the brewers' equipment manager memorial patch

bob sullivan had been with the brewers since their move from seattle when they were known as the pilots.  he was the team's equipment manager up until the time of his death prior to the 1986 season.  during the 1986 campaign, the team wore 'sully' patches on their left sleeves in his memory.  

you can see the patch on robin yount's 1987 topps card

as well as mike birkbeck's 1988 topps card, as topps used older photos back then, too.

the card in my memorials binder is this 1987 fleer charlie moore card

moore's 1978 topps card is also in the collection due to the danny frisella armband he and his teammates wore in 1977.

the brewers' groundskeeper memorial patch

gary vanden berg was the brewers' head groundskeeper for 20 years, and was with the team for a total of 30 years.  he passed away in october of 2011 during the brew crew's playoff run.  for the remainder of the nlcs, the team wore a patch with his initials on their jerseys.  you can see the patch on yovani gallardo's 2012 topps archives card

vanden berg, who passed away after a battle with cancer, was also memorialized by the major league baseball groundskeeper hall of fame, who named a trophy after him which is given to new inductees to the hall.

waite hoyt was a dodger double dipper

many years ago, i asked a friend of mine a question. he had noted, as many people have when referring to a lackluster offensive lineup, that the 1999 minnesota twins 'were not the 1927 yankees'.  no, they certainly were not.  the 1999 twins scored just 686 runs and hit only 105 home runs (ron coomer led the team with 16 long balls).  in comparison, the 1927 yankees scored 975 times, and babe ruth and lou gehrig combined to hit 107 home runs all by themselves.

that discussion got us talking.  sure, the 1927 yankees were known for their offensive output from ruth, gehrig, tony lazzeri, and bob meusel, but who were the pitchers that benefited from this production?  we could not name one.  since then, i have remembered waite hoyt as the winningest pitcher on the 1927 yankees, just in case i'm in a bar and the question comes up.  it turns out, he also pitched for the dodgers.  twice.

[this is the sixtyfourth 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, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, babe herman, joe medwick, juan castro, ron perranoski, clyde king, paul waner, hughie jennings, ron negray, broadway aleck smith, george smith, johnny cooney, jim fairey, frenchy bordagaray, and doc casey.]

here is hoyt's 1990 target card - the only 'dodger' card i have of him

hoyt's first stop in brooklyn came in 1932, a season after he helped the philadelphia a's reach the world series.  he appeared in 8 games for the dodgers, going 1-3 in his 4 starts, and was released.  the new york giants (his original team) picked him up for the remainder of the season, and then hoyt moved on to the pirates for the 1933 campaign.  he pitched for pittsburgh until the dodgers purchased his contract during the 1937 season.  hoyt was 7-7 with a 3.23 era for the dodgers that year, but 0-3 to start the following season and was released.  still, he had become a dodger double dipper and was later named to the hall of fame in 1969 by the veteran's committee.  he is one of a handful of hall of fame players like hoyt wilhelm, eddie murray, greg maddux, and rickey henderson to have ended their careers with the dodgers without being thought of as dodgers, if that makes sense.

sunday morning target dodgers

here are another 14 members of the dodger franchise from the 1990 target set.  there were a lot of ghostly images on this particular sheet.  let's see what we can learn from baseball reference about them, shall we?

pete cassidy

pete, not a known relation to butch, played in all of 6 games for the superbas in 1899 before they traded him to the washington senators.  he looks a lot like doc casey, if you ask me.

dick cox

good lord, what a name by today's standards.  the weird thing is that his name was actually elmer joseph cox.  no richard to be found.  anyway, he played two years of major league ball, both with the robins.  in 1925, his rookie year, he hit .329 in 122 games.

cliff curtis

curtis joined the dodgers during the 1912 season and was 4-7 in 19 appearances.  he returned for the 1913 season, and posted a 8-9 record in 30 games for  the superbas as they were then known.  he didn't play in 1914 when the franchise changed their name for a third year in a row, this time to the robins.

wally gilbert

gilbert did play for the robins, although not until the 1930's.  he was the team's third baseman from 1928 through 1931, but was traded to the reds prior to the 1932 season.

jake hehl

hehl appeared in one game for the robins in 1918, and that was it for his major league career.  he pitched 1 inning, allowing no hits or runs, although he did hit a batter.  he was 18 at the time - the youngest player in the league - and was a pitcher at a brooklyn high school brought in to replace players lost to military service.  i wonder what he did with the rest of his life.

chet kehn

kehn had three times the big league experience as hehl.  he pitched in three games during his career, all with the dodgers in 1942.  he also got two at bats in that time, and while his career era was 7.04, his lifetime batting average was 1.000.  not too many people can say that!

dick loftus

loftus played for the robins in 1924 and 1925, the only two years he spent in the major leagues.  he hit .250 in a total of 97 games.

charlie malay

malay has the distinction of being the second baseman on the worst team in franchise history - the 1905 superbas.  he hit .252 that year, which also happened to be his lone season in the big leagues.

larry miller

miller made his big league debut in 1964, pitching for the defending world champion dodgers against the reds.  he wound up 4-8 on the season, but did go 2 for 2 at the plate in each of his first two games - the last dodger to do so until yasiel puig came around last season.  miller was traded to the mets following the 1964 season, and his only win for the ny metropolitans came against his former club on june 20, 1965.

earl mossor

mossor spent 12 seasons in the minor leagues with just one taste of big league experience.  in 1951, the dodgers brought him up and he pitched in 3 games.  in his debut, he allowed a sacrifice fly to the first batter he faced, and then walked the next three (all of whom eventually scored) before being removed.  he pitched two-thirds of an inning his next time out without allowing a run, but his third and final appearance included another sacrifice fly (scoring an inherited runner), three more walks (one intentional), and a three-run home run in two-thirds of an inning for a whopping 32.40 career era.  still, mossor is another guy that retired with a 1.000 career batting average, as he was 1 for 1 at the plate.

red smith

smith played for the dodgers, superbas, and robins from 1911 until he was traded to the boston braves during the 1914 season.  he hit .279 in 397 games during that span and led the league with 40 doubles in 1913.

farmer steelman

steelman played for the superbas in 1 game during the 1900 season, and 1 game during the 1901 season.  he left brooklyn and joined connie mack's new american league team in philadephia for the rest of the 1901 season and played for mack again in 1902.

overton tremper

tremper was an ivy leaguer who played for the robins in 1927 and 1928.  he had a degree in economics from the university of pennsylvania, and after hitting .220 in 36 games over two seasons, he became a high school math teacher.

rube vickers

harry porter 'rube' vickers was a canadian born pitcher who appeared in 4 games for the superbas in 1903.  he was 0-1 in those appearances which included one start.  he resurfaced in 1907, pitching for connie mack's a's, and had his best season in 1908 going 18-19 with a 2.21 era for philadelphia.

so there you have it - 14 guys i hadn't heard of before.  the 15th player featured on this sheet gets his own post later today. stay tuned.

cartwright!

perhaps one of the best early episodes of seinfeld was the chinese restaurant one.  the foursome waited in real time for a table, but lost out when the host called out 'cartwright' instead of 'costanza' when it was their turn to be seated.  that's a long way to go to get to this 2012 panini cooperstown card of alexander cartwright

it came to me from jeff at 2x3 heroes as part of his 'tis the season giveaway and features the baseball pioneer in fireman gear from his time as the honolulu fire chief.  

there were also a mess of twins in the package, including a 2012 topps heritage jamey carroll

on which the former dodger does his best 'suttoning' pose, and a bunch of angels including a 2006 fleer ultra vladimir guerrero

i also found this 1987 ralston purina steve garvey card

in the package.  i think i still need the cookie crisp version - it doesn't say '1987 collectors' edition' on it.

don't worry - jeff also sent some dodgers along.  here's a 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee cory wade black parallel card

but the biggest, best, baddest card of the entire package was this 2013 panini america's pastime fernando valenzuela autograph

el toro autografia certificado para mi!  mucho gusto! muchas gracias jeff!

more random cards from the scanned folder

i'm doing some spring cleaning (although it's still winter here) of my scanned folder.  enjoy the randomness.

1961 topps nl batting leaders

that's quite a collection of players - two hall of famers, plus dick groat and the dodgers' norm larker.  groat hit .300 or better a few other times, but 1960 was the only season that larker surpassed that mark, missing the league title by just one hit. still, to be featured on a card with willie mays and roberto clemente is a pretty good consolation.

1966 topps derrell griffith

a young robin williams makes an appearance.  or, if you prefer, glenn quamire.  giggity.  griffith played in parts of four seasons for the dodgers, who won the pennant in three of those years, but he did not appear in any postseason games.

1979 hostess burt hooton

hooton was coming off a 19-win season and a second place finish in the cy young voting when this card came out.  still, i was paying more attention to tommy john, don sutton, and bobby welch fan at the time.

1981 topps steve garvey (back)

i'm not sure why i scanned the back of this card, but look at that run of hit totals from 1974 through 1980!

1985 topps mike scioscia

bracing for impact, no doubt.

1995 score cory snyder

technically, this card is a final tribute, although the corndog did spend some time in the minors with the red sox and padre organizations after the strike ended in 1995.  1994 was the last time he saw big league action, however, and he did it as a dodger.  the highlight of his final season was easily his 3-home run/7 rbi game against the pirates in april.

2004 leaf certified materials don sutton 'k force'

i used to watch 'battle of the planets' which had g-force protecting us from the evil of zoltar and planet spectra. too bad this wasn't a 'g force' card - sutton is currently 7th all-time in k's, but 3rd all-time in g's (games started, that is).

2005 fleer ultra eric gagne

gagne broke the dodgers' cy young drought in 2003 - they hadn't had a winner since 1988, which was the longest drought in franchise history.  they had been the only team to have a cy young award winner in each decade until they were shut out in the 1990's.  just like they were shut out in world series appearances that decade for the first time since the 1930's.

2005 fleer ultra milton bradley gold medal edition

that's one heckuva rounded corner!

through the mail thursday - a sign of lopes

well, you knew i had to have one of these - a 2014 topps heritage davey lopes real one on-card certified auto

the second baseman of the team of my youth is looking fierce!  i probably overpaid to get one of the first of these that i came across, but i don't mind.  i appreciate the fact that topps is giving him some attention.

that wasn't the only lopes auto that i received in the mail recently, however.  much to my surprise and delight, lopes has begun to sign through the mail after several years of not doing so.  after seeing a return from the dodgers' spring training facility, i sent a couple of cards and received them back in short order.  he signed a 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams (i really do plan to finish my other blog this year, honestly) card

which looks like it uses a photo from the same shoot as the heritage card, and a 1981 fleer card

i sent him the fleer card because of the smile and the fact that his name is misspelled.  it actually looks like he signed 'davy'.  that's pretty funny if true.

thank for signing my cards davy davey!

through the mail thursday - chris potter and the autographed cards

a couple of days ago, i received a package from chris potter sports.  it contained the four cards that i had sent in for their february signing tour.  i had a credit left over from their last tour (matt keough had cancelled) so cashed in for a couple different 1978 topps autos.  i also sprung for a couple of dodger signatures.

1974 topps tom paciorek

i had made a couple of freebie attempts through the mail with paciorek, better known for his days as a white sox broadcaster, with no success.  i chose his 1974 card rather than, say, his 1978 topps card because dodger cards take priority over non-dodger 1978 topps cards in my autograph collection.

1978 o-pee-chee rick rhoden

rhoden had sent me a few bonus signed cards while fulfilling a request i sent with his 1978 topps card and a $10 donation a while back.  i was happy to spend another $10 to get this canadian issue signed.

here are the two cards that i got signed using the matt keough credit - 1978 topps sixto lezcano

and 1978 topps tom hume

i was pretty pleased to see sixto signing for cheap, because, well, his name is sixto.  as for hume, i remember him as one of the people that was rescued from the 1980 mgm fire in las vegas first and a reliever second.  i sent a different copy of this card to steve mccatty a couple of years ago, which he signed, but i figured i would let hume have a clean card to sign.

thanks again to chris potter sports and to the players for signing!

through the mail thursday - a jerry hairston jr ttm success!

former dodger and current dodger network analyst jerry hairston jr signed and returned a couple of cards for me last week.  he signed and returned his fantastic 2012 topps update card

and his 2013 topps card

in about a week.

hairston is now part of the dodgers' pre and postgame broadcast team at sportsnet la, their new network that came from the $7 billion deal that allowed the team to have the league's highest payroll.  i don't live in southern california, so i can't see the network, but then again, neither can most southern californians at the moment.

thanks for signing my cards jerry!

in the year 2000

i used to watch conan every once in a while, and i recall the first time i saw his 'in the year 2000' bit.  it was in late 1999 and he predicted that in the year 2000, zombies would feast on human flesh and when they got hungry later, they would go to olive garden.  i found that to be quite funny.

this post has nothing to do with conan or his skits, however.  instead, i give to you a few cards that were produced in the final year of the 20th century.

2000 fleer focus jeff shaw

on which we clearly see the don drysdale hero patch.  i think of cards from this set as fleer's knockoff of 1981 topps.  oddly enough, upper deck would bring the cap design element back to cards in 2006 under the fleer banner.

2000 topps jeff shaw

the first topps gray border set since 1970.  it was a nice break from two years of gold borders.

speaking of gold, 2000 upper deck gold reserve kevin brown

aside from the full bleed, there were some similarities between the topps card design and the upper deck card design in the year 2000.

2000 upper deck sp authentic

there were a heckuva lot of kevin brown cards in the year 2000.

2000 pacific angel pena

pena is wearing the roy campanella patch, as any catcher should.  note that paul loduca wore the mike scioscia patch.

2000 pacific paramount devon white

yes, devon white was a dodger in the year 2000.  and in 1999 as well, when he wore the jackie robinson patch.  here's the back of his 2000 topps stadium club card

looks like devo played his best at dodger stadium.  he finished his career with 34 leadoff home runs, including one hit for the dodgers in the year 2000.

2000 skybox dominion adrian beltre

beltre was 21 in the year 2000, and he hit 20 home runs for the first time.  he's about to turn 35 and is about 600 hits shy of 3000.  i wonder if he will make it.

i really liked that skybox dominion set when it came out, but my favorite set of the year 2000 was the fleer greats of the game release.  fleer had put out the first gotg set in 1999 as a sports illustrated fueled set, complete with an autographed card in every pack.  that was cool, but i really liked the look and feel of the 2000 set over the gloss of the 1999 set.

here are a few of the dodgers from the set - tommy john

al lopez

preacher roe

and fernando valenzuela

the set featured on card autos, too.  not of fernando, unfortunately.  had there been one, it might well have been my favorite card of the year 2000.