ultra shenanigans

greg gagne welcomes you to this post with his 1997 fleer ultra card.

but wait, i thought that this was his 1997 fleer ultra card

shows what i know.  or used to know.  i was not aware that the ultra gold medallion parallels in 1997 featured different photography until a couple of years ago.  i had previously largely dismissed the gold parallels, but this means that i missed out on this todd zeile card 

because i only had this one

so, i went out and picked up a few other gold medallion cards of dodgers from 1997 fleer ultra.  ismael valdes

and mike piazza

and hideo nomo

and raul mondesi

and ramon martinez

and todd hollandsworth

and wilton guerrero

and karim garcia

plus an insert or two, like this nomo/piazza double trouble card

i do not believe that this gme variation extends itself to other ultra releases.

unfortunately, i only have the base versions from 1998 fleer ultra of dennis reyes

and todd hollandsworth

in my scanned folder

i also had a 1995 fleer ultra garey ingram

plus gme cards of billy ashley

darren dreifort

and todd worrell

but those don't prove anything.

just for fun, and to clear out space in the scanned folder, here are a couple of mondesi insert from 1995 fleer ultra

he's got raw power!

well, at least i know that 2005 fleer ultra didn't have different photos for their gold medallion editions - here's hideo nomo's base card

and his gme

i need to go check my binders...

carl crawford cards delivers - in person

i met up with paul from carl crawford cards on sunday.  it was the first time i had met a fellow blogger, although i've had a couple of close calls with matt from heartbreaking cards, as well as the droidtrader.  plus, i could have sworn i saw dayf one time at hartsfield international.  anyway, paul was in town and i alerted him to a card show in the northwest twin cities metro.

i had never been to this particular show - it's one of two monthly show locations - so i didn't know what to expect.  well, i was pretty apologetic to paul because it blew.  first of all, it was sunday, and i guess the second day of the shows are always pretty light.  plus, the weather was phenomenal and won't be that nice again until may (if we're lucky), so i suppose some of the other dealers were out enjoying themselves.  there were only about 5 or 6 tables set up with a store that i did not know existed also in the strip mall vestibule.

this post, however, is not about the show but about meeting paul.  he reminded me to be thankful for even having a show, let alone two a month.  and he's right - the other show in town is really pretty good by any measure, and had i been at this show on saturday, i would have been able to feast on the vintage bargain bins - at least according to the pre-show email that one of the dealers sends out.

i didn't leave empty handed, however, as paul had brought some boys in blue with him, including pretty much a complete team set from 1995 upper deck collector's choice.  here we have garey ingram and roy rauuuuuuuuul mondesi, plus all-star mike piazza and a cartoon piazza.  rafael bournigal gets a card, and delino and wallach, offerman and a swinging tom candiotti.

there's also sliding brett butler (not bunting, for a change), oh henry!, billy ashley, darren dreifort, ramon martinez and pedro astacio.

that's just a hershiser and a karros away from the complete set.

there was also a 1995 upper deck sp card of ramon

and a shiny/reflective 1996 score select certified card of hideo nomo

very cool.  thanks for taking the time, paul!

dodger double plays make cool cards

yes, it's true.  there are some killer dodger double play cards out there.  but don't worry, i'll be fair when i get around to seeding cards for the 'greatest double play card of all-time' tournament coming soon or relatively soon or maybe by the end of the year.

here are some fantastic (and maybe one or two pedestrian) dodger double play cards for your enjoyment.

how about a 1956 topps jim gilliam card to start things off.

this card loses some points since the dp turn is not the primary image on the card, but come on - it's a 1956 double play card!

fast forward about 40 years and we get this 1994 sportflics rookies and traded garey ingram card

i was not a ryan klesko fan back in the day.  even less so once he joined the padres.  so, it's nice to see him out two ways on that sportflics card.

howzabout a 1983 dodgers police derrel thomas card

super-utility thomas is crushing some giant's skull with his shin.  excellent.

not to be outdone, steve sax has turned two (or tried, at least) on his 1984 dodgers police card

brian downing looks like he did a steamroller slide into second, which saxy obviously avoided.  the bad part about this card is that it is probably too late in the turn to make the top 64.  play-in maybe?

this card is in the top 64, easy.  1996 topps stadium club chad fonville.

brian mcrae is hoping the fonz doesn't land on top of him.  i am sure he didn't - fonville could do no wrong in 1995.

alex cora and his 2005 upper deck first pitch card

it's ok, but it's no chad fonville.  i was shocked to learn that cora was still playing last year, by the way.

i'm not sure if i'll consider this card for the tourney or not - a 2010 topps update vintage legends pee wee reese card, in the style of 2003 topps

it's not a base issue and i am pretty sure it's a staged dp turn although jackie does a convincing backing up manuever.  the cons may outweigh the pros on that one.

this next one, however, may get a very high seeding.  it's pee wee's 2011 topps marquee card

pretty pretty.  love the socks on the cub (?) sliding in.  very nice card.

i'm off to do some seeding.  let me know if there are any double play cards that you think deserve consideration.  i won't have any trouble coming up with over 100 cards that i know of, but don't want to omit a nice dp turn caught on cardboard.

garey ingram through the mail success!

back in 1994, i was rooting hard for garey ingram, a dodger second base prospect.  not because he was a minor league second baseman who might have replaced jody reed in the lineup after reed spurned the dodgers - in fact, ingram's arrival on the scene during the '94 season was too late to prevent the pedro for delino deal, and i am on record as having been a supporter of deshields.  no, i was rooting for ingram because of what had happened to jose offerman.

ingram, by the way, was kind enough to sign and return my 1995 score card last year.

ingram was called up in may of 1994, and debuted as a defensive replacement, taking over for deshields at second in the 9th inning of the dodgers' victory over the padres on may 15.  he got his first big league at bat on may 19 as a pinch hitter for orel hershiser, and he promptly jacked one out at coors field off of former dodger mike munoz,

becoming only the second los angeles dodger to ever hit a home run in his first big league at bat. 

about four years earlier, offerman had done the same thing, and many believe that it caused him to try to hit more home runs rather than play off of his speed and hit more grounders. 

whatever the reason, offerman (a highly touted prospect) 

didn't crack the mendoza line until 1992, his third year with the dodgers, and didn't really blossom until he went to the american league and was moved out of the shortstop position.

ingram stole a fair amount of bases in the minors, but i don't know that speed was his strongest asset, so maybe he was supposed to hit long balls.  he wound up batting .282 with 3 home runs and an ops of .751 during his month long stint as the dodgers' regular second baseman in 1994, but was sent down once deshields was ready to return to the lineup.  he got two more call ups 1995, but hit just .200 with no extra base hits while appearing mostly as a pinch runner and hitter. 

after a full season in the minors, ingram returned to the big leagues for the last time in 1997.  by then, deshields was gone, but the dodgers were playing wilton guerrero at second.  ingram was instead used as a left fielder, appearing in 12 games.  in his first game back, he was 3 for 4 with a walk and an rbi and i was hoping he would somehow stick with the club.  unfortunately, that was the only game he started, and he had only five more at bats afterwards.  still, he finished the season hitting .444 and hit over .300 in the minors the following year.  all that earned him was a ticket to the red sox organization, and after a couple years there plus some time in an independent league and mexico, ingram returned to the dodgers' aaa team for a final hurrah in 2002.

here's to you garey ingram!  thanks for signing my card and for not going offerman on us.