28 December 2014

sunday morning target dodgers

here we are with the last installment of sunday morning target dodgers of the year, and unless i scan some more sheets, it will be the final one - period.  let's find out about 15 more players who suited up for the brooklyn/los angeles national league franchise, courtesy of the target set that was given away at dodger stadium in 1990.

ed chandler
chandler was a major leaguer for about two months in 1947. he debuted three days after jackie robinson, pitching in relief against the new york giants on april 18.  he appeared in 14 other games, including both ends of a doubleheader against the cardinals on june 14. the nightcap that day turned out to be chandler's last appearance in the majors.

pete coscarart
coscarart was with the dodgers from 1938-1941, and was their primary second baseman in 1939 and 1940.  he made the all-star team in 1940 and appeared in the 1941 world series against the yankees.  after that, however, he was traded to the pirates in the deal that netted brooklyn arky vaughn.  coscarart went on to play in pittsburgh for four-plus seasons.

lefty davis
davis spent the first part of the 1901 season with the brooklyn superbas and the second part with the pittsburgh pirates. he had been released by the superbas after hitting just .209 in 25 games, but went on to bat .313 for pittsburgh in 87 games that year.  davis passed away on his 44th birthday.

ben geraghty
geraghty was an infielder with the 1936 dodgers who hit .194 in 51 games.  baseball-reference notes that he missed the 1937 season due to injury, but was traded towards the end of the season to the senators.  after making it back to the majors with the braves in 1943 and '44, geraghty returned to the minors and was a member of the dodgers' affiliate in spokane in 1946.  as a result, he was on the bus that crashed, killing nine members of the team, including player-manager mel cole.  geraghty survived the crash, and became the team's manager in 1947. he later went on to manage for many years in the braves' organization.

harvey green
green's major league experience consists of two games in which he pitched for the dodgers in 1935.  both came against the cubs in chicago in september of that year - on the 12th, he pitched a scoreless 9th inning in a 13-3 loss, and on the 14th, he failed to retire any of the three cubs he faced in what would be a 18-14 dodger loss.

bill hall
hall was 19 years old when he pitched for the brooklyn superbas in 1913.  he appeared in 3 games, allowing 3 earned runs in 4.2 innings of work.

bill harris
a native of new brunswick, harris was given a late-season start by the dodgers in 1957.  it was the first game following their last game at ebbet's field, and came in philadephia against the phillies.  harris pitched 7 innings, allowing 3 runs, and was 1 for 2 at the plate.  unfortunately, the dodgers only mustered up 2 runs (on a 9th-inning homer by sandy amoros) so harris got the loss. interestingly enough, he was replaced on the mound by none other than sandy koufax.  a couple of years later, with the dodgers now playing in los angeles, harris appeared in his second and final big league game - this time as a reliever against the cubs.

lefty hopper
hopper made 2 starts for the 1898 brooklyn bridegrooms.  he was 0-2 with 2 complete games, although he pitched only 11 innings.  he allowed 11 runs, 6 earned in those games, and did not pitch in the majors again.

bob lee
lee was acquired by the dodgers from the angels in a december, 1966 trade.  he showed up as a dodger in the 1967 topps set, although he appeared in only four games for the blue before he had his contract purchased by the reds.  in those four games as a dodger, lee pitched 6.2 innings - all in relief.

phil lewis
lewis was the superbas' shortstop from 1905-08.  he hit .242 in those four seasons, but amassed a whopping total of 120 errors in his first two campaigns. lewis spent the remainder of his baseball career in the minors, playing through 1916.

mike w. mccormick
mccormick was one of the players that the dodgers received in the trade that sent pete reiser to the braves following the 1948 season. mccormick hit .209 for the dodgers in 1949, playing in 55 games.  he appeared in one game of the 1949 world series (he caught the last out of the dodgers' game 2 victory - their only win of the series), and was then released by the club.

walt miller
what we have here is a case of mistaken identity.  the walt miller shown on the card is actually jake miller (his given name was walter) who pitched for the white sox in 1933 (after hurling several years for the indians). the giveaway was the fact that the pictured miller is a lefty, while this card is supposed to feature a right-handed pitcher.  the correct walt miller was a dodger for about a week in 1911, pitching in three games and taking the loss in one of them.

dick siebert
siebert had a couple of cups of coffee with the dodgers - first in 1932 and then again in 1936 - in which he was 2 for 9 with a couple of walks.  he spent most of his career playing first base for connie mack and the philadelphia a's, and was an all-star in 1943.  siebert retired after the 1945 season and returned to the twin cities where he became the head coach at his alma mater - the university of minnesota - and led the golden gophers to the college world series title three times.  siebert coached dave winfield and paul molitor among others during his tenure with the gophers - a tenure that ended with his passing in 1978.  the gophers' baseball stadium is named siebert field in his honor.

ray thomas
thomas' big league career consisted of one game with the 1938 brooklyn dodgers.  thomas replaced the robins' starting catcher merv shea in the july 22, 1938 game against the cardinals in the early going, and wound up getting three at bats. thomas finished the day, and his major league career as it turned out, 1 for 3 with a run scored.

george treadway
treadway was one of the players that the brooklyn grooms received from the orioles in exchange for future hall of famer willie keeler following the 1893 season.  he played for the grooms in 1894 and 1895, hitting .330 in 124 games in '94 but only .259 in 87 games in '95. after spending a short amount of time with the louisville colonels in 1896, treadway was out of the majors due in large part to suspicions about his heritage, according to baseball-reference.

1 comment:

Mark Hoyle said...

I always like to look through these and see how many guys I've heard of. Today I was shutout