Most consider the Dodgers 1968 draft the greatest in baseball history. Nine of their selections went on to perform for at least a decade in the Major Leagues. Among them were Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Buckner, Doyle Alexander, Joe Ferguson, Tom Paciorek, Bobby Valentine Geoff Zahn, and Ron Cey.
Third baseman Cey debuted for the Dodgers in 1971 and was their regular third baseman two years later. On June 13th, ’73 Los Angeles trotted out an infield with Garvey at first, Lopes at second, Bill Russell at shortstop, and Cey at third. The quartet stayed together through the end of the ’81 season to become the longest running infield in big league history. During their reign the four of them made a combined 21 All Star appearances – all in National League victories.
Predictably, the era’s Dodger squads were strong. From 1973-1980 they averaged 92 wins per season.
Cey provided steady defense and a potent bat. In August of ’79, Cey broke the Los Angeles Dodger for career home runs. He held the mark for more than two decades before Eric Karros bested it in 2000. When Cey’s time in Los Angeles was over, his Dodger home run total trailed only Brooklyn greats Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, and Roy Campanella for the franchise that started in 1884.
In strike-shortened 1981, Los Angeles won the World Series. Cey shared the Series MVP Award with Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager. He also took home the Babe Ruth Award given each year to Major League Baseball’s most outstanding postseason performer.
Nicknamed “Penguin” for his running gate, Cey still ranks in the Dodger franchise top-10 for offensive and defensive WAR. After a dozen years in Los Angeles, he was traded to the Cubs.
In each of his first two seasons in Chicago, he finished with at least 24 homers and 90 runs batted in. With Cey at the hot corner in ’84, the Cubs earned their first postseason berth since 1945.
In January of ’87 the Chicago traded Cey to Oakland where he played the final 45 games of his career.
In the collection is a ticket to historic Game 5 of the 1981 World Series signed by the Dodger third-baseman. Game After World Series defeats to the A’s in ’74 and the Yankees in ’77 and ’78, they had yet to win it all.
The ’81 Fall Classic opened in New York with two Yankee victories. In Los Angeles for Games 3 and 4, Cey went 4-for-7 with a homer and 5 runs batted in to help the Dodgers even the Series.
Los Angeles led 2-1 in pivotal Game 5 when Cey come to the plate in the bottom of the 8th. Yankees fireballer Goose Gossage uncorked an 0-1 fastball that hit Cey in the helmet. The Dodger Stadium crowd of 56,115 went silent as their man collapsed in the batter’s box.
“‘I heard it hit the helmet,” Gossage told the New York Times after the game. ”If he doesn’t have a helmet on, he might be dead.”
Cey was helped off the field in favor of pinch runner Kenny Landreau. His team made the lead stand up as the Dodgers went ahead 3 games to 2 heading to New York.
Though the Dodgers have won it all five times since moving to Los Angeles, they’ve never clinched it in front of the hometown faithful. By attending Game 5 and witnessing the third Dodger win of the Series, the bearer of this ticket came the closest any Dodger fans has to seeing a clinch in LA.
Initially there was doubt if Cey would be able to play in The Big Apple’s Game 6 because of the beaning. Despite being dizzy and lightheaded, likely from a concussion, Cey made his way into the starting lineup.
His 5th-inning single up the middle broke a 2-2 tie and put the Los Angeles ahead to stay. The Dodgers pulled away with four in the sixth and one in the eighth to win 9-2. At last, Cey and the record-setting infield were world champs.
In the four Los Angeles wins, Cey went 6-for-12 with a .600 on-base percentage, three runs scored and six RBI in the MVP performance. In the off-season, General Manager Al Campanis traded second baseman Lopes to Oakland, ending the infield’s time together.
