, and never have been, blue.

you can see the red number on juan samuel's 1991 us playing card company all-stars card

sammy did indeed represent the dodgers in the 1991 all-star game.  he was 1 for 1 in the game, but the national league lost 4-2.

i was also able to pick up a few dodger needs from 2014 topps heritage thanks to marcus.  i've had fairly bad luck pulling dodgers in the two blasters i bought, so these are appreciated.  here's one of the league leader cards that clayton kershaw appears on

plus cards of don mattingly

and brian wilson

my favorite of the bunch, though, is the maury wills/jacoby ellsbury then & now insert

i had this one queued up in a future sportlots purchase, so the timing of this trade package couldn't have been better.

now if only i could find one of wills' autographed cards from the heritage set…

thanks marcus for the trade!

foul bunt goes out of bounds, but is more than fair

here are some very nice dodger cards that i received from william of foul bunt a while back in trade.  first up is the 2013 topps matt kemp 'out of bounds' short print.

i am happy to have this card, even though i was underwhelmed by these short prints if for no other reason that some regular base cards had similar photos.  i wonder what sort of sp's topps will have in series 2.  

also in the package was this low-numbered 2013 topps black parallel andre ethier card

it's pretty sharp, as is this clayton kershaw gold parallel

new to me is this 2010 topps pro debut dee gordon card

in fact, i had not seen any cards from this set before.  not sure why the team in chattanooga is the lookouts instead of the choo-choos.

here's a 1993 topps pedro martinez card

it is a card that deserves to be shown on the blog, and i have been remiss in scanning early-to-mid '90s cards.

so, here is a 1992 topps eric karros card that william also sent

and here is the back - scanned and shown for two reasons

first - there's dodger stadium!  second - look at what a rude awakening fabio had when he was first called up.  the pcl was not always a reasonable way to evaluate big league talent.  luckily for karros, he was able to mash a bit in the big leagues.

here's a 1992 donruss juan samuel card

on which former dodger sid bream seems to have broken up a double play.

william was also kind enough to include non-dodger cards of players from the team of my youth.  here are charlie hough's 1991 donruss

and 1988 score cards

i wonder if anyone ever called hough 'the chuckler'.

thanks for the trade william! sorry it took so long for me to post my end.

here are some double plays on cards from scott crawford on cards

i saved some cards from the recycle bin recently, via scott crawford on cards.  i asked him to send me the 1998 fleer ultra cards that were destined for donation or recycling or worse, and there were a few dp turns in the bunch.

here we have vinny castilla upending delino deshields

craig biggio getting a feel from scott servais

and jay bell turning two (and the tables) on omar vizquel

scott also offered up a bunch of junk-era cards, and as luck would have it, i had recently determined a few cards that i needed from that timeframe.  

here's a 1992 topps greg gagne

a 1991 topps jerry browne

and a mess of 1990 score - gagne again

double play master walt weiss

steve lyons

jose lind

ozzie guillen

tom foley

wally backman

and johnny ray

awesome stuff.   i also picked up a 1989 topps yankees leaders card featuring willie randolph and an angel entangled in the double play turn

not all of the cards i requested were of the double play variety - this 1991 topps bob geren card features a lurking dodger - juan samuel to be exact

thanks for the trade scott!