one man carries the torch for both the penguin and davey lopes

the last pitcher ron cey faced as a major leaguer was juan nieves.  it was july 12, 1987, and cey was a member of the oakland a's at the time as his 1987 topps traded card attests.

nieves struck cey out in the 7th inning, and later in that game, the penguin was pinch-hit for, denying him one more big league at bat.  the player who hit in cey's place? none other than former nemesis reggie jackson.

juan nieves didn't last much longer than cey. as it turned out, nieves missed the entire 1989 season due to injury, so his last appearance came in 1988.  he still received a card in 1990 from topps, and from o-pee-chee, which is what is shown below.

nieves pitched in his final game on october 2, 1988, again facing the a's.  in that game, the last batter nieves faced was terry steinbach, who drew a walk.

now let's take a minute to see what was going on with davey lopes' torchbearers.  like cey, lopes last played in 1987.  he was with the astros - here's his 1987 fleer card -

when he pinch-hit for nolan ryan on october 4, 1987.  lopes flew out against the reds' tom browning, and that was it for his career.

tom browning finished his career in 1995 (this is his 1995 score card)

with two starts for the kansas city royals, the last of which came on may 19.  browning didn't make it out of the 5th inning that day, as he was removed from the game following an rbi single hit by terry steinbach.

so, steinbach had the honor of carrying the torch for both cey and lopes.  he wound up going home to minnesota to finish his career, and did so in october of 1999 (here's his 2000 topps card)

with a double off of james baldwin of the white sox.

baldwin, who pitched for the dodgers in 2001 after leaving chicago (this is his 2002 upper deck victory card)

bounced around a bit and eventually landed in baltimore in 2005.  actually, he began the season with the orioles, was picked up on waivers by the rangers, but then later returned to the orioles on another waiver claim.  the second time around with the orioles included his final big league appearance - a relief appearance against the yankees on september 29.  the last batter he faced was bernie williams who was retired on a comebacker.

williams, seen here on a 2007 topps hit parade insert

retired following the 2006 season, doubling off of scott downs in his final big league appearance (during the regular season, anyway).

scott downs, who was an angel on his 2013 topps card,

spent 2014 as a member of the kansas city royals.  he just became a free agent following the world series, and if he doesn't sign with anyone for next season, then the torch is passed to the last batter he faced in the bigs - cleveland's zach walters - but i won't count the loogy out just yet.

some through the mail successes - three world series guys and one other guy

i realized the other day when i was posting about a pat neshek through the mail success that i had let almost two years pass without showcasing the cards that former dodger mike marshall (not former dodger dr. mike marshall) signed for me via the us postal service.

this is the 1985 topps card that i sent to neshek for his set pursuit

is nice.  i also received from the former pcl triple crown winner a 1989 fleer base

and world series insert card signed.

it's a weird card in that the 'one swing' the text refers to was marshall's three-run home run in the third inning of game 2 of the 1988 world series which gave the dodgers a 5-0 lead, but the photo is from his triple later in the game which didn't drive in any runs.  that's the oakland third baseman carney lansford applying a (late) tag.

just over a year later, marshall was on the move to new york, as this 1990 o-pee-chee card demonstrates.

i kinda miss writing about o-pee-chee variations.

here's another dodger from that 1988 world series team that signed some cards for me a while back.  game 1 starter tim belcher signed and returned a 1992 topps card

plus a 1989 topps card

and a 1989 fleer world series card of his own

again, the card is odd in that the photo comes from his game 4 start in oakland, but the text is referring to his game 1 start at home in dodger stadium.  at least that's the way i read it.

this next guy was in line to get the series mvp award if orel hershiser hadn't been so dominating.  here's a 1981 fleer mickey hatcher card signed by the stuntman himself

mickey also signed a 1989 o-pee-chee world series highlight card

isn't it a shame that fleer and o-pee-chee had world series highlights in their set, but topps did not?  yes, it is a shame.  here's another card that mickey signed - a 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams card

i am kind of tired of writing about these timeless teams cards, to tell the truth.  i do like the set, it's just that i've been very busy with a lot of other things that i must and/or have chosen to do instead of updating the blog.  i will finish that blog before the all-star break, though.  back to mickey - 1980 was hatcher's second year with the dodgers, but it was also his last - for a while.  he was sent to the twins prior to the 1981 season for ken landreaux - the guy who caught the last out of the 1981 world series.  hatcher wasn't the only dodger to be sent to minnesota in the early 1980's, though.

there was also this guy - bobby mitchell - who signed his 1982 fleer card for me

mitchell had a total of two hits as a dodger before he was dealt to the twins in the bobby castillo trade prior to the 1982 season.  he did not appear in the 1981 postseason, unfortunately.  mitchell did spend 1982 as the twins' primary center fielder (replacing hatcher in that regard), achieving career highs in pretty much every category.  i sent this card to him when he was managing in salt lake city a couple of years ago.  mitchell is currently a roving minor league instructor for the angels, i believe.

thanks to these former dodgers for signing my cards!

mike maddux, double dipper

[this is the fourteenth 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, and greg maddux.]

mike maddux, who is 5 years older than his brother and fellow dodger double dipper greg, joined the big blue wrecking crew after the 1989 season, as shown on this 1990 o-pee-chee variation:

he had spent his entire career with the phillies to that point, and had slowly been converted to a reliever over the past couple of seasons.  for the dodgers in 1990, he appeared in 11 games (2 as a starter) and had a record of 0-1.  one of his starts came against the braves, but he faced off against john smoltz, not his brother.

after the season, maddux joined the padres as a free agent, and then was traded to the mets after the 1992 season.  maddux spent two years in new york, and was featured on this 1994 topps card to prove that he was at one time a met - not a bad feat for a middle reliever.

maddux bounced around for the remainder of his career - he had stops in pittsburgh, boston, seattle and montreal - before returning to la during the 1999 season. in his time between his stays in la, maddux was 26-20 with 19 saves.

here he is paying tribute to fellow double dipper don sutton on a 1999 keebler dodgers card

maddux did well his second time around.  he pitched in 49 games, all in relief, and was 1-1 with an era of 3.29.  after the season, the dodgers chose not to re-sign him, and maddux headed to houston for the 2000 season, after which he called it a career.

here's to you, mike maddux - double dipper!

reader mail - o-pee-chee style!

reader tony sent me some fantastic dodger o-pee-chee cards recently.

we'll start with a 1972 willie davis. hard to tell that it's not a topps card, although it is a different card stock. i should have scanned the backs. oh well. looks like willie's eyes are closed. i never noticed that before.

1977 steve garvey not a variation, per se, but it does lack the 'nl all star' banner at the bottom. it also lacks that annoying scratch or hair that most 1977 topps garveys seem to have on the left side.

1982 pedro guerrero here we get the bilingual-ality of o-pee-chee, plus the logo.

1983 fernando valenzuela

more bilingual-ness and the o-pee-chee moniker. i think this is a picture from candlestick.

1988 dave anderson

the only difference here is the o-pee-chee label in the lower left. did you know dave anderson is the rangers' third base coach? me neither.

1990 willie randolph

o-pee-chee was really lazy in 1990. they didn't even remove the topps text from the fronts of the cards. the cards are shinier though, kind of like topps traded.

1991 o-pee-chee premier eddie murray

here's a non-topps design issue. tommy lasorda lurking in the dugout, along with someone in mid-farmer blow.

1992 orel hershiser

back to using the o-pee-chee label.

just for fun, tony included a 1977 jerry reuss, suitable for a through the mail try.

coincidentally, i received a couple cards from mr. reuss in the mail today (will be featured another time), along with a sticker stating "coming soon, jerryreuss.com!"

thanks tony! glad you enjoyed the 78s i sent your way!