[Merkle923]

Here's something else from 'the collection' - an excellent action shot of "Sweet Lou" Johnson during his odd interval as the every day right fielder of the 1968 Cubs - which ended when he was dealt to Cleveland at the end of June. It was Johnson's second stint with Chicago - he broke in to the majors with them in 1960.

By that point, Johnson had played in ten minor league cities, and with all his major and minor league stops he would appear with 20 different teams (21 if you think of the L.A. and California Angels as distinct entities).

Despite the peripatetic nature of his career, he had a lot of distinctive moments. He was a defensive replacement in the first game ever played by the Angels, in Baltimore in 1961. And though he began the 1965 season as a 30-year old minor leaguer who hadn't had a major league at bat in two years, he got off to a hot start in the Pacific Coast League and was summoned to the Dodgers to replace Tommy Davis after L.A.'s left fielder had broken his ankle.

Johnson promptly produced a 2.3 WAR, led the team in Slugging, tied for the lead in homers, and finished one shy of the leadership in RBI. He placed 24th in the N.L. MVP vote (it doesn't sound like much, but he finished ahead of Dick Allen and Joe Morgan), homered in two of the Dodgers' four World Series victories that October (he provided the margin of victory in Sandy Koufax's epic Game 7 victory) and in the disastrous '66 Series he led the Dodgers in base hits.

Not long after retirement Johnson went back to the Dodgers as a community relations staffer and goodwill ambassador and remained in that capacity at last word, even as he passed his 83rd birthday.

This image is specifically posted in the hopes that somebody will pirate it and pay Lou to do a signing of it. He's that good a guy.