an abbreviated run through the 1997 mother's cookies dodger set

1997 was all about the 50th anniversary of jackie robinson's major league debut, and the mother's cookies dodger set that year included a special card with the anniversary logo.

that's the logo that the dodgers wore - remember, while all teams wore a similar patch, the dodgers, marlins, and expos put their own twist on it.

here are a few more cards from the 1997 mother's cookies dodger set

bill russell

the manager!

and his coaches!

plus, the five straight rookies of the year - eric karros

mike piazza

raul mondesi

hideo nomo

and todd hollandsworth

here's the current diamondbacks manager, chip hale

in what may well be his only dodger card

darren hall

has a couple of dodger cards, but not many.

does anyone recall nelson liriano as a dodger?

he played in 76 games for the 1997 dodgers, and his lone home run in dodger blue was a 9th inning game winner against the cubs.

here's one more - scott radinsky

if it weren't for these mother's sets, i don't think i would have more than one card of the pulley lead singer and current dodger minor league pitching coach.

thanks again to mr. haverkamp for brokering the deal that netted me these sets.

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.

more coaches man, coaches

i've extolled the virtues of coaches cards in mother's cookies and the dodger police sets before, and now with the bounty of mother's dodger sets that mr. haverkamp procured for me, i can show more of these great cards.  they aren't anything special in way of design, but they document the guys who don't show up on cardboard very much at all.  let's have a look at tommy lasorda's coaching staff, shall we?  be sure to enjoy the dodger stadium backdrop while we do so.

1988

that's joe ferguson, ron perranoski, bill russell, mark cresse, joe amalfitano, manny mota, and ben hines.

1988 was ferguson's first year on the coaching staff, although he had been serving as their 'eye in the sky' for the previous few seasons.  starting in '88, he was tommy's bench coach.

perranoski took over the pitching coach duties under lasorda in 1981, replacing the retiring red adams who had been the pitching coach for the dodgers since 1969.

russell joined the staff in 1987 following his retirement as a player.  he replaced the retiring monty basgall as the team's infield coach which seemed appropriate as basgall was instrumental in russell's conversion from the outfield to shortstop.

cresse had been the bullpen coach under walt alston for a couple of seasons before lasorda took over the managerial reins, and continued in that role on tommy's staff.

amalfitano became lasorda's third base coach in 1983, taking over (i believe) for danny ozark.

mota began coaching first base for the dodgers in 1980, and aside from a couple of late season appearances as a player, remained on the coaching staff in a variety of roles for some 35 years.

hines had been on lasorda's staff in 1985 and 1986, but took a break in '87.  he was back in '88 as the dodgers' batting coach, taking the role back from mota who had filled in during the previous season.

1990

yes, i skipped a year, although there was no change in the staff.  however, ferguson had taken over the first base coaching duties from mota who became a sort of roving instructor, and russell moved into the bench coach spot.

1991

still no change in personnel, and the roles remained the same as well.

1992

same staff except for the guy on the far right.  that's current brewers manager ron roenicke.  bill russell was sent down to manage triple-a albuquerque, and so roenicke joined the staff in his place, taking over as lasorda's bench coach.

1993

tommy employed the same staff as the previous season.

1994

some new (and old) blood was added to the staff for 1994.  you will notice that reggie smith, the right fielder for the team of my youth, in the back row, and bill russell, the shortstop for the team of my youth is back in the front row.  gone are ron roenicke and ben hines. roenicke began his managerial career in the lower levels of the dodger organization, and russell returned from the high minors to take over roenicke's previous role as tommy's bench coach.  smith took over for hines as the batting coach and also replaced ferguson as the first base coach.  ferguson went back to his role as the 'eye in the sky' positioning defenders from the press box.

1995

here we are in 1995, and ron perranoski is no longer on the dodger staff.  he moved up north to join the giants' organization for some strange reason.  dave wallace took over for perranoski as lasorda's pitching coach and appears in the top row on the coaches card. this was the staff for lasorda's final full season as the dodger manager.