more cards to your mother's

i'm going to the mother's cookie jar one more time today, to show a few cards from some of the sets sent my way by mr. haverkamp.  these sets are great for back of the roster guys, but that's not all i will show.

from the 1988 set comes this steve sax card

'88 was saxy's last year with the dodgers, and when he left a part of my fandom went with him. he was a sort of link to the infield of my youth, having played with garvey, cey, and russell in 1982.

also from the 1988 set is a nice card of reliever ken howell

howell had 21 plate appearances as a dodger, going 1 for 19 with 2 sacrifices.  that's why this card is so great.

here's kirk gibson's card from the 1990 set

he may have been to ornery to pose for the cameras, so they had to use an action shot which is a true rarity in these sets.  i love to see the low corner railing in dodger stadium on cards!

here's a don aase card, also from the 1990 set.

alphabetically, he's first in the dodger book.

like aase, gary carter has a few cards as a dodger, but his 1991 mother's card

is still nice to have.

if it weren't for the dodger police set and the mother's set from 1991 (which gives us this card),

i wouldn't have any cards of barry lyons in a dodger uniform.  he played in just 9 games as a dodger during the first couple of months of the '91 season before moving down the 5 to anaheim.

darryl strawberry's 1992 mother's card

provides a view of the empty bat rack.  a bat rack as empty as daaaaaa-rryl's production in '92.

congratulations to hall of famer pedro martinez, who has this card in the 1993 set

which is also a good representative of the tim crews memorial patch.

i'll end with a few of the more obscure dodgers from a couple of these sets.  from the 1994 set, here's al (not to be confused with antonio) osuna

osuna joined the dodgers at the end of spring training (march, 1994) in a deal with the astros.  he went 2-0 for the dodgers over 15 appearances that season, despite having an era over 6.  he was released by the dodgers in 1995. 

perhaps one reason for osuna's release was that the dodgers had joey eischen on their roster for 1995.  this is eischen's 1995 mother's dodgers card

this is also eischen's first appearance on the blog.  looking into things further, it is clear that eischen had nothing to do with osuna's release.  osuna was let go in april, while eischen was acquired in may of '95 in the trade that sent henry rodriguez to montreal.  eischen pitched for the dodgers in '95 and part of '96 before being traded to detroit for chad curtis at the trade deadline.

like eischen, rick parker is making his debut on the blog, thanks to the 1995 mother's dodgers set.

parker was an outfielder for the dodgers in both '95 and 1996, although he didn't appear in the postseason in either of those years.  i'm glad he made the mother's cookie checklist, though.

aase-some!

one of the first people i sent a ttm request to when i began that faction of the hobby in 2009 was don aase.  i sent him a 1991 fleer card, a nice card showing him in sunny dodger stadium, and one of the few to show him in dodger duds.  i found out shortly thereafter that while mr. aase had signed some things in previous years, he was not responding to requests any longer.  no problem.

then, in august, his name popped up on sportscardforum with some successes.  so, i did what any guy who collects dodger and 1978 topps autographed cards would do and i sent him a couple of cards to sign.  he did, very nicely i might add.  here's a 1991 score

the black border looks great, as always.

here's his 1978 topps card

i didn't send a copy of that 1991 fleer card, though.  some things aren't meant to be.

thanks don!

they are the alpha and the omega...

for the dodgers anyway, alphabetically speaking.

just like rod has his padrographs from abner to zimmer, we have don aase and don zimmer. he belonged to the dodgers first, rod.true, there were two guys with the last name of zimmerman that played for the organization way way back, but i am too lazy to break out my 1990 target set and see if they were included.

aase is, in fact, fourth on the all-time major league alphabetical list. he falls behind david aardsma and hank and tommie aaron. for some reason, i picture him as a met which is weird because he spent most of his career, including my baseball fandom formative years, in the american league with the angels and orioles. he played just one season for the mets, and that was 1989!

1990 turned out to be his final season, so the 1991 fleer card above is a true final tribute. and not a bad way to go out - pitching in sunny dodger stadium!

zimmer, on the other hand, was just getting started in baseball in 1956. he broke into the big leagues with the dodgers in 1954, and played with them through the 1959 season before being traded to the cubs. he would play for the mets, reds, dodgers again, and the senators before finishing his playing career in japan in 1966.

he has been a manager or coach in the big leagues since 1971, winning over 900 games as a manager. unfortunately, zimmer suffered a minor stroke late last year, but he is back in uniform for the rays this spring. that's great, because baseball would seem strange without him around after all these years.