team collector dilemma - the rick honeycutt chronicles, volume 2

volume 1 of the rick honeycutt team collector dilemma was a slam dunk.  i'm not too sure about this one.  it's his 1988 score card:

he's a dodger, right?  well, look at the back:

honeycutt was traded to the a's late in the 1987 season for a player that turned out to be tim belcher.  not a bad deal for the dodgers.  while score was able to get a head shot of him in an a's cap, they chose to use a action shot of honeycutt still in a dodgers' uniform.  couple that with the lack of a team affiliation on the front of the score card, and you see the dilemma.  my take is that it's a dodger card.

these days, honeycutt is the dodgers' pitching coach

so that makes things easy.

here's to you, rick honeycutt, as long as i can tell which team you're on!

the final tributes that should have been - gcrl in 1988, part 2

i didn't break any wax in 1988 for the first time since 1978.  if i had, i would have been a little peeved at not finding any steve garvey or ron cey topps cards.  sure, they both failed to finish the season (cey was released by the a's and garvey was injured in may) but i had never collected a set without them in it.  garvey, at least, got a card in the 1988 score set, but the poor penguin got no final tribute.  it's time to right that wrong.

first up, though, is the 1988 topps card that should have been, as created by travis at punk rock paint.

awesome.  i did my part by creating the back

that's 2332 games played, with 1143 runs scored, 2599 hits, 272 home runs and 1308 rbi.  only 479 walks, which is one of the big complaints you hear about the garv when it comes to the hall of fame question (he topped out at 43% in his third year of eligibility).  he was the 1974 mvp, the mvp of the 1974 and 1978 all star games, the 1978 and 1984 nlcs mvp, won 4 gold gloves, and played in 5 world series in 11 years (winning 1) and hit the biggest walk-off home run in padres history.  his number 6 is retired by the padres, but not the dodgers, although it was in mothballs for quite some time after he left.

he still holds the national league record for consecutive games played, ranks 76th all time in hits, and is in the top 100 in a bunch of categories - good and bad. as far as the dodgers' leaderboard goes, he is 9th in games played, 5th in hits, 3rd in doubles (first in los angeles dodger history), 6th in home runs, 5th in rbi, and the list goes on.

it's tough to find a photo of ron cey in an a's uniform, other than the one on his 1987 topps traded card.  i finally succeeded, and so here is his 1988 topps card that should have been:

it didn't turn out too badly, i don't think.  here's the back with complete penguin stats:

the penguin played in 2073 games and hit 316 home runs.  he was an all star 6 times, played in 5 post seasons, including 4 world series (winning 1) and was the co-mvp of the 1981 fall classic.  he hit more home runs off of tom seaver (8) than he hit against any other pitcher, with steve carlton a close second.  his 316 homers is currently good for 110th all time, which isn't too bad.

cey shows up on the dodger franchise leaderboard quite a bit as well.  he is 6th in the all important war category (behind 4 hall of famers and willie davis), and is 9th in extra base hits.  his 228 home runs as a dodger were the most in los angeles dodger history until eric karros came along, and he still sits 5th all time in that category for the entire franchise history.

next month, i think i'll fill in some of the gaps in the history of the infield, like the missing 1984 topps traded davey lopes card.

they came, they saw, they moved on

nick green was a dodger for 5 glorious games in may this season.  that's enough to warrant a 2010 goose joak original, since topps total isn't coming around anytime soon.

green went 1 for 8 in those 5 games with an rbi and 2 strikeouts.  he was released in june, picked up by the blue jays who released him in july, and he's now the property of the padres.  one more team and he ties dave kingman.

we had high hopes for james mcdonald, and at this point it's hard to believe we traded him for octavio dotel.

mcdonald was 0-1 in 4 games (1 start) for the dodgers this year.  he's doing better (relatively) in pittsburgh, and his walks are down so maybe there's hope.  i feel badly for the guy because he found out about the trade by watching espn in the clubhouse before a game.  ned forgot to tell him, i guess.

remember ramon ortiz as a dodger?

ortiz appeared in 16 games for the dodgers during april and may of this year.  he was 1-2 with a 6.30 era and had two spot starts (his last two appearances as a dodger) that went bad.  he was released, picked up by the mets, released again, and is now in tampa bay or wherever the rays keep 6th starters.

yes, there was a jack taschner sighting at dodger stadium this year.

taschner was with the pirates at the beginning of the season, but became a free agent in june and was picked up by the dodgers.  in his 3 appearances as a dodger, taschner faced 6 batters, recorded one out and walked 3 while giving up a single run.  he was released in early august.

their tenures may have been short, and their performance subpar, but they were dodgers, dangit, and these goose joak originals are the proof! 

taste like dodgers

i recently completed a trade with taste like dirt.  here is but a sampling of the dodger goodness i received.

1993 upper deck jose offerman

offerman was coming off of his first full season as the dodgers' shortstop in 1993.  i remember hoping that he had forgotten that he had hit a homerun in his first big league at bat and that he would start hitting the ball on the ground more.  but alas, his gb/fb ratio worsened (to a low of 0.78 in his final year as a dodger).  i blame dennis martinez.

1999 fleer tradition roger cedeno

this is awesome.  not cedeno - the card.  cedeno is listed as a met but still in dodgers' clothing.  this card doesn't show up on any team set checklist, so i would never have sought it out. the dodgers sent cedeno to the mets in the deal that brought todd hundley to la (the first time).  like cedeno, he had his better years away from the dodgers, including his 1999 season with the mets when he stole 66 bases and hit .313.

1999 fleer tradition scott radinsky

similar to the cedeno, this radinsky card is really a card on card, as radinsky joined the cardinals as a free agent.  unlike the cedeno card, i actually did seek this card out a few months ago since it's one of the few radinsky cards ever made.

1999 fleer tradition eric weaver

here's another awesome card - awesome in the same way that the cedeno card is awesome (i would never have suspected there was an eric weaver card, let alone one of him in a dodger uniform) but also awesome because we see the outfield fence at dodger stadium.  in particular, we see the homage to the world champion 1959 dodgers.  weaver pitched pretty well for the dodgers in 1998 - he went 2-0 in 9+ innings of work with a 0.93 era and 1.14 whip.  the dodgers traded him to the mariners for scott prouty, a 19 year old prospect who didn't pitch professionally after the trade.  not sure what happened there.

i should note that there was another dodger uniformed/non-dodger affiliated card in the package, but it was bobby bonilla so i won't bother to show it.

instead, here's a 1999 topps dave mlicki

the dodgers acquired mlicki from the mets in the hideo nomo deal.  he pitched fairly well for the blue in 1998, going 7-3 in 20 starts.  the dodgers traded him to the tigers in mid-1999 for some middle relief.

2007 topps heritage wilson betemit

man, the braves seemed to sour on betemit pretty quickly, didn't they?  one minute he was uber-prospect, and the next minute he's being traded for danys baez and the unstable aybar brother.  over at jon weisman's dodger thoughts, references to betemit during his stint with the dodgers were often made with pearl jam's 'better man' included.  i find it interesting that the royals play that song when he comes to bat.

2007 topps update & highlights hong-chi kuo

that's all star hong-chih kuo to you.  it's too bad that kuo is probably scheduled to blow his elbow out any day now.  he has made george sherrill even more obsolete than sherrill has made himself this year.

2008 upper deck baseball heroes nomar garciaparra

ooh - the charcoal parallel.  if only nomar could have swung a hot stick in the playoffs.  he was the tying run in game 2 of the 2007 nlcs and lidge made him look bad.  not just bad, but old.  that sucked.  this card doesn't suck, though.

thanks jim!

number 55 from the number 5 type collection

matthew over at the number 5 type collection recently (by recently i mean in the last 6 months or so) sent me some 2008 topps allen & ginter miniature dodgers, including number 55, russell martin

with black borders to boot.  this card may as well have 'tbd' as the players' name since coltrane may not be back next year.  where have you gone carlos santana, dodger fans turn their lonely eyes to you.

speaking of gone, here's derek lowe

i have pretty much already forgotten that he was a dodger. 

matt kemp

here's to a better 2011 and beyond (all in a dodger uniform, i hope).

andre ethier

i wonder what would have happened this year if ethier hadn't injured his finger.  he hasn't been the same since he returned from the dl.

speaking of the dl, here's rafael furcal.

could furcal have put together a full season of high level performance rather than just a couple of months?  who knows.  is it out of the realm of possibility that dee gordon is our shortstop next year?

matthew also sent a 2010 upper deck blake dewitt

and we are still looking for that second baseman to replace steve sax.

i also received a 'dodgerbobble' of the aforementioned russell martin.

it's available for sacrificial duty, should there be any belief that something like that would restore things to a 2007 level of play.

sadly, there were no cards of jim lefebvre or jose vizcaino. i know, i know, it's not that kind of number 5 collection.

thanks matthew! i hope you enjoyed the cards i sent your way too.

the man with two heads

don drysdale can't believe his eyes on this 1961 topps nl era leader card.

he is mesmerized by the appearance of the two-headed pitching machine that was known collectively as 'big daddy warrior'.

with bob "warrior" friend securely attached to the right shoulder of stan "big daddy" williams, the national league had no choice but to credit each with the others' 3.00 era.  i am assuming that friend traveled with the dodgers on his non-pitching days and vice versa.

while some averted their eyes (mike mccormick), drysdale was just glad bob gibson was nowhere to be seen.

past and future dodgers from stats on the back

i recently took advantage of stats on the back's great giveaway, coming away with some nice vintage stuff of some past and future dodgers.  here are a few of the cards i received:

1968 topps al downing

at this point, al was a future dodger.  he had to go through oakland and milwaukee to get there, but he made it.  just in time for his best season, too.

1969 topps jimmie hall

not a dodger at all, but a former twin who faced the dodgers in the 1965 world series.  good guy, too.

1971 topps jerry reuss

another future dodger.  he would be an astro and an all star in pittsburgh before joining the dodgers where he no-hit the giants.  and won a world championship.

1972 topps fred norman

fred was a past dodger in 1972.  he was a dodger for just a short time in 1970 and eventually wound up in cincinnati where he would win a couple of rings.

1974 topps dodgers checklist

featuring ronald cey, bill russell, and david e lopes.  no steve garvey, though.  thomas john and william joseph buckner make an appearance, though.

1975 topps tommy davis

tommy had been everywhere, man, since he left the dodgers in the late '60's.  there were the mets, white sox, pilots, astros, a's, cubs, back to the a's, back to the cubs, then the orioles which would be followed by the angels and finally the royals.

there was also some junk wax - 1988 donruss, to be exact - in my package.  here's a nice dodger stadium shot of greg mathews

featuring 'the people behind the fence', and an orel hershiser card

thanks mark!