von joshua, double dipper and ttm signer

[this is the nineteenth 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, and denny lewallyn.]

some may have thought, back in 1975, that von joshua's final act as a dodger was making the last out in the 1974 world series. that's because, in game 5, joshua bounced the ball back to rollie fingers, and the dodgers' season was ended. after the season, the giants picked joshua up on waivers, and he spent the next one and a half seasons patrolling centerfield in candlestick park, although topps kept him in a dodgers' uniform for their 1975 set.

joshua began his career in 1969 after signing with the dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1967. he appeared in 14 games for the blue in '69, then spent about half the 1970 season with the big club. such a large amount of playing time meant that he was included in the 1971 topps set, as seen here on my card that he kindly signed through the mail.

in 1971, he saw action in just 11 games, and didn't appear for the dodgers at all in 1972. over the next two seasons, joshua played about half the time, seeing action at all three outfield spots. over his first stint with the dodgers, joshua had exactly 100 hits and a .246 average in 253 games.

as a giant, he flourished as a full-time player. he hit .318 with 10 triples and 20 steals in 1975, but had his contract purchased by the brewers in june of 1976. here's his 1977 topps card to document his time as a brewer.

and, while we're at it, here's his 1976 topps card that he also signed,

as well as his 1978 topps card.

through 1977, joshua hit .264 for the brew crew, and played in 251 games as their primary center fielder. however, the brewers decided to release joshua after spring training in 1978, and he went to the mexican leagues.

that's where, in 1979, the dodgers found him and brought him back to la. he again played all three outfield spots, and also saw time as the dodgers' left-handed bat off the bench. unfortunately, while he hit .329 as a starter, joshua was only 9 for 48 (.188) as a pinch-hitter. still, he played enough to warrant a card in topps' 1980 set as a dodger.

here's one that he signed for me.

perhaps the highlight of joshua's return to the dodgers was the 9th inning home run he hit off of the reds' tom hume on may 20, 1979 which broke a 4-4 tie. the dodgers wound up winning the game 6-4. it's not a walk-off or some other dramatic play, which means that, for most fans, joshua will still be remembered as the guy who made the last out of the 1974 world series.

here's to you, von joshua!  thanks for signing my cards!

i will also remember him as a dodger double dipper. here's to you, von joshua, and thanks for signing my cards.

the 1978 topps burger king dodgers/update joe simpson card that should have been!

joe simpson was drafted by the dodgers in 1973, and made his debut for the team as a late season call up in 1975. although he struck out in his first at bat (against the giants' ed halicki), he singled his second time up (which came almost 3 weeks later) for his first big league hit. over the next three seasons, simpson played the role of late or midseason call up, never appearing in more than 29 games for the dodgers, or getting more than 4 hits in any campaign. in fact, he had just one extra base hit (a double) and 2 rbi in his time as a dodger.

still, he appeared in 29 games for the 1977 nl champs, and 10 more for the 1978 pennant winners, so he deserves a 1978 topps burger king dodgers/update card that should have been:

complete with a back:

finding a color photo of simpson as a dodger turned out to be more difficult than i expected. in fact, i almost ordered one from brace photos before deciding to do some photoshopping. it should be noted that even black and white photos were hard to find. his 1990 target dodger card features a photo of him from his time in seattle, but i do have two black and white images of simpson as a dodger, one from the 1978 dodger yearbook, which i used to create this card

just as i did for ron washington, rick sutcliffe and others, and his 1979 topps card which feature fellow '1978 topps cards that should have been' members pedro guerrero and rudy law.

the interesting thing about the 1979 card, aside from the glasses, is that simpson spent the 1979 season in seattle (although he wasn't acquired by the mariners until late may 1979). he wound up playing in 120 games for the m's that season.

back to the card - i initially tried to use his 1981 donruss card

as the base, and worked to get dodger stadium in the background instead of comiskey. it turned out too dark with the shadows, although the uniform looked pretty good. his other cards that i found, including 1982 topps

and 1982 fleer

had too much blue and, in the case of the fleer, were poor quality images to begin with. so, i went with his 1983 donruss card.

i think it turned out ok.

simpson wound up playing for the mariners through the 1982 season hitting .252 in 445 games. he swatted all 9 of his career home runs as a mariner, and finished his big league career with a single season in kansas city in 1983, although he was in the angels' organization for the 1984 season. simpson may be best known for his announcing work with the braves, or maybe even being gaylord perry's 3000th strikeout victim while with the dodgers in 1978, but i'll remember him as a member of the 1977 and 1978 nl champs!

magnificent

the u2 show last night was magnificent.  oddly enough, they didn't play that song, one of the few that i would have recognized from their latest album.  it rained, poured, and thundered, but that just added to the experience.  easily in the top 3 u2 shows i have been to, even though the last song they did, 'moment of surrender' was kind of a buzzkill.  the song before that was 'with or without you' which has always been better live, especially when they do that 'shine like stars' part at the end.  unfortunately, i don't think they have done that part since the early 90's, and they didn't do it last night.

they gave the obligatory shout-out to amy winehouse, and at times sang verses from 'rain', 'singing in the rain' and 'purple rain' - a nod to the favored funk son of the twin cities.  no mockery of michele bachman, though.  bono must be slipping.

anyway, i figured i should show off some magnificent cards, but instead, i'll give you the garvey cey russell and lopes cards that have been in my scanned folder the longest, some going back to october of '08 around when i started this thing.

the garvey card is appropriate.  it's a 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams memorable moments

the cey is from 2001 upper deck decade 1970's, and it features dodger stadium and is the cey card in my blog header

 the russell is from the same set as the cey, which is kind of a poor man's 1975 topps

davey lopes takes us north of the border with his 1981 o-pee-chee

they shine like 'vedettes' in the summer night...

ok, no more u2 after this.  back to some cards that should have been tomorrow.

no line on the horizon

the show is tonight!  i'm looking forward to it.  based on recent setlists, it should be a pretty good show.  only a couple songs from their latest album 'no line on the horizon'.  what does that mean?  i'll interpret it (for the purposes of this post) as 'no end in sight'.  u2 released nloth in 2009, which is when manny was being manny on the ineligible list.

i'm picking on manny even though the real dodger equivalent to no end in sight is frank mccourt.  thankfully there are no frank mccourt cards (although i believe he is lurking in the jim thome card featured in this post) and manny has kind of come to symbolize the mccourt ownership:  we were warned against it, we bought into it, we celebrated its success, and now we feel dirty about it.  just like manny's time in la.

although there is no end in sight to mccourt's ownership thanks to what will likely be years of legal wrangling, i am hoping for the best.

how to dismantle an atomic bomb

here's how you dismantle an atomic bomb - you trade him to oakland for andre ethier.

u2 released 'how to dismantle an atomic bomb' in 2004.  the dodgers acquired milton bradley in that same year. i was a fan of bradley's - hoping he would pull it together in la.  he didn't, and he was traded in 2005.  sometimes you can't make it on your own.

he was good at pinching it, can he coach it?

the dodgers named a new hitting coach the other day - double dipper and pinch-hitter extraordinaire dave hansen.

hitting coach has to be one of the crappiest jobs in the big leagues.  if guys are hitting, then they are doing what they are paid to do.  if guys aren't hitting, the coach takes the fall.  i hope the dodger offense gets going and dave earns some kudos.

he was kind enough to sign and return some cards for me earlier this spring.  here's a 1993 topps

 and a 1995 topps from his first stint with the dodgers.

 he also signed a 2001 topps from his second go 'round with the team.

thanks dave, and good luck.  just tell 'em to hit 'em where they ain't!

all that you can't leave behind

do you know what gary sheffield did while he was with the dodgers? 

he got on base (i actually really like that 2000 upper deck card, despite my feelings for sheffield in a dodgers uni).  in each of his 3 full seasons in la, sheffield got on base over 40% of the time.  he also drove in over 100 runs each of those 3 seasons.  his best season as a dodger was 2000, when he went 43/109/.325, but also scored 105 times, walked 101 times, and had an obp of .438.

as for the lads from ireland, u2 released an album in 2000 called 'all that you can't leave behind'.  it struck me as somewhat of a return to their earlier days - not a whole lot of style or weird stuff on this one.  a friend convinced me to buy it a few months after it's october release, and i'm glad i took his advice.

back to sheff.  it's too bad he couldn't leave behind all the baggage that he carried with him.  his request for a contract extension and outspoken discontentment in the spring of 2001 naturally soured the dodgers' front office on him.  i recall that i was just starting to feel comfortable with him wearing dodger blue when his comments about his teammates' contracts came out.  game over gary.  even if it were true about carlos perez, darren dreifort, kevin brown and shawn green, sheffield still had 3 years left on his deal. it took a full year after all of that business for the sherrif to trade sheffield, and i was glad to see him take his baggage with him to atlanta.