is this a brett wallach rookie card?

i am assuming that tim wallach is carrying his own kid around on his shoulders on his 1994 upper deck sp card

which also comes in a die cut state

if so, it could be brett wallach, who the dodgers drafted in the 3rd round of the 2009 draft.  here's his 2009 bowman draft picks & prospects card in its gold parallel variety

the younger wallach was born in december of 1988, so if the photo on the elder wallach's card is from spring training 1993, brett would have been four years old.  it wouldn't be the first time that a kid appeared on his dad's baseball card and then went on to have one of his own - the 1982 fleer set had a card with pete rose and pete rose jr, and young pete got a card of his own in the 1998 topps set.

unfortunately, it looks like brett wallach is out of baseball now.  he was traded to the cubs in 2010 and last pitched in their organization in 2012.

i have many leather bound books and this card that looks of rich mahogany

actually, this 2005 bowman heritage brad penny mahogany parallel

does not really look like rich mahagony, but this post needed a catchy title.  after all, it's just a random cards from the scanned folder post.

here's a 2002 upper deck adrian beltre card

it features a pretty standard photo angle at dodger stadium - a nice photo of a right-handed batter taken from the first base dugout photographer's well.  we've seen it before, many times, like on bill madlock's 1986 woolworth's card

and raul mondesi's 2000 topps opening day card

other stadiums have the same vantage point, including the nameless stadium that provided the backdrop for this 1994 upper deck sp holo fx mondesi card

and, not all batters from that vantage point are right-handed, either.  case in point, this 2003 upper deck odalis perez card

complete with visible undie lines.

here's a better card of perez from 2005 upper deck

the home whites look really sharp on that card.

back to 2003, fred mcgriff's upper deck card from that year

makes good use of the horizontal design, thanks to the stratified seats at vero beach.

this 2003 upper deck 40 man card of beltre is almost a tatooine card

spoiled only by that little bit of grass by his left foot.

here's a 2010 topps 206 james loney card

it is a bronze parallel, i believe.  i was a fan of the 206 set when topps first released it in 2002 (loney had a card in that set, too).  not so much in 2010.  i have a partially completed 2002 set, in fact.  i will have to get my want list posted and take a run at finishing it.

finally, here is a 2008 etopps manny ramirez card

i picked this up cheap online sometime last year.  i am guessing that a lot of people had topps ship their cards after it was announced that etopps was ending.  i had bought a few cards from etopps in the early 2000's, but always had them shipped.  i didn't understand the idea of not having the physical card.

until the next time i am hurting for a post, stay classy scanned folder.

a memorial patch for harvey kuenn

to me, harvey kuenn is the guy who struck out as the last out of sandy koufax's perfect game (as vin scully said, '2 and 2 to harvey kuenn, one strike away.  sandy into his windup; here's the pitch - swung on and missed! a perfect game!).  however, kuenn was also the manager of the milwaukee brewers in 1982 and 1983.  he took over the team about a third of the way into the 1982 season and wound up leading the brew crew to the world series.  after he died in february of 1988, the team added a 'h/k' memorial patch to their left sleeves, with the slash being a baseball bat.

the patch is visible on a number of cards, such as:

1989 donruss paul molitor

1989 topps chuck crim

1990 bill wegman

1988 score rookie and traded darryl hamilton

1989 donruss joey meyer

and jim gantner's 1989 upper deck card - both on the front

and the back

which also seems to include a double play turn.

as much as i would like to include a molitor or robin yount card (or some other member of "harvey's wallbangers" as the representative for this patch in my collection, that honor goes to this 1989 big apple sportscards gary sheffield card

kuenn also had a successful career as a player, amassing over 2000 hits and a .303 lifetime average in 15 seasons.  he was only 57 when he died.

a black armband for the pirates' owner

barney dreyfuss was born in germany in 1865 but came to america in 1885 to work in his cousin's distillery.  he took an interest in baseball, and purchased a share of the louisville colonels of the american association in 1889.  he eventually moved them to the national league, and bought out his partners, and, when the team was cut from the league in 1899, dreyfuss used its players, including honus wagner, to stock the roster of his newest team, the pittsburgh pirates.

dreyfuss owned the pirates and served as a hands-on owner from 1900 until his death in february, 1932.  his players wore a black armband in his honor during the 1932 season, as shown on this 1994 conlon the sporting news card of pie traynor

dreyfuss accomplished many things during his ownership tenure - he built forbes field, helped to establish the two major leagues and the world series, was the first president of the national league, and his pirates won 6 pennants and one world series, to boot.  dreyfuss was elected to the national baseball hall of fame in 2008, and the monument that was installed at forbes field in his honor has followed the pirates to three rivers stadium and now pnc park.

wee willie keeler was a brooklyn double dipper

hall of famer willie keeler played for the brooklyn grooms in 1893 before moving on to the baltimore orioles where he had his best years from 1894 through 1898.  for the 1899 season, keeler returned to brooklyn to join the superbas.  he was a dodger franchise double dipper.

[this is the sixtyseventh 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, doc casey, waite hoyt, luis olmo, and clyde sukeforth.]

when i was a kid reading 'the image of their greatness', i would confuse wee willie keeler with wee willie winkie (my grandma used to sing that nursery rhyme to me when i went to bed).  give me a break; i was 8.  

anyway, the only cards i have of keeler show him as a dodger coach, in fact this 1994 conlon the sporting news card

and this 1990 target card

each use the same photo of keeler from 1912, when they were, in fact, known as the dodgers.

keeler first played for the brooklyn grooms in 1893 after his contract was purchased from the new york giants for $800.  he hit .313 for the team but brooklyn traded him to baltimore after the season ended.  keeler went on to have his best seasons with the orioles (who were a national league team at the time and are not part of the current orioles' franchise legacy).  in his five seasons in baltimore, keeler never hit below .371, and he led the league in batting twice with a .385 average in 1898 and a ridiculous .424 average in 1897.

the brooklyn superbas, as they were now known, were somehow able to get keeler back following the 1898 season, and he re-wrote the early brooklyn franchise record books upon his return.  his .379 batting average and 216 hits in 1899 were the best the team had seen and the best they would see until babe herman hit .381 with 217 hits 30 years later.  keeler's 190 singles in 1899 is still the franchise record for a season, and no one has or will come close to his ab/k ratio of 285 from that same year.  overall, keeler spent 5 seasons with brooklyn as a player, and his batting average over those seasons was .352 - also a franchise record.

keeler is remembered for many things - hitting 'em where they ain't, his 44-game hitting streak, being the fastest player to reach 1000 and 2000 career hits, that remarkable .424 batting average in 1897 - and now you can add double dipper to that list if you didn't know before.

sunday morning target dodgers

here are this week's players from the 1990 target dodger giveaway set.  fourteen players are featured in this post, with the fifteenth member of the sheet making an appearance a little later.

dan bankhead

bankhead was the first african-american pitcher to appear in the major leagues.  his negro league and minor league success didn't translate to big league success, however, and he ended his major league career with a 6.52 era over 52 games.

buzz boyle

boyle spent three seasons (1933-35) patrolling the outfield for the dodgers.  he hit .305 in 1934 and had a 25-game hitting streak while doing so.  that streak stood as the longest in dodger history until joe medwick hit in 27 straight in 1942.  willie davis is the dodger with the longest streak to date, with 31 in 1969.

larry cheney

cheney was traded to the robins from the cubs in 1915.  the next season, he won 18 games and helped brooklyn reach the world series in which he appeared in game 4.  cheney remained with the robins into the 1919 season when he was picked up on waivers by the braves.

cliff dapper

i figured that the only thing i knew about dapper when i saw this card is that he played for the pirates in addition to the dodgers.  i was wrong.  dapper's  big league career began and ended with the dodgers in 1942.  he hit .471 over the course of two weeks early in the '42 season, an average that stands as the highest for any player with 8 or more hits, according to baseball reference.  he served in world war ii from 1943-45, and never made it out of the minor leagues after returning from service.  in 1948, the dodgers famously traded him to double-a atlanta for announcer ernie harwell. as far as i can tell, the pirates uniform comes from dapper's time as a minor league player/manager in the pirates' system.

al downing

downing was traded to the dodgers by the brewers prior to the 1971 season (the guy the dodgers gave up is also on this sheet, and shows up later in the post).  he immediately went out and won 20 games and finished 3rd in the league cy young award voting.  downing wore number 44 for the dodgers, which is the same number worn by hank aaron, who hit a downing pitch in 1974 for home run number 715.

jim hickman

hickman came to the dodgers in the deal that sent tommy davis to the mets.  he only played for la in 1967, and was then traded to the cubs.  hickman's 67 appearances for the dodgers in '67 did not yield any home runs - the only season in which hickman failed to hit a long ball - but did include his lone career pitching performance.  in two innings of work against the giants on june 23, hickman allowed just one run - a home run by willie mays.

gil hodges

hodges is the star of the sheet, no doubt, even though there's a hall of famer on the sheet.  he came up as a catcher, but moved to first base for the dodgers in 1948 when jackie robinson moved to second (the guy that jackie replaced at first is also on this sheet).  hodges stayed at first for 14 seasons, helping the dodgers to 6 world series and hitting 360 home runs in that span.  he was selected by the expansion mets following the 1961 season, and hit the first home run in the team's history in their inaugural game.  he was traded to the senators during the 1963 season who wanted him as their manager.  a few years later, the mets would trade to get hodges back to be their skipper, and they were rewarded as he led them to their 1969 world championship.

rick honeycutt

honeycutt joined the dodgers in august of 1983 following a trade with the rangers that sent dave stewart to texas.  his 2.42 era for the rangers wound up leading the league that year, although his total era for the season was 3.03 - higher than mike boddicker's 2.77.  this was a similar situation to eddie murray's lost batting title in 1990 when willie mcgee was traded to the a's and wound up with a lower batting average overall than did murray, but maintained a higher national league average.  these days, the titles are won based on overall averages, not intraleague stats, which would have been good for murray but bad for honeycutt.  anyway, honeycutt pitched for the dodgers for almost exactly four years before being traded to oakland in august of 1987.  the dodgers received tim belcher in exchange, and wound up beating honeycutt and the a's thanks in part to belcher in the 1988 world series.  honeycutt returned to the dodgers as a coach following his retirement, and is currently don mattingly's pitching coach.

andy kosco

kosco spent two seasons with the dodgers - 1969 and 1970.  his 19 home runs and 74 rbi in 1969 led the team, but he was traded to the brewers following the 1970 season for al downing, straight up.

bob o'brien

o'brien gave up a home run to the first batter he faced in the big leagues (cito gaston), but also struck out the side in that same inning of work.  he pitched for the dodgers only in 1971, appearing in 14 games and earning a record of 2-2.  he made four career starts, the first of which ended in a 6-hit shutout against the cardinals.  o'brien made his lone topps appearance on the same 1972 rookie card as charlie hough and mike strahler, although his big league career was over at that point.

luther roy

roy pitched in two games for the brooklyn robins in 1929, giving up 2 runs in 3.2 innings.  those were the final two appearances of his career, a career that saw him post the highest era (7.17) for any player after 1900 who pitched more than 150 innings (since surpassed only by aaron myette).

ed stevens

stevens debuted for the dodgers in 1945, and was their primary first baseman in 1946.  he hit 10 home runs that year, good for second on the team behind pete reiser's 11.  in 1947, stevens was replaced at first base by jackie robinson, and spent most of the season at montreal.  after the season ended, his contract was purchased by the pirates, and he went on to play three more seasons in pittsburgh.

gary weiss

weiss is probably best known for being the last dodger to wear number 1 before it was retired in pee wee reese's honor.  he was a september call up for the dodgers in both 1980 and 1981.  he got into 8 games in 1980, all as a pinch runner, and then played in 14 games in 1981, including four consecutive starts at shortstop.  both of his career hits came in the same game - 9/20/81 against mario soto of the reds - and his lone career rbi was an eventual game winner - a sacrifice fly that scored steve garvey on 9/17/81.

larry white

white was acquired by the dodgers in the deal that sent rick sutcliffe to the indians.  he made his big league debut in 1983 for the dodgers, and pitched well in the four games in which he appeared, giving up just one run in 7 innings of work (the run came courtesy of an rbi single by nolan ryan).  in 1984, white had a couple cups of coffee with the dodgers, finishing the season with the club and striking out the last batter he would face in the big leagues - terry puhl on 9/25/84.

puig x pwe

2x3=6, which is the number of cards that jeff at 2x3 heroes stuffed into a pwe and sent my way recently.  i am going to break protocol here at garvey cey russell lopes, and not show the steve garvey card from the envelope first.  that's because yasiel puig's 2014 donruss elite dominator insert was included

and that kind of crazy card design deserves top billing.  besides, the garvey card was from 2002 topps archives which used his 1977 topps card

which is not necessarily one of my favorites.

there was one other dodger in the envelope - manny ramirez makes an appearance on a 2010 topps attax card

but the other three cards featured dodgers, sort of.  here's future dodger juan uribe who played for the white sox on tatooine as seen on his 2009 topps

and 2009 upper deck cards,

(that's probably very very likely a double play turn now that i look at it more closely)

and a former dodger henry blanco, who also played on tatooine as demonstrated by his 2011 topps walmart blue parallel card

blanco recently retired, but was able to carve out a nice 16-year career that started with a pinch hit single as a dodger back in 1997.  curiously enough, blanco never caught in any of the three games he appeared in as a dodger - he subbed in at third base after singling in his major league debut, pinch hit without playing in the field in his next appearance, and then subbed at first base in his third and final appearance in '97.  he signed with colorado after spending all of 1998 in the minors, and the rest is an 11-team big league journey.

thanks jeff!  i'll see if i can fit 6 cards in a pwe shortly.

turning two with the viz

dodger double dipper jose vizcaino turned a double play or two in his time.  i've recently picked up a few prime examples for my collction,

this is his 1999 topps stadium club card

it comes from his second stint as a dodger, and features a cub player sliding in while showing off the harry caray memorial patch

many of vizcaino's double play cards come from his time with the north siders.  here's a 1992 leaf card

which may well be the same play shown on his 1992 topps stadium club card

on the road at candlestick.

back at wrigley, here's his 1993 donruss card

1993 fleer flair card

1993 donruss triple play

1994 fleer

and 1994 pinnacle

with a play from tatooine.

here's vizcaino's 1994 upper deck card

on which he is digging out from underneath a lemke/blauser/treadway type

on to new york, here's jose trying to break up two again on his 1995 score card

and then exacting revenge on the braves on his 1994 score rookies & traded card

finally, a stop in san francisco, where el viz turns two under the watchful eye of jeff kent on his 1998 pacific crown collection card

until next time, this has been turning two with the viz!