frenchy bordagaray, dodger double dipper

with a nickname like 'frenchy', one might think that stanley george bordagaray was from france or quebec or maybe even louisiana.  nope, he was from central california, although he did become a player-manager in quebec after his big league playing days were over.  before that, however, bordagaray played for the dodgers.  twice.

[this is the sixtysecond 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, and jim fairey.]

here's the only card i have of bordagaray in a dodger uniform - his 1990 target card

bordagaray made his big league debut as a member of the chicago white sox in 1934, but after the season was traded to the dodgers. he spent the next two seasons in the dodger outfield, playing in 120 and 125 games in those seasons, respectively.  in 1936, he posted a .315 batting average and a career high ops of .766.  bordagaray moved on to saint louis and then cincinnati, where he played against the yankees in the 1939 world series.

the reds couldn't beat the yankees, so bordagaray joined them the following season (although he was traded, so i don't think he had much say in the matter).  the first player that i knew of to make this sort of move was tommy john who went to the yankees prior to the 1979 season after losing two world series in a row to them with the dodgers.  anyway, bordagaray was with the yankees when they beat the dodgers in the 1941 world series and then the following spring had his contract purchased by the dodgers.  this scenario was repeated in my youth when gary thomasson helped the yankees beat the dodgers in the 1978 world series, and then joined the dodgers for the following season to rub it in.

in his second stint with the dodgers, which lasted four seasons, bordagaray hit .278 over 330 games.  he eventually returned to the central coast of california following his baseball career and turn as a developer of cemeteries in the midwest to work for the city of ventura parks department.  bordagaray passed away in 2000 at the age of 90.