sunday morning target dodgers - featuring an honorary member of the infield

another sunday, another 15 cards from a 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary set sheet given away at dodger stadium in 1990.  enjoy.

rick auerbach

auerbach filled in for the injured bill russell for the first three months of the 1975 season.  he first appeared as a dodger during the 1974 season, although the team acquired him from the brewers in april of 1973.  auerbach spent the rest of that season in albuquerque and had his contract purchased by the brewers in september. a month later, the dodgers purchased his contract back, and he made the big league roster for the 1974 season and even appeared in the postseason that year.  very nearly a dodger double dipper, auerbach stayed with the dodgers through the 1976 season and was traded to the mets for hank webb prior to the 1977 campaign.

billy cox

cox was the dodgers' third baseman from 1948 through 1954.  this 'boy of summer' was acquired in a trade with the pirates following the 1947 season that was prompted in part by the aversion some dodgers had to playing with jackie robinson. unfortunately for cox, he was traded to the orioles prior to the dodgers' world championship season of 1955.

tim crews

along with tim leary, tim crews was part of the return package that the dodgers received from the brewers in exchange for greg brock.  crews was part of the dodger bullpen from 1987 through 1992, although he did make 4 spot starts over that span.  he also had 15 saves in a total of 281 appearances as a dodger.  following the 1992 season, crews signed with the indians as a free agent, but died in a boating accident during spring training.  both the dodgers and indians wore memorial patches for crews (the indians' patch also honored steve olin who was also killed in the accident) during the 1993 season.

fred frankhouse

kudos to frankouse's parents for not naming him frank.  fred frankhouse pitched 10 seasons for the cardinals and braves before joining the dodgers prior to the 1936 season. used primarily as a starter, frankhouse was 13-10 the first season with the dodgers, and then flipped that record the next.  1938 was his last season with the club, and he posted a 3-5 record while pitching mainly out of the bullpen.

harry harper

harper pitched for the senators from 1913-1919, showing some success with decent era in most of those seasons.  he also led the league in losses in 1919 with 21, thanks in part to the poor team for which he played and his career worst (up to that point) era of 3.72.  harper was traded to the red sox for the 1920 season, and then dealt again to the yankees in the waite hoyt deal prior to the 1921 season.  after sitting out the 1922 campaign, harper joined the robins in 1923 and made a solitary start for them.  he lasted 3.2 innings against the giants on may 8, allowing 6 earned runs, as his big league career came to an end.

tommy holmes

holmes was the national league home run champion in 1945 as a member of the boston braves.  he hit 28 homers that year, and also drove in 117 runs, both career highs.  while he still hit for average in the next three seasons, he never approached those power numbers again.  in fact, holmes had hit a total of 38 home runs over the next 6 seasons before signing with the dodgers in 1952.  he failed to hit any home runs as a dodger, although he played in only 31 games during that '52 season.  holmes hit .111 for the dodgers during the regular season, and then was 0 for 1 in his final appearances as a dodger during the 1952 fall classic.

charlie irwin

irwin finished his 10-year big league career with a season and a half as a member of the brooklyn superbas. acquired after being released by the reds during the 1901 season, irwin played third base and hit .253 over the remainder of his career.

von joshua

joshua was a dodger double dipper whose last appearance in his first go-around as a dodger came with him making the final out in the 1974 world series. the second time, the dodgers brought joshua back to the majors from the mexican league in 1979.  overall, joshua appeared in more games with the dodgers than any other team for which he played, although his best season was probably his 1975 campaign spent with the giants.

brickyard kennedy

according to baseball reference. kennedy's nickname was actually 'roaring bill', not brickyard.  strange.  he pitched for the grooms/bridegrooms/superbas from 1892 through 1901, winning as many as 25 games in 1893 and more than 20 four times.  he was 177-149 for brooklyn overall before spending the 1902 season with the new york giants and the 1903 campaign with the national league champion pittsburgh pirates. in fact, kennedy's final major league appearance came with the pirates in the inaugural world series, starting (and losing) game 5.

bill krueger

krueger's dodger career consisted of three appearances over the course of two seasons.  he was acquired by the club from the a's during the 1987 season and made 2 relief appearances as a dodger in september.  he re-signed with the dodgers for the 1988 campaign, but began the year in albuquerque.  krueger was eventually called up and was given the july 4 start against the cardinals, his lone big league appearance of the season.  krueger allowed 3 runs in 2.1 innings of work that day and was sent back down to triple-a. the dodgers traded him to the pirates for jim niedlinger following the end of the regular season.

paul minner

in 1946, and then again in 1948 and 1949, minner was a pitcher on the dodgers' roster.  he appeared in a total of 58 games and posted a record of 7-5 with a 3.16 era.  you can learn much more about minner in this post, courtesy of another dodger blogger.

joe pignatano

pignatano, a brooklyn native, debuted with the dodgers in 1957 - the team's last year in brooklyn.  he remained with the team as they moved to los angeles, and served as the team's backup backstop through the 1960 season.

ron roenicke

roenicke was dodger #3 on the 1982 topps steve sax/mike marshall rookie card.  he was also an outfielder on the team who played in 212 games for the dodgers from september of 1981 through july 18, 1983 when he was released.  roenicke went on to play for the mariners, padres, giants, phillies, and reds before rejoining the dodger organization as a minor league manager and later a big league coach. he is currently the manager of the milwaukee brewers, adding one more manager to the list who played for tommy lasorda.

joe shaute

shaute pithed for the robins/dodgers from 1931-33 after spending 9 seasons with the indians.  he was 21-19 for brooklyn in that span, with a 4.32 era compiled over 100 appearances.  while with the indians, shaute struck out only 402 batters in 1,447 innings pitched, but babe ruth accounted for over 30 of those k's according to baseball reference.

bobby valentine

bobby v was the dodgers' first round pick in their vaunted 1968 draft.  he made his big league debut just over a year later, and would appear in 5 games as a 1969 september call-up.  he returned to the majors in 1971 and 1972, playing all over the outfield and everywhere in the infield except for first base.  after hitting .274 in 119 games in 1972, valentine was included in the trade that sent frank robinson to the angels.  valentine was just 23 and was hitting .302 when he tore up his knee in may of '73 after getting his spikes caught in the angels' outfield fence. the injury plagued him for the remainder of his playing career that included post-anaheim stints in san diego, new york, and seattle.  valentine never played for lasorda in the majors (he did in the minors), but he did go on to manage in the majors and according to reports, would have been tommy's choice to guide the dodgers instead of davey johnson had valentine not already been managing the mets.  we also have valentine to thank for making tommy a coach on the 2001 national league all-star team which brought us the fantastic footage of tommy getting upended in the third base coaches box by a wayward bat.

and you shall know them by their yellow backs

i caught myself by surprise a couple of years ago when i realized that i had a complete dodger team set of 1970 o-pee-chee cards.  i am not really sure how that happened, but it did.  one day i was cross checking lists with my early 70's dodger binder and there they were - all the gray bordered dodger goodness that o-pee-chee bothered to issue.  helped, of course, by the fact that there are six fewer dodgers in the o-pee-chee set than the topps - no canadian versions of jim lefebvre, maury wills, tom haller, don sutton, jim brewer or al mcbean.

i didn't have the same luck with 1971 o-pee-chee at the time, but i did pick up a large lot of dodger cards from the set a year or so ago, plus a few of the high numbers here and there since then to help me get closer to knocking another team set off the want list.

i'll show the lower numbered cards first...

claude osteen

everytime i see a '71 osteen, i wonder what the heck is going on in the background.  here's the back of osteen's card - it's yellow, but of course you already knew that because you followed along as i posted all about o-pee-chee over at oh my o-pee-chee, right?

it's been well over a year since things wrapped up over there, and i kind of miss posting and learning about the variations.  i'm not starting another blog though, especially since timeless teams is floundering.

here's sandy vance

the 'lesser' sandy, if you will

i really like the 'sunburst' behind the photos on the back.  it's different from the rectangular insert photo on the backs of the 1971 topps cards, and in my opinion, better.

von joshua

it's worth noting that on these cards, the french text comes first.

joshua was a dodger double dipper, by the way.

billy grabarkewitz

good to see the holman stadium seats in the background there.  jerry stephenson is hanging out, too, but i don't know who the seated dodger is.

it's too bad that grabarkewitz and mark grudzielanek played three decades apart.  harry caray wouldn't have known what to do if they were involved in a double play turn.

manny mota

this is a photo from shea stadium, like so many other cards in the 1971 set

the back of mota's card notes that he is 'a good hitter' who topped .300 in 4 of the previous 5 years.  he hit over .300 in 1971, too, as well as 1972 and 1973.

bill singer

if only the photographer had snapped the picture a moment earlier, i wouldn't be wondering who is walking behind singer.

no surprise that the back of the card mentions singer's no hitter thrown in july of 1970.  a joule sans coups, as it were.

duke sims

yankee stadium on a dodger card?  yes, thanks to the power of the o-pee-chee team variation!

nice to read that he was a yankee killer, too.

al downing

another team (and text) variation, which features a first year brewers uniform. 

downing would go on to have the best season of his career in 1971.

bob valentine/mike strahler

both guys had some big league stats prior to 1971, but topps still went with the minor league numbers on the back.

valentine and strahler (and grabarkewitz and singer as well) would be traded to the angels after the 1972 season with frank robinson in exchange for andy messersmith and ken mcmullen.

alan foster

i'm somewhat on the fence about including this card with my team set for obvious reasons.  foster was the guy traded to the indians for duke sims.

andy kosco was the player traded to the brewers for al downing, but his card came in a later series, so topps already had him as a brewer with a magic hat thus eliminating the need for an o-pee-chee variation.

bill russell

still an outfielder on the card, russell's conversion to the infield began in 1971

he actually played more second base than any other position in '71, but was moved to shortstop in 1972.

bill sudakis

it's too bad sudakis had bad knees.  on the other hand, had he been healthy, would steve garvey and later ron cey have been given a shot at third?  or joe ferguson behind the plate?  the mind boggles.

sudakis' co-mvp in the 1968 texas league was jim spencer who was the first player ever drafted by the california angels.

joe moeller

moeller was in his second stint with the dodgers when this card was issued

he was one of the few players on the team that had been a teammate of duke snider's.

jeff torborg

with danny ozark hitting fungoes behind him

singer's no hitter gets mentioned again, as does sandy koufax, as torborg was the catcher for sandy's perfect game as well as singer's masterpiece.    he later caught nolan ryan's first no hitter.

steve garvey

canadian rookie goodness!

and what's with all the black batting gloves?

don sutton

still pre-perm

and it still bothers me that he was released by the dodgers in august of 1988.

i'll show the rest of my 1971 o-pee-chee dodgers in a post later on today...

1968 draft dodgers

it's pretty well known that the draft completed by the dodgers in 1968 was a good one - lots of quality major leaguers were selected.  during the life span of that draft - from the time the first player selected made his debut until the time the last player retired, the dodgers had won 5 pennants and two world championships.  let's see exactly how that all went down.

here are the dodgers' picks in the 1968 mlb june amateur draft.  i know i'm jumping the gun, but we'll get to the january phases of the draft later.

1st round (5th overall) bobby valentine -

valentine was picked immediately after thurman munson went to the yankees.  he played in 225 games for the dodgers from 1969 through 1972 with a line of 4/57/.263.  bobby v was traded after the 1972 season in the deal that netted the dodgers ken mcmullen and andy messersmith from the angels.  messersmith was the ace of the dodgers' 1974 pennant winning team (the first of the post-koufax era), so while bobby v didn't win with the dodgers, he did make a significant contribution.  however, mcmullen was eventually released, and messersmith left the team as one of baseball's first free agents after the 1975 season.

2nd round (25th overall) bill buckner -

buckner signed and debuted for the dodgers on september 21, 1969. as a dodger, billy buck played in 773 games and went 38/277/.289.  he was traded to the cubs prior to the 1977 season in the deal that brought mike garman and rick monday to the dodgers, but not before he helped the blue win the pennant in 1974.  as for what the dodgers got in return for buckner, garman spent one-plus years (including the 1977 pennant winning season) with the dodgers before being traded to the expos for gerry hannahs and larry landreth.  hannahs then pitched for the dodgers in 1978 and 1979, but spent all of 1980 at aaa albuquerque. he finished his professional career with the twins' aaa team in 1981, while landreth went from the dodgers aaa team in 1978 to the brewers' aa team in 1979.  he never made it back to the majors after the garman trade, and there is no record that i could find of any players coming back to the dodgers for either hannahs or landreth.  of course, monday was the main piece of the trade, and in addition to helping the dodgers win pennants in 1977 and 1978, he, of course, hit a huge home run in the 1981 playoffs to help the team win its first world series championship since 1965.  monday was eventually released by the dodgers after the 1984 season, so the buckner trail ends there.

3rd round (45th overall) sonny johnson - outfielder/first baseman advanced to aa albuquerque at one point, but never made it to the big leagues.

4th round (65th overall) mike pazik - lhp who did not sign with the dodgers, and was later drafted by the yankees in 1971 and signed with them. he was traded to the twins and eventually made the big leagues in 1975.  went 1-4 in 13 career appearances.

5th (89th overall) tom paciorek -

paciorek was part of the dodgers' 1974 nl championship team, and he was 2 for 3 in the postseason that year.  a year later, however, he was traded to the braves in the deal that brought dusty baker and ed goodson (himself a product of the 1968 draft - more on that later) to the dodgers.  with baker in the outfield, the dodgers won pennants in 1977, 1978, and 1981, plus another nl west title in 1983.  baker hit .371 in his four national league championship series, and was the mvp of the 1977 matchup against the phillies.  so, like buckner, the paciorek pick helped net the dodgers four pennants and one world championship.  baker eventually left the dodgers as a free agent after the 1983 season, and goodson retired as a dodger after the 1977 season, so there were no further ramifications of the paciorek pick.

6th round (113th overall) bob auger - did not sign

7th round (137th overall) joseph barkauskas - did not sign

8th round (161th overall) joe ferguson -

ferguson was a big part of the dodgers' 1974 team, and he made that fantastic throw from right field in the world series against the a's.  he also contributed to the 1977 pennant winning team, as he was traded to the cardinals for reggie smith in june of 1976.  smith was arguably the dodgers' best player in 1977 (just ask don sutton), and he had a big year in 1978, too. ferguson returned to the dodgers in 1978, and was a part of that pennant winning team as well.  ferguson was released during the 1981 season, and smith missed most of that year due to injury.  he did return in time to make a couple of appearances in the dodgers' successful postseason run, but left the team as a free agent after they won the 1981 title.

9th round (185th overall) doyle alexander - alexander was traded with a few other players in 1971 to the orioles for pete richert and frank robinson.  richert was flipped to the cardinals in december of 1973 for tommie agee (who was released by the dodgers during spring training in 1974), and robinson was dealt to the angels a year later in that aforementioned deal that also included bobby valentine.  so, this pick played a part in bringing andy messersmith and the 1974 pennant to los angeles.

the only other dodger draftee that signed with the team and made it to the big leagues was their 17th round pick.

17th round (377th overall) bob gallagher - signed, but lost in rule 5 draft to boston so there was no compensation.  gallagher eventually made it to the big leagues with the red sox, astros, and mets.

but then there was the secondary phase of the june draft, apparently held for collegiate players.  here are the dodgers' seven picks from that draft

1st round (13th overall) steve garvey -

garvey helped his teams win five pennants in 11 years, although one of those world series appearances came after he left the dodgers as free agent.  with the team that drafted him, he won the 1974 nl mvp award, and the 1978 nlcs mvp trophy, and for a brief moment, was told he was one of the co-mvp's of the 1981 world series - his only championship in his five trips to the fall classic.  this was clearly one of the best picks the dodgers have ever made, and it was made possible by the fact that he didn't sign with the twins out of high school and that 12 teams passed on him this time around.  it is worth noting that the most successful player taken ahead of garvey in the first round was future teammate ed goodson, who was taken third overall by the giants.

2nd round (33rd overall) sandy vance -

vance was 7-7 in his first year as a major leaguer (1970), but was forced to retire due to injury after 30 big league appearances and a 9-8 record in two seasons for the dodgers.  he was previously drafted in one of the phases of the 1968 january draft by the astros, but obviously didn't sign.

3rd round (53rd overall) ron cey -

cey debuted in 1971 and was a stabilizing force at third base for the four pennant winning teams.  he was one of the co-mvps of the 1981 world series triumph over the yankees, and when he was traded to the cubs for vance lovelace after the 1982 season, he was the all-time home run leader among los angeles dodgers.  lovelace, by the way, did not make it to the majors.  it should be noted that up to this point in the draft, the dodgers had picked up a promising pitcher and half of their record setting infield, while the only other picks that had serviceable careers were goodson and jim barr.

4th round (73rd overall) bruce kinder - did not sign

5th round (95th overall) bill seinsoth - signed and played 1969 at the dodgers' a league team in bakersfield, his only year in professional ball

6th round (113th overall) ellsworth jones - did not sign

7th round (127th overall) bob randall - did not sign, but was drafted by the dodgers again in the 1969 draft (he had also been drafted by the team in the 1966 draft).  randall was traded to the twins for danny walton in december of 1975, and he made his big league debut in the 1976 season.

before all of that, however, there were the 1968 january drafts - both a regular and secondary phase.  in the regular portion of the draft, the dodgers selected 10 players, none of whom made it to the big leagues or figured in trades that helped shape the team.  that wasn't the case in the secondary phase.

here are the notable selections by the dodgers from the 1968 mlb january draft - secondary phase, which i understand to have been a collegiate draft for winter graduates.

1st round (6th overall) marv galliher - taken three picks before dave kingman was picked by the orioles (he did not sign), galliher signed and reported to bakersfield in 1968.  he stayed with the dodgers' organization through 1973 and spent three entire seasons at aaa level.  in fact, here's a link to an article about one of the spokane indians teams he was a part of.  lots of familiar names in that writeup.  galliher was traded to the orioles prior to the 1974 season for bob o'brien (who came very close to being a double dipper for the dodgers, but he never made it back to the big leagues).  as for galliher, he spent 1974 and 1975 at aaa with the orioles and padres, but never made it to the majors.

2nd round (26th overall) davey lopes -

lopes is the third member of the famous infield to be drafted by the dodgers in 1968.  he debuted in 1972 and was around just long enough to win the 1981 title.  he was traded in february of 1982 to the a's for lance hudson, who never made it out of a ball for the dodgers.  as a dodger, lopes led the league in steals twice, was a four-time all-star, and had 19 steals in postseason play.

3rd round (46th overall) steven moore - moore did not sign, but was drafted and signed by the royals in 1969.  he spent 3 seasons in the minors for kansas city and detroit.

4th round (66th overall) randy smith - signed and spent 3 years in a ball for the dodgers.

5th round (86th overall) geoff zahn - zahn was part of the dodgers' 1974 pennant winning team, although he did not appear in the postseason.  he was pitching lights out as a reliever and spot starter in 1974 when he took over tommy john's spot in the rotation after john tore his ulnar collateral ligament.  zahn was then traded in may of 1975 (with eddie solomon) to the cubs for burt hooton.  hooton, of course, went on to win the 1981 nlcs mvp, and helped the dodgers to three pennants and the '81 title.  hooton left the dodgers as a free agent after the 1984 season, signing with the rangers

6th round (105th overall) david grangaard - did not sign and was drafted in the 1968 mlb june secondary draft by the astros.  he signed with houston and spent 5 seasons in the minors, getting to aaa with the royals' organization in 1972.

7th round (123rd overall) gregory wellman - lhp who signed and spent 1968 through 1970 in dodgers' farm system.  went to the giants prior to the 1971 season and got as high as aaa for them in 1971.  finished his career with the expos' a level team in 1972.

8th round (136th overall) james loll - signed, but appears to have been traded to kansas city.  maybe as part of the jim campanis deal or perhaps was a pick in the expansion draft?

9th round (147th overall) thomas jackson - did not sign

10th round (153rd overall) ed crosby - did not sign, but was drafted in 1969 by the cardinals and did sign.  played in the big leagues from 1970-1976 for saint louis, cincinnati, and cleveland.

there were 3 other guys selected by the dodgers later in the draft who apparently didn't sign either.

valentine was the first to take the field for the dodgers.  he debuted as a pinch runner in a game during the 1969 season against the mets.  the last of the drafted players to suit up for the dodgers were steve garvey and ron cey, with cey making the final plate appearance in the last game of the 1982 season.  in between, there were four pennants and one world series title, but the ramifications of the draft lingered, as the dodgers won the national league west in 1983 with monday and hooton still around, and again in 1985 in hooton's last season with the team.  buckner was the last of the players, drafted or otherwise acquired, to appear in the big leagues as he finished his career with a return trip to boston in 1990.

so, yes, it was a great draft, but al campanis and the dodger brain trust should also be commended for turning that drafted talent into the right mix of players (some via trade) to establish a national league west powerhouse.