the 1973 topps card that came from 2001

this is a 2001 topps stadium club card of, not luis alicea, but rather chad kreuter

i think the oddly cropped photo featuring the partially obscured dodger catcher would fit nicely in the 1973 topps set as a kreuter card - all that is really missing is the umpire and parts of a couple more players.

this is another card from 2001 topps stadium club.

but it is simply eric karros rounding third and lumbering for home where he may well be thrown out by 20 feet.  karros also shows up on this 2001 topps stars card

but is noticeably absent from this 1996 score select team nucleus insert

you know, beneath the clothes you will find the man. and beneath the man, you find his…nucleus.  this card features the rookies of the year from 1993-1995 (mike piazza, raul mondesi, and hideo nomo), but the 1992 roy (karros) didn't make the cut.

before mondesi was the rookie of the year, he appeared on this 1992 upper deck minors team checklist

as a member of the albuquerque dukes.  abq is where joc pederson played last year, although the dodgers' triple-a affiliate was then called the isotopes. here's a 2014 topps heritage minors card of the dodger prospect

and here is a 2014 topps heritage minors card of fellow prospect corey seager

who will hopefully follow jimmy rollins as the dodgers' shortstop after spending this season in the minors at oklahoma city.

here's another minor league shortstop - yuri sanchez

turning two on a 1995 upper deck minors card.  i figure that the fact that sanchez was a shortstop, coupled with the way he's dragging his right foot over the bag means that there is a double play being turned.  just like this 1982 topps tim foli card

is a double play turn, because why else would foli be at the bag like that?  now that i look at foli's card more closely, i notice the parked car in the background behind the spring training fence.  that's another card that could pass for a 1973 topps card.

and that is how you bring a post around full circle.

double plays for the weekend

it's saturday, and the twins and indians will be playing two today.  that has nothing to do with anything here, other than i was going to do a play on words with ernie banks' famous double header exclamation and title this post "let's turn two".  i chose not to do that, but i will show some new to the blog double play cards that i found in the recesses of my collection or picked up recently from various sources.

1998 ud spx finite nomar garciaparra 

nomah has another double play card in this set that i am tracking down.  i do have his 1999 fleer sports illustrated card, though

here's astros top prospect fletcher thompson on his 1995 ud minors card

fletch was such an astros' top prospect that at the time this card was released, he was no longer in the houston organization - playing independent ball before being signed by the brewers later in the season.  he never did make it to the majors.

1995 upper deck special edition barry larkin

when i think of hall of famers that played during my fandom, larkin does not readily come to mind.  i was surprised when larkin was elected on the third ballot when alan trammell had been on the ballot for a decade without coming close to election.  not to say larkin doesn't deserve it and trammell does - the voters may have got it right - but the disparity between larkin's vote totals and those for trammell does not compute in my mind.

1996 upper deck jose valentin

a brewer turns two against the cubs

1998 donruss jeff blauser

and a cub turns two against the mariners.  sorry, at first glance i thought that was a brewer sliding in, and i was going for a tit for tat thing, but amaral was a mariner.

1998 pacific invincible chuck knoblauch gems of the diamond insert

knobby was supposed to enter the twins hall of fame this year, but his induction was canceled due to some legal troubles for the former rookie of the year.

2013 topps howie kendrick silver slate blue sparkle parallel

i found a few of these parallels on the cheap.  anybody want a jp howell?

1995 upper deck sp vinny castilla

hello bip!

1995 upper deck sp championship series vinny castilla

it just doesn't look right to see castilla playing shortstop, but that's what he did until walt weiss joined the rockies.

1995 upper deck sp championship series ray durham die cut parallel

i like the view from the third base side - this post was getting a bit monotonous.

victory is mine! along with a complete list of the double play cards in my collection!

so i picked up a few upper deck victory singles a couple of weeks ago from both 2001 and 2002.  some of which featured double plays, like this adam kennedy card from the 2002 set

and this jose offerman card from the 2001 set

and these cubbies - ricky gutierrez

and eric young, also from the 2001 set

and i can't forget about damian easley from the 2002 set

or this dick schofield card from 1991 upper deck that seems to show kenny lofton getting a cheekful of glove after trying to break up a double play

these cards have been added to my double play binder, as well as the complete list of double play cards in my collection that is now posted over at my want list site.  any card not listed there is greatly desired by me. 

another card on that list that is fairly new to me is this 1995 upper deck minors danny klassen card.

klassen, the pride of leamington ontario, played in the majors for a handful of seasons, but never had a better card than that.

i also grabbed this nomar garciaparra card.  i know - it is not a non-red sox nomar - but at first i thought it might be a shot of the aftermath of a dp turn.

turns out, i think bernie williams has just stolen a base.  false alarm.

some of the impetus to pick up the victory cards came because i was looking for some cards of obscure dodgers.  it doesn't get much more obscure than bruce aven.

aven played in a total of 30 games for the dodgers over the course of the 2000 and 2001 seasons.  he had 13 hits as a dodger, 3 of which were home runs.  two of those homers, including one of the ones that resulted in the photo used for his 2001 upper deck victory card shown above, came in his second game as a dodger at the expense of kerry wood in chicago.

there are more cards of andy ashby as a dodger than there are of bruce aven, but this one features the good ol' former team's uniform

not that he wore the dodger uniform much in 2001.  ashby won both of his starts for the dodgers in 2001, each of which came against the eventual world champion diamondbacks.  he then missed the rest of the season due to an elbow injury, but returned to pitch for the dodgers in 2002 and 2003.

jim leyritz only appeared for the dodgers during the 2000 season, his last in the big leagues, making this 2001 card a final tribute.

unfortunately, i didn't scan the back.  if i had, you would see that he hit 1 of his 90 career home runs for the dodgers.  he appeared in 41 games as a dodger and hit an even .200 after starting the season with the yankees.

that was .125 points below gary sheffield who led the team in batting average over the course of the 2000 season.  how did i know that? because i picked up a team leader card, too.

i was excited about chan ho park's 2000 season - 18 wins, more than 200 strike outs, an era of 3.27, but he still had way too many walks.  he led the team in wins in 2001 as well, although his total dropped to 15 and his era crept to 3.50.  after that, he was gone to texas.

whatever, this post was about some double play cards and my comprehensive 'have' list of people turning two or at least a reference to a twin killing.  check it out and let me know if you have any cards (or just know of any) that aren't on the list!

random is as random does...

...and david at indian cards, for whatever length of time has done some random. first, i asked for and received some random angels. then, i put in for some true all around randomosity. here are some highlights:

1993 upper deck jay buhner.buhner is crashing jr's party, much like eric karros is known to do.

1992 fleer ultra jose oquendo

that's eddie murray halfway in the shot.

1996 topps shawn green. in triplicate!

1996 pinnacle summit gary disarcina

a double play turn against the dodgers!

1989 upper deck mark mclemore

another double play turn

2008 upper deck chone figgins season highlights

figgins is in there somewhere...

2008 topps stadium club john lackey

in yankee stadium. i think if lackey pitched on the east coast he would be much more appreciated.

2007 topps allen & ginter jered weaver

at least it's not jeff.

2007 topps allen & ginter gary matthews jr sketch card

the angels seem to make their 4 outfielder rotation work a lot better than the twins do.

2005 upper deck flyball garret anderson

i thought this guy would finish his career in anaheim. i liked edmonds and salmon more, but ga has outlasted both of them.

2002 donruss originals darin erstad

scrappy.

1999 upper deck encore mo vaughn

the best part about this card is the gene autry patch mo is wearing.

2005 upper deck robb quinlan

the former gopher is the epitome of the 26th man or the aaaa player.

2001 topps heritage darin erstad

still scrappy.

1999 skybox thunder charles johnson

from piazza to johnson to hundley in two seasons. yikes.

1996 pinnacle jim abbott.

this guy was such a fan favorite - there was much rejoicing when they brought him back.

1995 upper deck minors luis raven

sponsored by molson. i used to have a canadians hat that looked like that helmet, but i felt too much like a hot-dog-on-a-stick worker to wear it in public.

1994 topps team stadium club salomon torres

i was happy to see torres have a decent career because the dodgers crushed him on the last day of the 1993 season (his rookie season) with a postseason berth on the line.

1994 score rookies and traded gold rush bo jackson

bo knows parallels.

1994 leaf ken griffey jr.

jr's earring is really shiny on this card.

1993 donruss bryan harvey

a bit of an opc flavor. harvey certainly had the moustache to be a closer.

1991 upper deck greg brockthe heir apparent to steve garvey playing out his career in milwaukee, back when it was an al city.

1991 topps stadium club casey candaele

candaele looks all of 5'1" in this picture.

1991 upper deck kirk gibson

another former dodger in a small market al central team's uniform.

1991 topps stadium club dave winfield

another former gopher.

1991 score tom niedenfuer

go crazy folks, go crazy!

1990 classic bert blyleven

bert was sticking his tongue out well before michael jordan made it fashionable.

1987 fleer reggie jackson

must kill the queen...must kill the queen...

1991 opc premier dave winfield

winfield had the funkiest swing i think i have ever seen. it was effective, though.

1989 upper deck wally joyner

anaheim's answer to fernandomania. he made people forget that rod carew existed, unfortunately.

1986 topps buddy biancalana

just because.

1991 score john wetteland

i love the black bordered 91 score cards. i wish the whole set had been black borders.

1992 leaf brett butler

a card that doesn't show butler bunting!

1991 score pat perry.

i'll take pat perry for $100, alex!

thanks so much david! these were a lot of fun to go through!