The Collective Troll's (GIANT) Card of the Day!

I may post these here or on the Troll’s brother blog, The Nitty Gritty, but as I receive more of these, I intend on posting each one. This one is today’s Collective Troll Card of the Day. It is card #43 of the LA Dodgers’ Tommy Davis from the 1964 Topps Giants set. For my wantlist and random obsession info on this set, click HERE. One of the many things I LOVE about these awesome oversized cards is all of the info on the back of the card. Here is what the writer’s at Topps Chewing Gum had to say:
“Tommy Tops Again.
Davis Wins Second Batting Title.
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Tommy Davis won his second straight batting title in 1963 as he rocked National League hurlers at a .326 clip. The hard-hitting outfielder-third baseman had previously batted .346 in 1962 and collected 153 RBIs, top in the major leagues. No stranger at winning batting championships, Tommy’s .357 mark at Kokomo was tops in his circuit. A right-handed hitter, he cracked 211 hits at Spokane in the P.C.L. where he was batting king with a .345 average in 1959. During the 1963 World Series, Tommy hit .400 against New York Yankee pitching. The outfielder has player in three All-Star games during his 5 big league campaigns.”
That is what Topps had to say on the back of the card. Naturally I have my own two-cents to add-in. I LOVE these cards. I love the color, the size, the composition, the story on the back… I don’t like that they went with a posed, spring training, non-action, “fielding” pose for one of the top hitters in the league. A nice action shot at the plate would have been WAY better, but they did get that on the back. Okay here are some fun facts about Tommy Davis.
Tommy Davis was born Herman Thomas Davis Jr. in March of 1939 in Brooklyn, New York. The year of his birth was the same year that Leo Durocher took over as the Brooklyn Dodgers manager. They finished third in the National League, led at the plate by Dolph Camilli and on the mound by Luke Hamlin won 20 games. Davis was a natural athlete and excelled at all sports. He was a childhood friend of NBA Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkins and they were teammates on the Boy High School basketball team in Brooklyn. Davis was courted by the New York Yankees, but it alleged that a phone call from Jackie Robinson persuaded Davis to sign with the Brooklyn Dodgers as a 17-year-old. He was assigned to Class D Hornell Dodgers in the nearby Pony League. He batted .325 in 41 games and was moved to the Kokomo Dodgers in the Midwest League the following year. It was there he met former Brooklyn Dodgers All Star centerfielder Pete Reiser who managed Kokomo for part of the season. Reiser helped Davis improve his already sweet swing and he led the Midwest League in batting with a .356 average-he also added 17 homers. The next year he jumped from Class D ball all the way up to AA and AAA later that year. He started the 1959 season with the Spokane Indians of the Pacific Coast League and led the PCL in batting with a .345 average. He had 211 hits, 9 triples and 18 homers-for 315 total bases. After just 4 years in the Dodgers minor league system (and a .336 average overall) Davis was ready for the big leagues. He started the 1960 season in Los Angeles, but they already had an established outfield with Frank Howard, Wally Moon and Duke Snider. Davis fought his way into the line-up, played all 3 outfield positions and third base. He appeared in 110 games, hit .276 and had 11 homers and 44 RBI. He finished 5th in the Rookie of the Year vote with his teammate Frank Howard winning the honor. In 1961 Davis became a regular in the Dodgers line-up. By 1962 Davis was a 23-year old superstar. He was the Dodgers’ primary leftfielder (although he played a little 3rd and center) and he started both of the All Star Games that year in left field. He put up explosive offensive numbers and had one of the best seasons that ANY Dodger ever had. He finished with a .346 batting average, winning the NLs batting crown, he had 27 homers and drove in 153 runs to lead the league in that category, too. The 153 RBI remains a franchise record for the Los Angeles Dodgers as does his 230 hits that year. He finished third in the MVP vote, behind his teammate Maury Wills and Willie Mays. The Dodgers met the Yankees in the World Series, Davis was their cleanup hitter and he batted .400 in his first World Series. The next season he repeated as an All Star and repeated as batting champ. In their history he is the ONLY Los Angeles Dodger to win a batting title and he did it TWICE. His numbers fell off a bit in 1964 and in ’65 he broke his ankle in May while trying to break up a double play. His season was over after just one month. Lou Johnson was brought in to replace him in the line-up and the Dodgers went on to win the WS again. He was back in 1966 and played in 100 games between left field and third base. He hit .313, but his power and speed weren’t there. Losing an entire year to an injury was taxing to his timing and readiness. The Dodgers won the NL Pennant, but lost to Baltimore in the WS. After the ’66 Series Davis was traded to the New York Mets and so began his career as a journeyman with a bat. He played for 11 different teams over the next 10 years and never did return to his form in the early 60’s. He did not play in another All Star Game or another World Series. His career ended after the Royals released him during spring training in 1977. His final numbers include a .295 career batting average with 2121 hits in 1999 games. He had 153 homers and 1052 RBI. As a pinch hitter he owns the best career batting average in history with a .320 average (63 for 197). In 2005 he published a book called “Tales From the Dodgers Dugout” which I never got to finish. If anyone has a copy… Gotta go take a test. Afterwards I will try to add some more pics to this post... If anyone has these Giant cards to spare, my want list is HERE. I LOVE this set! Thanks for the fodder Tommy Davis, you are a Legend in Blue. Go Rays! Troll out.

CotD-1956 Topps Larry Doby

After 2 World Series, 7 straight All Star appearances and 2 homerun titles the Cleveland Indians traded 32-year-old outfielder Larry Doby to the Chicago White Sox for Jim Busby and Chico Carrasquel following the 1955 baseball season. Apparently the late-October timing was way too late for Topps to adapt. Also, apparently in 1956 they weren’t concerned with airbrushing or blacking out logos either. Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that Larry Doby is one of my favorite players of All-Time. Well, I have been a fan of his for a very long time. This is probably the 7th or 8th copy of his 1956 Topps, card #250, that I have owned in my collecting lifetime. I was a fairly young tike (8 years old) when I found my first copy, it was my very first vintage card, the first card printed before ’76 that I ever owned. I stared and stared at this card for many hours; I got a giant oversized lucite case for it and kept it on a shelf in my room. I trusted Topps baseball implicitly in those days-the card said Chicago White Sox and shows a portrait of Doby in what I now know is a Cleveland Indians hat, but for years during my childhood I was certain that the red C on his blue hat was for Chicago. I think I was in high school before it finally struck me that it was in fact a Cleveland hat. Anyway, like I said in the opening this marked the end of an era for Doby in Cleveland. He had joined the team for a little while in ’47 and was their full-time centerfielder during their World Championship season in 1948. During their amazing 1954 season, where the Indians won 111 games, Doby paced the team in homers (32) and runs batted in (126) and he finished 2nd in the MVP voting that year behind Yogi Berra. The following season (1955) would be his last year in Cleveland-he went to his 7th consecutive All Star game and batted .291 with 26 homers and 75 RBI. In his first season in Chicago with the White Sox Doby would top 100 RBIs for the 5th and final time in his career-he batted .268 with 24 homers in his freshman year with the Sox. He would only spend 2 seasons with Chicago before being traded to Baltimore. He never played an inning with the Orioles and was traded back to Cleveland before the 1958 season. He would be traded to the Tigers prior to the ’59 season and then sold back to the White Sox for his final big league season in 1959. He only played in 21 games for the Sox and didn’t factor in the playoffs for them. He would retire from Major League baseball after that season after 13 seasons in the big leagues. Over his career he had 1515 hits, 253 homers, drove in 970 runs and scored 960 times. He was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998, five years before his death.
This stands as one of my favorite cards of all time and for years I thought it was the perfect card. A great design, a great player, an awesome moment in time. Even knowing he is wearing the wrong hat for the wrong team, it is still an amazing card and it is today’s Collective Troll card of the day. I love the story-telling cartoons on the back-the 3 color printing and the overall design. The back of the card mentions that Doby was twice the AL homer champ-in ’52 and ’54. It also mentions that on June 4, 1952 he hit a single, double, triple and homer in the same game. Commonly known (now at least) as hitting for the cycle. Regardless of which hat Doby is wearing, this is the still one of the most treasured cards in my collection. I love this hobby! Troll out.

Orioles Blue in 1961

Well, I finally got to a computer and I realized that I didn’t schedule a single post for today. I have some 1968 and 1969 Topps cards ready to post, but I will save those for their scheduled time tomorrow. I will be enjoying life at a baby shower before work tomorrow anyway… For the sake of a quick post, I am going to make the card of the day a 1961 Topps Earl Robinson, card #343. I would be lying if I said that I really had any idea who Earl was beyond what I know from his card, but fortunately there is plenty info to go on…When I was going through my stack of 1961 Topps, studying them and adjusting to the design, knowing this will be the guideline for 2010 Heritage, this card stuck out to me. It lists Mr. Robinson as a member of the Baltimore Orioles (accurately), but shows him in Dodgers grey and blue flannel. It turns out that this photo was taken in spring training at Vero Beach in 1959, right before Robinson was reassigned to the St. Paul Saints (AAA) of the American Association. When the Orioles purchased Robinson’s contract after the 1960 season, Topps wanted to include him in their set and this was the only photo they had. At least they took the time to paint over the LA on his batting helmet.
To start at the beginning with Earl, he went to Berkeley High School in California where he played football, baseball and basketball-he earned a scholarship to play for the Cal Golden Bears and he was the captain of both the baseball and basketball teams in 1957. He was an All American in both sports and the Bears won the National Championship that year. According to the back of the card Earl had contract offers from 16 different pro-ball clubs. It also says that Gil Hodges was the one who convinced Earl to sign on with LA. He did sign with the Dodgers and the following season he had a cup of coffee with the big league club, starting 5 games at third base, a position that he had never played before. He managed 3 hits for Los Angeles, but didn’t see the big leagues again until he made the Orioles out of spring training in 1961. To say the Orioles were stocked full of outfielders at that time was an understatement. Their regular starting three was Dick Williams, Jackie Brandt and Whitey Herzog and on the bench fighting for playing time were Robinson, Jim Busby, Dave Philley and a teenager named John Powell. Earl Robinson managed to start 53 games that year at all 3 outfield spots. He had a career high 222 at-bats and batted .266 with 8 homers and 30 RBI for the 3rd place Orioles. This was enough to earn him a card in the next year’s Topps set, (1962 Topps, card #272) in an Orioles uniform. It wasn’t enough to earn him a full-time spot on the team. According to the back of the card: "The Baltimore management feels Earl will fit in nicely with their youthful team." He did, they just had too many other youthful and talented outfielders in the organization. Robinson spent the next 3 seasons splitting time between the Rochester Redwings (AAA) and the Orioles. 1964 would be Robinson’s final season in the big leagues with the Orioles; he played in 37 games, hit .273 with 3 homers and 10 RBI. He spent the 1965 season with the Salt Lake City Bees of the Pacific Coast League (Chicago Cubs affiliate) and retired from baseball after that. He had returned to the University of California in 1963 as their assistant basketball coach and remained there for 3 seasons. He also returned to Berkeley University to earn his doctorate degree in education. Robinson worked as a teacher and a basketball coach several different colleges in California after his baseball playing days. This 1961 card would be Robinson’s rookie; the ’62 is his only other Topps card. Mr. Robinson is retired from sports and living in Louisianna and was kind enough to answer all of my questions about his rookie card via mail. I love this hobby! Troll out.

A Fairly Bizarro Card of the Day!

While reading one of my favorite blogs, Night Owl cards on Thursday morning he had a story about his All-Time Dodgers Nine, The Bizarro edition. I love All-Time teams and spend a whole of time thinking about them when I should be doing other things. Naturally I was sucked in and had to read it. He picked his All-Time worst hitters, position by position, to wear the Dodgers blue. This team was based on stats from one particular season. There weren’t a ton of surprises. Sandy Koufax who is arguably the Dodgers greatest pitcher ever was the starting pitcher on the team. I think he is the only one who made his all time best and worst teams respectively. It was based on his 1957 season when he was hitless in 27 trips to the plate. Not so good Sandy. Some of the players I could have predicted prior to reading, like Andruw Jones and his horrific season in 2008 where he batted .158. Franklin Stubbs made the team. I didn’t remember him being that bad, but I didn’t remember him being that great either. The middle infield was made up of two of my favorite guys-DeLino DeShields and Zoilo Versalles who admittedly had horrible years for the Dodgers. One of the names stood out to me though. It was outfielder Ron Fairly. Fairly’s MLB career lasted 21 seasons, over 3 decades. He broke in with the Dodgers in 1958 as a teenager. In 1959, in his rookie season, he hit .238 with 4 homers and 23 RBI, but was named to the Topps All Rookie team. He went to 4 World Series’ with the Dodgers and won 3 of them. He spent 12 seasons in Dodger Blue and hit a fairly (hah!) respectable .260 over that time, he also swatted 90 of his 183 career homers in a Dodgers uniform.
He remained with the Dodgers until 1969 when he was traded to the Expos to bring back Maury Wills and also Manny Mota. It was a good trade for the Dodgers, but it didn’t work out too bad for Montreal either. Fairly was an All Star for them in ’73 and he averaged 15 homers a year over his 5 seasons spent there. Still the question remains of how Fairly is on the Night Owls All Time Bizarro team. The Night Owl is seldom wrong, if ever, but Fairly couldn’t have been that bad and still remained a Dodger for 12 seasons could he? Did he have family in the front office? I couldn’t answer that question during my 5 minutes of research, I did find however that he was fairly (ha again!) well liked and respected in the clubhouse over his tenure. He was generally regarded as a decent outfielder who could play all 3 spots, plus first base on occasion. His best season as a Dodger came in 1961 when he was 22 years old. He batted .322 with 10 homers and 48 RBI. In fact, the back of the card on his 1962 Topps card #375 (which is today’s card of the day!) says:
“Ron started his career in the minors in 1958 and by the end of that season he was playing with the Dodgers. The good hitting outfielder is rated as one of the game’s future stars by baseball experts. A talented ball-player, Ron can handle himself well at first base, too”
Surely those words aren’t referring to the worst hitting outfielder in Dodgers history? The year prior he did hit .108, which is pretty awful, but he only played in 14 games. Perhaps the year that Mr. Owl is referring to is 1967 when he hit a meager .220? He did manage 10 homers and 55 RBI that year, but the following year, in 1968 his average rose (a little) but his run production dropped off considerably. In ’68 he batted .234 with just 4 homers and 43 RBI. Not great Mr. Fairly. Given the rich history of great hitting Dodgers outfielders, I suppose Ron Fairly is a fairly (ha once again!) good candidate for your All Time Bizarro Team Mr. Owl. I do think that Fairly does deserve a little bit of love from you based on his performance in the ’65 World Series though. He hit .379 with 2 homers and 6 RBI. If not for Koufax’ amazing pitching, Fairly could have made a fairly (this is too easy) good case for Series MVP. Okay, question answered. Yes, Fairly was a solid Dodger for 12 seasons, but his years at the plate in ’67 and ’68 are deserved of his Bizarro status. I think it might be more bizarre that after those off years in the late 60’s he became an All Star for the first time in ’73 after 16 seasons in the league. 19 seasons after his start he played for the Toronto Blue Jays during their inaugural season in 1977 and led the team in doubles, homers and runs batted in. He was also the Blue Jays first All Star. He struck out as a pinch hitter in his lone at bat.
Bizarro he may be, but it was his great year in ’61 however, makes him deserving of Collective Troll Card of the Day status. It’s a fairly good deal don’t ya think? Let’s take another look at the back of the card, shall we? Topps couldn’t resist either, it reads “Ron fares well” and mentions his numbers with Spokane of the PCL in 1960 when he hit .303 with 100 RBI.
That’s that. It’s still a fairly interesting card in my book and one of the few 1962s that I own. For those concerned, in his 21 year career Fairly batted .266 with 1010 hits and a career on base percentage of .360. He was twice an All Star and 3 times a World Champion. He also played in 2,442 games which is 63rd all time. His 1052 walks puts him in the top 100 All Time (91st) and he was walked intentionally an amazing 129 times over his career. He was also hit by a pitch 40 times over the years. I imagine he was fairly sore… Okay, I think I’ve gone too far! What one more. You had a very long and fairly successful career. Thanks for the memories, most were fairly good! After his lengthy playing career ended, Ron Fairly worked as a broadcaster for the Giants, Angels and Mariners. Since this post got so long I decided to add a few of my other Fairly cards, too. Ron had 21 regular issue Topps cards to represent his 21-year major league career. Shown also are his first (1959, card #125) and his last (1979, card #580) and for good measure, one in between (1969 card #120). I think if nothing else you could say that Ron had a fairly consistent career. He stuck around the majors for 21 years, averaged nearly 100 hits per year in around 350 at-bats and according to the back of his cards he weight never varied more than 5 pounds and he went from a wispy outfielder to a cagey DH. That is impressive to me. Thanks for the fodder Night Owl, I think this turned into a fairly decent post. Someday this post might be the answer to a contest question so you may want to take note of how many times I used (abused) fairly as an adjective! I love this hobby! Troll out.

Let's Start Thinking About the 2009 Blogger Awards OR Is This Your First Year as a Blogger?

Greetings Trollites! Sorry for the lack of a post today, forgot to schedule one and didn’t get on the net until now. After class today I carried a stack of cards from the 50s. 60s, 70, and even a few from the 80’s and beyond over to Mom and Dad’s house to scan and save them on their PC. I didn’t actually write any posts, but I have enough card images to write card of the day posts for the next two months. By the way, aside from an occasional trade post, that is basically what I plan on doing between now and the start of spring training-writing one card posts about some of my favorite cards, mostly from the decade of the 1960s. I do also plan on profiling every single player on the Hall of Fame ballot this year-with the carryovers included it is an amazing class-there are at least 10 guys on the ballot that I feel belong there. I wanted to remind everyone that are about 700 more hits on this page until the contest is closed. I think it stands at only 24 votes so far and right now the first great rookie of the decade and the last one are in a neck and neck race for the finish. I speaking of course about the 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson being locked up with the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. PLEASE cast your vote for the most iconic, baseball rookie card of the 1980s! In voting you will automatically be entered into the contest. The prize will be the winning card.
Speaking of contests… As you may or may not know, I am a part of the panel that will be voting and selecting the winners in this years inaugural blogger awards. The awards are being hosted by Drew from Drew's Cards and Alfredo aka Wicked Ortega. I am pretty excited about the awards. We will be voting for blogger awards, but also products and inserts of the year as well as top moments in sports. There are actually quite a few awards to be handed out. One of the awards is the Blogger Rookie of the Year. The perquisite is that your blog was started on January 1, 2009 or later. The voting isn’t opened up for this just yet, but I am going to ask you all to start thinking about it. I hope to be able to “host” this particular award (that has yet to be decided) but I am interested in getting some talk going on it. I personally started my blog in May of 2009 (so I believe that I would qualify…) and most all of you were here when I got here. What I am asking for right now is some suggestions or at the very least some names of blogs that would qualify. Feel free to comment with your own blog, or suggest some others that you know were started in 2009. I think this is a pretty great award idea, but again I am ignorant as to when everyone started their blogs, so PLEASE comment here with the names of some blogs that were born in 2009. Thanks in advance dear blog-o-sphere! Oh, if you wanna get the wheels turning-some of the other blogger awards will include Blog of the Year (MVP!), Most Generous Trader, Biggest Box Breaker (another one I might need some suggestions for), Most Creative Blogger and Coolest Blog Design. Go Rays! With the acquisition of Kelly Shoppach we will be unstoppable! By the by… The cards scanned in this post don’t have any actual relevance to this topic-well not really… They are all former Rookies of the Year (and mainly bad-ass cards) and that is what I am looking for help with. So once more so we are clear... These aren't nominations, just mentions so I know who qualifies. You can list thirty blogs including your own as long as they were started in 2009. If you have any questions or input, please contact Drew through his blog. Thanks! Troll out.