23 April 2013

ducky medwick was a dodger (twice), but is he a dodger here?

joe 'ducky' medwick is in the hall of fame, thanks to his monster years with the saint louis cardinals as part of the 'gas house gang'.  he hit .379 in the 1934 world series, helping the cards to a championship over the tigers, and three years later became the last national league player to win the triple crown (31 home runs, 154 rbi, .374 batting average).  he began and ended his career with the cardinals, but in between, he fit in two stints as a dodger.  yes, this is a double dipper post.

[this is the fiftysecond installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daaleric young, nick willhitechris gwynn, mickey hatcherdave anderson, don zimmerrafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike madduxjon garland, chan ho parkvicente romogene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moellerdioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirleyrandy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaverted sizemore,  orel hershisertom goodwinjoe fergusoneddie murraymatt lukeken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grotedon suttonralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessensguillermo motajoe beckwithjamie hoffmann, and babe herman.]

medwick was traded to the dodgers during the 1940 season, and in 1941, he helped them win their first pennant since 1920.  medwick hit .300 or better as a dodger until 1943, when he was batting at a .272 clip at the time his contract was purchased by the new york giants.  from there he went to boston (as a brave) in 1945 and was briefly signed by the saint louis browns in 1946.  he did not play for them, however, and instead signed on with the dodgers for the last half of the season, thus becoming a double dipper.  during that time, medwick hit .312 with 2 home runs, the first of which was the 200th blast of his career.  medwick signed with the yankees for the 1947 season, but was released before he appeared in a game.  he was signed by the cardinals and wound up finishing his career with them in 1948.

i have a 1960 fleer card of medwick wearing dodger blue, 
but the concern today is centered around this 1993 action packed card
the fact that medwick is considered to be a cardinal and not a dodger is more than reasonable as he played in over 1200 games for the redbirds, and only 470 for brooklyn. that combined with the red borders on the card make it easy for me to assume that he is featured in his cardinal uniform.  however, the script on his chest and especially the thick underline is telling a different story.

one of my favorite baseball-reference features is the 'dressed to the nines' uniform database.  here, we see what the 1940 dodgers were wearing on the road (and the 1941 dodgers as well), and to me, it looks a lot like what medwick is wearing on the card above.  his other uniforms just don't compare.

fellow dodger collectors - add the 1993 action packed joe medwick card to your want lists!

1 comment:

Nick said...

I'd completely forgotten that Medwick double dipped with the Dodgers.

I actually have both of those cards you posted, love the old-time Fleer issue.