it's crazy that i can look at baseball-reference and find out about each and every one of these players, none of which i had heard of before preparing this post. in fact, i thought about just making stuff up for these 14 men from a sheet of the 1990 target dodgers set (the 15th card gets its own post later today), but that would be a disservice. so, off to baseball-reference i go.
erve beck
beck was a 20-year old rookie who played in 8 games for the brooklyn superbas in 1899. he was 4 for 24 in those games and next appeared in the major leagues in 1901 with the cleveland indians of the upstart american league. that season, beck's 6 home runs counted for half of the indians' total of 12.
bill collins
collins, shown here in a
1911 boston rustlers (later known as the braves) road uniform, played for the superbas in 1913. he hit .189 in 32 games for brooklyn and moved on to the buffalo buffeds of the federal league for the 1914 season.
dan daub
daub pitched in the major leagues for six seasons, spending the final five of those with brooklyn. from 1893-1897, daub pitched for the grooms/bridegrooms, compiling a record of 44-50. daub later went on to coach the baseball team at ohio wesleyan university, where one of his players was branch rickey.
pat deisel
deisel appeared in a total of 3 games during his big league career. two of those were with the reds in 1903, and the other one came with the brooklyn superbas in 1902. in his lone appearance for brooklyn, deisel came to bat 5 times. he struck out once, walked once, was hit by a pitch, and had two base hits. in the following season, he walked in his only plate appearance, giving deisel a career on-base percentage of .833.
bert haas
haas made his big league debut in 1937 as a brooklyn dodger. he played in 16 games that year, hitting .400 (10 for 25) while striking out only once. the following year, he only appeared in one game, and it appears that he was only announced at that - he didn't take the field or make a plate appearance. he didn't appear as a dodger again, as the team traded him to the cardinals during the 1940 season in the trade that netted them joe medwick. haas does not appear to be any relation to the bill haas who appeared on a
1963 topps rookie card as a dodger, or moose haas for that matter.
pat hurley
not sure where 'pat' comes from - baseball-reference only lists this member of the 1907 superbas as jerry hurley. he played in one game for the franchise, going 0 for 2 with a walk and 2 strikeouts. that's two of the three true outcomes!
joe kustus
kustus' big league career consists of just about 3 months of service with the 1909 brooklyn superbas. he appeared in 53 games, hitting .145 with a home run and 11 rbi.
frank lamanske
while kustus' big league career lasted about three months, lamanske's lasted only about a week. he pitched in two games for the 1935 dodgers - one on april 27 and the other on may 1. in his debut, the dodgers were facing the boston braves who had a certain former yankee hall of fame slugger in their lineup. what's even cooler is that, if the data on baseball-reference is correct, lamanske struck babe ruth out that day for his first and only career k. imagine having that tidbit to throw around at dinner parties!
dolf luque
luque was a cuban-born player who won 194 games in the major leagues during a 20-year career. he pitched for the brooklyn robins in 1930 and 1931, winning 14 and 7 games those years, respectively. luque, who had began his professional career in the negro leagues, returned to cuba following his major league playing days and managed tommy lasorda at one point.
pryor mcelveen
mcelveen, nicknamed 'humpty', played everywhere but pitcher during his three seasons with the superbas/dodgers from 1909-1911. he hit better than .200 in just one of those seasons, however, sandwiching a .225 average in 1910 between .198 and .194 clips in his other seasons.
john miller
miller came to the dodgers at the start of the 1967 season from the yankees as one of the players in exchange for john kennedy. he had only two hits in his 6 games with the yankees in 1966, but one of those was a home run that he hit in his first big league at bat. in fact, miller was 2 for 3 after his first three at bats in the big leagues, but went 0 for his next 20 and never appeared in another game for the yankees. after joining the dodgers, miller wasn't called up until 1969 when he played in 26 games as a dodger. in what would be the last at bat of his career, miller hit a pinch-hit home run. i have to believe that he is the only player to homer in his first and last big league at bats without hitting one in between.
glen moulder
moulder pitched in one game for the brooklyn franchise. it was his big league debut in 1946 when he relieved curt davis (in what was davis' last big league appearance) and pitched the final two innings of a 10-4 loss to the new york giants. moulder allowed a walk and two hits in his two innings of work, with one of those hits a solo home run by buddy blattner. moulder was selected by the browns in the rule v draft after the season, and spent 1947 in saint louis. he finished his big league career with the white sox in 1948, but returned to the dodger organization in 1949 and continued a minor league career for several more seasons.
tony smith
smith played on the 1910 and 1911 brooklyn teams, hitting well below .200 in each season. with the superbas in 1910, he hit .181 in 106 games, and then hit just .150 in 13 games in 1911 for the dodgers. he and pryor mcelveen from above were teammates, and both were featured in the 1911 t205 set. someday i'll get one of those cards for the collection.
bull wagner
wagner missed out on being teammates with mcelveen and smith, and the t205 set, as he joined the superbas in 1913. he appeared in 18 games that year, earning a record of 4-2. he was 0-1 in 6 games the following season, and that was all she wrote for his big league career.
and, that's all she wrote for this installment of sunday morning target dodgers. i'll be sure to find some more recognizable folks for next week's post.
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