dp or not dp?

i have slowly been prepping for the 'greatest double play card ever' tournament for quite a while now.  it turns out, there are more of these things than even i imagined.  i decided to hold off on the tournament until i finished cataloguing all of my double play cards.  look for the tourney to kick off towards the end of the season.

part of the problem is that topps keeps churning out cards showing the turn at second base.  some are pretty cool, some are not.  here are some recent and not so recent double play cards.

this first one, from 2012 topps, is actually not a double play turn.  

as far as i can tell, the play shown on the above card comes from the bottom of the 9th inning on august 28, 2011.  kyle seager was on first base with no outs when josh bard hit a grounder to beckham.  the white sox were up 9-2, so beckham just went for the sure out at first rather than try to get seager at second.  so, not a dp turn, but still a pretty cool card.

this one is definitely a double play turn - it's robinson cano (red border target exclusive, y'all!)

with josh hamilton steamrolling in.

let's take a break from the new stuff and look back at some double plays unearthed from my collection. 2004 topps seemed to have quite a few.  here's alex cintron

and ray durham

current dodger mark ellis

and cristian guzman

jeff kent (i see you, pokey reese!)

and jack wilson

2009 topps gave us jj hardy

and placido polanco

last year, there were a couple of good troy tulowitzki double play turns, including the one from topps' opening day release

although i still like the topps marquee card better.

back to 2012, and we have recently surging power hitter trevor plouffe making the turn in oakland.

this card is actually from the 2012 topps twins team factory set.  i just received the regular topps issue in the mail yesterday, so you'll see this card again in a near future trade post.

finally, here's a card from 2012 topps allen & ginter, featuring alcides escobar (right? is that the right escobar? i kind of wish the first names were on the cards)

i am envious of the braves, white sox and any other team whose outfield walls have those murals that we first saw at dodger stadium.  i really wish they would get rid of the mccourt-installed billboards and either go back to the blue padding or the murals.