here are this week's players from the 1990 target dodger giveaway set. fourteen players are featured in this post, with the fifteenth member of the sheet making an appearance a little later.
dan bankhead
bankhead was the first african-american pitcher to appear in the major leagues. his negro league and minor league success didn't translate to big league success, however, and he ended his major league career with a 6.52 era over 52 games.
buzz boyle
boyle spent three seasons (1933-35) patrolling the outfield for the dodgers. he hit .305 in 1934 and had a 25-game hitting streak while doing so. that streak stood as the longest in dodger history until joe medwick hit in 27 straight in 1942. willie davis is the dodger with the longest streak to date, with 31 in 1969.
larry cheney
cheney was traded to the robins from the cubs in 1915. the next season, he won 18 games and helped brooklyn reach the world series in which he appeared in game 4. cheney remained with the robins into the 1919 season when he was picked up on waivers by the braves.
cliff dapper
i figured that the only thing i knew about dapper when i saw this card is that he played for the pirates in addition to the dodgers. i was wrong. dapper's big league career began and ended with the dodgers in 1942. he hit .471 over the course of two weeks early in the '42 season, an average that stands as the highest for any player with 8 or more hits, according to baseball reference. he served in world war ii from 1943-45, and never made it out of the minor leagues after returning from service. in 1948, the dodgers famously traded him to double-a atlanta for announcer ernie harwell. as far as i can tell, the pirates uniform comes from dapper's time as a minor league player/manager in the pirates' system.
al downing
downing was traded to the dodgers by the brewers prior to the 1971 season (the guy the dodgers gave up is also on this sheet, and shows up later in the post). he immediately went out and won 20 games and finished 3rd in the league cy young award voting. downing wore number 44 for the dodgers, which is the same number worn by hank aaron, who hit a downing pitch in 1974 for home run number 715.
jim hickman
hickman came to the dodgers in the deal that sent tommy davis to the mets. he only played for la in 1967, and was then traded to the cubs. hickman's 67 appearances for the dodgers in '67 did not yield any home runs - the only season in which hickman failed to hit a long ball - but did include his lone career pitching performance. in two innings of work against the giants on june 23, hickman allowed just one run - a home run by willie mays.
gil hodges
hodges is the star of the sheet, no doubt, even though there's a hall of famer on the sheet. he came up as a catcher, but moved to first base for the dodgers in 1948 when jackie robinson moved to second (the guy that jackie replaced at first is also on this sheet). hodges stayed at first for 14 seasons, helping the dodgers to 6 world series and hitting 360 home runs in that span. he was selected by the expansion mets following the 1961 season, and hit the first home run in the team's history in their inaugural game. he was traded to the senators during the 1963 season who wanted him as their manager. a few years later, the mets would trade to get hodges back to be their skipper, and they were rewarded as he led them to their 1969 world championship.
rick honeycutt
honeycutt joined the dodgers in august of 1983 following a trade with the rangers that sent dave stewart to texas. his 2.42 era for the rangers wound up leading the league that year, although his total era for the season was 3.03 - higher than mike boddicker's 2.77. this was a similar situation to eddie murray's lost batting title in 1990 when willie mcgee was traded to the a's and wound up with a lower batting average overall than did murray, but maintained a higher national league average. these days, the titles are won based on overall averages, not intraleague stats, which would have been good for murray but bad for honeycutt. anyway, honeycutt pitched for the dodgers for almost exactly four years before being traded to oakland in august of 1987. the dodgers received tim belcher in exchange, and wound up beating honeycutt and the a's thanks in part to belcher in the 1988 world series. honeycutt returned to the dodgers as a coach following his retirement, and is currently don mattingly's pitching coach.
andy kosco
kosco spent two seasons with the dodgers - 1969 and 1970. his 19 home runs and 74 rbi in 1969 led the team, but he was traded to the brewers following the 1970 season for al downing, straight up.
bob o'brien
o'brien gave up a home run to the first batter he faced in the big leagues (cito gaston), but also struck out the side in that same inning of work. he pitched for the dodgers only in 1971, appearing in 14 games and earning a record of 2-2. he made four career starts, the first of which ended in a 6-hit shutout against the cardinals. o'brien made his lone topps appearance on the same 1972 rookie card as charlie hough and mike strahler, although his big league career was over at that point.
luther roy
roy pitched in two games for the brooklyn robins in 1929, giving up 2 runs in 3.2 innings. those were the final two appearances of his career, a career that saw him post the highest era (7.17) for any player after 1900 who pitched more than 150 innings (since surpassed only by aaron myette).
ed stevens
stevens debuted for the dodgers in 1945, and was their primary first baseman in 1946. he hit 10 home runs that year, good for second on the team behind pete reiser's 11. in 1947, stevens was replaced at first base by jackie robinson, and spent most of the season at montreal. after the season ended, his contract was purchased by the pirates, and he went on to play three more seasons in pittsburgh.
gary weiss
weiss is probably best known for being the last dodger to wear number 1 before it was retired in pee wee reese's honor. he was a september call up for the dodgers in both 1980 and 1981. he got into 8 games in 1980, all as a pinch runner, and then played in 14 games in 1981, including four consecutive starts at shortstop. both of his career hits came in the same game - 9/20/81 against mario soto of the reds - and his lone career rbi was an eventual game winner - a sacrifice fly that scored steve garvey on 9/17/81.
larry white
white was acquired by the dodgers in the deal that sent rick sutcliffe to the indians. he made his big league debut in 1983 for the dodgers, and pitched well in the four games in which he appeared, giving up just one run in 7 innings of work (the run came courtesy of an rbi single by nolan ryan). in 1984, white had a couple cups of coffee with the dodgers, finishing the season with the club and striking out the last batter he would face in the big leagues - terry puhl on 9/25/84.
