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.

random is as monkey do

i'll take potpourri for $200, alex.  here is an odd assortment of cards that have been haunting my scanned folder for a while.  first up, we have the 1985 american league all-star team from 1986 topps rack packs.

these guys, including wade boggs, rickey henderson, george brett and cal ripken jr are sitting in right field at the metrodome in minneapolis.  behind them are the fold-up seats that are used during viking games.  i also spy bert blyleven, carlton fisk, dave winfield, jim rice and roger clemens, among others, with tom kelly sitting in the bat boy position front and center.

here is the national league counterpart.

not quite as organized as the american league all-stars.  not sure why there is a gap next to dick williams, either.  look at all those padres, too - including steve garvey way off at the end of the bench in front of nolan ryan.  a good assortment of players here, too, such as tony gwynn, ozzie smith, fernando valenzuela, pedro guerrero, and pete rose.

here's where the monkey do part comes into play.  i didn't know that these cards existed until i saw one of them on another blog a while back.  and i call myself a garvey semi-supercollector!  this happens pretty often actually - i see a card on another blog and i go out and get it.  many times it's a double play card or a card featuring dodger stadium in the background, but sometimes it's a plain old dodger card.  like this 1989 swell baseball greats jose morales card.

i would guess that i owned this card within 10 days of seeing it on a blog for the first time.  it's great.  morales has only a handful of dodger cards (he was on the team from 1982 through 1984) so this was a nice surprise.

i was also surprised to find a couple of white sox cards that i wanted, thanks to a ebay search i ran a couple of months ago.  i was looking for 'bell dodgers' and up popped a card of albert belle.  two cards, actually.  this one is from 1997 donruss limited

and this one is from 1997 pinnacle select

the search was set up to find cards from the 1960 - 1962 bell brand dodger releases, but joey there made the grade because he was paired up on each of those cards with this guy - karim garcia

that's the pinnacle back, and here is the limited front

garcia was quite the darling of the hobby in the mid-90's, or at least of the card manufacturers.  he came to the plate just 67 times as a dodger, but probably has three times that many cards showing him in dodger blue.  i suppose topps and the other card makers thought that he might be the sixth consecutive dodger rookie of the year and that's why they went wild with his cards.

of course, the search did turn up it's intended prey - a low cost vintage goodie.  here's duke snider's 1961 bell brand card

see how that works?  we're back to the random part of the post.  and it doesn't get more random than last year's topps heritage dodger short prints - at least the ones that are not aaron miles.

here's dee gordon and his rookie trophy.

will gordon ever get back to the majors for good?  or is he the second coming of chad fonville?  how about jerry hairston jr

who wears steve garvey's number and has even played some first base over the last couple of seasons.  he's been playing third since coming back from the dl, which means less time for luis cruz, juan uribe, and the rest of the ragtag fleet of hot corner residents.

well, that's enough for now - off to read some of your blogs.  maybe i'll see some more cards to add to my collection!

four more years of the topps dodger autograph project - 1980 through 1983

let's kick off the 80's entries in the topps dodger autograph project with jerry reuss.  why? because i said so.  as always, these cards were signed through the mail for free (unless otherwise noted). 

jerry reuss, 1980 topps

reuss is a good signer, and his website has a bunch of cool photos and info.  plus, he no-hit the giants.   i have a few other 1980 topps cards signed by dodgers, including traveling secretary billy delury, joe beckwith, joe ferguson, steve garvey, charlie hough, von joshua, lerrin lagrow, manny mota (i also purchased a signed record breaker somewhere along the way), doug rau, bill russell, derrel thomas, and gary thomasson.

doug rau, 1981 topps

dougie! another good ttm signer, and another lefty.  i think 1981 topps is probably the set i have the most dodger autographs from after 1978.  i've had ttm successes with dusty baker, joe beckwith, ron cey, jack perconte, fernando valenzuela, joe ferguson, steve garvey, dave goltz, burt hooton, rudy law, jerry reuss, bill russell, don stanhouse (with fee), derrel thomas, and gary thomasson.  i have also also purchased cards signed by pedro guerrero, davey lopes and bob welch.  that still leaves me 12 short of the entire team. not that i'm trying.

ken landreaux, 1981 topps traded

the traded sets are kind of a bonus to this project, but if i have 'em i'll show 'em.  landreaux signed a couple of cards for me which was nice, but for some reason fernando declined to sign his card from this set.  i think they are the only two dodgers in the set.  i do have a doug rau signed card, but he was an angel in the set

dave goltz, 1982 topps

goltz gets a lot of grief from dodger fans, but he's from minny so i am using him as the poster boy for the 1982 set.  i also have ttm autos from ron cey (i also have one of his 'in action' cards signed but not posted), steve garvey, steve sax. purchased terry forster, steve garvey, dave lopes, rick monday, jerry reuss, and a mike marshall/ron roenicke/steve sax trio signed rookie card.

jose morales, 1982 topps traded

jose is the only card from this set that i have signed.  he joined the dodgers in april of 1982 and hit .300 for them that year, exclusively as a pinch hitter.

ron roenicke, 1983 topps

strangely, i don't have very many 1983 topps cards signed.  in fact, the only ttm success i have aside from the brewers manager is jerry reuss.  that's probably because i don't have any doubles from this set lying around.  i do have a nice dave stewart signed card that i purchased a while back, though.

rafael landestoy, 1983 topps traded

landestoy likes the high heat!  he's a double dipper and part of the 1978 topps dodgers burger king/update set.  i also have signed cards from this set of jose morales (who was somewhat inexplicably included in the set), and pat zachry.

here's the list of each year's representative card (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

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

more morales

it's another crossover post between garveyceyrusselllopes and oh my o-pee-chee today, thanks to pinch hitter extraordinaire jose morales.

his 1977 o-pee-chee record breaker card uses a different photo than the one on the topps version of the card; the version that jose signed for me through the mail a while back.

hey - the red white and blue of the expos helmet makes this a legitimate 4th of july post, right?

this was my second success with morales, having received three signed cards from him the first time around. i had him sign a second copy of his 1983 topps traded card just because.

the cool thing about this request is that morales had moved between the time i sent him the first request and this one.  i received my cards back with that yellow sticker on the envelope - his mail didn't forward - and the sticker had his new address listed.  just like if i had sent a birthday card to cousin alice  instead of some baseball cards to one of the best pinch hitters in history.

thanks jose!

manny mota and jose morales through the mail success!

in light of jim thome's big pinch hit yesterday, here are some ttm autos i recently received from two of the greatest pinch hitters of all time.

i had sent a request to manny mota before, and decided to try my luck again. no surprise, the long time dodger coach returned my cards in about two weeks.

1976 toppsaside from the 1978 set, i have been using the 1976 set the most for autographs.

1981 donrussthis is one of manny's final cards, along with a 1981 fleer, but he did make an appearance in 1982, so it's not a final tribute.

jose morales also returned the cards i sent him in about two weeks. jose fits into the category of ttm attempts of dodgers who also had a 1978 topps card, so it worked out well. he signed all 3 cards i sent.

1983 topps tradedjose was acquired from the orioles for leo hernandez. here jose faces his former mates, the expos. jose pinch hit for the dodgers twice on the road in montreal during the 1982 season. the first time, may 8, he was announced as the pinch hitter, but the expos switched pitchers, so morales himself was pinch hit for. the second time, july 8, he drew a walk.

1984 toppsmorales actually started 4 games at first base during the 1983 season. they were the only games he played in the field during his tenure with the dodgers. he hit .283 for the season, with 3 pinch-hit home runs that year, although he went 0 for 2 in the nlcs against the phillies.

1978 toppsmorales had 123 pinch hits in his career, 10 of which were home runs. he set the single season pinch hit record in 1976 with 25. that record stood until 1995 when john vanderwal broke it. i think it's interesting that each of these cards list morales as a 'c-1b'. he appeared in only 30 games as a catcher over his entire career, and only 3 times after the 1977 season.

for good measure, here's another manny mota auto, on his 1980 topps record breaker card. this one i picked up in a lot of dodger autos. manny's record has since been surpassed by both lenny harris and mark sweeney, but at least they both plied their pinch hitting trade for the dodgers for a time.

thanks manny and jose!