07 February 2012

lee lacy's abbreviated atlanta adventure

[this is the thirty-second installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daaleric young, nick willhitechris gwynn, mickey hatcherdave anderson, don zimmerrafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike madduxjon garland, chan ho parkvicente romogene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moellerdioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirleyrandy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, and jesse orosco.]

leondaus lacy was drafted by the dodgers in 1969 and made his big league debut for them three years later.  here he is on his 1975 topps card, with dodger stadium serving as the backdrop 
unfortunately for lacy, dave lopes was coming onto the scene at the same time, and lacy wound up as the odd man out.  still, he carved out a niche for himself as a valuable utility player, spending time at second, third, short and all three outfield positions for the dodgers during his first go-around with them.  during that same time, lacy appeared in 266 games and posted a .274 batting average in over 800 plate appearances.

after the 1975 season, a season in which lacy appeared in over 100 games for the first time and posted a line of 7/40/.314, he was packaged with jim wynn, jerry royster, and tom paciorek in a deal with the braves that sent dusty baker and ed goodson to los angeles as documented by this 1976 topps traded card
in atlanta, lacy was installed as the everyday secondbaseman, and was batting .272 in late june when the dodgers re-acquired him (along with elias sosa) for reliever mike marshall.  he had played in only 50 games for the braves before al campanis brought him back.
back in los angeles, lacy spent most of his time over the remainder of the 1976 season filling in as an outfielder.  he stayed with the dodgers through the 1978 season before leaving for pittsburgh as a free agent, and, after 3 failed attempts with the dodgers, lacy finally earned a world series ring with 'the family' in 1979.

here's to you lee lacy, a dodger double dipper!

1 comment:

Captain Canuck said...

that's cool.. I just added that '76 Lacy to my team set binder yesterday, completing the '76's.
Good timing.