dime box dodgers

here are some more cards that nick from dime boxes sent to me recently.  you didn't think he sent just double play cards, did you?

i will admit, i coveted the don mattingly and darryl strawberry cards from 1984 donruss more than i wanted sid fernandez's card 30 years ago

even though sid's was the only one of the three to have the coveted rated rookie banner.  it also features a dodger stadium as the background.  1984 was, of course, the first year that donruss added the rated rookie moniker to the front of the card.  in 1983, at least, it was noted on the back of the cards.  a waste of ink, that was.

here's a 1995 upper deck star rookie subset card of another dodger prospect from mexico, antonio osuna

and yet another mexican dodger prospect from 1996 pacific, karim garcia

sadly, there were no fernando valenzuela or dennis reyes cards in the package.

there were some cards of retired dodger stars, including this other pacific card from their 1988 legends set of frank howard

and a 1990 swell baseball greats of don newcombe

nick is good at finding cards from the 1992 conlon tsn set, and he sent me a johnny cooney (a dodger double dipper)

and a burleigh grimes

from the set.  my favorite grimes card of the package, however, was this 2001 upper deck legends of new york card

which comes with the fuzzy 'b'.  grimes was a hall of fame pitcher for the brooklyn robins and later a manager of the brooklyn dodgers, including the 1937 squad which was the year that conlon took those photos seen on the cooney and grimes cards.  so, upper deck should have listed grimes as a robin on their card since he is identified as a pitcher, not a manager.  still, i'll take all the grimes cards i can get.

thanks nick!  i've got some cards heading your way soon.

as always, avert your eyes

yes, it's time to show off (?) another 2008 tristar signa cuts card from my collection.  this one is of ralph branca, and features a chopped up 1988 pacific card

tristar lets me know that branca was a '3x all-star'.  i'm here to tell you that he was also a '2x dodger'. that's right - this is a dodger double dipper post!

[this is the forty-fifth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, and don sutton.]

branca debuted for the dodgers as an 18-year old in 1944.  three years later, he won 21 games and was the ace of the staff.  branca remained with the dodgers through the 1952 season, but was waived by the team after 7 appearances in 1953.  he was claimed by the tigers, and pitched in detroit for about a year, spanning the latter part of the '53 season as well as the first half of the 1954 campaign.  in july of '54, the tigers released branca, and he signed with the yankees a few days later.  he made 5 appearances for the yankees, including 3 starts, and was 1-0 with a 2.84 era.  unfortunately for branca, the yankees missed out on the pennant that year despite winning 103 games (cleveland won 111), and he was released shortly after the end of the season.

branca was only 28 when the yankees released him, but he remained unsigned for the entire 1955 season and most of 1956.  in fact, it wasn't until september 6th that the dodgers brought branca back to ebbets field for the last time.  the next day, branca made his first and only appearance of the season, and the last of his career.  he was brought in to relieve ed roebuck in a game which had the dodgers trailing the giants 6-1.  branca pitched the eighth and ninth innings, allowing no runs and striking out two, including willie mays.  not a bad way to go out.

usually i will show a card or two from the players year(s) in between their stints as dodgers, but i don't think there are any branca cards showing him as a tiger or a yankee, except for the 1991 topps archives 1953 card that should have been thingy which i don't own.  i do have a couple of his cards from his first stint as a dodger, but there is no 1957 card to cap his career.

i do have this 1993 ted williams card

but the back only features 5 of branca's season statistics, all during his first run as a dodger.

here's to you, ralph branca - another dodgers double dipper!

i can't believe i made it through the entire post without mentioning bobby thomson.

seeing double

topps is not alone when it comes to recycling photos.  i recently received some cards in the mail from nick at dime boxes that included a healthy dose of dodgers from the pacific legends cards from the late 1980's.  like carl erskine

and carl erskine

at first i thought i had received doubles, but that was just because of the photo.  clearly the design is different, and pacific (not that pacific) used lowercase letters in 1990.  that's the 1988 pacific card up top, by the way.  the backs made it easier to differentiate.

in addition to oisk, there was campy

and tommy davis

clem labine

and don...newcomb?

newk also showed up (with his name correctly spelled) on a 1989 swell card

i don't have too many of the 1989 swell cards - in fact, this might be the only one.  i do have a few of the 1991 swell cards, but didn't have manny mota until the package arrived from nick

it's always nice to get a new card featuring one of the players on the team of my youth.  there were also some more recent cards, like this 2004 bowman jereme milons card

milons is still playing ball in the frontier league these days.  he moved on to the diamondbacks' organization shortly after this card was released, never getting above high-a ball with the dodgers.

finally, another player from the team of my youth - knuckleballer charlie hough

this is a 2004 topps all-time fan favorites card, and it looks great.  the photo is from earlier in the 70's, but would have fit in with the 1974 set nicely.

thanks nick.  you've got me excited to wade through some dime boxes at the next show!

some recent non-dodger through the mail successes!

i don't mean to belittle the fine gentlemen that have signed and returned the various cards i have sent out recently simply because they are not dodgers, but i am going to lump a few of them together in one post. bear with me.

here's a former dodger, don zimmer.1978 topps are good for autos, i think. this one is pretty beaten up, and it was that way before i sent it. zim has a quick turnaround - about 10 days or so.

bryn smith is in dodger stadium on this 1990 donruss.he was quick, too. about a week or so.

1976 topps boog powell.night owl sent me this card for my 1976 set, and i had upgraded shortly thereafter, so i sent this off to boog's bbq shack at camden yards.

jim bouton asked for a $5 donation to a charity (i forget what it was now).

i have an autographed copy of 'ball four' and was hoping for a 'smoke em inside' inscription. anyway, it's a nice auto and a quick turnaround.

an even more blatant rip-off post

than this one.

it's the all-jim team. note: my first name is not jim, but it's what i go by (my middle name is james).

we'll start with the bench. it doesn't get much better than a guy who shares your name.
no, that's not billy bob thornton. jimmie hall was third in the al rookie of the year voting in 1963. he hit 33 home runs for the twins that year - then a rookie record.

now on to the position players.

c jim sundberg - a solid catcher, won 6 consecutive gold gloves and a world series ring with the 1985 kansas city royals.

1b jimmie foxx

hall of famer, 3-time mvp, 534 home runs. he even pitched in 9 games in his final season, winning one with an era of 1.59!

2b jim gilliam

the 1953 rookie of the year, a 2-time all star, 4-time world series champion, and is the only non hall of famer to have his number retired by the dodgers. plus, he rarely struck out.

ss jim fregosi - could handle manager duties as well, i guess. he was a 6-time all star, won a gold glove at short in 1967 and was traded for nolan ryan.

3b jim lefebvre

another manager candidate. the 1965 rookie of the year and 1966 allstar was my dad's favorite player. nuff said.

of jim rice

hall of famer. he finished with 6 top 5 mvp seasons, winning the award once. the 8 time allstar was apparently a greatly feared hitter, as that's what many of his hall of fame proponents seemed to say.

of jim edmonds - has won 10 gold gloves and likes to dive for balls. so much so that some have said he plays deep to maximize diving opportunities.

of jimmy wynn

the toy cannon had 291 career home runs and 225 career stolen bases. he was a 3-time allstar and made a case for being the 1974 nl mvp

dh jim thome

has 541 home runs and is a 5-time allstar. plus, he's only about 3 months older than me!

and the pitchers:

sp jim palmer hall of famer, 3 cy youngs, 4-time world series champion, 268 wins, 2.86 era. and an underwear model back in the day.

sp jim bunning - hall of famer, 7-time allstar, 2855 strikeouts. pitched briefly for the dodgers in 1969 and is now a senator.

sp jim 'catfish' hunter

this team has some great nicknames. hall of famer, 8-time allstar, 5-time world series champion (including 3 at the expense of the dodgers), 4 top 5 cy young seasons winning the award once.

sp jim lonborg

1967 cy young winner, started 3 games for boston in the 1967 world series. unfortunately for them, he liked to ski. retired and became a dentist.

sp jim kaat

kitty. another nice nickname. 283 wins, 1 world series championship and one of the best fielding pitchers ever - 16 consecutive gold gloves.

rp jim brewer

132 career saves (125 with the dodgers from 1964 to 1975).

rp jim konstanty

1950 nl mvp as a reliever! won 16 games and saved 22 for the phillies, all in relief. nice glasses.

rp jim gott

91 career saves including 34 in 1988 with pittsburgh. spent 5 years with the dodgers before returning to the pirates.

rp jim morris - they made a disney movie about this guy! he's got to be in. he also was a member of the dodgers organization for a short time. i thought i had a card with him in the dodger uniform but couldn't find it.

there are plenty of other jims out there who would have contributed to this team, and i salute them all. jims of the world, unite!