who's carrying jackie robinson's torch? besides everyone, that is...

this week marks the 68th anniversary of jackie robinson's debut in the major leagues.  however, this post focuses more on the end of his playing days, as i thought i'd take a look at how his career torch was passed.

in his final regular season at bat (on september 30, 1956), jackie robinson grounded out against the pirates' bob friend.  here's jackie's 1956 topps card - the last from his playing days.

jackie did play in the world series in '56, but i am keeping this to regular season games.  for the record, jackie made the final out of the '56 series, striking out against the yankees' johnny kucks.

bob friend, who appeared with sandy koufax on a 1964 topps league leaders card,

retired deron johnson of the reds on september 24, 1966 while he was pitching for the mets.  johnson was the last batter friend faced in the majors.

deron johnson, seen here on a 1974 topps card as an oakland a,

struck out in his final big league appearance to end the game on may 28, 1976 as a member of the red sox against the orioles' grant jackson

on september 8, 1982, grant jackson had a one-game return stint for the pirates after pitching for the royals for the majority of the season.  here's his 1982 topps traded card

he entered in relief with the mets having loaded the bases in the 9th inning with one out, and promptly served up a grand slam to catcher ron hodges.  jackson retired the next two batters to end the inning, the last of which was ron gardenhire.  that was the last time jackson appeared in the big leagues.

ron gardenhire, still with the mets,

struck out in the 9th against jeff reardon to end his major league playing career on october 6, 1985. i like gardy's 1985 donruss card because of dodger stadium in the background.

jeff reardon finished his career in 1994 as a yankee (see this 1994 upper deck collector's choice gold parallel as proof)

allowing a game-tying single to tim salmon with his final big league pitch on may 4 of that year.

tim salmon (shown on a 2003 upper deck mvp card)

popped out against oakland's huston street in his last career at bat on october 1, 2006.  salmon was in the on-deck circle when the game ended.

huston street is still going strong, pitching for the angels following a midseason trade with the padres last year.  here's his 2014 topps update card

there are other, more important ways, in which jackie robinson's legacy lives on, but this sort of playing legacy has always intrigued me.

anybody know what time it is?

well, looking at tommy lasorda's wristwatch on this 2013 panini usa baseball champions card,

i'd say it's time for some random cards from the scanned folder.  seriously, though; when is the last time you saw a watch on a baseball card?  do managers really wear watches?

here's a 1997 pinnacle select todd hollandsworth card

holly can rest easy - recent dodger call-up erisbel arruebarrena's last name is one letter shorter than hollandsworth (the longest surname in team history).  the letters will still go armpit to armpit, though.

1999 topps finest mark grudzielanek

arruebarrena has as many letters as grudzielanek, but doesn't seem as difficult to pronounce.

2002 upper deck diamond collection chin-feng chen

chen was a highly touted foreign prospect in the dodger minor league system.  hopefully arruebarrena finds greater success at the big league level than did chen - he was just 2 for 22 in his major league career.

2003 upper deck mvp kevin brown/curt schilling game used base relic card

somewhat strange to have a base relic card with pitchers on the front.  what's even stranger is that the back of the card notes that the bases came from edison international field, aka the big 'a' in anaheim.  what the cuss?

2006 fleer tradition rafael furcal

furky hasn't appeared in the majors since 2012 (he was hurt for the entire 2013 season), but he's rehabbing in the marlins minor league system.  meanwhile, jeremy hazelbaker (the guy the dodgers got for alex castellanos which was the guy they got for furcal) is 26 with only 10 letters in his last name, but is hitting around .300 in double-a.

2008 upper deck sweet spot manny ramirez relic

this is really a red sox card with the dodgers logo on it.  2008 and mannywood seems like so long ago…

2013 bowman andre ethier blue parallel

and 2013 topps chrome refractor

it's still hard to believe that billy beane traded ethier for milton bradley and antonio perez.  the a's did reach the alcs with bradley in 2006, but perez was released and bradley was sent to the padres for former dodger andrew brown (the second time he had been traded for bradley) in 2007.  meanwhile, ethier has put up some nice seasons for the dodgers.  it's enough to make me want the dh in the national league so that ethier and carl crawford can both get their at bats.

random enough for you?

a cleveland memorial patch for the trainer

jimmy warfield was a trainer in the indians' organization from 1969 until his passing in 2002.  he began his career with the team's aa affiliate and then joined the major league team as trainer in 1971.  warfield held the role of head trainer until 1997, when he stepped back to assistant trainer at the age of 55.  on july 15, 2002, warfield suffered a brain hemorrhage and passed away the following day.

in his memory, the indians wore a 'jw' patch on their right sleeves for the remainder of the season.  here's a 2003 upper deck 40 man card of milton bradley with the patch visible on his jersey.

i also have this 2003 upper deck mvp card of brandon phillips in my collection.

it shows the warfield patch as well, but this particular card sits in my double play binder.  it's worth noting that rickey henderson (is that really rickey?) is sporting the ted williams armband (and number) on his sleeve.  teddy ballgame will get a separate memorial post, of course.

i was a bit surprised that the dodgers didn't do something similar for bill buhler when he passed away early in the 2003 season.  he did have a patch in the dodgers' 1999 heroes set, which i assume was worn by the training staff, but his career and impact on the dodgers' organization was worthy of a tribute, just as warfield's was.

here are some 'mount everest' through the mail successes!

not the 'tallest mountain in the world, many die to obtain' type of mount everest ttm successes, but more like the 'because they were there' ttm successes.  these are players who really have no connection to the dodgers, 1978 topps, or any other primary facet of my collection, but are good ttm signers and i partook of their generosity.

first up is mark grace.  i did, in fact, send a 1989 donruss card to grace, and he did, in fact, sign it and return it to me.

i thanked him in my letter for getting that hit off of mariano rivera in the 2001 world series to get the rally going in game 7.  maybe that's why he swapped my 1991 topps card with this 2003 upper deck mvp card

i do like the card though, because the photo looks like it could have come from that game in 2002 where grace took the mound in a dodgers' blowout and did his mike fetters impression.  thanks gracie!

next up is mike mussina, who signed his 1992 topps card

and a 2004 playoff honors card

i sent both of those cards to mussina shortly after he retired.  i did enjoy following his career, maybe a little less so when he went to the yankees, and was happy that he finally won 20 games, especially since he was on my fantasy team that year.  thanks moose!

i had a previous success with larussa, but found this 1981 topps double and sent it on

i also included a 1988 topps card

but did not give him grief over the world series of that year.  thanks tony!

another guy i had previous success with, and was very happy about, is frank tanana.  and, like larussa, i found this 1981 topps (traded) double lying around and sent it off to the lefty

 

 along with a 1984 fleer

 and a 1991 topps

thanks frank!