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

Sandy Koufax BRO,LAN b. 1935, played 1955-1966, All-Star: 1961-1966, Hall of Fame: 1972 (BBWAA). Born Sanford Braun, he signed with the Dodgers as a bonus baby, coming up with the team in 1955 as a 19-year-old. Koufax's career is generally divided into two parts, 1955-1960 (during which he was poorly used and generally ineffective because of it, something that caused friction between Walter Alston and Jackie Robinson), and 1961 through his retirement in 1966. During the latter period, he was to that point perhaps the greatest left-hander in history.

One of the criticisms of that plaudit has been the fact that Koufax's road ERAs were often much higher than those recorded at home, and it has been alleged that the Dodger Stadium mound was higher than regulation. But however he achieved it, the fact remains that he won three Cy Young awards in an era when there was only one between the two leagues, won the 1963 MVP award, two World Series MVP titles, and was a six-time All-Star. Instrumental on the great Dodger teams of the early 60's, he led the team to two World Series titles and another pennant, including the 1963 sweep of the Yankees. Koufax also led the league five consecutive years in ERA, four times in strikeouts, six times in K/9, five times in H/9, three times in shutouts, and twice in complete games and innings pitched. He owns three of the best seasons ever recorded (by ERA) by a Dodger pitcher, is 9th in career ERA, 5th in wins, 5th for single-season and career won/loss percentage, seven of the top 10 K/9 seasons and is second in career K/9, and a raft of others.

Injuries tarnished his career and ultimately ended it prematurely; he suffered from gangrene (when a crushed artery in his palm ceased blood flow to one of his fingers, something he was cured of later), hemorrhaging in his pitching arm (which turned up black and blue in spring training of 1965), but ultimately it was arthritis that felled him; he pitched through pain through much of his late career as a result, compelling the Dodgers to plan for (and subsequently abandon) a five-man rotation in 1965 and 1966. On September 9, 1965, he pitched a perfect game, one of only ten in major league history.

Famous for his holdout in 1966 (along with teammate Don Drysdale), he presaged the modern era of free agency by a decade. He pitched the Dodgers into the pennant on the last game of that season, an October 2 matchup between Jim Bunning (another Hall of Famer and, coincidentally, the first-ever contest between two pitchers with perfect games). His 1966 World Series appearance resulted in a loss, part of a four-game sweep at the hands of the Orioles.

In his subsequent career, he has broadcast games for NBC, but quit halfway through a ten-year deal when he found himself too uncomfortable in front of the cameras. He became a pitching coach in the Dodgers system in 1979, a position from which he resigned in 1990; it has been alleged that his troubled relationship with Tommy Lasorda was to blame. Koufax briefly ended his relations with the Dodgers in 2003 when the New York Post, which were both owned at the time by News Corp., alleged his homosexuality; the team's subsequent sale brought him back into the fold. He currently resides in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Jose Morales LAN b. 1944, played 1982-1984. One of a number of dubious maneuvers the Dodgers made in the post-1981 dissolution of the 1970's core, Morales was an aging utility player who more or less replaced Manny Mota in the pinch-hitting role. Already 37 when the Dodgers traded for him from Baltimore, he somehow held on through 1984 before hanging up his spikes.

Tom Murphy CAL b. 1945, played 1968-1972

Mike Brown CAL b. 1959, played 1983-1985, 1988. Along with southpaws Pat Clements and Bob Kipper, one of three players sent to the Pirates in the trade for lefty starter John Candelaria, lefty reliever Al Holland, and OF/1B/DH George Hendrick. For the Pirates, it was a salary dump; Candelaria and Hendrick both made the Top 100 Angels list. Brown, a 7th-round draft pick in 1980, had an insignificant career with the Pirates, returning to the Angels in 1988 after his 1987 release that took him through the Braves, Chisox, and Tigers. He lasted 18 games before retiring from the majors.

Bruce Brubaker LAN b. 1941, played 1967

Hank DeBerry BRO b. 1894, played 1922-1930, d. 1951-09-10

Craig Grebeck ANA b. 1964, played 1997

Rod Nichols LAN b. 1964, played 1993

Devon White CAL,LAN b. 1962, played 1985-1990, 1999-2000, All-Star: 1989, 1993, 1998. A nearly powerless switch-hitter but an excellent defensive centerfielder who won seven Gold Gloves. A Top 100 Angel upon whom the team gave up on far too early, he was traded to the Blue Jays in December, 1990, where he started for three straight division winners and two World Series champions. The return the Angels got wasn't so hot; Junior Felix and Luis Sojo were both busts, especially after it turned out that Felix was older than the Angels thought. Two of White's All-Star seasons happened in uniforms other than the Angels' (Toronto and Arizona).

After stints with Florida and Arizona, the Dodgers ended up with him in 1999, a typical Kevin Malone pickup, in what was his first free-agency signing as Dodgers' GM. Malone justified the 3-year/$11.5M deal by saying of the soon-to-be 36-year-old, "He can hit 20 home runs and steal 20 bases, he's a run producer and he can bat anywhere in the order. He can do so many things for you."

In fact, he had hit 22 homers — his best since 24 with the Angels in 1987 — and he had stolen 22 bases only the year before. But White's glove had started to decline in Arizona (97 Rate2, the worst such score in his career), declining further in Los Angeles (96 and 94 in 1999 and 2000). Worse, as an aging player, he was liable to break down.

Sure enough, White went on the DL with a partially torn rotator cuff on May 5, 2000, and didn't play again until July 24. In the interim, the Dodgers replaced White with the increasingly offense-challenged Todd Hollandsworth. After much grousing about playing time by Hollandsworth, whose bat had badly eroded his playing time, the former 1996 Rookie of the Year got shipped to the Rockies for his replacement in center, Tom Goodwin. Manager Davey Johnson had Goodwin and White evolve into a platoon arrangement, as Goodwin struck out too frequently to be effective in a leadoff role, while White could no longer bat from the left side.

In February, 2001, the Dodgers sent him to Milwaukee for Marquis Grissom and a PTBNL (reliever Ruddy Lugo, brother of Julio). He finished his career there with the strongest season since his All-Star year with Arizona, platooning with Jeffrey Hammonds in center.

Ray Lamb LAN b. 1944, played 1969-1970. A former Trojan and teammate of Hall of Famer Tom Seaver, he spent the most productive part of his brief career with the Indians, for whom he became a starter. The return on the trade that sent him there, Duke Sims, was an aging starting catcher; along with Chris Cannizzaro, he filled in the blank as a starting catcher between Tom Haller and Joe Ferguson.

Factoid: While with LA, he was an offseason movie extra.

Aurelio Rodriguez CAL b. 1947, played 1967-1970, d. 2000-09-23. Had a shockingly long career in the majors despite offensive cipherdom throughout it. Signed out of the Mexican leagues, he played for three seasons and part of a fourth before the Halos traded him to the Senators for Ken McMullen, another slick-fielding, no-hit third baseman in an era that seemed to like defense-first 3B's, only McMullen was 28 at the time. The Senators moved him to Detroit the next year, and there he stayed through 1979, manning third for a long string of mostly also-ran Tigers teams, save for the 86-70 1972 team that won a weak AL East. He spent four more years in the Show before retiring; he was inducted into the Mexican Salón de la Fama (Google translation) in 1995.

Don Thompson BRO b. 1923, played 1951, 1953-1954

Ernie Krueger BRO b. 1890, played 1917-1921, d. 1976-04-22

Norm Larker LAN b. 1930, played 1958-1961, All-Star: 1960. A very productive reserve for the early Los Angeles Dodgers, he spelled a late-career Gil Hodges at first and various players in the outfield. His best season was 1960, when he was second in the league with a .323 average. He became a Houston Colt .45 in the 1961 expansion draft; traded again to the Milwaukee Braves in 1962, he was out of baseball by the end of the year.

Jim Leyritz LAN,ANA b. 1963, played 1997, 2000. A utility infielder in the Shawn Wooten mold, he could play both corner infield positions, a little outfield and second base, and catch in a pinch. He got his start with the Yankees in 1990, and was dumped for a couple PTBNLs to the Angels in December, 1996. For the Angels, he spelled days off for Chad Kreuter until he was flipped to the Rangers for Ken Hill and another PTBNL. Three years later, he was with the Yankees and Dodgers, after which he retired.

Jason Repko LAN b. 1980, played 2005. Hard to believe he was a first-round pick under the Kevin Malone regime; he's proven to be injury-prone, and the Rangers are allegedly interested customers in his services.

Gary Weiss LAN b. 1955, played 1980-1981

Wayne Causey CAL b. 1936, played 1968

Bonnie Hollingsworth BRO b. 1895, played 1924, d. 1990-01-04

Andy Rush BRO b. 1889, played 1925, d. 1969-03-16

Lloyd Brown BRO b. 1904, played 1925, d. 1974-01-14

Ben Chapman BRO b. 1908, played 1944-1945, All-Star: 1933-1936, d. 1993-07-07. Chapman came up with the Yankees in 1930 as a 21-year old third/second baseman, switching to center field shortly thereafter. With the rise of Joe DiMaggio, Chapman and his hot temper became instantly expendable; the Yankees traded him to the Senators in 1936, along with another sometime Dodger, Bobo Newsom (q.v.). Thereafter, he played variously for the Red Sox, Indians, and Chisox before being released in 1941.

Classified as 4F by the draft board, he spent the war years managing minor league teams, earning a one-year suspension for assaulting an umpire in 1943. Reinventing himself as a pitcher, he stepped up for the 1944 Dodgers as a just-above-average reliever. His numbers fell apart the next year, and Brooklyn traded him to the Phillies for 35-year-old catcher Johnny Peacock; amazingly, Peacock shared starting duties with Mike Sandlock, a starting catcher having the only good year of his very short career.

After the trade to Philadelphia, Chapman began his managerial career with that team, at first in 1945 as a player/manager, and in 1947 as a manager only. While his irascibility at first led to improvement, he subsequently became infamous for his brutal racial taunting of Jackie Robinson, a move that backfired when the press turned hostile, and baseball commissioner Happy Chandler chastened him. To apologize, he, the Phillies, the Dodgers, and other league executives organized a photo-op reconciliation. Eventually, his intemperate remarks cost him his job, and owner Bob Carpenter fired him in 1948. He died of a heart attack in 1993.

Alta Cohen BRO b. 1908, played 1931-1932, d. 2003-03-11

Ned Garver LAA b. 1925, played 1961, All-Star: 1951. The St. Louis Browns' last 20-game winner and the last major league pitcher to win 20 on a team that lost 100 or more, all this while hitting .305. Garver was an original Angel, and not a terribly effective one, working out of the pen for a few innings before retiring.

Greek George BRO b. 1912, played 1938, d. 1999-08-15

George Haddock BRO b. 1866, played 1892-1893, d. 1926-04-18

Jack Hamilton CAL b. 1938, played 1967-1968

Rickey Henderson ANA,LAN b. 1958, played 1997, 2003, All-Star: 1980, 1982-1988, 1990-1991. Along with two other former Dodgers, Mike Morgan and Jesse Orosco, and Tim Raines, one of four players to play in the four decades of the 1970's through the 2000's. Perhaps the definition of what a leadoff man should be, he was fast, and smart at stealing bases; he currently owns the major league record for stolen bases with 1,401, and twelve times led the league in steals. He is the only man to have four 20-homer, 50-steal seasons. Twelve times he was in the top five for league OBP, four times led the league in walks, and five times in runs scored. His storied career took him through Oakland, New York (with both the Yankees and Mets), Seattle, Anaheim, San Diego, Boston — and finally Los Angeles, where he played only a few games as a 44-year old, a ghost chasing the dreams of youth.

Bill James said of him, "If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers." He'll be eligible in 2009.

Luis Quintana CAL b. 1951, played 1974-1975

Bull Wagner BRO b. 1887, played 1913-1914, d. 1967-10-02

John D'Acquisto CAL b. 1951, played 1981. A first-round pick by the Giants in the 1970 draft, he found his best moments of success out of the bullpen once he wasn't able to handle the rotation. Spending his 1980 split in middling effectiveness out of the bullpen for the Padres and Expos, the Angels signed him to a rich four-year, $1.3M deal. He was one of $15 million in expensive free agents the Angels had acquired; that year's haul included pitcher Geoff Zahn, fourth outfielder Juan Beniquez, as well as Fred Lynn, who, as with Rod Carew (c.f.), found himself traded prior to becoming a free agent.

But why did the Angels acquire D'Acquisto in the first place? The short answer is also painful: only one day before, the Angels had moved promising young third baseman (and Top 100 Angel) Carney Lansford, starting centerfielder Rick Miller, and erratic-but-effective Top 100 Angel Mark Clear to the Red Sox, for shortstop Rick Burleson and third baseman Butch Hobson.

The Burleson-Hobson combination almost immediately turned into an expensive disaster for the Angels. Hobson went into free-fall, and Burleson separated his shoulder days into the 1982 season, and was never the same player afterwards. Meanwhile, Clear and Lansford continued to be effective, while the free agents the Angels signed weren't. That included D'Acquisto, who agreed to be demoted to AAA after he got shelled in a May 23, 1981 15-4 rout at the hands of the Chisox. He never played for the Angels again, and for many years was held up by fans and media alike as a prime example of the Angels' failures in signing free agent pitchers.

D'Acquisto played for the A's and Braves the next year, but was out of baseball after 1982. In 1996, he was indicted for defrauding investors of $7 million and 39 counts of wire fraud and money laundering, and convicted of trying to pass off a forged certificate of deposit, for which he was imprisoned. In 1999, he pled guilty to the $7M fraud, $1.3M of which he used to buy luxury cars, property, and a part interest in a Mexican baseball team. He was released in 2003; currently, he seems to be associated with Wild Pitch Productions, a music recording and production company.

Jack Graham BRO b. 1916, played 1946, d. 1998-12-30

George Jeffcoat BRO b. 1913, played 1936-1937, 1939, d. 1978-10-13

Keith Luuloa ANA b. 1974, played 2000

Pat Ankenman BRO b. 1912, played 1943-1944, d. 1989-01-13

Ox Eckhardt BRO b. 1901, played 1936, d. 1951-04-22

Bunny Fabrique BRO b. 1887, played 1916-1917, d. 1960-01-10. I must assume this is velveteen.

Doc Gessler BRO b. 1880, played 1903-1906, d. 1924-12-25

Tim Harkness LAN b. 1937, played 1961-1962

Tim Leary LAN b. 1958, played 1987-1989. One of the heroes of the 1988 regular season, he was a garbage-pile pickup fixed by Dodgers pitching coach Ron Perranoski. Leary went 17-10 with the Dodgers in 1988 after the former first-round pick earned only 20 wins in his previous six years in the majors. He had a poor showing in 1988's NLCS Game 6 in which he didn't make a single out in the fifth, surrendering three runs, two on a Kevin McReynolds homer that knocked him out. Demoted to the bullpen for the World Series, he pitched well in relief, an unheralded hero in Game 1 who held the A's scoreless for three innings, and limiting Oakland to one run in Game 3, the A's only victory in that year's series. The Dodgers traded him (and Mariano Duncan) to the Reds in July, 1989 for the injury-plagued Kal Daniels (q.v.) and pinch-hitter Lenny Harris (q.v.).

Max Rosenfeld BRO b. 1902, played 1931-1933, d. 1969-03-10

Cody Ross LAN b. 1980, played 2005. Traded to the Reds in April this year after it became plain he wasn't going anywhere with the Dodgers' crowded outfield bench, Ross almost immediately got flipped to the Marlins. He's still with that club, but a .212/.284/.396 line isn't likely to have the Marlins excited about his return.

Danny Taylor BRO b. 1900, played 1932-1936, d. 1972-10-11

Buddy Carlyle LAN b. 1977, played 2005. After his unsuccessful stint with the Dodgers, he was DFA'd; the Marlins claimed him, and most recently, the Braves gave him a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training.

Dave Kingman CAL b. 1948, played 1977, All-Star: 1976, 1979-1980. A tremendous, powerful man at 6'6", USC manager Rod Dedeaux converted him from pitching to the outfield, where he became a prodigious home run hitter — hitting 442, more than any other player not in the Hall of Fame — but did little else, striking out a lot and failing to hit for average most years. He disdained reporters, once sending a female journalist a rat, and his antics got him traded frequently. His ten games in an Angels uniform in the 1977 season marked one of four he would wear that year, tying a modern record.

It is simply not possible to mention Dave Kingman without mentioning Tommy Lasorda's four-lettered tirade against him following a June 4, 1976 drubbing by the Mets, 11-0, that featured three homers by Kingman.

Roger McDowell LAN b. 1960, played 1991-1994. Unloaded by the Phillies at almost exactly the right moment, the notorious prankster became the Dodgers' closer during their horrible 1992 season, leading the league in relief losses. He lost the closer's job in 1993 despite pitching much better, but his 1994 was another year of ineffectiveness, and the Dodgers let him walk. He spent two more years in the majors with Texas and Baltimore before retiring. Most recently, he was the Dodgers' pitching coach at AAA Las Vegas in 2005 before being tapped as the Braves' major league pitching coach.

Howie Reed LAN,CAL b. 1936, played 1964-1966, d. 1984-12-07

Paul Swingle CAL b. 1966, played 1993

Andy Allanson CAL b. 1961, played 1995

Buster Burrell BRO b. 1866, played 1895-1897, d. 1962-05-08

Tex Erwin BRO b. 1885, played 1910-1914, d. 1953-04-05

Al Ferrara LAN b. 1939, played 1963, 1965-1968

Steve Garvey LAN b. 1948, played 1969-1982, All-Star: 1974-1981, 1984-1985. The matinee idol of my youth and at the time my favorite player, though I admit to liking Joe Ferguson and Steve Yeager, too. Steady, durable, and powerful, the converted third baseman was an eight-time All-Star at first base (including his 1974 season in which he won as a write-in candidate), but his game in fact had significant holes overlooked at the time: he never had a high OBP (his highest, .351, he only attained twice), his SLG was never especially impressive, and he would never field a ball that someone else could get to.

Immensely popular in Los Angeles, he had a junior high school named after him, but a tell-all book by ex-wife Cyndy uncovering serial infidelities brought to an end any speculation of a political career. More recently, the Times discovered him piling up and evading debts in an April, 2006 story. This year is his last in the BBWAA Hall of Fame balloting ($$); if he doesn't get in this time, it's up to the Veteran's Committee.

Jack Jenkins LAN b. 1942, played 1969, d. 2002-06-18

Ken Landreaux LAN,CAL b. 1954, played 1977-1978, 1981-1987, All-Star: 1980. Named TSN Minor League Player of the year after he hit .359 with AAA Salt Lake, he threw out three players from center in his September 11, 1977 debut game (the Angels lost anyway thanks to a terrible outing by Paul Hartzell). In February 1993, the Angels sent him (and others) to Minnesota for Hall of Famer Rod Carew; in March, 1981, the Twins traded him to the Dodgers for Mickey Hatcher. He spent much of the remainder of the 80's as the Dodgers' starting centerfielder before retiring after 1987.

Julio Becquer LAA b. 1931, played 1961

Snooks Dowd BRO b. 1897, played 1926, d. 1962-04-04

Bob Hall BRO b. 1878, played 1905, d. 1950-12-01

Butch Henline BRO b. 1894, played 1927-1929, d. 1957-10-09

Fred Merkle BRO b. 1888, played 1916-1917, d. 1956-03-02. Infamous with the Giants as the author of "Merkle's Boner", a baserunning gaffe that occurred as the last play in a September 23, 1908 game against the rival Cubs. With Merkle on first, what should have been a game-winning hit instead turned into controversy as Merkle headed to the dugout, as was the custom at the time, instead of touching second base on his way to crossing home plate. As the Giants home crowd flooded the field, Cubs second baseman Johnny Evers stepped on second base while in possession of the ball (or, anyway, a ball, since Giants pitcher Joe McGinnity had appeared to hurl the game ball deep into the crowd), claiming a forceout and the negation of the winning run. With fans already making the field impassable, the game's result was nullified. At the end of the season, the Cubs and Giants were tied, and so both teams had to replay the now-missing game; the Giants lost it and the pennant.

Despite being known as an unusually intelligent player (he was the only player John McGraw would consult on strategy), the blunder — and it wasn't much of one by the standards of the day, no more so than the catcher blocking the plate — haunted Merkle for the rest of his life. McGraw took some of the heat off him by saying the team lost eight games that they should have won. Still, the namecalling from the press, who had taken to calling him "bonehead", dogged the 20-year-old; the next year, Merkle hit .191. But he recovered in 1910, becoming a solid player for the Giants. Traded to the Dodgers in August 1916, the Dodgers sold him to the Cubs in August the next year. After his retirement, he refused interviews with the press on the grounds that all they wanted to talk about was his one mistake, forgetting the three pennants he helped the Giants to win.

Harry Stovey BRO b. 1856, played 1893, d. 1937-09-20

Rex Barney BRO b. 1924, played 1943, 1946-1950, d. 1997-08-12

Stan Cliburn CAL b. 1956, played 1980

Stew Cliburn CAL b. 1956, played 1984-1985, 1988

Mike Fetters CAL,ANA,LAN b. 1964, played 1989-1991, 1998, 2000-2001. The Angels' first-round pick of the 1986 draft, he was a nondescript reliever for three years before being traded to the Brewers for the 29-year-old Chuck Crim. The joke was on the Angels, as Fetters exploded in Milwaukee to become a suddenly dominant pitcher. Two years later, he was closing for the Brewers, and remains third all-time for career saves (79) with that franchise, as well as sixth for single-season saves (his 1996 season, with 32), and fifth in appearances (289 games with 334.1 IP).

Flipped twice on December 8, 1997 to the Indians and then the Athletics, who traded him to the Angels in August, 1998, for a PTBNL. After signing with Baltimore as a free agent on a one-year deal, he ended up in the Dodgers bullpen for a year and a half. He posted good numbers during the contract's first year, but disappointing numbers in 2001 got him shipped to Pittsburgh. In recent years, he's played for Minnesota and Arizona as well; famously, imitations of his bizarre sideways look to first before throwing have come from both Mark Grace and Craig Biggio, to much applause.

Welcome Gaston BRO b. 1874, played 1898-1899, d. 1944-12-13

Wally Gilbert BRO b. 1900, played 1928-1931, d. 1958-09-07

Lou Koupal BRO b. 1898, played 1928-1929, d. 1961-12-08

Art Kusnyer CAL b. 1945, played 1971-1973

Tom Wilson LAN b. 1970, played 2004

Gordie Windhorn LAN,LAA b. 1933, played 1961-1962

Geoff Zahn CAL,LAN b. 1945, played 1973-1975, 1981-1985. Came up with the Dodgers in 1973, who traded him to the Cubs in May, 1975 for Burt Hooton, one of the mainstays of the Dodgers' rotation into the mid-80's. Zahn was one of several goats in the Angels' fruitless 1982 ALCS as the losing pitcher in Game 3, pulled after 3.1 innings. Shoulder trouble in 1985 caused him to hang up his glove.

Scott Bailes CAL b. 1961, played 1990-1992

Gino Cimoli BRO,LAN,CAL b. 1929, played 1956-1958, 1965, All-Star: 1957. A fourth outfielder who came up with the Dodgers in 1956, he moved with the team to Los Angeles in 1959 and got traded to St. Louis in December of that year, for Wally Moon.

Moment of glory: in the eigth inning of 1960 World Series Game 7, with the Pirates down 7-4, Cimoli came in and got a leadoff pinch-hit single that shortstop Dick Groat eventually cashed in, part of a five-run rally that gave the Bucs the lead, 9-7. The Yankees tied the game in the top of the ninth, but Bill Mazeroski famously decided the game and the series with a walkoff homer in the bottom of the ninth, the first walkoff homer in World Series history.

Hub Knolls BRO b. 1883, played 1906, d. 1946-07-01

Jimmy Pattison BRO b. 1908, played 1929, d. 1991-02-22

Orlando Ramirez CAL b. 1951, played 1974-1977, 1979

Bill Skowron CAL,LAN b. 1930, played 1963, 1967, All-Star: 1957-1961, 1965. The Yankees' starting first baseman during the late 50's and early 60's, the Dodgers picked him up for Stan Williams, one of several starters either blocked by or traded out of the outstanding Dodger rotations of the early 60's. Nicknamed "Moose" (abbreviated from "Mussolini" by a teasing grandfather), he played in eight different World Series, seven with the Yankees and one with the 1963 Dodgers. With the '63 Dodgers, he was a .203-hitting reserve first baseman, but in that year's Series, he was a hero against his old team, going 5-for-13 with a home run.

Zoilo Versalles LAN b. 1939, played 1968, All-Star: 1963, 1965, d. 1995-06-09. A two-time All-Star with the mid-60's Twins, Versalles was one of three shortstops the Dodgers used between the December 1966 trade of Maury Wills and his return in 1969. Four times in his career his was the only hit in a game against the opposition, including a September 10, 1962 one-hitter by Dean Chance.

Leo Cardenas CAL b. 1938, played 1972, All-Star: 1964-1966, 1968, 1971. So good as a shortstop he earned the nickname "Mr. Automatic", Cardenas played most of his career with the mostly also-ran Reds teams of the 1960's, save for the 1961 pennant winners. Traded to Minnesota in 1968, the Angels got him in late 1971 for Dave LaRoche; he came in when the team needed a shortstop to fill the void caused by the Jim Fregosi/Nolan Ryan trade. The Angels flipped him just before the beginning of the 1973 season to Cleveland, and he spent two more years after that with the Rangers before retiring.

Bret Hemphill ANA b. 1971, played 1999

Bob Ojeda LAN b. 1957, played 1991-1992

Curtis Pride LAA,ANA b. 1968, played 2004-2005. Playing for six different major league clubs and ten different organizations over his career, he was born deaf but famously overcame it to become a serviceable fifth outfield bat. At 38 he's probably done, but I'm sure the Angels will give him a spring training invite if he wishes it.

Charlie Sands CAL b. 1947, played 1973-1974

Stan Bahnsen CAL b. 1944, played 1982

Edgard Clemente ANA b. 1975, played 2000. Nephew of Hall of Famer Roberto, he had only three seasons in the bigs; he was last seen in the indy leagues as a 30-year-old. That's determination.

Robert Ellis CAL,LAN b. 1970, played 1996, 2002

George Hemming BRO b. 1868, played 1891, d. 1930-06-03

Chuck Hockenbery CAL b. 1950, played 1975

Doug Rau LAN,CAL b. 1948, played 1972-1979, 1981

Mo Vaughn ANA b. 1967, played 1999-2000, All-Star: 1995-1996, 1998. How fitting that Vaughn's birthday should come only a few days after Bill Bavasi makes another disastrous move, though fortunately that one was for one of the Angels' rivals. Vaughn was an exercise in the dangers of free agents, though it should be noted that many of the team's faults were beyond the Top 100 Angels' control. Nonetheless, the failure of the 1999 team to produce more wins cost Bavasi his job, and manager Terry Collins his.

Incoming GM Bill Stoneman eventually traded Vaughn to the Mets for Kevin Appier late in 2001, thus setting up the team's 2002 run. Worth mentioning: his bitter, obscenity-laced tirade against Troy Percival after Percy said, "We may miss Mo's bat, but we won't miss his leadership. Darin Erstad is our leader."

John Anderson BRO b. 1873, played 1894-1899, d. 1949-07-23

Bill Buckner LAN,CAL b. 1949, played 1969-1976, 1987-1988, All-Star: 1981. He came up to the Show the same year as Steve Garvey, who originally and catastrophically played third base; after making a mind-blowing 28 errors, the Dodgers moved Garvey to first in 1973. Buckner, who had split time between first and the outfield, became a full-time outfielder, a role he filled for the Dodgers through 1976. A teriffic contact hitter, he led the league in strikeouts per at bat four years of his career.

In January, 1977, he was traded to the Cubs for Rick Monday. In Chicago, Buckner returned to first base, where he won a batting title in 1980, and would have placed second in 1978, save for a groin injury inflamed in a June 18 game that sapped him of the needed at-bats to qualify. In midseason 1984, with Leon Durham ready to replace him, the Cubs moved him to Boston for Dennis Eckersley, setting the stage for his catastrophic, infamous 1986 World Series Game 6 performance.

With the Red Sox leading 5-3 entering the bottom of the 10th and a World Series title one out away, Gary Carter singled to left. Two more singles by Kevin Mitchell and Ray Knight brought the score to 5-4, convincing Boston manager John McNamara to haul in reliever Calvin Schiraldi and replace him with closer Bob Stanley. Getting Mookie Wilson to a 2-2 count, Stanley uncorked a wild pitch that scored Mitchell from third. With the score now tied, Wilson tapped a routine grounder to Buckner — which scooted under Buckner's glove, into right field, and history. Ray Knight scored from second, winning the game. The Mets went on to win 8-5 in Game 7, as once again, Schiraldi collapsed, giving up the go-ahead runs starting with a leadoff homer to Knight, while only making a single out.

But as with the Angels' failure in that year's ALCS, there were plenty of questions, and opportunities where others could have forestalled the events of the bottom of the 10th. Roger Clemens left the game in the sixth; McNamara claimed Clemens pulled himself out with a blister on his pitching hand, but Clemens later vehemently denied it. Might a later exit have prevented some of Schiraldi's problems in the 10th? Buckner had been hitting .143 in the World Series to that point; mightn't McNamara have pulled him in the eighth, and given an at-bat to Don Baylor instead? That would have opened the door to defensive replacement Dave Stapleton at first, and possibly have provided an insurance run, as the Red Sox had the bases loaded with two out. And then there was Stanley's wild pitch: according to some accounts, catcher Rich Gedman made no effort to smother it. What if he had? Finally, Mookie Wilson and Buckner later both agreed that even if he had fielded the ball cleanly, Stanley was late coming off the mound and wouldn't have beaten Wilson to the bag anyway.

Buckner, a gentleman about the matter, professed not to be concerned about it, even after losing the World Series; he had an excellent regular season regardless. The Red Sox traded Buckner to the Angels in midseason 1987 after they blew up much of the 1986 team in the offseason. Buckner continued to hit well for the Angels that year as a fixed DH, but he collapsed in 1988 when relegated to a pinch-hitting role. Released by the Angels, he signed with the Royals, where he stayed for a year and a half, before returning to Boston for his swan song.

Charlie Hargreaves BRO b. 1896, played 1923-1928, d. 1979-05-09

Ken Hill ANA b. 1965, played 1997-2000, All-Star: 1994

Deacon Van Buren BRO b. 1870, played 1904, d. 1957-06-29

Carl Erskine BRO,LAN b. 1926, played 1948-1959, All-Star: 1954. A career Dodger, he held a 14-strikeout World Series record (earned in his 1953 World Series Game 3 victory) that stood for 14 years. He pitched two no-hitters in his career, one on June 19, 1952 against the Cubs, and his second on May 12, 1956 against the Giants. He remains in the franchise top 10 for home runs allowed (both single-season and career) and earned runs allowed; he is also in the major league top 100 for career winning percentage, with .610.

Joe Landrum BRO b. 1928, played 1950, 1952

Billy Loes BRO b. 1929, played 1950, 1952-1956, All-Star: 1957. Loes once said, "If you win 20 games, they expect you to do it every year." It was typical of his famous malapropisms; he once claimed to have lost a groundball in the sun.

Bubba Morton CAL b. 1931, played 1966-1969

Nate Oliver LAN b. 1940, played 1963-1967

Jeff Robinson CAL b. 1960, played 1991

George Shuba BRO b. 1924, played 1948-1950, 1952-1955

Steve Wilson LAN b. 1964, played 1991-1993

Ralph Garr CAL b. 1945, played 1979-1980, All-Star: 1974. A football star from Grambling, he stole home in his first stolen base attempt in the majors, and also won the NL batting title in 1974. Traded to the White Sox in 1975, the Angels purchased him from that team in 1979; he played through his retirement in 1980, mainly as a fifth outfielder.

Derrell Griffith LAN b. 1943, played 1963-1966