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.

my pared down 1952 topps sampler set, a dodger double dipper, and a contest winner!

thanks to all who joined me in wishing steve garvey a happy birthday yesterday.  as promised, i will be giving away a 1952 topps card to one of you.

first, let's take a look at what my 1952 topps sampler set looks like now.  as you'll recall, i decided to pare down most of my pre-1970 collection (1957 topps and 1965 topps not included) to just dodgers and a few double plays, final tributes, and memorials.  here's what i am left with from 1952.

that's wayne terwilliger, the overly happy chris van cuyk, a forlorn johnny schmitz, and clyde king.  billy cox, rocky bridges, and ralph branca, too.  there is one spot left on the sheet, and darned if a high number wouldn't look nice there.  i'll have to do something about that.

i have posted about each of these guys in one way or another, except for van cuyk, a dodger pitcher from wisconsin.  van cuyk will have to wait, however, as clyde king is hijacking this post.  yes, king was a dodger double dipper.

[this is the fiftyfifth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, babe herman, joe medwick, juan castro, and ron perranoski.]

just for fun, here's another 1952 clyde king card - from bowman - that i just picked up.

it hasn't arrived yet, but i am posting it anyway.

king signed with the dodgers prior to the 1944 season, and a couple of months into that season, he was making his debut with the club.  he wound up going 13-12 for the dodgers from 1944 through may of 1948 before the team put him on waivers.  he was selected by the phillies, but never did appear in a game for them.  they wound up waiving him a few days later, and the dodgers decided to bring him back into the fold.  when he returned to the mound for brooklyn in 1951, king's status as a double dipper was completed.

he had his best season in 1951, going 14-7 with a complete game and 6 saves.  then, after one more season in brooklyn, king was traded to the reds for dixie howell.  he finished his big league playing career with the reds in 1953, but spent a couple more seasons in the minors.  after that, king began his managerial career in the braves' organization.  he managed in the pirates' organization, too, and was later an instructor/coach for the cardinals, reds, and back to the pirates during the 1960's.  late in the decade, he joined the giants' organization, and was named their manager in 1969.  from there, he moved on to managing the braves, and later the yankees.  he also took a turn as the yankees' general manager in the mid-1980's, and wound up trading for jay buhner and rickey henderson, among others, as well as signing bernie williams.

but enough about king.  let's find out who gets a 1952 topps card.  there were 5 blogs which promoted the contest:

the junior junkie
it's like having my own card shop
mark's ephemera
the writer's journey
tenets of wilson

there were 24 blogs (other than mine) that wished steve a happy birthday and left a comment.  i wasn't too much of a stickler beyond that - it's the thought that counts, right?  here are the blogs:

the writer's journey
it's like having my own card shop
ptown tom
angels in order
1978 baseball
red cardboard
the chronicles of fuji
the diamond king
this way to the clubhouse
tenets of wilson
coot veal and the vealtones
mark's ephemera
the prowling cat
the junior junkie
the lost collector
baseball card breakdown
1978, the year it all began
dime boxes
chavez ravining
play at the plate
cards on cards
dodger penguin
night owl cards
playing with my cards

so, here's the list that goes into random.org:

the junior junkie
it's like having my own card shop
mark's ephemera
the writer's journey
tenets of wilson
the writer's journey
it's like having my own card shop
ptown tom
angels in order
1978 baseball
red cardboard
the chronicles of fuji
the diamond king
this way to the clubhouse
tenets of wilson
coot veal and the vealtones
mark's ephemera
the prowling cat
the junior junkie
the lost collector
baseball card breakdown
1978, the year it all began
dime boxes
chavez ravining
play at the plate
cards on cards
dodger penguin
night owl cards
playing with my cards

and, after randomizing 6 (the garv's jersey number) times, the winner is…

…play at the plate.

brian requested the senators (which are the twins' senators, not the rangers' senators), so he receives an eddie yost card.

yost wound up as an original angel, and not a twin, in 1961.  dude could get on base, too.

congrats brian, and thanks again to all who participated.

feelin' '52

just for the heck of it, here are some 1952 cards i picked up at a show sometime last year.  at least i think that's where they came from. pretty sure.  there's a show this weekend, and i am hoping to get a couple of key 1950's cards.  i'm a bit at a loss, as i recently completed my 1960's dodger topps team sets.  i could always look for upgrades, i suppose, but i think i want to let the accomplishment settle first.

anyway, i have a long way to go to complete the dodgers from the 1950's, and i don't plan to really ever get there.  but, i do own these four cards, among others.  this one is a 1952 bowman ralph branca

and this one is his manager, chuck dressen

looks like chuck is trying to shake some sense into the artisit.  i'm one of those collectors who dislikes the facsimile autograph.  i was surprised when i first saw cards from 1952 and noticed that the facsimile auto had been around since the dawn of modern cards.

it works better on the 1952 topps cards, however, thanks to the little box.  here's a backlit johnny schmitz card

and a wayne terwilliger

schmitz failed to play a whole year for the dodgers, splitting both the 1951 and 1952 seasons between two clubs. he was traded to the dodgers during the 1951 season along with rube walker, terwilliger (and andy pafko - anyone have an extra '52 topps card of his?) for gene hermanski, eddie miksis and a couple other players, and then was picked up on waivers by the yankees during the 1952 campaign.  terwilliger played out the '51 season with the dodgers, but spent 1952 in the minors.  he was picked up on waivers by the senators late in the '52 season.

when i first moved to minnesota, twig was a coach for the saint paul saints - the local independent league minor league team.  he moved on to other coaching jobs, but i think he is retired now.  i've thought about enhancing his 1952 topps card with a genuine autograph, but haven't ever pursued it.

so, i'll be diggin in at the vintage bargain bins tomorrow, looking for some friends of branca, dressen, schmitz, and twig.  anybody need anything?