sunday morning target dodgers - the longest name edition

here are more players from another sheet in the 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary giveaway set.

mike devereaux

devereaux was a 5th round pick of the dodgers in 1985, and he was in their outfield a couple of years later.  and then again a few years after that.  i've told his tale before, so i won't go into details again here.  devereaux is currently a coach in the rockies' system.

dick dietz

dodger fans know dietz from his days as a giant, particularly his failure to get out of the way of a don drysdale pitch during big d's scoreless innings streak.  dietz was deemed to have not tried to evade the pitch, and was not awarded first base. that was significant because the bases were loaded at the time.  drysdale got dietz out after the non-hbp, and went on to set the record for consecutive scoreless innings.  dietz joined the dodgers for the 1972 season, but injuries limited him to just 27 games.

snooks dowd

in 1919, dowd played in 13 games for the a's and one for the tigers.  seven years later, he appeared in two games for the brooklyn robins, going 0 for 8. not much to say about dowd, so instead i will note that mlb should bring back the sweaters.

jim golden

golden was acquired by the dodgers from the phillies in 1958 in the deal that sent sparky anderson to philadelphia.  he debuted with the dodgers a couple of years later, starting and beating the cubs in his big league debut and only appearance of the 1960 season. the following year, golden pitched in 28 games, winning 1 and losing 1, although he was used exclusively in relief.  after the season, golden was selected by the houston colt .45's in the expansion draft, and he went on to pitch for them for a couple of years.  he was traded to the white sox for nellie fox following the 1963 season.

don lund

lund was a standout athlete at the university of michigan, and chose baseball over football by signing with the dodgers rather than the chicago bears. he appeared in four games for brooklyn in 1945, and then hit .300 in 11 games for them in 1947. the following year, lund was hitting just .188 when the browns selected him on waivers in late june. he eventually returned to michigan as a member of the tigers, and later coached baseball at his alma mater, leading them to the college world series in 1962.

cal mclish

that would be calvin coolidge julius caesar tuskahoma mclish.  just cal, for short.  mclish first appeared in the majors with the dodgers in 1944 as an 18-year old.  he was 3-10 in 23 games (13 starts) that year, with all three of his wins coming in complete game performances. after a year of military service, mclish appeared in just one game in 1946, and was included in the may 1947 trade with the pirates that netted the dodgers al gionfriddo.

clarence mitchell

mitchell pitched for the robins from 1918 through 1922, which means that he was a member of the 1920 national league champions.  he was 5-2 during the regular season that year, and pitched in just one of the world series games (game 5) without figuring in the decision.  mitchell also played the outfield and first base when he wasn't pitching, and had a batting average of .277 in well over 400 at bats during his time with the robins.

gene moore

moore had three different stints with the brooklyn dodger organization, but only appeared in the majors for them in one of them, so he did not achieve true double (or triple) dipper status.  he was first brought into the fold in september of 1935 after playing for the reds and cardinals, but he was traded to the boston bees prior to the start of the 1936 season.  following the 1938 campaign, the bees sent him back to the dodgers, and he played in 117 games for brooklyn over the 1939 and 1940 seasons until his contract was purchased by the bees in may of '40.  the bees eventually traded moore to the yankees, and the dodgers purchased his contract a couple of months later, in february of 1942.  moore spent most of 1942 with the dodgers' triple-a team in montreal, at least until the senators came calling at the end of august and brought him back to the majors.

mike morgan

morgan was well traveled in his major league career, pitching for the dodgers from 1989 through 1991. he was 33-36 as a dodger, and represented the club at the 1991 all-star game - the only all-star selection of his career.

mike munoz

munoz began his 12-year big league career with the dodgers in 1989, and pitched for them again in 1990.  following that season, he was traded to the tigers, but he eventually returned to the nl west with the rockies, with whom he spent the majority of his career. a lefty specialist, munoz appeared in 453 games (all in relief) and pitched a total of 364.1 innings in his career.

charlie neal

neal played mostly second base for the brooklyn and los angeles dodgers from 1956 through 1961.  he was an all-star in 1959 and 1960, and led the league in triples in the former.  neal hit .370 with a couple of home runs in the 1959 world series, but the dodgers traded him to the mets in the fall of 1961.  with the mets, neal was their inaugural second baseman, and he drove in the first run in franchise history on opening day, 1962.

bill north

north was a two-time stolen base champion for the oakland a's and a two-time world series champion (he was with the a's in 1973, but did not appear in the postseason due to injury, and played against the dodgers in the 1974 fall classic).  he began his career with the cubs, which is why he's wearing cub gear in the card photo.  i don't know why a photo of him from the early 1970's was used for his card, unless someone really wanted to make sure we acknowledged those sweet muttonchops.  anyway, north joined the dodgers in a may of 1978 trade (the trade that sent glenn burke to oakland) and took over in center field for rick monday.  he helped the dodgers win the nl west that year, but was 0 for 8 in the nlcs and 1 for 8 in the world series against the yankees, and he chose to leave la via free agency for the 1979 season.

lee rogers

rogers spent one year in the majors - 1938.  he was 1-1 in 14 games for the red sox, and then, following an august trade with the dodgers, he went 0-2 in 12 games for brooklyn.

dick smith

smith was originally signed by the dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1957, but he made his big league debut with the mets in 1963.  he returned to the dodgers for the 1965 season, and he was 0 for 6 with a sacrifice in 10 games.  he did not appear in the 1965 world series, although he was traded to the twins (the 1965 american league champions) prior to the 1967 season, after spending all of 1966 in the minors.

ben wade

similar to dick smith, wade signed his first professional contract in 1940 with the dodgers, however he made his big league debut as a cub in 1948.  the dodgers re-acquired the hurler prior to the 1950 season, and he marked his return to the majors two years later - this time with brooklyn.  he was 19-15 in the 2-plus seasons that he spent with the dodgers, and got to pitch in the 1953 world series for them as well.  after his playing days were over, wade became a scout for the dodgers, and he eventually served as their scouting director from the late 1970's into the '90's.  no word on whether or not he bought into sabermetrics, though.

bringing steve garvey's career to the present

i really liked wrigley wax's idea of trade links as a subject of posts, even though those featuring the team of my youth were pretty much dead ends.  i may do a few more in the future around other dodger players of note, but instead i went looking for another way to connect players together.  what i came up with was sort of a 'x' degrees of separation to a current player, using final plate/pitching appearances to link them.  the upside is, unless two players face off against each other in each of their final appearances, the link will never be broken.  i'll show you what i mean using my favorite player, steve garvey.

the garv last appeared in the major leagues in 1987 - may 23, 1987 to be exact.  here's his 1987 topps card.

the padres were playing the expos, and garvey was brought in to pinch hit for lance mccullers in the 9th inning.  the expos pitcher at the time was neal heaton, who retired garvey on a fly ball and got the last two padres hitters out to complete a 2-hit shutout.  so, the last pitcher steve garvey faced in his career was the expos' neal heaton.  here's heaton's 1987 fleer card.

fast forward to baltimore, june 26, 1993.  heaton is a member of the new york yankees, and is called in to relieve john habyan with the orioles leading the yanks 9-6.  heaton winds up finishing the game, pitching 2.2 innings and giving up a couple of home runs.  the last batter heaton faced was former dodger mike devereaux, who flied out to end the home half of the 8th inning.

devereaux, of course, returned to the dodgers to finish his playing career - this is his 1998 pacific online card from his second dodger stint

devereaux's final big league at bat came on april 17, 1998 with the dodgers in chicago facing the cubs.  he entered the game as a pinch-hitter but stayed in the game and later faced ben vanryn, a former dodger prospect.  devereaux drew a walk in the 8th against van ryn but was stranded, and his big league career was over.

there aren't too many cards of vanryn out there - this is a 1994 bowman's best blue parallel

from his dodger farmhand days - but he pitched in the majors for four different clubs (the dodgers weren't one of them as he made his debut in 1996 with the angels), and he appeared for three of those four in 1998 alone.  the cubs traded vanryn to the padres in early may, and by the end of the month, he was pitching for the blue jays.  it was with toronto later that season that he made his final big league appearance.  on september 26, 1998, vanryn came in to pitch the top of the 10th inning in a tie game against the tigers.  he retired the first two batters he faced, but then allowed a single to tony clark and was pulled.  the tigers didn't score, and the blue jays wound up winning the game a couple of innings later, but vanryn did not appear in the big leagues after that appearance.

tony clark finished up his career as a member of the diamondbacks in 2009 - here's his 2009 upper deck card

by striking out as a pinch-hitter on july 12 against the marlins.  the marlins' pitcher that k'd clark was josh johnson, seen here on his 2011 topps card

now johnson presents an interesting case, as he spent the 2014 season on the 60-day dl with the padres, and hasn't pitched since 2013.  if he fails to return to the majors, then the last batter he faced in a big league game was michael saunders, who is still active today.  he had a pretty cool card in the 2014 topps set

if johnson does return in 2015, then the next link on steve garvey's career legacy is yet to be determined.  still, that's how you bring steve garvey to the present day in 5 or 6 steps.

mike devereaux, double dippereaux

[this is the twentyeigth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, and bobby castillo.]

before, and after, mike devereaux was the mvp of the 1995 nlcs for the braves, he was a dodger.

in 1987 and 1988, devereaux managed to get 103 plate appearances in 49 games with the dodgers.  he hit .175 with 17 hits, 5 walks and 20 strikeouts.  not good enough to get a ticket on the 1988 postseason roster, or to stick around for the 1989 season, either as it turned out.  in march of 1989, the dodgers traded devereaux to the orioles for mike morgan.

devereaux went head over heels for the o's during his initial stay there (yes, he was an oriole double dipper, too.)

he was their regular center fielder from 1989 through 1994, and finished 7th in the al mvp balloting after a strong 1992 season.  still, he hadn't appeared in the postseason and signed as a free agent with the white sox after the strike ended and the 1995 season got underway.  lucky for mike, the white sox dealt him to the braves in august of that season.  the first place braves, that is.  devereaux made the most of his opportunity and wound up as the mvp of the nlcs with a .308 average and .973 ops in the series against the reds.

he returned to baltimore in 1996 and again made it to the league championship series, but was just 0 for 2 in a limited role.  after a spending 1997 in texas, he finally made it back to la for the 1998 season.

big thanks to pacific for noticing, too.  i'm not sure many people did as devereaux only appeared in 9 games his second time around.  he was hitting .308 with an ops of .822 when the dodgers released him in may.  that decent finish to his career knocked his average as a dodger up to .191.  clearly, the dodgers lost out on the best that devereaux had to offer.

here's to you, mike devereaux - dodger double dipper.