sunday morning target dodgers - from abrams to zahn

let's go from a to z with this sheet of cards from the 1990 target dodger set.

cal abrams

abrams was a part-time player who debuted as a dodger in 1949.  he peaked in 1951when he hit .280 in 67 games. with a fantastic obp of .419  the following year, the dodgers traded abram to the reds after he had appeared in just 10 games for the blue.  abrams was reportedly buried in his brooklyn dodgers uniform following his death in 1997.

jack billingham

billingham was 3-0 with 8 saves and a 2.14 era as a rookie for the dodgers in 1968, however, he was lost to the team when the expos selected him in the expansion draft prior to the 1969 season.  montreal was forced to flip billingham to the astros before the season began because donn clendenon refused to report to houston after he was traded as part of the package that netted the expos rusty staub.  eventually, billingham made his way to the reds, where he won back-to-back world series titles in 1975 and 1976.

ben cantwell

cantwell's career began in 1927 with the new york giants, although he spent most of the next 10 years with the boston braves during which time he won 20 games once and also lost 25 games in a single season.  in 1937, he returned to the giants, but was claimed by the dodgers after one bad start.  with brooklyn, cantwell had no record as he appeared in 13 games, all as a reliever.

vic davalillo

davalillo was one of the professional pinch-hitters employed by the dodgers when i began my fandom.  he and manny mota filled that role on the dodgers (davalillo from 1977-1980), and it was davalillo's pinch-hit bunt that got things going with 2 outs in the 9th on black friday in philadelphia during the 1977 nlcs.

johnny gooch

gooch spent time with the robins during the 1928 and 1929 seasons. he was acquired by the robins via a trade with the pirates during the '28 season, and was traded away to the reds early in the '29 campaign.  as a robin, gooch played in 43 games and hit .314.

babe herman

the robins'/dodgers' babe.  one of them, anyway.  herman was a franchise double dipper who had his best years as a robin, hitting .381 in 1929 and a franchise record .393 in 1930, but finishing second in the batting average race both years.

john hummel

hummel, who played with the superbas/dodgers/robins from 1905 through 1915, was best known as being one of the first utility players in the major leagues.  he played everywhere but pitcher, catcher, and third base, and did spend a couple of seasons as brooklyn's primary second baseman.

max macon

macon joined the dodger system in 1939 following his first taste of big league ball in 1938 with the cardinals for whom he pitched and played the outfield.  he didn't appear as a dodger until 1940, and even then he played in just two games, both as a pitcher only (he was 1 for 1 at the plate, by the way).  macon returned to the majors as a dodger in 1942, and was used as a pitcher and pinch-hitter.  he pitched in 14 games and had an era of 1.93 while he pinch-hit 12 times and was 5 for 11 in that role.  macon pitched (and hit) for the dodgers again in 1943 before being selected by the braves in the rule v draft following the season's conclusion.

fritz ostermueller

ostermueller spent the first part of the 1943 season with the browns, but was traded to the dodgers in july.  he was 1-1 in 7 games for the dodgers over the remainder of the season, and was 2-1 in 10 games for the dodgers in 1944 when he was dealt to the pirates at the end of may.

paul popovich

popovich was traded to the dodgers by the cubs for lou johnson following the 1967 season.  he spent 1968 with the dodgers, playing in 134 games and batting .232.  the dodgers traded popovich to the expos a couple of months into the 1969 season in the deal that brought manny mota and maury wills to the dodgers (back to the dodgers in wills' case).  the expos flipped popovich to the cubs that same day, so popovich was around to witness the infamous collapse of leo durocher's cubbies.

dave sells

sells joins rick waits and davey lopes as players whose names make full sentences.  sells spent the majority of his career with the angels, pitching in 85 of his 90 big league games for the halos.  the other five were spent as a dodger during the last part of the 1975 season following a trade that sent jim brewer to the angels.  sells was 0-2 for walter alston's team in those five games, and he spent the following season in triple-a albuquerque.

bill skowron

skowron spent just one season with the dodgers - 1963 - and he helped his new team defeat his former club in the world series.  skowron hit .385 in the 1963 fall classic for the dodgers against the yankees, with whom skowron had won four rings, including the previous two seasons.  following the series, skowron was picked up by the senators who later traded him to the white sox.

rick sutcliffe

sutcliffe, who made his big league debut in 1976, was the first dodger to win the rookie of the year award since ted sizemore (1969) when he claimed it in 1979 (the longest stretch the dodger organization had ever gone without one of their players winning the award).  even so, sutcliffe seemed to be in tommy lasorda's dog house, and he was used mainly as a reliever the following two seasons.  sutcliffe trashed lasorda's office after being left off of the 1981 postseason roster, and was traded to the indians soon thereafter.

jimmy wasdell

wasdell was a member of the dodgers in 1940 and 1941.  he hit .289 in 171 games for the dodgers over those two seasons, and he saw some action in the 1941 world series as well.

geoff zahn

zahn was a member of the dodgers' famous 1968 draft class.  he made it to the bigs in 1973, going 1-0 in his six appearances that season.  in 1974, zahn pitched in 21 games for the nl champs, but did not appear in the postseason.  he started the 1975 season with the dodgers, but was traded to the cubs in the burt hooton deal early on.  i approve of that deal.

see you back next week with another sheet from the 1990 target dodgers set...

world series imposter!

i somehow acquired a few 1970 and 1971 fleer world series cards as a kid. while not licensed, fleer got away with using cartoons of some pretty recognizable faces. then,  a few months ago at the local card show, i found most of the dodger cards i was missing. or so i thought. 

here's the 1971 version of the 1916 world series

featuring brooklyn pitcher jack coombs.  coombs was the winning pitcher in the only game brooklyn won in the series.  he had previously won games in the 1910 and 1911 fall classics for the athletics, hence his 'terrific series record'.  speaking of series records, here's the 1970 take on 1916:

babe ruth.  he pitched a 14 inning complete game.  brooklyn's pitcher, sherry smith, also pitched a complete game, although his was only 13.1 innings.  ruth had only 5 at-bats all series and was held hitless.  he did drive in the first boston run in the 14 inning game with a ground out.  i should mention that the dodgers were actually the robins back then.

on to 1920, 1970 style 

and 1971

no dodger (or robin) love from fleer.  just spitballer stan coveleski and grand slammin' elmer smith.  curiously enough, this was one of the series that took 5 games to win.

we'll skip the dodgers' appearance in the 1941 series (previously posted here), and check out the 1970 homage to the equally depressing 1947 matchup against the yankees.

al gionfriddo, a mid-season acquisition, robbed joltin' joe dimaggio of a game 6 tying home run, forcing game 7. the dodgers lost, of course, but gionfriddo turned dimaggio into a dirt kicker, and that was tough to do.  according to fleer, kirk gibson's home run wasn't the only time 'the impossible has happened' for the dodgers in the world series.

the dodgers and yankees were back at it in 1949, with 1970 fleer giving us this

allie reynolds and preacher roe back to back 1-0 complete games.  don newcombe pitched game one for the dodgers and had matched reynolds until tommy henrich led off the bottom of the 9th with a home run to win the game.

here's the 1971 card:

in which roe's effort gets all the glory.

the dodgers were back for more yankee punishment in 1952 and 1953.  here's the 1971 card for the 1953 series

the yankees hit 9 home runs as a team (berra, collins, mantle 2, martin 2, mcdougald 2, woodling) and the dodgers hit 8 (campanella, cox, furillo, gilliam 2, hodges, shuba, snider).  the yankees also won 4 games to the dodgers' 2.

finally, 1955 arrived.  the 1970 card

shows johnny podres, who won game 7 with a 2-0 shutout, and the 1971 card shows a smiling duke snider

who hit 4 home runs in the series.  duke had also hit 4 in the 1952 series.

the dodgers lost to the yankees in 1956, but the silver fox was smiling again on the 1971 card for the 1959 series against the white sox

while the 1970 version chose to highlight chuck essegian

and his two pinch-hit home runs.  he was 2 for 3 in the series with a walk which means his ops for the series was 3.417!  he certainly made the most of his only career post season appearance!

the dodgers' winning way continued in 1963 as seen on the 1970 card

with moose skowron taking out some aggression against his former team.

two years later, the dodgers were back, this time against the twins, who get the cartoon on the 1971 card

that's ok though, the dodgers won the series.

they weren't as lucky in 1966, though when the orioles shut them out in 3 of the games.  here's the 1971 card comemmorating that series:

i guess a caricature of jim palmer or moe drabowsky would have been too difficult.

1966 was the last dodger appearance in the world series prior to 1974, so that's the end of the line for the 1970 and 1971 sets. 

then, as i was getting the cards set up to scan, i noticed this on the back of one of the cards

dangit.  and it wasn't even the 1966 series.  it was the back of the 1965 card.  so, i picked up a 1980 fleer world series card by mistake.  that year, fleer reprinted the card fronts, put stickers on the back, and added the years that were missing up to 1979.  nice of the dealer to mix it in with the vintage.

luckily, i was able to find a real 1971 card for the 1965 world series.  see?  here's the back:

much better than seeing that bird again!

the evolution of the out of place guy, part 1

you know the guy, right? the free agent in decline your team signed but you don't really think of him as a 'member' of the team. the guy who came over in a trade but didn't really fit with the team or was only there for one season. or, the guy you had heard of but who you didn't realize even played for your team until many years into your fandom.

the dodgers have had their share of 'those' players, so here's a primer on the evolution of the dodgers' out of place guy.

we'll kick it off with moose skowron who was shown as a dodger on his 1963 topps card

skowron is best known (and almost exclusively known) as a yankee. he came to the dodgers in a deal for stan williams and had perhaps his poorest season ever, batting just over the mendoza line. he came alive in the 1963 world series though, batting .385 with an ops of over 1.000 against his former mates. his contract was purchased by the washington senators after the 63 season.

fast forward to 1968, and we have zoilo (once called 'zorro' on a topps card) versalleszoilo must have impressed the dodgers in the 1965 world series, because they traded for him two years later, sending john roseboro and ron perranoski (among others) to minnesota. versalles was the al mvp in 1965, but he was in serious decline by 1968. he hit only .196 for the dodgers that year - his only year in la - and was perhaps thankfully selected by the padres in the expansion draft prior to 1969.

so, with versalles gone, jim bunning was brought in to be the out of place guy. by the way, thank goodness for the 1990 target dodgers set, otherwise we might not have a card of jim bunning as a dodger. the phillies had traded bunning to the pirates prior to the 1968 season. after one-and a half seasons in pittsburgh, the dodgers acquired the future senator (united states, not washington) for a couple of minor leaguers and cash. he pitched fairly well for the dodgers (3.36 era in 56 innings) but was released after the season. the phillies took him back and bunning finished his career in philadelphia.

1971 saw dick allen joining the ranks, featured here on his 1971 topps super card (with the dodger stadium scoreboard in the background) allen had spent 1970 with the cardinals after 7 pretty remarkable years in philadelphia. he had a good year for the dodgers in 1971, too, but was traded to the white sox after that lone year in la. all he did the following year was win the al mvp.

on the same day dick allen was traded away, the dodgers traded for frank robinson, shown here on a 1989 smokey dodger greats card

like allen, frobby would spend just one year in la. unlike allen, that year would be pretty mediocre offensively. luckily for the angels (to whom robinson was traded), he would bounce back big time in 1973.

in 1975, juan marichal was a dodger, most definitely out of placehe had spent one year in boston after pitching exclusively for the giants organization and the dodgers decided to give him a shot. he lasted just two starts, completing six innings and striking out 1 before the dodgers released him.

in 1977, there was boog powell the former oriole had been released by the indians after the 1976 season. he came to the dodgers as a pinch hitter, but hit just .244 with no extra base hits in 53 at bats before being released in august of 1977.

we'll finish part one with another oriole, don stanhouse, who signed with the dodgers as a free agent prior to the 1980 season stan 'the man unusual' had saved 45 games for the orioles over the two previous seasons, but did not pitch that well in the 1979 postseason. he pitched even worse for the dodgers, saving just 7 games and posting an era of 5.04 to go with a whip of 1.84. the dodgers released him prior to the 1981 season. i believe that the stanhouse experience (along with fellow 1979 signee dave goltz) was a big reason the dodgers seemed to avoid the free agent market until 1987.

that doesn't mean, however, that they were without any 'out of place guys' during those years, as we will see in part 2.