a matter of perspective

i wish there were more cards like this 2004 topps preston wilson card.

i wish it were so, not because it features dodger stadium, or because the umpire is blurred, or because that may or may not be mike brito down in the dugout seats, or even because at first glance i thought the spectator in the front row was wearing thigh-high boots, but rather because it's a more familiar image.

the centerfield camera has long provided the primary view of televised baseball games, so this is the way most of us view the majority of the games we see each year.  beyond that, however, is that this is the way i used to see the game for about 24 years or so.  from little league to babe ruth to high school, through senior babe ruth and 18+ men's baseball, i played infield - mostly second and short.  i see a card like this and the shortstop in me instinctively shifts my weight to my left foot and watches the flight of the ball to the right side of the infield.  maybe shallow right.  i'm ready to cover second in case the ball falls in and wilson tries for two.  i enjoy that feeling, and love this card for connecting me to the game so well.

aside from the 2007 upper deck albert pujols card, i am hard pressed to think of another card featuring a centerfield camera shot.  anybody know of any others?  i would love to see and/or have them.

dodger greats, easily forgotten

you wanna talk about an oddball set?  how about the 1989 smokey dodgers greats set. 
stadium giveaway? check.
sponsored by a non-profit forest fire awareness group? check.
image of cartoon bear on the front? check.
at least the team logos weren't airbrushed out.

the real oddball part comes in to play with the set numbering.  the set was distributed at dodger stadium in a sheet of 100 cards.  plus a strip of 4 additional cards.  yes, there were 104 cards in the set.  usually when you see the sets up for sale, they are offerering just cards 1-100 (although there is an auction up on the bay for all 104 right now).  the last 4 cards were easily lost or forgotten about and can be hard to find.

at least it's not like the last 4 cards were koufax, jackie robinson, snider and garvey.  no, they are lindstrom,

lombardi,

marshall,

and robinson

not exactly a dodgers' murderers row. 

fred lindstrom is really a giant, having played for the 1936 brooklyn dodgers for a total of 26 games.  he is a hall of famer, but certainly not a dodger great.  perhaps a really good player who ended his career with a short stint as a dodger.  but that text is too long to fit in smokey bear's blue ribbon.

ernie lombardi is more of a red great.  while he started his career in 1931 as a brooklyn robin (more on that in a minute), he was traded to cincinnati where he would go on to multiple all-star appearances and win the 1938 nl mvp award.  like lindstrom, his photo even depicts him in his more familiar cap.

mike marshall - that's mike a. marshall, the non-pitcher - was at least a dodger for about 90% of his career.  still, he is more of an albuquerque duke great as he destroyed the pcl his last couple of years in the minors.  in the big leagues, not so much.  he ranks 32nd all-time in dodger history in slugging percentage (just ahead of ron cey) and 50th in ops (well behind cey and just behind joe ferguson).  he's 35th in games played - less than adrian beltre, but more than ken landreaux, and is tied with jackie robinson for 16th place in all-time dodger home runs.  now that i look at it, marshall may be in the top 40 of dodger players, all-time.

finally, wilbert robinson.  aside from alston and lasorda, no man has managed the dodger franchise longer than robinson's 18 years at the helm.  he is in the hall of fame having won two nl pennants and 1399 regular season games (including one year as baltimore's manager).  the dodgers' franchise had been known as the superbas since 1899 (except for a two-year stint as the dodgers in 1911-1912), but when uncle robbie took over in 1914, they took the name 'robins' in tribute to their skipper.

i'm glad that doesn't happen anymore - i don't think i could really root for the los angeles mattinglys.

another 1978 topps dodger auto received, but it's not ed goodson

it's been a while since i learned that john hale was included on the 1978 topps dodger team card (that's him seated at the right end of the front row).  i mentioned in my open letter to ed goodson that i had sent the card to hale in the hopes that he would sign it.  he did.

he also signed copies of his actual 1978 topps card

and his 1976 topps card

but sadly not his 1978 topps burger king dodgers/update card that should have been.

hale was a dodger through most of the 1977 season before being selected on waivers by the blue jays in september.  a week or so later, the mariners claimed him and put him in right field for the 1978 and 1979 seasons.  he later wound up in the cincinnati and baltimore organizations, but not the big leagues for either club. 

here's a tidbit in line with matt's 'everybody's got a record' - when hale went 4 for 4 in 1974, he became the player with the most hits to bat 1.000 in a season.  so there.

as far as my modest 1978 topps dodger autograph project goes, i'm still stuck on 97%.

here's the tally:

team card (red adams) - through the mail success!
team card (mark cresse) - through the mail success!
team card (john hale) - through the mail success!
team card (boog powell) - through the mail success!
dusty baker - through the mail success!
glenn burke - ebay success!
ron cey - through the mail success!
vic davalillo - ebay success!
terry forster - ebay success!
mike garman - through the mail success!
steve garvey - through the mail success!
ed goodson
jerry grote - through the mail success!
burt hooton - through the mail success!
charlie hough - through the mail success!
tommy john - in person/through the mail success!
lee lacy - through the mail success!
tom lasorda - ebay success!
dave lopes - through the mail success!
ted martinez - ebay success!
rick monday - in person/through the mail success!
manny mota - through the mail success!
johnny oates - ebay success!
doug rau - through the mail success!
lance rautzhan - through the mail success!
rick rhoden - through the mail success!
bill russell - through the mail success!
reggie smith - through the mail success!
elias sosa - through the mail success!
don sutton - through the mail success!
steve yeager - ebay success!
nlcs (davey lopes) - through the mail success!

28/29 = 97%

thanks john!

hideo nomo, double dipper

[this is the eleventh 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, and dave hansen.]

hideo nomo burst on the scene with the dodgers in 1995, and quickly became the king of insert and subset sets, like this 1997 donruss dominators card.

his first two years with the dodgers were unreal.  in 1995, he led the league in strikeouts, had an era of 2.54 and was named the rookie of the year.  the following season, he won 16 games, finished second in the league in strikeouts, had an era of 3.19, threw a no-hitter in coors field and finished 4th in the cy young voting for the second year in a row.  in 1997, however, things started to go awry.  while he still won 14 games and had essentially the same number of strikeouts he had posted in his first two seasons, nomo's era jumped to 4.25 and his whip climbed to 1.38.

in june of 1998, sporting a 2-7 record and an era of over 5.00, the dodgers parted ways with nomo, sending him to the mets. 

nomo finished the '98 season in new york with a 4-5 record and a 4.82 era.  while he was featured on the above 1999 topps card as a met, he was released prior to the start of the '99 season.  he was picked up by the cubs soon after, but was released a mere 3 weeks later after just 3 minor league starts.  the brewers then signed him to a deal and called him up for the season.

nomo's 1999 season in milwaukee resulted in this 2000 topps card

as a brewer, nomo won 12 games, although he didn't necessarily pitch better than he had in the previous season.  for the first time in his career, he had no complete games and he struck out batters at a rate of less than one per inning.  his era was 4.54 and his whip was over 1.40.  after the season ended, the phillies claimed him, but released him the next day.  i don't recall what that was all about.

at any rate, detroit signed him to a deal for the 2000 season, and he wound up making 31 starts in motown that season, including opening day.  he was featured as a tiger on his 2001 topps card: 

that opening day victory (7 ip, 8 k's, 3 er) was one of the few highlights of nomo's season in detroit.  he wound up reversing the 12-8 record he had posted in milwaukee, and his era continued to climb.  the tigers released him after the season, but he was quickly signed to a one-year deal by the red sox.

in the past, i haven't shown all of the teams that a dodger double dipper played for during his hiatus from los angeles, but in nomo's case i am making an exception because it really is strange to see him as a met, brewer and tiger.  i ignored his year in boston, though, because who needs to see more red sox cards? 

after a somewhat successful season in boston (13 wins, 220 strikeouts to lead the league, and a no-hitter), nomo became a free agent and returned to los angeles.  as you can see on his 2005 topps card, nomo wore number 10 in his second stint because paul loduca had taken 16.

nomo's return to the dodgers began well - he won 16 games in both 2002 and 2003, and his era was well below 4 in each of those seasons.  the wheels came off in 2004, however, as he struggled all year.  he finished the season having made 18 starts (he missed all of july and august) and had a record of 4-11 with an era of 8.25.  to no one's surprise, the dodgers released him after the season ended. 

nomo finished his career with stops in tampa and kansas city, although he also spent some time in the yankees and white sox organizations in between. 

in all, the dodgers missed out on 37 wins and 656 strikeouts while nomo was away.  as a dodger, he won 81 games and struck out exactly 1200 batters. this means, that all things being equal, had nomo remained with the dodgers and pitched the same as he did for the mets, brewers, tigers and red sox, he would be 16th all-time in wins (just ahead of bob welch) instead of 27th and 5th (ahead of fernando valenzuela) instead of 11th in strikeouts.

here's to you hideo nomo, double dipper!

let's turn two with a birthday salute to cookie rojas

cookie rojas turns seventy-dos today, but i prefer to think of him turning two on his fantastic 1971 topps card.  many folks have posted that card and written about it in the past, including me, night owl and dayf, so i won't go on about it other than to show the version that mr. rojas signed for me through the mail recently.

that's good cookie!

while on the the subject of ttm and double plays, felix millan signed his 1978 topps card for me a while back.

what i like about this card is that it's from my favorite all time set, it's the first double play turn on a card i ever saw, and it's got dave parker as a lurker barreling in on millan while felix stands his ground. it's also millan's final tribute, as he did not play in the majors after the 1977 season.

i contemplated sending this card on to the cobra, but decided against it.  i did, however, send his own 1978 topps card off to be signed, and the 1978 nl mvp obliged.

awesome.  parker was one of those non-dodgers i rooted for as a kid.  it was harmless - he was in the nl east and, after 1974, the dodgers never faced the pirates in the post season.  besides, parker was the guy who helped the national league win a bunch of all-star games, and he made two of the most unreal throws from the outfield in all-star game history - one to ron cey at third and one to gary carter at home - both in the 1979 game.  while neither were double plays, nailing brian downing at home in the 8th preserved the tie and allowed the national league to win with a solo run in the 9th.

happy birthday cookie, and thanks to you, felix and the cobra for signing my cards! 

quien es oreste marrero?

the easy answer is that oreste marrero (not orestes destrade) is this guy featured as a dodger on a 1997 pacific baseball card:

that's about all i knew about him until i looked around at baseball reference.  there, i learned that marrero signed with the dodgers as a free agent in february of 1995.  he had appeared in 32 games for the expos in 1993, but spent all of 1994 in their minor league system.

in 1995, marrero spent the year in double-a san antonio, with a cup of coffee in triple-a towards the end of the year.  the dodgers called him up in june of 1996, and he promptly hit an rbi double in his first at bat.  that hit came at wrigley field, and was hit to right field.  it could well be that the image on the card above is from that at bat.  actually, there's a 50/50 chance as marrero had two other at bats at wrigley during that series, and in those plate appearances, he popped out to short and then singled to right.

at any rate, marrero also appeared in a few games in september for the dodgers and finished the season with a .375 average (3 for 8).  he was not on their post season roster, and never got the call to return to the big leagues in 1997.

here's to you oreste marrero - i'm glad we at least have the 1997 pacific card to remember you by.  or learn about you, in my case.

the 1978 topps bobby welch card that should have been

here is one of my favorite cards that should have been in my 1978 topps burger king dodger/update set project.  that's right - it's the bobby welch 1978 topps burger king dodger/update card that should have been.

i love this card for many reasons.  first of all, the photo is age appropriate as it's from a 1978 dodger postcard.  second, that's pedro guerrero lurking in the background!  third, it's bobby welch on a 1978 topps card.  here's the back:

welch was the dodgers' first round pick in the 1977 draft, and he debuted about a year later in june of 1978.  in his first game, he pitched two scoreless innings in a loss to the astros.  it should be noted that welch struck out the first batter he faced - mike fischlin. the next day, welch relieved again and earned his first big league win.  in his next appearance, he earned his first save and then made his first career start in his 4th appearance and got his second win. so, in his first 5 appearances in the big leagues, welch was 2-0 with 2 saves and 13 strikeouts in 12.1 innings. 

of course, the highlight of welch's 1978 season came in game 2 of the world series when he relieved terry forster with two on, one out, and the dodgers clinging to a one run lead in the 9th inning.  welch got thurman munson to fly out, and then earned the save by striking out mr. october in one of the most nerve wracking at bats i have ever seen.

so, here's to you bobby welch and your 1978 topps burger king dodger/update card that should have been!