making room for another joc

i completed a trade with frankie from my life in sports card hobby last month.  it's always nice to find a yankee fan to trade with as i seem to have too many bronx bombers laying around.  one of the cards that caught my eye on frankie's blog was this 2014 bowman chrome dual-ing die cuts card featuring joc pederson

i am happy to have this card in my collection, and i had to check to make sure that matt wisler wasn't a dodger as well with all the wheeling and dealing going on with the padres this offseason.  no, the padres kept wisler, one of their top pitching prospects, even as they sent three players to the dodgers for tim federowicz and this guy, matt kemp

in part to make room for joc in the outfield.  that is a 2010 topps 206 chrome parallel of the former dodger outfielder, by the way. i am not too excited about typing those words.

here's a 2014 bowman hyun-jin ryu silver ice parallel

or is it cracked ice?  i would be ok if topps would cool it with all of the parallels.  let's go back to 1989, a time of rough cardstock and many fewer sets and reflect on the simplicity of cards like this 1989 topps orel hershiser all-star card

hershiser finished 2nd in the national league with a 2.31 era in 1989 - the highest he had finished on the leader board previously had been 3rd, which he accomplished four times in the five seasons from 1984 through 1988.  still, he never led the league in that category like mike mccormick of the san francisco giants did in 1960.  frankie sent me the 1961 topps nl era league leaders card with mccormick (and runners up ernie broglio, don drysdale, bob friend, and stan williams) on the front.  a look at the back tells me that the giants had a leg up on the dodgers for a long time in this category

aside from dazzy vance and johnny podres, the dodgers are not very well represented, while the ny/sf giants show up quite often.  since 1960, however, the dodgers have 12 era titles (including the last 4) to the giants' 5.  they trail in world series rings over the last three years, though.

i'll finish this post with a 2012 panini playoff prime cuts hanley ramirez relic card

the card features hanley as a marlin, or as a member of the miami baseball team, as it was issued before the trade that sent him to los angeles that year.  he's gone to boston now to play the outfield - a position the dodgers were not in need of by any stretch. i was under the impression that hanley wanted to play shortstop, but i guess not.

thanks for the trade frankie!

my 1961 topps sampler set

this will be the last of my sampler set posts.  you'll just have to trust me that i put together samplers (at least one card for each team, subset, color combo, etc) for the 1962-69 topps sets.  this is what i had for 1961 topps.

if you're keeping track, the 1961 set has league leaders, rookie cups, rookie stars, team cards, managers, combos, world series highlights, checklists, baseball thrills, mvp's, and sporting news all-stars.  it also featured a couple of new teams - the twins and angels - to bring the total to 18.  here's the backs of the second sheet from my sampler

the team card is oriented properly, topps just printed the backs upside down. that's how i see it, anyway.

one of my favorite cards in the set is dick schofield's, and one card that i really wanted when i started this endeavor about 12 years ago was the lou gehrig baseball thrills card.  i settled for the rogers hornsby one, then picked up the chesbro and the cadore/oeschger later.  the latter card stays in my collection, since it features the brooklyn robins' pitcher (cadore) who threw 26 innings on may 1, 1920. here are all the dodgers from the 1961 set.

 

one of which looks more like a phillie.

i've thought a bit about it, and i'll probably go find a gehrig baseball thrills for my collection, even though i've disassembled the sampler.  if i applied reason to my collection, i would have stopped collecting a long time ago.

the evolution of the dodgers' first baseman, part one

it is well known that jackie robinson began his major league career as the dodgers' first baseman in 1947.  unfortunately, i do not own a 1947 bond bread card of jackie's, nor do i own a 1948 leaf card to show in this space.  with that being the case, i'll start the evolution of the dodgers' first baseman with the guy who replaced jackie at first in 1948, gil hodges. this is not a departure from the norm, using a fantastic 1952 bowman card to kick off an evolution post (this is a baseball card blog and i don't have many pre-1950's cards in my collection), but it sure would have been nice to see that leaf card of jackie up top.  maybe someday.

gil hodges (1948-1959)

yes, hodges' 1952 bowman card is fantastic.  i enjoy having it in my collection.  the dodgers enjoyed having hodges' bat in their lineup following his conversion from catcher to first baseman in 1948.  he hit a total of 361 home runs for the dodgers, including 344 during the 12-year span in which he was the team's primary first baseman.  the club also won two world championships (and 6 pennants) with him at first.

norm larker (1960-1961)

norm!  larker (shown on his 1961 topps card) took over for hodges in 1960 and promptly went out and finished second in the national league batting race, .002 behind dick groat and .004 ahead of willie mays.  he was an all-star that year, but came back to earth in 1961, hitting .270 in just 95 games.  he was drafted by the colt .45's in the expansion draft prior to the 1962 season, and he became the very first first baseman in houston's history.  if there were an astros blogger out there doing this same sort of post, larker would be at the very start.

ron fairly (1962-1964)

with larker gone, fairly moved to first from the outfield.  yes, i am showing his 1965 topps card even though he was back in the outfield when the 1965 season rolled around.  before that, however, he enjoyed three solid seasons as the dodger first baseman, averaging 12 homers and 74 rbi.  he was playing more outfield by the end of the '63 season, making way for bill skowron.  as a result, he made only late-inning appearances during the 1963 world series.

wes parker (1965-1972)

skowron left the dodgers after one season, and fairly moved back to the outfield with wes parker taking over at first.  he became part of the team's all switch hitting infield (with jim lefebvre, jim gilliam, and maury wills) and helped the dodgers win the world series against the twins.  parker also won gold gloves in 6 of his 8 seasons spent playing primarily at first (including 1971 - the year of the topps card shown above).  in 1970, he led the national league with 47 doubles, but he was always better known for his skill with the leather, compiling a career .996 fielding percentage as a first baseman.  he retired following the 1972 season at the age of 32.  parker is the only non-hall of famer on rawlings' all-time gold glove team.

bill buckner (1973)

buckner's 1974 topps card lists him as a first baseman because he played in 93 games (83 starts) at the position in 1973.  he hit .275 and played in 140 games overall that year, and was moved back to the outfield in 1974, where he was seen climbing the wall in atlanta trying to get to hank aaron's 715th career home run.

steve garvey (1974-1982)

there aren't a lot of steve garvey cards from his playing days that i haven't shown on the blog yet, but that 1980 kellogg's card is one of them.  the garv took over the first baseman's job and wound up winning the all-star game and national league mvp awards in 1974.  he held on to the job until he left the club as a free agent following the 1982 season, amassing 8 consecutive all-star starts, 4 gold gloves, 4 pennants, and a world series championship during that 9-year span.

greg brock (1983-1986)

brock, shown on his 1986 o-pee-chee card, was a triple-a phenom who had the misfortune of being asked to replace garvey in the dodgers' lineup and maybe even continue the dodgers' string of rookies of the year (they had owned the award since rick sutcliffe won it in 1979, with steve howe winning in 1980, fernando valenzuela in 1981, and steve sax in 1982).  unfortunately, brock hit just .224 with 20 homers in 146 games in his rookie year, finishing 7th in the 1983 nl rookie of the year balloting.  the dodgers still won the west, however, and brock was 0 for 9 in his first taste of postseason play.  the following season, he hit .225 while playing in only 88 games, but still spent more time at first than anybody else.  in 1985, he helped the dodgers return to the postseason with what may have been his best season with the dodgers - he hit .251 with 21 homers and 66 rbi in 129 games.  he got his only postseason hit of his career that year, a home run in game 2 of the nlcs.  he was hitless in his other 11 at bats of the series.  following another lackluster season, brock was traded to the brewers for a couple of tims - crews and leary.

franklin stubbs (1987-1988)

stubbs had been the dodgers' left fielder in 1986, but moved to first to replace brock in 1987.  he had a 'brock-ish' season, however, hitting .233 with 15 homers and 52 rbi in 129 games, 111 of which included some time at first.  in 1988, stubbs appeared in 84 games at first for the dodgers, 54 of which were starts, which was more than mike marshall (54 games, 51 starts) so he gets the nod here for the year that was so improbable.  that's his 1988 score card, by the way.  stubbs started all five games of the '88 world series, hitting .294 with a couple of rbi. interestingly enough, stubbs went to the astros in a trade prior to the 1990 season, but signed with the brewers as a free agent for the 1991 campaign wherein he replaced greg brock as the first baseman for the brew crew.

eddie murray (1989-1991)

the dodgers were likely tired of a lack of production from the first base position since garvey's departure, so they traded for hometown guy eddie murray following their world series triumph over the a's.  steady eddie showed up in 1989 (i was excited to see him in dodger blue on his 1989 upper deck card shown above) and played in 160 games (159 at first) but hit only .247.  he did drive in 88 runs, however, and in 1990 he led all of major league baseball with a .330 average.  too bad for murray that willie mcgee was hitting .335 when he was dealt from the cardinals to the a's (mcgee hit only .274 with oakland, dropping his composite average to .324 for the season).  murray left the dodgers after the 1991 season as a free agent, opening the door for a rookie named eric karros to win the job even though the team had traded for todd benzinger just in case.

how about some vintage duke?

feeling vintage today, and i just happen to have a few cards of the silver fox scanned and loaded.  these aren't too vintage-y, however, as they are la dodger dukes.

1960 topps

1961 topps

classic duke pose on that '61.  similar to his 1952 topps card, which is one of two (1955 is the other) topps cards that i have yet to obtain of snider.

1959 topps baseball thrills subset

looks like the guy in the stands is protecting his privates.  this was the last 1959 topps dodger card that i needed for my set.

here's duke's last topps card from his playing days - his 1964 topps card

he was featured as a met in the 1963 set, too, but i don't have that high numbered card.  there wasn't a card issued for him in the 1965 set, unfortunately, as that would have been his final tribute.  of course, he would have been featured as a giant, so maybe it's not all bad.

duke appeared as a met again in the 2003 topps retired set

but topps fixed that in time for the 2005 version of the retired set

one of the first duke snider cards i ever owned was this 1983 donruss hall of fame heroes card

it was a year later that donruss had him in their regular set as the 'hall of fame diamond king' and puzzle subject.

here's another duke card from donruss, 2004 donruss studio to be exact

with the los angeles skyline behind him, he's shown in his brooklyn duds.  i think of snider as a brooklyn dodger - he had all of his best seasons there, and never was an all-star while in la - and the lack of the '52 and '55 cards in my collection is really starting to wear on me.  i'll probably do something about that.

more random cards from the scanned folder

i'm doing some spring cleaning (although it's still winter here) of my scanned folder.  enjoy the randomness.

1961 topps nl batting leaders

that's quite a collection of players - two hall of famers, plus dick groat and the dodgers' norm larker.  groat hit .300 or better a few other times, but 1960 was the only season that larker surpassed that mark, missing the league title by just one hit. still, to be featured on a card with willie mays and roberto clemente is a pretty good consolation.

1966 topps derrell griffith

a young robin williams makes an appearance.  or, if you prefer, glenn quamire.  giggity.  griffith played in parts of four seasons for the dodgers, who won the pennant in three of those years, but he did not appear in any postseason games.

1979 hostess burt hooton

hooton was coming off a 19-win season and a second place finish in the cy young voting when this card came out.  still, i was paying more attention to tommy john, don sutton, and bobby welch fan at the time.

1981 topps steve garvey (back)

i'm not sure why i scanned the back of this card, but look at that run of hit totals from 1974 through 1980!

1985 topps mike scioscia

bracing for impact, no doubt.

1995 score cory snyder

technically, this card is a final tribute, although the corndog did spend some time in the minors with the red sox and padre organizations after the strike ended in 1995.  1994 was the last time he saw big league action, however, and he did it as a dodger.  the highlight of his final season was easily his 3-home run/7 rbi game against the pirates in april.

2004 leaf certified materials don sutton 'k force'

i used to watch 'battle of the planets' which had g-force protecting us from the evil of zoltar and planet spectra. too bad this wasn't a 'g force' card - sutton is currently 7th all-time in k's, but 3rd all-time in g's (games started, that is).

2005 fleer ultra eric gagne

gagne broke the dodgers' cy young drought in 2003 - they hadn't had a winner since 1988, which was the longest drought in franchise history.  they had been the only team to have a cy young award winner in each decade until they were shut out in the 1990's.  just like they were shut out in world series appearances that decade for the first time since the 1930's.

2005 fleer ultra milton bradley gold medal edition

that's one heckuva rounded corner!

thoughts of fernando and newk

i was thinking about fernando valenzuela and don newcombe last fall as jose fernandez made his late season run.  if you have forgotten, the marlins rookie was 8-2 with a 1.43 era over the last 3 months of the season, and had 103 strikeouts in 88 innings during that time.  i was thinking about fernando because back in 1981, he became the first pitcher to win both the rookie of the year award and the cy young award in the same season, and i thought that fernandez had a shot at duplicating the feat.  however, because clayton kershaw won the cy young over fernandez, valenzuela remains the only pitcher to win both awards in the same season.  crisis averted.  now, here are a couple of el toro's cards that i've had scanned for a while.

1987 topps glossy send in

1988 topps

 and 1995 upper deck electric diamond

and 2004 fleer greats of the game

back in dodger blue.  it should be noted that fernando finished 5th in the league mvp voting in 1981 - the highest he would get in his career.

i mentioned up top that i was also thinking of don newcombe.  like fernando, newcombe won the rookie of the year award.  newk won his in 1949, but he didn't win the cy young award that year, mostly because the award didn't exist.  here are some cards of newks' that i've been saving for a rainy day.

2004 upper deck sweet spot classics

2007 upper deck sweet spot classics

and 2005 topps pristine (uncirculated)

now seems like a good time to show a couple other cards from that set - davey lopes

and don zimmer.

but i digress.

newcombe may well have won the cy young had it existed in 1949, but he did win it once it came into being.  newcombe was the very first person to win the award when it was initiated in 1956.  and that was when there was just one award for all of major league baseball.  he also won the mvp award that same season, making him the first player in history to win the rookie of the year, cy young, and mvp awards.  here's a 1961 topps card celebrating his mvp win that newk signed for me through the mail four years ago.

dwight gooden came as close to the trifecta as fernando had when, in 1985, the 1984 rookie of the year won the cy young award and finished 5th in the mvp voting.  ultimately, it was 2006 al rookie of the year justin verlander who, in 2011, became the second pitcher to achieve the feat.  still, newcombe is the only national league pitcher to do it, which brings us back to fernandez.  fernandez certainly looks like he has the stuff to pull it off, and he is one-third of the way there.  of course, he pitches for the marlins so he will have to be spectacular if he is to win an mvp award any time soon.