doug rau through the mail successes!

i went to a fair number of games at dodger stadium growing up, and i would bet anything that i saw more games started by doug rau than any other pitchers combined.  i saw sutton a few times, as well as reuss and welch, but more often than not, dougie was on the mound.

not that that was a bad thing - rau had some good years for the dodgers.  he won 16 games in 1976, and 15 games in two other seasons to go along with a 14 win season in 1978.  he is probably best remembered for his 'discussion' with manager tommy lasorda on the mound during game 4 of the 1977 world series.  after giving up three straight hits to start the second inning, lasorda went to the mound to remove rau from the game.  despite the fact that two of the three hitters rau faced that inning were lefthanded batters, he told tommy he could strike the next batter (graig nettles, another lefty) out.  tommy didn't buy it and went on a blue streak.  if you haven't heard the audio, seek it out.  it's vintage lasorda.

anyway, doug was kind enough to sign and return a 1978 topps card for my modest 1978 topps dodgers autograph project (still missing an ed goodson auto), and he also signed some other cards over the course of a few months.  here they are:

1973 topps

1975 topps

1976 topps

1979 topps

1980 topps

1981 fleer

1981 topps

and, a 1981 topps traded

it was nice of fleer and topps to issue cards for doug in 1981 as he missed the entire 1980 season (and most of 1979) with a rotator cuff injury.  he was released by the dodgers in spring training of 1981, after which he hooked on with the angels.  he wound up making only 3 starts for the halos before they too let him go.

thanks doug!