sunday morning target dodgers - with a couple of barneys

it's time for another sheet from the 1990 target dodger 100th anniversary set. here are 15 more players to have worn the brooklyn/los angeles uniform.

raleigh aitchison

aitchison was 0-1 for the 1911 dodgers despite having an era of 0.00.  he allowed two unearned runs in his lone outing that year and took the loss.  he was back in the majors in 1914, when he was 12-7 with a 2.66 era for the robins, but in 1915 - his last season in the big leagues - he was 0-4 for brooklyn with a 4.96 era.

ed appleton

appleton was a teammate of aitchison's in 1915. in fact, their photos on these cards may well have come from the same team photo. anyway, appleton was 4-10 for the robins in 1915, and then 1-2 in 14 games for them in 1916. he did not appear in the 1916 world series against the red sox.

rex barney

barney broke into the majors in 1943 as an 18-year old pitcher for the dodgers. he made it back to the big leagues to stay in 1946, and was a member of the dodger pitching staff for the next five seasons.  his best season came in 1948 when he won 15 games and threw a no-hitter against the giants, although his greatest thrill in baseball may well have been when he struck joe dimaggio out with the bases loaded in the 1947 world series.  after retiring as a player, barney became the public address announcer for the baltimore orioles, and held that position until he passed away in 1997.

bob barr

barr's big league career consisted of 2 road games during the 1935 season. he pitched a total of 2.1 innings for brooklyn in those games, allowing 3 runs (one earned).

john corriden

this one is interesting.  that is a photo of john 'red' corriden, who played in the major leagues from 1910-1915, although not for brooklyn. he did join the dodgers as a coach from 1941-1946, and that timeframe is certainly from where this photo originated.  however, corriden's son, also named john, did play for the dodgers in 1946.  while the elder corriden was an infielder, the son played the outfield, although not in the major leagues.  in his lone big league appearance, john corriden was used as a pinch-runner, and he scored a run.

jack doyle

doyle, a native of ireland, was the superbas' first baseman in 1903.  he hit .313 that year, with 91 rbi. after a slow start to the 1904 season, doyle's contract was purchased by the phillies.  doyle later scouted for the cubs.

kid elberfeld

eberfeld (nicknamed 'the tabasco kid') had already been a major league manager (new york highlanders in 1908) and a minor league manager (chattanooga lookouts in 1913) when he joined the robins in 1914.  in his last term as a major league player, eberfeld appeared in 30 games for brooklyn, hitting .226 with a double and an rbi.

johnny enzmann

enzmann (nicknamed gentleman john) was a teammate of eberfeld's in 1914.  while it was the last big league season for eberfeld, it was enzmann's first, and he was 1-0 in 7 appearances.  enzmann didn't return to the majors until 1918, however, when he was a member of the cleveland indians.

barney koch

koch appeared in 33 major league games, all with the 1944 brooklyn dodgers.  he played shortstop and second base, and hit .219 in 101 plate appearances.

joe koukalik

there's already been an irishman on this sheet, and now we have a guy who was born in austria.  koukalik pitched in one game for the 1904 superbas. he took the loss, although he pitched a complete game (8 innings) and allowed just one earned run.

hack miller

miller made his debut with the 1916 brooklyn robins. he was 1 for 3 at the plate, with his lone (and first) hit being a triple.  he didn't appear in the world series that year, but did win a ring in his next big league season - 1918 - with the red sox.

chink outen

outen was a catcher on the 1933 dodgers, and he appeared in 93 games for the club. he hit 4 homers, including an inside-the-park job, and drove in 17 runs. he had an extended minor league career, but just the one season in the majors.

lou rochelli

rochelli, like barney koch above, spent just one season (one week, really) in the majors -  1944 with the dodgers.  he played in 5 games and was 3 for 17 with a triple.  after serving in the armed forces following his big league experience, rochelli returned to the dodger organization and managed in their minor league system for several years.

jack ryan

ryan pitched in 3 games for the 1911 dodgers. he started one and finished two others, and was 0-1 with a 3.00 era.

joe schultz

also known as 'germany', schultz spent the first part of the 1915 season with the robins.  before they traded him to the cubs, he appeared in 56 games and hit .292.  during his career, he played for seven of the eight national league clubs (he was never a giant), and he later scouted for the pirates. his son, joe schultz, was the manager of the pilots in their lone season.

spring has sprung

spring training camps have been broken for the year, and the dodgers are now in southern california passing time with the angels until their season opens on monday.  arpsmith is also in socal, and that's where he presumably acquired these cards that i received recently.

2015 topps adrian gonzalez spring fever

there's only one local card shop that i go to these days (i think there are 3 or 4 in the twin cities), but i don't know if they participate in this promotion or not.  thankfully, arpsmith has a guy who does.

here's a midsummer card - 2014 topps update dee gordon all-star relic

that would be a piece of the all-star game warm up or practice apparel. kudos to topps for getting a photo of dee from the asg to use on the card.

here's another relic - 2014 topps gypsy queen zack greinke

i'm expecting big things from zack since this is an opt-out year for him.

2014 topps heritage minors jesmuel valentin

valentin is the son of jose valentin, who is currently the padres' first base coach.  the dodgers traded jesmuel to the phillies last year as one of the players to be named later in the roberto hernandez (fausto carmona) deal.

2001 topps heritage gary sheffield

arpsmith sent me some cards towards my 2001 topps heritage want list, including the sheff above. i recently took a quiz to see if i could name the top 21 los angeles dodger home run hitters of all time. i got 18 of them right - i forgot john roseboro and ron fairly, who were tied with 90 at the bottom of the list, but i am ashamed to have not named sheffield who put up some of the best offensive numbers ever by a dodger.

last, but not least, here's a 1987 fleer bill russell card, signed by the shortstop of the team of my youth himself

russell did not make the list of the top 21 la dodger home run hitters despite playing his entire career there and appearing in more games than any other la dodger.  russell had only 46 home runs during his career.

thanks for the trade adam! here's hoping the giants give someone else from their division a chance to win the world series this year.

well, that didn't last long

when 2015 topps series one was released, i expressed my happiness over the fact that 'series one' was added to the backs of cards. even if it only showed up on the base cards and not the inserts, it was a step in the right direction as far as being able to identify which set a certain card came from.  upper deck had done this for at least three years, and i am very thankful for it.

well, when i opened a pack of 2015 topps opening day, i was disappointed.  here's the back of adrian gonzalez's card from that set.

there is no mention of the set anywhere on the back.  granted, the front of the card

features the opening day logo, but i still lobby for set information on the backs.

here are some other 2015 cards that i've procured through a few pack purchases.

2015 donruss yasiel puig

these are not attractive cards, but flipping the inserts covered the cost of my jumbo pack, and so i got this puig for free.  i do not know what panini is obscuring by pasting into the picture a different group of fans above the brick wall, but i'm guessing it had something to do with logos.

how about some heritage? yes, i bought another 35-card box of 2015 topps heritage recently, and was rewarded with my first howie kendrick as a dodger card

plus the clayton kershaw/adam wainwright nl aces card

and a yimi garcia card

this is not the format for multi-team rookie cards in the 1966 set, by the way.

here's another rookie card from 2015 topps heritage that i picked up on sportlots.

it features the dodgers' centerfielder, joc pederson.

i've also gone and picked up a fair number of the dodger cards from the aforementioned 2015 topps series one set, including mr. pederson

and mr. garcia

who were given cards all to themselves by topps in this set.

here's andre ethier

who looks to be the odd man out in the outfield again this year.

here are yasiel puig on his base card

and his archetypes insert

lots of running photos for puig.

i assume topps is running out of photos to use of sandy koufax because they paired fernando valenzuela with kershaw on this inspired play insert

here's one of kershaw's league leader cards

and here's his base card

i picked up a few gold parallels on sportlots, including kershaw's

and hyun-jin ryu's (but first his base card)

ditto for carl crawford

and matt kemp

although i also picked up kemp's toys r us purple parallel

i thought about doing a rainbow of kemp's last dodger card, but i've sort of lost interest.

here's a-gon's gold parallel

which we know is from series one because it says so on the back.

i'll have to remember a few years from now that these first pitch inserts of suzy

and jeff bridges

are also from series one and not opening day (which has featured presidential first pitch inserts in the past) because topps apparently doesn't think consistently putting set information on the back is worthwhile.  maybe next year?

seventy? seriously?

this is crazy, but don sutton - the lone hall of famer from the team of my youth - turns 70 years old today.  to celebrate, here are seven cards of his that i've not shown before.

2007 upper deck sp legendary cuts

2005 donruss throwback threads

2005 upper deck sp legendary cuts

2013 panini hometown heroes rivalry

1987 o-pee-chee box card

2007 upper deck sweet spot classic relic

2012 panini cooperstown credentials

as you can see, i don't discriminate when it comes to sutton - i'll take angels, a's, brewers, and even astro cards featuring the curly haired hof'er.

if it's sutton's 70th birthday, that means that it is also reggie smith's 70th birthday.  unfortunately, i am ill prepared with reggie's cards as he doesn't appear in many modern sets like sutton does.  i'll have to make it up to the right fielder of the team of my youth another time.

happy birthday to two of my favorite dodgers!

the steve garvey binder moves into 1985

sweet sheet 16 of the garvey binders is chock full of brown and gold.  take a look.

for the record, those cards are:

1. 1984 topps tiffany
2. 1985 armstrong ceramics
3. 1985 donruss
4. 1985 drake's
5. 1985 fleer
6. 1985 fleer (nl all-stars superstar special)
7. 1985 fleer (nl pennant clinchers superstar special)
8. 1985 fleer limited edition
9. 1985 leaf

here are the backs

the armstrong ceramic card is pretty weighty. it really is ceramic.  not much to say about the other cards except that i was really disappointed in the lack of attention paid to garvey's 1984 nlcs heroics by the major card companies as well as his return to the starting lineup for the national league in the all-star game. kudos to fleer for acknowledging both of those accomplishments.

here's sheet 17:

1. 1982-89 louisville slugger
2. 1985 mother's cookies padres
3. 1985 o-pee-chee
4. 1985 o-pee-chee stickers (nlcs - batting)
5. 1985 o-pee-chee stickers (nlcs - posed)
6. 1985 o-pee-chee stickers
7. 1985 pacific cramer spokane indians greats
8. 1985 topps (record breaker)
9. 1985 topps

i put the louisville slugger card here in 1985 because why not.  and, after lamenting the lack of attention paid to the 1984 nlcs, there's a sticker of the garv hitting his walk-off home run against lee smith.

the lone dodger (sort of) card here is the seventh one - a 1985 pacific cramer spokane indians greats card.  that set is chock full of great dodgers from the 1970's who spent time at the team's triple-a affiliate.  garvey spent just one season in spokane (1970) and hit .319 with 15 homers and 87 rbi.

here are the backs:

i am pretty sure that 1985 continues for at least one more sheet...

simply gorgeous

i sort of stumbled into a small cache of 1950's cards recently.  there was one card in particular that i was after, and it was included in a lot with about a dozen others. i was somewhat surprised when this beauty fell out of the package.

that would be a 1953 bowman color gil hodges card, and it is pretty as heck, even with the pinholes.  it' features the type of photo that might have been used in the 1957 topps set - full of color with the old ballpark on full display.  ebbets field shines in the background with the outfield advertising, especially the schaefer beer sign. i understand that the sign would light up its 'h' if a player reached base on a hit, and it would light up one of its 'e's if the player reached by error.  that's a great way to get several thousand people to fixate on your sign.

here's the back of the card which is really bright.

so happy to have this card.

there was one other 1953 bowman color dodger card in the lot, and it was fellow boy of summer carl furillo's

a bit more damaged and without as colorful a background, it's still nice.  the back is a bit more worn than that of the hodges card

the person who wrote the text was spot on - furillo bounced back in 1953 in a huge way. he led the league with a .344 batting average, was 3rd in doubles, and 5th in slugging percentage and ops.

as for the cards, they are the 3rd and 4th dodger cards i have from the set, two of which (the pee wee reese and the hodges) sit firmly in my top ten-ish favorite dodger cards in my collection. and to think the acquisition of the hodges card was a happy byproduct of a purchase of a different card.  i'll show that card in a couple of weeks or so...