filling in the gilliams

this is jim gilliam's 1964 topps card

it's also his last topps card (as a player), and for good reason.  gilliam joined the dodger coaching staff following the 1964 season.  however, the team, and particularly the infielders (john kennedy and dick traczewski) that were supposed to replace gilliam faltered, and buzzie bavasi reactivated junior from the coaching squad.

gilliam played for two more years, helping the dodgers reach the world series in both of those seasons.  not that topps noticed.  so, here is a 1965 topps jim gilliam card that should have been

i used the photo from his 1962 topps card, which is a bit of a throwback, but topps has done that same sort of thing before.  the 1966 topps card that should have been

is very similar to one created by cards that never were.

i didn't do a back, but here is what would have been gilliam's final tribute - a 1967 topps card that should have been

it's not the best photo, but i liked the backdrop of dodger stadium.  it would have been nice to see dodger stadium in the background of some of those cards from the 1960's. topps did get the los angeles coliseum (the dodgers' home prior to moving to chavez ravine) on some 1959 cards, so why weren't they able to do the same for dodger stadium?

gilliam returned to coaching after the 1966 world series, and he appears on the manager/coaches cards in the 1973 and 1974 topps sets, but he should have had more cards as a player than he did.

who's carrying jackie robinson's torch? besides everyone, that is...

this week marks the 68th anniversary of jackie robinson's debut in the major leagues.  however, this post focuses more on the end of his playing days, as i thought i'd take a look at how his career torch was passed.

in his final regular season at bat (on september 30, 1956), jackie robinson grounded out against the pirates' bob friend.  here's jackie's 1956 topps card - the last from his playing days.

jackie did play in the world series in '56, but i am keeping this to regular season games.  for the record, jackie made the final out of the '56 series, striking out against the yankees' johnny kucks.

bob friend, who appeared with sandy koufax on a 1964 topps league leaders card,

retired deron johnson of the reds on september 24, 1966 while he was pitching for the mets.  johnson was the last batter friend faced in the majors.

deron johnson, seen here on a 1974 topps card as an oakland a,

struck out in his final big league appearance to end the game on may 28, 1976 as a member of the red sox against the orioles' grant jackson

on september 8, 1982, grant jackson had a one-game return stint for the pirates after pitching for the royals for the majority of the season.  here's his 1982 topps traded card

he entered in relief with the mets having loaded the bases in the 9th inning with one out, and promptly served up a grand slam to catcher ron hodges.  jackson retired the next two batters to end the inning, the last of which was ron gardenhire.  that was the last time jackson appeared in the big leagues.

ron gardenhire, still with the mets,

struck out in the 9th against jeff reardon to end his major league playing career on october 6, 1985. i like gardy's 1985 donruss card because of dodger stadium in the background.

jeff reardon finished his career in 1994 as a yankee (see this 1994 upper deck collector's choice gold parallel as proof)

allowing a game-tying single to tim salmon with his final big league pitch on may 4 of that year.

tim salmon (shown on a 2003 upper deck mvp card)

popped out against oakland's huston street in his last career at bat on october 1, 2006.  salmon was in the on-deck circle when the game ended.

huston street is still going strong, pitching for the angels following a midseason trade with the padres last year.  here's his 2014 topps update card

there are other, more important ways, in which jackie robinson's legacy lives on, but this sort of playing legacy has always intrigued me.

how about some vintage duke?

feeling vintage today, and i just happen to have a few cards of the silver fox scanned and loaded.  these aren't too vintage-y, however, as they are la dodger dukes.

1960 topps

1961 topps

classic duke pose on that '61.  similar to his 1952 topps card, which is one of two (1955 is the other) topps cards that i have yet to obtain of snider.

1959 topps baseball thrills subset

looks like the guy in the stands is protecting his privates.  this was the last 1959 topps dodger card that i needed for my set.

here's duke's last topps card from his playing days - his 1964 topps card

he was featured as a met in the 1963 set, too, but i don't have that high numbered card.  there wasn't a card issued for him in the 1965 set, unfortunately, as that would have been his final tribute.  of course, he would have been featured as a giant, so maybe it's not all bad.

duke appeared as a met again in the 2003 topps retired set

but topps fixed that in time for the 2005 version of the retired set

one of the first duke snider cards i ever owned was this 1983 donruss hall of fame heroes card

it was a year later that donruss had him in their regular set as the 'hall of fame diamond king' and puzzle subject.

here's another duke card from donruss, 2004 donruss studio to be exact

with the los angeles skyline behind him, he's shown in his brooklyn duds.  i think of snider as a brooklyn dodger - he had all of his best seasons there, and never was an all-star while in la - and the lack of the '52 and '55 cards in my collection is really starting to wear on me.  i'll probably do something about that.

hail the mail!

i enjoy getting mail.  i always have.  over the last few years, i have especially enjoyed seeing self addressed stamped envelopes in the mailbox.  that's because they usually contain autographed cards.  the most recent of these envelopes came from the twins' spring training home thanks to former dodger pitcher ricky nolasco.  i had sent a copy of his 2014 topps card

and his 2013 topps update card

to fort myers in the hopes that he would sign them, and he did!  what's even more awesome about this is that it fills the requirement of my topps dodger autograph project for 2014.  as you might recall, i tried to secure at least one signed dodger card (ideally freely obtained through the mail) for each topps flagship set, starting with the 1951 red/blue backs, without repeating a player.  now, i could count nolasco's 2013 topps update card as part of the project (i don't consider update series official requirements of the project, but note them if i have them), but i don't know if i will send out any other 2014 cards so i will skip the update set for now.

here's the updated tally of the project, by the way.

1951 topps - preacher roe (purchased)

1952 topps - rocky bridges

1953 topps - bobby morgan

1954 topps - billy herman (purchased)

1955 topps - don zimmer (purchased)

1956 topps - randy jackson

1957 topps - carl erskine

1958 topps - joe pignatano

1959 topps - fred kipp

1960 topps - chuck essegian

1961 topps - bob aspromonte

1962 topps - norm sherry

1963 topps - ed roebuck

1964 topps - ken mcmullen

1965 topps - dick tracewski

1966 topps - john kennedy

1967 topps - phil regan

1968 topps - jim campanis

1969 topps - jeff torborg

1970 topps - al mcbean

1971 topps - sandy vance

1972 topps - manny mota

1973 topps - wes parker

1974 topps - claude osteen

1974 topps traded - jim wynn

1975 topps - ron cey

1975 topps mini - joe ferguson

1976 topps - bill russell

1976 topps traded - dusty baker

1977 topps - steve garvey

1978 topps - dave lopes

1979 topps - charlie hough

1980 topps - jerry reuss

1981 topps - doug rau

1981 topps traded - ken landreaux

1982 topps - dave goltz

1982 topps traded - jose morales

1983 topps - ron roenicke

1983 topps traded - rafael landestoy

1984 topps - fernando valenzuela

1984 topps traded - mike vail

1985 topps - burt hooton

1985 topps traded - mariano duncan

1986 topps - enos cabell

1986 topps traded - franklin stubbs

1987 topps - steve sax

1987 topps traded - matt young

1988 topps - len matuszek

1989 topps - mickey hatcher

1990 topps - kal daniels

1990 topps traded - juan samuel

1991 topps - tim belcher

1992 topps - roger mcdowell

1993 topps - dave hansen

1993 topps traded - tim wallach

1994 topps - jody reed

1995 topps - chris gwynn

1996 topps - todd hollandsworth

1997 topps - brett butler

1998 topps - greg gagne

1999 topps - jose vizcaino

2000 topps - jeff shaw

2001 topps - chan ho park

2002 topps - andy ashby

2002 topps traded - joel hanrahan

2003 topps - jim tracy

2003 topps traded - ron coomer

2004 topps - edwin jackson

2004 topps traded - milton bradley

2005 topps - chad billingsley

2005 topps update & highlights - jason phillips

2006 topps - bill mueller

2007 topps - james loney

2007 topps update & highlights - andy laroche

2008 topps - delwyn young

2008 topps update & highlights - casey blake

2009 topps - matt kemp

2009 topps update & highlights - brad ausmus

2010 topps - juan pierre

2010 topps update & highlights - ronnie belliard

2011 topps - hong-chih kuo

2011 topps update & highlights - matt guerrier

2012 topps - nathan eovaldi

2012 topps update & highlights - matt treanor

2013 topps - randy choate

2014 topps - ricky nolasco

there was a similar pwe in my mailbox a few days prior to the nolasco envelope.  it contained a 1964 topps dick calmus card

signed by the former dodger pitcher and returned in just a few days.  unfortunately, there aren't any other topps cards of calmus (he has a card in the 1968 set, but is featured as a cub) so i just sent the one.  

like nolasco, some of the players noted above as part of the topps dodger autograph project signed more than one card, and i realized that i have not shown some of them.

edwin jackson is part of the project thanks to his 2004 topps card, but he also signed a 2005 card for me.

likewise, delwyn young is up there for his 2008 topps card, but he also signed a 2003 topps 206

and a 2007 topps card

as did juan pierre, who made the project thanks to a 2010 topps ttm success.

pierre also signed one of his 2008 upper deck cards

probably my favorite card of his, as well as his 2009 topps card

not all dodger ttm successes made the project, obviously, and here is one that fell short - a 2007 topps luis gonzalez

last, but not least, is a card that is ineligible for the project (it's not a topps card), but is a cool ttm success nonetheless - a 2007 upper deck mike lieberthal card

thanks to all for signing my cards! and thanks also to the mailman for delivering the mail!

11 more wins

october starts today for the dodgers.  i, like all other dodger fans, am hoping that the team has 11 more wins in them this year.  i had a couple of cards from octobers past scanned and figured today was a good day to show them.  here's a 1964 topps world series card featuring ron fairly and the yankee bullpen.

back in 1963, the dodgers only had to win four games in the postseason to claim the title.

here's a 1989 woolworth card of mike davis

davis earned some redemption of sorts with his home run in game 5 of the 1988 world series.  after spraining his ankle in spring training, he had a pretty rough season with the dodgers, but his game 5 home run gave the dodgers some cushion and made me feel better about davis.  the dodgers won 8 games in the 1988 postseason - the most they have ever won in october.

this is a history of the game insert from 2010 topps that (if it is in any way accurate visually) shows the dodgers and yankees playing in the 1947 world series.

unfortunately, the dodgers only won 3 games that postseason.  this year, i'm looking for 11.

the evolution of the dodger third baseman - part one of way too many

it's been a while since i've run down the lineage of a dodger position.  it's time to get to the infield, although i should probably update one or two of the previous posts.  i'll do that eventually, but for now, let's look at the hot corner.  this one will take a few posts to get through, as third base has not been a model of consistency for the dodgers except from 1973 through 1982.

as usual, i am starting with the late 40's/early 50's since that's when baseball cards became more prevalent.

billy cox (1948-1953)

look at that 1952 bowman awesomeness!  billy cox arrived in brooklyn after the 1947 season (along with preacher roe and gene mauch) by way of a trade with the pirates.  he helped the dodgers win three pennants (1949, 1952, and 1953) and was best known for his fielding abilities although he hit .291 in 1953 and .302 over his three world series appearances.  cox was prominently featured in roger kahn's book 'the boys of summer' but was unfortunately not a member of the 1955 brooklyn dodger championship team.  that's because he was traded (again along with roe) after the 1954 season to the baltimore orioles.  he spent just part of the 1955 season there before being traded to cleveland, but he chose to retire rather than report to the indians.

in his tenure as the dodgers' third baseman, cox appeared in 742 games and hit .259 with 46 homers and 245 rbi, and he saved who knows how many with his glove.

don hoak (1954)

yes i realize that i'm showing hoak's 1953 topps card rather than his more appropriate 1954 issue.  it's because i find it odd that hoak had a card in the 53 set since he didn't debut in the majors until the following year.  anyway, hoak and cox split time fairly evenly at third base in 1954 with hoak getting slightly more playing time and thus the entry here.  as a rookie, he hit .245 with 7 homers and 26 rbi.  one would have thought, perhaps, that with cox being traded after the season hoak would be given the third base job.  not so.

jackie robinson (1955)

good lord.  i'm burying my 1955 topps jackie robinson card three deep in a dodgers-centric post that hardly anybody but me cares about?  what's wrong with me?  nice card, anyway.

yes, jackie robinson slid over to the hot corner in 1955, starting there in 82 of his 105 games played for walt alston.  he had the worst offensive season of his career that year, hitting just .256 with only 16 extra base hits and 36 rbi.  still, the dodgers won the pennant and jackie started the first six games of the series.  after hitting .182 in those games, alston gave the game 7 start to hoak, who had the privilege of being on the field when johnny podres shut the yankees out for brooklyn's lone world series title.

in 1956, robinson made 71 starts at third during his final season, but was not the team's primary third baseman.

randy jackson (1956)

randy 'hansome ransom' jackson started just three games more than robinson in 1956, but that's enough to make the evolutionary list.  he had been acquired from the cubs prior to the season in a deal that sent don hoak (among others) to chicago.

jackson had been an all-star in his last two seasons with the cubs and was coming off a 21-homer campaign.  he played in a total of 101 games for the dodgers in 1956, and hit .274 with 8 homers and 53 rbi.  one of those home runs came as the middle part of a back-to-back-to-back sequence that started with a duke snider home run and culminated with gil hodges' walk-off blast against the phillies on june 29 - the only time three consecutive home runs have ended a game.  jackson helped the dodgers return to the world series in 1956, but he was hitless in his three fall classic at bats.

jackson returned in 1957 and started the season as the dodgers' third baseman.  however, a serious knee injury suffered near the end of april caused him to miss half the season, and precipitated a move to third by a dodger legend.

pee wee reese (1957)

good golly.  a '55 jackie and a 1957 topps pee wee reese in the same post? never mind the tape stains, this is a sweet piece of cardboard.

with jackson injured, pee wee took over at third and wound up playing 75 of his 103 games there that year.  at 38 years old, he hit .224 with a single home run and 33 runs scored.  he made the move to los angeles with the team, but was just a part-time player in 1958.

dick gray (1958)

dick gray made his major league debut on april 15, 1958 and was 2 for 4 with a single in his first big league at bat.  the next day, he hit the first los angeles dodger home run, and a couple days after that, he hit the first dodger home run in los angeles.  not a bad way to start.  gray wound up hitting .249 with 9 home runs on the season in just 58 games.  randy jackson and pee wee reese shared time with him at third, with jim gilliam, don zimmer, earl robinson, and even gil hodges helping out, but gray's 53 starts at the hot corner were more than anyone else, so he gets the spot in our countdown.

gray began the 1959 season on the bench, but got a few starts at third before he was traded to the cardinals in mid june.

jim gilliam (1959-1960)

the aforementioned gilliam brought some semblance of stability to the third base position for the dodgers as he took over in 1959.  sure, he still played second base and the outfield, but between 1959 and 1960, gilliam made a total of 246 starts at third base - more than any dodger in a two-year span since before even billy cox.  in 1959, gilliam led the league in walks and was named an all-star for the second time in his career.  he hit .282 and helped the dodgers win their first championship in los angeles.  in 1960, his average dipped to .248 although he matched his base on balls total from the previous season, and scored 96 runs.  in 1961, gilliam spent more time at second base, as the dodgers acquired a third baseman from the cardinals.  sort of.

daryl spencer (1961)

daryl spencer was acquired by the dodgers early in the 1961 season, and wound up starting 55 games for them at third base that year, despite having played nothing but shortstop for the cardinals prior to the trade.  he hit .243 with 8 home runs and 27 rbi for the dodgers, and then returned in 1962 to hit .136 with a pair of homers and 12 rbi in 77 games (57 of which included time spent at third base).  spencer's reduced playing time in 1962 meant that a familiar face was once again the primary dodger third baseman.

jim gilliam (1962)

believe it or not, walt alston trotted out jim gilliam as the dodgers' starting third baseman 60 times in 1962 - more than spencer, andy carey, lee walls, or even tommy davis.  that means that gilliam was the team's primary third baseman and second baseman that season!  in addition to those starts, gilliam found himself manning the hot corner 30 times as a result of in-game moves after starting elsewhere on the diamond.  overall, gilliam hit .270 in 1962, with an obp of .370 and 83 runs scored.

in 1963, gilliam made only 27 starts (and 55 total appearances) at third, because the dodgers had a rookie from oxnard ready to take over.

ken mcmullen (1963)

that's mcmullen's 1964 topps card.  i wasn't going to bury his 1963 rookie card way down here in this post.

as with most years, the dodgers employed a number of third basemen in 1963.  mcmullen got the most starts (66) out of his 71 appearances, so he gets to represent the year that the dodgers swept the yankees in the world series.  unfortunately, mcmullen did not appear in the postseason after hitting .236 with 5 home runs and 28 rbi during the regular season.  mcmullen only appeared in 24 games during the 1964 season, after which he was dealt to the senators in the claude osteen trade.

jim gilliam (1964-1965)

look who's back!  gilliam was once again getting the majority of the starts at third base in 1964 and 1965.  gilliam had a down year in 1964, hitting only .228 in 116 games (86 of which were spent at third with 62 starts there), but bounced back in 1965 to bat .280 with an obp of .384 in 111 contests (80, 77).

come back next time to see who took over for gilliam in 1966, and whether the dodgers could keep someone there for more than one season at a time.

maury wills gets his due and you could too

i spent a couple of hours this weekend finishing up a project that has been sitting idle for a couple of years.  i, like many dodger fans who collect baseball cards, have long been disgusted that this 1967 topps card is the first official wills card in the topps catalog.

it's a high number, and my copy is creased and worn since that's the only way i was able to purchase one.  will's second card is from the 1968 set, and is much easier to find.  sadly, he's still a pirate.

he's still wearing a pirate uniform on his 1969 topps card, too, although he is listed as an expo.  it wasn't until 1970 that topps had wills in dodger blue on a card, and that only lasted until 1972.

i am well aware of the 1960 topps card that features wills (i do not believe it to be charlie neal), and i am also aware of his 1963 fleer card.  i wrote about them (and his 1963 post card) in this post a while back.

i previously made a 1973 topps card for wills to serve as a final tribute (it was one of the first such 'cards that should have been' that i made) but it took me much longer to go back to the start of his career.  here goes.

wills debuted in 1959 on june 6th, playing behind and batting ahead of sandy koufax.  here's what a wills card might have looked like that year.

i 'artified' the image to try to make it look a little more like the other cards from the rookie subset, and used a bob lillis card as a base.  lillis and ron fairly are the only two dodgers in the subset that i can think of off hand, and both of them debuted in 1958.  i'm guessing that even if topps had offered wills a contract, he wouldn't have been part of the '59 set.

here's what a 1960 topps maury wills card might have looked like.

the photo comes from the topps archives, and was marked 1959 or 1960, so it fits for sure.  this one might be my favorite of the bunch.

on to 1961

wills is a bona fide star, now.  he led the league in steals in 1960 and 1961, and finished 9th in the league mvp voting following the '61 season.  he also won a gold glove at shortstop and appeared in his first all-star game that year.  that was nothing compared to his 1962 season, however.

for the 1962 topps card that should have been, i didn't mess with success.

topps created that card for their 1975 mvp subset, and it was used in the 1982 kmart mvp set, and in the 1987 topps turn back the clock subset.  it works nicely.

for the 1963 topps card, i used a photo featuring the recently opened dodger stadium

i love the fact that the three ladies (does anyone other than vin scully call them that?) are still bound at the top.  this would have been a nice card.

this year, topps included wills as part of the heritage autograph checklist.  in doing so, they created a nice card of him in the 1964 style.  so, i used the same photo and came up with a similar result.

one of the main differences is that i put wills at shortstop and third base, as he spent 33 games at the hot corner in 1963.  it was the first time that he had played there in his major league career.

i am really looking forward to 2014 topps heritage.  here's the 1965 topps installment for wills.

again with the 3b/ss positioning.  he only played 6 games there in 1964, but i chose not to delete it from his card.  i say delete because i used a john kennedy card as the base, and he had '3b-shortstop' on his card.

here's what i came up with for 1966.

wills is back in dodger stadium, and you can see one of the palm trees has opened up a bit.  this photo is probably from earlier than 1965 or 1966, but i still think it works.

it was after the 1966 season that wills was dealt to the pirates, but i still made a 1967 topps card featuring him in dodger blue

topps also created a 1967 topps card with wills as a dodger for one of the fan favorites sets (you can see it in this post).  they used the photo that i chose for the 1960 card.

well, i know i feel better with these cards that should have been filling in the holes in wills' career, and, i am pretty happy with the way these turned out.  so much so, in fact, that i feel like giving away some cards.

here's the deal.  leave a comment with the name of a player for whom you would like to see a card that should have been.  i know a lot of these have been done already by many different folks, so try to think of something other than a 1977 topps hank aaron or a 1978 topps brooks robinson.

i'll randomly select one on friday and do my best to do the request justice.  i'll also provide a 1969 topps deckle edge wills card to the winner.  and probably some other stuff, too. so get your comments in by noon on friday, and let me know what you think.