that's not necessarily a relief

coming into the 2024 season, kiké hernandez had a career era of 81.00 thanks to an appearance in 2018 in which he surrendered three runs and recorded only one out. over the course of the 2024 campaign, hernandez lowered his era to 9.64 by appearing in four games and allowing two runs over 4 and a third innings of work.  in one of those games, hernandez was 3 for 4 with a couple of rbis and so became the dodgers' best two-way player of the season. i expect that to change next year.

seeing kiké on the mound multiple times in 2024 reminded me of russell martin who also made four relief appearances for the dodgers in a single season (2019). it also made me wonder who the first dodger position player to take the mound might have been.

i looked back at player rosters on baseball reference and found that danny heep, one of the "stuntmen", pitched in relief for the dodgers in 1988. in honor of that achievement, i added a 2017 topps buyback card of heep to my collection

it is the silver version of the "rediscover topps" buybacks in case you were wondering. in his lone relief appearance as a dodger (he would take the mound again in 1990 for the red sox), heep pitched two innings and gave up a two-run home run to ken caminiti in one of them.

i kept looking, and i believe that the first los angeles dodger position player to make a relief appearance (and the only one prior to heep), was jim hickman. hickman has a card as a dodger in the 1967 topps set, but i decided to share this recent pickup instead

that's his 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams silver autograph card, which i have happily added to my partial master set. i keep pecking away at the auto and numbered parallels even though i have no illusions of ever completing any of the parallel sets.

anyway, after hitting for dick egan in the 7th, hickman was called upon to pitch the 8th and 9th innings in a june game against the giants back in '67, even though the dodgers were only down by five. he gave up two hits and one run in his two innings of work - the one run coming on a willie mays home run - and even got a single in the bottom of the 9th for good measure.

it will be interesting to see what comes of 2025 with shohei ohtani due to resume his role as a pitcher every fifth day. how much time off will the dodgers give ohtani and at what cost to their offense? and with kiké becoming a free agent, who will be dave roberts' first call from the bench to take the mound at the end of the lopsided games?

ttm blasts from the past

forever stamps are a good thing, especially when it comes to through the mail autograph requests.  one just never knows when (or if) a request will be filled.  i've received a few in the last couple of months that i figured i would share.

first up is danny heep, who signed a 1989 topps

1989 fleer

and 1989 score

card for me.  this return was relatively quick as i sent the cards out on february 1st, and received the cards back on june 13.

here's brett butler who has signed for me in the past. 

i didn't have a 1991 topps traded card in my autograph collection until this one came back, but i can't update my topps dodger autograph project since butler is representing a different release.  i sent that card to butler on february 11, 2017 and got it back on april 2, 2018.  not quite 14 months.

ken howell was the dodger bullpen coach for a long time. he was replaced this season by former phenom mark prior.  would you believe that i received my 1985 topps traded card back from howell over five years after i sent it to him?

well, you should, because that is the truth.  i sent to howell on february 18, 2013 and received it back on may 29, 2018.  that length of time was not quite the longest wait i've endured - pete mackanin took five-and-a-half years to return a card to me.

however, mackanin was unseated about a month ago when i found some todd benzinger cards in my mailbox - 1993 topps 

and 1992 topps stadium club

he kept a 1989 upper deck card.  i sent these cards (plus a 1989 upper deck card that he kept) to benzinger on december 10, 2009.  they came back to me on june 14, 2018.  that's 3,108 days!  8.5 years!  it gives me some hope for other outstanding requests.

as always, thanks to all who sign ttm - no matter how long it takes!