another team collector dilemma?

when i first began collecting in 1978, there were team cards

that doubled as team checklists

and then there were set checklists

that sometimes misspelled bucky dent's name (he's number 164).  these checklists were two different entities - i figured it was one for team collectors and another for set collectors.  i didn't realize until later that this was a fairly new phenomenon as topps first put the team checklist on the back of team cards in 1975.  anyway, all was good until 1981 when fleer came along.

in their inaugural set, fleer divided the set checklist cards up into team checklists - two teams per card, one on the front and one on the back.  here's the dodger team checklist from 1981 fleer. 

les expos are on the back, by the way.  this made sense to me as fleer numbered their sets by team, so all of the dodgers were numerically sequential, well, except for the steve garvey superstar special card near the end.

fleer did the same thing in 1982 (with the dodgers at the front of the set as world champions!), 

and then again in 1983.

by this time, i was including these checklists with my team sets since there weren't any other team cards, and these checklists were team specific.  in 1984, fleer made the decision easier by adding the manager to the teams that were lucky enough to be on the front of the checklists

hello, tom lasorda.  sorry, steve boros (the a's are on the back).

like i said, i considered these to be part of the team sets.  in 1982, topps did away with the team cards and started putting the team checklists on the back of team leader cards.  they continued doing that until 1985, when they moved the team checklist to the back of the manager's cards.  topps continued this practice of team checklists on the back of manager cards and set checklists on their own cards through 1989.  in 1990, however, they brought the team statistics to the back of the manager cards and modified the set checklists so that they were sorted by team.  this continued through 1992 before topps went back to the traditional numerical order set checklists in 1993, although they eliminated team checklists that year.

so, the dilemma is this - are the topps set checklists part of the team sets from 1990-1992?  it is not as cut and dried as with the fleer cards above, because topps was sloppy - not wanting to devote 13 cards to checklists (yes, there were only 26 teams in the early 1990's).  here's a checklist from 1992 topps to show what i mean

to me, this does not belong in my dodger topps team set binder.  what say you?

the tommy lasorda managerial tree

with the brewers' firing of manager (and former dodger) ron roenicke the other day (he was replaced by another former dodger, craig counsell), i decided to finally finish pulling this post together.  in football, i used to hear a lot about the bill walsh coaching tree - all of the people who coached under bill walsh who went on to become head coaches themselves.  that tree is then expanded to include coaches under those head coaches who became head coaches, and so on.  my take on the tommy lasorda managerial tree is in regards to his players - not coaches, and this post will just look at the first tier of major league managers who spent some time playing under one thomas charles lasorda.

here's the man himself on a 2004 upper deck sp authentic card

that notes his managerial triumph in the 1982 all-star game in montreal while using a photo from about 20 years later.  incidentally, he had four future big league managers playing under him on that '82 all-star roster - dusty baker, tony pena, pete rose, and ray knight.

i'm focusing on his dodger players, however, and when tommy took over the dodgers late in the 1976 season, he had three future major league managers on his roster at that time:

dusty baker

davey lopes

and bill russell

who replaced lasorda during the 1996 season.

over the next 20-years, lasorda managed another 9 future managers.

johnny oates

ron washington

mike scioscia

ron roenicke

phil garner

 glenn hoffman

who took over for russell in 1998

kirk gibson

willie randolph

and juan samuel

this list does not include players such as bobby valentine, whom tommy managed in the minor leagues, nor does it include players such as joe ferguson, tommy john, gary carter, rick dempsey, mike marshall, or steve yeager who played in the majors under tommy and later managed in the minor leagues.

with the firings of kirk gibson last year and roenicke this year, scioscia is the only active manager to have played under lasorda. however, it is yet conceivable that this tree sprouts some new branches in the future, as such former "lasorda" dodgers and minor league managers bobby mitchell, brett butler, and tim wallach are currently working for big league teams as an instructor (mitchell) or big league coaches (butler and wallach).

and, in case you are wondering, bill russell's managerial tree's first tier consists solely of chip hale.

here's to more lasorda style hugs in the dugout!

another page of cards from the steve garvey binders - the padres have infiltrated the collection!

ten sheets into the main steve garvey binders and we start to see the brown and yellow padre uniforms.  take a look.

these cards are:

1. 1983 fleer
2. 1983 o-pee-chee
3. 1983 topps
4. 1983 topps traded
5. 1984 donruss
6. 1984 drake's
7. 1984 fleer
8. 1984 fleer (superstar special)
9. 1984 milton bradley championship baseball

and here are the backs

while the 1983 fleer card gives us a rare locker room shot, my favorite card of this bunch is the 1983 o-pee-chee due to the text and team variation it possesses.  the 1984 fleer superstar special celebrates the garv's 1,207 consecutive game streak, although it mistakenly lists him as "the major leagues' most durable player" even though his streak was ended due to a season-ending injury in july of 1983.  in fact, pete rose took over as the most durable player until his streak of 745 straight games came to an end about a month after garvey's.  to be fair, garvey did return to assemble another streak of about 300 straight games from 1984-1986.

on the road with mike morgan

mike morgan pitched for 12 different teams in 13 different stops (he double dipped with the cubs) over the course of 22 big league seasons.  those 12 different uniforms morgan wore were a record until octavio dotel made it to 13 in 2012.

morgan began his career as the 4th overall pick in 1978, and he was rushed to the majors less than two weeks later by a's owner charlie finley who obviously wasn't paying attention when the rangers made the same mistake with david clyde earlier in the decade.  morgan pitched a complete game in his big league debut as an 18-year old, but took the loss.  he lost his other two starts that season, and was 2-10 for the a's in 1979.  so, by the time this 1980 topps future stars card featuring morgan

was released, he was 2-13 as a major league pitcher, and he had also pitched in his last big league game for the franchise.  as an aside, kirk gibson was taken by the tigers with the 15th pick in that draft, and cal ripken jr was taken with the 22nd pick of the 2nd round.  i point this out not to disparage mike morgan, as he had a decent big league career, but rather to note that the team that drafted ahead of the orioles in the second round was the dodgers, who passed on ripken (then a third baseman) to take a different high school shortstop named clay smith.

anyway, morgan spent all of 1980 in the minors, and was traded to the yankees following the conclusion of the season.  he made it back to the majors in 1982, going 7-11 for the bronx bombers in 23 starts and 7 relief appearances.  he was traded to the blue jays after the season ended (with fred mcgriff!), but we were still treated to this 1983 fleer card showing him in yankee apparel.

topps also had him as a yankee in their 1983 set, but included him as a blue jay in the 1983 traded set

with the jays in '83, morgan was 0-3.  he pitched in 16 games, 4 of which were starts.  he spent all of 1984 back in the minors, and was taken by the mariners in the rule v draft prior to the 1985 season.  morgan took his 9-27 career record to seattle, where he made 2 starts (he was 1-1 in those starts) in 1985 before becoming a fixture in the rotation for both the 1986 and 1987 seasons.  he lost 17 games in both of those campaigns, however, leading the league in that category in 1986.  still, he won 11 and 12 games, respectively, kept his era below 5.00, and threw his first 3 career shutouts with the m's.  morgan was still a mariner on his 1988 donruss card

even though he was traded to the orioles in december of '87.  they got things updated in the 1988 donruss baseball's best set (also known as the halloween set)

morgan spent just that one season with the orioles, going 1-6 in 22 games, 10 of which were starts.  he had a cumulative record of 34-68 and had pitched for 5 different teams when dodger gm fred claire traded mike devereaux to the orioles in march of 1989 to acquire the 29-year old morgan.

the dodgers used morgan primarily as a starter to begin the 1989 season, and he responded nicely to his first taste of national league play.  morgan was 6-8 with a 1.79 era at the all-star break, but lost his first three starts of the second half with his era jumping to 2.61, and so was sent to the bullpen for the remainder of the season.  he finished with a record of 8-11 and a (by far) career best 2.53 era.  here's his 1990 upper deck card, featuring him dealing in dodger stadium.

over the next two seasons, the dodgers used morgan almost exclusively as a starter (he had one relief appearance against 66 starts in that span).  morgan was 11-15 in 1990, leading the league with 4 shutouts, and posted the first winning record of his career in 1991, going 14-10 with a 2.78 era and an all-star berth to boot.  morgan got to pitch the 9th inning of the midsummer classic, retiring hall of famers kirby puckett, carlton fisk (by strikeout), and roberto alomar in order.  he was also the national league player of the week for the last week in june, thanks to two complete game victories.  as a dodger, morgan was 33-36 with an era just over 3.00, and he decided to sign with the cubs as a free agent.

morgan went on to have one of his best seasons in 1992, going 16-8 with a 2.55 era in 34 starts.  he pitched for the cubs for a total of 3-plus seasons before being traded to the cardinals in june of 1995.  here's his 1993 bowman card

as i mentioned above, morgan had two different stints with the cubbies. the first time around, he was 30-34 in 85 starts.  from there, he was 9-14 for the cardinals between june of 1995 and august of 1996 when he was released.  the reds took a chance on morgan for the last month of the '96 season, and he posted a 2.30 era in 5 starts for them, although he was just 2-3 in those games.  he stayed with cincy in 1997, going 9-12, and was signed by the twins for the 1998 season.  morgan was traded to the cubs during the 1998 season after pitching in 18 games (17 starts) for the twins in his first american league (non-interleague) action since joining the dodgers in 1989.  he was 4-2 for the twinkies, but 0-1 for the cubs down the stretch.  still, morgan got his first taste of postseason play with those 1998 cubs, pitching a perfect 1.1 innings over two appearances in the nlds against the braves.  from there, it was on to texas for the 1999 season where the 39-year old went 13-10 in 34 appearances, 25 of which were starts.

at this point in morgan's career, he was 134-180, having pitched for 11 teams, and his days of being primarily a starter were behind him.  he signed with the diamondbacks, his record breaking 12th team, for the 2000 season, and stayed with them through the 2002 campaign - the last of his career.  here's his 2001 topps card

because the diamondbacks used morgan primarily as a reliever, he pitched in more games (120) wearing their hideous uniforms than any other - the dodgers were second at 107.  he had a record of 7-6 with 5 saves for arizona, and also picked up a world series ring in 2001 (he threw 4.2 scoreless in the fall classic against the yankees, although he did allow an inherited run (turned out to be the winning run) to score in game 3).

so, there you have it.  mike morgan was 141-186 for 12 different teams.  he won more games (33) for the dodgers than any other team, and also had his lowest cumulative era (3.06) in dodger blue.  so, here's a signed 1991 donruss card that i picked up at the local monthly card show a couple of years ago.

it was signed during his fleeting tenure with the twins, which ended with that trade with the cubs.

i suppose i'll do one of these for dotel, since he spent all of a month or so with the dodgers.  stay tuned...

who carries reggie smith's career torch?

reggie smith's signature is on my short list of favorites.  harmon killebrew used to preach the importance of a nice signature to young twins players, and i can see reggie doing the same to players for whom he served as a mentor.  i recently bought this 2004 upper deck usa baseball 25th anniversary signature card of reggie

for about $3.  money well spent as far as i am concerned.

reggie was a coach for team usa, and for the dodgers, too after his playing days were done.  i wonder which active major leaguer is carrying his career torch...

on october 3, 1982, reggie suited up for a major league game for the last time as a player. unfortunately, he suited up in a giants' uniform, as his 1983 fleer card attests.

smith ended his big league career that day against the dodgers with an 8th inning fly out against former teammate terry forster who, an inning earlier, had allowed a home run to joe morgan that effectively ended the dodgers' hopes of tying the braves atop the national league west to force a playoff.

terry forster pitched through the 1986 season, getting his last taste of big league action on october 2, 1986 as a member of the american league west champion angels.  here's his 1986 fleer update card.

forster pitched two innings that day, getting oddibe mcdowell to ground out to end the 7th and bring an end to his pitching career as well.

oddibe mcdowell, of course, was himself a member of team usa back in 1984 during the olympics held in los angeles.  here's his 1985 topps team usa subset card.

the olympic baseball games were played at dodger stadium (the dodgers wore an olympic patch in 1984), and team usa lost to japan in the final.  there were no medals given, however, as baseball was just a demonstration sport at that time.

one thing about that 1985 topps mcdowell card - when i first opened some packs in '85, i took a look at the couple of checklist cards i had pulled and reviewed the 'hero' numbers to see if steve garvey was given any respect from topps (his 1985 card is number 450, so yes, he was respected) and i saw that card number 400 was oddibe mcdowell.  i followed major league baseball pretty closely, but did not know who this guy was and actually freaked out a little bit that a player i did not know could command such a number on topps' checklist.

back to mdowell's career now.  mcdowell did not play in the majors for three years following the 1990 season, but he made his way back into the rangers' lineup in 1994.  on august 10 of that year, in what turned out to be the final game of the season due to the players' strike, mcdowell went 0 for 2 with a sacrifice.  that sac bunt, against the mariners' jim converse, was the last time mcdowell went to the plate in his big league career.

converse (seen here on a 1995 topps stadium club card)

returned after the strike, and continued to pitch into the 1997 season.  on may 15, 1997, he was with the kansas city royals and relieved jeff montgomery in a game against the tigers.  converse faced four batters that day, the last of which was jody reed who drew a walk.  converse was pulled from the game and did not pitch in the majors again.

jody reed, the man who spurned the dodgers' free agent offer which led to the pedro martinez/delino deshields trade, saw his career end on august 22, 1997 in a laugher against the brewers.  he's a padre (and turning two) on his 1997 topps card

but he was with detroit when he saw the last of his big league action.  the tigers won the game 16-1, but reed was 0 for 2 including a strikeout in the 9th inning against alberto reyes that turned out to be his final big league at bat.

alberto reyes last pitched in the majors in 2008.  i don't think he had too many cards over the years, so here's a 1996 upper deck collector's choice card from early in his career.

he was with the devil rays when he finished a game against the indians on august 5 of that year.  he faced four batters, the last of which was andy marte who struck out to end the game.  he did not appear in any games after that, and about a week later, reyes was granted free agency.  he signed with the mets, but did not make any appearances for them, either.

andy marte stuck with cleveland through the 2010 season (this is his 2007 topps heritage card),

but hadn't played in the majors since that season until he surfaced with the diamondbacks earlier this year.  he hit a pinch-hit home run in his first big league at bat in almost 4 years, but a few days later on august 6, 2014, he struck out against the royals' greg holland to end the game.  marte became a free agent shortly before the end of the season, so  that may well have been his final big league at bat.  if so, then greg holland (seen here on his 2014 topps update card)

will carry the torch for reggie smith (and terry forster).  i'd say his signature has potential.

i've got a case of the mondays

not really a case, just three cards of former dodger rick monday.  the first one is a relatively new addition to my collection, and it comes from 2014 panini prizm

yes, that's mo in dodger gear and a sticker auto.  last year, panini released some autographed cards of monday as a cub and i didn't bite.  i was happy to see this release this year.

here's a 1987 mother's cookies a's card of the first overall draft pick in the first ever amateur draft

i believe that the a's recognized their all-stars throughout their time in oakland in the 1987 set rather than their current roster.  monday was a member of the all-star team in 1968 which was also the first year that the a's were in oakland.  he wouldn't make it to the midsummer classic again until 1978 when he started the game as a dodger.  love the sanitarys, by the way.

speaking of which, here is his 1983 fleer card, just because.

always good to see half of steve yeager.

unlike the boomtown rats, i do like mondays.  especially in dodger blue.

a pirates' memorial patch for pops

willie stargell wrapped up his hall of fame career for the pirates in 1982.  his performance had declined rather swiftly following the team's championship 1979 season, in which stargell shared league mvp honors with the cardinals' keith hernandez.  stargell was used almost exclusively as a pinch-hitter in 1982, appearing in just 74 games and hitting only 3 home runs that year.

topps decided not to issue a card of the pirate great in 1983, but donruss did

as did fleer

i appreciate the full career stats on the back of the fleer card, and i also like the text on the back of the donruss card that acknowledges stargell's retirement.  not a bad pair of final tributes.

sadly, stargell passed away in 2001 on april 9, putting a damper on the pirates' home opener and debut of pnc park.  in response to his death, the pirates added a memorial patch to their jerseys for the remainder of the season.  it recalled the 'stargell stars' that were handed out to players by pops in recognition of a great play.  you can see the patch on tony mcknight's 2002 fleer tradition card

and on aramis ramirez's 2002 topps total card

here's a closer look at the patch

which shows up again on ramirez's 2002 upper deck pros & prospects card

that's the one in my memorials binder.  the pirates brought the stargell stars back for the playoffs last year, but were quickly told by the powers that be that they were uniform violations.  i'm glad bowie kuhn didn't care about that back in 1979 - i can't imagine the pirates' hats without the stars.  or the pirates without stargell for that matter.