6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

Hubie Brooks LAN,CAL b. 1956, played 1990, 1992, All-Star: 1986-1987. A first-round draft pick with the Mets (3rd overall) in the 1978 draft, his best years were with the Montreal Expos, where he played shortstop, successfully going backwards on the defensive spectrum (he played third for the Mets). He was one of four players the Mets sent to Montreal to get Hall of Famer Gary Carter. The first shortstop since Ernie Banks to drive in 100 runs, Brooks was a terrible fielder whose wretched range led him to be moved to left field, where he was scarcely better.

Brooks' stint with the Dodgers started in December, 1989, motivated in part by a season in which Kirk Gibson had spent more time off the field than on it. At his introductory press conference announcing his $6M/3 year contract, Dodgers GM Fred Claire announced Brooks would be the Dodgers' starting right fielder — except that Gibson had already been given that position. Oookaaay, so what about left field? Oops, that was Kal Daniels' job.

The plan, which hardly earned the name, unraveled almost immediately as injuries decimated the team. Gibson missed the first half and wasn't the same player when he returned, hitting only eight home runs in a half season with a slugging percentage of .400. Orel Hershiser blew out his shoulder after only four starts and didn't pitch for the rest of the season. Starter Tim Belcher and relievers Don Aase and Jim Gott also spent significant time on the DL. Fernando Valenzuela simply fell apart. So, Brooks played the majority of the games in right, Gibson and switch-hitting Stan Javier (acquired from Oakland in a mid-season trade) shared time about 50-50 in center, and Daniels was the team's starting left fielder. But the combined toll of injury and ineffectiveness shattered the Dodgers: by July 20, Los Angeles was 13½ games out behind a Reds team that won the division wire-to-wire. Though the Dodgers eventually finished five games back with an 86-76 record, they were still five games back and never really in the race. The weak showing pushed the front office into the Darryl Strawberry catastrophe, and the lost decade that followed.

The Dodgers traded Brooks to the Mets to make way for Strawberry. After a mediocre year with New York in which he played through the pain of a bulging disc, an injury that knocked him out in mid-August, 1991, the Mets moved him to the Angels at the end of the season. California used him principally as a DH in their awful 1992, one of the team's darkest hours. Released as a free agent at the end of the season, he somehow convinced Kansas City that he could impersonate a major leaguer for two more years before retiring in 1994.

Jamie Burke ANA b. 1971, played 2001

Doug Davis CAL b. 1962, played 1988

Otis Davis BRO b. 1920, played 1946

Don Kirkwood CAL b. 1949, played 1974-1977

Curt Motton CAL b. 1940, played 1972

Jim Neidlinger LAN b. 1964, played 1990

Dick Nen LAN b. 1939, played 1963. A former Dirtbag, he had one huge at bat during the tight 1963 pennant race against the Cards, getting a blast that cleared the right field roof in St. Louis on September 18, tying a game that the Dodgers would eventually win and give the team a four-game lead over the Cards. It was the only home run he would have with the Dodgers. Also the father of Robb Nen, and sorry his career had to end on such a sad note. Kind of.

Tom Seats BRO b. 1910, played 1945, d. 1992-05-10

Dixie Walker BRO b. 1910, played 1939-1947, All-Star: 1943-1947, d. 1982-05-17. Born Fred Walker, he came from a southern family who made their careers in baseball: his brother, manager Harry Walker; his father, also Dixie [born Ewert Gladstone Walker]; and his nephew, Ernie Walker. This Dixie, AKA "The People's Cherce", was the best as a player. Walker didn't like the idea of integration and said so, leading a spring training effort to petition against Robinson; in addition to Walker, the segregation group allegedly included Bobby Bragan, Kirby Higbe (who told management about the petition), Pee Wee Reese, and Carl Furillo. All except Walker denied it, but once word escaped that Walker had opposed Jackie Robinson's appearance in the lineup, cheers turned to boos at home. As the team slowly realized that Robinson wasn't going away and that he was one of the best players on the team, they eventually made friends with him, Pee Wee Reese in particular, and even Walker gave Robinson pointers.

Walker made five straight All-Star trips, the last at age 36 as a member of the 1947 Dodgers. That year, the Dodgers won the pennant, the first of six they would nab over the next decade. Walker, along with some of the others who signed on with the petition efforts, found himself traded; he spent the last two years of his career in Pittsburgh, where the Bucs would not integrate their major league team until the advent of Curt Roberts, in 1954.