sunday morning target dodgers - that's babich, not babip

here's another sheet (15 more cards) from the 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary set. enjoy.

johnny babich

babich broke into the majors with the dodgers in 1940 and pitched for them for two seasons.  he won 7 games in each, but lost a total of 25 with a cumulative era of 5.46.  when i first saw this card on the sheet, being the forward thinking analytical fan that i am (not really), i immediately thought of 'babip'.  that's batting average on balls in play in case you didn't know.  i don't know what babich's babip against was during his time with the dodgers, but in his last two seasons as a member of the philadelphia a's, his .267 babip was below the league average of .292.  as a batter, his career babip was .243, but in his final season, he had an incredible .476 babip.  thanks baseball reference!

jim campanis

campanis spent parts of 3 seasons (1966-1968) with the dodgers as a backup catcher before his dad, general manager al campanis, sent him to the royals prior to the 1969 season.  campanis was the first pinch-hitter in kansas city royals history, and he recored the first pinch-hit and pinch-hit rbi in franchise history as well.  i appreciate the fact that the union 76 logo is visible atop the left field pavilion in dodger stadium in the background of campanis' card.

bob darnell

darnell pitched six innings of scoreless relief in his major league debut on august 10, 1954, although he did allow an inherited runner to score.  he got the start in his next appearance (which came against the same club - the phillies - against whom he had thrown those scoreless innings and wound up lasting only two frames.  he pitched in only four more games that season and just one in 1956, and that was the total of darnell's big league career.

john dobbs

dobbs was an outfielder for the superbas from 1903-1905, which also happened to be the last 3 seasons of his big league career.  he hit .247 over that time which was about 40 points lower than he had hit in the first two seasons of his career.  after retiring as a player, dobbs became a successful manager in the minor leagues.

clise dudley

dudley was 8-18 as a member of the brooklyn robins from 1929-1930. he is better known as a member of the 'home run in first major league at bat' club.  in fact, dudley homered on the first pitch he saw at the big league level.

mariano duncan

in 1985, duncan was the heir apparent to bill russell as the dodger shortstop, as he made 120 starts at short and finished third in the rookie of the year voting.  after two more seasons, duncan had fallen out of favor with manager tom lasorda, and was banished to the minor leagues for the entire 1988 season.  with alfredo griffin at short, duncan returned to the bigs in 1989, but was traded during the season to the reds in the kal daniels deal.  duncan went on to win a world series title with the reds in 1990 (plus one with the yankees in 1996) while the dodgers haven't been back to the fall classic since '88.  duncan eventually returned to the franchise as a minor league coach, and became the dodgers' first base coach during grady little's managerial tenure.

herman franks

first off, this is the same photo that topps used of franks for the inset photo on his 1978 topps card. this increases the likelihood that the photo shows franks in a dodger uniform (a question that i had pondered as a youth back in '78) as he played for the team in 1940 and 1941, but i still don't know for sure.  in addition to the dodgers, franks played for the cardinals, a's, and giants, although it was as a dodger that he played the most, appearing in 122 of his 188 games wearing the brooklyn uniform.  franks was on the 1941 pennant winning team and ended game 1 of the world series with a gidp in his only appearance in the fall classic.  perhaps franks could have held on to strike 3 in game 4 of the series had he been behind the plate instead of mickey owens, but we will never know.

tony giuliani

giuliani was another backup catcher on those 1940 and 1941 dodger teams after previously playing for the browns and senators.  his total dodger experience came in the form of one appearance and one at bat in 1940 and 3 appearances with 2 at bats in 1941.  he did not appear in the 1941 world series.

derrell griffith

the dodgers won the pennant in three of the four seasons in which griffith played for them, but he did not appear in the postseason in any of those years.  griffith debuted with the 1963 world champion club as a 19-year old, seeing action in one late-season game.  he was back in 1964, playing in 78 games and hitting .290.  in 1965 and 1966, both pennant winning seasons for the dodgers, griffith hit .171 and .067, respectively, while playing in just over 20 games each season.  after that, he was traded to the mets with tommy davis, but never returned to the majors.

johnny hall

like griffith above, hall was from oklahoma. he pitched for the dodgers during the 1948 season, his only season in the majors. in three appearances, hall logged 4.1 innings pitched and posted an era of 6.23.

stu pederson

pederson was a late season call-up with the 1985 dodgers after hitting over .300 in the minor leagues since being drafted in 1981.  he made 8 appearances during the last month of that season, but was 0 for 4 with a sacrifice fly at the plate.  pederson spent the next couple of seasons back in the minors for the dodger organization, and then moved on to the blue jays' minor league system, but was unable to return to the majors.  he should be spending some time at chavez ravine this year, however, as his son joc is poised to make the team out of spring training as one of the dodgers' outfielders.

arky vaughan

the hall of fame shortstop finished his career with four seasons as a dodger.  in 1942, with pee wee reese at short, vaughan was used as the dodgers' third baseman despite having played there only 5 times during his previous 10 years with the pirates, and he made the all-star team.  in 1943, with reese serving in the military, vaughan returned to shortstop for most of the time, and he led the league in runs scored and stolen bases.  after that season, vaughan retired rather than continue to play for manager leo durocher.  when durocher was suspended for the 1947 season, vaughan returned to the team as an outfielder and hit .325 in 64 regular season games, plus he was 1 for 2 in the world series.  vaughan played in 65 games for the dodgers in 1948 and hit .244 after which he spent the 1949 season in the pacific coast league and then retired a second time.  sadly, he died three years later in a boating accident.  vaughan is largely regarded as one of the greatest shortstops of all-time, perhaps sitting behind only honus wagner on that list.

jack warner

warner had played for the tigers for four years before joining the robins for the 1929 season.  as a backup shortstop, warner appeared in 21 games that season.  in 1930, he was used mostly as a pinch-hitter, although he played some third base, too, and he hit .320 in 28 plate appearances.  the following season, his last with brooklyn at the major league level, saw him hit .500 in 4 at bats over 9 games played.

ron washington

the dodgers gave washington a call-up late in the 1977 season, and in 10 games played, he hit .368 and scored 4 times.  still, he couldn't quite make the roster with bill russell firmly entrenched at short and was eventually traded by the dodgers to the twins in 1980.  wash played for the twins, orioles, indians, and astros before retiring as a player and moving into coaching.  he was a highly respected coach for the a's prior to becoming the manager of the rangers, leading texas to their two lone world series appearances.

kaiser wilhelm

wilhelm's real name was irvin, which i would have preferred to kaiser, given the actions of germany's kaiser wilhelm in the early 1900's.  brooklyn's wilhelm pitched for the superbas from 1908 through 1910, and although his record during that time was just 22-42, his era for the same period was 2.62.  in fact, wilhelm lost 22 games in 1908 despite a 1.87 era.  wilhelm's playing career outlasted the other kaiser wilhelm's reign in germany, as he pitched as a 47-year old in 1921, three years after the german ruler had been exiled to the nederlands.

more 1978 topps through the mail successes!

i have a hard time passing up an opportunity to get a 1978 topps card signed by a former player.  i'll get to that in a minute, right after i show these 1978 topps update/burger king dodger cards that should have been of former dodger prospect ron washington, who is currently the manager of the texas rangers.  he was kind enough to sign each one

including the two newer versions i had made after finding some good dodger photos online

this one is my favorite because of the dodger stadium background and the in-game action

the dodgers didn't get many in-game action shots on cards in the 1970's.

on to the actual 1978 topps cards that have been signed and returned in the past few weeks.  here's jackie brown.

brown's playing career came to an end with the 1977 season, but he stayed with the game as a coach with the rangers, and later the white sox and devil rays.  he was part of the trade package that texas sent to the indians for hall of famer gaylord perry and was later traded to the expos for a young andre thornton.

dave garcia

i saw that garcia had signed a card for tom at angels, in order earlier this spring, so i took a chance.  the 93-year old former manager came through for me, which is fantastic.  i don't recall garcia as the angels' manager - he was replaced by jim fregosi during the 1978 season - but i do recall him managing the indians in the early 1980's.

gary nolan

nolan pitched for garcia at the tail end of the 1977 season, but was 0-3 in his few starts as an angel.  he had previously enjoyed some great success with the reds, going 15-5 with a 1.99 era in 1972 and starting the first game of the world series that year.  he lost almost two seasons to injury (most of 1973 and all of 1974), but returned to help the big red machine win the world series in 1975 and 1976.  in the latter series, nolan started and won the decisive game 4 over the yankees.  i appreciate that.

skip lockwood

like nolan, lockwood debuted as a major leaguer when he was 18 years old.  he was a third baseman for the kansas city a's in 1965 when he first showed up in the big leagues, but after a .121 batting average in 42 games, he was sent back to the minors and eventually converted to a pitcher.  after a few seasons with the pilots/brewers, the angels converted him to a reliever in 1974, and the mets then used him exclusively out of the bullpen after they acquired him during the 1975 season.  in his five years with the mets, lockwood saved 65 games (including 20 in 1977) and had a 2.80 era.

bill campbell

campbell had previously signed his league leader card for me, so i felt safe in sending another copy of his base card.  the former twin led the league in saves in 1977, his first season with the bosox.  he later pitched effectively against the dodgers in the 1985 nlcs, although the dodgers won two of the three games in which campbell appeared.

buddy schultz

unlike skip lockwood, whose given name is claude edward, schultz's middle name really is budd.  he wasa acquired by the cardinals in a trade with the cubs prior to the 1977 season, so the bad airbrushing here really was easily avoidable.  schultz pitched in a career high 62 games in 1978, earning 6 saves which was also a personal best.

bruce bochte

when this card came out, bochte was a member of the seattle mariners, which is how i remember him.  he was their best bet to make the all-star team, which he did in 1979 when the mariners were the game's host.  he was the hero for a short time, too, after driving in the go-ahead run with a pinch-hit single off of gaylord perry.  unfortunately, jim kern gave up a game tying home run to lee mazzilli, dave parker threw out the al's go-ahead run at the plate, and then kern walked the bases loaded to set up the eventual game losing bases loaded walk issued by ron guidry in relief.  that was 35 years ago today!

willie norwood

norwood's name was mentioned the other day on one of the local sports talk shows.  they were discussing the defensive prowess of twins' outfielders, lamenting the current status of the statuary they employ, when one of the old-timer hosts referenced norwood as one of the worst defensive outfielders in the team's history.  he made 14 errors to lead all american league outfielders in 1978, but also stole 25 bases and signed my card.  i'm on his side.

joe zdeb

i don't recall joe zdeb, although i am curious as to how announcers might have butchered his last name. baseball-reference notes that the 'd' is silent.  i wouldn't have guessed that.  zdeb hit .297 in 105 games as a rookie in 1977, but was 0 for 9 in the alcs against the yankees that year.  with al cowens, amos otis, and the arrival of willie wilson, zdeb played in only 60 games in 1978 and then just 15 in 1979.  

paul moskau

i've always liked this card of moskau's - you can feel the wind blowing in it.  i grew up in a windy climate and could relate to moskau playing baseball in that sort of environment.  i overthought my connections to baseball cards.  anyway, moskau's first season in the majors was 1977, so he missed out on the big red machine glory years but arrived in time for the dodgers to dominate the nl west (for a couple of years, anyway).  moskau also included a business card with his return - he is working with former pitcher mike lacoss and his "ibaseball channel" project.  you can check it out here.

this last one was actually a purchase.  it's bill russell's 1978 topps card

in all the times that russell has signed cards for me, i only sent him a copy of his 1978 topps card once.  that one is with my (thankfully complete) signed dodger team set, but i wanted another one for my partially signed set.  russell isn't signing through the mail anymore, so i put down a few bucks for this copy.

as always, thanks for signing my (and other people's) cards!

it's a wash

it's been a while since i wrapped up my 1978 topps burger king dodgers/update set of cards that should i have been.  i was happy with most of the cards, but some, like ron washington's, were not as nice as i would have liked due to the dearth of color photos available for some players.  but then i was made aware a while back of some actual color photos of washington as a dodger, so here then are two versions of the 1978 topps burger king dodgers/update ron washington card that should have been.

i think i like the second one the best - dodger stadium action is always nice.

wash is, of course, the current manager of the rangers, and he is a good ttm signer.  i sent him a copy of the card i created prior to finding the above photographs, and he signed it for me.

remember, that's just his 1982 topps traded card modified (poorly) to show him as a dodger.  he also signed his 1984 donruss card

and his 2007  topps card.

i might someday get around to printing and sending him a copy of the 'new' 1978 customs to sign.  maybe.

thanks wash for signing my cards!

the 1978 topps ron washington card that should have been

texas rangers manager ron washington made his major league debut as a dodger in 1977.  he replaced bill russell at short in the 7th inning of a game against tom seaver and the reds in september and came to bat in the bottom of the ninth against pedro borbon.  he was hit by a pitch.  welcome to the big leagues ron!

in all, washington played in 10 games for the dodgers that year, and of the 9 games in which he had a plate appearance, he reached base in 7 of them.  unfortunately for him, he never appeared for the dodgers in another major league game, spending the next two seasons in their minor league system.  he was traded to the twins just before the start of the 1980 season, and made it to the majors for good (almost, anyway) in 1981.  still, those 10 games make him a member of the team of my youth and warrant inclusion in my 1978 topps burger king/update project.  here then is the ron washington card that should have been. 

 with a back

 i used his 1982 topps traded card (i believe it is his earliest card)

for the photo and just photoshopped the logo on the hat and jersey.  it's the same card night owl featured the other day.  speaking of which, i own the same 1978 dodger yearbook that night owl mentioned.  i tried to use the washington photo in it to create the card, but i had a hard time with the skin tone.  still, there is merit in using the only photo i know of showing washington in a dodger hat.  so, here is the colorized/black and white alternate version of the 1978 topps ron washington card that should have been

here's to you, ron washington!  now beat those giants!