look at some cards that feature double plays

they are self explanatory and offer up an easy post topic, which is what i need right now.  all are either new to my collection or recently unearthed from any number of monster boxes in my somewhat unorganized card collection area.

1998 fleer ultra craig counsell

1998 fleer ultra craig counsell gold medallion edition

1998 fleer ultra mike lansing

1998 topps stadium club ray durham

1999 topps stadium club ray durham

2001 topps stadium club ray durham

2004 topps bazooka rafael furcal

2004 topps bazooka rafael furcal mini

2004 topps rafael furcal red chunk

2004 upper deck marcus giles

2013 topps silver slate blue sparkle danny espinosa

2014 bowman silver ice ian kinsler

2014 topps chrome jonathan schoop

2014 topps chrome refractor jonathan schoop

2014 topps chrome andrelton simmons

2015 topps opening day javier baez

i'll try harder next time.

baseball is back, sort of

hockey and basketball may still be on the air, but baseball is back. i've seen some 2015 topps cards leak into the populace, so it's officially time to turn our attention to the national pastime.  and, with 2015 stuff out, i should show some of the 2014 cards that have been languishing in my scanned folder.

this is a 2014 bowman yasiel puig 1989 bowman is back insert

thankfully, unlike actual 1989 bowman cards, this one is standard sized.  topps just trimmed the top and bottom margins.  it would look better if they widened the photo frame to have equal sized margins all around the card - they way they did it makes it look trimmed.

these cards were inserted throughout bowman releases.  this one, of alex guerrero,

comes from bowman chrome, i believe.  these next few cards also come from bowman chrome - here's guerrero

along with erisbel arruebarrena

and hanley ramirez

this is a 2014 bowman platinum zack greinke card

greinke is the anti-marshawn lynch. he talks to reporters and speaks his mind. it's hard to tell what he's thinking these days, but i hope he sticks around for a while.

i have to admit that i bought a couple of packs of 2014 donruss at the dollar store.  no dodgers, but i did pick up this puig base

and his power plus insert

through other means over the course of last year.

i've had some of the pastime's pastimes 2014 topps allen & ginter inserts scanned for a while, but never got around to show them off.  here's puig

ramirez

jackie robinson

and hyun-jin ryu

puig's pastime is being a jokester

and one of his main joke partners is ryu.  i don't think they understand what the other is saying, but they make for good comic relief together.

here's a 2014 topps chrome puig card

and a ryu xfractor, too

i only have one 2014 topps heritage card ready to show, and it's carl crawford's

i'll be interested to see 2015 heritage.  i wasn't expecting much in 2013, but the 1964 design redux grew on me.  i'm left wondering if seeing the 1966 topps design modernized will incite any interest.  i'm guessing not.

here are a bunch of dodgers from the 2014 topps stickers release - jackie, puig, matt kemp, clayton kershaw, ryu, and greinke

there were no newer photos of kershaw, so topps had to use one from 2011.

i bought a pack of 2014 topps update a couple of weeks ago while succumbing to pack withdrawal.  at least it contained this yasiel puig all-star game access insert

with mini-miguel cabrera.

also from last year's update, here's a hanley power players insert

it feels good to get these 2014 cards out of the scanned folder and make some room for some 2015 cards.

making room for another joc

i completed a trade with frankie from my life in sports card hobby last month.  it's always nice to find a yankee fan to trade with as i seem to have too many bronx bombers laying around.  one of the cards that caught my eye on frankie's blog was this 2014 bowman chrome dual-ing die cuts card featuring joc pederson

i am happy to have this card in my collection, and i had to check to make sure that matt wisler wasn't a dodger as well with all the wheeling and dealing going on with the padres this offseason.  no, the padres kept wisler, one of their top pitching prospects, even as they sent three players to the dodgers for tim federowicz and this guy, matt kemp

in part to make room for joc in the outfield.  that is a 2010 topps 206 chrome parallel of the former dodger outfielder, by the way. i am not too excited about typing those words.

here's a 2014 bowman hyun-jin ryu silver ice parallel

or is it cracked ice?  i would be ok if topps would cool it with all of the parallels.  let's go back to 1989, a time of rough cardstock and many fewer sets and reflect on the simplicity of cards like this 1989 topps orel hershiser all-star card

hershiser finished 2nd in the national league with a 2.31 era in 1989 - the highest he had finished on the leader board previously had been 3rd, which he accomplished four times in the five seasons from 1984 through 1988.  still, he never led the league in that category like mike mccormick of the san francisco giants did in 1960.  frankie sent me the 1961 topps nl era league leaders card with mccormick (and runners up ernie broglio, don drysdale, bob friend, and stan williams) on the front.  a look at the back tells me that the giants had a leg up on the dodgers for a long time in this category

aside from dazzy vance and johnny podres, the dodgers are not very well represented, while the ny/sf giants show up quite often.  since 1960, however, the dodgers have 12 era titles (including the last 4) to the giants' 5.  they trail in world series rings over the last three years, though.

i'll finish this post with a 2012 panini playoff prime cuts hanley ramirez relic card

the card features hanley as a marlin, or as a member of the miami baseball team, as it was issued before the trade that sent him to los angeles that year.  he's gone to boston now to play the outfield - a position the dodgers were not in need of by any stretch. i was under the impression that hanley wanted to play shortstop, but i guess not.

thanks for the trade frankie!

i suppose i am a garvey junkie

here are a few more cards that were sent my way from the bayou, courtesy of the junior junkie.  first up is a 1985 fleer super star special card featuring steve garvey and fellow padre goose gossage

goose blew the save in game 4 of the 1984 nlcs, but that was the game in which garvey hit a walk-off home run to force the decisive game 5.  in that game, garvey (the nlcs mvp) drew an important walk to set up a couple of sac flies, and later drove in the game's final run, while gossage recorded the save and the pads were on to the world series. those yellow bp jerseys are hideous, by the way.

here's a 2002 fleer box score pee wee reese card

i am pretty sure that these cards were sold in a box set, and featured only hall of famers.  i recall buying the box from one of the local card shops and then being disappointed that pee wee was the only dodgers in the cooperstown subset.

2011 bowman chrome draf picks and prospects josh lindblom refractor

lindblom has bounced around since the dodgers traded him to the phillies for shane victorino in 2012.  the phillies dealt him to texas prior to the 2013 season in the michael young deal, and then they sent him to the a's for michael choice a year later.  he pitched in one game for the a's last season.

2014 bowman andre ethier

have we seen the last of ethier in dodger blue? i would guess not, unless the dodgers eat a sizable part of that contract ned doled out.

2014 topps allen & ginter hyun-jin ryu

and duke snider

it's nice to see the duke in la dodger gear once in a while.

thanks for the cards tj - from one junkie to another!

dodgers blue

so, the dodgers' season is over - prematurely by many people's thinking, including my own.  and while i don't live and die by the team, i am disappointed.  blue?  not really.  although these cards are.

2008 topps triple threads duke snider sapphire parallel numbered to 25

i bought this card a couple of weeks ago.  the same seller had a steve garvey card from the same set/same parallel run going at the same time.  i got the snider for $1.99 plus shipping (i was the only bidder) while the garvey card went for over $30 (i didn't win that one).  go figure.

2012 panini cooperstown don sutton blue crystal ice or cracked ice or some such nonsense, numbered to 499

the dodgers haven't been to the world series since don sutton was on their opening day roster.  yikes.

2013 topps josh beckett silver slate blue parallel

beckett just retired, by the way.

2013 topps zack greinke silver slate blue parallel

i would have loved to have seen greinke pitch in game 5 at home.

2013 topps kenley jansen silver slate blue parallel

i would have liked for jansen to pitch in some of those more critical situations, like the 7th inning of game 1.  if he's your closer/best reliever, use him when the need is the greatest.  screw conventional wisdom.

2013 topps clayton kershaw league leader silver slate blue parallel

i don't blame kershaw.  i don't blame anyone.  i don't think i've felt that way about anything baseball related since 1985, although jim tracy did befuddle me in 2005.  there's no point.  good gosh, i've gone existential in my baseball fandom!

2013 topps chrome adrian gonzalez blue refractor

gonzalez led the league in rbi during the regular season, but had just one hit with runners in scoring position in the nlds.  of course, he may only have hit a couple of times in that situation during the series, so i don't know that he is to blame.

2014 bowman clayton kershaw blue parallel

and 2014 topps clayton kershaw league leader walmart blue parallel

it will be interesting to see how fernandez and harvey bounce back next year.  it will be interesting to see how kershaw bounces back for that matter.

2014 topps hanley ramirez walmart blue parallel

hanley had a tough year with a lot of little injuries, but he hit when he was in the lineup.  will he get a big contract? from whom?  would the dodgers re-sign him to play third?  did it make sense for mattingly to remove him from game 1 for a defensive replacement? what if he caught jhonny peralta's line drive in the 7th inning of game 4 that instead went off of his glove?  so many questions.  hanley played well; clearly he is not to blame.

2014 topps yasiel puig the future is now insert

not a blue parallel like these other cards, but there is enough of a blue tint that i included it here.  puig is an enigma.  i was surprised but not surprised that he was benched for game 4.  he looked lost at the plate for much of the series, but you know that he could explode at any time, and for a team desperate for some offense that means a lot.  i don't blame puig.

for me, the dodgers' performance in the 2014 nlds comes down to what they did or didn't do as a team during the series.  yes, the team is comprised of individuals managed by an individual and brought together by another individual.  and, yes, there may be some room for improvement with any of those individuals.  but whatever happens this offseason, i'll still root for the laundry next season - even if (and actually especially if) the same people are wearing it.

what concerns me more is the fact that no dodger team has won their division (or the national league pennant before division play) three years in a row.  history would tell us that the best shot the dodgers have is a wild card berth which means a one game playoff which means kershaw.  doesn't it?