black diamond, silver diamond, white sox

for the 1992 season, the white sox added a diamond to the left sleeves of their jerseys to honor the passing of at least two members of their organization and family that occurred during the previous offseason.  the diamonds came in two different colors for their three different uniform schemes - black on the home pinstripes as seen on this 1993 o-pee-chee steve sax card

black on the away grays (as we will see in a bit), and silver on the alternate black tops as seen on saxy's 1993 leaf card

here are a couple more looks at the silver patch, courtesy of black jack mcdowell's 1993 topps stadium club murphy card

and dan pasqua's 1993 upper deck card

i've got three cards in the memorials binder for this one - robin ventura's 1993 topps black gold card represents the black diamond/white pinstripe combo

while frank thomas' 1993 fleer ultra card represents the black diamond/gray jersey set up i mentioned earlier

and it's the big hurt again, with his 1993 upper deck future heroes subset card that showcases the silver diamond/black jersey combination

one tidbit from a uniform source notes that the diamond is not a patch added to the jerseys, instead it is colored fabric woven into the uniform tops.

while i was researching this post, i noted that the hall of fame's website indicated that there were four people for whom the patch was worn.  some research online provided three names, and i decided to contact the hall of fame to see if they had any additional information.  i received a quick response from tom shieber, the senior curator, who referred back to the chisox media guide from 1992 and found that the diamond was being worn for two people - sheri berto (jerry reinsdorf's personal assistant) and maureen schueler (wife of general manager and former player and coach, ron schueler). it is possible that other personnel, possibly long time employee millie johnson (one of the three names i found online) who passed away in march of 1992 after working for the white sox for over 25 years, were "added" to the memorial, but the hall of fame has revised their website to acknowledge berto and schueler only. 

sheri berto died unexpectedly following an outpatient surgical procedure in november of 1991.  she was bulls and white sox owner jerry reinsdorf's assistant, and in addition to the uniform memorial worn by the sox, reinsdorf named the bulls' practice facility after her.  the bulls practiced at the berto center for over 20 years, but will soon be moving into a new facility near the united center.

maureen schueler died of leukemia in october of 1991.  her husband ron had been a pitcher with the white sox late in his career, retiring as a player in 1979 to become the team's pitching coach.  he also worked in the a's and pirates organizations before returning to chicago as the team's general manager in november of 1990.

the white sox have since been consistent in the use of a diamond when wearing memorial patches, although they have since added names or initials to the memorials, such as the one they are wearing this season for jerry reinsdorf's son david.  i will post about that after 2014 topps update is released, i am sure.

the evolution of the closer, part 3

here are parts 1 and 2 if you care to refresh your memory of the long and winding road the dodgers have used to close out games.

ready for part 3?  ok.

roger mcdowell (1992)
mcdowell took over closing duties for the worst dodger team of my lifetime.  the 1992 squad lost 99 games and had just 29 saves as a team.  mcdowell had 14 of them.  he appeared in 65 games and finished 39 of them.  he also won 6 and lost 10.

jim gott (1993)
even though the dodgers signed todd worrell prior to the 1993 season, gott was the one who claimed the closer role.  he saved 25 games with a 2.32 era.  worrell managed 5 saves but had an era of over 6.

todd worrell (1994-1997)
worrell began to regain his status as an elite closer in the strike shortened 1994 season.  he had 11 saves to lead the dodgers when the season ended in august.  his era was still over 4, but his strikeouts were up to over 1 per inning pitched.  in 1995, worrell had 32 of the dodgers 35 saves, with a 2.02 era to boot.  it was the first time in franchise history that a pitcher saved over 30 games.  the following year, worrell saved 44 games as the dodgers made a postseason appearance in back-to-back years for the first time since 1977/78.  of course, there were no saves to be had as they were swept in the nlds both years.  worrell saved 35 games in 1997, but his era was pretty high - 5.28 - and he retired after the season ended.  worrell sits in third place in the dodgers' career saves leaders with 127, just ahead of jim brewer at 125.
scott radinsky (1998)

scott radinsky began the 1998 season as the dodgers' closer, and posted 12 saves (and 7 blown saves) by the all start break, which is when the dodgers traded for jeff shaw.

jeff shaw (1998-2001)
shaw made his first appearance as a dodger in the 1998 all-star game, giving up a run on 3 hits.  he had 23 saves for the reds going into the break, and posted another 25 as a dodger.  in 1999, he had 34 saves, followed by 27 in 2000.  his final season in the majors was 2001 when he saved 43 games and returned to the all-star game, this time pitching just one-third of an inning in a national league loss.  with 129 saves, shaw ranks second all-time for the dodgers.

eric gagne (2002-2005)
gagne moved to the bullpen in 2002 and became 'game over' as he promptly blew most dodger relief records away.  he saved 52 games and posted 114 strikeouts in 82.1 innings - a 12.5 k/9 ratio - and finished 4th in the cy young voting.  he ended the season with 8 straight saves, carrying that streak into 2003.  in 2004, gagne saved 55 games, breaking his own dodger record set the previous year and coming within 2 of the all-time record (which has since been broken).  of course, gagne saved all 55 without blowing a single one (unless you count the all-star game) meaning he set a record with 63 consecutive saves (passing tom gordon who had 54 in a row).  he also won the cy young award that year, the second time a dodger reliever had won.  he again pitched in 82.1 innings, but this time, he struck out 137 batters for a closer record k/9 ratio of 15.  2004 was more of the same, with gagne saving 21 games in a row to bring his streak to 84 before blowing a save in july.  once again, he pitched in exactly 82.1 innings, and he struck out 114 just as he did in 2002.  he finished the season with 45 saves, and while the dodgers were back in the postseason, there were no saves to be had in the nlds.  gagne missed the first month of the season in 2005, but returned to save 8 games in 8 chances before his season ending injury in june.

yhency brazoban (2005)
brazoban stepped into the closer's role in gagne's absence and posted 21 saves on the year.  he also blew 6 save opportunities and lost 10 games in relief.  still, he was pegged as 'ghame over' at the dodger thoughts forum.

takashi saito (2006-2008)
the dodgers weren't frightened by the nori nakamura disaster of 2005 and signed japanese pitcher saito to a contract for 2006.  saito responded with 24 saves and 107 strikeouts in 78.1 innings as the dodgers won the wild card.  they were swept by the mets, though, so there were no postseason saves.  saito saved 39 games in 2007 and pitched a scoreless inning in the all-star game.  he started the 2008 season as the closer, and had 17 saves through mid-july, but jonathan broxton was ready to take over.  saito finished the season with 18 saves and left as a free agent after the season ended.

jonathan broxton (2008-present)
broxton saved 14 games for the dodgers in the second half of the 2008 season, and he saved the game 3 clincher against the cubs in the nlds.  in 2009, broxton had 36 saves and two more in the postseason - 1 against the cardinals in the nlds and one against the phillies in the league championship series.  although he earned the save in the 2010 all-star game, broxton struggled last year and was temporarily replaced as closer by hong-chih kuo.  we'll see how long the leash is that don mattingly gives broxton in 2011.

so, from joe black to jonathan broxton, there you have the evolution of the dodgers' closer.

check the date on that corndog

here's cory snyder's 1993 o-pee-chee card, complete with the 'now with' text designation.

o-pee-chee went off the deep end in 1993 and came up with their own design instead of using topps' layout.  they wound up with a poor man's version of a plain pacific issue.  anyway, closer inspection of the 'now with' diamond shows us that the corndog joined the dodgers on 12-5-92.  18 years ago today!

fred claire and company signed snyder as a free agent after he spent a single season in san francisco where he rebounded from a very bad 1991 season that was split between the white sox and blue jays.  snyder immediately became the dodgers starting right fielder, although he still made appearances all over the field.  in fact, during his dodger tenure, snyder did everything except pitch or catch.

now, i don't think anyone else is celebrating the 18th anniversary of cory snyder's signing with the dodgers today except maybe snyder himself since it was his last contract and it was for two years and $3 million.  still, i was happy with the signing as the dodgers had just completed their worst season ever and they needed to make some changes. 

i'm also celebrating because the corndog took some time to sign and return a few of the cards i sent him on a couple different occasions.  like his 1993 upper deck card

and his 1994 score card

both full of horizontal goodness.

then there was his 1994 fleer ultra card

with the catch-all position designation of 'of/if'.  how appropriate.

he also signed his 1994 topps card

with him kneeling at the altar of second base, and his 1994 upper deck card

on which gregg jefferies is getting a little fresh, no?

snyder finished the 1994 season (and his career) with the dodgers.  he spent this past summer as the manager of the na koa ikaika maui team of the golden league after previously managing the utah team in that league.  not a bad deal - utah for maui.  i sent these cards c/o na koa ikaika and was happy that the corndog took time away from the sun and the surf (and the baseball) to sign them.

thanks cory!

who's got next?

even before the season began, there was much talk about the future of the dodger manager.  would this be joe torre's last season?  would he retire?  would he rather be managing the mets?   who knows. 

torre has backed off speculation that he will retire after the season, saying that he will wait and see if he still has a desire to continue managing next season.  if he does, i have to believe that frank mccourt (or whomever owns the dodgers) would love to have him back.  but what if he is done?  who would be the likely person to take over?

the most obvious choice is hitting coach don mattingly.

during spring training, mattingly managed the stateside games while torre and some of the team were in taiwan.  at that time, he mentioned that, while he had interviewed for the cleveland managerial position and turned down an opportunity to do the same in washington, he had also discussed his future with the dodger braintrust (an oxymoron?) of ned colletti and mccourt and this leads me to believe that there is some sort of unwritten understanding that he would be the one to succeed torre.

there are some other internal candidates, however, such as third base coach larry bowa

or bench coach bob schaefer.  bowa has managed in the majors before (with the padres in the late 80's and the phillies from 2001 - 2004), but his temperment is so externally different from torre's that i wonder if it would not work well with the team that has become used to torre's style.  as for schaefer, i don't know too much about him, but it looks like he has served as an interim manager with the royals on two occasions which provides too little to judge him with.  the fact that neither bowa nor schaefer are mentioned as potential successors in the press probably speaks volumes about their chances.

it would seem, then, that donnie baseball's only real competition (from within the organization) is the dodgers' current aaa manager, tim wallach.

wallach was named the pcl manager of the year in 2009, his first year as a aaa manager, as he guided the albuquerque isotopes to a franchise high 80 wins.  he had spent two previous years (1998 and 2001) managing in high a ball and also served as the dodgers' hitting coach in 2004 and 2005. 

in my opinion, mattingly is the guy.  this is based solely on the idea that he is currently at the big league level, working with the veterans and the younger players, as well as the call-ups.  if you recall, before he replaced walter alston, tommy lasorda was promoted to alston's coaching staff as many of the players he managed in the minor leagues were also being promoted.  i have to believe there was some foresight and logic in that, and while wallach is doing a great job juggling his roster as guys are being recalled and sent down, mattingly is privy to the big picture. 

now if only we knew who the owner was going to be...

dinged corners sent me some cards!

i am not too creative with the post titles right now...

the ladies at dinged corners were nice enough to send me some fantastic cards of the big blue wrecking crew and other, lesser teams. they are much appreciated. here is a sampling:

2005 donruss team heroes steve garvey.

well, certainly my dodger team hero. mvp, 4 world series in 8 years, etc. in fact, the back of the card tells me that, had he had 8 more hits in 1977, he would have been the first modern day major leaguer with 7 straight seasons of 200 hits. i suspect ichiro has done it, but popeye could have been the first! too bad 1977 was the year he was swinging for the fences.

2008 bowman gold russell martin.

dumb topps/bowman with their 'russ' martin cards. if vin scully doesn't call him russ, why the heck does topps?

2008 upper deck timeline matt kemp.

in my last post, i indicated that matt kemp is my current favorite player. true, but he is more like my baseball salvation. i really hope ned doesn't sign 3 more outfielders to cut into the bison's playing time.

some twins were also provided, including this 1993 o-pee-chee.

even though i follow post-2000 twins, it's always nice to get a hall of famer like kirby, molly, or, in this case, dave winfield. 1993 was the first year o-pee-chee had it's own design - no longer using the topps base design. which makes sense, but i was a fan of the old o-pee-chee, so i don't like it. anyway, we see dave here sporting the rare full pant leg with stirrup look.

last(ings) but not least, they sent a few cards to go towards my quest to finish the allen & ginter set. i feel like i am the last guy chasing this thing.thank you ladies! like it or not, i have a few cards that will be heading out your way soon.