sunday morning target dodgers - featuring the 'other' mike ramsey. or was the other mike ramsey the 'other' mike ramsey?

here are another 15 players featured together on a sheet of cards from the very large 1990 target dodgers set.  enjoy.

ed albosta

albosta made two starts for the dodgers in 1941 and lost them both.  both games were against the phillies, and both times lefty hoerst was the opposing (and winning) pitcher.  to make matter worse, in all other games in which he pitched in 1941, hoerst was 1-10.  anyway, that was all albosta would do for the dodgers, although he did return to the majors in 1946 with the pirates.  he went 0-6 for pittsburgh, with a couple of those losses coming against the phillies, but not hoerst.

ken boyer

boyer, who was the nl mvp in 1964 with the world champion cardinals, finished his playing career with the dodgers in 1968 and 1969.  he was one of the many to play third base for the dodgers before ron cey arrived to stabilize the position.  boyer didn't homer in any of his 25 games in 1969, but he did hit his last two home runs of his career in the same game in 1968.  after retiring, boyer returned to the cardinals and eventually became their manager.  the team wore a black armband in his honor following his death in 1982.

rocky bridges

bridges was another guy who played some third base for the dodgers, although he spent his time there in 1951 and 1952, his first two years in the majors.  as a dodger, bridges hit .237 in 114 games.  he went on to play for the reds, senators, tigers, indians, cardinals, and angels.  after his playing days were done, he coached for the angels and giants, and managed in the minors as well.  he also signs cards through the mail, much to my appreciation.

dick calmus

calmus was 3-1 with a 2.66 era as a 19-year old dodger rookie in 1963.  he pitched in 21 games (one start), and won a world series ring, although he did not appear in the fall classic.  even so, it was back to the minors for calmus until he was traded to the cubs in 1967.  he made one appearance for chicago that season, then it was back to the minors for good.  calmus was still only 25 when he returned to the dodger organization in 1969, but he was never recalled from albuquerque and called it quits.  with the pitching rich dodgers of the mid-1960's it was too bad that calmus didn't get more of a shot at the big leagues.  at least he made it, though.  and, by the way, i'm still not certain what's going on in the background of his 1964 topps card.

bob clark

clark was a catcher for brooklyn when they joined the national league in 1890.  he was with the bridegrooms for four seasons before that as well.  as a national leaguer, clark hit .219 in 43 games, and was 2 for 3 in the postseason exhibitions that the pennant winning bridegrooms played against the louisville colonels.

babe dahlgren

i did not realize that dahlgren played for the dodgers, but he did - for 17 games in 1942.  he was just 1 for 19 with 4 walks in that span, however, and the dodgers flipped him to the phillies for lloyd waner and one other player prior to the 1943 season.  dahlgren is, of course, much better known as the man who replaced lou gehrig in the yankee lineup.

al gionfriddo

gionfriddo was traded to the dodgers early in the 1947 season by the pirates, for whom he had played since 1944.  he played in 37 regular season games for the dodgers, hitting .177 with no homers and 6 rbi.  gionfriddo was often used as a pinch-hitter, but got some playing time in the outfield as well, and that's where his most memorable play was made.  in game 6 of the 1947 world series, gionfriddo was sent out to left field in the bottom of the 6th inning.  the yankees were trailing 8-5, although they were leading the series 3 games to 2.  with two on and two out, joe dimaggio hit what was going to be a game-tying 3-run home run at worst, and an extra base hit at best, but gionfriddo made a nice catch going back on the ball, and the dodgers lived to play game seven (they lost).  the play is also known for the fact that the stoic dimaggio showed some frustration by kicking the dirt after the catch was made.

andy high

high spent the first 3-plus seasons of his 13-year big league career with the brooklyn robins.  he had the best season of his career as a robin in 1924, hitting .328 while scoring 98 runs in 144 games.  usually a third baseman, he had moved to second base that season and wound up finishing 12th in the league mvp voting.  high was lost on waivers to the braves during the 1925 season, but not before the photo used on his card was taken.  that image does indeed come from the 1925 campaign, as the robins wore black armbands for team owner and president charles ebbetts.  i'll address that memorial further in a future post.

fred lindstrom

lindstrom is probably one of the weaker hall of famers in cooperstown, but he's still a hall of famer as determined by the veteran's committee in 1976.  he had a good 9 year run playing mostly third base for the new york giants in the 1920's and into the 1930's, but joined the dodgers as an outfielder for his final season in 1936. he hit .264 in 26 games for brooklyn before asking for, and receiving his release.

jose morales

there have been 11 people from the us virgin islands that have reached the major leagues, and morales is one of them.  he's also one of three to have played for the dodgers (the others are henry cruz and al mcbean).  morales was known for his pinch-hitting prowess, once setting the record for most pinch-hits in a single season (1976), although that record was broken by john vanderwal in 1995.  morales spent most of his final three big league seasons with the dodgers from 1982-1984.  he had 108 plate appearances as a dodger in 104 games.  of those plate appearances, 95 were as a pinch-hitter as were 24 of his 27 hits as a dodger.

mickey owen

the dodgers traded for owen prior to the 1941 season, and he took over the everyday catching duties from babe phelps.  owen delivered a solid season behind the plate, earning his first of four straight all-star berths as a dodger and helping the franchise get to the world series for the first time since 1920.  it should be noted that his fielding percentage that season was .995 - only 3 errors and 2 passed balls - with 597 chances.  with that said, mickey owen is best known for dropping the third strike that would have ended game 4 of the 1941 fall classic and tied the series between the dodgers and yankees at two games apiece.  instead, tommy henrich reached first base and the yankees subsequently rallied for four runs to beat the dodgers 7-4 and take a 3 games to 1 lead.  they closed things out in game 5.  1955 couldn't come soon enough for owen, whom i imagine to have been (right or wrong) a sort of bill buckner figure, as in mickey owen : dodgers :: bill buckner : red sox.

dave patterson

patterson appeared in 36 games for the dodgers between june 9 and september 27, 1979 - all in relief.  he was 4-1 with a 5.26 era and 6 saves in those appearances which were the most of any reliever on the dodger staff that season.  he was back in triple-a albuquerque in 1980 and '81, and then finished his career with spending the 1982 season at the triple-a level in the oakland a's organization.

jeff pfeffer

pfeffer spent 9 seasons with the superbas/robins, pitching in 226 games for them between 1913 and 1921.  he posted a record of 113-80 with a 2.31 era for brooklyn during that span, and pitched in both the 1916 and 1920 world series for the club.

pat ragan

ragan joined the brooklyn franchise after spending a short time with both the reds and cubs in 1909.  he first appeared for the dodgers in 1911 and stayed with the club into the 1915 season before being claimed on waivers by the braves.  as a dodger/superba/robin, ragan was 37-54 with a 3.26 era.  in 1919, ragan was the player to be named later in the deal that sent jim thorpe from the new york giants to the braves.

mike james ramsey

you may recall from a previous sunday morning target dodgers post that mike jeffrey ramsey also played for the dodgers.  while his tenure was a mere 9 games in 1985, this mike ramsey appeared in 48 games for the 1987 dodgers, including opening day when he was the team's starting center fielder.  the team had been looking to acquire a center fielder (possibly even trading alejandro pena to get one) to replace ken landreaux when ramsey put on a display during spring training and won the job outright.  he went 10 for 28 in his first 7 starts, but hit just .196 over his next 30 games (27 of which were starts), and the dodgers made the deal with the orioles for john shelby.  in 2004, this mike ramsey (not the 'other' mike ramsey) was named the most obscure but memorable dodger following nominations made by the readers (like me) of jon weisman's dodger thoughts.

hail the mail!

i enjoy getting mail.  i always have.  over the last few years, i have especially enjoyed seeing self addressed stamped envelopes in the mailbox.  that's because they usually contain autographed cards.  the most recent of these envelopes came from the twins' spring training home thanks to former dodger pitcher ricky nolasco.  i had sent a copy of his 2014 topps card

and his 2013 topps update card

to fort myers in the hopes that he would sign them, and he did!  what's even more awesome about this is that it fills the requirement of my topps dodger autograph project for 2014.  as you might recall, i tried to secure at least one signed dodger card (ideally freely obtained through the mail) for each topps flagship set, starting with the 1951 red/blue backs, without repeating a player.  now, i could count nolasco's 2013 topps update card as part of the project (i don't consider update series official requirements of the project, but note them if i have them), but i don't know if i will send out any other 2014 cards so i will skip the update set for now.

here's the updated tally of the project, by the way.

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

2014 topps - ricky nolasco

there was a similar pwe in my mailbox a few days prior to the nolasco envelope.  it contained a 1964 topps dick calmus card

signed by the former dodger pitcher and returned in just a few days.  unfortunately, there aren't any other topps cards of calmus (he has a card in the 1968 set, but is featured as a cub) so i just sent the one.  

like nolasco, some of the players noted above as part of the topps dodger autograph project signed more than one card, and i realized that i have not shown some of them.

edwin jackson is part of the project thanks to his 2004 topps card, but he also signed a 2005 card for me.

likewise, delwyn young is up there for his 2008 topps card, but he also signed a 2003 topps 206

and a 2007 topps card

as did juan pierre, who made the project thanks to a 2010 topps ttm success.

pierre also signed one of his 2008 upper deck cards

probably my favorite card of his, as well as his 2009 topps card

not all dodger ttm successes made the project, obviously, and here is one that fell short - a 2007 topps luis gonzalez

last, but not least, is a card that is ineligible for the project (it's not a topps card), but is a cool ttm success nonetheless - a 2007 upper deck mike lieberthal card

thanks to all for signing my cards! and thanks also to the mailman for delivering the mail!

sorry mr. calmus, i'm more interested in what's going on behind you

dinged corners wants to know 'what's your favorite card where the main action isn't the reason you like the card?' well, i'm not sure if it's my favorite card of that type, but dick calmus' 1964 topps card is certainly one of them.

i am a fan of cards with 'lurkers' as you may or may not know, and this card features nate oliver lurking, or perhaps even skulking, in the background. 

upon further inspection, i can't help but wonder if oliver (identified by his number 29 jersey) and an unknown teammate even further in the background are participating in the currently forbidden game of pepper!?!?!