sutton is the winningest pitcher in dodger history, with 233 victories. for his career, he racked up 324 wins, good for 14th all-time. he is also 7th all-time in strikeouts with 3574.i was lucky enough to see sutton pitch several times, including once in his final stint with the dodgers in 1988. he was clearly on his last legs then, but was still surprised to be released by the team during the heat of the pennant race. i can't blame him for being upset about it, but i think even he would agree that he was just about done.
he and steve garvey famously fought/wrestled/scratched each other in a clubhouse brawl that centered around what many believed to be garvey's fake image. apparently, sutton brought garvey's wife into the discussion and fisticuffs ensued.
but enough of that. here's to you, don sutton - the guy sandy koufax once referred to as 'the only 300 game winning teammate i ever had', and the only hall of fame player from the team of my youth!
we'll start with a padre, which is only fitting. i don't believe garvey was ever featured as a padre diamond king previously. the injustice!
i went the o-pee-chee route with him, since he has yet to make his debut with the dodgers. i remember in 1988 when the dodgers traded pedro guerrero, and the word was addition by subtraction. i hope this isn't subtraction by addition. here's hoping he wears the dodger blue well.
shotton was the manager in 1947, and then from the latter part of 1948 to 1950. branch rickey picked shotton to replace the suspended leo durocher for the 1947 season, and then tapped him again to replace durocher on a permanent basis after durocher failed to maintain the success in 1948 that shotton had generated the season before. choosing to manage in street clothes (although he would wear the team jacket and hat), shotton won two pennants (1947 and 1949) and came close to a third in 1950. despite this success, he was a victim of the power struggle between branch rickey and walter o'malley, and was replaced by charlie dressen.
also won two pennants (1952 and 1953) and came darn close in 1951. that, of course, was the year of the 'shot heard round the world'. as detailed in roger kahn's 'the boys of summer', dressen believed that his success should be rewarded with a multi-year contract instead of the one-year deals o'malley liked to hand out. o'malley disagreed, and dressen was replaced with walter alston. dressen, who had previously managed the reds, would go on to manage the senators, braves and tigers, but would not win another pennant.
won seven pennants in his 23-year tenure as manager; two in brooklyn and five in los angeles. in 1955 he led brooklyn to its only world series championship, and then won three more (1959, 1963, 1965) after the Dodgers moved to los angeles. he retired with 4 games remaining in the 1976 season, and was replaced by tommy lasorda. the dodgers retired his number (24) in 1977, and he was elected to the hall of fame in 1983.
finished the 1996 season as manager, compiling a record of 49-37 and earning the nl wild card. unfortunately, the dodgers were swept in the playoffs for the second straight year. in 1997, russell led the team to another second place finish in the nl west, but out of the wild card and playoffs. he was a victim of the fox takeover in 1998, and was fired in june shortly after the bungled mike piazza trade which was made without the knowledge of russell or the gm, fred claire. the dodgers promoted aaa manager glenn hoffman to take over. although it was a smaller sample size, russell's .537 winning percentage is higher than any other dodger manager that served between walter alston and joe torre.
finished just over .500 in his two seasons at the helm, including the first losing season of his managerial career in 1999. he was fired after a second place finish in 2000 and replaced with the mild mannered jim tracy. it is worth noting that johnson was the last player to get a hit off of sandy koufax.
led the dodgers to the nlds in 2006 where they were swept by the mets. in 2007, the dodgers had two significant slumps late in the season which doomed them to 4th place in the division. this was the year where the generational conflict occurred between veterans such as luis gonzalez (boo!) and matt kemp (yay!) over playing time. frank mccourt and colletti seemed to leave little twisting in the wind following the season as they publicly courted joe girardi and joe torre. in the end, little resigned clearing the way for joe torre to be the new manager.
in his first season as dodgers manager, he led them back to the nlcs for the first time in 20 years, and here in his second year he has them sitting atop the nl west with the best record in the national league. while i am not complaining at all about torre's performance, there is a part of me that wishes russell could have continued the tradition of longevity as the dodger manager, but it wasn't meant to be. it would at least have been nice to hire a dodger like mike scioscia. it looks like he knows what he's doing. 
is his first solo issue, after two years of multi-player rookie cards, and comes complete with the topps rookie cup.
is his first with the cubs, but that's how i will always picture him, because the 1978 card was the first of his that i ever saw. buckner was part of the dodgers' legendary draft of 1968, and was traded to the cubs in the rick monday deal after the 1976 season. he wound up playing 8 seasons for the cubbies (same as he did for the dodgers, if you count his one at bat in 1969), and led the league in batting average in 1980.
the card would fit right in with the high number of spring training shots the dodgers have in their 1978 set, although the picture is of a younger downing, probably circa 1974 or so. still, topps has been known to re-use photo sessions.
i did print one out and sent a note explaining the card and asking him to sign it so i could add it to the 
1981 fleer
and 1982 fleer
cards for me. i did include a $10 donation for his charity - 
in triplicate!
