more double play knowledge from bo

the double play turns were many in the package i received recently from bo, he of baseball cards come to life.  here are some more that were new to my collection:

1991 topps stadium club tony phillips

bonus appearance by the cobra

1991 leaf scott leius gold bonus

also featuring a brewer, but not dave parker. more like mike felder.

1993 pinnacle craig grebeck

i am assuming here that there is only one reason why grebeck would be airborne, and that is to turn two.

1993 topps stadium club william suero

with paul sorrento doing his best to break things up, but to no avail - suero made the turn and threw sandy alomar out at first on april 26, 1992.

here's the back of suero's card

which is his first topps issued card, because the front shows up on the back.

1993 upper deck jeff frye

not sure how i did not already have this one in the binder.

1994 score gary disarcina

with a hrbek sighting

and 1994 score rey sanchez

featuring a high kick from tom pagnozzi

1994 upper deck doug strange

featuring the double play turn on the front of the card, and 1994 upper deck ozzie guillen

with the turn on the back

1996 donruss pat listach

featuring a brewer turning two rather than trying to break it up

and, finally, two cards featuring the double play turning mainstay, brent gates.  first up is his 1996 topps stadium club card

followed by a 1995 fleer flair card

two has been turned.  thanks again, bo!

double plays are a dime apiece

it's always fun to get a trade package from nick at dime boxes in part because he also collects double play cards, and so he sends me some that turn out to be new additions to my collection.

for example, i already had this 1968 topps game card of claude osteen in my dodger collection

but now i have one for my double play binders, too.  sure, it doesn't show the play at second base, but it still references a twin-killing enough to warrant a spot in the binder.

here are some more traditional double play turns that nick sent:

1991 leaf wally backman

1992 topps bill doran gold 'winner' parallel

1997 fleer alex gonzalez

2012 topps mike aviles gold parallel

2001 fleer tradition jay canizaro

2003 upper deck 40man junior spivey

and a 2004 mlb showdown 'hard slide' card

obviously, that's wes helms sliding in, but i'm not completely certain of the cub turning two.  2003 was helms' first season with the brew crew, so it is most likely either alex gonzalez or mark grudzielanek (and just by visual inspection i know that it's not grudzielanek).  it turns out that on may 7, 2003, keith osik of the brewers hit into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play with helms as the lead runner.  although the second baseman for the cubs that day was ramon martinez, the shortstop was indeed alex gonzalez.

thanks for the dp turns nick!

half of the infield showed up in my mailbox

thanks to p-town tom at waiting 'til next year.  he sent a 1975 sspc davey lopes card

and a 1977 rc cola can of the penguin, ron cey

i haven't flattened the can yet like i did with the garvey can that mark hoyle sent a while back, but i plan to.  it's cool that the can mentions double plays.

speaking of half of the infield and double plays, the junior junkie also sent me some cards featuring second basemen and shortstops turning two.  there were quite a few that were new to me.

here's a 1991 leaf felix fermin card

with legs of three different people.

1993 topps stadium club was well represented, with cards of carlos baerga

gary disarcina

rico rossy

and craig shipley

how did i not have those cards already?

1994 upper deck collector's choice luis alicea

1995 score jeff blauser

2001 topps stadium club quilvio veras

2014 topps gypsy queen jedd gyorko

gyorko may have been a bust in 2014 (i added him to my fantasy team thinking he could fill in at third until manny machado returned from the dl but quickly dropped his unperforming arse), but at least he had this card to redeem himself in my eyes.

thanks for the cards (and can) guys.  stuff like that is appreciated.

dime box double plays

nick from dime boxes was at it again, recently.  he sent me some cards which included a few double play turns that were new to my collection.  have a look.

2014 topps opening day kolton wong blue parallel

1991 leaf jody reed

you can see the black armband on reed's sleeve for tony conigliaro

1992 upper deck kurt stillwell

which wasn't really new to my collection (nice tatooine scene, by the way), but now i have a copy for the binder that i can use to show the dp turn on the back

looks like it might be a gold hologram version as well.

1993 topps stadium club mike gallego

nothing slides like a deer

1994 fleer  scott fletcher

1994 leaf joey cora

2004 topps traded tony womack

2004 upper deck miguel tejada

channeling 1973 topps

and 2006 fleer ultra jorge cantu

not a good slide from who i assume to be the marlins' alex gonzalez, but some great cards from a great trader and blogger.  thanks nick!

turned on a dime

the most recent package i received from nick over at dime boxes was a good mix of what i collect, which is to be expected when one receives a package from nick.  there were some new to me double plays, such as this 1991 leaf jeff huson

and this 1994 topps doug strange gold parallel

as well as a walmart blue parallel from 2013 topps of aaron hill

there were also plenty of dodgers, including some that featured players from other teams, like this 1996 upper deck collector's choice ramon martinez highlight/checklist that also features his brother pedro

and this 2013 topps archives 1969 topps stickers 4-in-1 that features an angel, a national, and a brewer along with matt kemp

and, of course, there were some solo dodgers, like this 1997 fleer ex-2000 eric karros card

what i didn't expect was this 'random acts of cardness' card, originated by capt kirk of captkirk42s trading cards blog

nick certainly paid it forward with this package, as he does with every trade package he sends, and i'll show some more of the dodger goodness i received later.  as for the rac card, i have already passed it along to jeff at 2x3 heroes.  who knows where it will go from there...

above average cards from average joe

i recently completed a trade with average joe and here are some of the cards i received:

1989 bowman fernando valenzuela

check out those stirrups!  i think they make fernando look taller.  speaking of taller, i am not/was not a fan of topps trotting out the early 50's size for these cards.  i think they learned their lesson, as they have not done so since.

1986 fleer ron cey

it's still strange to see cey as a cub.

1988 fleer star sticker steve sax

saxy!

1990 fleer jose gonzalez

i think there were high hopes for jose in the late 80's but by 1990 things had not panned out.  the dodgers traded him to cleveland for mitch webster.

1991 leaf bobby ojeda

the dodgers acquired ojeda from the mets for hubie brooks, and he pitched pretty well for them in 91.  in 92, though, he was part of the worst team in los angeles dodger history, not that it was his fault by any stretch of the imagination.  still, i associate him (and eric davis and todd benzinger and a few other dodger transients) with that team.  after leaving the dodgers as a free agent, ojeda signed with cleveland for the 93 season.  ojeda was in the boat that tim crews was driving when crews and steve olin were killed during spring training 1993.  he did pitch for cleveland later that season, but made only 11 total appearances after the accident.

thanks joe! hope you enjoyed the cards i sent your way.