Blog Kiosk: 11/6/2018 - Dodgers Links - Vote! It's Election Day!

Here's another Spring Training pic from yesteryear, as found on eBay. Dated March 7, 1950 and taken by the legendary Herb Scharfman, we see six Dodgers all vying for an opening at the third base position that upcoming season. Per the description on the reverse:

All Pulling for the Same Job
Vero Beach, FLA... There are plenty of strings attached to the third base job with the Brooklyn Dodgers as these six candidates try the position at the Vero Beach camp of the Bums. Left to right: Bob Morgan, Clarence (Buddy) Hicks, Johnny Jorgenson, Billy Cox, Everett (Rocky) Bridges and Eddie Miksis.

As you may know, rookie Bobby Morgan was the Opening Day starter, but eventually lost the starting job to Billy Cox by mid-season. Below are more links to check out:

• This Day in Dodgers History: In 1974 Dodgers hurler Dr. Mike Marshall becomes the first reliever to win a Cy Young award. He had set a MLB record for appearances at 106 and innings pitched for a reliever at 208.1. That's right, a reliever threw over 200 innings and got into over 65% of all Dodger games that season. In 1996 Dodger outfielder Todd Hollandsworth is named the winner of the Rookie of the Year award. He is the fifth consecutive Dodger to win this award and the 16th overall in franchise history. In 2006 Dodger fan Charles Littleton, a 22-year old Saginaw Valley State University student, is TASERed by Saginaw (MI) police when he refuses to remove his Dodger cap during a City Council meeting. He is there to receive extra credit for a sociology class. See a news report here. In 2014 the Dodgers officially hire Zaidi Farhan to be their new General Manager. He takes over a  position previously held by Ned Colletti. 
• Happy Birthday, Bob Darnell, John Candelaria & Chad Curtis!

2018 Topps Archives Signature Series Retired Player Edition - The Dodgers Cards

Last week Topps released their second Archives Signature product and this time they focus on retired ballplayers. As you'll recall, they released their active player edition in July (link here). This particular brand includes a checklist that has 14 ballplayers who once wore Dodger Blue, but I've only been able to find Dodger cards for ten of those former Dodgers. So far, signed Dodger cards of Andruw Jones (thank goodness), Bobby Bonilla, Pedro Martinez and Rickey Henderson have not yet been unearthed. Go here for a complete checklist. Check out the known signed Dodger buyback cards below. BTW, all Sandy Koufax cards come as a redemption.

On another note, the checklist indicates something called "Special Autographs", and that checklist includes six different older Dodger players. They are all "1 of 1's" and feature mostly vintage era cards that have been signed.

Retired Player Edition Encased Buyback Autographs

• #Andruw Jones -- None seen
• #Bobby Bonilla -- None Seen
• #Pedro Martinez -- None Seen
• #Rickey Henderson -- None Seen

#Bill Madlock

1986 Topps                          1987 Topps