this through the mail success rates a 0

al oliver is one of the better baseball players to not be in the hall of fame.  according to baseball-reference, his top comparable is steve garvey which automatically makes my initial statement valid in my mind.  

oliver played in all of 35 games as a dodger in the early part of the 1985 season before being traded to toronto, but topps kept him as a dodger in the traded set that year.  that was one of the cards i sent to oliver recently (along with a small donation) in the hopes that he would sign and return them to me.  he did just that.

the other card i sent was, of course, a 1978 topps card

which features one of the more melancholy poses you'll find on a baseball card (the 1994 ud collector's choice charlie hayes card comes to mind).  he may well be pondering the fact that he's wearing pajamas and sporting the number 16 instead of the 0 (or was it an "o"?) that he wore as a dodger.

oliver retired following the 1985 season with a batting title, an rbi title, and a world series ring, but he garnered less than 5% of the vote in his first appearance on the hall of fame ballot.  maybe that's what he's pondering.

thanks for signing my cards scoop!

a few cards that should have been for the 1978 topps dodgers in 1985

it's time to put a bow on the 1978 topps dodgers as they were in 1985.  or, rather, as they should have been.  there were some very obvious omissions from the topps set that year, not the least of which was a card highlighting the 1984 postseason.  here's my take on the nlcs wrap-up card that should have been

steve garvey walk-off action!  the garv earned his second nlcs mvp award in 1984, by the way.  he also returned to the starting lineup for the nl in the all-star game, but topps chose to feature keith hernandez as the first base all-star in the 1985 set.  here's the garvey card that should have been

i know i've shown that one before, but it needed to be seen again.  just like this one, the dave lopes 1985 topps card that should have been

none of that a's card with the 'now with cubs' text nonsense.

although, it would have been cool if topps had done that with don sutton in its traded set.  sutton, who was dealt from the a's to the angels during the season was omitted from the 1985 traded set.  here's what the lazy topps worker might have come up with had sutton been included in the checklist.

a better version would have been a card with sutton in angels gear, like this one

also left out of the traded set for some reason was tommy john, who went from the angels to the a's during the 1985 season.  here is his 1985 topps traded card that should have been

perhaps the biggest player omission from the 1985 set, for me anyway, was rick monday.  he finished up his career in 1984, but neither topps nor fleer nor donruss put him in a 1985 set.

for shame.  here is the 1985 topps (and final tribute) card that should have been for the first ever amateur draft pick.

yes, like the garvey all-star and the lopes cards, you've seen that before.  this time, however, i made a back to go with it.

not a bad career for mo.

coming soon, the 1978 topps dodgers in 1986.  stay tuned.

the 1978 topps dodgers in 1985, part two - the non-dodger position players

i covered the dodgers and pitchers from the 1978 topps dodger squad as they were featured in the 1985 topps set.  now it's time for the everyday guys who didn't wear dodger blue that year.  first up, who else?

steve garvey

here's what i wrote about the garv's 1985 season in my 'history of the infield' post:

he played in all 162 games, hit .281 with 17 home runs and had 184 hits.  garvey didn't hit two home runs in a game in 1985, but his last home run of the season was also the 250th of his career.  he was also selected to start at first base for the national league in the all star game, and even participated in the inagural home run derby at the metrodome as part of the all star festivities.  in the midsummer classic, garvey went 1 for 3 with an rbi single off of jack morris in the 3rd inning that broke a 1-1 tie.  that turned out to be the game winning rbi as the nl beat the al 6-1.  garvey was replaced at first base by jack clark (note to topps - keith hernandez wasn't even on the nl's squad).  it would be the final all star appearance by any member of the infield.

topps did give garvey a second card in the set - a record breaker recognizing his perfect fielding in 1984

despite his 1.000 fielding percentage, garvey didn't win the gold glove in 1984.  that honor had gone to keith hernandez who had only 45 or so more chances than the garv, but made 8 errors for a .994 fielding percentage.  he did have a fair number more assists than garvey, but i will claim east coast bias over garvey's aversion to throwing the ball or a recognition in 1984 of range factor.

ron cey

here's what i had to say about cey in that same post:

ron cey surpassed 20 home runs for the 10th and final time in his career in 1985 for the cubs.  his numbers (145 games played, 22 home runs, 64 runs, .232 batting average) were all down just slightly from 1984, but his rbi plummeted to 63 - down from almost 100 the previous year.  his 22 home runs included hitting two in a game twice, his final home run at dodger stadium (against orel hershiser), and his last home run of the season was the 299th home run of his career.

dave lopes (who was 'now with cubs')

and, here's what i wrote about lopes and his odd card from topps:

lopes did, in fact, play for the cubs in 1985.  if you recall, he was acquired by the cubbies late in the 1984 season, but apparently topps didn't bother to get a picture of him in his new uniform.  at any rate, lopes rediscovered his legs at age 40, stealing 47 bases (and getting caught just 4 times) for his highest total since 1977.  he also set a career high with a .284 batting average, while hitting 11 home runs and scoring 52 runs in 99 games.  like the penguin, lopes hit the last dodger stadium home run of his career in 1985, a two-run shot off of dennis powell.

dusty baker

the giants traded baker across the bay towards the end of spring training, where he would reunite with don sutton and later, tommy john.  here's his 1985 topps traded card

baker appeared in 111 games for the a's in 1985, playing about half of the time at first base.  it was the first time in his career that he had seen time there, but he managed pretty well, only committing three errors.  topps did well by adding the 1b position to his traded card, by the way.  at the plate, dusty hit .268 with 14 homers and 52 rbi.

lee lacy

lacy, the last of the players to be featured here, signed a free agent deal with the baltimore orioles prior to the start of the 1985 season.  here's his 1985 topps traded card

lacy took over as the orioles' primary right fielder, hitting .293 in 121 games with 9 home runs and 69 runs scored.  he passed the 1000 hit mark for his career in 1985, and also hit his lone career walk-off home run.  he added a lead-off home run for good measure, and twice had two homers in a single game.

so, there you go - the position players who weren't dodgers in 1985, but were dodgers in the 1978 topps set, as they were in 1985.  and now, since we've seen them and the dodgers and non-dodger pitchers, i'll go ahead and update the evolutionary stats.

there were 14/27 members of the 1978 topps dodgers featured by topps in 1985. here's the tally to date:

baker 15 (1971-1985)
burke 2 (1978-1979)
cey 14 (1972-1985)
davalillo 14 (1963-1974, 1978-1979)
forster 14 (1972-1985)
garman 8 (1971-1973, 1975-1979)
garvey 15 (1971-1985)
goodson 6 (1973-1978)
grote 15 (1964-1976, 1978-1979)
hooton 14 (1972-1985)
hough 14 (1972-1985)
john 22 (1964-1985)
lacy 13 (1973-1985)
lasorda 11 (1954, 1973-1974, 1977-1981, 1983-1985)
lopes 13 (1973-1985)
martinez 9 (1971-1976, 1978-1980)
monday 18 (1967-1984)
mota 18 (1963-1980)
oates 10 (1972-1981)
rau 9 (1973-1981)
rautzhan 2 (1978-1979)
rhoden 11 (1975-1985)
russell 16 (1970-1985)
smith 17 (1967-1983)
sosa 10 (1974-1984)
sutton 20 (1966-1985)
yeager 13 (1973-1985)

teams represented so far: 22 (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, padres, brewers)

the 1978 topps dodgers in 1985, part one

there weren't too many dodgers who were dodgers in the 1978 topps set that were still dodgers in 1985.  in fact, of the four who were shown wearing dodger blue in the set, only three were still wearing the uniform during the season.

first up, tommy lasorda

lasorda guided the dodgers to 95 wins and another nl west title in 1985.  and then he decided to pitch to jack clark with first base open.  the dodgers won the first two games of the nlcs against the cardinals, then lost the next three (including game 5 on ozzie smith's walk off left-handed home run).  then, with the dodgers one out away from tying the series at three games apiece, clark launched a go-ahead three run home run off of tom niedenfuer to seal the pennant for st. louis.  crushing.

bill russell

russell appeared in almost as many games as an outfielder (21) as he did as a shortstop (23) in 1985.  overall, he saw action in 76 games and hit .260.  he was not on the postseason roster, or if he was, he did not make an appearance in the nlcs.

steve yeager

yeager appeared in even fewer games than russell (53), with 48 of those coming with some time spent behind the plate.  offensively, yeager didn't do much - he hit only .207 without a home run and with just 9 rbi - but defensively, he still packed a punch, throwing out 52% (23 of 44) of the baserunners who tried to steal against him.  yeager's final appearance as a dodger came in game 4 of the nlcs when he pinch hit for mike scioscia and stayed in the game as the catcher.  yeager was traded to seattle during the offseason.

burt hooton

hooton was featured in the set as a dodger, but he had signed a free agent deal with the rangers.  so, here is his 1985 topps traded card

hooton started the season in the bullpen, but moved to the rotation in mid-may.  all of his decisions - 5 wins and 8 losses - came as a starter even though he had 9 appearances as a reliever, including his final two big league appearances.  in his final major league start, hooton squared off against old nl west rival, tom seaver who was pitching for the white sox.  neither man figured in the decision.

let's stick with the other pitchers who were still around in 1985.  

with the rangers, hooton was reunited with former teammate charlie hough

hough had a pretty typical season for him as a starter.  he was 14-16 over 34 starts with 14 complete games.  his 3.31 era was the 8th best in the american league, and he threw a pair of two-hitters.  his most interesting start, however, might have been his first assignment of the season.  he was pulled after 6 innings even though he had not allowed a hit.  he had, however, given up two runs (one earned) thanks to 8 walks - four of which were consecutive (with two outs in the sixth) and gave the orioles their first run.  there were no wild pitches, although a passed ball accounted for the second (unearned) baltimore run.

terry forster

forster was 2-3 with a 2.28 era and a single save in 46 games for the braves.  but enough about his pitching - let's talk hitting.  forster entered the season with a career batting average of .419.  sadly, he was 0 for 4 in 1985, dropping his average to .397.

tommy john

john split the 1985 season between the angels and the a's.  with california, he was used as both a starter and reliever, and had a 2-4 record in 12 appearances when he was traded to oakland near the end of july.  reunited with former teammate don sutton (more on that later) the a's used john exclusively as a starter, and he had a couple of pretty good ones to go along with a few clunkers.  he finished the season with a 4-10 record overall.  for some reason, john was not included in the 1985 traded set.

rick rhoden

rhoden was 10-15 for the pirates in 1985.  his era jumped a run and a half to 4.47, and his batting average plummeted from .333 in 1984 to .189.  he still won his second silver slugger though.

don sutton

sutton got two cards as a brewer in 1985 - his base (shown above) and a record breaker

over the 19 seasons of sutton's career to that point, he had never had fewer than 100 strikeouts.  he surpassed that mark again in 1985 (barely) with 107 total strikeouts between two teams.  none were as a brewer, however, as sutton was traded to the a's prior to the start of the season.  here's his 1985 topps traded card

as a member of the athletics, sutton put together a 13-8 record in 29 starts.  he threw a 4-hit shutout in june, and was 4-1 with 5 quality starts in august which may have prompted a trade with the angels.  sutton was dealt to california in early september with the angels trying to catch the kansas city royals.  they won sutton's first two starts, but lost each of his final three (including a critical head-to-head matchup with kc) and finished one game behind the eventual world champions in the al west.  unfortunately, there was no card of sutton as an angel in the traded set.

i'll finish up the evolution with the non-dodger position players in another post.  stay tuned.

filling in a gap - a topps dodger autograph project update

i was happy and surprised to see a small saspwe in my mailbox yesterday.  outside of that mike schmidt ttm request, i haven't mailed any out recently.  my outstanding steve garvey request will (hopefully) make it's way back in a larger mailer.  anyway, the card inside was this 1985 topps traded mariano duncan card

that's cool for many reasons - first, i sent it in september of 2012 c/o the tennessee smokies where duncan was a coach, but it came back postmarked from orlando.  second, it's a great card with the rookie duncan taking a lead under the watchful eye of lurking coach joe amalfitano.  third, it fills a gap in my topps dodger autograph project.

as you will recall, i tried to get a signed copy of a dodger card from each year of topps cards through the mail.  i didn't count traded sets towards the completion of the project, but they were nice to have.  and, with this duncan, if i were to count the traded and update sets, the project would be complete through 1988 topps.

here's an updated tally of the topps dodger autograph project:

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

1984 topps - fernando valenzuela

1984 topps traded - mike vail

1985 topps - burt hooton

1985 topps traded - mariano duncan

1986 topps - enos cabell

1986 topps traded - franklin stubbs

1987 topps - steve sax

1987 topps traded - matt young

1988 topps - len matuszek

1989 topps - mickey hatcher

1990 topps - kal daniels

1990 topps traded - juan samuel

1991 topps - tim belcher

1992 topps - roger mcdowell

1993 topps - dave hansen

1993 topps traded - tim wallach

1994 topps - jody reed

1995 topps - chris gwynn

1996 topps - todd hollandsworth

1997 topps - brett butler

1998 topps - greg gagne

1999 topps - jose vizcaino

2000 topps - jeff shaw

2001 topps - chan ho park

2002 topps - andy ashby

2002 topps traded - joel hanrahan

2003 topps - jim tracy

2003 topps traded - ron coomer

2004 topps - edwin jackson

2004 topps traded - milton bradley

2005 topps - chad billingsley

2005 topps update & highlights - jason phillips

2006 topps - bill mueller

2007 topps - james loney

2007 topps update & highlights - andy laroche

2008 topps - delwyn young

2008 topps update & highlights - casey blake

2009 topps - matt kemp

2009 topps update & highlights - brad ausmus

2010 topps - juan pierre

2010 topps update & highlights - ronnie belliard

2011 topps - hong-chih kuo

2011 topps update & highlights - matt guerrier

2012 topps - nathan eovaldi

2012 topps update & highlights - matt treanor

2013 topps - randy choate

thanks mariano!

lurking coaches

too often coaches get the shaft when it comes to baseball cards.  i don't think topps has officially recognized coaches in their flagship set since 1974, and there have been precious few coaches cards in other sets.  usually, the only time a coach shows up on cardboard these days is in a team set designed for a stadium giveaway or fan pack, or, in the case of ron perranoski in 1987 and again in 1989, when there's a crowd.  here are a few cards upon which some coaches have managed to make an appearance.  and the cards are better for it, in my opinion.

first, danny ozark is walking into position in the background of billy grabarkewitz's 1970 topps card.

this scene continues to play out on jeff torborg's 1970 and 1971 topps cards, by the way.

next up, we have joe amalfitano coaching over at third base as mariano duncan takes a lead on his 1985 topps traded card

amalfitano last made an appearance on a topps card in 1973, i believe, as a member of the giants' coaching staff.  he's back with the giants these days in some capacity, and duncan is no longer a dodger coach either.

here's a cool card - it's actually the back of armando reynoso's 1992 upper deck card

that's dodger coach joe ferguson in the background, headed down the right field line in chavez ravine.  fergie coached under tommy lasorda from 1988 through 1994.

for a long time, mark cresse was the dodgers' bullpen coach.  that's him sitting down in the background of cory snyder's 1994 ud collector's choice card

which also features foreground lurker jody reed.  cresse served under managers walt alston, tommy lasorda, bill russell, and this next lurker, glenn hoffman, who finds a spot on jim tracy's 2004 topps card

hoffman took over on an interim basis after bill russell was fired in 1998.  cresse didn't last long under hoffman's regime, as he was fired along with hitting coach reggie smith and pitching coach glenn gregson shortly after hoffman took over.  hoffman himself was replaced as manager by davey johnson in 1999, but he stayed on as a coach under johnson and his replacement, jim tracy.

with davey lopes back in town, i am always on the lookout for a glimpse of him in the background of a card.  unfortunately, it's third base coach tim wallach who is lurking on jerry sands' 2012 topps card

still, an arm of wallach is better than pretending that the coaches don't exist.  here's hoping that all of wallach or lopes or trey hillman or kenny howell or whoever replaces dave hansen shows up in the background on some 2013 cards.

the continuing evolution of the out of place guy

i left off the last time with don stanhouse.  definitely out of place as a dodger.  his former teammate, mark belanger also joined the dodgers in the early 80's - 1982 to be exact.

after 17 years of playing shortstop for the orioles, belanger was displaced by cal ripken jr and so he headed west for his final season.  he took his 8 gold gloves and hit .240 for the defending world champs in 54 games.

a couple of years later, prior to the 1985 season, the dodgers traded for al oliver

oliver was just 2 years removed from leading the league in hitting when the dodgers signed him.  he hit .253 for them until they sent him to toronto in july of '85 for len matuszek.  when i think of oliver i think of him as a pirate or an expo.  not a dodger.  he was out of place, even though it was for just a short time.

in '86 the dodgers picked up a couple of veterans to play third base - enos cabell and bill madlock.  i don't consider them out of place simply because they stuck around for more than one season.  but, there was another third baseman in the mix in '87:  phil garner.  the dodgers traded for garner during the 1987 season, and scrap iron took to the dodgers like a fish out of water.

he hit a buck-ninety after joining the dodgers in mid-june, pinch hitting and playing some second base, short and of course some third base.  in fact, he was their primary third baseman for the last part of the season.  he signed as a free agent with the giants for the 1988 season, ending his turn as the dodgers' out of place guy after just 70 games.

after the dodgers' 1988 world championship, the dodgers and yankees essentially traded second baseman, although steve sax and willie randolph were both free agents

randolph spent 1989 as the dodgers' second baseman, and he did so admirably.  he hit .282 and made the all=star team.  donruss even made him a 'diamond king' in 1990.  speaking of 1990, the dodgers traded randolph to the a's in may of that year since they had juan samuel to play second.

the dodgers then acquired another short-timer for the 1990 season in hubie brooks

brooks was the dodgers' right fielder in 1990 and didn't do too badly - he tied his career high of 20 home runs and drove in 91, but the dodgers signed darryl strawberry for the 1991 season, so brooks was sent packing.

they replaced brooks as the out of place guy for the 1991 season with a hall of famer - gary carter!

carter had been with the giants in 1990 after bottoming out with the mets in '89.  he caught (as mike scioscia's backup) but also played some first base for the dodgers.  he hit .246 with 6 home runs and was re-acquired by the expos for a farewell tour in time for the 1992 season.

in the ensuing seasons, the dodgers employed the services of a few different players who didn't stick around long - todd benzinger, jody reed, jeff treadway, roberto kelly, mike blowers, darren lewis, and otis nixon to name most of them.  but the next truly out of place guy was bobby bonilla.

acquired in the mike piazza trade, i don't think the dodgers could get rid of bobby bo quickly enough.  they really wanted sheffield and were ready to commit to 19 year old adrian beltre at third base.  still, bonilla matched beltre's production although just barely.  bonilla was traded to the mets after the season ended and steve phillips went nuts.

coming soon, the out of place guys of the 2000's!