a black armband for the pirates' owner

barney dreyfuss was born in germany in 1865 but came to america in 1885 to work in his cousin's distillery.  he took an interest in baseball, and purchased a share of the louisville colonels of the american association in 1889.  he eventually moved them to the national league, and bought out his partners, and, when the team was cut from the league in 1899, dreyfuss used its players, including honus wagner, to stock the roster of his newest team, the pittsburgh pirates.

dreyfuss owned the pirates and served as a hands-on owner from 1900 until his death in february, 1932.  his players wore a black armband in his honor during the 1932 season, as shown on this 1994 conlon the sporting news card of pie traynor

dreyfuss accomplished many things during his ownership tenure - he built forbes field, helped to establish the two major leagues and the world series, was the first president of the national league, and his pirates won 6 pennants and one world series, to boot.  dreyfuss was elected to the national baseball hall of fame in 2008, and the monument that was installed at forbes field in his honor has followed the pirates to three rivers stadium and now pnc park.

wee willie keeler was a brooklyn double dipper

hall of famer willie keeler played for the brooklyn grooms in 1893 before moving on to the baltimore orioles where he had his best years from 1894 through 1898.  for the 1899 season, keeler returned to brooklyn to join the superbas.  he was a dodger franchise double dipper.

[this is the sixtyseventh 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, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, babe herman, joe medwick, juan castro, ron perranoski, clyde king, paul waner, hughie jennings, ron negray, broadway aleck smith, george smith, johnny cooney, jim fairey, frenchy bordagaray, doc casey, waite hoyt, luis olmo, and clyde sukeforth.]

when i was a kid reading 'the image of their greatness', i would confuse wee willie keeler with wee willie winkie (my grandma used to sing that nursery rhyme to me when i went to bed).  give me a break; i was 8.  

anyway, the only cards i have of keeler show him as a dodger coach, in fact this 1994 conlon the sporting news card

and this 1990 target card

each use the same photo of keeler from 1912, when they were, in fact, known as the dodgers.

keeler first played for the brooklyn grooms in 1893 after his contract was purchased from the new york giants for $800.  he hit .313 for the team but brooklyn traded him to baltimore after the season ended.  keeler went on to have his best seasons with the orioles (who were a national league team at the time and are not part of the current orioles' franchise legacy).  in his five seasons in baltimore, keeler never hit below .371, and he led the league in batting twice with a .385 average in 1898 and a ridiculous .424 average in 1897.

the brooklyn superbas, as they were now known, were somehow able to get keeler back following the 1898 season, and he re-wrote the early brooklyn franchise record books upon his return.  his .379 batting average and 216 hits in 1899 were the best the team had seen and the best they would see until babe herman hit .381 with 217 hits 30 years later.  keeler's 190 singles in 1899 is still the franchise record for a season, and no one has or will come close to his ab/k ratio of 285 from that same year.  overall, keeler spent 5 seasons with brooklyn as a player, and his batting average over those seasons was .352 - also a franchise record.

keeler is remembered for many things - hitting 'em where they ain't, his 44-game hitting streak, being the fastest player to reach 1000 and 2000 career hits, that remarkable .424 batting average in 1897 - and now you can add double dipper to that list if you didn't know before.

i collect what steve garvey items i can, and what i can't, i can

over the course of a couple of packages, reader mark sent me an eclectic mix of cards - dodgers and double plays and players from the team of my youth that were no longer dodgers.  however, the coolest thing he sent was a 1977 rc cola can

i used to drink royal crown cola, but i had forgotten what cans from back in those days were like.  steel and sturdy and sometimes with ballplayers on them.  this one features one steven patrick garvey.

now, this posed a dilemma for me.  i have, at times, owned some oddball, non-card items featuring the garv, but i haven't held on to all of them.  that mainly has to do with storage.  i do have a couple of bobbleheads, but i decided that the best thing to do here was to dismantle the can.  more on that later.

here's another sort of oddball - a 1969 mlb photo stamp of one and done dodger shortstop zoilo versalles

after playing for the dodgers in 1968, he was selected by the padres in the expansion draft but was traded to cleveland before the 1969 season began.  this magic hat seems more dodger that indian, so i will classify this as a dodger stamp.  cool.

i could have sworn that i picked up a copy of this 1980-88 baseball immortals sandy koufax card

a couple of years ago after seeing it on another blog, but it appears that i was mistaken.  i am very happy that mark sent me this card.

i'm not quite as excited about this 1992 score jose offerman rising star card

but, as a team collector, you take the good with the bad.

here's a 1994 conlon tsn card of nap rucker

rucker spent his entire 10 year career with the brooklyn franchise.  they were known as the superbas, dodgers, and robins during that time, and in 1915 (the year represented by the card), they were the robins.  he finished his career with a 134-134 record despite a nice 2.42 era.  i guess the franchise didn't provide much run support even back then.  anyway, rucker may or may not have been the inventor of the knuckleball.

i am not convinced that this 1992 upper deck jose lind card features a double play turn

but i do know that it features dodger stadium's low railing in the background!

here's a card of one of the 1978 topps dodgers and another knuckleballer, charlie hough

i have kind of/sort of expanded my collection of players from the 1978 topps dodger team from just topps releases to all releases, so this card is welcomed even if it is just a 1992 donruss card.

so, now back to the garvey can.  i was able to open it up pretty easily, but it's not quite as flat and smooth as one would like.

still, it will fit into a binder pretty nicely.

mark - thanks for the trades!