the mother's lode

many moons ago, mr. haverkamp commented on a blog post somewhere that he had access to a purveyor of mother's cookies cards.  issued in team sets as stadium giveaways in the 1980's and 1990's, these card sets are good (and sometimes the only) ways to get cards of lesser known players in your favorite team's uniform, provided that your favorite team was one of the subjects of these sets.  for the dodgers, they weren't included until 1987, but had sets produced from then through 1998.  keebler picked up the production in 1999, and issued sets through 2003 as far as i can tell.  

anyway, i inquired with mr. haverkamp, and knowing that i already had the 1989 set, commissioned him to pick up as many of the other sets as he could.  he delivered. 

those are ten of the twelve sets issued from 1987 through 1998 - the aforementioned 1989 set and the 1996 set were the only ones missing.

the 1987 set came with a nice surprise - a card featuring dodger stadium.

that makes sense - it was the stadium's 25th anniversary in 1987.

the sets were consistent in their inclusion of a manager card, even as topps seemingly vacillated about their inclusion in the '90's.  here's tommy lasorda's card from the 1987 set.

the cards also feature photos almost exclusively taken inside chavez ravine, which is nice.

the sets also gave some love to the coaches, which is fantastic.  here we have tommy's 1987 staff

mark cresse, ron perranoski, don macmahon (who died during the season), the recently retired bill russell, joey amalfitano, and manny mota.

here's tommy in 1988

on the way to winning his fourth pennant and second championship, 

in 1990

with an effective slim-fast diet,

in 1991

with the three sisters in the background,

in 1992

with what is for these sets a rare non-dodger stadium photo,

in 1993

wearing the tim crews memorial patch,

in 1994

before the strike kept the first place dodgers from reaching the postseason for the first time since 1988,

and in 1995

in his final full season as the dodger skipper which resulted in a postseason bid as the nl west champs.

as i mentioned above, mr. haverkamp couldn't get his hands on a '96 set which features tommy for the last time.  in 1997, bill russell took over the manager's card.

and the sets lost their full bleed photo design.  that's ok, i'm just happy that the shortstop of the team of my youth actually had a manager card made by someone.

i'll show a bunch more of these mother's cards throughout the day.  they're great.

thanks for the help with these sets, mr. haverkamp - you (along with arpsmith and matt r) are giving giant fans a good name in these parts!

sunday morning target dodgers

here's a full sheet's worth of cards from the 1990 target dodger giveaway set.  these 15 guys were all on the same sheet.  thanks as always to baseball reference for providing information regarding these players, most of whom i was unfamiliar with.  that's my favorite part about this set - looking into the past at players whom i knew little about, and there are some pretty sad tales to be told regarding some of these players.

hugh casey

quick - what is hugh casey best known for?

yes, casey was the pitcher who struck out the yankees' tommy henrich to apparently end game 4 of the 1941 world series and secure a dodger victory evening the series at two games apiece, except that mickey owens was unable to catch the pitch.  as such, the inning was extended with the yankees scoring 4 times to take the lead and eventually win the game.  i always heard of this play referred to as mickey owens' dropped third strike, but i haven't seen the video for a long time so i don't recall just how bad of a pitch it was.

other than that world series in which he suffered two of the losses, casey had a nice career for the dodgers.  he earned two wins agains the yankees in the 1947 world series, and overall was 70-41 for the dodgers from 1939 through 1948 (he missed three seasons during that span while serving in the military).  sadly, casey committed suicide in 1951 at the age of 37.

sam crane

crane's brooklyn career consisted of 3 games played with the robins in 1922 - the final 3 games of his career.  he later was convicted of murder and served time in a pennsylvania penitentiary.

lindsey deal

deal's dodger (and major league) career was comprised of 7 plate appearances in 4 games during the 1939 season.  he was 0 for 7 with two strikeouts.  he played only one game in the field, but it was a complete game as the center fielder, and he was perfect in his three fielding chances.

john gaddy

i find gaddy to be an interesting case.  his lone major league experience came with the robins in 1938.  he made two appearances, both as a starting pitcher, and both in the back end of late season double headers.  he was the winning pitcher in both games, one a complete game.  he gave up only one earned run over 13 innings pitched in those games, and i was left to wonder how he could have two wins in two games if he pitched 9 innings in one and 4 in the other. well, the reason he was able to win his first start despite pitching only 4 innings was that the game was shortened to six innings, most likely due to darkness i would imagine, although the first night game at brooklyn had been played earlier that year.  i'm not sure what happened to gaddy after that, but i hope the team gave him a good look in 1939 based on his performance as a big leaguer.

frank gatins

gatins played for the superbas in 1901.  he appeared in 50 games, hitting .228, before he was released in july.

george haddock

gentelman george was born on christmas day, 1866 and later grew a darn fine moustache.  he pitched for the brooklyn grooms in 1892 and 1893, and is the last pitcher in franchise history to win at least 29 games in a season (he was 29-13 in 1892).

 mike hartley

hartley's big league career began as a dodger in 1989, making him one of the last players to qualify for this set.  he returned to the big leagues in 1990, going 6-3 while pitching primarily in relief, although he did throw his lone career shutout that season.  he was 4-1 for the dodgers in 1991 when he was dealt at the trade deadline to the phillies for roger mcdowell.

still bill hill

hill pitched in two games for the superbas in 1899.  one as a starter - he pitched a complete game and so earned the victory - and one as a reliever - he finished the game and would have earned the save if such a statistic existed back then.  i am not sure why, other than the obvious rhyming pleasure, hill was known as 'still bill'.

sam leslie

leslie sandwiched two-plus seasons with the dodgers in the mid-1930's between two stints with the new york giants.  as a dodger, he hit .311 over 384 games played.

sadie mcmahon

john joseph mcmahon joined the bridegrooms in 1897.  he was 0-6 in 9 games, but threw 5 complete games in 7 of his starts.  he is enshrined in the delaware sports museum and hall of fame.

don miles

miles was a member of the 1958 los angeles dodgers - their first season on the west coast.  unfortunately for miles, all 8 of his appearances came on the road.  he had 4 hits in 22 at bats, and that was all she wrote as far as his big league career was concerned.

red sheridan

sheridan's big league career included a total of 5 appearances - 2 in 1918 and 3 in 1920 - all for the robins.

elmer steele

steele pitched for the dodgers during the latter half of the 1911 season. he was without a decision in any of his five dodger appearances.

joe tepsic

tepsic was a world war ii vet who chose to sign with the dodgers instead of the pittsburgh steelers, perhaps due to the fact that he was guaranteed a big league roster spot despite his lack of experience.  as it turned out, tepsic's big league career was limited to the 15 games in which he appeared for the dodgers in 1946.  he was used largely as a pinch runner and pinch hitter, getting only one appearance in the outfield.  he was 0 for 5 at the plate with two runs scored.

i'll have more of these things next week, i am pretty sure.

coaches man, coaches

one of the fun things about the keebler, mother's cookies, and police department issues of the 1980's and '90's (and 1960 topps plus a couple of early 1980 donruss releases) is the inclusion of coaches in the sets.  of all the folks in uniform, the coaches seem to get the least amount of respect - right behind the third string catcher and the long relief guy.

not here, not today.  here are some cards of coaches that i treasure, starting with a 1989 mother's rangers card.

why a rangers card?  well, there's dave lopes in the bottom right, just a season removed from his playing career.  he joined the rangers as a coach starting in 1988 after retiring following the 1987 season.  he stayed in texas through 1991, and then coached in baltimore from 1992 through 1994.  then he was off to san diego where he coached until he became the manager of the brewers in 2000.  after the brew crew fired him during the 2002 season, lopes returned to the padres for the 2003 season.  he stayed there until 2006 when he coached for the nationals, and then in 2007 he moved to philadelphia where he coached until he returned to los angeles for the 2011 season.  whew.  if anybody has any lopes cards from his other coaching stops after texas, you know i would be interested in them.

here's the dodgers' coaching staff in 1986, courtesy of the dodgers police set

there's ron perranoski, monty basgall, manny mota, joe amalfitano, don mcmahon, mark cresse, and ben hines.

in 1986, bill russell was still active, so he got his own card in the set

but, when 1987 rolled around, russell was on the coaches card in the dodgers police set from that year

this time, tommy lasorda makes an appearance, so it's perranoski, lasorda, amalfitano, mcmahon, mota, russell, and cresse.  mcmahon passed away during the 1987 season after suffering a heart attack while pitching batting practice at dodger stadium.

aside from the loss of mcmahon, it's pretty much the same crew that appears on the 1989 dodgers police coaches card, with two exceptions

hines is back, perranoski, lasorda, amalfitano, joe ferguson returns to the dodgers, cresse, russell, and mota. those same coaches appear on the 1989 mother's dodgers coaches card, too.

as well as the 1991 dodgers police card.

today, this card would look a lot different.  manny mota is the only one left, and he would be joined by mark mcgwire, rick honeycutt, ken howell, tim wallach, dave lopes, trey hillman, and chuck crim.  that wouldn't be a bad card to have.