Los Angeles Dodgers

Date of birth: October 21, 1948 Pittsburg, KS

High School:   Pittsburg HS (Pittsburg, KS)

College:  Pittsburg State University

Nickname: Ropes. I think he was a mean ‘double dutcher’ in his day.

First Impression; For starters, I never liked the cut of his gib. Probably because I like homers, and he hit none. More likely because he confused me, “How can there be two Bill Russell’s”? I probably never even noticed that there were two Dave Roberts in the set. But I think I wanted this Bill Russell card to be the Celtics Russell. Idiotic. But, he was also smeared in Pittsburgh misspellings. Hometown, High School and College. They didnt bring the H West to KS?

Career stats player: One thing that I did recall liking was cards that had a ton of stats and his always did as he was in the tail end of a 18 year career all with the Dodgers. He played more games than Pee Wee Reese (and Herman) and is 2nd all time in games played. But in the annals of Dodger Blue, thats the highest that he rates in any offensive category save at bats (4th all time). His career batting average was .263 which ranks 81st all time for the Dodgers. He is one point higher than Lopes career Dodger average with 53 less homers and 251 fewer steals.

All Time Stat: He has 10 less rings than the other Bill Russell, earning 1 in 1981 a strike shortened season. He was a three time All-Star at Shortstop and his best offensive season came in 1978 when he batted .281. His highest home run total in one year was 7, in ’79. He had little chance of winning the Gold Glove when he was exclusively the shortstop from 1974–1983 as he played in the same league as Dave Concepcion and Ozzie Smith, with only Larry Bowa being the only other gold glove winner in that period (1978).

Career stats manager: 173-149. I do recall that in the late 80s when Russell retired and became coach on the Dodgers staff that the talk was that he was going to one day replace Tommy Lasorda when he retired. They let him get two years in managing AAA Albuquerque, then he rejoined the big club and in 1996 Tommy suffered a mild heart attack during the season and Russell took over. Lasorda never returned and they turned the wheel over to Russell. The Dodgers finished strong that year and made the Wild Card but were swept by the Braves in the first round (5 game series). The next year the team finished in 2nd place again but did not make the playoffs and in 1998 the Dodgers would fire him mid-season after a 36-38 record and replaced him with Glenn Hoffmann (HOF Trevor’s brother). The next day Lasorda assumed interim GM duties. The reasoning was the O’Malley’s were selling the Dodgers to FOX and they assumed the deal would be better with a clean slate. They canned Russell and Fred Claire who himself was with the Dodgers over 30 years. Guess things got a little stale there and maybe they let their Dodger Blue cloud their vision, they did do things the best for a long time, just like the Orioles, but for a time the Dodgers did not necessarily pivot with the times and the drought they once had in this era starting in 1981 is a reflection of the start of the end of Dodgertown.

Fun Fact: Russell hit .263 for his career… and also .263 across 23 World Series games. That’s one of those weird statistical coincidences that almost never happens with that many plate appearances.

Ever a Future Star?  No

Rookie or final card? No.

Hall of Fame? Number retired? The guy played the 2nd most games for your franchise and wore #18 all those years and he isn’t worth of a jersey retirement? It is hard to compare him to other Dodgers batters who have had their number retired because they are Pee Wee Reese, Jim Gilliam and Jackie Robinson, who are Dodgers icons. The only other batter was Gil Hodges and he had a completely different skillset. I think they are pretty stingy about retiring numbers but Kershaw will be next.

Russell must have pissed in someone’s Cheerios because he isn’t even in the DODGERS Hall of Fame. I will say after writing all this, he would have been someone I would have liked to have seen log in day in and day out and give me solid baseball. Also, the long wait is not due to his unworthiness, it looks like a newer program in 2019 to kind of placate the “Why isn’t this guy’s number retired yet” whiners. Or to be fair just a 2nd tier recognition from the team. I still believe that Russell is worthy of his number being retired, I just think ultimately they will settle on this honor. While Kirk Gibson’s time with the Dodgers is historic he played just 3 years with the Dodgers and he is in this “Legends” club and I would have preferred they honored Russell’s career first, Lopes is another.

Links to stories including Bill Russell.