sunday morning target dodgers

more cards culled from the monstrous 1990 target dodgers set that was given away at dodger stadium over the course of a few different games back in 1990.  the set features a card for just about every player and manager to don the uniform in a big league game during the first 100 years of the franchise's existence (they joined the national league in 1890).

elias sosa

sosa is one of my guys - a member of the 1977 nl champs and the 1978 topps dodgers.  he is best remembered for surrendering the second of reggie jackson's three home runs in game 6 of the 1977 world series.

ad gumbert

gumbert takes us way back to 1895 and 1896.  he appeared in games for brooklyn in each of those seasons - they were known as the grooms in 1895 but switched back to bridegrooms in 1896, according to baseball reference.  gumbert was 11-20 on the mound for brooklyn, but hit .343 at the plate during his tenure.

norm larker

larker's best season came in 1960 when he finished second to dick groat in batting average among national leaguers.  he was lost to the colt .45's in the expansion draft prior to the 1962 season, and was the first first baseman in houston franchise history.

johnny miljus

miljus pitched for the robins in 1917, 1920, and 1921, compiling a record of 7-4 over that time.  he later pitched for the pirates in the 1927 world series against the yankees.  after pitching 4 scoreless innings of relief in game 1, he uncorked two wild pitches in the bottom of the ninth inning of game 4, one of which allowed the series winning run to score as the yankees swept.

manny mota

another member of the team of my youth and the 1978 topps dodgers.  mota has worn the dodger uniform longer than anyone else - as a player from 1969 through 1979 (plus two more late season appearances in 1980 and 1982), and as a coach from 1980 through 2012 and into the first few weeks of the 2013 season.  i am guessing that the team will retire number 11 at some point in the future, even though mota is not in the hall of fame.

bud podbielan

bud's real name was clarence, and he was 7-7 for the dodgers during his time in brooklyn which lasted from his debut in 1949 until he was traded to the reds during the 1952 season.

reggie williams

both reggie williams that have played major league ball have suited up for the dodgers, but this is reginald dewayne williams.  reginald bernard williams didn't appear as a dodger until 1995.  this reggie williams was actually the team's primary center fielder in 1986, appearing in 128 games.

i'll probably be back with more of these next week.  stay tuned.

cards that should have been that really are, thanks to bob lemke

i noted a few days ago when i completed my 1955 bowman dodger team set that there were no jackie robinson, sandy koufax, or duke snider cards in the set to slow me down.  still, knowing that bob lemke had created cards that should have been for both koufax and the duke, i couldn't resist tracking those down, too.

i was happy to read that bob had decided to sell copies of his cards after taking a break.  in addition to the '55 bowman style cards, i ordered a few more.

the 1956 topps tommy lasorda card that should have been

now i just need a 1957 style lasorda final tribute.  tommy was included in the 1954 topps set, of course, and topps created a 1955 style card of the future dodger skipper for the 1995 brooklyn dodgers archives set.

i also picked up a hard copy of this 1956 topps bill mazeroski card that should have been

it fits nicely into my double play binder

last but not least are the 1969 topps steve garvey card that should have been

(one of them, anyway), and a 1955 topps football garvey as well.

thanks bob!

a few of a couple of cards from arpsmith

here i am very slowly digging myself out from a backlog of trade posts.  these cards, and many more like them, came my way courtesy of arpsmith.  i have known a few giants fans in my time, and have successfully traded with five or six of them which is a level of diplomacy that should be emulated by all in conflict over such trivial things as laundry.

there were a couple of cards from the 1991 topps archives 1953 set, such as bill antonello

and bob milliken

antonello's lone big league action came in 1953 with the dodgers, but unfortunately did not include and playing time in the '53 world series.  he played some for their st. paul affiliate and wound up staying in the twin cities after his playing career ended.  milliken, on the other hand, spent parts of two seasons with the dodgers (1953 and 1954) and did make an appearance in the '53 fall classic against the yankees.  he held the yankees scoreless for two innings in the decisive sixth game, but billy martin's game (and series) winning single off of clem labine in the 9th happened anyway.

there were also a couple of cards featuring mid-90's dodger starters like this 1996 leaf limited ismael valdes card

and this 1996 upper deck collector's choice hideo nomo 'scrapbook' insert card

valdes and nomo were two-fifths of the dodgers' international rotation.  in addition to valdes (mexico) and nomo (japan), the dodgers also had ramon martinez (dominican rebublic), tom candiotti (usa), and chan ho park (south korea).

there were a couple of jackie robinson cards - this 2010 topps sterling card

and a 2012 topps allen & ginter 'what's in a name' insert

the ginter insert was one of a couple included - the other being clayton kershaw's card

jackie's middle name is in honor of teddy roosevelt, but topps didn't give my any insight into kershaw's namesake.

adam included a couple of ricky nolasco cards from 2013 topps update - an emerald parallel

and a gold parallel

the gold one was one of a couple of those, with the other being ronald belisario

neither nolasco nor belisario are with the team any longer, both having relocated to the american league central.

finally, there was only one signed card in the package, but it was a nice one.  bill russell signed his 1986 fleer card, either in person or through the mail.

that's a nice card of the shortstop of my youth with the right field pavilion in the background.

thanks for another great trade, adam.  sorry it took so long to post.

ron negray, dodger double dipper

ron negray made his big league debut as a dodger in 1952.  he was later traded from brooklyn to philadelphia during the 1955 season, but was reacquired by the dodgers in 1957.  when negray took the mound for them in los angeles on april 15, his journey as a dodger double dipper was completed.

[this is the fiftyseventh 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, and hughie jennings.]

here's negray's 1957 topps card featuring him in phillies gear, although he had been traded to the dodgers in april of '57.

it's too bad he wasn't included in a later series as a dodger.  here's the back

it shows us that negray's career as a brooklyn dodger consisted of 4 appearances and no record.  his return stint as a dodger wasn't much different.  he pitched in 4 games once again, and again earned no decisions.

this is the only card of negray that i have showing him as a dodger.  it's from the 1990 target dodger set.

there's a reason why i led with negray's 1957 topps card and not the dodger card, and that is because i have added my 1957 topps want list.  it's a stretch goal for me, definitely, but it's the one set from the 1950's that i think i may actually complete someday.  let me know if you can help me out.

finally topps gives us true final tributes

yay for topps.  after years of putting recently retired stars on checklists and/or highlight cards, topps came through in 2014 with some honest to goodness final tribute cards.  of course, they also put mariano rivera and todd helton on highlight cards, but still…

here's rivera's final tribute

with his complete career stats on the back

and here's todd helton's

with his career stats

80 fewer hits than one steven patrick garvey, by the way.

i didn't bother to check if topps made a card for lance berkman in series 1, but they did issue one for another player whose retirement announcement was made after the cards were printed - the dodgers' own michael young

and so, here are his final career stats

after missing out on a dodger card in 2013 update, i'm glad to have young get one in 2014 series 1.  even though young is retired now, it beats a photoshopped chone figgins card, that's for sure.

most of the rest of the 2014 topps dodgers

i picked up the dodger base team set from 2014 topps from sportlots, other than the adrian gonzalez card i pulled from a pack.  mostly for my own enjoyment, here are most of the dodger cards.

josh beckett

and that's one card with a head to knees pitching photo

onelki garcia

that's two.  garcia appears to be this year's paco rodriguez in terms of card issuance.

zack greinke

that's three - three head to knees pitching photos.

clayton kershaw league leader card

kershaw is sporting the sandy hook memorial patch, so the photo is from his very awesome 2013 opening day start.

brandon league

that's four head to knees pitching photos.

ricky nolasco

finally, some variety.  i like the cameo (lurking) puig.  speaking of which, here's

yasiel puig

this is his regular base.  i am not interested in chasing all the dodger short prints like i did in years past (except for the 2012 update dodger super short prints).  next week i will show the 2013 update short prints that i did acquire, and then…no mas.

hanley ramirez

nothing but a torso.

hyun-jin ryu

and we have our fifth head to knees pitching photo.

so, out of 9 players, 7 of which are pitchers, we have 5 very similar photos.  maybe i should look for some of the short prints to get some variety...

i bought a pack of 2014 topps cards, and then i bought some double play singles

i am way late to the 2014 topps party, but i did buy a rack pack at target sometime last week.  the first dodger for me of 2014 was adrian gonzalez

and the first double play card of the year was andrelton simmons

first insert was this adrian beltre super veteran

the fact that it's an insert saves me from debating whether or not to include it with my dodger base team set, although i know that i would have since i have don sutton's 1983 super veteran card in the base team set binder.

first card that i thought might be a short print but wasn't is this brian dozier card

first card i thought was a base card but wasn't was this jason kipnis power players insert/parallel

first double of the year was this jean segura card

although not really.  i did pull another segura card in the pack, but it was the pea soup parallel

i was inspired enough by the pack to head to ebay to identify other double play cards and dodgers and then to sportlots to purchase them.  here are the dp turns that i found

jose altuve

bonus mike trout lurker

chris getz

bonus kick to the crotch

jhonny peralta

bonus big contract for the cheater

jurickson profar

bonus 'future star' designation

jonathan schoop

bonus funny face

justin turner

bonus former met/now a dodger spring training invitee

jonathan villar

bonus horizontal card

rickie weeks

bonus david wright lurker

kolten wong

bonus stan musial memorial patch

mark ellis

bonus former dodger double play turn.  i'm guessing that we won't get a dee gordon double play card for the fourth year in a row.

i'll show the rest of the dodger base cards some other time, since i'm sure you've seen them all already.