Top Ten LA Dodger Bums 4: Dave (My Back Hurts Again) Anderson

Our next Bum is easy to overlook. Often forgotten but never out of our heads. This Bum born in Louisville, Kentucky, was part of history for the Dodgers. He served as the on-deck decoy for Kirk Gibson before his immortal walk-off home run in game 1 of the 1988 World Series. Otherwise this Bum did nothing but stink up the Dodgers bench for nearly 7 years.  It was a mystery as to why the Dodgers continued to employ this Bum for so many seasons. Did he have something on Tommy Lasorda that we didn’t know about? Perhaps we’ll never know, however here he is in all his glory, the number four LA Dodger Bum of all time….Dave (my back hurts again) Anderson (Bumderson)

Dave Carter Anderson

That pun above is a playful jab at all of his many DL trips because of his bad back. Every year it was the same thing with him. He would make frequent DL trips because of his rusty back. Dave Anderson was drafted by the Dodgers in the 1^st round of the 1981 draft as the 22^nd overall pick. He made his MLB debut on May 8, of 1983 for the Dodgers.

Anderson played for the Dodgers from 1983-1989, then again in 1992. The only other team Anderson played for was the Giants from 1990-1991. I won’t beat around the bush on this one, Anderson was absolutely atrocious for many years. Like I said, it is in fact still a mystery as to why the Dodgers would employ this guy for so long.

Anderson was a right handed hitting infielder that played primarily shortstop and third base for the Dodgers, but played some second base as well. Anderson is 6’1 185 pounds, and never played more than 121 games in a season during his 10 seasons in the Majors.

Anderson never hit higher than .250 with the Dodgers from 83-89. In his 1983 season he hit a blistering .165 with a .244 OBP, and he was 19 for 115. Yes folks, he was that bad.  In 1984, his second season, he hit .251 in 121 games,with three home runs and 34 RBI. That was probably his best season with the Dodgers. Anderson was one of the worst hitters the Dodgers have ever had. Hey it’s not like he’s on this list because he was GOOD . No, he got worse as the years went along. In 1985 he played in 77 games and put up one of the worst performances ever by a LA Dodger hitter. Anderson hit .199 that year going 44 for 221

Anderson bereft of any and all power, (he never hit more than four home runs in a season) his career of suck continued. He hit .245 in 1986, and .234 in 1987. In 1988 the year the Dodgers won the world series, he hit .249 with two home runs. That year Anderson was involved in history. In game 1 of the 1988 World Series, as Mike Davis was drawing the walk that brought Kirk Gibson to the plate, Tommy Lasorda did not want to tip his hand and let the A’s know that Gibson could hit. So he had Dave Anderson stand in the on deck circle as a decoy. Of course everyone knew that there was no way in hell that Anderson would be allowed to hit in that situation. Anderson was of course called back into the dugout, as he made way for Gibson to hit his historic home run.

Besides being involved in a bit of history, Anderson soon returned to playing really terrible Baseball while living on the Dodger’s bench. In 1989 Anderson hit .229 with nearly as many whiffs as hits.

After the 1989 season Anderson was released by the Dodgers and he signed with the Giants. Anderson played two seasons with the Giants. He had one good year, in 1990, batting .350 in 60 games while putting up an OBP of .369?! perhaps the real Dave Anderson was abducted by space aliens, because he returned to form in 1991 batting .248 in his last year with the Giants, and in 100 games had an awful OBP of .286.

The Giants released him, and who do you think signed Anderson for the 1992 season? You guessed it, the Dodgers. This was Anderson’s final season. He played in 51 games that year, hitting .286 with 24 hits and three home runs.

Anderson ended his playing career as a .242 career hitter. He hit 19 home runs, and won a World Series title.  Anderson never came close to a league average OPS. Once Anderson’s playing days were over, he became a coach. He tried his hands at managing in 1994, when he managed the single A ball team for the New York-Penn league, the Jamestown Jammers.

Eventually Anderson became third base coach for the Texas Rangers, and in September of 2010 was involved in an incident where he accidentally touched the runner at third base. The play was called out, and coaches interference was ruled on the play. The Rangers lost the game because of that play, although Anderson denies ever touching the base runner.

Dave Anderson is the fourth worst LA Dodger ever. Not much else to say about Anderson. He came, he saw, he played, and he sucked.