sunday morning target dodgers - putting the 'l' in 'gcrl' and the last brooklyn dodger

another sunday, another sheet from the 1990 target giveaway set marking the dodger franchise's 100th anniversary of national league existence.

this sheet is a pretty good one - we'll start with the second baseman on the team of my youth, and the dodgers' current first base coach, davey lopes

lopes helped the dodgers to 4 pennants during his tenure as their second baseman.  he led the league in steals in 1975 and 1976 - the last dodger to do so.  maybe dee gordon will break that streak this year.

hank aguirre

nice dodger stadium background there!  aguirre spent the entire 1968 season with the dodgers and seemed to pitch well following a solid decade with the tigers.  for the blue, he had a 0.69 era in 25 appearances, including 39 innings of work, but was released by the team during the offseason.  he wound up signing with the cubs and pitched for a couple more seasons.

roy campanella

campy is one of a very small group of players to have won 3 mvp awards.  he won his over a 5-year span during his 10-year tenure as the dodgers' catcher that came to an end when he was paralyzed from injuries sustained in a car accident following the 1957 season.  he entered the hall of fame in 1969, and his number was retired by the dodgers right about 42 years ago at the same time that jackie robinson and sandy koufax had their numbers retired.

george dockins

the card says that dockins was an infielder, but he was actually a pitcher.  dockins pitched for the cardinals in 1945, but had his contract purchased by the dodgers in 1946.  he reached the big leagues with the club in 1947, appearing in four games.  he had no record with an era of 11.81.

dave foutz

not often you see a necktie on a baseball card.  foutz was with the brooklyn franchise starting in 1888,  two years before the bridegrooms joined the nl, and so was an original national league brooklyn-ite.  he stayed with the team as a player through 1896.  he also was a pitcher, but spent most of his time with brooklyn as a first baseman and outfielder.  oh, he was also the team's third manager, leading the team from 1893 though 1896 when both his playing and managing careers came to a simultaneous end, reportedly due to difficulties with asthma. sadly, he died at the age of 40 shortly thereafter.

john hale

that's a pretty good photo used on hale's card.  hale was an outfielder on the dodgers from 1974 until late in the 1977 season when the dodgers put him on waivers and he was claimed by the blue jays.  two weeks later, the mariners purchased his contract, and he spent 1978 and 79 with the m's.  as a dodger, he started out with a bang.  he was 4 for 4 in his first big league appearances in 1974 - his first big league at bat came against jr richard, and resulted in a double for hale.  hale was the team's fourth outfielder in 1975 behind bill buckner, jim wynn, and willie crawford, but wasn't able to crack the starting lineup even with the departure of those three because of the arrival of their replacements - dusty baker, reggie smith, and rick monday.

joe judge

judge had spent 18 seasons with the washington senators, including their two pennant winning teams, before joining the dodgers for the 1933 season.  as a dodger, judge played in 42 games and hit just .214.  he was released by the team and returned to the american league as a member of the boston red sox.

mike kekich

another dodger stadium backdrop!  kekich is best known by me as one of three 'other' dodgers featured on jim lefebvre's 1965 topps rookie card.  truth is, he spent 9 years in the majors, mostly as a yankee.  he debuted for the dodgers in 1965 as a 20-year old and was 0-1 in 5 appearances.  he returned to the big leagues in 1968 and went 2-10 in 25 games.  following the season, he was dealt to the yankees for andy kosco.

bob kennedy

bob kennedy ended his big league playing career with 19 appearances for the brooklyn dodgers in 1957.  in fact, he made the final out in the dodgers' last game as the brooklyn dodgers, a fly out to end the 1957 season.  like kekich, i remember kennedy more for a 1965 topps card - the one that shows him as 'head coach' because the cubs used a group of coaches rather than a manager for a season or two.

rudy law

law debuted with the dodgers as a september call-up in 1978.  he returned to the majors in 1980 as the club's primary center fielder and stole 40 bases.  unfortunately, the dodgers went out and traded for ken landreaux and so law spent the team's 1981 championship season in the minors.  law was traded to the white sox prior to the 1982 season, and made the postseason that year with chicago.

ramon martinez

martinez debuted during the dodgers' memorable 1988 season, but didn't appear in the postseason.  he soon became the team's ace, winning 20 games in 1990.  his 1314 strikeouts as a dodger are good for 8th all-time in franchise history, but he should be passed by clayton kershaw here in the next few weeks.

chappie mcfarland

mcfarland earned this card by making one start for the brooklyn superbas in 1906.  he pitched a complete game, but unfortunately it was a loss in which he allowed 8 earned runs.  that game was not only the sum of his brooklyn career, it was the end of his big league career that had begun in 1902.

johnny mitchell

mitchell spent the 1924 and 1925 seasons with the brooklyn robins.  he hit .256 as one of the team's shortstops, playing in a total of 161 games as a robin.

howie schultz

schultz broke in with the dodgers in 1943, playing first base.  he played in over 300 games for the dodgers at that position until he was replaced by jackie robinson in 1947.  the dodgers dealt him to the phillies early on in the 1947 season.  after retiring from baseball following the 1948 season, schultz went on to play in the nba with his hometown minneapolis lakers.

tracy woodson

woodson played for the dodgers from 1987 into 1989.  he was a member of the 1988 world champions, getting into four of the five world series games that year against the a's.  in fact, woodson drove in what wound up being the game winning run of the dodgers' game 4 4-3 victory that put them up 3 games to 1.

how many cards would a woodson sign, if a woodson could sign cards?

well, in my experience, the answer is 4.  that's because former dodger tracy woodson signed and returned four cards for me a couple of years ago.  first, there is his 1988 donruss card

then the 1988 fleer

followed by 1989 topps (with a shmear)

and finally his 1989 upper deck card

woodson, of course, played third and first for the 1988 world champion los angeles dodgers.  he drove in the game winning run in their pivotal game 4 victory over the a's in the fall classic.  that was the game prior to which bob costas referred to the dodgers' lineup as the weakest world series lineup ever.  woodson couldn't even crack that starting lineup, stacked as it was with jeff hamilton, alfredo griffin, mickey hatcher, john shelby and the like.  he wound up pinch-hitting for frankin stubbs in the 7th.

woodson was given a crack at the dodgers' starting job at third base coming out of spring training in 1987, but he couldn't claim it, and after a couple of months he was sent down and replaced by phil garner and a merry band of misfits.  what i remember most about woodson, however, is that he hit his first big league home run (1 of only 5) off of nolan ryan in his first week as a major leaguer.

thanks tracy!  now if only i knew how many boards the mongols could hoard if the mongol hordes got bored.

going green by saving blue - now with stats on the back

i was just doing what i thought was right - keeping more trash out of a landfill - when i told mark at stats-on-the-back that i would give the dodgers he was going to throw out a good home.

it turns out that i was just being selfish. what a great lot of cards. a cornucopia of stars, semi-stars, and people who should have been happy to wear the uniform just once.

here's a sampling:

1990 donruss the rookies brian traxler

i am convinced that brian traxler won the farmer john eastern corn-fed pork dodgers sweepstakes and was alowed on the field during batting practice one day. he was able to convince the photographer that he was worthy of a shot with the right field pavilion of dodger stadium in the background. i mean, really. his helmet is number 20 and his jersey looks like 21 or 24. 24 was walter alston's (retired) and i believe mitch webster was number 20 at this time (it has since been retired in honor of don sutton). at any rate, nicely played brian traxler!

1996 upper deck collector's choice chan ho parkin the fall of 1995, the dodgers sent chan ho to the arizona fall league, apparently sponsored by avis, to learn how to pitch left handed. i mean, the card itself identifies him as a 'rhp' with a photo of him throwing (actually it doesn't look like he is throwing, does it?) left handed. oh, it's merely a reversed negative. great shades of dale murphy! too bad this isn't worth anything. except to me or a collector of chan ho park.

1970 topps super claude osteen
well, claude osteen's superiority may be debatable, but that is the name of the set of oversized cards issued by topps. they are on heavy stock, and apparently were sold in 3-card wax packs. the backs are identical to the regular 1970 set. this card is number 1 in the set, and apparently once was sold (or offered for sale) at the bargain price of 20 cents. awesome.

1993 upper deck lenny harrisif ever a card should be in 3-d, this is one of them. lenny flinging his helmet right at us. notice his position is listed as 'if'. lenny was half of the super utility unit the dodgers had in the early 90s (mike sharperson being the other half). too versatile to be labeled at any individual position. that was lenny.

1988 fleer tracy woodsontracy has a bit of an 'oompa-loompa' look to him because of the eyebrows. another 'infield' guy - tracy played mostly third base. i believe he caught the last out of game 4 of the 1988 world series. that's a better claim to fame than most people have, myself included.

2006 upper deck sandy alomar, jr. with eric gagne in the background.
i had completely forgotten that sandy alomar jr. played for the dodgers, and it was only a couple years ago. once russell martin came through, it was adios sandy. but we'll always have those summer nights.

yes, a 'grease' reference.

1993 donruss triple play tim wallach, todd worrell and jody reed this card kills me. it celebrates the new dodgers on board for 1993. worrell and wallach are on the front. jody reed is on the back. i am sure jody reed is a nice guy, but i am legally required to remind you that he is the reason the dodgers traded pedro martinez for delino deshields. once he (foolishly, as it turns out) rejected the dodgers' contract offer, fred claire sent pedro to montreal for a new second baseman. thus, jody reed is relegated to the proverbial backside of the baseball card that is dodger history.

thanks mark. at the very least, i have a 1978 topps tito fuentes and a 2008 ud masterpieces joba chamberlain for your sets headed your way.