3 of nine

a couple of weeks ago, i was informed by my page-a-day calendar that there have been 9 major league players whose last names begin with the letter 'c' that have also hit 300 home runs.  three of them played for the dodgers during their careers.  a fourth, jose canseco, made a stop at dodger spring training one year during what turned out to be a glorified book tour.

the legit 300-hr dodgers from this list are:

ron cey

of course.  the penguin hit 316 home runs during his career, 228 of which came with the dodgers.  he is currently second on the la dodger all-time home run list behind eric karros.

next, the kid.

gary carter hit 324 homers in his career, 6 of which came with the dodgers in 1991.  his 324 total is the same as lance parrish's career tally.  parrish hit one more as a catcher (299 to carter's 298) according to my quick googling.  should lance parrish (whose 'most similar' player on his baseball reference page happens to be hall-of-famer gary carter) have received more hof consideration?

the third membef of this group is rocky colavito

colavito had finished the 1967 season with the white sox and was then purchased by the dodgers towards the end of spring training in 1968.  during his time in la, he hit 3 of his 374 career home runs before being released by the blue in july.  all three were hit in chicago, and came over a two day span in may.  he hit two home runs on may 7th off of joe niekro and then former dodger phil regan. the next day, he hit a bomb off of jack lamabe.  and that was the extent of his national league home run hitting.

those weren't the last home runs he would hit, however as the yankees got five long balls after they signed colavito for the remainder of the season, his last in the big leagues.

because colavito joined the dodgers so late in the spring, topps wasn't able to switch his team affiliation.  it's a shame that he doesn't have a regular card as a dodger (and his 1990 target card shows him in an indian uniform) so i went ahead and slightly tweaked his 1968 card into what should have been

it still seems weird.  just for the record, here's the full list of 'c' 300 hundred home run hitters:

jose canseco - 462

joe carter - 396

orlando cepeda - 379

norm cash - 377

rocky colavito - 374

jack clark - 340

gary carter - 324

vinny castilla - 320

ron cey - 316

mike cameron needs another 25 so the next guy to join the list is likely miguel cabrera who needs 30.