sunday morning target dodgers - that's babich, not babip

here's another sheet (15 more cards) from the 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary set. enjoy.

johnny babich

babich broke into the majors with the dodgers in 1940 and pitched for them for two seasons.  he won 7 games in each, but lost a total of 25 with a cumulative era of 5.46.  when i first saw this card on the sheet, being the forward thinking analytical fan that i am (not really), i immediately thought of 'babip'.  that's batting average on balls in play in case you didn't know.  i don't know what babich's babip against was during his time with the dodgers, but in his last two seasons as a member of the philadelphia a's, his .267 babip was below the league average of .292.  as a batter, his career babip was .243, but in his final season, he had an incredible .476 babip.  thanks baseball reference!

jim campanis

campanis spent parts of 3 seasons (1966-1968) with the dodgers as a backup catcher before his dad, general manager al campanis, sent him to the royals prior to the 1969 season.  campanis was the first pinch-hitter in kansas city royals history, and he recored the first pinch-hit and pinch-hit rbi in franchise history as well.  i appreciate the fact that the union 76 logo is visible atop the left field pavilion in dodger stadium in the background of campanis' card.

bob darnell

darnell pitched six innings of scoreless relief in his major league debut on august 10, 1954, although he did allow an inherited runner to score.  he got the start in his next appearance (which came against the same club - the phillies - against whom he had thrown those scoreless innings and wound up lasting only two frames.  he pitched in only four more games that season and just one in 1956, and that was the total of darnell's big league career.

john dobbs

dobbs was an outfielder for the superbas from 1903-1905, which also happened to be the last 3 seasons of his big league career.  he hit .247 over that time which was about 40 points lower than he had hit in the first two seasons of his career.  after retiring as a player, dobbs became a successful manager in the minor leagues.

clise dudley

dudley was 8-18 as a member of the brooklyn robins from 1929-1930. he is better known as a member of the 'home run in first major league at bat' club.  in fact, dudley homered on the first pitch he saw at the big league level.

mariano duncan

in 1985, duncan was the heir apparent to bill russell as the dodger shortstop, as he made 120 starts at short and finished third in the rookie of the year voting.  after two more seasons, duncan had fallen out of favor with manager tom lasorda, and was banished to the minor leagues for the entire 1988 season.  with alfredo griffin at short, duncan returned to the bigs in 1989, but was traded during the season to the reds in the kal daniels deal.  duncan went on to win a world series title with the reds in 1990 (plus one with the yankees in 1996) while the dodgers haven't been back to the fall classic since '88.  duncan eventually returned to the franchise as a minor league coach, and became the dodgers' first base coach during grady little's managerial tenure.

herman franks

first off, this is the same photo that topps used of franks for the inset photo on his 1978 topps card. this increases the likelihood that the photo shows franks in a dodger uniform (a question that i had pondered as a youth back in '78) as he played for the team in 1940 and 1941, but i still don't know for sure.  in addition to the dodgers, franks played for the cardinals, a's, and giants, although it was as a dodger that he played the most, appearing in 122 of his 188 games wearing the brooklyn uniform.  franks was on the 1941 pennant winning team and ended game 1 of the world series with a gidp in his only appearance in the fall classic.  perhaps franks could have held on to strike 3 in game 4 of the series had he been behind the plate instead of mickey owens, but we will never know.

tony giuliani

giuliani was another backup catcher on those 1940 and 1941 dodger teams after previously playing for the browns and senators.  his total dodger experience came in the form of one appearance and one at bat in 1940 and 3 appearances with 2 at bats in 1941.  he did not appear in the 1941 world series.

derrell griffith

the dodgers won the pennant in three of the four seasons in which griffith played for them, but he did not appear in the postseason in any of those years.  griffith debuted with the 1963 world champion club as a 19-year old, seeing action in one late-season game.  he was back in 1964, playing in 78 games and hitting .290.  in 1965 and 1966, both pennant winning seasons for the dodgers, griffith hit .171 and .067, respectively, while playing in just over 20 games each season.  after that, he was traded to the mets with tommy davis, but never returned to the majors.

johnny hall

like griffith above, hall was from oklahoma. he pitched for the dodgers during the 1948 season, his only season in the majors. in three appearances, hall logged 4.1 innings pitched and posted an era of 6.23.

stu pederson

pederson was a late season call-up with the 1985 dodgers after hitting over .300 in the minor leagues since being drafted in 1981.  he made 8 appearances during the last month of that season, but was 0 for 4 with a sacrifice fly at the plate.  pederson spent the next couple of seasons back in the minors for the dodger organization, and then moved on to the blue jays' minor league system, but was unable to return to the majors.  he should be spending some time at chavez ravine this year, however, as his son joc is poised to make the team out of spring training as one of the dodgers' outfielders.

arky vaughan

the hall of fame shortstop finished his career with four seasons as a dodger.  in 1942, with pee wee reese at short, vaughan was used as the dodgers' third baseman despite having played there only 5 times during his previous 10 years with the pirates, and he made the all-star team.  in 1943, with reese serving in the military, vaughan returned to shortstop for most of the time, and he led the league in runs scored and stolen bases.  after that season, vaughan retired rather than continue to play for manager leo durocher.  when durocher was suspended for the 1947 season, vaughan returned to the team as an outfielder and hit .325 in 64 regular season games, plus he was 1 for 2 in the world series.  vaughan played in 65 games for the dodgers in 1948 and hit .244 after which he spent the 1949 season in the pacific coast league and then retired a second time.  sadly, he died three years later in a boating accident.  vaughan is largely regarded as one of the greatest shortstops of all-time, perhaps sitting behind only honus wagner on that list.

jack warner

warner had played for the tigers for four years before joining the robins for the 1929 season.  as a backup shortstop, warner appeared in 21 games that season.  in 1930, he was used mostly as a pinch-hitter, although he played some third base, too, and he hit .320 in 28 plate appearances.  the following season, his last with brooklyn at the major league level, saw him hit .500 in 4 at bats over 9 games played.

ron washington

the dodgers gave washington a call-up late in the 1977 season, and in 10 games played, he hit .368 and scored 4 times.  still, he couldn't quite make the roster with bill russell firmly entrenched at short and was eventually traded by the dodgers to the twins in 1980.  wash played for the twins, orioles, indians, and astros before retiring as a player and moving into coaching.  he was a highly respected coach for the a's prior to becoming the manager of the rangers, leading texas to their two lone world series appearances.

kaiser wilhelm

wilhelm's real name was irvin, which i would have preferred to kaiser, given the actions of germany's kaiser wilhelm in the early 1900's.  brooklyn's wilhelm pitched for the superbas from 1908 through 1910, and although his record during that time was just 22-42, his era for the same period was 2.62.  in fact, wilhelm lost 22 games in 1908 despite a 1.87 era.  wilhelm's playing career outlasted the other kaiser wilhelm's reign in germany, as he pitched as a 47-year old in 1921, three years after the german ruler had been exiled to the nederlands.

sunday morning target dodgers - featuring giants, astros, and yankees, too

let's get right to this week's 15 cards from a sheet in the 1990 target dodgers giveaway set.

bob bailor

bailor was part of the return the dodgers received when they sent sid fernandez to the mets prior to the 1984 season.  he spent two years in los angeles, hitting .261 in 139 games as a utility player.  his final appearance in the big leagues came in the 1985 nlcs against the cardinals.

billy bean

bean (who is a different billy bean(e) than the a's general manager) played in 51 games as a dodger in 1989. he hit only .197 and spent the next two seasons in albuquerque.  he was picked up by the angels, but didn't return to the majors until 1993 when he was with the padres.  he retired from baseball in 1995, and a few years after that acknowledged that he is gay.  bean was recently selected by commissioner bud selig to lead major league baseball's efforts towards inclusion, providing guidance and training to help combat prejudice, homophobia, and sexism in baseball.

al campanis

campanis appeared in 7 games for the 1943 brooklyn dodgers, getting 2 hits in 20 at bats.  the photo used for his card, however, comes from his time as the team's general manager, a position he held from 1969 into 1987 when he was essentially forced to resign following an appearance on 'nightline' in which he stated that african americans "may not have some of the necessities to be, let's say, a field manager" when asked why there were so few minority managers in the big leagues 40 years after jackie robinson broke the color barrier as a player.  as the dodgers' gm, campanis oversaw the teams that won four pennants and a world series, and even traded his own son to kansas city early in his tenure.

hank deberry

deberry was a catcher for the robins from 1922 through 1930, having been acquired from the new orleans pelicans in the same deal that brought dazzy vance to the robins.  he never appeared in more than 85 games in a season, but he became vance's personal catcher.  as such, he caught vance's no-hitter in 1925, and helped vance lead the league in strikeouts for seven straight seasons.  overall, deberry hit .267 in 608 games for the robins and later moved on to coaching, joining the new york giants in 1934 (hence the uniform he is wearing in the photo used on his card above).  he was a manager in the giants' organization in 1938, and then scouted for the giants until his passing in 1951.

alan foster

in his first 7 big league games (which included 5 starts and spanned the 1967 and 1968 seasons), foster was 1-2 for the dodgers despite an era of 1.95, a whip of 0.804, and a strikeout to walk ratio of 5.  over the next two seasons, foster was 13-22 in 57 games with a 4.30 era and a whip of 1.424, and his ratio was a mere 1.29.  he was traded to the indians in the duke sims deal prior to the 1971 season, and may be best remembered as the pitcher who served up the first home run to be hit out of dodger stadium (willie stargell accomplished the feat against foster in 1969).

merwin jacobson

jacobson was an outfielder who had a couple of short stints in the majors with the giants and the cubs in 1915 and 1916, respectively before resurfacing with the robins in 1926. he played in 110 games that season, hitting .247, but went hitless in 11 games (7 plate appearances) for brooklyn in 1927.  jacobson did his best work in between his major league seasons, playing mostly for baltimore of the international league from 1917 to 1925.  he hit over .300 every season between 1919 and 1925, including a .404 clip in 1920.  he is a member of the international league hall of fame.

bob lillis

lillis was signed by the brooklyn dodgers as a 21-year old in 1951, but he didn't make it to the big leagues until the age of 28 when he suited up for the 1958 los angeles dodgers.  as a shortstop, lillis saw  limited playing time, but hit .391 in the 20 games in which he did play that first year.  he continued to see a little bit of playing time in 1959 and 1960 (he did not appear in the 1959 world series), and after just 19 appearances in 1961, lillis was traded to the cardinals for daryl spencer.  after that season ended, he was drafted by the colt .45's in the expansion draft and finished his career in houston.  he retired as a player in 1967 and became an astro coach, a role he returned to in the early 1970's following a few years as a scout.  in the early 1980's lillis managed the club for a few seasons before joining roger craig's coaching staff in san francisco.

jim lyttle

lyttle had been released by the expos in july of 1976 after three-plus seasons in montreal that followed time with the yankees and white sox.  the dodgers were in need of an outfielder since reggie smith was injured in early august, and so they picked lyttle up to fill the void.  he wound up appearing in 23 games as a dodger over the remainder of the 1976 season, replacing both smith and later dusty baker in the outfield.  he hit .221 with no home runs and wound up finding great success in the japan league beginning in 1977.

mike marshall

there are only six pitchers who have every pitched in 90 games or more in a single season, and mike marshall (along with kent tekulve) has done it 3 times.  marshall, however, is the only pitcher to have pitched in over 100 games, having thrown in 106 contests during the 1974 season.  he won the national league cy young award that year, and helped the dodgers reach the world series for the first time since 1966 as well.  marshall broke his own record of 92 games, set the previous season when he was with the expos.  he is a doctor of kinesiology, and today provides training to pitchers in the hopes of reducing strain and injury through what are considered to be untraditional pitching motions.

joe mulvey

in 1895, mulvey appeared in 13 games for the brooklyn grooms, hitting .306 in the process.  that season marked the end of a 12-year big league career, spent mostly in philadelphia.

ron perranoski

perranoski was a dodger double dipper, appearing in a total of 457 games as a dodger.  his best season was 1963 when he was 16-3 with a 1.67 era and 21 "saves" while pitching exclusively in relief.  he finished fourth in the league mvp voting that year.

rick rhoden

rhoden was a member of the team of my youth, and was only 25 when the dodgers traded him to the pirates for jerry reuss.  rhoden had a record of 42-24 as a dodger, with a 3.40 era when he was traded following the 1978 world series.  he went on to pitch pretty well for the pirates and later the yankees, but never did make it back to the postseason.  besides being a decent starting pitcher, rhoden could hit - he had a career average of .238 with 9 home runs and 3 silver slugger awards.  he remains to this day the only pitcher to get a start as a designated hitter in a game.  oh, by the way, i am pretty sure that those are steve garvey's legs getting a cameo on the card.

vince sherlock

sherlock's big league career consisted of 9 games played for the 1935 brooklyn dodgers.  in those games, he was 12 for 26 with a walk and 6 rbi, meaning that he boasts a .462 lifetime batting average, and a career on base percentage of .481.  among players with at least 16 plate appearances in their career, sherlock ranks third in batting average behind cliff dapper (another former dodger), and troy mattes, a pitcher for the expos in 2001.

george shuba

shotgun shuba played for the brooklyn dodgers from 1948 through 1955, although he spent the entire 1951 season in the minors.  he may be best remembered for shaking jackie robinson's hand in 1946 when they were teammates at montreal and jackie hit a home run in his first game as a royal.  although he played in the minors for a couple more seasons, shuba's big league career ended with the dodgers' world series victory in 1955.  shuba passed away just three weeks ago at the age of 89.

kemp wicker

wicker was 1-2 with a "save" in 16 games pitched for the 1941 brooklyn dodgers.  he had previously been with the yankees where he was a part of the 1936 and 1937 world championship teams that defeated the new york giants in the world series. after the 1941 season, the dodgers traded wicker to the cardinals, but he did not make it out of their minor league system.

well, that's another sheet of cards accounted for.  more to come next week.

dead end trade legacies for the team of my youth

generally speaking, when i refer to the team of my youth, i am referring to the 1977 and 1978 dodgers.  more specifically, i am referring to this lineup:

sp - don sutton

c - steve yeager

1b - steve garvey

2b - davey lopes

3b - ron cey

ss - bill russell

lf - dusty baker

cf - rick monday

rf - reggie smith

rp - charlie hough/terry forster

back then, the dodgers' general manager was al campanis.  he's one of the few baseball gm's to be featured on cardboard, by the way (this is a 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts card)

campanis subscribed to branch rickey's theory that it is better to trade a player a year too early than a year too late, and thanks to the dodgers' bountiful farm system, there was usually someone ready to take up the slack once a player was dealt away should the return package have been lacking.  campanis also once traded away his own son!

anyway, wrigley wax recently ran a series of posts regarding the 'trade links' of several former cubs players, and i thought i would do what any self-respecting blogger would do and steal that idea for my own posts.  unfortunately, while campanis made a lot of deals, most of the team of my youth was kept until their usefulness in trades was diminished or free agency beckoned.  let's see about what i will call the 'trade legacies' of the team of my youth.

let's start with don sutton, seen here on a 1969 mlb photo stamp.

sutton was a product of the dodger farm system, and following the 1980 season (a season in which he led the national league in era) he signed a free agent deal with the astros.  dead end.

steve yeager was also a product of the dodger farm system.  he was traded to the seattle mariners in december of 1985 for ed vande berg, as hinted at on their respective 1986 o-pee-chee cards.

vande berg was released by the dodgers a year later.  not much of a legacy.

steve garvey, yet another dodger home grown talent, took his skills south to san diego as a free agent following the 1982 season. dead end.

davey lopes, still another dodger organization developed player, was traded after the 1981 world series to make room for steve sax.  here's his 1982 o-pee-chee card showing him 'traded to a's'.

however, the dodgers received a minor leaguer named kelvin hudson who was out of the organization by 1984 and not by trade as far as i can tell.

ron cey, like all the players discussed above, came up through the dodger organization, and like garvey, left after the 1982 season.  however, cey was traded to the cubs for a minor leaguers dan cataline and vance lovelace.  this is cey's 1983 o-pee-chee card showing the damage done to the dodgers' hot corner.

lovelace eventually made it to the majors with the angels, although they acquired him from the dodgers via the rule v draft, and cataline peaked a double-a and was not, as far as i can see, ever traded out of the dodger organization.  i believe lovelace is currently the dodgers' vp of player personnel.

bill russell was drafted by the dodgers, developed by the dodgers, and he retired as a dodger.  the dean of dead ends, as far as trade legacies go.

the outfield is a little more interesting even though none of the three primary outfielders were traded by campanis.

dusty baker was acquired via trade.  the dodgers sent lee lacy, tom paciorek, jerry royster, and jimmy wynn to the braves for baker and ed goodson in november of 1975.  unfortunately for the purposes of this post, baker left the dodgers via free agency prior to the 1984 season.  another dead end.

rick monday was also acquired via trade.  in january of 1977, the dodgers received monday and mike garman from the cubs in exchange for bill buckner, ivan dejesus, and minor leaguer jeff albert.  monday was released by the dodgers during the 1984 season, effectively ending his career.  dead end.

reggie smith came to the dodgers in a trade with the cardinals.  in june of 1976, the dodgers sent joe ferguson and two minor leaguers (bob detherage and freddie tisdale) to saint louis for smith, who remained with the dodgers until after the 1981 world series when he left as a free agent.  detherage is an interesting case, however.  if you will pardon the tangent, he was drafted by the dodgers in 1972.  after he was traded to the cardinals, the redbirds sent him (along with ferguson) to the astros in november of 1976 for larry dierker and jerry davanon.  in 1977, he was the player to be named later in a deal that the astros made with the dodgers late in the season involving danny walton and alex taveras.  detherage remained in the dodgers' system until sometime in the 1978 season when he was released.  he did all this without making it to the big leagues, although he finally received a call-up from the 1980 kansas city royals.

back to the trade legacy at hand, charlie hough was a dodger draftee who pitched his way up in the organization until he had his contract purchased by the rangers during the 1980 season.  as for terry forster, he signed with the dodgers as a free agent after the 1977 season, and left as a free agent five years later.  nothing to see here.

the most interesting trades involving members of the team of my youth might be the rick rhoden for jerry reuss deal, or the bob welch (and others) for jesse orosco, jay howell, and alfredo griffin, or even the glenn burke for bill north deal.  unfortunately, all of those players acquired by the dodgers were either released by the team or left via free agency.  yes, free agency killed the trade legacies!

so, this idea didn't really pan out for me.  i have a similar idea regarding legacies that won't dead end - i'll roll out one of those posts soon.  

the topps dodgers autograph project - the rest of the 1960's

here we are with the third installment of my topps dodger autograph project summary.  to quickly recap, the lost collector posted a while back about his topps yankee autograph project in which he was able to get at least one card from every topps flagship issue since 1951 signed through the mail by a yankee, free of charge.  i have had to purchase three cards (see the list below), but have otherwise done the same for the dodgers.  

this post covers the last of the cards that came into being before my time - literally.

dick tracewski, 1965

i posted about my successes with tracewski recently.  other 1965 topps cards that i have had signed by dodger players include tommy davis (with fee), frank howard (with fee), john kennedy, joe moeller, and nate oliver.

john kennedy, 1966

you can read about my successes with jek here.  i have also received signed 1966 topps dodger cards through the mail from jim lefebvre (with fee), and jeff torborg.

phil regan, 1967

it took a couple of tries, but i was eventually successful in coaxing regan to sign and return two of my cards.  he also signed a 1968 topps card for me

but don't worry, i have another 1968 card to show as the entry in the project so as to not double up on any player.  regan was 22-10 in his 2+ years with the dodgers, including a 14-1 season in 1966.  he was traded to the cubs during the 1968 season, and wound up leading the national league in saves that year. aside from regan, i have received signed copies of 1967 topps cards from the following dodgers: willie davis (with fee), jim hickman, tom hutton, gene michaels, joe moeller, ron perranoski, and dick schofield.

jim campanis, 1968

the son of trader al signed for me back in 2009.  i posted about it here.  other 1968 topps dodgers to sign and return their cards to me are jack billingham and jim fairey, al ferrara (with fee), nate oliver, and jeff torborg.  i also have a team card signed by walter alston that i purchased somewhere along the way.

jeff torborg, 1969

as i mentioned above, i have had previous success with the former dodger catcher and big league manager.  the 1969 card that he signed from me came from a ttm success that i never got around to posting.  there are a couple of other cards that he signed for me that have yet to see the light of the blog which is too bad, as i like his signature and the fact that he personalized the cards.  other dodgers who have signed their 1969 topps cards through the mail for me include joe moeller, claude osteen, ted savage, bart shirley, and bill sudakis (with fee).

here's a running list of the cards and players that i have showcased in the topps dodgers autograph project so far:

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

jim campanis through the mail success!

former dodger catcher jim campanis was kind enough to sign and return my 1968 topps card in just under 2 weeks a few months ago.

he actually signed two of them, and i included one in the trade i made for the 1978 topps rick monday card for my modest 1978 topps dodgers autograph project.

anyway, jim is the son of former dodger gm al campanis.  in fact, the father traded the son to the kansas city royals after the 1968 season.  another cool jim campanis factoid is that all 4 of his big league home runs were solo shots.  i remember jim as the player who was really trying in the only old-timers game i ever attended, circa 1979 or so.

thanks jim!