the 1978 topps dodgers who were also 1986 topps dodgers. and cubs. and padres. etcetera, etcetera - fielder edition

i kicked off the 1986 installment of the 'evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers' yesterday with the burt hooton final tribute.  it's a shame that hooton's last card had him in a rangers' uniform instead of dodger blue.  unfortunately, there weren't too many dodgers left in 1986 from the 1978 team.  but, there were still a few of them in addition to hooton, wearing other teams' uniforms.  here are the fielders who remained from that group of 27 players featured by topps as dodgers in 1978.

ron cey was in his fourth year with the cubs in 1986.

he was 38 and appeared in only 97 games - that was the first time he had seen action in less than 100 games since 1972, if you ignore the strike-shortened season of 1981.  cey hit .273 with 13 homers and 36 rbi in 1986, with the highlight of his season likely being career home run 300.

like cey, steve garvey was in year 4 with the padres in 1986.

garvey had another consecutive game streak going in 1986 - he was up to around 300 straight before he missed a handful in september of '86.  he hit .255 in a total of 155 games, with 21 homers (his highest total since 1980) and 81 rbi.  garvey's big milestone achievement in 1986 was his 2500th career hit.

bill russell was still a dodger, of course, in 1986.

in addition to his regular card, ropes got to grace the 'dodgers leaders' card

with a nice photo from vero beach.  russell didn't show up anywhere on the back however, as the dodgers' offensive leaders from 1985 were mike marshall, mariano duncan, and of course, pedro guerrero.  his appearance is based on his tenure with the club, as these cards acknowledged the 'dean' of each team.  in russell's case, it wasn't close - he had been with the team since june of 1970.  back to 1986 - russell appeared in 105 games that year which was up from the two previous seasons.  he hit .250 and played more outfield than shortstop for the first time since 1971, and managed to pass the 1900 hit mark along the way.  1986 wound up being russell's final year as a major league player.

davey lopes wasn't done, however.  he spent the first part of 1986 with the cubs

but was dealt to the houston astros during the season.  unfortunately, topps did not include the 40-year old in the 1986 topps traded set.  so, you have a davey lopes card that should have been to look forward to in the near future!  on the field, lopes hit .275 on the season with 25 steals and 49 runs scored.  he surpassed both 1000 runs scored for his career and the 150 career home run milestone in 1986.

lee lacy remained the orioles' primary right fielder in 1986

he played in 130 games and had a pretty decent season.  he hit .287 with 11 home runs and 47 rbi.  he also set a career high with 77 runs scored.  lacy didn't achieve any major career milestones in 1986, but he did hit three home runs in a single game on june 8th against the yankees.  not bad for a 38-year old!

dusty baker finished up his career in 1986 with the a's

baker didn't have any multi-homer games like lacy, but it is interesting that all four of his long balls in 1986 came at the expense of the milwaukee brewers - two courtesy of ted higuera.  baker appeared in 83 games over the course of the season and finished his career 19 hits shy of 2000.

steve yeager graced a card as a dodger for the last time in 1986

even though he had been traded to the mariners in december of 1985.  unlike lopes, topps put yeager on the traded set checklist

yeager appeared in 50 games for the mariners, catching in 49 of them.  in his final big league season, yeager threw out 37% (14 of 38) of would be base stealers who ran against him.  he also hit the last two home runs of his career, and like baker, half of them came off of ted higuera.

so, that does it for the position players - the pitchers are coming up next...

a disparity of fall classics

i almost forgot.  the world series starts today.  i could not care less about who wins the series this year - it's an embarrassment of riches for either team.  i definitely was pulling for the red sox in 2004, and even a bit in 2007, but not now.  nor can i cheer on the cardinals in good conscience.  still, both teams are deserving of their pennants and i congratulate them.

i am left to show a couple of world series themed dodger cards.  the first, from 1995 upper deck sp championship series, features mike piazza on a 'fall classic' insert

number of world series in which mike piazza appeared as a dodger?  zero.  that is a shame.  his dodger teams couldn't even win a single postseason game as they were swept in both the 1995 and 1996 nlds.

contrast that with pee wee reese, who appears on a 2003 fleer fall classic card

pee wee's dodgers advanced to the postseason seven times.  of course, they only won one world series, but still.  pee wee has appeared in the most postseasons of any dodger in franchise history.  kershaw, kemp, and ethier are the active leaders with three appearances apiece.  here's hoping they tie pee wee in 2017.

when do pitchers and catchers report?

burt hooton's final tributes

i will be posting about the 1986 topps cards that featured members of the 1978 topps dodger team tomorrow.  i know you can't wait.  i'm going to kickstart this latest edition of the aptly named 'evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers' series of posts by showcasing the lone member of that fraternity to get a final tribute card in 1986.  burt carlton hooton.

hooton spent one year (1985) with the rangers before calling it a career.  actually, the rangers released him in march of 1986 after manager bobby valentine was impressed with the young arms of bobby witt and ed correa, and at the time, hooton was undecided on whether to continue pitching or not.  whether it was his decision or not, hooton did not make any more big league appearances as an active player.

so, the 1986 set(s) offer us some bona fide final tributes, thanks to texas' late release of the right-hander.  first up is topps.

topps, as usual, gives us the complete major league stats for hooton

the 1981 nlcs mvp racked up 112 wins as a dodger over 10 seasons.  that puts him at 18th all-time for the franchise, and close to (if not in) to the top 10 among los angeles dodgers.

next up is the max headroom set, 1986 donruss

donruss gives us happy's full name, but only the last five years of his career, stat-wise.

the back also gives more detail about hooton's contract status.  he had signed a 2-year deal, with an option for 1987, so texas was on the hook for his 1986 salary plus a buyout.  it's too bad he didn't go by his middle name, by the way.  if he had, there might have been a nice 'steve carlton, carlton hooton' card in 1982 fleer.

speaking of fleer, here's hooton's 1986 fleer card

with his complete professional career stats, including that one abbreviated year in the minors

not sure why fleer notes that hooton lives in yorba linda while the other companies had him back in his home state of texas.  nine strikeouts shy of 1500 k's, at least hooton eclipsed 150 wins.  he also encouraged a generation of young fans (this one included) to try to figure out what the heck a knuckle-curve grip looked like, and to try to throw one in a little league game without having it bounce 10 feet in front of home plate.

hooton was a minor league pitching coach for the dodgers from 1988 through 1996 before joining the staff at his alma mater, the university of texas.  he later coached in the astros' system, including at the major league level in the early 2000's.  last season, hooton was a minor league coach in the padres' system.

i am 'happy' to have these final tributes in my collection!

if it were up to him, we'd all be losers!

i am no charlie sheen, but i figure that i am not losing at life.  i've got good friends, a good job, a great family, good health, and a pretty good little baseball card collection.  that last part certainly isn't necessary, but i think it helps in my case.

i don't need any extra motivation to keep going, but if i did, chris coghlan's 2011 topps attax card provides it.

look closely

good golly!  i mustn't lose!  the last thing that i want is for the former rookie of the year (he beat out, among others, andrew mccutcheon that year) to be better at hitting fastballs and change-ups.  maybe if he joined the dodgers, i would wish for it, but certainly not at my expense.

it seems like not too many marlins fans are losing either.  coghlan's stats had been in decline since 2009 until a slight uptick last year.  still, he remains in the majors which is no small feat.  i suspect that whomever is doing the losing (jeffery loria?), chris coghlan thanks you.  it's just not me.

[i forgot to mention that this is my 'round 0' entry in the nachos grande blogger bracket challenge]

a common mistake

i recently took a quick look at justcommons.com and saw some cheaply priced dodger relics.  i quickly snapped up a few from 2013 topps' chasing history insert set - carl crawford

adrian gonzalez

and gary sheffield

except i didn't realize that sheff had chasing history cards for the yankees (and the marlins) as well as the dodgers.  oops.  i wish that the site had photos of the cards like comc does.

i also picked up a 2003 bowman draft & prospects joe thurston bat

and a 2005 topps pristine scott elbert sticker auto

elbert missed most of 2013 due to injury, but did pitch a few games in the minors.

to finish off the package, i snagged a couple of josh willingham autos from 2013 panini pinnacle

and prizm

i won't keep these for too long - i had a couple other collectors in mind when i purchased these.

overall, i will probably still gravitate to sportlots most of the time, but might return to justcommons - as long as i know who is a dodger and who isn't.

a cleveland memorial patch for the trainer

jimmy warfield was a trainer in the indians' organization from 1969 until his passing in 2002.  he began his career with the team's aa affiliate and then joined the major league team as trainer in 1971.  warfield held the role of head trainer until 1997, when he stepped back to assistant trainer at the age of 55.  on july 15, 2002, warfield suffered a brain hemorrhage and passed away the following day.

in his memory, the indians wore a 'jw' patch on their right sleeves for the remainder of the season.  here's a 2003 upper deck 40 man card of milton bradley with the patch visible on his jersey.

i also have this 2003 upper deck mvp card of brandon phillips in my collection.

it shows the warfield patch as well, but this particular card sits in my double play binder.  it's worth noting that rickey henderson (is that really rickey?) is sporting the ted williams armband (and number) on his sleeve.  teddy ballgame will get a separate memorial post, of course.

i was a bit surprised that the dodgers didn't do something similar for bill buhler when he passed away early in the 2003 season.  he did have a patch in the dodgers' 1999 heroes set, which i assume was worn by the training staff, but his career and impact on the dodgers' organization was worthy of a tribute, just as warfield's was.

the paul splittorff memorial patch

paul splittorff spent his entire professional career with the kansas city royals - first as a pitcher and, after retiring from the active roster, as a broadcaster for the team.  he was the first royal pitcher to win 20 games, and is the team's all-time leader in wins with 166.

splittorff passed away in may of 2011 from cancer, and the team wore a 'splitt' patch on their right sleeves for the remainder of the season.

you can see it on billy butler's 2012 topps opening day card

and it is more clearly seen on bruce chen's 2012 topps card

but the card that goes in my memorials binder is this 2012 topps chrome mike moustakas refractor

splittorff did help the royals get to their first world series in 1980, but retired in 1984 and so was not a part of the 1985 world championship team.  still, he was obviously a big part of the royals' organization, as the memorial patch attests.