they are the alpha and the omega...

for the dodgers anyway, alphabetically speaking.

just like rod has his padrographs from abner to zimmer, we have don aase and don zimmer. he belonged to the dodgers first, rod.true, there were two guys with the last name of zimmerman that played for the organization way way back, but i am too lazy to break out my 1990 target set and see if they were included.

aase is, in fact, fourth on the all-time major league alphabetical list. he falls behind david aardsma and hank and tommie aaron. for some reason, i picture him as a met which is weird because he spent most of his career, including my baseball fandom formative years, in the american league with the angels and orioles. he played just one season for the mets, and that was 1989!

1990 turned out to be his final season, so the 1991 fleer card above is a true final tribute. and not a bad way to go out - pitching in sunny dodger stadium!

zimmer, on the other hand, was just getting started in baseball in 1956. he broke into the big leagues with the dodgers in 1954, and played with them through the 1959 season before being traded to the cubs. he would play for the mets, reds, dodgers again, and the senators before finishing his playing career in japan in 1966.

he has been a manager or coach in the big leagues since 1971, winning over 900 games as a manager. unfortunately, zimmer suffered a minor stroke late last year, but he is back in uniform for the rays this spring. that's great, because baseball would seem strange without him around after all these years.