he doesn't own the dodgers, but he did double dip

[this is the thirty-sixth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, and ted sizemore.]

the bulldog willed the dodgers to a world series title in 1988, but even he was not immune to the realities of the game, and after the 1994 season, hershiser became a free agent and signed with the indians.

before that, however, we were given this very nice 1991 score card

to remember him by.  hershiser was 134-102 during his first 12 seasons with the dodgers, posting an even 3.00 era.  he was 4-0 in the postseason, having pitched in the nlcs in both 1985 and 1988, as well as the 1988 fall classic.  he had a cy young award, a gold glove, a silver slugger award, and three all-star berths.  unfortunately, he was under .500 since succumbing to injury in 1990, and the dodgers did not re-sign him.

in cleveland, hershiser certainly benefitted from the potent indians' lineup, winning 45 games in his three seasons there despite an era of over 4.00.  he continued to pitch well in the postseason, going 4-1 in 1995.  the first postseason loss of his career came in game 1 of the world series, but he rebounded to pitch a strong 8 innings in game 5 to beat the braves and greg maddux and stave off elimination.  he returned to the postseason in 1996, and the world series in 1997, where he suffered two losses to the marlins.

after the 1997 season, hershiser did a bad thing and signed with the san francisco giants.  he went 11-10 with a 4.41 era and was once again a free agent heading into 1999.  i don't recall this, but baseball reference indicates that hershiser signed a deal during spring training of '99 with the indians, but was released shortly before the start of the season.  that same day, he was signed by the mets.  there aren't too many cards of hershiser as a met, but i found this 2000 pacific card:

to document his time in flushing.  bulldog was once again a game over .500 as he posted a record of 13-12 for the metropolitans.  his era was 4.58, but he was still able to pick up a couple of big milestones.  first, he won his 200th career game - a july win against the expos.  then, in his final start of the season, he struck out 4 pirates, including abraham nunez who became hershiser's 2000th career strikeout victim.  he made his final postseason appearance with the mets in 1999, making a total of three relief appearances in the nlds and nlcs.

once the postseason ended, hershiser was again a free agent, and this time, he returned to the dodgers.  here's his 2000 topps card:

in his second start of his second tour of duty, hershiser was on the mound at dodger stadium for the home opener.  he pitched well - allowing just 1 run in 6 innings.  he earned the victory, which turned out to be the final tally of his career.  after 4 relief appearances and 4 more starts, hershiser was released by the dodgers in july of 2000.  

after trying his hand at coaching for a few seasons, he became an analyst for espn.  he recently helped form a team to try to purchase the dodgers, but fell short to the guggenheim group by who knows how many millions of dollars.  don't worry, though, i'm sure he will continue with his espn gig and maybe even his professional poker career.

here's to you bulldog!  a dodger double dipper!