giving thanks for through the mail successes!

i did this last year, and i'm still thankful for the requests i have seen fulfilled this year, so i'll do it again.  i'm still around a 67% success rate with ttm, and i have slowed down with sending new requests considerably in the last few months.  that means that recent returns have been mostly ones that have been floating around in the ether for a while, like my luis tiant request.  my main ttm focus, aside from dodgers, has been 1978 topps and 2004 upper deck legends.  tiant has cards in both sets, so i sent those cards to him with a couple of other 'keepers'.  he signed and returned all four after a few months.

there was his 1970 topps card

as a twin in indians' clothing, and a 1976 alcs card

to go along with his fantastic 1978 card

and the strange sight of him in a yankee uniform on the 2004 upper deck legends card

i was beyond stoked to get all four of these back.  thank you luis.

willie horton also had a card in the 2004 upper deck legends set that he kindly signed and returned to me

he also signed and returned his 1976 topps card

i suppose 1976 is my third favorite set to get cards signed from.  thanks willie!

chris chambliss signed and returned the cards i sent him after a few months.  i had given up hope on these - his 2004 upper deck legends card

and his 1978 o-pee-chee card

i didn't have an extra 1978 topps card, so o-pee-chee went instead.  chambliss has a very nice signature.  i like it, even if both cards are yankee cards.  thanks chris!

as much as i thought about it, i couldn't risk losing my 1979 topps burger king phillies doug bird card, so i only sent his 1978 topps card.

which he sent back fairly quickly.  maybe if i find a double of that bk card i'll send another request.  thanks doug!

barry bonnell returned his 1978 topps card

pretty quickly too.  he has a couple of o-pee-chee variations that i might try to get signed too.  thanks barry!

i was a big ron leflore fan after reading his book (one in a million) and watching the movie (with levar burton as leflore).  he signed his 1978 topps card for $5

he's one of those guys that i would like to have seen in more sets in recent years like legendary cuts or tribute.  there aren't enough ron leflore cards.  thanks ron!

the lesser of the orioles' martinezes, tippy, signed his 1978 topps card for me

i was never sure of tippy as a kid.  where did the name come from? was he related to dennis? why did he leave the yankees?  i didn't bother to ask him any of these questions when i wrote to him.  thanks tippy!

tippy's teammate al bumbry also signed his 1978 topps card

i loved this card as a kid.  he seems pretty happy.  i suppose it's quite a turnaround from serving in vietnam to playing in the big leagues.  al also sent me his 1979 topps card signed

which was cool since i had only sent him the '78 card.

i did send both a 1978 topps card

and a 1979 topps card to the rooster, though.

he signed 'em both.  i met burleson at an offseason hot stove dinner once in the early 80's.  he was with the angels then, and had hurt his shoulder lifting weights.  thanks rick!

burleson's onetime teammate ted cox signed his 1978 topps rookie card

i think it is way cool that ted cox played for the red sox.  if only there were a guy named ros ingeles rodgers who played for the los angeles dodgers.  thanks ted!

speaking of the dodgers, or more specifically dodger stadium, rawly eastwick signed his 2004 upper deck legends card with a photo taken in chavez ravine

he even signed in the right spot.  i also sent him his fantastically airbrushed 1978 topps card which he signed as well

thanks rawley!

disco dan ford signed his 2004 upper deck legends card

featuring him as an oriole.  i think he has another card in the set, but i don't remember if he's an oriole or an angel on that one.  dan also signed his 1978 topps card, which i featured in a different post.  thanks dan!

finally, herbie signed his second 2004 upper deck legends card for me

i featured the other one on a different post.  thanks kent!

happy thanksgiving everyone!

it's a big travel day, so 'leave the driving to us'

'leave the driving to us.'  i think that was greyhound's slogan.  maybe it still is - i haven't seen an ad lately.  i have seen lately, however, a complete 1976 heroes on the basepaths booklet produced by greyhound. 

you may recall that i stumbled across a davey lopes portrait card from that issue a while back.  that was a surprise, so i was fairly shocked to find this on ebay with a pretty low price.  let's look inside.

there's joe black, former dodger 'closer' and 1952 rookie of the year.

apparently, it was joe's idea for greyhound to sponsor an award for the league leaders in stolen bases each year. in 1976, that meant bill north and davey lopes won the award.  ron leflore and joe morgan were the runners up and are here just to fill space, i suppose, although they did receive plaques according to the text above.

so there's the lopes 'sliding' panel that i was missing.  here's a closeup.

the dodgers haven't had a player lead the league in steals since 1976.  i'm not sure if having lopes on the staff will change that, but it should help the team's success rate.

safe travels everyone!

an infielder returns!

i'm pretty happy that davey lopes is returning to the fold as the dodgers' first base coach.

i wonder if furcal will give up the number...

welcome back "davy" (stupid fleer)!

the evolution of the closer, part 1

even though they weren't called closers back in joe black's day, i will start the evolution of the dodgers' firemen with the 1952 rookie of the year.

joe black (1952)

joe black pitched in 56 games for the dodgers that year, won 15 and 'saved' 15 others.  he led the league with 41 games finished.  it was quite a season in relief, and was a bit of an anomaly.  or perhaps an indication of what was going to become more of the norm in the future.

clem labine (1953, 1956-1959)

in 1953, the dodgers very much had a bullpen by committee, with clem labine leading the way

labine led the relief corps with 11 wins and a 2.77 era.  he also had 7 'saves', although jim hughes had 9 and appeared in more games (48 to labine's 37).

jim hughes (1954)

hughes clearly took over in 1954. he saved 24 games that year, but it was back to the committee in 1955 with hughes, labine and ed roebuck leading the way. 

ed roebuck (1955, 1960)

roebuck had 12 saves to lead the staff although his era was fairly high at 4.71.  he made one appearance in the 1955 world series, finishing off the dodgers' game 6 loss against the yankees.

clem labine was back at the helm in 1956 with 19 saves and 10 wins and in 1957 with 17 saves and 5 wins.  he had 14 saves and 6 wins with the la dodgers in 1958 to again pace the bullpen.  in 1959, labine again led the team in saves with 9, although there were a total of 9 dodger pitchers, including don drysdale and sandy koufax, who earned at least one save that year.  big d and sandy each had 2!

in 1960, roebuck saved 8 games and had a 2.78 era in his 58 appearances, all in relief.  he also won 8 games.  larry sherry, the mvp of the 1959 world series, pitched in with 7 saves and 14 wins, 13 in relief.

larry sherry (1961)

sherry moved to the top of the bullpen in 1961 with 15 saves in 52 relief appearances. 

ron perranoski (1962-1965)

ron perranoski appeared in 70 games in 1962, saving 20 with an era of 2.85.  he followed that up with a phenomenal season in 1963, winning 16 games and saving 21 in 69 games (129 innings pitched) while posting a 1.67 era. he finished 4th in the league mvp voting that season.  he also earned the save in game 2 of the world series that year, striking out clete boyer to preserve the dodgers' victory. 

perranoski followed that up with 14 saves in 1964 and 17 in 1965.  in 1966, however, he took a back seat to the vulture.

phil regan (1966)

regan appeared in 65 games for the 1966 dodgers, all in relief.  he went 14-1 with a 1.62 era and 21 saves.  his performance earned him an all-star berth and a 7th place finish in the mvp voting.

ron perranoski (1967)

perranoski was back in the saddle in 1967.  he relieved in 70 games and saved 16 of them.  but in 1968, perranoski was not around, and regan was sent to the cubs early on, so jim brewer took over.

jim brewer (1967-1973)

brewer took over the role (making the bullpen the 'brewer-y') with 8 wins and 14 saves in 54 games.  he had 20 saves in 1969 (the first year they became an official stat), 24 in 1970, 22 in 1971, 17 in 1972, and 20 in 1973 when he made the all-star team for the only time in his career.  he finished the game (although it wasn't a save situation with the national league up 7-1) by striking out thurman munson and willie horton.

in 1974, the dodgers would bring in a guy who would turn the closer role on its ear.  stay tuned.

goose joak twinkies

cleaning out the 2010 goose joak files.  here are some twins

denard span

may get a challenge in the outfield from ben revere next season
joe mauer

may be on the downside of his career already.  i have to believe he won't be catching much longer.

michael cuddyer

may be the twins' unsung hero the last two seasons, filling in for justin morneau at first

nick punto

may be the most overrated twin, and may have incriminating photos of gardy which would explain why he got so much playing time the last few seasons.

jim thome

may be back next season

delmon young

may be on the verge of the big time - he's just turned 25 for goodness' sake!

wait 'til next year, twinkies!  i'm looking forward to seeing the dodgers in target field!

i caught up with wayne kirby - a through the mail success!

a while back i pointed out that wayne kirby paid no mind to the wisdom of satchel paige.  as it turns out, i was the one who was gaining on him.  through the mail, anyway.  kirby signed and returned that 1997 fleer ultra card

he also signed and returned his 1995 topps card

which was one of many in that set to feature multiple photos.

thanks wayne!

just pretend this is a flip book

here comes dodgers' coach danny ozark with a bag of balls and a couple of bats.

so what if some guy is trying to take a photo of billy grabarkewitz for his 1970 o-pee-chee card? 

next we have ozark preparing to hit some fungoes

as jeff torborg smiles unknowingly on his 1971 topps card

and ozark again sizes things up as an infielder returns a ball to him

all the while torborg is unaware on his 1970 o-pee-chee card.

it's a shame, really, that topps didn't select more photos from this session.   we could have had ozark in midswing or even spitting.