los angeles dodger managerial autographs managed

the los angeles dodgers have had only 9 managers in their 58-year history. compare that to the marlins, who have employed 13 managers (including two interim guys with just one game apiece) in their 23 years of existence.  all but one of the la dodger managers are still with us, and so obtaining autographs from each is not too difficult.

i've finally found the final piece to this collection, and so i will now display a complete set of la dodger manager autographed dodger cards.

1968 topps team (walt alston)

smokey passed away in 1984, so this card is obviously one that i purchased.  he first started managing the dodgers in 1954, and he won a total of 7 pennants and 4 world series, with 5 of those pennants and 3 of the world series titles coming in los angeles.  alston was at the helm for 2040 dodger wins - most all-time - and is enshrined in the hall of fame.  he gave way at the end of the 1976 season to tommy lasorda.

1978 topps tom lasorda

tommy signed this card for me through the mail, which was fantastic.  from the last four games of the 1976 season until his heart attack during the 1996 season, lasorda's dodgers won 1599 games, 4 pennants, and two world series titles, and lasorda himself was twice named the national league manager of the year.  he is second behind alston on the franchise's all-time managerial wins list, and he, too, is in the baseball hall of fame.  following the aforementioned heart attack in 1996, lasorda retired and bill russell took over.

1987 topps bill russell

like lasorda, russell signed this card (a final tribute) through the mail.  there is one card of him as a manager, and it comes from the 1997 mother's dodgers set.  i will try to get that one signed, but i don't believe ropes is signing through the mail anymore.  anyway, russell took over for lasorda in 1996 and led the team to a wild card berth. they were swept in the nlds, and were out of the playoff picture the following year which was russell's only full season at the helm of the club.  after 74 games in 1998, russell was fired by the fox regime about a month after the mike piazza trade.  it was the first time since leo durocher was relieved of his duties in 1948 that a dodger manager was fired during the season.  russell's 173 wins as the dodger skipper puts him 17th on the franchise list, and his winning percentage of .537 is good enough for 9th all-time (7th if we ignore interim managers clyde sukeforth and ray blades who won all three games they managed).  russell was replaced by glenn hoffman

1988 topps glenn hoffman

hoffman is (currently) the last of the former dodger players to manage the club.  he signed his 1988 topps card for me through the mail, and i may try to get him to sign a 1998 mother's dodgers card as well - it's the only one of him as a big league manager.  hoffman's dodgers finished out the 1998 season with 47 wins in 88 games, and those wins are the 25th most (out of 31) among the franchise's managers.  his .534 winning percentage puts him at 11th (or 9th), just a tick ahead of joe torre.  after the 1998 season, the fox boys were looking for a name, and they hired davey johnson to be the dodger manager.

2001 topps davey johnson

once again, the dodger manager in question signed a card for me through the mail.  johnson's debut as the dodger manager was a game for the ages.  on opening day, raul mondesi hit a 3-0 pitch into the stands for a game-tying three-run homer with two outs in the 9th, and then hit a two-run homer to walk-off the diamondbacks in the bottom of the 11th.  good times.  johnson wound up managing the team for two years, and the dodgers were 163-161 during his tenure (163 wins puts johnson 19th among the franchise's managers).  in 2000, they finished well behind the giants for second place in the nl west, and were 8 behind the mets for the wild card, and so johnson was fired after the season ended.  jim tracy was hired to take over.

2002 topps jim tracy

this is another through the mail autograph success, by the way.  tracy managed to manage the dodgers for five seasons, with the team winning 93 games and the nl west in 2004. although they lost to the cardinals in the nlds that year, they did win their first postseason game since 1988 (thanks to lima time!).  overall, tracy's dodgers were 427-384, and if it weren't for an awful 2005 season (you'll not be able to convince me that tracy wasn't trying to get fired that year - the second worst season for any la dodger team), his winning percentage would have been better. tracy ranks 6th all-time in wins for the franchise, behind five hall of famers, but he will probably be passed by don mattingly later this season.  the dodgers hired grady little to replace tracy following the 2005 season.

2007 topps grady little

i had to purchase this signed card.  

*update* little returned my ttm request after a fair amount of time with both his 2007 topps card 

and 2006 upper deck card 

signed.  very happy to have this success! *end update*

little's 170 wins in his two seasons as the team's manager puts him right between bill russell and davey johnson on the franchise's all-time list.  the dodgers won the wild card in 2006, but were swept in the nlds, and then finished 3rd in 2007.  little resigned as the team's manager after the 2007 season as it seemed apparent that frank mccourt wanted to hire joe torre to take over.

2009 topps joe torre

hall of fame manager torre, who signed this card through the mail, came aboard and led the club to two straight nl west titles and national league championship series berths.  the team faltered in 2010, however, and torre retired after that season. his 259 wins are 12th best among the franchise's managers, and his winning percentage is sandwiched by hoffman's and little's on the leader board. torre's bench coach, don mattingly, was picked to be his successor.

2014 topps heritage don mattingly

this card was the final card i needed for this post.  i had previously received a couple of signed mattingly cards through the mail with some help from reader cory, but i wanted a card of mattingly in dodger gear signed as well.  turns out i had to buy one.  mattingly is the current dodger skipper, and he has the team in first place this year, his fifth at the helm.  the team has won the nl west and made the postseason each of the last two years under mattingly, and they made it to the nlcs in 2013.  mattingly currently ranks 7th in managerial wins and tenure for the franchise, but should pass jim tracy in both of those categories by game 2 of the 2016 season.  after that, he's looking up at five hall of famers - alston, lasorda, wilbert robinson, durocher, and ned hanlon.  that's not bad managerial company.

heroes by pwe

this post consists of six cards that i received from jeff at 2x3 heroes the other day. they were stuffed inside a pwe with even more cards.  i sense that the volley of pwe's between us has been renewed.

2014 topps chrome clayton kershaw chrome connection die-cut

2014 topps heritage yasiel puig new age performers

i think puig replaced matt kemp in the new age performer insert set last year.  i wonder how long he'll last on the checklist.

2014 panini golden age tommy lasorda

1982 kmart steve garvey

which reminds me that i should get wallet card out a bit more often.

there were some other cards in the envelope for my mini collections - double plays and tatooine cards mostly.  these two cards, however, are tatooine wannabes.  if only upper deck had cropped out the grass on these 2008 cards of michael young and curtis granderson

nice cards nonetheless.  thanks jeff.  i'll give you some time to digest the package i sent and start peppering you with some pwe's of my own.

baseball is back, sort of

hockey and basketball may still be on the air, but baseball is back. i've seen some 2015 topps cards leak into the populace, so it's officially time to turn our attention to the national pastime.  and, with 2015 stuff out, i should show some of the 2014 cards that have been languishing in my scanned folder.

this is a 2014 bowman yasiel puig 1989 bowman is back insert

thankfully, unlike actual 1989 bowman cards, this one is standard sized.  topps just trimmed the top and bottom margins.  it would look better if they widened the photo frame to have equal sized margins all around the card - they way they did it makes it look trimmed.

these cards were inserted throughout bowman releases.  this one, of alex guerrero,

comes from bowman chrome, i believe.  these next few cards also come from bowman chrome - here's guerrero

along with erisbel arruebarrena

and hanley ramirez

this is a 2014 bowman platinum zack greinke card

greinke is the anti-marshawn lynch. he talks to reporters and speaks his mind. it's hard to tell what he's thinking these days, but i hope he sticks around for a while.

i have to admit that i bought a couple of packs of 2014 donruss at the dollar store.  no dodgers, but i did pick up this puig base

and his power plus insert

through other means over the course of last year.

i've had some of the pastime's pastimes 2014 topps allen & ginter inserts scanned for a while, but never got around to show them off.  here's puig

ramirez

jackie robinson

and hyun-jin ryu

puig's pastime is being a jokester

and one of his main joke partners is ryu.  i don't think they understand what the other is saying, but they make for good comic relief together.

here's a 2014 topps chrome puig card

and a ryu xfractor, too

i only have one 2014 topps heritage card ready to show, and it's carl crawford's

i'll be interested to see 2015 heritage.  i wasn't expecting much in 2013, but the 1964 design redux grew on me.  i'm left wondering if seeing the 1966 topps design modernized will incite any interest.  i'm guessing not.

here are a bunch of dodgers from the 2014 topps stickers release - jackie, puig, matt kemp, clayton kershaw, ryu, and greinke

there were no newer photos of kershaw, so topps had to use one from 2011.

i bought a pack of 2014 topps update a couple of weeks ago while succumbing to pack withdrawal.  at least it contained this yasiel puig all-star game access insert

with mini-miguel cabrera.

also from last year's update, here's a hanley power players insert

it feels good to get these 2014 cards out of the scanned folder and make some room for some 2015 cards.

the last dodger pitcher to win the mvp award is clayton kershaw

the national league hadn't had a pitcher win the most valuable player award since bob gibson took home the hardware in 1968.  now, for the first time in my lifetime, a pitcher has won the nl mvp award and it's a guy who throws for my favorite team.

you can say that it's because giancarlo stanton got hurt towards the end of the season, but it doesn't matter.  clayton kershaw is the 2014 nl mvp.

from such humble beginnings - this is his rookie card from 2008 topps update & highlights

don't worry - i've got more cards to show.

2009 upper deck o-pee-chee

2011 topps diamond duos, with madison bumgarner

bumgarner had a historically fantastic postseason, no doubt.  kershaw did not.  hopefully that just means that his eventual championship run will be that much sweeter.

2011 topps marquee

the brooklyn baby blues.  i wonder if the dodgers will ever play in the robins' 1916 checked uniforms.  maybe in a couple of years to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the franchise's first world series appearance?

2012 bowman chrome

2012 bowman's best

both of those cards show the duke snider memorial patch.  duke never won an mvp award, although he and teammate roy campanella came very close to sharing the award in 1955.

2013 topps toys 'r' us purple parallel

2013 topps mini

2014 topps allen & ginter pastime's pastime

with a nod to his philanthropic efforts on the back

2014 topps gypsy queen n174 insert

2014 topps heritage

2014 topps heritage league leaders

2014 topps heritage then and now with sandy koufax

kershaw has more in common with the 1963 version of sandy koufax - that was the year that koufax won the mvp award.

kershaw has joined a select list of players with this award, and he also joins maury wills, koufax, steve garvey, and kirk gibson as los angeles dodgers to win the mvp.  i am hopeful that in 2015 kershaw will join koufax, garvey, and gibson as a player to win a postseason mvp award as well.

bill russell's career ended in 1986, but continues today. sort of.

just as i did for steve garvey a few days ago, here is a look at who has carried bill russell's torch forward to today, through final plate or pitching appearances.

the dodger shortstop of my youth played in his final game on october 1, 1986.  i was pleased that topps and fleer gave him cards in 1987 (here's the fleer final tribute)

in his final game, russell was called upon to pinch-hit for dennis powell in the 8th inning of a game that the dodgers were losing 3-2.  padres' reliever goose gossage struck russell out, unfortunately.

goose gossage wound up pitching for a few more seasons.  he did not return to the major leagues following the players' strike, so his final appearance came in august of 1994.  like russell, gossage received some final tribute love in some sets - this card comes from 1995 upper deck

gossage was pitching for the mariners when he earned a 3-inning save on august 8, 1994.  pitching against the rangers, gossage set down all 9 players who faced him, including jose canseco who flied out  to left to end the game and the goose's career.

jose canseco made his final big league appearance as a member of the white sox in 2001.  this is his 2001 upper deck sweet spot card

he flew out in the 9th inning of the white sox game against the twins' eddie guardado on october 6, 2001 in what would be his final appearance as a major leaguer.  he later went on to write a couple of books.

eddie guardado pitched in his last game as a member of the texas rangers in 2009.  here's his 2010 upper deck card with angel coach alfredo griffin hanging out in the background.

the last batter guardado faced was the angels' robb quinlan, but it was on a wednesday night (september 30, 2009 to be exact), so the card doesn't feature a photo from that game.  quinlan hit into a 5-4-3 double play to end the 8th inning, as well as guardado's career.

robb quinlan played into the 2010 season, although i will show his 2009 upper deck card

quinlan was announced as a pinch-hitter on june 25, 2010 against the rockies, but he did not make it to the plate as rockies' manager jim tracy switched pitchers and erick aybar replaced quinlan for mike scioscia's angels.  furthermore, quinlan appeared in a couple of games against the dodgers just prior to that, but was only used as a defensive replacement.  so, quinlan's final plate appearance came on june 20, 2010 against the cubs.  the last pitcher he faced was andrew cashner, who got quinlan to ground out.

andrew cashner, seen on his 2014 topps heritage card,

is currently pitching for the padres, and is hopefully the proud torchbearer of bill russell's (and goose gossage's and even jose canseco's) career!