basking in the glow of a topps certified bill russell auto with some non-certified successes

i am not sure that this morning's post regarding the 2014 topps archives bill russell autograph card really conveyed the excitement i felt when i first saw it.  rest assured, i went from disbelief to excitement to a steady state of happiness in a short order of time.  it's only a card for which i have been waiting for, well, ever since topps started putting autographed cards in their packs.

meanwhile, i've had a few other russell autographed cards sitting patiently in my scanned folder.  this is a 1985 donruss card that i picked up in a lot of dodger auto'd cards

looks legit.

these next three - a 2001 upper deck decade 1970's

2004 upper deck legends timeless teams

and 2004 upper deck sp legendary cuts

were all the result of a ttm success i had with the former dodger player, coach, and manager over 2 years ago.  look at upper deck recycling images in 2004 just like topps does today!

russell doesn't sign through the mail anymore, and only upper deck had issued certified russell autos until this year (as part of the 2003 sp chirography set, the 2004 legends set, and the 2005 upper deck classics release).  still, i'm hoping you haven't seen the last of the bill russell autographs that i will acquire for my collection.

this had seemed most improbable

following up on davey lopes' inclusion in the 2013 topps archives set with a short print and an auto, as well as steve garvey's autos in 2013 panini and topps, and the ron cey auto available from panini golden age that same year, 2014 has brought to me a 2014 topps archives bill russell on-card, certified autographed card.  unbelievable!

i did not consider this to be very likely given that topps has not once put russell in a fan favorites issue.  the last time topps issued a card featuring the shortstop of the team of my youth, it was 1987.  upper deck included him in a number of releases much to my enjoyment, but not topps.  we got the likes of tom niedenfuer in 2005 topps all-time fan favorites

 and 2005 topps retired

but never russell.  i was shocked when i first saw one of these cards show up on ebay.

here's the back

not sure how topps decided on truncating the stat rows, but they left out russell's final six seasons with the club.  the career totals are correct however, and so is the cartoon - russell played in 2181 games as a los angeles dodger, just about 230 more than the next player on the list, willie davis.  in fact, the only player to wear the franchise's uniform in more games than russell is hall of famer zach wheat.  wouldn't it be nice to see him in one of these sets sometime…

thanks, topps, for thinking of bill russell.  he definitely was one of this fan's favorites.

maurice morning wills, dodger double dipper

as of june 24, 1962, dodger shortstop maury wills had 39 stolen bases on the season.  he went on to steal a then record 104 bags and win the mvp award in the process.  today, june 24, 2014, dee gordon has 39 stolen bases to his credit so far this season.  will dee steal 104 bases?  will he win the mvp award?  will he eventually leave the dodgers, only to return a few seasons later as wills did?  only time will tell.  in the meantime, here's a dodger double dipper post.

[this is the seventythird 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, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, babe herman, joe medwick, juan castro, ron perranoski, clyde king, paul waner, hughie jennings, ron negray, broadway aleck smith, george smith, johnny cooney, jim fairey, frenchy bordagaray, doc casey, waite hoyt, luis olmo, clyde sukeforth, willie keeler,  harry howell, germany smith, johnny allen, marv rackley, and bobo newsom.]

maury wills debuted for the dodgers in 1959.  his first card is arguably the 1960 topps 1959 world series game 5 recap card 'luis swipes base', a card i addressed here.  he would have a few cards manufactured by other companies before appearing on a topps card again.  here's one of them - a 1962 post card

and another - a 1963 jello card

both cards note wills' prowess as a base stealer - he led the league in that category each season from 1960 through 1965.  the jello card references the old stolen base record set by ty cobb of 96 steals in 154 games.  actually, cobb played in 156 games during his record setting 1915 season, and although wills stole his 104 bags over a record 165 games, he made sure to steal two bags in game 156 to bring his running total to 97.  this was the year after roger maris broke babe ruth's single season home run record, and i would imagine that baseball purists and ty cobb fans would have demanded an asterisk had wills fallen short of 96 steals after 156 games.  i guess it's worth noting that wills had 100 steals after 162 games, but twelve and twenty years later, it wouldn't matter as lou brock had 118 steals in 1974 when the cardinals played only 161 games, and rickey henderson set his record 130 steals in 1982 when the a's also played 161 (henderson only appeared in 149 games that year!).

as for wills, he remained the dodgers' shortstop through the 1966 postseason, after which he was traded to the pirates to be their third baseman in 1967.  it was that year that he finally signed with topps and received a regular 1967 topps base card of his own, although it's a more scarce high number.  i showed my beat up copy in this post, along with a bunch of his cards that should have been that i created.

here's a 1969 topps deckle edge card of wills in a pirates uniform

although the 'p' on the hat has been removed because wills became a member of the expansion montreal expos following his two seasons in pittsburgh.  he has the distinction of being the expos' first shortstop and the first expo ever to bat.  really, the first expo ever to appear in a game, as montreal opened their inaugural season in new york against tom seaver and the mets.  he was also the first expo to strike out, the second one to double, the third one to score a run, the first to record a put out, the first to record an assist, and, fittingly, the first to steal a base.  wills only stole 15 bases for the expos in 1969, mostly because he was traded back to the dodgers in early june.

wills reclaimed his shortstop position upon his return to the dodgers, moving eventual rookie of the year ted sizemore to second base.  he eventually gave way to bill russell, and his career came to an end with the close of the 1972 season.  here's wills' 1972 o-pee-chee card

to document his second go-around with the dodgers at the major league level.  i state it like that because wills had actually left and returned to the dodger organization a couple of times before.  after signing with the club in 1951, he was claimed by the reds in the 1956 minor league draft and spent 1957 with their minor league affiliate in seattle.  wills was returned to the dodgers after the 1957 season, but then was sent to the tigers a year later.  they returned him to los angeles just before the 1959 season began, and the rest is dodger history.  to clarify, wills is still only a double dipper because i only consider those players who played as a dodger at the major league level before leaving the franchise and then eventually returned and played as a dodger in the big leagues again. sorry ted lilly, shane victorino, scott proctor, etc.

i included that link up above to the post featuring the 1959-1967 wills cards that i had created.  i should give credit to topps for creating the 1962 wills card that should have been.  they first used it in their 1975 sets as part of the mvp subset, the mini version of which i showed in this post.  it showed up again in the 1982 kmart set

and again in 1987 topps as part of the 'turn back the clock' subset.  the kmart set was released a year after there were some other maury wills cards issued by fleer and topps, except those showed him in a seattle mariners uniform. he managed the m's in the latter part of the 1980 season and also for a month or so to begin the 1981 campaign, becoming just the third african-american to manage in the major leagues.  since then, wills has been a coach or baserunning instructor for about half of the major league teams, although i am glad that the last few years seem to have been spent primarily with the dodgers and the likes of dee gordon.  let's see what dee can do this year!

here's to you maury, a dodger double dipper and maybe, just maybe, a hall of famer, too.

a memorial patch for earl weaver

earlier today i posted about the memorial patch that the cardinals wore for stan musial who passed away on january 19, 2013.  that same day, the orioles lost hall of fame manager earl weaver who died at the age of 82.  like the cardinals did for musial, the orioles wore a patch honoring weaver during the 2013 season.  the orange patch featured weaver's name, number 4, and 'hall of fame' text.  you can see it on jj hardy's 2014 topps card

as well as wei-yin chen's

and on manny machado's 2014 topps gypsy queen card as well

during the 2013 all-star game, the patch was worn on the chest, as shown on adam jones' 2013 topps update card

which also features the stan musial patch on yadier molina's sleeve

jones also represents the sleeve placement of the patch in my collection via this 2013 bowman platinum card

weaver managed the orioles from 1968 through 1982, and again in 1985 and 1986.  he led the club to four pennants and the 1970 world series title over the reds, and his early retirement following the 1982 season cost him the chance to win another title - the 1983 world championship team was managed by joe altobelli.

growing up watching 'this week in baseball' and the nbc game of the week in the late 1970's, i knew two things about earl weaver: he was not shy about arguing with umpires, and he was a believer in the power of the 3-run home run.  it turns out that he was also a believer in platoons and tracking statistical match ups and other things that we see so much of in the game these days.  those things worked for weaver, as his teams won 1480 games over his 17 years at the helm, and he was inducted into the hall of fame in 1996.

memorial patches for stan the man

stan musial passed away at the age of 92 in january, 2013.  the cardinals wore a memorial patch that featured his number 6 and facsimile signature during the entire 2013 season.  the patch first started to show up on 2013 topps update cards, like this carlos beltran card

and we see it quite often on 2014 cards, too.  like jaime garcia's 2014 topps card

or jon jay's 2014 topps card

where we see it on both jay's and matt holliday's left sleeve

here it is on pete kozma's 2014 topps gypsy queen card, too.

it is worth noting that the cardinals wore three different jersey types during the season, and as a result, there were three different colored patches.  therefore, i have three different cards in my memorials collection.

actually, there are 4 cards in my collection, as this 2013 bowman draft picks and prospects card of ricardo bautista

shows the patch being worn in at least some of the cardinals' minor league games (he played in their gulf coast rookie league - gcrl for short).  the patch is also on the right sleeve, but in the majors, it was worn on the left sleeve.

speaking of the big leagues, david freese's 2014 topps card represents the away grays

matt carpenter's 2014 topps opening day card represents the alternate cream jerseys

and yadier molina's 2014 topps card represents the home whites.

musial may not be as well remembered nationally due to having spent his entire career in the midwest with the cardinals, but keep in mind that when he retired, only ty cobb had more career hits and only babe ruth, cap anson, and lou gehrig had driven in more runs.  musial was a three-time mvp who finished second in the balloting four times, won seven batting titles, and led the cardinals to three straight world series, and four in five years during the 1940's.  the only year in that run that the cardinals missed the fall classic was the year that musial spent in the military.

every once in a while when the dodgers were playing the cardinals, i recall vin scully telling a story about musial, and after musial died scully again addressed his recollection of the cardinal hall of famer: 'he was good enough to take your breath away'.  and certainly good enough to be remembered beyond memorial patches, although i am glad that the cardinals wore them.

sunday (maurice) morning (wills) target dodgers

this particular sheet of 15 players from the 1990 target dodger stadium giveaway set is a pretty interesting one.  i'll kick it off with maury wills, whose middle name if you didn't already know is 'morning'

i haven't done wills' double dipper post yet - i'll get to it someday - but he played for the dodgers from 1959 through 1966, and then again from 1969 through 1972.  he won the nl mvp award in 1962 after stealing a record 104 bases that year (since surpassed by lou brock and rickey henderson), and helped the dodgers win four pennants during his first tenure with the team.  for me, his most interesting record is 165 games played in 1962.  i don't see that being broken.

babe birrer

birrer, who debuted for detroit in 1955 (he's wearing his tiger duds in the photo used for this card), finished his major league career with 16 appearances for the 1958 los angeles dodgers.  he had no record, although he recorded what would have been a save in his final big league game if that stat had been around in 1958.  birrer's role with the dodgers looks like it was as a long relief/mop up guy, so he wound up getting some at bats and made the most of them - in 8 plate appearances, birrer was 4 for 7 with a double and a walk.

dan brouthers

first baseman dan brouthers had a fantastic mustache.  he also may well have been the best player in the late 19th century.  he spent two seasons of his hall of fame career with the brooklyn grooms (1892 and 1893) and led the league in hits (197), rbi (124), and batting average (.335) in his first season with the franchise.  as a member of the brooklyn grooms over two seasons, he reached base at a .438 clip, and his career on-base percentage of .423 is the 14th best all-time.

jack coombs

coombs, who had won 31 games for connie mack's a's in 1910, 28 in 1911, and world series titles in each of those seasons, joined the brooklyn robins for the 1915 season.  he wound up pitching for the robins through the 1918 season, posting a record of 43-43 in that span.  he won 15 games in his first season with the club, however, and was 13-8 in 1916 with a 2.66 era, helping the team win the national league pennant.  he was the starter and winning pitcher in game 3 of the series against the red sox - the only game the robins won.

tony cuccinello

cuccinello was the dodgers' second baseman from 1932 through 1935, although he saw some playing time at third base as well.  he was named to the all-star team in 1933, and pinch hit for carl hubbell in the 9th inning.  unfortunately, lefty grove struck him out to end the game.

bob fisher

fisher broke into the major leagues with the 1912 brooklyn dodgers.  he hit .233 in 82 games while playing short, second, and third.  in 1913, he played in 132 games, exclusively at shortstop, and hit .262.  fisher moved on to the chicago cubs, and later switched to second base playing alongside a young shortstop named rogers hornsby on the saint louis cardinals in 1918.

johnny frederick

frederick roamed the outfield for brooklyn from 1929 through 1934.  he never played in fewer that 100 games, and led the league with 52 doubles as a rookie in 1929.  frederick also had 10 homers in his rookie season, giving him a record 82 extra base hits as a rookie - a record that stood until albert pujols broke it in 2001.  injuries ate into frederick's playing time in the outfield, and he was often used as a pinch hitter.  in 1932, frederick hit 6 pinch hit home runs, a record that was eventually broken by the dodgers' dave hansen in 2000.

charlie fuchs

fuchs was 1-0 for the dodgers in 1944, the final season of his 3-year big league career.  he pitched in 8 games for brooklyn, posting an era of 5.74.

brad gulden

gulden appeared in three games for the 1978 dodgers, going 0 for 4 at the plate.  with steve yeager, joe ferguson, and johnny oates all on the roster, there was not much room for another catcher, and gulden was dealt to the yankees prior to the 1979 season for gary thomasson.  gulden was recalled by the bronx bombers following the death of thurman munson in august of 1979, and wound up playing in 40 games that year for the yankees.  gulden's last year in the majors was 1986, when he appeared in 17 games for the giants.

kirby higbe

higbe had been an all-star for the phillies in 1940 before joining the dodgers, and he promptly pitched brooklyn to the world series in 1941 by winning a league high 22 games.  higbe won 29 games over the next two seasons, and then spent two years in combat with the us army.  when he returned from service, he won 17 games for the 1946 dodgers, and was again named to the all-star team.  unfortunately, when higbe entered the game, he was greeted by a ted williams home run.  higbe was one of the players who signed dixie walker's petition asking that the dodgers trade jackie robinson in 1947, and wound up being traded away to the pirates early in the season as a result.

lerrin lagrow

the dodgers acquired lagrow from the white sox early in the 1979 season, and he posted a 5-1 record with 4 saves for them the rest of the way.  lagrow moved on to the phillies for the 1980 season, but was released in july and so did not get to pitch in the world series that year.

harry lumley

lumley spent his entire 7-year major league career with the brooklyn superbas, playing outfield for them from 1904-1910.  in 1904, he led the league as a rookie in both triples (18) and home runs (9), a feat no one has managed since.  lumley had a big year in 1906 as well, hitting .324 with 9 homers and a league leading .477 slugging percentage.  lumley became the team's player/manager in 1909, but after losing 98 games he returned to just player status in 1910.

dick nen

nen had 1 hit in 7 games as a rookie september call-up for the 1963 dodgers, and it was a game-tying, 9th inning home run against the saint louis cardinals.  nen spent all of 1964 in the minors, and then was included in the trade with the senators prior to the 1965 season that netted the team claude osteen.

john tudor

tudor was acquired by the dodgers late in the 1988 season in exchange for pedro guerrero.  he was 4-3 with a 2.41 era for the blue down the stretch, and made a start in both the nlcs and the world series for the club.  his world series start was cut short after four outs due to injury, but he retired all four batters he faced.

dixie walker

i mentioned walker above as the initiator of the player petition aimed at forcing the dodgers' hand to trade jackie robinson prior to the 1947 season. he was also a great ballplayer, hitting over .300 in each of his full seasons with the dodgers, including a league leading .357 in 1944.  walker also led the league with 124 rbi in 1945.  even with his petition, walker remained with the dodgers through the 1947 season before being traded to the pirates following the world series.

double plays abound

jay bell is turning two at dodger stadium on his 2000 upper deck card.

this may well be a play from the first game of the davey johnson era - opening day 1999.  if so, that would be mark grudzielanek sliding in.  this was the game in which raul mondesi tied things up with a 3-run blast in the bottom of the 9th and then won the game with another homer in extra innings. 

here's mickey morandini turning two on his 2000 fleer ultra

and 2000 topps stadium club cards

not to be outdone, i've got three fernando vina double play turns to show - 2000 pacific (ruby parallel)

2000 topps chrome

and 2002 fleer ultra

however, this last one is more likely a stolen base attempt, i am afraid.

these last three are dp turns for sure, though.  2004 fleer platinum ray durham

1999 fleer tradition andy fox (warning track parallel)

2006 upper deck tony womack

all that's missing on that womack card is the 'now with reds' text.