who's carrying jackie robinson's torch? besides everyone, that is...

this week marks the 68th anniversary of jackie robinson's debut in the major leagues.  however, this post focuses more on the end of his playing days, as i thought i'd take a look at how his career torch was passed.

in his final regular season at bat (on september 30, 1956), jackie robinson grounded out against the pirates' bob friend.  here's jackie's 1956 topps card - the last from his playing days.

jackie did play in the world series in '56, but i am keeping this to regular season games.  for the record, jackie made the final out of the '56 series, striking out against the yankees' johnny kucks.

bob friend, who appeared with sandy koufax on a 1964 topps league leaders card,

retired deron johnson of the reds on september 24, 1966 while he was pitching for the mets.  johnson was the last batter friend faced in the majors.

deron johnson, seen here on a 1974 topps card as an oakland a,

struck out in his final big league appearance to end the game on may 28, 1976 as a member of the red sox against the orioles' grant jackson

on september 8, 1982, grant jackson had a one-game return stint for the pirates after pitching for the royals for the majority of the season.  here's his 1982 topps traded card

he entered in relief with the mets having loaded the bases in the 9th inning with one out, and promptly served up a grand slam to catcher ron hodges.  jackson retired the next two batters to end the inning, the last of which was ron gardenhire.  that was the last time jackson appeared in the big leagues.

ron gardenhire, still with the mets,

struck out in the 9th against jeff reardon to end his major league playing career on october 6, 1985. i like gardy's 1985 donruss card because of dodger stadium in the background.

jeff reardon finished his career in 1994 as a yankee (see this 1994 upper deck collector's choice gold parallel as proof)

allowing a game-tying single to tim salmon with his final big league pitch on may 4 of that year.

tim salmon (shown on a 2003 upper deck mvp card)

popped out against oakland's huston street in his last career at bat on october 1, 2006.  salmon was in the on-deck circle when the game ended.

huston street is still going strong, pitching for the angels following a midseason trade with the padres last year.  here's his 2014 topps update card

there are other, more important ways, in which jackie robinson's legacy lives on, but this sort of playing legacy has always intrigued me.

do you sutton?

it's friday and that's a good thing.  meanwhile, don sutton assumes the position.  his position.  suttoning, i call it.

here's his 1983 brewers police issue

left knee down, right knee up, arms crossed over right knee with glove or ball or glove and ball, as the case may be.  let's see who else (other than terry adams) suttoned.

randy jones, 1981 fleer

cy youngs: randy jones 1, don sutton 0

and bill travers, also 1981 fleer

travers, unfortunately, would not get the pleasure of being sutton's teammate in milwaukee as he went to the angels after the 1980 season.  still, he honors sutton the best way he knows how.

here's von hayes on his 1982 topps traded card

hayes was 3 for 10 with a homer and a strikeout lifetime against sutton.

1984 fleer jim acker

and salome barojas

barojas is a little too upright - he needs to work on his casual lean.

wally joyner has it right on his 1986 fleer update card, with a bat as an accessory

joyner and sutton were teammates in cali for a couple of seasons, including that heartbreaking 1986 campaign.

neal heaton suttons on his 1987 fleer card

trevor wilson gets it done on his 1989 topps card

and robbie alomar adds a pensive twist to the pose on the back of his 1995 upper deck card

kenny lofton gives it a try on his 1992 topps traded card, but like barojas above, doesn't quite have the lean part mastered.

i'll have to see if in the following 16 years lofton was able to master the pose.

if you think of it today, maybe you'll have a chance to sutton!

some 1982 topps cards that should have been

well, it's been awhile since i tackled the subject of the 1978 topps dodgers.  i need to get a move on as we are only in 1982 along the evolutionary chain of topps releases featuring the likes of garvey, cey, hough and rhoden.

before we move on to 1983, however, there were some omissions in the 1982 set that i need to address.  i've already posted the jerry grote final tribute card that should have been (card 794 in the set) along with a 1982 topps highlight card of the infield (card 793), plus postseason cards celebrating the nlds (797), nlcs (800), and world series (801-808) that topps failed to make.

here are a few more, like the bill russell in action card (795)

complete with a back

russell was the only member of the infield to not get an 'in action' card.  i was bummed.  reggie smith got one, so there were four dodgers in the subset, plus don sutton.  no room for russell, i guess, although he had plenty of stuff to fill out the back.

here's tom lasorda (796)

for the first time since becoming the manager, tommy was left out of the flagship set.  topps got rid of the team card with the little manager photo, but instead of having manager cards like they did in 1978, they went without any skippers.  that's too bad.

it's also too bad that topps didn't give johnny oates his final tribute card in 1982.  here's what it might have looked like - it's card 798 in my set

 since oates played his last game in 1981, i did a back with his complete career stats

oates did indeed go on to manage in the yankees' system in 1982.  he also did indeed get a real final tribute from one of the three major card manufacturers that year.  fleer did the honors, and they actually gave us his full professional career stats on the back

here's the front of the fleer card.

that photo should look familiar.

the third member of the 1978 topps dodgers to make his last appearance in 1981 was doug rau (jerry grote was the other besides rau and oates).  he was completely ignored by all card manufacturers in 1982, so here's my take on his final tribute (card 799).

i used the photo from his 1981 topps traded card, but reversed it.  luckily, the angels' logo works backwards and forwards (cue aztec camera).  here are dougie's career stats

doug almost pulled a hoyt wilhelm at the plate there.  he also pitched a complete game in his big league debut.

topps also left out a few of the 1978 topps dodgers from the 1982 traded set.  not sure why.

tommy john was traded by the yankees to the angels at the end of august

he made 7 starts for the halos down the stretch, winning 4 and losing 2.  he had a couple of big wins against the second place royals in september, which helped the angels reach the postseason for the second time in their franchise history.

manny mota

mota didn't play in 1981, but the dodgers' first base coach did become activated by the team for the pennant drive in september of 1982.  in what would be his only plate appearance of the season and the final one of his career, mota faced off against jim kaat on september 1, 1982.  the dodgers trailed by a run, and there was one out with steve garvey on second.  ron cey had led off the bottom of the 13th inning with a single, but was caught stealing before garvey doubled.  mota was called upon to pinch hit for mike scioscia, and he grounded out to second.  but, he moved the runner over dangit!  a productive out!  the dodgers didn't score (dave sax lined out for the final out) and the loss put them 1.5 games back.  they would rally to get to as much as 3.5 games ahead of the second place braves, but ultimately finished the season a single game back of atlanta, thanks in part to joe morgan's home run off of terry forster in game 162.

don sutton was dealt to the brewers by the astros on august 30, 1982.  that transaction failed to register with topps, however, so this traded card exists only in my imagination.

until now, anyway.  i recall being disappointed when i opened my traded set late in 1982 and not seeing the gray perm between rick sutcliffe and frank tanana.  sutton made 7 starts for the brewers, and like john, helped the team to the postseason for the second time in franchise history.  sutton went one better, however, and led the team to their first pennant at the expense of john's angels.

so, those were the cards that should have been in 1982.  next time, we'll see the cards that really were in 1983.

four more years of the topps dodger autograph project - 1980 through 1983

let's kick off the 80's entries in the topps dodger autograph project with jerry reuss.  why? because i said so.  as always, these cards were signed through the mail for free (unless otherwise noted). 

jerry reuss, 1980 topps

reuss is a good signer, and his website has a bunch of cool photos and info.  plus, he no-hit the giants.   i have a few other 1980 topps cards signed by dodgers, including traveling secretary billy delury, joe beckwith, joe ferguson, steve garvey, charlie hough, von joshua, lerrin lagrow, manny mota (i also purchased a signed record breaker somewhere along the way), doug rau, bill russell, derrel thomas, and gary thomasson.

doug rau, 1981 topps

dougie! another good ttm signer, and another lefty.  i think 1981 topps is probably the set i have the most dodger autographs from after 1978.  i've had ttm successes with dusty baker, joe beckwith, ron cey, jack perconte, fernando valenzuela, joe ferguson, steve garvey, dave goltz, burt hooton, rudy law, jerry reuss, bill russell, don stanhouse (with fee), derrel thomas, and gary thomasson.  i have also also purchased cards signed by pedro guerrero, davey lopes and bob welch.  that still leaves me 12 short of the entire team. not that i'm trying.

ken landreaux, 1981 topps traded

the traded sets are kind of a bonus to this project, but if i have 'em i'll show 'em.  landreaux signed a couple of cards for me which was nice, but for some reason fernando declined to sign his card from this set.  i think they are the only two dodgers in the set.  i do have a doug rau signed card, but he was an angel in the set

dave goltz, 1982 topps

goltz gets a lot of grief from dodger fans, but he's from minny so i am using him as the poster boy for the 1982 set.  i also have ttm autos from ron cey (i also have one of his 'in action' cards signed but not posted), steve garvey, steve sax. purchased terry forster, steve garvey, dave lopes, rick monday, jerry reuss, and a mike marshall/ron roenicke/steve sax trio signed rookie card.

jose morales, 1982 topps traded

jose is the only card from this set that i have signed.  he joined the dodgers in april of 1982 and hit .300 for them that year, exclusively as a pinch hitter.

ron roenicke, 1983 topps

strangely, i don't have very many 1983 topps cards signed.  in fact, the only ttm success i have aside from the brewers manager is jerry reuss.  that's probably because i don't have any doubles from this set lying around.  i do have a nice dave stewart signed card that i purchased a while back, though.

rafael landestoy, 1983 topps traded

landestoy likes the high heat!  he's a double dipper and part of the 1978 topps dodgers burger king/update set.  i also have signed cards from this set of jose morales (who was somewhat inexplicably included in the set), and pat zachry.

here's the list of each year's representative card (so far):

1951 topps - preacher roe (purchased)

1952 topps - rocky bridges

1953 topps - bobby morgan

1954 topps - billy herman (purchased)

1955 topps - don zimmer (purchased)

1956 topps - randy jackson

1957 topps - carl erskine

1958 topps - joe pignatano

1959 topps - fred kipp

1960 topps - chuck essegian

1961 topps - bob aspromonte

1962 topps - norm sherry

1963 topps - ed roebuck

1964 topps - ken mcmullen

1965 topps - dick tracewski

1966 topps - john kennedy

1967 topps - phil regan

1968 topps - jim campanis

1969 topps - jeff torborg

1970 topps - al mcbean

1971 topps - sandy vance

1972 topps - manny mota

1973 topps - wes parker

1974 topps - claude osteen

1974 topps traded - jim wynn

1975 topps - ron cey

1975 topps mini - joe ferguson

1976 topps - bill russell

1976 topps traded - dusty baker

1977 topps - steve garvey

1978 topps - dave lopes

1979 topps - charlie hough

1980 topps - jerry reuss

1981 topps - doug rau

1981 topps traded - ken landreaux

1982 topps - dave goltz

1982 topps traded - jose morales

1983 topps - ron roenicke

1983 topps traded - rafael landestoy

1978 topps dodgers in 1982 part 2

hey, charlie hough.  why don't you kick off this second part of the evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers 1982 post by showing us how to grip a knuckleball.

thanks!  in 1982, for the first time in his career, charlie hough made no relief appearances.  instead, the rangers used him exclusively as a starter and he responded by going 16-13 with a 3.95 era in 34 starts.  he pitched 228 innings and threw 12 complete games, 2 of them shutouts (one a 2-hitter and the other a 3-hitter).  thus began a 9-year string of 10 or more victories for hough as a ranger.

tommy john was in action on his 1982 topps base card, but was denied an in action card.  

go figure.  he also wrangled his way onto the yankees' team leader card 

thanks to his 2.63 era in 1981.  dave righetti actually had a lower era (2.05), but i assume that the rules for era-title qualifying were the same in 1981 as they are in full regular seasons.  that is, a pitcher must pitch an average of 1 inning per game, so 162 innings pitched is the typical minimum.  in 1981, the yankees played 108 games, and righetti had only 105.1 innings pitched to john's 140.1  in 1982, john's era rose to 3.66, but it was still the lowest on the staff as righetti's also ballooned, all the way to 3.79.  john was just 10-10 in 26 starts, but had 9 complete games and 2 shutouts for the bronx bombers before he was traded to the angels at the end of august.  

california was making a run for the pennant, and picked up john for some veteran moxie.  he went 4-2 with a 3.86 era in his seven regular season starts for the angels, and then was 1-1 in the alcs against the brewers.  he was the winner in game 1, but the loser in game 4; a game that turned out to be his final postseason appearance.  for whatever reason, john was not included in the topps traded set in 1982.  i might have to fix that with a card that should have been.  we'll see.

there's a lot of yellow on lee lacy's 1982 topps card.

with dave parker out with a thumb injury for a good part of the season, lacy got some solid playing time for the bucs in right field.  he also played left, center and even a couple of games at third base over the course of the 1982 season.  along the way, he hit .312 with 5 homers, 31 rbi and 40 stolen bases. one of his home runs was an inside-the-park job off of randy jones of the mets.

rick rhoden, in contrast to lacy, is going for the all black look on his 1982 topps card.  all the way to his mustache.

rhoden made 35 starts for the pirates in 1982, winning 11 and losing 14.  he had an era of 4.14 and had 6 complete games and 1 shutout.  his shutout was a 6-hitter against the braves in which rhoden helped his own cause by going 2 for 4 at the plate with a double and two rbi.  in fact, rhoden helped his cause quite a bit during 1982, as he hit .265 with 3 home runs and 12 rbi on the season.

elias sosa was shown as an expo on his 1982 topps base card, 

but he spent the year in detroit.  that's why we have the 1982 topps traded set, which put sosa in motown gear.

sosa joined the tigers towards the end of spring training and wound up spending the entire year, but only that year, on their roster.  he made 38 appearances for detroit, going 3-3 with 4 saves and a 4.43 era in 61 innings of work.  right after the season ended, sosa was on the move again as he had his contract purchased by the padres in october of 1982.

hey - look at don sutton's 1982 topps base card

and then his 1982 topps in action card

not a lot of variation there, although topps did put the photo with a tad more action on the appropriate card.  in 1982, sutton was toiling for the astros for most of the season.  he was 13-8 with a 3.00 era in 27 starts for houston when they dealt him to the brewers for kevin bass and two other players near the end of august.  down the stretch, he was 4-1 in his 7 starts for the brew crew, with two complete games and a shutout (a 7-hitter against the tigers in his second american league start).  his biggest victory, however, came on the last day of the season when the brewers and orioles started the day tied atop the american league east.  sutton outdueled jim palmer that day, throwing 8 strong innings to lead the brewers to a 10-2 victory and a division title.

sutton was also the winning pitcher in game 3 of the alcs against the angels, and he went on to start games 2 and 6 of the world series against the cardinals.  he took the loss in game 6 as the brewers failed to close out their first world series championship, but he didn't pitch well in either start.  like john, sutton was left out of the 1982 topps traded set.  i'll be sure to correct that oversight.

so there were 16/27 members of the 1978 topps dodgers featured by topps in 1982.  and, we'll get tommy back in 1983.  here's the tally to date:

baker 12 (1971-1982)

burke 2 (1978-1979)

cey 11 (1972-1982)

davalillo 14 (1963-1974, 1978-1979)

forster 11 (1972-1982)

garman 8 (1971-1973, 1975-1979)

garvey 12 (1971-1982)

goodson 6 (1973-1978)

grote 15 (1964-1976, 1978-1979)

hooton 11 (1972-1982)

hough 11 (1972-1982)

john 19 (1964-1982)

lacy 10 (1973-1982)

lasorda 8 (1954, 1973-1974, 1977-1981)

lopes 10 (1973-1982)

martinez 9 (1971-1976, 1978-1980)

monday 16 (1967-1982)

mota 18 (1963-1980)

oates 10 (1972-1981)

rau 9 (1973-1981)

rautzhan 2 (1978-1979)

rhoden 8 (1975-1982)

russell 13 (1970-1982)

smith 16 (1967-1982)

sosa 9 (1974-1982)

sutton 17 (1966-1982)

yeager 10 (1973-1982)

teams represented so far:  20  (dodgers, indians, colt .45's, pirates, white sox, astros, mets, a's, red sox, angels, expos, cardinals, braves, cubs, orioles, giants, phillies, yankees, rangers, tigers)

1978 topps dodgers in 1982

some more of the dodgers of my youth were on the move in 1982, like reggie smith, who was featured in the 1982 topps traded set as a giant.

topps also listed him as a first baseman on the card, which was different from his flagship 1982 topps card

as i mentioned last time, reggie didn't play in the outfield at all in 1981, making only two fielding appearances all year (both at first base) due to his injured shoulder.  reggie also got an 'in action' card in the set, which means the photo shows him in inaction, waiting for a pitch.

reggie played in 106 games in 1982, 99 of which were spent at first base.  he hit 18 home runs and drove in 56 runs.  he hit his 300th career home run that year, as well as his 2000th base hit.  it turned out to be smith's final season in the big leagues, too.

davey lopes was another starter from the team of my youth to be playing in the bay area in 1982.  here's his very yellow and green (and pink) 1982 topps traded card:

but, before lopes could get into the green and gold, topps issued three cards of him in the flagship set.  here's his base:

all-star:

and in action:

you'll notice that lopes is slightly more 'in action' than smith - it looks like he is prepping for the pitch.  like maury wills in 1972, lopes gets an in action card that doesn't make any sense for a premier basestealer.  at least the photo is from 1981, unlike the photo on his all-star card which came from 1980 (as did the photo on reggie smith's base card).  you can tell by the patches.  the round patch was worn by the dodgers in 1980 to mark the playing of the all-star game at dodger stadium that year.  the 1981 patch was narrow and was worn to commemorate the bicentennial of the city of los angeles.  anyway, lopes played in 128 games for the a's.  he hit 11 home runs (including number 100 for his career which came courtesy of former teammate bobby castillo) and stole 28 bases.

steve garvey wasn't going anywhere in 1982

although his photo is also from 1980.  the garv didn't get an all-star card since he failed to start at first base for the national league for the first time since 1973, but he did get an in action card:

ah, the intense action of the swing follow through.  1982 was a contract year for garvey, and he didn't do himself any favors.  although he played in all 162 games, he had only 176 hits and his .718 ops was the lowest since 1971.  he did hit career home run number 200 during the 1982 season, and on september 13th, he capped off his dodger career with a 16th inning, walk-off home run for his final long ball as a dodger.  his 1968 hits as a dodger rank second among los angeles dodgers to willie davis, and he is 5th overall in franchise history in that category.   he hit more doubles (333) and drove in more runs (992) than any other la dodger, and only duke snider and zach wheat are above him on the all-time franchise doubles list.  carl furillo and gil hodges join snider and wheat in the top four spots of the all-time franchise rbi list.  finally, garvey left the dodgers for san diego with the fifth highest home run total in franchise history with 211.

garvey was eclipsed on that home run list by only one other los angeles dodger, and his name was ron cey (the penguin had 228 homers).  since then, eric karros has passed them both.  here's cey's 1982 topps base card

and an in action card of his very own.

hello, rick monday!  cey gets the most action out of any of the photos features.  in fact, you can see the progression of a swing if you look at the cards in the order in which i have presented them - smith, lopes, garvey, and cey.  cey also finished his dodger career in 1982.  he remains to this day the all-time los angeles leader in walks.  cey played in 150 games and hit 24 home runs in 1982.  before he was traded to the cubs during the offseason, cey hit a home run in his last game as a dodger.  against the giants, no less.

the fourth member of the infield, bill russell, got just one card in the set.

it looks a lot like reggie smith's in action card.  plus, there's a lurking pitcher on deck.  guess i'll try to figure out who it is.  hold on.  w know that the dodgers are on the road (gray uniforms), and we know the photo is from 1981 (left sleeve patch).  plus, the blue of the dugout roof fascia tells me that the dodgers are in new york (shea stadium, where the visitors sat in the third base dugout).  in the strike shortened season, the dodgers made only one visit to shea, and bill russell only appeared in two of the games.  on may 8th, russell did indeed hit in the 8th spot in front of the pitcher; however, that was a night game.  and, even though the pitcher was a left-handed batter (batting glove on right hand), it was fernando, and the on deck guy looks more like terry forster.  the next day, the dodgers and mets squared off in a saturday afternoon affair.  russell was once again in the 8-spot, and the starting pitcher was rick sutcliffe.  sut was a left-handed batter, and he was 0 for 1 in his lone at bat.  dave goltz also got an at bat that day, but goltzie was a righty-righty.  i'll go with sutcliffe as the lurker.

i thought at one point that it was possible that the lopes, garvey, and cey in action card photos all came from the same game as the russell photo, but rick monday did not play in any of the three games the dodgers played in new york in 1981.  pedro guerrero hit behind cey all weekend, and i don't know that monday would have been used as a pinch hitting decoy for petey.  so maybe the cey photo is from 1980?

moving on, here's dusty baker's base card

dusty also got some face time on the team leaders card that topps issued in place of the team card that had been part of their sets since 1956, except for 1969 i believe.

dusty followed up his .320 average with by hitting an even .300 in 1982 with 23 home runs, 88 rbi, and a second straight all-star berth, although he was 0 for 2 in the game.

terry forster got kind of washed out on his 1982 topps card

forster was all the way back in 1982, pitching 83 innings in 56 appearances.  both of those were highs for forster's tenure with the dodgers which ended after the 1982 season.  forster was 5-6 with 3 saves, and he criminally got only two at bats all season (he was 0 for 2) and his career batting average fell below .400.  after the season, forster signed a free agent deal with the braves.

burt hooton matched dusty baker as far as profile style photo on his base card

as well as appearing on the team leader card

his 2.28 era just barely bested jerry reuss' 2.30 mark in 1981, but his 4.03 era in 1982 was fourth-best among the four primary starters (fernando, reuss, bob welch, and hooton).  he was just 4-7 in 21 starts, but did throw two shutouts, including a one-hitter against the phillies in april.

here's rick monday in the foreground of a card for a change

mo hit .257 over 104 games for the dodgers in 1982.  he had 11 home runs and 42 rbi.  he had a two-homer game against the padres in june, and a grand slam against the giants in october.

finally, we have steve yeager

the yeager-meister hit .245 with a couple of home runs as mike scioscia's backup in 1982.  as far as the picture on his card goes, yeager caught both the saturday and sunday games of that three game series against the mets in new york during may of 1981, so this photo might be from the same game as the bill russell photo.  in reality, this photo should have been used for a steve yeager in action card so i could put it between the lopes and the garvey card to further complete the anatomy of a swing.

tomorrow i'll showcase the 1978 topps dodger players who had moved on from la prior to the release of the 1982 topps set.