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Committee Chairman

Kirk Buchner, "The Committee Chairman", is the owner and operator of the site.  Kirk can be contacted at [email protected] .

Claude Osteen was a popular southpaw who played most of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, though that was his third MLB team after playing for Cincinnati and Washington.

Osteen was traded to the Dodgers after his first solid year with the Senators (1964), and he was more than competent over the next ten years.  A three-time All-Star for the Dodgers, Osteen helped Los Angeles win the 1965 World Series, and though he hemorrhaged hits, he always found a way to get more Ws than Ls. Osteen never had a year in L.A. where he won less than 12 Games, and he had 15 Wins in seven of them. 

Osteen’s third All-Star year (1973) was his last as a Dodger, as he was traded to Houston, where his career faltered, sputtering with spots in St. Louis and Chicago (AL), and was out of the game in 1975.  With the Dodgers, Osteen had a record of 147 and 126 with a 3.06 ERA and 1,162 Strikeouts.

Jimmy Sheckard played for Brooklyn on three different occasions; though this was in a tight vacuum, you could argue that his first MLB half was indeed with Brooklyn.

Sheckard first appeared for Brooklyn in 1897, becoming a starting Outfield as a sophomore, but he was assigned to the first version of the Baltimore Orioles in 1899, only to be re-assigned back in 1900.  He had a very good 1901, putting up career-highs in Hits (196), Triples (19), and the Slash Line (.354/.409/.534), with his total in Triples and Slugging league-leading.  

The year after was a little strange, as Sheckard again joined the Orioles (the second incarnation), but it only lasted a handful of Games before he jumped back to the Giants, and had another excellent year in 1903, where he led the NL in Stolen Bases (67) and Home Runs (9), making him the first player to lead the league in those categories.

Traded to the Chicago Cubs after the 1905 Season, Sheckard would win two World Series Titles with the Cubs.  With Brooklyn, Sheckard compiled 966 Hits with a .295 Batting Average and 212 Stolen Bases.

William “Brickyard” Kennedy played for Brooklyn in the first ten (1892-1901) of his 12 years in the Majors, where he won a lot of Games, though he would not dazzle with other statistics.

A four-time 20-Game winner, Kennedy had a very good record for Brooklyn of 177 and 148, but his ERA for the team was 3.98, including a 5.05 year where he still had a 19-12 record.  Still, Kennedy did enough to keep his team in games, and Brooklyn batters had enough confidence that he could keep them competitive.  He also helped his cause with his offense, batting .256 with 306 Hits in Brooklyn.

Kennedy’s overall numbers may not hold up, but his 177 Wins are still fifth all-time in franchise history, and that means something!

Bob Welch's best year was with his second team, Oakland, but his longest tenure was further south, in Los Angeles, where he served his first ten years of MLB service.

Welch went to his only All-Star Game as a Dodger in 1980 and was an excellent near-the-top-of-the-rotation player for Los Angeles for the rest of his Dodgers tenure.  A First Round Pick in 1977 (20th Overall), Welch debuted for L.A. the following year, helping the Dodgers win the pennant.  They lost in the World Series, but he put himself on the map with a two-out ninth-inning K on Reggie Jackson.

Welch helped L.A. win the 1981 World Series and, over the next four years, was decent, winning at least 13 Games in each year, including an eighth-place Cy Young finish in 1983 (15-12 2.65 ERA).  After a poor 1986, Welch's 1987 was deceptively good, with a 15-9 year and league-leading 7.1 bWAR for Pitchers.  

There was still life in his arm, but the Dodgers traded him to Oakland, where he won a second World Series and a Cy Young Award, though, to be fair, Los Angeles won the 1988 World Series without him. 

With the Dodgers, Welch compiled a 115-86 Record with a 3.14 ERA and 1,292 Strikeouts.