coaches man, coaches

one of the fun things about the keebler, mother's cookies, and police department issues of the 1980's and '90's (and 1960 topps plus a couple of early 1980 donruss releases) is the inclusion of coaches in the sets.  of all the folks in uniform, the coaches seem to get the least amount of respect - right behind the third string catcher and the long relief guy.

not here, not today.  here are some cards of coaches that i treasure, starting with a 1989 mother's rangers card.

why a rangers card?  well, there's dave lopes in the bottom right, just a season removed from his playing career.  he joined the rangers as a coach starting in 1988 after retiring following the 1987 season.  he stayed in texas through 1991, and then coached in baltimore from 1992 through 1994.  then he was off to san diego where he coached until he became the manager of the brewers in 2000.  after the brew crew fired him during the 2002 season, lopes returned to the padres for the 2003 season.  he stayed there until 2006 when he coached for the nationals, and then in 2007 he moved to philadelphia where he coached until he returned to los angeles for the 2011 season.  whew.  if anybody has any lopes cards from his other coaching stops after texas, you know i would be interested in them.

here's the dodgers' coaching staff in 1986, courtesy of the dodgers police set

there's ron perranoski, monty basgall, manny mota, joe amalfitano, don mcmahon, mark cresse, and ben hines.

in 1986, bill russell was still active, so he got his own card in the set

but, when 1987 rolled around, russell was on the coaches card in the dodgers police set from that year

this time, tommy lasorda makes an appearance, so it's perranoski, lasorda, amalfitano, mcmahon, mota, russell, and cresse.  mcmahon passed away during the 1987 season after suffering a heart attack while pitching batting practice at dodger stadium.

aside from the loss of mcmahon, it's pretty much the same crew that appears on the 1989 dodgers police coaches card, with two exceptions

hines is back, perranoski, lasorda, amalfitano, joe ferguson returns to the dodgers, cresse, russell, and mota. those same coaches appear on the 1989 mother's dodgers coaches card, too.

as well as the 1991 dodgers police card.

today, this card would look a lot different.  manny mota is the only one left, and he would be joined by mark mcgwire, rick honeycutt, ken howell, tim wallach, dave lopes, trey hillman, and chuck crim.  that wouldn't be a bad card to have.

thank god, the police

any fans of fletch out there? aside from the fact that fletch f. fletch hated tommy lasorda, i am a fan of the movie.  i even kind of like fletch lives.  anyway, the title of this post refers to the point where chief karlin (the number one drug pusher from here to oxnard) shows up near the end - but not to help fletch or the lovely gail stanwyck.  anyway, it's a lame way to say that this post is about some dodgers police cards.

starting in 1980, the lapd sponsored a stadium giveaway of oversized cards.  i recently picked up a few sets from a seller who advertised a lot of 6 sets.  it turns out that one of the sets he advertised he no longer had.  he didn't seem to think that it was a big deal.  he eventually gave me a partial refund, but i won't be buying from him anymore.

enough of that - here's the header card from the 1986 set - a nice team shot in dodger stadium of the 1985 western division champs

the dodgers didn't do much in 1986, so the header card of the 1987 set is just an aerial shot of dodger stadium

for the most part the cards all feature photos of the players at home in chavez ravine.  take fernando valenzuela, for example.  here are his 1987

1989

and 1986

cards.  all feature photos from pretty much the same angle.  thanks to the stirrups, we can see that they are not from the same game.

bob welch also has some repetitious cards in the 1986

and 1987 sets

i appreciate the red uniform number on the cards in 1986 and 1987.  not sure why the went away from it in 1989.

speaking of which, john tudor gets a night card in the 1989 dodgers police set

just like on his 1989 topps card.  both cards feature in-game action from dodger stadium which makes sense since all of tudor's starts at home in 1988 as a dodger were night games.  he did pitch on the road in a day game at philadelphia, but like i mentioned before - these sets tend to feature the players in the home whites.

well, fast forward to 1991, and we get barry lyons in the away grays.

lyons joined the dodgers in september of 1990, and appeared in three games.  the first two were on the road, and the third was at dodger stadium.  i'm surprised (and pleased) that there was a photo of lyons in dodger blue at all.  he was included in the set because he returned to the team in 1991, although he only made 9 appearances before being released in june of that year.  it is worth nothing that lyons had only one hit as a dodger, but at least it was a home run against the giants.

pretty sure that's the only dodger card of lyons, so unlike fletch i am genuinely thankful for the police that showed up.  although i wasn't facing incineration while wearing another man's suit at the time.