bobby castillo came back for more

[this is the twentyseventh 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, and ismael valdes.]

bobby castillo was a dodger double dipper.  he burst on the scene in 1977 out of the dodger bullpen late in the season.  by the time 1981 rolled around, castillo was one of the dodgers' main relievers.

1981 turned out to be his worst season to date, though, as he had an era of 5.33 in 34 games.  his struggles continued in the postseason, as he pitched just 1 inning in the world series and walked 5 yankees.  those five walks resulted in one run in game 1 of the series, and castillo was not called upon again.  during the postseason, al campanis sent castillo to minnesota with bobby mitchell for a couple of minor leaguers.

a couple of months into the 1982 season, the twinkies moved castillo to the starting rotation.  he finished the season strong, going 8-3 in his final 11 starts to post a 13-11 record.  that 1984 donruss card is fairly tame, but i like 1984 donruss so there.  perhaps my favorite castillo card from his time with the twins is from the 1984 fleer set.  and it's not even his card!  he's lurking on frank viola's cardboard

that's pretty sweet. castillo stayed in minnesota through the 1984 season and then became a free agent.  the dodgers brought him back into the fold for the 1985 season and put him back in the pen.

he made 5 starts, too, i should mention, but 30 appearances out of the bullpen formed the bulk of his workload.  he was 2-2 but his era was again over 5.  he once again made the postseason roster and once again made just one appearance.  this time it was in the cardinals' game 4 blowout in the nlcs.  castillo relieved rick honeycutt (who had relieved starter jerry reuss).  castillo pitched 5.1 innings and gave up a couple of runs.

several months back, roberto at vin scully is my homeboy announced that castillo would be making an appearance at feeldz apparel in la.  being an out-of-state opportunist, i sent a couple of cards with a donation for mr. castillo c/o the store.  the guys at the store were great, tracking bobby down after his appearance as they apparently didn't open their mail in time.  here's his 1979 topps rookie card

and, of course, his 1978 topps card that should have been

very cool.  here's to you, bobby castillo - double dipper.  thanks for signing my cards, and a big thanks to roberto and the staff at feeldz for making it happen!