bo goes lurking for catchers

more cards from my most recent trade with bo of baseball cards come to life fame.  he offered up some dodger and non-dodger cards that featured lurking catchers.  like this 1990 upper deck jay howell card with mike scioscia by his side

the back of the howell card features a nice shot of the dodger stadium field level scoreboard in the background

scioscia makes another guest appearance on robby thompson's 1991 donruss card

as well as on tom candiotti's 1993 upper deck card

and the back of todd hundley's 1991 upper deck card

i will address the black armband on the umpire's sleeve in a different post.

we've seen this card before, but scioscia is also breaking up two on tom foley's 1989 upper deck card

the back of which earns it a spot in a third collection of mine, cards that feature dodger stadium

not to be ignored, dodger catcher mike piazza makes a cameo on todd worrell's 1995 donruss card

and it looks like carlos hernandez is doing the same on ray lankford's 1996 leaf card

thanks again bo!  more cards to come...

great cards given away

like many of you, i recently received a package in the mail from david at tribe cards.  it contained my goodies from his season long pack ripping adventure known as the 182 packs of baseball giveaway.  here's a sampling.

1986 donruss all-stars fernando valenzuela

it's one from the want list, which is doubly nice.  notice how the lines are vertical on these cards as opposed to horizontal on the regular 1986 donruss cards.  it has a slimming effect on el toro, i think.

i picked the dodgers (of course) in the giveaway, but was second or third in the hierarchy. that means that i only got dodger cards if there were doubles or triples.  i still got a few, including a 1997 pinnacle new (or is it new pinnacle?) todd hollandsworth

 and a couple of 1996 leaf cards of delino deshields

 and ramon martinez

my biggest score, however, came from claiming big daddy vladdy.  here is the impaler with miguel cabrera on a 2010 topps update card

the card celebrates the fact that both guererro and cabrera got their start in the national league east. kind of random.

here's a 2008 upper deck piece of history card

 and three starquest cards.  this first one is from 2008 upper deck first edition update, and it is 'common'

the next two are from straight up 2008 upper deck; this one is 'un-common'

and this one is 'rare'

looks 'blue' to me, but whatever.

lastly, we have a 2001 topps attax card with vladdy in his orioles gear

it's an odd sight.

hopefully i'll see some more vladdy cards from david in his 2013 giveaway, as i was able to snag him in the recent draft.

thanks david!

still more double play turns

in case you are just tuning in, i am spending the last week or so of the year showcasing my double play cards that haven't previously been featured on the blog.  there are also a few that are getting a second showing, which is ok, too, since they are pretty cool cards in my opinion.  on with the dumping.

here's a 1995 topps stadium club jeff blauser card

i like this card.  we are given the batter's point of view as he hustles (presumably) down the baseline.

also from 1995, here are some upper deck collector's choice se cards - chris gomez

alex gonzalez

and jeff kent

i will package together some other jeff kent double play cards into their own post sometime this weekend.

here's a post-twin, pre-dodger greg gagne double play turn, courtesy of 1995 upper deck sp

and here's a jay bell turn featuring ozzie smith courtesy of 1995 upper deck sp championship

i suppose the fact that bell still has the ball in his glove could mean that ozzie was trying to steal second or that only a force out was made, perhaps to end the inning.  i'll still keep this card with my dp cards, though.

staying in 1995, here's a 1995 upper deck collector's choice card of chuck knoblauch

with chad curtis sliding in and possibly pat meares lurking in the background

there are even a few minor league double play turns in my collection thanks to a trade (i believe they came from ryan of 'o' no another orioles blog).  here are a 1996 frederick keys best card

and a 1997 frederick keys best card

showing the turn.  neither martinez nor lawrence ever advanced beyond aaa.  the 1997 card there reminds me of 1996 leaf a bit.  speaking of which, here is a robby thompson card from 1996 leaf

as well as a quilvio veras card from that set

veras had another (and better) double play card in the 1999 topps set.

hope you enjoyed these cards showing the double play turn.  there are still more to come!

on his way to mordor, carlos baerga tried to break up a double play

seriously! look at that thing around baerga's neck as he tries to break up a dp on ray durham's 1995 leaf card.

you can see that the burden of the ring weighs heavily on baerga's neck.

ok, no more lotr references.  just more double play turns, like this on on tom herr's 1988 score card

and these fine examples from 1991 fleer

in all of their yellow glory.

here, we have jose lind on his 1991 fleer ultra card

and now he's here lurking on jay bell's 1992 topps stadium club card

bobby rose is upended on his 1992 leaf card

and felix fermin is essentially type cast - shown making the turn (i assume, since the runner is not visible in the photo) on his 1992 pinnacle card

and his 1991 topps card

note that steve finley (who also tried to break up a dp on lou whitaker's 1991 topps card) has slid in with a cloud of dust and forced fermin to take to the air, while rickey slides somewhat non-aggressively on fermin's 1994 topps card

in contrast, rickey tumbled into bret boone on boone's 1994 upper deck collector's choice card

in what looks to be a spring training game.  there's no telling when or where rickey might strike.

hope you enjoyed (or merely tolerated) these double play turns.

a call to order

i recently completed a trade with the angels in order.  i sent him some angels, he sent me some dodgers.  let's see how i made out by checking out just a few of the cards i received.

here's a 1994 topps mike piazza card

i was full of anticipation for this card back in early 1994 (or was it late 1993?) and was beyond disappointed.  it is essentially the same photo topps used for piazza's 1993 topps traded card, and lacks any sort of 'pop' in terms of color.  so disappointing.

although it could have been worse.  here's a 1994 leaf studio piazza.

that's worse.

speaking of worse, check out this 1997 pinnacle piazza card

adding insult to injury, the strongest man in socal not only tagged out the astros runner, but he is also punching the poor houstonian in the nuts.
here's a 1996 leaf hideo nomo checklist card that i had not seen before

when i flipped it over, i realized why.

all those crazy marty cordova collectors have been hoarding these cards.
i also received a 2009 topps heritage mayo insert of manny ramirez

who apparently has applied for reinstatement.  i wonder who is advising manny.  i would have told him to serve his suspension last year even if he really thought he wanted to retire.  now he has to sit out 100 games before he can come back when he could have had that out of the way.  what a dumb strategy.

there was also a 1998 pinnacle inside 'stand up guys' insert featuring various body parts of four of the dodgers five consecutive rookies-of-the year (sorry holly).  here's the side with eric karros and mike piazza's backsides

and here's raul mondesi and nomo's front sides.  mostly.

so, i had to go out and get the other card to complete my stand up dodger quad

this card seems to feature a mythological beast - a fabiotaur - half nomo, half karros

i also picked up another card from the insert set featuring nomo and what i assume to be greg maddux. 

i thnk randy johnson was on the other side with another pitcher whose name escapes me at the moment.  anyway, this was a great trade. i got some cards that inspired me to go out and buy more cards. 

nothing out of order about that!