i've got hope

hope is a powerful thing, and as a baseball fan, i would much rather have hope than expectations.  yankee fans have expectations.  twins fans have hope (at least one or two of them do).  i fear that as a dodger fan, i should have expectations these days, and not just hope.  such is the curse of an ample budget.

well, even as inch toward expecting the dodgers to win, i will still have these hope diamond parallels from 2011 topps.  to be more specific where this dee gordon card is concerned, 2011 topps update

i had been watching the gordon on ebay for a while, hoping the seller would lower the price or add a 'make an offer' option.  they did not, and when somebody else bid on it, i somewhat impulsively pulled the trigger.  it turns out that it might have been the only version of that card that i did not already own.  more on that later.  the card continues the string of double play posting, even though gordon held on to the ball as ty wigginton was able to break up the turn.

here's another hope diamond parallel of a double play card, featuring rafael furcal

and a third hope diamond parallel in my collection, this one featuring the tampa bay rays' new first baseman, james loney

let's take a look at the various dee gordon parallels now.  here's the hope diamond again

diamond collection

cognac

black

gold

and wal-mart blue

crap. i don't seem to have the target red parallel of this card.

oh well.  that's not the only card of gordon turning two (sort of) that i have a bunch of parallels of.  here are some 2012 topps offerings, starting with the wal-mart blue bordered parallel of his regular (meaning non-rookie card logo'd) card from 2012 topps

and here's the target red-bordered version.

topps also used this photo for gordon's 2012 topps chrome set - here's regular ol' base

now refractor

now xfractor

now blue bordered refractor

and purple bordered refractor

them's real nice.  and, while i don't expect it, i sure hope someone out there has a target red parallel for me...