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.

the tommy lasorda managerial tree

with the brewers' firing of manager (and former dodger) ron roenicke the other day (he was replaced by another former dodger, craig counsell), i decided to finally finish pulling this post together.  in football, i used to hear a lot about the bill walsh coaching tree - all of the people who coached under bill walsh who went on to become head coaches themselves.  that tree is then expanded to include coaches under those head coaches who became head coaches, and so on.  my take on the tommy lasorda managerial tree is in regards to his players - not coaches, and this post will just look at the first tier of major league managers who spent some time playing under one thomas charles lasorda.

here's the man himself on a 2004 upper deck sp authentic card

that notes his managerial triumph in the 1982 all-star game in montreal while using a photo from about 20 years later.  incidentally, he had four future big league managers playing under him on that '82 all-star roster - dusty baker, tony pena, pete rose, and ray knight.

i'm focusing on his dodger players, however, and when tommy took over the dodgers late in the 1976 season, he had three future major league managers on his roster at that time:

dusty baker

davey lopes

and bill russell

who replaced lasorda during the 1996 season.

over the next 20-years, lasorda managed another 9 future managers.

johnny oates

ron washington

mike scioscia

ron roenicke

phil garner

 glenn hoffman

who took over for russell in 1998

kirk gibson

willie randolph

and juan samuel

this list does not include players such as bobby valentine, whom tommy managed in the minor leagues, nor does it include players such as joe ferguson, tommy john, gary carter, rick dempsey, mike marshall, or steve yeager who played in the majors under tommy and later managed in the minor leagues.

with the firings of kirk gibson last year and roenicke this year, scioscia is the only active manager to have played under lasorda. however, it is yet conceivable that this tree sprouts some new branches in the future, as such former "lasorda" dodgers and minor league managers bobby mitchell, brett butler, and tim wallach are currently working for big league teams as an instructor (mitchell) or big league coaches (butler and wallach).

and, in case you are wondering, bill russell's managerial tree's first tier consists solely of chip hale.

here's to more lasorda style hugs in the dugout!

a partial run through the 1998 mother's cookies dodger set

earlier today i posted some cards from the 1997 mother's cookies dodger team set.  it was the first year that the set went away from full-bleed photos, and the 1998 set followed suit.  here's glenn hoffman's lone card as the dodger skipper.

tripp cromer gets a dodger card

thanks to this set - one of two cromer as a dodger cards that i have (the other comes from the 1999 keebler dodgers set)

mark guthrie

joined the dodgers in the 1995 trade that sent ron coomer to the twins and brought kevin tapani to los angeles. he pitched for the dodgers in 205 games over 4 seasons, but the only cards i have of him in a dodger uniform come from this set, the 1996 leaf signature series set, and the 1998 pacific online set.

the same goes for darren hall

who pitched in 83 games for the dodgers over 3 years, and trenidad hubbard

except that his dodger cards are limited to this set, the '99 keebler set, and the '98 pacific online release.

scott radinsky shows up in these sets, plus the pacific online set as a dodger, and he

almost had a 1999 fleer card as a dodger, but i had to settle for a cardinal wearing a dodger uniform.

i'll end this post with the coaches

john shelby replaced reggie smith as the first base coach, but charlie hough took over for dave wallace, so the number of players from the team of my youth on the staff remains the same.  mickey hatcher shows up in place of longtime coach mark cresse although he was the hitting coach.  1998 was cresse's last year as the bullpen coach, but he didn't make the card for some reason.  rick dempsey took over for cresse as the bullpen coach in 1999.

a dodger memorial patch for mac

don mcmahon enjoyed an 18-year big league career as a reliever with the milwaukee braves, houston colt .45's, cleveland indians, boston red sox, chicago white sox, detroit tigers, and san francisco giants.  he began his major league service in 1957, and promptly helped the braves win the pennant as they went on to beat the yankees in the world series.  mcmahon pitched well in the fall classic, but the braves  lost all three of the games in which he pitched.  in fact, mcmahon's team lost every postseason game in which he appeared, which included the 1958 world series (the yankees beat mcmahon's braves), the 1968 world series (mcmahon's tigers still won the championship), and the 1971 nlcs (as a giant).  weird.  here's mcmahon's 1966 topps card.

in all, mcmahon pitched in 874 games (872 as a reliever), and had a record of 90-68 with 153 saves and a 2.96 era.  these numbers included service with the giants in 1973 and 1974 when he was also their pitching coach.  mcmahon remained the club's pitching coach through 1975 before taking the same position with the twins for three years.  he was back with the giants in the early 1980's, and then coached the indians from 1983 through 1985.  at that point, mcmahon was hired by the dodgers as their 'eye in the sky' scout who also threw early batting practice.  it was during a bp session at dodger stadium on july 22, 1987 when mcmahon suffered a fatal heart attack.

for the remainder of the season, the dodgers wore a black memorial patch on their right sleeves with mcmahon's nickname 'mac' in white letters.  here's the patch on one of the dodger relievers from that team, tim crews, courtesy of his 1988 donruss card

with a nice dodger stadium backdrop.

mickey hatcher's 1988 donruss card also shows the patch 

as does phil garner's 1988 score card

pedro guerrero (standing next to fernando valenzuela) is wearing the patch on this 1988 topps dodgers leaders card

and it's fernando's turn on this 1988 fleer baseball's exciting stars card

perhaps the best example of the patch is seen on glenn hoffman's 1988 topps card

which was the easy choice for my memorials binder.  until, that is, i came across this orel hershiser card from the same fleer box set as the fernando above.

a card featuring a photo from a dodger batting practice session seems appropriate for mac's memorial.

only 57 when he died, mcmahon was survived by his wife and six children and a mournful dodger organization.

topps cards that should have been for the 1978 topps dodgers in 1998 and 1999

topps didn't include managers in their 1998 or 1999 flagship sets, which means that it's up to me to make cards for dusty baker, johnny oates, and bill russell - the three members of the 1978 topps dodgers who were filling out lineup cards in 1998 - and for baker and oates who were the only ones who survived the 1998 season to manage in 1999.

i scanned some 1998 topps cards to work from - chan ho park for the dodgers,

mark gardner for the giants,

and bobby witt for the rangers

but then i decided that  the background behind the name would be too time consuming to replicate, so i scanned a prospects card instead

i changed "prospects" to "managers" and wound up with this 1998 topps card that should have been

i put oates up top because his team performed the best in 1998, in terms of division placement.  he led the rangers to a first place finish in the american league west with an 88-74 record.  it was the second postseason appearance for the franchise (both with oates at the helm), but they were swept in the alds for the second time.  baker's giants actually had the best record of the three teams managed by members of the 1978 topps dodgers; they finished at 89-74 but were 9.5 games behind the first place padres.  the giants' 'extra' game was a one-game playoff against the cubs to determine the wild card winner.  the cubbies won that game 5-3, ending the giants' season in game 163.  finally, bill russell had the dodgers at 36-38 and 12.5 games out of first when he was fired in late june.  the team played better (47-41) behind interim manager glenn hoffman, but they actually lost ground and finished in third place in the nl west with a 83-79 record and 15 games behind the padres.

for 1999, i didn't even bother to scan cards for the giants or rangers.  this 1999 topps raul mondesi card that was languishing in my scanned folder

reminded me that it would be easier to go the prospects card route again for the 1999 card that should have been.  so, i scanned one

and wound up with this

glenn hoffman makes an appearance, as he replaced bill russell during the 1998 season, but was himself replaced by davey johnson by the time the 1999 season started, let alone the time (2001) that topps got around to making manager cards again.  the only hoffman card that i know of featuring him as the team's manager comes from the 1998 mother's cookies (or was it keebler?) set, which is the photo i used.

as for baker and oates and their teams in 1999, the giants finished 86-76, a full 14 games behind the nl west champion arizona diamondbacks and 10.5 games behind the wild card champion mets, but 9 games ahead of the rival dodgers.  the rangers, on the other hand, won the american league west with a 95-67 record, but were swept in the alds by the eventual world champion new york yankees.

lurking coaches

too often coaches get the shaft when it comes to baseball cards.  i don't think topps has officially recognized coaches in their flagship set since 1974, and there have been precious few coaches cards in other sets.  usually, the only time a coach shows up on cardboard these days is in a team set designed for a stadium giveaway or fan pack, or, in the case of ron perranoski in 1987 and again in 1989, when there's a crowd.  here are a few cards upon which some coaches have managed to make an appearance.  and the cards are better for it, in my opinion.

first, danny ozark is walking into position in the background of billy grabarkewitz's 1970 topps card.

this scene continues to play out on jeff torborg's 1970 and 1971 topps cards, by the way.

next up, we have joe amalfitano coaching over at third base as mariano duncan takes a lead on his 1985 topps traded card

amalfitano last made an appearance on a topps card in 1973, i believe, as a member of the giants' coaching staff.  he's back with the giants these days in some capacity, and duncan is no longer a dodger coach either.

here's a cool card - it's actually the back of armando reynoso's 1992 upper deck card

that's dodger coach joe ferguson in the background, headed down the right field line in chavez ravine.  fergie coached under tommy lasorda from 1988 through 1994.

for a long time, mark cresse was the dodgers' bullpen coach.  that's him sitting down in the background of cory snyder's 1994 ud collector's choice card

which also features foreground lurker jody reed.  cresse served under managers walt alston, tommy lasorda, bill russell, and this next lurker, glenn hoffman, who finds a spot on jim tracy's 2004 topps card

hoffman took over on an interim basis after bill russell was fired in 1998.  cresse didn't last long under hoffman's regime, as he was fired along with hitting coach reggie smith and pitching coach glenn gregson shortly after hoffman took over.  hoffman himself was replaced as manager by davey johnson in 1999, but he stayed on as a coach under johnson and his replacement, jim tracy.

with davey lopes back in town, i am always on the lookout for a glimpse of him in the background of a card.  unfortunately, it's third base coach tim wallach who is lurking on jerry sands' 2012 topps card

still, an arm of wallach is better than pretending that the coaches don't exist.  here's hoping that all of wallach or lopes or trey hillman or kenny howell or whoever replaces dave hansen shows up in the background on some 2013 cards.