Yankees Who Were Dodgers and Vise Versa

                                        I was watching one of those video shorts on Facebook where a guy outside of Yankee Stadium asked a Yankee fan to name four players who played for both teams. The kid got three pretty fast but struggled to find a fourth. So just for fun, I asked AI how many players had played for both franchises. I was actually stunned by the number, 223. I thought it would be fun prespring training to look back at some of those players. 

                                                     I thought I would start out with a Hall of Famer. He actually got in as a manager. He came to the Dodgers in 1938 to play SS. He started his career as a Yankee in 1925 as a 19-year-old. He came up to stay in 1928. He was part of two World Champion teams, the 1928 Yankees who swept the Cardinals, and the famous 1934 Cardinals, the Gas House Gang, that beat the Tigers in 7 games. If you haven’t already guessed, he is Leo Durocher, the Lip.

                                                      Durocher was traded by the Cardinals to the Dodgers for Jim Bucher, Johnny Cooney, Roy Henshaw and Joe Stripp in October of 1937. Leo would be the Dodgers starting SS in 38-39. He would be replaced at SS by Pee Wee Reese. He was a player-manager starting in 1939. He had a part-time player role in 40-41 and would also play a little in 1943 and 45. He was the manager of the team until 1947 when he was suspended for the entire season. Rickey had to scramble to find a manager since Durocher was suspended just as the 47 season was starting. He picked Burt Shotton who led the team through Jackie Robinson’s rookie season. Durocher returned to the Dodgers in 48, but the team got off to a bad start. Rickey worked a deal with Horace Stoneham that allowed Durocher to be released from his Dodger contract and take over as the Giants manager. He would later return to the Dodgers in LA as a coach for Walter Alston. 

                                                    Next up is a player who any fan who knows anything about Lou Gehrig would recognize. Babe Dahlgren was a first baseman who originally came to the majors in 1935 with the Boston Red Sox. Babe was sold to the Yankees in February of 1937. He spent most of 1937-38 in the minors. In 1938, the symptoms of his disease began to affect Gehrig’s play. By mid-season, Gehrig noticed that he was tired more and unable to get his bat started again. He had a very good season by most standards, .295/29/114. But had just 4 hits in the World Series, all singles.

                                                   In spring training in 1939, it became obvious that something was wrong. Even the simplest plays were hard for him to make. He hit no homers at all. He played his 2130th game on April 30th. On May 2nd, Gehrig went to manager Joe McCarthy and benched himself. He was replaced for the rest of the season by Dahlgren. Dahlgren hit .235/15/89 that year and followed it up with a .264/12/73 line in 1940. He was sold to the Boston Braves that winter. He was sold to the Dodgers in May of 42 for 10,000 dollars by the Cubs. He went 1-19 with Brooklyn and was sent to the minors. In 1943 the Dodgers traded him to the Phillies for Lloyd Waner and Al Glossop. Dahlgren was a career .261 hitter who walked, 390 times, almost as much as he struck out, 401. He is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale California. 

                                                In 1981, Steve Sax was named the Rookie of the Year, LA’s 4th in a row following Rick Sutcliffe, Steve Howe and Fernando Valenzuela. Steve would play 8 years in Los Angeles. His line over those 8 seasons was .282/30/333. He had an OPS of .693 and his OBP was .335. He stole 290 bases as a Dodger. His walk to strikeout rate was decent, striking out 406 times and walking 363.  In 7 post season series he batted .276. 3 of his 24 hits went for extra bases, all doubles. He was in the on-deck circle when Gibson hit his homer in the 88 series in game 1. 

                                                 After the 1988 season, Sax, who went through a stretch of what is called the yips, signed a free agent contract with the Yankees. He hit over .300 and had one of his better seasons his first year in pinstripes. He fell off some in 1990 dropping 55 points in batting average. He rebounded in 1991 with another .300 season with a .303/10/56 line. It was the only season he ever hit 10 or more homers. His best year was 1986 in LA. He hit .332/6/56 and had his only season where his OPS was over .800. His OBP that year was .390. He never won a gold glove, and he spent just 3 years in New York. In January of 1992, the Yankees traded him to the White Sox for Domingo Jean, Bob Wickman and Melido Perez. He spent 2 seasons with the Sox and played just 7 games for the A’s in 1994 and was released. He was 34 years old.

#44 Darryl Strawberry.

                                              In November of 1990, the Dodgers signed free agent outfielder, Darryl Strawberry to a 5-year-22.5-million-dollar contract. He had spent 8 years with the Mets and crushed 252 home runs, which was a Met career record. It would later be surpassed by Pete Alonso. Strawberry was 29 at the time of the signing. He had a pretty decent 1st year in LA with a .265/28/99 line. His career homer total at the end of that season was 280. He was drawing comparisons to Hank Aaron. Of his 28 homers, he hit 10 of them against the Astros. 

                                               As good as he was, there had been issues while he was a Met. He would arrive late for games, he threatened to bust Wally Backman in the face, calling him “the little redneck.” He got into a physical altercation with team captain, Keith Hernandez on picture day. Still, the consensus was that the Dodgers had made an astute signing brining in a pure slugger. Then though, in 92, the problems started. He played just 43 games for the Dodgers mostly because of injuries and some personal problems. The personal problem turned out to be drug use. In 93, he played just 32 games and was released in May after failing to show up for a game. In 94, he tried to make a comeback with the Giants but played in just 32 games. 

                                           By then it was widely known he had an addiction to cocaine. He had been suspended at the beginning of the 95 season for testing positive for cocaine. Strawberry signed with the Yankees for the stretch run and played in 32 games. He went to the St. Paul Saints in May of 1996 to rehabilitate. He hit his first homer, a 522 ft. shot off of Pat Aherne on June 2nd. Not long afterwards he found himself back with the Yankees along with former teammates, David Cone and Dwight Gooden and helped the Yankees win World Series. In 97, he barely played because of injuries. He rebounded and had a big year in 98, once again helping New York win the Series. It was the first time he had played in 100 games since 1991. In 99 he played in just 24 games. He retired with 335 homers and exactly 1000 RBIs. 

                                              Running through the names of some of the pitchers who threw for both teams, a couple of pitchers who are famously tied to historic homers appear on the list. Tom Zachary, a leftie who allowed Babe Ruth’s 60th homer in 1927, pitched for the Yankees from 1928-30. He pitched for the Dodgers from 1934-36 before being released and then signed by the Phillies, where he ended his career that season. Ralph Branca, who gave up Bobby Thompson’s ” shot heard round the world” pitched for the Dodgers from 1944-53, was briefly a Yankee in 1954, pitching in five games for the bombers. He returned to the Dodgers for the 1956 season and then retired. 

                                             Recent members of the team who have played for both teams, Cody Bellinger, Anthony Banda, who got into 2 games in 22 for the Yanks. Alex Verdugo, Phil Bickford, Nathan Eovaldi, Shane Greene, Andrew Heaney, Rich Hill, Tommy Kahnle, Lance Lynn, Joey Gallo, Andruw Jones, Tin Locastro, Russell Martin, Raul Mondesi, Amed Rosario and Hiroki Kuroda. Bill Skowron was a big contributor in the sweep over the Yankees in 63. 

                                              Hall of Fame pitcher, Burleigh Grimes pitched for Brooklyn from 1918-26. In his 9 seasons, he complied a 158-121 record with Brooklyn. He was one of the last spitball pitchers in the majors. He had a 19-year career with 7 teams. He was elected to the Hall in 1964 on the veteran’s ballot. Overall, he was 270-212 with a 3.53 ERA. He pitched in four World Series going 3-4. He was with the Cardinals when they beat the Athletics in the 1931 series. He pitched in 10 games for the 1934 Yankees. His last season.

                                               When Mike Piazza was traded to the Marlins in 1998 along with Todd Zeile, the Dodgers received five players, Manual Barrios, Charles Johnson, Bobby Bonilla, Jim Eisenreich and Gary Sheffield. Sheffield was obviously the best player of the five. Johnson was supposed to be Piazza’s replacement with Bonilla taking over at third for Zeile. Eisenreich was a bench piece and Barrios pitched in just 1 game for LA, facing 4 batters. He walked 2 of them. Statistically, Piazza had a much better season than Sheffield, especially after Miami traded him to the Mets. He outhomered him 32-22, hit 26 points higher and drove in 100 runs to Sheff’s 85. 

                                                In his 3 1/2 years with the team, Sheffield was consistent. He hit .301/34/101 in 99, .325/43/109 in 2000, and .311/36/100 in 01. What he wasn’t was popular. Sheffield did not endear himself to Dodger fans. I believe part of it was that he was traded for one of the team’s most popular players. The other was that he made statements in the press that made it look like he wasn’t trying hard all the time. He said I never play 100%. Sheffield is one of several players linked with PEDs. None of them are yet in the Hall. Piazza is.

                                                Tommy John came to the Dodgers in 1972 after being traded to LA for Richie Allen. He would pitch in LA for six seasons. It would have been seven, but he missed all of 1975 after having the surgical procedure which now bears his name. He went 87-42 in those six seasons with a 2.97 ERA. He was 3-1 in postseason play for LA. Two of those wins were complete game victories over the Phillies in the 77 and 78 in the NLCS. He won 20 in 1977. He left as a free agent after the 78 season and spent the next 11 years in the AL. 8 of them with the Yankees and he pitched against the Dodgers in the 1981 World Series. 

                                                 It would take a very long post to list all of the players who played for both teams, but here are the more recognizable names. Bobby Abreu, Doyle Alexander, Kevin Brown, Rocky Colavito, Rick Dempsey, Al Downing, Mariano Duncan, Curtis Granderson, Jerry Hairston, Ricky Henderson, Steve Howe, Waite Hoyt, Jay Johnstone, Andruw Jones: Jones actually played in more games for the Yankees than he did LA. 

                                                Hall of Famer, Willie Keeler, Mike Kekich, who replaced Koufax in the Dodger rotation when Sandy retired, Roberto Kelly, John Kennedy, Fred Kipp, one of the last living Brooklyn Dodgers, Hall of Famer, Tony Lazzeri, Ted Lilly, Derek Lowe, Sal Maglie, Fred Merkle, who while with the Giants made a base running blunder that cost them the pennant. Bobo Newsom, Lefty O’Doul, Johnny Oates, Chan Ho Park, Willie Randolph, Ben Rortvedt, Charlie Smith, Tuck Stainback, Bill Sudakis, Dazzy Vance, Robin Ventura, Dixie Walker, Paul Waner, Stan Williams, Jimmy Wynn, and Todd Zeile. Quite the list. Some played for years, others just a handful of games. Who will be next?