sunday morning target dodgers - gonna fly now

well, i dug out a few more sheets from the 1990 target 100th anniversary giveaway set to scan and show off.  as for the subtitle of the post - you can probably guess that there is a rocky (or two) coming up.  with that, here are 14 more members of the dodger franchise fraternity from one of those sheets - the 15th guy being a double dipper who will get a post all to himself later today.

rube bressler

bressler began his career as a pitcher for the 1914 athletics, and converted to the outfield while with the reds later that decade.  by 1921, he had given up the mound for good.  bressler joined the robins in 1928 and patrolled the outfield as their left fielder for four seasons, during which time he hit .302 in 457 games.

jim brewer

that's a nice shot of brewer in dodger stadium, with the 'three sisters' palm trees in the background.  brewer was one of the best relievers in dodger history, with 125 saves over 12 seasons with the club, starting in 1964.  he pitched in three world series for the dodgers, and was an all-star in 1973.

rocky colavito

here's the first rocky on the sheet.  a former american league home run champ, colavito played for the dodgers in 1968 for just over 2 months.  during that time, he hit .204 with 3 homers and 11 rbi. after playing in just 40 games for them, the dodgers released colavito and he finished out his career with the yankees.

bill crouch

crouch was 4-0 in his rookie season with the 1939 dodgers. he pitched in 6 games, starting 3 and completing each of them.  had his career ended there, i would bet that he and his father, also bill crouch, would have been the only father/son big leaguers to throw complete games in each of their major league starts (dad had one start and one complete game in 1910 for the browns).  alas, the dodgers traded crouch to the phillies where he made 5 starts in 1941 and completed only one.

tom daly

daly joined the bridegrooms after three seasons in the national league just as the brooklyn franchise joined the senior circuit in 1890.  he remained with the club for 12 years, although he missed the 1897 season.  daly was the team's primary second baseman for much of that time, playing in a total of 1096 games and batting .294 for brooklyn.

cecil espy

espy was the white sox' first round draft pick in 1980. i remember this because the la times made a big deal about the 1980 draft due to crenshaw high's darryl strawberry being picked first overall.  in reviewing the draft results, i noticed that espy was taken with the pick immediately prior to the dodgers' selection of ross jones (kelly gruber was the player taken right after the dodgers selected jones).  espy never played for the chisox, however, as he was dealt to the dodgers prior to the 1983 season for rudy law.  espy debuted in the big leagues during the '83 campaign as a september call-up.  he saw action in 20 games as a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner, and late inning defensive replacement, although he did start one game near the end of the season.  espy was back in the minors for the 1984 and 1985 seasons, and was then traded to the pirates in the bill madlock deal late in '85.  he didn't return to the majors, however, until he was with the rangers in 1987.  maybe that's when the picture used on his card was taken.

enzo hernandez

i've written about enzo before, and there's not much else to say since he only appeared in four games as a dodger in 1978. i'll just note that he was one of three dodgers to wear number 3 in 1978 - glenn burke and rudy law being the others.

dave j. hickman

dave here went by jim, as his middle name was james.  i am guessing that target used the dave to distinguish this guy from the other jim hickman who played for the dodgers.  you can tell that this one was a member of the 1916 robins thanks to the uniform he is wearing, and in fact, hickman was a robin from 1916 through 1919.  he hit .218 during that time while playing a fair amount of outfield, but he did not appear in the 1916 world series against the red sox.

joe oeschger

oeschger finished his 12 year major league career with a stint with the 1925 robins.  he pitched in 21 games, and had a record of 1-2 with a 6.08 era.  his name was already familiar to brooklyn fans, as oeschger was the pitcher for the braves who threw 26 innings against the robins on may 1, 1920 - a feat  also achieved by the robins' pitcher that day, leon cadore.  oeschger took his place next to cadore on a card commemorating the feat in the 1961 topps set.

charlie perkins

perkins was 0-3 with an 8.51 era for the 1934 dodgers. he pitched in 11 games, 2 of which were starts.  he had previously pitched in the majors for the 1930 athletics who won the world series, although perkins did not appear in the fall classic.

ken rowe

rowe was one of two rowes (don was the other - no relation) to appear on a 1963 topps rookie parade card.  he pitched in 14 games for the dodgers that year, putting up an era of 2.53 while splitting his two decisions.  rowe did not appear for the dodgers in the 1963 world series, and his contract was purchased by the orioles in 1964 bringing his dodger career to an end.

preston ward

ward was the dodgers' first baseman on opening day in 1948.  jackie robinson had moved to second base, opening the door for ward, a 20-year old rookie.  after a decent start (he was hitting right around .300 at the end of may), ward struggled in june and his average fell to .260 toward the end of the month.  he was sent down and gil hodges took over at first, and the rest is history.  after some more time in the minors, ward was picked up by the cubs, and he wound up playing in the majors for several years with the cubs, pirates, indians, and a's.

brad wellman

wellman spent the first five years of his big league career (1982-1986) with the giants, but signed with the dodgers as a free agent prior to the 1987 season. he managed to make it into three games as a dodger that year, appearing once as a second baseman, once as a shortstop, and once as a third baseman.  overall, he was 1 for 4 with an rbi as a dodger, and he signed with the royals after the season's end.

lave winham

winham pitched in one game for his hometown brooklyn superbas in 1902.  he lasted 3 innings, facing 15 batters and allowing 2 (unearned) runs.  the next year, he was pitching for the pirates in what would be his second and final big league season.  you don't see too many fedoras on baseball cards.

i will be back next week with another installment of these things, so don't fret.

sunday morning target dodgers - reese, reis, and reuss

i don't know how target assembled the set as far as which players appeared on which sheet, but there are a couple of common threads on this week's sheet - by name and by way many of the players came to be a part of the franchise.

this week's sheet of players from the 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary set starts off with number 1.

pee wee reese

reese was the dodger shortstop from 1940 through 1956 except for three seasons (1943-1945) during which time he served in the armed forces.  he was a 10-time all-star and a 7-time world series participant who sits atop the dodger all-time career leaderboard in war, walks, and runs scored, and is second to zack wheat in a number of other categories.

bobby reis

as a robin/dodger, reis played everywhere but catcher and shortstop.  his big league career began with the robins in 1931, and he played exclusively third base at that time, hitting .294 over six games.  he was back up in 1932, but played in just one game going 1 for 4 at third.  reis returned to the big leagues in 1935 with the dodgers, but this time he found himself on the mound 14 times, including 2 starts.  reis put together a record of 3-2 with 2 saves, a 2.83 era and an 11-inning complete game to boot.  he also played in the field in about three dozen other games that year.  reis was traded to the boston braves for the 1936 season, where he maintained his two-way play for three seasons.  his photo, by the way, comes from 1932 when he played for the jersey city skeeters.

jerry reuss

reuss came to the dodgers at the start of the 1979 season from the pirates in exchange for rick rhoden.  i was a fan of rhoden, and so i wasn't too excited with this development especially when reuss went 7-14 in his first season with the dodgers.  then came his 1980 season, complete with an 18-6 record, 2.51 era,  all-star berth, league-leading six shutouts, complete game victory in must-win game 161 against the astros, and most importantly his no-hit performance against the giants.  i was a reuss convert.  reuss also pitched well in 1981, helping the dodgers win the division series against the astros and eventually the world series over the yankees with complete game clinchers in each series, and he stayed with the team into the 1987 season.  don't forget to check out his website for some cool photos and other stuff.

bob bailey

bailey was a hot prospect for the pirates in the early 1960's, but he failed to live up to the lofty expectations, later becoming half of the haul (gene michael was the other half) that the dodgers received from the pirates in the maury wills trade prior to the 1967 season.  he played for the dodgers for two seasons, hitting .227 (73 for 322) in both 1967 and 1968, and his contract was purchased by the expos following the 1968 season. bailey was the first baseman in their inaugural game, and became the first expo to get a hit and the first to drive in runs.  in fact, bailey had his best offensive years with the expos as he realized some of the potential that the pirates had hoped for.  after several seasons in montreal, bailey eventually found his way to the reds, where he was a member of their 1976 world championship team, although he did not play in the postseason.

mark bradley

bradley was a late-season call up for the dodgers in 1981 and 1982. he was their first round pick in 1975, and appeared in a total of 17 games for them in those two aforementioned seasons.  bradley's last game as a dodger was their final game of the 1982 season, when joe morgan and the giants dashed their postseason hopes.  he was traded to the mets prior to the following season.

augie galan

galan was acquired by the dodgers from the cubs during the 1941 season.  he remained a dodger through the 1946 season, playing mostly outfield, and was a national league all-star in 1943 and 1944.  it appears that he enjoyed a crossword puzzle as well as playing baseball.

ray lamb

lamb was a reliever who pitched for the dodgers in 1969 and 1970.  he even found his way on to a topps card in 1970, sharing space with bob stinson.  he was 0-1 with a save and a 1.80 era in 10 games during his debut season, and then 6-1 with a 3.79 era in 35 games the following year.  lamb was traded to the indians in the duke sims deal after the 1970 season, and he spent three seasons in cleveland working as a reliever and a sometimes starter.  he is the only dodger to wear number 42 after jackie robinson, doing so in the 1969 season.

vic lombardi

lombardi pitched for the dodgers from 1945 through 1947.  he won 10, 13, and 12 games in those seasons with his era consistently around 3.00.  following the 1947 world series, in which lombardi made two starts, he was traded to the pirates in the dixie walker deal that netted the dodgers, among others, preacher roe.

al mamaux

mamaux was part of the trade between the robins and pirates prior to the 1918 season that saw casey stengel head to pittsburgh with burleigh grimes going to brooklyn.  mamaux had won 21 games twice for the pirates, but his high during his six seasons with the robins was 12 in their pennant-winning 1920 season.

norm sherry

norm was the older brother of larry sherry, the dodger pitcher.  together they formed a rare fraternal battery from 1959 to 1962 - the span of norm's dodger career.  norm is probably best known as the guy who suggested to sandy koufax that he relax and not try to throw so hard prior to the 1961 season.  koufax took his advice and went on to dominate the league for the remainder of his career, while norm wound up with the mets in 1963.

eddie stack

stack pitched for the dodgers and superbas in 1912 and 1913.  he was 11-9 with a 2.99 era in that span, but was traded to the cubs during the 1913 campaign.

jigger statz

arnold john 'jigger' statz played in the major leagues for eight seasons beginning in 1919, the last two of which he spent in brooklyn with the robins.  while he hit .264 over those two seasons, bringing an end to his major league career, he found tremendous success in the pacific coast league with the los angeles angels.  statz had spent time with the angels while bouncing up and down from the big leagues, but he returned to the club for good in 1929 and wound up setting pcl records in a number of categories.  as such, statz is a member of the pcl hall of fame.

chuck templeton

templeton debuted for the dodgers on september 9, 1955 in chicago.  he retired all six of the cub batters he faced that day, but the dodgers lost despite his perfect relief effort.  he appeared in three more games during that midwestern road trip, allowing runs in each of those appearances while taking the loss in his last appearance of the season thanks to the fact that he walked the only batter he faced (stan musial) to lead of the bottom of the 12th innning.  templeton returned to the majors in 1956, taking the second loss of his career in his first start of the season which just happened to take place in saint louis.  he finally got to pitch in brooklyn his second time out in 1956, going four innings as the starter in what turned out to be a 7-5 dodger win over the cards.  he was sent down to the dodgers' saint paul affiliate in the summer of '56, and did not return to the majors.

chuck ward

ward was part of the trade i referenced earlier between the pirates and dodgers.  not the bob bailey/maury wills trade nor the preacher roe/dixie walker trade nor the jerry reuss/rick rhoden trade, but rather the burleigh grimes/casey stengel trade.  ward, who had succeeded honus wagner as the pirates' shortstop, accompanied grimes and mamaux to the dodgers in january of 1918, and appeared in 111 games as a backup shortstop and third baseman over the next 5 seasons.  he apparently has some connection to rutgers university, but i failed to uncover exactly what that connection was.

the fifteenth brooklyn-ite on the sheet is john anderson, who double dipped with the franchise and so gets his own post later today.

sunday morning target dodgers - from allen to zimmer

another sunday, another 14 cards from a sheet of the 1990 target dodger set.  let's get right to it.

frank allen

allen pitched for the dodgers, superbas, and robins - in that order.  he broke into the majors in 1912 as a dodger (the franchise used that name in 1911 and 1912) and went 3-9 in 20 games.  in 1913, the team went back to being knows as the superbas, and allen was 4-18 despite a 2.83 era in 37 appearances.  wilbert robinson took over the managing duties in 1914, and the team became known as the robins as a result.  allen's results were about the same - he was 8-14 with a 3.10 era in 36 appearances before moving to the federal league to finish out the season.  he returned to the national league a couple years later, but with the boston braves, not the robins.

ralph bryant

bryant played in a total of 79 games for the dodgers from 1985-1987.  he hit .253 with 8 home runs, and found greater success in japan.

roger craig

craig made his big league debut as a dodger in their championship season of 1955.  he started and won game 5 of the world series that year, earning the first of his three championship rings (he also won titles with the dodgers in 1959 and the cardinals in 1964).  after seven seasons with the dodgers, craig was selected by the mets in the expansion draft, and became the first starting pitcher in the franchise's history, losing their inaugural game 11-4 to the cardinals.  sadly for dodger fans, craig later became a successful manager for the giants of all teams.

brad havens

havens came to the dodgers in the 1987 trade that also brought john shelby to the club in exchange for tom niedenfuer.  he had no record in 31 games that season for the dodgers, recording one save and making a start as well.  he posted a 4.66 era in 9 appearances to start his 1988 season, and was released by the dodgers in may of that year.

dutch henry

henry debuted as a 19-year old for the saint louis browns.  after two seasons with the browns, he was traded to the robins.  in his two seasons with brooklyn, henry was 5-8 in 33 games, 13 of which were starts.  he threw two shutouts as a robin, and also hit .236 for the team.  following his stint with brooklyn, henry pitched for the giants and the white sox.

willard hunter

hunter pitched in exactly one game for the dodgers.  it came in april of 1962 at candlestick park.  he allowed the first three batters he faced to reach base, with the third giant being willie mays who hit a 3-run homer off of him.  he retired the next three batters, but was roughed up in the following inning, his last as a dodger.  in all, hunter allowed 10 runs (9 earned) in two innings of work.  he was soon thereafter traded to the mets as the player to be named later in the charley neal/lee walls deal.

tom hutton

hutton came up with the dodgers as a first base prospect, getting a cup of coffee with the team in 1966.  he returned in 1969, playing in 16 games and hitting .271.  stuck in the minors behind wes parker, bill buckner, and steve garvey, hutton was traded to the phillies following the 1971 season for larry hisle, who himself got stuck in the dodger minor leagues for his lone season with the organization as well.

hal lee

lee spent the 1930 season, his first in the majors, with the robins.  he hit .162 in 22 games, many of which he appeared in as a pinch-hitter.  in fact, he hit his first big league home run while pinch-hitting for the robins that year.  lee is better known as the player on the 1935 boston braves who replaced babe ruth in the bambino's final big league game.

morrie martin

martin had a 10-year big league career, the first of which was spent with the dodgers in 1949.  he was 1-3 with a 7.04 era in 10 games that year, and spent the entire 1950 season back in saint paul with the dodgers' affiliate.  he was lost in the rule v draft following the season to the philadelphia a's.

otho nitcholas

i would have guessed that target misspelled 'otto nicholas', but no - this guy really was named otho nitcholas.  he appeared in 7 major league games, all for the 1945 brooklyn dodgers.  he was 1-0 with a 5.30 era, but found far greater success both before and after his time with the dodgers in the minor leagues, where he won over 250 games over the course of his career.

derrel (not derrell) thomas

thomas was a member of the 1981 world championship dodger team who was best known for his ability to play all around the diamond.  i, in fact, was in attendance at one of the four games in which thomas started as the dodgers' catcher during the 1980 season (i was at the april 18 game - the one that saw thomas hit his lone home run of the season).  thomas was a dodger for 5 of his 15 seasons in the majors.

jeff torborg

torborg spent 7 seasons with the dodgers, from 1964 through 1970.  he began as the backup catcher to john roseboro, and remained a backup even after roseboro was dealt to the twins following the 1967 season.  even so, torborg caught sandy koufax's perfect game in 1965 and bill singer's no-hitter in 1970.  torborg joined the angels prior to the 1971 season and stayed with them through 1973, catching nolan ryan's first no-hitter in 1973 to become one of two catchers to catch a no-no in each league, and the only person to catch a no-hitter thrown by koufax and ryan.  torborg later became a manager, and won the 1990 american league manager of the year award for his work leading the chicago white sox.

john ward

ward, known as 'monte' thanks to his middle name being 'montgomery', was a brooklyn groom in 1891 and 1892.  he led the league with 88 steals in his second year with the team, but that was less than the 111 steals he had with the giants to lead the league in 1887.  earlier in his career, ward had been a pitcher, but was converted to a fielder by the giants.  he finished his hall of fame career with a second stint with the giants in 1893 and 1894.

don zimmer

the late zimmer had two separate stints with the dodgers.  he began his career with the brooklyn dodgers in 1954 and moved to los angeles with the team in 1958.  following the 1959 season, he was traded to the cubs and later became an original met, becoming their first third baseman.  in fact, along with craig and zimmer, the mets had former dodgers charley neal and gil hodges in their inaugural game lineup.  zimmer returned to the dodgers in 1963, but had his contract purchased by the senators later in that season.  zimmer passed away earlier this year, and was remembered as a baseball lifer - his affiliation with the league lasted 60-plus years.

sunday morning target dodgers

more cards from the impossible to store 1990 target dodger set.  unless you separate the individual cards, the sheets are not of a size that can be stored in plastic sheets and binders.  my set is in a box.  anyway, these guys all appear on the same panel as triple dipper hughie jennings, and many of them are short-timers.

pat ankenman

ankenman played in a total of 14 games for the dodgers over the course of the 1943 and 1944 seasons.  he also played in 1 game for the cardinals in 1936, meaning his big league career consisted of just 15 appearances.

tom catterson

catterson's career consisted of just a few more games than ankenman's - he appeared in 28 games for the superbas over the 1908 and 1909 seasons.  he was only 35 when he died in 1920.

paul chervinko

chervinko's big league career was longer, in terms of games played, than either of ankenman's or catterson's - we're making some progress.  yes, chervinko was a dodger for a little over a year - from may of 1937 when he was acquired from the cardinals until july of 1938 when he was sent to montreal of the international league.  during that time, he appeared in 42 games and hit .147.  after retiring as a player, chervinko managed in the dodger farm system for 8 seasons.

phil douglas

douglas spent just a portion of one season with the brooklyn franchise.  they were known as the robins in 1915 when douglas sandwiched his dodger tenure between time with the reds and the cubs.  he was 5-5 in 20 appearances for the robins and 7-11 on the season as a whole.  he later went on to pitch for the new york giants and led the league in era in 1922, a year after helping the giants beat the yankees in the world series.

al humphrey

humphrey was a dodger in 1911, and his career consisted of just 8 appearances that year.  it's a wonder there's a photo of him playing ball, although did spend a couple of seasons in the minors in addition to his brief big league stay.

maury kent

kent played for the dodgers in 1912 and the superbas in 1913.  his entire career consisted of the 23 games in which he appeared over the course of those two seasons, finishing his career with a 5-5 lifetime record.  he later went on to coach baseball for a few different big 10 schools.

billy mullen

mullen was a brooklyn robin in 1923.  he had 12 plate appearances in four games, going 3 for 11 with a sacrifice.  he also played for the browns and tigers, as you could tell by the uniform he is wearing on his card.

dennis powell

finally a modern player!  and, a shot of someone in dodger stadium!  powell appeared in a whopping 43 games as a dodger during the 1985 and 1986 seasons.  he was traded to seattle for matt young following the '86 campaign, and continued to pitch in the majors through 1993.

tot pressnell

tot's first name was forest, in case you were wondering.  he pitched for the dodgers for three seasons - 1938, 1939, and 1940.  during that time, he appeared in 98 games and amassed a record of 26-26.  he later pitched for the cubs.

doc reisling

doc's first name was frank, and he may or may not have been a dentist.  he pitched for the superbas in 1904 and 1905, and was 3-5 in his 9 appearances.  he later pitched for the washington senators as a teammate of walter johnson.

gilberto reyes

reyes made his debut for the dodgers in 1983, and had cups of coffee with the team in 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1988.  he was, of course, blocked by mike scioscia at the catcher position, so his career dodger totals included 35 games and only 9 starts behind the plate.  he was traded to the expos prior to the 1989 season.

max rosenfeld

rosenfeld's entire big league career was spent with brooklyn, and it spanned three seasons - from 1931 through 1933.  he played in 42 games and hit .298.

butts wagner

some of these cards are pretty harsh.  ol' butts here (first name albert) was a brooklyn bridegroom in 1898.  he had come over from the washington senators on loan towards the end of the season, and hit .237 in 11 games for brooklyn.

rube ward

rube (john) ward had one season of big league service in his career.  it came in 1902 as a superba.  in 13 games, he hit .290, and that's about all we know about him.

a big thanks to baseball reference for all of the information about these players of whom i knew pretty much nothing about, except for powell and reyes.