sizemore returned for more

[this is the thirty-fifth 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, and jeff weaver.]

ted sizemore debuted as a dodger on opening day, 1969, and went on to play in 159 games over the course of the season.  he played mostly at second base, but also made some appearances at shortstop and left field.  here's his 1969 topps rookie card, on which he shares time with bill sudakis

sizemore was craig biggio before there was craig biggio, going from a catcher to a second baseman.  i find it interesting that sizemore gets the billing as a catcher, while it was sudakis who wound up behind the plate a fair amount in the big leagues.  for some reason, i scanned the back of this card, so here it is

sizemore averaged about a hit per game in the minors, and he carried that to the big leagues as he had 160 hits in his rookie year - a mark would stand as his career high, unfortunately.  in addition to 160 hits, sizemore put up a line of 4/46/.271 which was good enough to claim the rookie of the year award over something called coco laboy, as well as al oliver and larry hisle.  he was the 7th dodger to have won the award, and was the last until rick sutcliffe came along in 1979.

then, after the 1970 season, sizemore was dealt to the cardinals along with bob stinson for dick/rich allen.  with the cards, sizemore grew out his sideburns (as seen on his 1973 topps card)

and settled in as their regular second baseman.  he played there for 5 seasons before the cards sent him back to the dodgers prior to the 1976 season for willie crawford.

back in la, sizemore covered second base for a couple of long stretches in april and july in place of davey lopes, and also backed up ron cey a bit, too.  he also finally made a big league appearance wearing the tools of ignorance when he got a couple innings in during a game in august.  later in the season, sizemore actually made a start behind the plate - his final start as a dodger.  he caught the entire game and went 1 for 3 with a walk and a couple of runs scored to boot.  by the time his 1977 topps card was released,

sizemore was in philadelphia, having been traded after the 1976 season for johnny oates.  sizemore took over at second for the phillies, and in both of his seasons there faced off against the dodgers in the nlcs.  of course, the dodgers won each time.

i sent a couple of cards to sizemore in 2009, and he signed 'em both.  here's his 1970 topps card, complete with the topps rookie cup

and his 1978 topps card

complete with frizzy hair, mustache, and the growler peeking out of his shirt.

here's to you ted sizemore, dodger double dipper and ttm signer!

this time, i niedenmor - not fuer

i love tom niedenfuer's name.  more than once i am sure i have recounted the fantastic letter to the editor of the la times that ran sometime after the 1985 nlcs in which the author suggested that 'there is a certain pitcher we niedenfuer games'.  awesome.

truth be told however, niedenfuer was a pretty good reliever for the dodgers in the early 1980's.  in fact, prior to the 1985 nlcs, niedenfuer had not allowed an earned run in 6 postseason innings, spanning from the 1981 nlds through the 1983 nlcs.  his 1983 season was outstanding, as he won 8 games, saved 11 and posted an era of 1.90 which was complemented by his whip of 0.887.  

he's also a good through the mail signer, and i have had a few successes with him over the last three years.  unfortunately, i erred and sent him what apparently was my lone copy of his 1984 fleer card.  he signed it of course, but now i am left with a gap in my collection.

i've added it to my nefarious 9 over there on the right.  can't you help a blogger out?

while i wait for the answer to this non-rhetorical question, here are some other cards mr. niedenfuer returned to me - his 1982 fleer

1984 topps

1985 topps

1986 donruss

1986 fleer

with a dodger stadium photo that fleer re-used in 1987

1986 topps

and a similarly posed 1987 topps

and finally, his 1987 donruss

niedenfuer was traded early in the 1987 season to the orioles for brad havens and john shelby.  he actually saved 18 games (a full third of the orioles' victories) for baltimore during their abyssmal 1988 season.  eventually, niedenfuer ended up in saint louis of all places to finish out his career.

thanks tom - and please let me know if you have an extra 1984 fleer card for me.  you will be rewarded!

i think i prefer...

...this 1958 topps 'rival fence busters' card

to this 2012 topps timeless talents card

if a dodger centerfielder has to share space with the say hey kid on a card.  even if the photo is kind of goofy.

i almost forgot

i got carried away with the 1973 topps cards in my last post, and i forgot to mention that royals and randoms also sent me some other cards, including this shiny 2009 topps roy campanella walmart blaster card

and this green-framed border duke snider card from 2011 topps gypsy queen

and a set need for my 1971 topps pursuit - phillie shortstop larry bowa

a card chock full of lurkers.  seeing this bowa card come in the mail reminded me that larry himself had sent me some stuff a while back.  i had picked up a double of his card from the 2008 topps dodger premium 55-card set

and at some point sent it his way.  he returned it pretty quickly, too.

the auto isn't too different from the one on the 1971 card, either.

thanks josh. and larry!

who needs some 73's?

i've been tending to my 1973 topps want list lately - it's now down to 40 cards or so - and i have a bunch of doubles, triples and other assorted quantities for trade.  in fact, i went from zero to four glenn beckert cards thanks to a recent lot purchase.

this may well be one of my very favorite lurker cards, thanks to an appearance by dodgers' catcher duke sims.  sims was a dodger in the 1972 topps set, but by the time his card was issued in 1973, he was in tigers gear.  plus, he was drawn up as a communist on the back! anyway, it's nice to see sims getting some bonus dodger time from topps.
in addition to that lot purchase, i have received some cards in trade, like these four from royals and randoms - ed crosby

john boccabella

danny thompson

and, oh my god! mike kilkenny!

you bastards!  as an aside, i have to say that i stopped watching south park after the first season and the mr hanky episode. i figured that they couldn't top a talking christmas poo.

let's give checklists some love and celebrate a 39-year old unmarked beauty - front

and back

that lot knocked out a few of the star cards i was missing like hammerin' hank

and lefty

with tim mccarver getting in the way.  that is mccarver, right?

speaking of carlton, here's pudge's first solo card

with the rookie cup
and another catcher need - johnny bench

it's great how the giants' players are making no effort to get off their bench to make things easier for johnny bench, who just happened to be 'one of baseball's most eligible bachelors'.

that's in stark contrast to fred norman, who is just 'a bachelor'.

hopefully someone told fred that it works better if you run towards the woman, especially if it's a brunette (in my opinion at least).

i also picked up some cards at a show or two in the last year, like this pat corrales beauty

which still isn't as nice as bo didier's card

even though at first glance i thought they might both feature the same mets player.  upon closer inspection, i think corrales' card features a cub, not a metropolitan.  anyway, what i like most about the dider is how he is looking at the umpire for the call while the mets catcher (jerry grote?) stands in the background.  it's not often that you see a set of lurking shinguards on a card. grote, by the way, is one of the great lurkers in topps history, i think.  i'll have to put together a post sometime.

speaking of on deck circles, here's mel stottlemyre in yankee stadium

standing in the on deck circle while the indians (?) warm up.  there is good composition to this card, with the flag and the classic yankee colors, unlike the graig nettles card

with all of its poorly colored airbrushing.
and, from airbrushing to hair brushing, we have hirsute joe pepitone up next

it's the cartoon on the back that makes that segue work

there are some pretty good cartoons in the set - i like this one on the back of denis menke's card

how fortuitous, seeing as how menke gets to attend 162 games (or was it 154 in 1973) each year.

before we get back to some backs, here's barry lersch in a quintessential 1973 topps photo

you have to get through layers of people to find the subject of the card.  it's one of the reasons i disliked the set as a young collector, but now it's one of the reasons i decided to complete the set about a year ago.

back to some backs - when your name is gogolewski, i suppose your nickname is fairly obvious

the first time i saw gogolewski's card, i said to myself 'i bet his nickname was gogo'.  then i turned the card over, and my hunch was confirmed. true story.
here's the last back i'll show in this post - we get some obscure player trivia as well as a history lesson

i wonder if anyone paid attention to scheinblum's roundtripper that night.  what a story to tell your kids - hey i missed the moon landing, but i did see richie scheinblum hit one out!
speaking of hitting one out, here's card number 1 in the set

henry, willie and the babe.  good thing terry cashman didn't see this card when he was writing his song.  'willie, mickey, and the duke' sounds better.

anyway, let me know if you need some 73's and/or if you can help me out in my completion efforts.

not just a double dipper, dioner navarro is a double lurker

he may not have had a card in the 2011 topps set, nor have a team in 2012 (yet), but dodger double dipper dioner navarro is so far taking up space on two topps cards in their 2012 flagship set.  here's javy guerra's card

on which navarro is offering some postgame congratulations to the dodgers' young closer.  and then there is george kottaras' card

on which navarro is out at the plate!

i don't know and didn't bother to try to figure out which game is represented on the guerra card, but the kottaras card was easy - it was the only game kottaras appeared in against the dodgers all year.

8/15/11, a game best remembered for james loney hitting into a triple play in the second inning, also included navarro being thrown out at the plate by jerry hairston (now a dodger) with kottaras applying the tag in the third inning. the score was 0-0 at that point, and the dodgers went on to lose 3-0.  worth noting that navarro flew out in the 7th inning with the bases loaded while all three brewer runs came on solo shots.

the brew crew won the game behind another dodger double dipper, randy wolf.  ted lilly, who by my definition is not a double dipper since he did not appear in a game for the dodgers during his first run with the organization, took the loss.

keep 'em coming, topps - i can use some more navarro lurker cards!