have you seen the turning of two?

somehow a number of double play cards have been accumulating in my scanned folder, and it's time to thin the herd.

2000 topps gallery todd walker

the heir to chuck knoblauch could hit pretty well, but manager tom kelly didn't care much for his defense, and so walker was traded to the rockies during the 2000 season.

1993 classic best tim stutheit

stutheit only played in 24 games in 1993, including just 19 for the a-level chiefs.  at least we have this double play card to remember him by.

1993 topps stadium club john valentin

valentin led the league in defensive war in 1993 (and again in 1995) but eventually had to move to third to make room for nomar garciaparra at short.

1996 upper deck collector's choice roberto alomar

and a silver signature parallel

i originally passed on these cards when looking through my collection for double play cards because it's a posed shot, but then i figured so is the 1953 bowman color pee wee reese.  welcome to the double play binder, 1996 udcc roberto alomar!

2004 topps total adam kennedy

what has five legs, three arms, and turns a double play? this card.

2001 upper deck victory felix martinez

felix the shortstop wpent about a month in the dodger organization in 2002, but didn't appear in any big league games for the blue.

2001 upper deck victory tony womack

and 1997 upper deck collector's choice tony womack

which womack wins? i prefer the '97 card thanks to the full photo crop and the mix of colors, although i do not like applebee's. double play cards, however, i do like.

steve yeager's torch is being carried by alberto callaspo

it pains me to note that steve yeager, the catcher for the team of my youth, spent his final year in the big leagues with the mariners.  that pain is tempered a bit by the existence of this very nice 1986 o-pee-chee card

he played in only 50 games in '86, with his last appearance coming on august 29.  he pinch hit that day in the bottom of the 9th inning of a game against the yankees.  with the m's down 13-12, yeager was summoned to hit for harold reynolds with the tying run on first base, and against the yankees' closer dave righetti, yeager flew out to end the game.

dave righetti would pitch for a few more seasons, ending his career in 1995 with the chicago white sox.  i don't know that i have a card of rags from his chisox days, so here's a 1993 upper deck card instead.

righetti had began his career as a starter, even throwing a no-hitter for the yankees in 1983 before being moved to the bullpen the following season.  he made 10 appearances for the white sox in '96, with the first 9 coming as a starter despite having started only 4 games (for the 1992 giants) since the season of his no-hitter.  anyway, righetti's final big league appearance came as a reliever, in a game against the indians on september 18, 1995.  he pitched the 9th inning with the white sox down 11-1, and although he loaded the bases on two singles and a walk, he retired dave winfield on a pop-up and then got billy ripken out on strikes to end the threat and his career.

billy ripken, meanwhile, is protecting what's his on the back of his 1993 donruss card

he finished his playing career with the tigers in 1998, hitting .270 in 27 games.  he was released by detroit in july of that year, not too long after playing in his final game on july 13. in that game, ripken was a late-inning defensive replacement who was in the on deck circle waiting for his first plate appearance of the game when the last out was recorded.  so, i'll go back to june 20, which was the game featuring ripken's previous appearance (and final at bat).  he got only a single at bat in that game against the royals' tim belcher, who coaxed a fly ball out.

tim belcher went to anaheim to pitch for the angels the following season, and he was there again in 2000, his final season.  this is a 2001 upper deck victory card

showing the former dodger in those disney-fied angel unis. belcher made 9 appearances (all starts) for the halos in 2000, and finished with a record of 4-5.  one of those losses came in his final start, on september 30 against the mariners.  belcher lasted only 2.2 innings that day, and the blow that knocked him off of the mound for good was a walk to david bell.

david bell continued to play through the 2006 season.  he finished that year with the brewers, after starting the season with the phillies whose uniform he is wearing on his 2006 topps heritage card

bell was the brew crew's third baseman on the final day of the season in 2006 as they faced the cardinals.  he went 1 for 4 at the plate, but his last at bat resulted in a backwards k, courtesy of josh kinney.

josh kinney had made his debut earlier that season, and was on the team's postseason roster as well, winning a ring as the cardinals beat the tigers in 5 games.  he stayed with the cardinals' organization through the 2010 season, and was featured in the 2009 upper deck set

kinney spent 2011 with the white sox and 2012 with the mariners, and hasn't pitched in the big leagues since.  he spent last season in the pirates' organization, but is currently a free agent.  so, yeager's torch has been carried by someone else for the last couple of seasons.  in kinney's last big league appearance, he relieved felix hernandez in a game agains the angels, and allowed a single to former teammate albert pujols, but then struck out kendrys morales and got alberto callaspo to fly out.

and that's how we get to callaspo, the current torchbearer of steve yeager's career.  callaspo, shown here on his 2014 topps card

was recently signed as a free agent by the braves to a one-year contract, so he should carry the torch a bit longer.

remembering the rocket

the montreal canadiens are still battling in the stanley cup playoffs, so it seems like a good time for this particular memorial patch post.

back in 2000, montreal still fielded a major league baseball team, and when montreal native, canadien (and canadian) legend and hockey icon maurice 'the rocket' richard passed away in may of that year, the expos wore a black number 9 patch on their right sleeves in his honor.  richard, of course, wore number 9 for les habitants from 1942-1960, leading them to 8 stanley cup titles.  this is the only instance that i know of where a team from one sport has honored a player from another with a memorial patch.

geoff blum is wearing the memorial patch on his 2001 upper deck victory card

which is one of two double play cards i have in which the patch is visible.  the other is this 2001 upper deck augie ojeda card

pretty sure that the expo who tried to break up two is jose vidro, whose 2001 donruss elite card also features the patch

i was going to use this vladimir guerrero card from 2001 upper deck reserve as the example for this memorial in my collection

but then i came across this 2001 upper deck ultimate victory card of milton bradley which shows the patch so nicely

so it gets the nod.  besides, i'll keep that vladdy card in my vladdy pc.

richard was the first player in nhl history to score 50 goals in 50 games, and was the league's all-time leading scorer until another player wearing number 9, gordie howe, came along.  still, i doubt the tigers will wear a gordie howe patch when he passes away.

fantastic trade with nolan's dugout

it's about time i showed off some of the great cards that kyle from nolan's dugout sent my way in trade a while back.  believe it or not, i am showing only one dodger from the lot - a 1988 fantastic sam's baseball superstars pedro guerrero 'card'.

it also serves as a contest entry with some great although vaguely described prizes.  go here or here to learn more.

the other cards in the package were some really nice 'memorials' (i will save those for other posts) and double plays.  kyle sent along some twin killings that were new to my collection, so let's check them out!

1996 pacific jay bell

1996 pacific tripp cromer

bet you didn't know that cromer is a former dodger

1997 pacific felipe crespo

1997 pacific pat meares

1997 pacific rey sanchez

1998 pacific (is this when they started officially calling this release) crown collection (?) kurt abbott

1998 pacific invincible gems of the diamond pat kelly

1998 pacific invincible gems of the diamond luis rivera

yes, this is the same luis rivera who began his career in the 1980's with the expos.  he was out of the big leagues for a couple of seasons in the mid-1990's before resurfacing with the astros in 1997.

2001 upper deck victory benji gil

gil was a pretty highly rated prospect in the rangers' system back in the early 1990's.  he spent two years in the minors after leaving texas before he was picked up by the angels.  gil hit .800 (4 for 5) in the 2002 world series en route to winning a ring, so he has that going for him.

last but not least, 2006 bazooka jack wilson

thanks for the trade kyle!

double plays until the cows come home

here are some more heretofore unposted double play turns for your enjoyment as you whittle down the moments before walter white does whatever it is that he is going to do with that machine gun in the trunk.

1999 topps stadium club rey ordonez

that card should seed nicely in the 'greatest double play card of all time' tournament.  coming this offseason to this blog.  finally.

2000 fleer ultra neifi perez

and the gold medallion edition parallel

the die cut works well with the photo used.

here's another insert - 2001 pacific private stock roberto alomar extreme action

my apologies to trot nixon, but now when i see number 7 for the red sox, i am forced to think of jd drew.  alomar, by the way, is going to get his own double play post soon.  so many dp cards!

craig biggio has a bunch of double play turns on cardboard, too.  here is his 2001 upper deck victory card with one of them.

2001 upper deck homer bush

2002 fleer box score anderson machado

2006 upper deck cristian guzman

are fairly pedestrian examples of double play turns.  the machado, at least, is interesting because he is taking the feed prior to the runner getting close to the base.

contrast those to this 2007 topps turkey red jimmy rollins card

there's a lot going on there.  i don't know who the slider is supposed to be, but it looks like he's got some old early 1980's stirrup action going on.  or maybe just a really thick pant stripe?  plus, it seems like he has a case of krumrie ankle.

here's a 2008 upper deck documentary dan uggla card

i only have the one - i would guess there are about 20 more cards in the set with this same wrigley field double play photo.

that's all the double play cards for now.  i still have a bunch more to show, however, and with 2013 topps update coming out soon there will likely be even more on the horizon.

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!