candy

no, they're not sugar plums (whatever those are), but they are still sweet visions of candy for this christmas eve.  i sent some cards down to puerto rico for candido maldonado to sign, and he came through for me. 

here's his 1983 fleer card

with dodger stadium as a backdrop.  candy was hot stuff coming out of the minors, and was given every opportunity to win a starting spot in the outfield.  here's a 1984 topps card signed by the candy man

maldonado spent the 1984 season as the dodgers' primary right fielder, and then moved over to center field in 1985.  speaking of which, here's his 1985 topps card

at first i wondered if topps used photos from the same at bat on both his 1984 and 1985 cards.  they didn't, as candy has sleeves in 1985 that weren't there in 1984.  plus, it looks like the photo for 1984 was taken in montreal based on the uniforms of the players in the dugout, while the photo on the 1985 card makes it look like we are seeing into the dodgers' dugout.  is that shea stadium?

i remember it being hard for me to believe that candy hit only 11 home runs as a dodger in his time in la, although i was quickly learning that pcl numbers coming out of albuquerque didn't necessarily translate to the big leagues.  after the 1985 season, the dodgers traded maldonado to the giants and he went on to put up the power numbers we waited for in la.

thanks candy!

for richert, for the dodgers. twice.

[this is the twentyninth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, and mike devereaux.]

lefty pete richert signed with the dodger in the late 1950's and made his big league debut for them in april of 1962.  topps was kind enough to let us know on his 1962 card that he was, in fact, a 1962 rookie

richert split his time between the starting rotation and the bullpen from '62 through 1964, and although he pitched in 20 regular season games in 1963, he did not appear in the world series that year against the yankees.  while i am not sure if he was on the postseason roster or not, it is worth noting that the dodgers used only 4 pitchers that series - 2 complete games by sandy koufax, another by don drysdale, and an 8.1-inning effort by johnny podres who was relieved for less than a full inning by ron perranoski.  a year later, richert threw his first career complete game for the dodgers (a 2-hitter) against the mets in september of 1964.  a few months later, he was dealt to the senators in the frank howard/claude osteen deal.

after two all-star seasons as a starting pitcher in washington, richert was traded to the orioles.  here's his 1970 topps card as proof

the orioles wound up putting richert in the bullpen full-time, and reaped the rewards.  with richert helping to close out games, baltimore appeared in the world series three straight years from 1969 through 1971.  richert made exactly one appearance in each series, with his 1969 appearance being the most memorable.  in game 4 of the series, richert was called upon in the bottom of the tenth inning wit nobody out and two men aboard.  jc martin attempted a sacrifice, but richert's throwing error allowed jerry grote to score, and the mets won the game to take a commanding 3 games to 1 lead.  things were better for richert and the o's in 1970, as he earned a save in game 1 of that fall classic when he relieved jim palmer with two outs in the ninth, a one run lead, and pete rose on first, getting bobby tolan to make the final out of the game.

after the 1971 season, richert was traded back to the dodgers in the frank robinson deal, and his status as a double dipper was established.  he stayed for two seasons, and grew some nice sideburns as seen on his 1974 o-pee-chee card

by the time the 1974 season rolled around however, richert was in saint louis pitching for the cardinals.

in other news, richert is a good signer, and i have been on the receiving end of his kindness a couple of times.  here's a 1962 topps card (looks like a green tint variation) that he signed for me

as well as a 1964 topps card

a 1973 topps card

and a 1974 topps card

he also signed one of his 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams cards

i'm glad he doesn't hold any ill will towards 1969.

as a reminder, my 'timeless teams' blog kicks off on 1/2/12.  i'll get to richert and his teammates a few posts in.

here's to you (and thanks), pete richert - a dodger double dipper!

one time, at dodger stadium...

raul mondesi hit a ball down the left field line in the bottom of the 6th inning, and joe randa of the pirates

couldn't quite get there in time.  mondesi doubled, went to third on an error by the left fielder, and was stranded by wilton guerrero.

nice card, though.

garvey like it's your birthday

today is steve garvey's 63rd birthday.  i am not sure how i feel about that, in the sense that if my boyhood idol is 63, i must be getting on in years too.  anyway, it was a great day for me when i found that the garv signed through the mail.  i've had a few successes with him, sending a donation to his foundation (palm desert baseball) once, and going through a paid signing another time.  most of my attempts, however, have been freebies.  so, on his birthday, here are some of the 'gifts' the nl iron man has given me.

here's the 1970 topps card i created

nicely signed, but no number inscription.  that was one of the cards i sent with the donation.  i think it looks great.

here's my second favorite garvey card, his 1974 topps

this was the actual card that i used to carry around in my wallet, just like bob costas did with a mickey mantle card.
another one of my faves, his 1981 topps card

and his 1979 topps card, with marc hill lurking.

and, of course, i sent a 1983 o-pee-chee card, too

not sure why he signed that one vertically.

and then there was his 1983 fleer card

no more wire hangers!

i also picked up a 1976 topps card

in a lot somewhere.  a little more sketchy than the others, but may well be legit.  i am pretty much out of the ttm game these days, (although i have a bunch of successes yet to share) so popeye is probably done signing for me.  besides, he probably needs a nap. 

just kidding garv!  happy birthday and here's to many more.  thanks for signing my cards!

a call to order

i recently completed a trade with the angels in order.  i sent him some angels, he sent me some dodgers.  let's see how i made out by checking out just a few of the cards i received.

here's a 1994 topps mike piazza card

i was full of anticipation for this card back in early 1994 (or was it late 1993?) and was beyond disappointed.  it is essentially the same photo topps used for piazza's 1993 topps traded card, and lacks any sort of 'pop' in terms of color.  so disappointing.

although it could have been worse.  here's a 1994 leaf studio piazza.

that's worse.

speaking of worse, check out this 1997 pinnacle piazza card

adding insult to injury, the strongest man in socal not only tagged out the astros runner, but he is also punching the poor houstonian in the nuts.
here's a 1996 leaf hideo nomo checklist card that i had not seen before

when i flipped it over, i realized why.

all those crazy marty cordova collectors have been hoarding these cards.
i also received a 2009 topps heritage mayo insert of manny ramirez

who apparently has applied for reinstatement.  i wonder who is advising manny.  i would have told him to serve his suspension last year even if he really thought he wanted to retire.  now he has to sit out 100 games before he can come back when he could have had that out of the way.  what a dumb strategy.

there was also a 1998 pinnacle inside 'stand up guys' insert featuring various body parts of four of the dodgers five consecutive rookies-of-the year (sorry holly).  here's the side with eric karros and mike piazza's backsides

and here's raul mondesi and nomo's front sides.  mostly.

so, i had to go out and get the other card to complete my stand up dodger quad

this card seems to feature a mythological beast - a fabiotaur - half nomo, half karros

i also picked up another card from the insert set featuring nomo and what i assume to be greg maddux. 

i thnk randy johnson was on the other side with another pitcher whose name escapes me at the moment.  anyway, this was a great trade. i got some cards that inspired me to go out and buy more cards. 

nothing out of order about that!

the evolution of the right fielder, part 3

we pick up with the departure of raul mondesi and the arrival of shawn green

shawn green (2000-2003)

green had put up big numbers for the blue jays in 1999 (42/123/.309) so i was a bit disappointed when he played in all 162 games for the dodgers in 2000, but did just 24/99/.269.  it reminded me of darryl strawberry's first (and, as it turned out, only decent year in la), but i shouldn't have worried.  green posted back-to-back years of over 40 home runs in 2001 and 2002.  his power numbers were down in 2003 - i believe he had injured his shoulder - but he still played in 160 games. take that, mike marshall!  i should mention that green and i have something in common - we both were in attendance at game 1 of the 1988 world series, but, unlike him, i didn't leave early.

the dodgers moved greenie to first base in 2004 and juan encarnacion turned up in right.

juan encarnacion (2004)

encarnacion was acquired by the dodgers via a trade with the marlins in december of 2003.  he started 77 games for the dodgers in right before he was traded back to the marlins in july of 2004.  that was the deal that jim tracy openly lamented, as the dodgers gave up encarnacion, guillermo mota, and paul lo duca for brad penny and hee-seop choi.  encarnacion was hitting only .235 at the time with 13 home runs, so i think tracy was more upset at losing his starting catcher.

drew (2005-2006)

encarnacion's departure and the failure of any interim right fielder to claim the job opened up the spot for free agent jd drew.  drew came aboard after a lone season in atlanta in which he finished 6th in the mvp voting.  his first year in la was forgettable as he played in only 72 games for the blue, and hit only 15 home runs.  manager jim tracy deployed his crew of 'ja(y)sons' (repko, werth, and grabowski) to fill in for the missing drew.  jd rebounded nicely in 2006, playing in 146 games, hitting 20 home runs, and driving in 100 for the only time in his career.  he also hit one of the back-to-back-to-back-to-back home runs in that late season game against the padres.  of course, scott boras had negotiated an out clause in his contract after two years, and drew took it and headed to the red sox.

andre ethier (2007-2011)

with drew gone, the dodgers simply moved andre ethier over from left field, and he's been there ever since.  in his 5 years as the dodgers' rightfielder, ethier has averaged 146 games, 35 doubles, 20 home runs, and .288 at the plate.  his home run numbers are lower than expected over that span because of his 2011 season when injury hampered his power.

so, there you have it.  in three parts, the dodger rightfielder has evolved from carl furillo to andre ethier.  here's hoping it doesn't evolve any further for a while.

filling in the blanks with some 1975 topps cards that should have been

well, there weren't too many missed opportunities when it came to the dodgers' infield and topps in 1975.  steve garvey got his due on an mvp card and the nlcs recap card, and ron cey, bill russell and davey lopes didn't do much to deserve any cards other than their base cards.  there weren't any other subsets that screamed 'gcrl' either.  but, thanks to steelehere's suggestion, i do have a 1975 topps card that should have been - a steve garvey 'highlights' card necessitated by his write-in candidacy and mvp performance in the all-star game.

here's the back

it is modeled after the hank aaron highlight card

although i chose not to use the all-star 'star', since garvey got that on his base card.  here's the back of the aaron card just to be complete about it.

i thought it turned out pretty nicely.

while i was at it, i thought of another card possibility.  in the world series subset, all but one of the cards celebrate the a's (which makes sense, as they won the world series 4 games to 1).  ron cey lurks on one of them, and the lone 'dodger' card of the group features joe ferguson and walt alston most prominently.  that's all well and good, but how about highlighting the biggest play from game 1, even if the dodgers wound up losing the game?  here's a card with steve yeager holding the ball triumphantly after tagging out sal bando courtesy of joe ferguson's throw from right field.

we even get bill russell and davey lopes in the background!  much better than the reggie jackson image that topps featured for their game 1 recap.

here are a few more cards that should have been, including a couple of burt hooton 'traded' cards that i made for the facebook page '1975 topps traded'.

he is 'happy' to be in dodger blue, apparently.  here's an 'action' shot i took from a dodger postcard

altering the back was easy, since there was no team affiliation listed on the backs of the 75's.  here's his regular topps back

i just added a 't' like they did in 1974.

the dodgers sent geoff zahn to the cubs in the deal, so here's his card that should have been

here's his real 1975 topps card, with a picture taken just outside the dodger dugout

i used zahn's 1976 topps card for the image

the other player in the deal was eddie solomon, and i made a card for him, too.

that is a combination of his 1978 topps card and zahn's 1976 card (the cubs uni).  i should have scanned the 1978 card at a higher resolution, apparently.
for the record, here is solomon's actual 1975 topps card

and, just to get it out of my 'scanned' folder, here is a 1975 topps gaylord perry card i made as well.

if you're on facebook, stop by the 1975 topps traded page and say hello.  tell them gcrl sent you.