filling the gap in my mother's cookies dodger collection

aside from the 1989 mother's cookies dodger set (and the special mike piazza/tim salmon set) that i already owned, the recent package from mr. haverkamp included the rest of the run of sets produced by the purveyor of bagged baked goodness.  i was a sucker for their iced animal cookies for sure.  anyway, the set that was missing was the 1996 set, which i subsequently picked up on ebay.

here's the manager, tom lasorda

in what would be his final set.

his coaching staff

included holdovers joe amalfitano, mark cresse, manny mota, bill russell, dave wallace, and reggie smith.  russell would assume the managerial position during the season after suffering a heart attack.

this set also includes the five straight rookies of the year for the first time - eric karros

mike piazza

raul mondesi

hideo nomo

and todd hollandsworth

who would win the award in '96.

here are a few other random dodgers from the set - delino deshields,

pinch-hitter extraordinaire dave hansen,

one of the many hot corner stopgaps between ron cey and adrian beltre, mike blowers,

milt thompson,

who spent the first half of the '96 season with the dodgers, and…

…chad fonville

fonville was one of the most exciting players to watch in 1995 after he joined the dodgers in may.  he wound up stealing 20 bases in 88 games during the regular season, and then went 6 for 12 in the three-game loss to the reds in the nlds.  i'll take as many fonville cards as i can get.

this was the last year that the mother's sets used the full bleed photos. i'll show some cards from the '97 and '98 sets in a future post.

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.

sunday morning target dodgers - a few players short of a full sheet

today's post features cards from two different sheets issued as part of the 1990 target dodgers 100-year anniversary giveaway.  when i first started showing cards from this set, i wasn't doing it sheet-by-sheet. instead, i posted groups of cards with no care taken from a set organizational standpoint.  my current self regrets that very much.  so, i'm going to finish off the sheets that have, to date, only been partially shown.  here are the remnants of the first one.

boog powell

yes, i've shown this card before - in the evolution series (the 'out of place guy' post).  it's worth showing again in a proper target dodgers post.  powell was used almost exclusively as a pinch-hitter during his lone season with the dodgers (1977).  he had 10 hits (all singles) in 41 at bats, but his obp was .415 thanks to 12 walks.  powell was released on august 31, 1977 and so didn't get to experience the postseason as a member of the dodgers.  that's ok - he was there plenty with the orioles, including 1966 when the o's swept the dodgers in the world series.

now on to the players from this sheet that haven't made it to the blog before.

randy moore

moore spent the 1936 and part of the 1937 seasons with the dodgers, hitting .218 in a total of 55 games during his tenure.  you'll note that he is in a catcher's crouch on the card, although his position is given as an outfielder.  well, in his 8 big league seasons prior to joining the dodgers, and his first season with the dodgers, moore was used primarily (almost exclusively, really) as an outfielder.  however, the dodgers gave up hall of famer al lopez (a catcher in his playing days) in the trade that brought moore to brooklyn, so, despite him having played catcher in the big leagues only once before joining them, the dodgers used him primarily as a backstop in 1937.

john o'brien

o'brien was a native of new brunswick who played for the brooklyn grooms in 1891.  he was a second baseman who appeared in 43 games that season, and hit .246.  he would later be part of the 1899 trade between louisville and pittsburgh that sent honus wagner to the pirates.

john russell

this is one of the odder cards in the set.  it is an egregious case of mistaken identity.  the card shows former big league catcher john russell, who played for the phillies, rangers, and braves, and most recently managed the pirates a few seasons back.  the john russell who pitched for the dodger franchise did so in the 1917 and 1918 seasons as a member of the robins.  he was 0-1 in 6 games for brooklyn, and later pitched for the white sox in 1921 and 1922.

ray searage

searage signed with the dodgers in april of 1988, but he unfortunately spent the entire championship season at albuquerque.  he did spend most of 1989 and 1990 with the big club, however, pitching effectively out of the bullpen.  he was 4-4 as a dodger and i believe he is currently the pitching coach for the pirates, a job he started while john russell (the guy pictured on the above card, not the actual brooklyn pitcher) was the team's manager.

bill swift

swift pitched for the dodgers in 1941, after spending 8 seasons in pittsburgh and another in boston with the bees.  he appeared in 9 games for brooklyn, posting a 3-0 record with a save and an era of 3.27.

tim thompson

thompson was a good hitting minor league player who didn't make his big league debut until he was 30 when he appeared for the dodgers in 10 games early in the 1954 season.  he hit .154 with one double and an rbi in 14 plate appearances in those games, and didn't return to the majors until 1956 when he was with the kansas city a's.  thompson is known as the first national league catcher to wear glasses.

that's is for the first sheet.  the other players from this sheet are john wetteland and eddie stanky (featured here); pop corkhill and tex carleton and pop dillon (featured here); tom baker and william brennan (featured here); and glenn wright (featured here).

here are some cards from another sheet.  same story - for some reason a few players on the sheet haven't been addressed until now.

jim bunning's 1990 target card was previously shown in the same evolutionary post as boog's, but here it is again

bunning spent the latter part of the 1969 season with the dodgers, making 9 starts and posting a record of 3-1 with a 3.36 era.  the dodgers had beaten bunning twice earlier in the season while he was with the pirates, but traded for him anyway.  they released him following the season, and he was picked up by one of his former teams, the phillies.

walter alston

alston managed the dodgers for just shy of 23 seasons (he retired with two games to go in 1976 to give tommy lasorda a chance to get his feet wet as the team's manager).  in that span, the dodgers won 2040 games, seven national league pennants, and four world championships.  alston was elected to the hall of fame in 1983, and his number 24 was subsequently retired by the team.

don lejohn

if you were to only play in the major leagues for one season, you couldn't do much better than don lejohn did, as far as timing goes.  called up to the dodgers in late june of 1965, lejohn played a fair amount of third base for the club down the stretch as they held off the giants for the national league pennant.  lejohn began his big league career that season with a 5-game hitting streak, and finished it with a pinch-hit strikeout in game one of the 1965 world series.  the dodgers, of course, won the series, and so lejohn earned a ring in his only big league campaign.

jose pena

the dodgers selected pena in the 1969 rule v draft from the reds, and he was a part of their bullpen for the next two-plus seasons.  he posted a record of 6-3 with 5 saves in 55 games during his dodger tenure, and continued to pitch in the mexican league through 1984 with great success.  in fact, pena is a member of the mexican baseball hall of fame.

schoolboy rowe

rowe had won 105 games and pitched in three world series in 10 seasons with the tigers when the dodgers purchased his contract in 1942.  he pitched in 9 games for brooklyn that year, starting two, and finishing with a 1-0 record.  the phillies purchased his contract prior to the 1943 season, and so ended rowe's brooklyn tenure.  rowe was also a decent hitter, with a .263 lifetime average and 18 home runs to his credit.

rube walker

walker joined the dodgers in 1951 after three-plus seasons with the cubs.  he was roy campanella's backup from then through the 1957 season, and then backed up john roseboro for part of the 1958 campaign in los angeles.  he never played in more than 60 games in a season for the dodgers, and his cumulative batting average for the club was .214.  a few years after the end of his playing days, walker's teammate gil hodges added him to his coaching staff with the senators and later the mets.

matt young

the dodgers acquired young from the mariners prior to the 1987 season.  young had shown some flashes of potential with seattle, but they were a bad team and he was pretty inconsistent as a starter.  in 1986, the mariners moved young to the bullpen after a few bad starts, and he saved 13 games.  as such, the dodgers decided to use young exclusively in relief, and he wound up saving 11 games, tying alejandro pena for the team lead.  after the season, however, young was dealt to oakland with bob welch in the three-team trade that netted the dodgers alfredo griffin, jesse orosco, and jay howell.

the other players found on this particular sheet have been featured in earlier 'sunday morning target dodger' posts.  they are:  gary thomasson (featured here); gus getz and bob logan (featured here); jim baxes (featured here); cesar cedeno (featured here); tommy john and hank edwards (featured here); and then there is bill reidy, a double dipper who gets a separate post later today.

sunday evening target dodgers

another sunday, another sheet of cards from the 1990 target set which celebrated the franchise's 100th anniversary.  there are only 13 cards in this post, because the other two cards on the sheet belonged to the double dippers showcased earlier today.

mark belanger

after 17 years in baltimore, the slick fielding belanger became a free agent and signed with the dodgers prior to the 1982 season.  his leaving baltimore opened up the shortstop position, and eventually cal ripken jr took over.  in los angeles, however, bill russell was still the dodgers' every day shortstop, so belanger was limited to 54 games, only 12 of which were starts. while he hit .240 on the season, he was 2 for 2 in his final two career plate appearances, with his final hit being an rbi single against scott garrelts of the giants.  that's the best way for even an out of place dodger to go out.

ralph branca

like frenchy bordagaray and doc casey (the two double dippers from this sheet not included in this post), branca was himself a dodger double dipper.  i enjoyed seeing him on the big screen in the recent billy crystal movie where crystal played a minor league baseball announcer.  i won't bring up bobby thomson.

jackie collum

collum joined the brooklyn dodgers in 1957 following a midseason trade with the cubs.  he only pitched in three games for the dodgers that season (the first of which was against his former team), but stayed with the club as they moved west to los angeles.  in 1958, collum pitched in two games for the dodgers.  he spent the next couple of seasons in the minor leagues before moving on to the minnesota twins in 1961.

bruce edwards

edwards was the dodger catcher in 1946 and 1947, putting up big numbers in the latter.  he hit .295 with 80 rbi that year, and finished 4th in the mvp voting.  in 1948, however, edwards lost his starting job midseason to roy campanella.  he stayed with the dodgers as the backup catcher and sometimes outfielder/third baseman until he was traded to the cubs in 1951.

ned hanlon

hanlon is enshrined in the hall of fame as a manager, and not as a grower of fantastic moustaches as you might have guessed.  he enjoyed prolonged success at the helm of the baltimore orioles in the late 19th century before taking over the reigns of the superbas in 1899.  hanlon managed the club for seven seasons, leading them to first place finishes in both 1899 (with 101 wins) and 1900.  by his final season in 1905, however, the team was in last place and lost 104 games, still the most losses in franchise history.

ken howell

howell was used primarily as a reliever (190 games in relief and 4 as a starter) during his dodger tenure which spanned from 1984 through the 1988 season.  he appeared in the 1985 playoffs, but not the 1988 postseason.  he was traded to the orioles in the eddie murray deal following the 1988 season, but was quickly dealt by baltimore to the phillies where he was used exclusively as a starter for two seasons.  i believe howell is still the dodger bullpen coach, a position he has held since 2008.

charlie manuel

chuck manuel as he was then known was traded by the twins to the dodgers after the 1973 season.  he appeared in 4 games for the dodgers in 1974 (none in the postseason) and 15 in 1975; all 19 appearances were as a pinch hitter.  manuel's final big league appearance came on september 21, 1975 when he ended the game with a strikeout at the hands of jr richard.  he went to japan the following season, and played there for six seasons before returning to the us to begin his managerial career.  manuel, of course, managed the phillies when they eliminated the dodgers in the 2008 and 2009 nlcs.

joe mcginnity

hall of famer joe 'iron man' mcginnity spent one season with the brooklyn superbas - his sophomore season of 1900 - and went 28-8 (his 28 victories led the league for the second year in a row) with a 2.94 era in 44 games (37 starts).  he also threw 32 complete games and a league leading 343 innings, but his nickname originated from his offseason job in an iron foundry rather than his rubber arm.  mcginnity, of course, spent the majority of his career with john mcgraw and the new york giants, winning 30 games a couple of times, and the world series in 1905.  after his big league career ended with 246 wins, mcginnity continued to pitch in the minors, racking up another 200 or so victories.  he retired from playing at the age of 54 and later coached for the dodgers.

lance rautzhan

rautzhan was a member of the team of my youth, pitching for the dodgers in 1977 and 1978.  he pitched for them again in 1979, but had his contract purchased by the brewers in may of that year.  he is best remembered (by me at least) as the winning pitcher in game 3 of the 1977 nlcs - the 'black friday' game as it is known in philadelphia.

pete richert

imagine that - four double dippers on this sheet.  richert did indeed double dip with the dodgers, but i have told that story before, so he's here with the other guys from the sheet.  it is worth noting that richert  once struck out four batters in an inning while en route to striking out the first 6 batters he faced in the major leagues.

joe riggert

riggert was an outfielder who split the 1914 season between the brooklyn robins and saint louis cardinals (only one of those teams is named for a bird, by the way).  as a member of the robins, he hit .193 in 27 games.

ed roebuck

like collum, roebuck was a dodger pitcher who made the move with the team from brooklyn to los angeles.  roebuck, however, had more success with the dodgers than did collum.  he pitched in 7-plus seasons for the dodgers from 1955 to 1963 (he did not appear in the majors in 1959), making just one career start in 322 games with the club.  roebuck is also a member of the fraternity of pitchers who allowed a world series home run to mickey mantle, having joined the club in 1956.

fresco thompson

thompson joined the brooklyn franchise for the 1931 season following a four year stint with the phillies (he had been with pittsburgh and  the new york giants previously).  he appeared in 74 games for the robins, and then just three games for the re-named dodgers in 1932.  he resurfaced in the majors in 1934, back with the giants, but appeared in only one game before being released after declining bill terry's invitation to pinch run - 'i'd like to' said thompson, 'but i just had my shoes shined'.  thompson managed in the minor leagues following his playing days, including in the dodger organization.  in 1968, he became the dodgers' general manager succeeding buzzie bavasi, but passed away only 5 months into his tenure, with al campanis taking his place.