don zimmer, double dipper and birthday boy

it's another in a recent spate of birthday posts!  don zimmer hits 80 years young today, so let's celebrate by recalling how he was a dodger double dipper!

zim was signed by the brooklyn dodgers in the late '40's and made his debut for them in 1954.  he was a member of the 1955 world champions, playing second, short, and third in 88 games that year.  in the fall classic, he was 2 for 9 with 2 rbi and 5 k's. 

zimmer moved to los angeles with the team and appeared in the 1959 world series, this time going hitless in his lone at bat.  still, he won his second world series ring as the dodgers beat the white sox.  just before the start of the 1960 season, zimmer was traded to the cubs for ron perranoski and others.  he spent two years with the cubs as their second baseman, and was named to the national league all-star team in 1961. 

the mets selected him in the 1961 expansion round after the season, and zim became the first third baseman in mets history.  in their first game, zimmer got the franchise's second hit - one of just 4 hits he would make as a met.  the mets lost each of the first 13 games zimmer played in before winning his 14th start.  that would be his final game as a met as he was traded to the reds for a couple of players, including bob miller.  that trade resulted in this fantastic and somewhat confusing 1962 topps card

a few months later, when zimmer was traded back to the dodgers prior to the start of the 1963 season, topps took a different photo from that shoot and put in on the gerbil's 1963 card, establishing him as a double dipper.

zimmer's return to la was short lived, however, as his contract was purchased by the washington senators 22 games into his second stint as a dodger.  zimmer played out the rest of his career in washington, retiring as a player after the 1965 season. 

as a dodger, zimmer appeared in a total of 459 games and hit .228.  during his time away from the club, he played in 337 games and hit .245.  after leaving la for the last time, zimmer played in 299 games and hit .235. 

here's to you, don zimmer!  happy birthday!

[this is the eighth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, and dave anderson.]

the fantastical spectacularal dodger stadium card of the day...

...or however long it's been since i have posted a card featuring dodger stadium.  here's a beauty - a 1981 fleer sticker back comemmorating the 1980 all-star game played at chavez ravine.

while i can excuse the replacement of the uniform numbers for the sake of what the card is trying to convey, i wish they would have left both ken griffey and tommy john as southpaws.  griffey, of course, was the mvp of the game as he broke up the american league's no-hit bid in the fifth inning with a solo home run.  the national league was still down 2-1 at that point, but they would get two more in the sixth to take the lead for good.

there was a backstory going around after the game that supposedly tommy lasorda (who was a coach on chuck tanner's squad) recalled how griffey had always hit well against john and so he told tanner to send griffey to bat.  the problem was, griffey had entered the game in the 4th as a substitute for dave kingman before john entered the game.  still, i suppose tommy could have seen john warming up in the bullpen and knew that kingman's spot was coming up third in the fifth inning.  at any rate, it makes for a good story, and the distinctive dodger stadium pavilion roofs make for a great card.

happy birthday to the first mike marshall

sadly, i don't have a bevy of autographed cards to display in honor of dr. mike marshall's 68th birthday, but i do have this 1977-79 sportscaster card

the back of the card is all about the role of the relief pitcher, not about marshall himself.  in fact, by the time this card was issued, marshall was either a brave, ranger or twin, but thanks to his cy young award in 1974 (the first for a reliever), he was featured as a dodger.

happy birthday dr.!

when rookie stars actually become stars and ruin any chance of team collectors actually completing their quest

at the monthly card show a couple of years ago, i was talking to the guy with the vintage bargain bins.  he noticed me pulling dodgers, and asked a harmless question.  'what's been the toughest card for you to find?'  he was interested in helping me out as he would locate cards for other collectors in between the shows.  i told him about the 1971 richie allen, which was the white whale of my collection when i was young and was, by design and economics, ignoring the 1960's and 1950's.  he asked about the 1973 cey, thinking that would have been tough.

i looked at him and said 'today, i believe it will be the ken mcmullen rookie'.  he nodded knowingly and said 'damn charlie hustle'.  indeed.

sadly, ken mcmullen is not alone in dodger collecting lore, although having the bad luck of being featured on the same rookie card as the all-time hit king in 1963 is not going to be beat.  there are other cards spoiled by actual rookie stars such as the 1962 doug camilli rookie (he shares space with fan favorite bob uecker) and these two cards which i finally picked up last weekend at the show.

1963 topps nate oliver

bill freehan (and the high number status) made this card harder to obtain than it otherwise might have been. side note - i sure wish i had this card back when dinged corners was asking for foreheads - jerry robinson delivers!  oliver played with the dodgers for a few seasons as a back up infielder.  he even appeared in the 1966 world series against the orioles.  freehan was a tiger for life, retiring after 15 seasons in detroit with exactly 200 home runs to go along with his 5 consecutive gold gloves and 11 all-star team appearances.

 1963 bill haas

le grand orange from the big easy is the star of this card.  i didn't know anything about haas until i bought the card.  he was a career minor leaguer who played in the dodgers system in 1962 and 1963 before moving on to the mets and finally braves systems. he had torn up class c reno in 1962, hitting .368 with 33 home runs and 144 rbi in 138 games which probably warranted his inclusion in topps' set. his last year in pro ball was 1966, while staub played for 23 seasons and finished in 1985 with 2716 hits and 292 home runs.

here's to you, actual rookie stars that make team collecting sometimes difficult!

a birthday salute to general soreness

mike marshall hits the big 5-1 today, so i thought i would recognize his birthday with some cards that he signed for me through the mail over the last couple of years.

this is the guy who, along with candy maldonado and greg brock, had me sort of ok with the idea of ron cey, reggie smith, and steve garvey leaving the dodgers.  don't get me wrong, i was really bummed when they didn't re-sign garvey, but i knew all about the numbers those three guys were putting up in the minor leagues.  marshall won the triple crown at albuquerque in 1981 with a line of .373/34/137 in 128 games.  slobber.  of course, i now know that the numbers coming out of new mexico and perhaps the pcl in general don't translate.

still, marshall made his mark with the dodgers.  he had a good 1985 season and had some big hits in the 1988 post season. it wasn't all good, though, as i also witnessed him badly misplay an 8th inning fly ball into a triple against the mets in the 1988 pennant race, allowing the tying run to get to third base in a game the dodgers would lose 2-1.  even though his nickname was 'bigfoot', i remember him as 'general soreness' as he once begged out of the lineup due to that malady.  on to the cards.

1982 donruss

a rookie card.  that's tommy just off of marshall's right hip.  it won't be the last time tommy lurks his way onto one of marshall's cards.  nor will it be the last time marshall obscures him with a pen.

1984 topps

standard issue photo for a mike marshall baseball card, as we will see

1985 donruss

this one is not like the others, in terms of signature.  i think it came to me in a trade or a lot of dodgers cards i bought on the bay.  the dodger stadium loge seats look nice, though, don't they?

1985 topps

another 'marshall at the bat photo'

1987 topps

in a pose usually reserved for pitchers

1988 topps

somewhere in between the 1984 and 1985 topps photos

1989 upper deck

yes, that's tommy to his left

1990 topps

the last of his dodger cards, and another swinging photo.  by the way, i think they were all taken in shea stadium, which is where marshall was sent by the dodgers in a deal for juan samuel.

happy birthday general, and thanks for the cards!

the 1978 topps lance rautzhan card that should have been

since doug rau was featured yesterday, it makes sense to move on to lance rautzhan today as they will most likely be forever joined in dodger alphabetical order.  rautzhan was featured in the 1978 topps set on a 4-in-1 rookie card (here's one that i had dan schatzeder sign):

that's cool, but in the spirit of the 1978 topps burger king sets, guys like morris, whitaker and trammell made it off of those cards and on to their own.  lance rautzhan deserves nothing less.  so, here is the 1978 topps burger king/update card that should have been:

with a back

the photo is from the 1978 dodgers photo album - the same source for that secondary enzo hernandez card.  after mrmopar turned me on to its existence, i found my own copy of the album.

rautzhan had his best season in 1978.  he appeared in 43 games, posted a 2.93 era and had 4 saves to go along with a 2-1 record.  he appeared in both the nlcs and the world series (as he had in 1977).  he had his first (and only) solo topps card in the 1979 set (which he kindly signed for me along with his 1978 card featured in an earlier link and post)

after his good 1978 campaign, rautzhan was purchased by the brewers in early 1979.  he made a few appearances before heading on to the royals organization although he did not make it back to the majors after leaving milwaukee.

here's to you, 1978 topps burger king/update lance rautzhan card that should have been!

doug rau through the mail successes!

i went to a fair number of games at dodger stadium growing up, and i would bet anything that i saw more games started by doug rau than any other pitchers combined.  i saw sutton a few times, as well as reuss and welch, but more often than not, dougie was on the mound.

not that that was a bad thing - rau had some good years for the dodgers.  he won 16 games in 1976, and 15 games in two other seasons to go along with a 14 win season in 1978.  he is probably best remembered for his 'discussion' with manager tommy lasorda on the mound during game 4 of the 1977 world series.  after giving up three straight hits to start the second inning, lasorda went to the mound to remove rau from the game.  despite the fact that two of the three hitters rau faced that inning were lefthanded batters, he told tommy he could strike the next batter (graig nettles, another lefty) out.  tommy didn't buy it and went on a blue streak.  if you haven't heard the audio, seek it out.  it's vintage lasorda.

anyway, doug was kind enough to sign and return a 1978 topps card for my modest 1978 topps dodgers autograph project (still missing an ed goodson auto), and he also signed some other cards over the course of a few months.  here they are:

1973 topps

1975 topps

1976 topps

1979 topps

1980 topps

1981 fleer

1981 topps

and, a 1981 topps traded

it was nice of fleer and topps to issue cards for doug in 1981 as he missed the entire 1980 season (and most of 1979) with a rotator cuff injury.  he was released by the dodgers in spring training of 1981, after which he hooked on with the angels.  he wound up making only 3 starts for the halos before they too let him go.

thanks doug!