memorial patches for the pohlads

eloise pohlad, the wife of twins' owner carl pohlad, passed away in november of 2003, and the club added memorial patches to their right sleeves for the following season in memory of her.  they were simple patches, with the first name of her signature stitched inside a color coded rectangle - one for the away grays, one for the alternate blues, and one for the home whites.  you can see the gray patch on lew ford's 2005 fleer flair card

and the blue one is visible on torii hunter's 2005 donruss timeless treasures card

both of those cards are in my memorials binder, but i haven't been able to find a card that shows the white patch.  there weren't too many baseball card photographers at the metrodome in 2004, i suppose.  here's a picture of hunter at home from the 2004 alds against the yankees that shows the white patch.

and here's a better look at all three versions of the patch

in 2009, the twins wore a very similar patch for eloise's husband carl, who passed away at the age of 93 in january.  there was only one version of his patch, however.

had there been a white version to go with the home uniforms, we would have had a card showing it, as nick punto's 2010 upper deck card

features a photo from inside the metrodome with nicky wearing the 1983 throwback home whites.  speaking of the metrodome, the patch above the 'carl' patch is the 'final season of the metrodome' patch.  even old, multi-purpose dome stadiums got the commemorative patch treatment.

here's the patch on the alternate blue jersey of joe mauer, courtesy of his 2010 bowman card

looks like joe is on tatooine there.

here's francisco liriano's 2009 topps allen & ginter national pride insert showing the patch on the home white pinstripes

the patch shows up again, this time on the away grays, on alexi casilla's 2010 topps card

on delmon young's 2010 topps card

and on justin morneau's 2010 topps opening day card

and his chrome card

which, even though it uses the same photo as the opening day card, it's cut a little tighter so the patch is a little bigger.

i've got liriano's 2010 allen & ginter card in the binder

carl pohlad was the guy who bought the twins from calvin griffith in 1984 to keep them in minnesota, but he was also the guy who almost sold the team to a north carolina group in 1997, and the guy who was willing to let the team contract in 2001.  still, he was the owner during their run to two world championships (1987 and 1991), and despite his willingness to sell or contract the team,  pohlad oversaw the run of division titles in the 2000's, with the last under his watch coming in 2006.

the construction of target field began in 2007, and although carl pohlad did not live to see it completed, a statue of him and his wife was erected in the plaza outside gate 34 - the main entrance to the stadium.

random greatness from the scanned folder

i doubt that there will be a reason to post this 2006 upper deck future stars autographed card of tim hamulack

in anything other than a 'random cards from the scanned folder' post, so guess what?  this is a post featuring a bunch of cards that have been wallowing in my scanned folder for some time.  hamulack (besides being a sentence that yoda might utter if he were to be displeased with the meat selection at your easter brunch) pitched for the dodgers in 2006 and went 0-3 in 33 appearances.  i can't say that i recall too much about him, and i assumed that he was a lefty specialist that the dodgers brought on board to face barry bonds and todd helton and other nl west lefty sluggers.  well, he faced bonds only twice in 2006 - hamulack walked him and then hit him with a pitch a couple days later.  not bad.

1982 fleer dodger logo sticker

i wish to goodness that fleer had put dates on their stickers.  luckily, i know that this comes from 1982 because it's got a photo from the 1981 all-star game at cleveland's municipal stadium on the back

it looks like a gloomy august night in cleveland, but that may just be the 1982 fleer effect.

1992 fleer ramon martinez and ozzie guillen superstar special

this card baffled me when i first saw it.  'teenage sensations'?  guillen was 28 and entering his 8th season in the majors in 1992, and ramon was 24.  neither debuted in the majors as a teenager, so fleer must have really been reaching to make a connection here.  it turns out that both made their professional debuts at the age of 17.

1994 topps stadium club henry rodriguez rainbow foil

you can't go wrong, really, with a bat rack/helmet cubby shot.  nice cameo by darryl strawberry's (upside-down) helmet.  i don't know whose helmet is next to daaaaar-ryl's - no dodger wore 51 during oh henry's dodger tenure, at least according to baseball reference.

1996 topps ismael valdes

dodger fans remember valdes for having delicate skin.  look closely and you might see a blister on his pitching hand.

2002 upper deck superstars adrian beltre

he sure would look good at third for the dodgers these days

2009 upper deck chin-lung hu

back in 2007, poor vin scully had to wait almost 3 weeks after hu had been called up for the first time to  note that 'hu's on first'.  in his previous five games, hu had homered, pinch-ran for olmedo saenz (who had doubled), and made outs until he singled in his fourth at bat of his sixth big league game.  i am sure it was a relief to all to get that joke out of the way.

2010 bowman andre ethier expectations

i believe that ned's expectations for ethier is to enjoy being the fourth outfielder.

2013 topps pro debut matt magill

magill was 0-2 in six starts for the dodgers last season.  this year, he's appeared in a few card releases with an auto here and there, like hamulack up above.  he's yet to be called up to the bigs this year, but there's always september.

double play deja vu

i was looking through my 2003 binder recently when i noticed that topps took the photo that was on eric riggs' 2003 traded

and chrome traded

cards, and slapped in on his 2003 topps total card, too.

it's a nice double play turn, and the design of total gives us the most complete look at it, but it looks like topps felt a little guilty about recycling the photo, as they 'painted' a stripe on the outfield wall to try to make it look a little bit different.

now, in 2014, topps gave us this chase utley double play turn in their opening day release (series 2 version coming soon)

and then shrunk it down on a 2014 gypsy queen mini variation

they didn't modify the modell's ad on the wall, though.

here's a rod carew card from 2008 topps triple threads

that uses the same photo from a topps archives fan favorites release

so what? topps using the same photos over and over is not news.  i'm just trying to show some double play cards here.

here are a couple of cards featuring kaz matsui that use different photos, thank goodness.  this is his 2008 upper deck first edition card

and this is a 2010 bowman card

here's hanley ramirez on his 2011 topps marquee card

and i'll bring this post to a close with a pair of cards from 1996 upper deck collector's choice - royce clayton

and arquimedez pozo

believe it or not, i still have about 50 or so double play cards in the collection that i haven't shown here yet.  i'll keep trying to get there...

when in extreme doubt, turn two again

sometime last year, i got in the habit of scheduling two (or more) posts a day on weekends.  not every weekend, but most of them, plus on a weekday here and there.  i feel like i have a lot of cards i want to show and/or write about, so i plan to maintain a greater that a post a day pace this year.  i didn't have much to say for the first post that ran today, so instead showed some heretofore unseen on this blog double play cards.  why not show some more for the second post of the day.

2000 topps stadium club derek jeter

and 2000 topps stadium club chrome derek jeter

and 2000 topps stadium club chrome jose vidro

2000 fleer ultra miguel tejada

and 2000 fleer ultra todd walker

2000 pacific alex rodriguez

2001 pacific damion easley

2002 fleer royce clayton

2005 fleer ultra alfonso soriano

2008 topps stadium club gregorio petit (1st day)

and 2010 bowman kaz matsui gold parallel

two posts again tomorrow, except they will be memorial patch related, not double plays.  stay tuned...

i will be keeping these cards

a while back, i asked the question 'should i keep this card?' regarding a nolan ryan card that mentioned steve garvey on the back.  i already knew my answer when i wrote the post (i will not keep that card), and the four of you who commented all came to the same conclusion.  i don't have checklists in my garvey collection, although i do have the topps team cards in which he appears (for some reason, it looks like he missed the photo that appears in the 1981 set) in the binders.

there is a card that mentions steve garvey on the back which i will keep in the collection.

that's because the cartoon you see above is on the back of garvey's 1972 topps card

i suppose it makes sense for a ballplayer to get married in the winter since that is their offseason.  i have to say, with the temperatures i am experiencing right now, i am not sure i would attend anybody's winter wedding.

moving on, there is another card that features garvey as the answer to the cartoon trivia question on the back that will remain in my collection.  take a look at the back of garvey's 1975 o-pee-chee card

that fine example of canadian cardmanship came to me thanks to kerry from cards on cards.  in fact, all of the cards (except for the 1972 topps card up top) were sent by kerry in what was a most generous trade package.

there was another 1975 o-pee-chee card in the mix - the 1974 mvp card

two horizontal cards don't make a right, unfortunately.  when this card goes in the binder, poor garvey is upside down.

here are some of the other goodies - 2003 bowman draft prospects xavier paul

paul was recently non-tendered by the reds.  i hope he is picked up by another team.

2009 topps jackie robinson turkey red insert

pretty sure that photo is from a shot inside the dodger clubhouse, not out on a field.  nice to see it colorized, though.

2010 bowman matt kemp 1992 throwback

and 2011 topps lineage matt kemp diamond anniversary refractor

i will be quite upset if kemp is traded this week, or at any time for that matter.

chad billngsley's lineage refractor also came along for the ride

kerry was nice enough to hit the nefarious 9 (my most wanted cards) as well.  he sent a copy of former number 1 most wanted 2000 upper deck victory koyie hill (as seen in this post), but also sent a 2003 bowman heritage fred mcgriff black bordered facsimile autograph parallel

and a 1998 fleer tradition dennis reyes card

both from the list.  a list i need to update...

thanks kerry! you really outdid yourself with these cards!