03 May 2015

jake flowers was a robin/dodger double dipper

it's spring, and april showers (though there weren't many) have indeed brought may flowers to this part of the country.  a recent review of some 1990 target dodger sheets has also brought to my attention that jake flowers played for the robins and then the dodgers in two separate stints sandwiched around time spent with another team.  he was a dodger franchise double dipper.

[this is the ninety-fourth 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, clyde sukeforth, willie keeler,  harry howell, germany smith, johnny allen, marv rackley, bobo newsom, maury wills, dazzy vance, ray hayworth, zack taylor, john cronin, art herring, brian falkenborg, bill reidy, john anderson, vito tamulis, wally hood, jim bruske, bill dahlen, patsy donovan, jamey wright, watty clark, andy messersmith, rocky nelson, newt kimball, hank behrman, and jimmy sheckard.]

here's flowers' 1990 target card
featuring a photo from his second stint with the club.  i know this thanks to the hall of fame's 'dressed to the nines' site linked through baseball reference, and also because the team wasn't known as the dodgers during his first tenure with the team - they were the robins then.  and, while i'm on the subject of names, flowers' real name was d'arcy, by the way.

flowers began his big league career with the cardinals in 1923, and he played for them again in 1926 when he went 0 for 3 in the world series but still won a ring.  he was traded to the robins early in the 1927 season, and he played short, second, and some outfield for them (even earning some mvp votes after the 1928 season during which he played in a career high 103 games) until he was claimed by the cardinals on waivers during the 1931 season.

back in saint louis, flowers again helped the cards win the pennant, and he again didn't do much in the world series (he was 1 for 11 this time).  still, the cardinals beat the a's, and flowers had his second world series ring.  after one more season with the cardinals, flowers returned to brooklyn in the 1933 trade that sent dazzy vance to saint louis.  in 78 games that season, flowers hit .233 for the dodgers.  he finished his career as a pinch-hitter with the reds in 1934.

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