horton heard a ttm request

ricky horton didn't spend a whole lot of time with the dodgers, but he was there long enough to win a world series in 1988 and get a very nice 1989 topps card featuring dodger stadium as the background.  he recently signed a copy for me through the mail.

he also had a pretty boring 1989 donruss card which he also signed

and a nice 1989 bowman card (thanks to the lack of a posed photo) that made a triumvirate of tttm success

horton is better remembered for his two tours of duty with the cardinals (he pitched against the dodgers in the 1985 nlcs) although he also pitched for the white sox for the first part of the 1988 season.  the dodgers picked him up in a trade for shawn hillegas late in the '88 season, and horton helped the blue get to the playoffs and beyond.  he didn't appear in the world series, but he pitched well in the nlcs against the mets.

thanks ricky!

red letter (and patch) mail day

i received a few things in the mail one day last week.  there were a couple of individual cards that made me happy.  one was this 1971 o-pee-chee team and text variation of jackie hernandez.

note the red lettering.  the more common version of hernandez's card features yellow text for the pirates' team name.  i have updated the 1971 jackie hernandez post on oh my o-pee-chee! to showcase my version of the card (i had previously been showing an image from comc).  i actually got this card on ebay via a second chance offer.  i had lost the original auction and either the winner didn't pay or the seller had multiple copies.  either way, it was one of just two that i have seen on ebay (for a reasonable price) in a couple of years.

next up is a red patch card from 2008 upper deck baseball heroes featuring chad billingsley

bills is in the process of breaking out this season, so i have a somewhat renewed interest in his stuff.  i had kinda detached myself from him as i figured he would be pitching in saint louis or somewhere like that eventually.  now he looks like a legit number 2 starter.  anyway, this card came in a deal brokered by spastikmooss over at the great sports name hot and i couldn't be happier about it.  i had/have a thing for red dodger patches since that comes only from the jersey number on the front.  i bought quite a few of them in the early 2000's - mostly shawn green and kevin brown - and know now that some may not be legit.  oh well - i still have the greatest red patch dodger card of all time.

thanks tim!

in with the old

so, i picked up an unexpected card at the show last weekend.  it immediately jumped to the front of my first dodger binder, as it is the oldest dodger card i own.  it's a 1933 goudey john (bud) clancy.

it set me back about 8 bucks.  i appreciate the fact that it is so clearly a dodger card, even though i knew nothing of clancy until i saw the card.  even then, i knew only that he had at one time played for them.  i know now that he spent one season with brooklyn - conveniently it was 1932 which facilitated this card.

clancy was a first baseman who hit over .300 in that lone dodger season which was sandwiched between a few years with the white sox and a final campaign with the phillies, which is not to mention his extensive minor league career. 

it's nice to have you on board, bud.

five. five dollar. five dollar rookie.

i had been looking for a 1963 topps dave mcnally rookie card for a while, thanks to the presence of dodger ken rowe in the lower right.

come on, topps.  can't we even get an airbrushed logo for our troubles?  

the card is, of course, a high number (562) and tough to come by.  i was watching a couple of auctions on ebay, and the most recent one carried a bin of $40.  well, last saturday i told the vintage bargain bin guy i was looking for the card, and he scrambled for a couple of minutes and produced the one you see there up top.  he glanced at it for a short time and tossed it my way.  '5 bucks' is what he said.  'done' is what i said.  and so, for the price of a footlong sandwich, dave mcnally and the rowe brothers were mine.

it turns out that the rowes weren't related after all.  and, i am guessing the photo topps used for rowe featured a brooklyn cap as he was in the dodger system from 1955 until september of 1964.  the dodger rowe made his big league debut in 1963 and pitched in 14 games.  he was 1-1 with a 'save' and a tidy era of 2.93.  he was back in the minors for the 1964 season, and was traded to baltimore that september.  he appeared in a few games for the orioles in 1964 and 1965 where he was relieved by mcnally on at least one occasion.

now i'm down to just a couple of cards left for my 1963 topps dodger set.  my want list shows i need a koufax, but i am pretty sure i have that one in with my koufax binder - i just need to move it over.  welcome to the collection, mr. rowe! 

turning two on a dime

there were plenty of kick ass double play cards in the dime box at the show last weekend.  i splurged and bought a full dollar's worth.  here's a 1996 score ozzie smith card with a lurking chad fonville and the first row of the dodger stadium right field pavilion.

here's another ozzie from dodger stadium, this time with eric karros and part of the left field pavilion

it's one of the better 1993 upper deck cards, even with karros not really knowing how to slide.

here's yet another ozzie card, this time from 1994 upper deck

except this time he's in san diego.  boo.

also from 1994, it's a tyne sandberg upper deck collector's choice card

i'm guessing that's a cardinal of sorts sliding in.  but who cares, really.

roberto alomar has a bunch of good dp cards, and there were a few in the box.  here's a 1993 upper deck insert

with kenny lofton.  and then we have a 1996 donruss card

again with kenny lofton.  but it's not kenny lofton on alomar's 1997 upper deck collector's choice card

instead, i think it's a ranger.  a ranger like michael young who is turning two on his 2008 upper deck masterpieces card

lastly, a couple of bowman cards - a 2010 derek jeter

and a 2010 bowman chrome hanley ramirez

nice turns.  in fact, i'd buy those for a dollar.  and i did.

the rest of the 1978 topps dodgers in 1979

here's the second part of the 1978 topps dodgers as they appeared in 1979.  we start part 2 with happy hooton.

hooton pitched well in 1979.  he had an era of 2.97 in 29 starts, threw a shutout and completed 17 games.  unfortunately, his win-loss record was only 11-10.  he pitched well enough to be 16-5, in my opinion.  he was shelved for most of september with a sore shoulder.

charlie hough

was 1-2 out of the bullpen for the dodgers with no saves for the first time since his cups of coffee in the early 1970s when tom lasorda put him in the starting rotation shortly after the all-star break.  hough made 14 starts and went 6-3 in that role, with the team going 10-4 in those games.

speaking of lasorda, he got a card in the 1979 set, sharing space with the 1978 dodgers on the team checklist card

this was the norm from 1975-1977, and i'm glad they separated the two in 1978.  lasorda got a dose of reality in 1979 as the dodgers won only 79 games and finished 3rd in the nl west.  i believe that was the first time any team managed by lasorda finished below 2nd place.  still, as the reigning pennant-winning manager, lasorda got to manage the national league in the all-star game, and he was victorious in his effort.

speaking of all-stars, davey lopes was voted to start in the all-star game for the first time in his career in 1979

he exploded at the plate that year, hitting 28 home runs (tied with garvey and cey for the team lead).  those home runs included 7 of the lead-off variety, plus an inside-the-park job.  in addition, the first and last home runs of the season for lopes were walk-offs, including a grand slam off of bruce sutter to cap his campaign.  he also stole 44 bases in 48 attempts.  at the all-star game, lopes was 1 for 3 but led off the game by striking out against nolan ryan.

ted martinez

played his final season in the big leagues in 1979.  he appeared in 81 games and hit .268.  he played third, short, and second about equally, and started at second or short in 9 of the dodgers' last 10 games of the season.  his last big league hit came off of vern ruhle, and his last major league at bat was against joe sambito.

rick monday mirrors martinez's pose while rocking the all-star banner on his 1979 topps card

at least he's not picking his teeth.  monday hit .303 on the year in 1979, however, he played in only 12 games and all ten of his hits were singles.  he had surgery on his achilles tendon in july after sitting out for a couple of months and wound up missing pretty much the entire season.

manny mota didn't get to play the field much, even with monday out

he made 47 appearances, all as a pinch-hitter (although he did stay in one game and play some left field).  he was 15 for 42 (.357) on the year with 3 rbi.  like monday, all of his hits were singles, but one of those was his 145th career pinch hit, setting a major league record.  i don't remember the hit, which came on 9/2/19 against lynn mcglothen of the cubs, but i do remember his 5th attempt to set the record which came a few days earlier.  i can distinctly recall the anticipation in vin scully's voice as he made the call on a sharp line drive that was snared by the cardinals' second baseman to postpone mota's achievement.

johnny oates

made his way into 26 games in 1979.  he hit just .130 although he did throw out 7 of 19 base stealers.  oates would be released by the dodgers during spring training in 1980, so 1979 was his last season with the club.

doug rau

also had his final season in dodger blue in 1979.  he was 1-5 with a 5.30 era in 11 starts, but his lone win was a one-hit shutout of the expos in mid-may.  sadly, the only expos hit came with 2 outs in the 8th inning.  even worse, it was chris speier who had also broken up a potential rau no-hitter with a late-inning hit earlier in their careers.  less than a month later, rau was lost for the season with a torn rotator cuff.

bill russell was the only member of the infield not to hit exactly 28 home runs in 1979.

he hit 7, one of which was a walk-off.  he also played in 153 games and hit .271.

reggie smith, like forster and monday and rau, also caught the injury bug in 1979

he played in 68 games and hit .274 with 10 homers while battling a nagging achilles injury.  he finally gave up after august 1st and sat out the remainder of the season.

don sutton liked to kneel on his topps cards.  at least on this one and the two he got in 1981 as we shall see eventually.

sutton had a losing record for the first time since 1969.  he was 12-15 with a 3.82 era in 32 starts and one relief appearance in 1979.  that relief duty earned him his 4th career save, and came in the final appearance of the season for sutton.  he had 1 shutout and six complete games, including 4 of his first 7 starts of the season.

finally, we have steve yeager

yeager played in 105 games in 1979, catching in 103 of them.  he threw out 41% of would be base stealers, and stole a base of his own.  he also smacked 13 homers (including two 2-homer games) and hit on the right side of .200 after a down year at the plate in 1978.

and those were the 1978 topps dodgers in 1979.  it was the first time since 1974 that none of the players appeared on a secondary card.  here's the running tally:

26/27 members of the 1978 topps dodgers featured by topps in 1979

total appearances:

baker 9 (1971-1979)
burke 2 (1978-1979)
cey 8 (1972-1979)
davalillo 14 (1963-1974, 1978-1979)
forster 8 (1972-1979)
garman 8 (1971-1973, 1975-1979)
garvey 9 (1971-1979)
goodson 6 (1973-1978)
grote 15 (1964-1976, 1978-1979)
hooton 8 (1972-1979)
hough 8 (1972-1979)
john 16 (1964-1979)
lacy 7 (1973-1979)
lasorda 6 (1954, 1973-1974, 1977-1979)
lopes 7 (1973-1979)
martinez 8 (1971-1976, 1978-1979)
monday 13 (1967-1979)
mota 17 (1963-1979)
oates 8 (1972-1979)
rau 7 (1973-1979)
rautzhan 2 (1978-1979)
rhoden 5 (1975-1979)
russell 10 (1970-1979)
smith 13 (1967-1979)
sosa 6 (1974-1979)
sutton 14 (1966-1979)
yeager 7 (1973-1979)

teams represented so far:

17 (dodgers, indians, colt .45's, pirates, white sox, astros, mets, a's, red sox, angels, expos, cardinals, braves, cubs, orioles, giants, phillies)

one man down, four more to follow - the 1978 topps dodgers in 1979

we lost ed goodson before the 1979 topps set was released, as his 1978 topps card was a 'final tribute'.  in 1979, there are five more players who received their final hurrah from topps, one who received a final tribute of their own, one who almost did, and three who actually played during the season, but were not featured in the 1980 set.

first up is mike garman

garman had spent the latter part of the 1978 season with the expos thanks to a may trade that netted the dodgers gerry hannahs and another player.  garman returned to the expos for spring training in 1979, but was unfortunately released at the end of march.  that means that this card is a final tribute - here are his full career stats:

congrats on your career, mike.

now we have the curious case of jerry grote

after the 1978 postseason, grote retired. which is to say he became a free agent and didn't sign with anyone.  so, at the time i figured that the stats on the back of his 1979 card were his total career stats and that this was a final tribute.  i was wrong, as grote resurfaced with the royals (and later the dodgers) in 1981.

here's glenn burke

who, like garman, spent most of 1978 with a team other than the dodgers.  he was traded in may for bill north.  unlike garman, burke played in the big leagues in 1979.  he appeared in 23 games for the a's, hitting .213 with 4 runs scored, 4 rbi and 3 stolen bases.  the final hit of his career came off of jack morris, and his final big league appearance was a 14-inning affair on june 4th in which he played the entire game.  shortly after, burke walked out on the team and didn't return until 1980 when he spent a short time with their aaa team.  the remainder of burke's life is fairly well documented - hopefully you caught the documentary 'out' that was aired last year on most sports networks.

vic davalillo

was 42 in 1979, and made 29 appearances for the dodgers, and all but three came as a pinch-hitter.  davalillo was 6 for 25 in that role with a double and two rbi.  he even stole a couple of bases.  unfortunately, topps didn't think his role with the club warranted any more cards after this one.

lance rautzhan got a card of his own in 1979, and it looks a lot like davalillo's

he lasted 12 appearances before the brewers purchased his contract from the dodgers in may.  he was 0-2 with a save and a 7.45 era at the time of the deal.  in milwaukee, he pitched in 3 games, totaling 3 innings of work but walked 10 men.  somehow he gave up only 3 runs.  in his last appearance (which came on june 3), rautzhan's final two-thirds of an inning consisted of a strikeout (hal mcrae), a single (ul washington), two wild pitches, another strikeout (todd cruz), and a walk (willie wilson).  rautzhan spent the rest of the season in the minors, and never did get back to the big leagues.

another member of the 1978 topps dodgers who had jumped ship was featured out of dodger blue for the first time.  that was elias sosa, whose final pitch as a dodger had resulted in one of reggie jackson's three game 6 home runs in the 1977 world series.

by the time he was featured as a member of the a's in the 1979 topps set, sosa was a member of the expos.  he continued the success he had enjoyed during his one year in oakland, saving a career high 18 games for montreal while posting a 1.96 era in his 62 games. he also tallied his only career extra base hit in 1979 - an rbi double off of ron reed of the phillies.

three more members of the 1978 topps dodgers spent the 1979 season out of dodger blue.  the first of these three is tommy john

tj signed a free agent deal with the yankees, of all teams.  i guess if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.  it didn't work out too well for john in terms of postseason success, but he did win 20 games for the second time in his career.  for the 1979 season, he was 21-9 in 36 starts (plus one relief appearance).  his era was 2.96 and he had 17 complete games and 3 shutouts.  the yankees won 89 games that year, but finished 4th in the nl east. john's highlight of the season was his two-hit shutout against the red sox and dennis eckersley on may 20.  he allowed a single to the first batter, jerry remy, but promptly picked him off of first base.  john then retired 26 of the remaining 27 batters he faced (fred lynn was stranded on second after his fourth inning double) to finish with the shutout win.

lee lacy went to the pirates as a free agent for the 1979 season

and rick rhoden joined him in pittsburgh thanks to an early season trade for jerry reuss.

lacy played mostly left field for the bucs, appearing in 84 games and batting .247.  as a pirate, lacy made it to the world series for the third year in a row, although this time he won a ring.  he appeared in 4 games during the 1979 fall classic, all as a pinch-hitter, and was 1 for 4 in those appearances.  rhoden, on the other hand, was supposed to be a fixture in the starting rotation for chuck tanner's team.  unfortunately, he made only one start for pittsburgh before being lost for the season due to injury.  he did go 1 for 1 at the plate in that start, so at least he had a 1.000 batting average that year.

for the rest of the team, it was business as usual.  dusty baker

played 151 games in left and hit 23 homers with 88 rbi.  his first homer of the season came off of joe niekro, and the last bomb he hit in 1979 came courtesy of joe's brother phil.

ron cey

was still at third, where he played in 150 games, swatting 28 homers and driving in 81 while batting .281.  the penguin made the all-star team for the sixth straight year and also for the last time in his career, going 0 for 1 with a walk after replacing starter mike schmidt.  this was the year that dave parker showed off his arm, nailing jim rice trying to stretch a 7th inning double into a triple with cey making the tag. parker threw brian downing out at the plate in the following inning, but that has nothing to do with ron cey.  cey hit the 150th home run of his career in 1979 - it came against hall of famer gaylord perry.  in fact, it was the second home run cey hit off of perry that day, and the third time he had taken him deep that season.

terry forster

looks like he was pitching at boise state on his 1979 topps card.  after his stellar 1978 season, forster had some arm troubles in 1979 and appeared in only 17 games.  he was 1-2 with 2 saves and had only one plate appearance on the year - just like rhoden.  and, like rhoden, his obp for the year was 1.000, although forster managed a walk rather than a base hit.

steve garvey had another 'garvey' season in 1979

he played in every game, got his 200 hits (204, actually), hit over .300 (.315), and was voted to start the all-star game for the sixth straight year.  he hit 28 homers and drove in 110 runs, but didn't walk much.  he also hit into a bunch of double plays - 25 to be exact; the most in the national league.  as an all-star, garvey was 0 for 2 with a run and a walk.  like his fellow infielder ron cey, garvey hit his 150th career homer in 1979, although his was just a solo shot off of john denny - nothing spectacular.

the rest of the 1978 topps dodgers in 1979 will be up tomorrow.