od dp's

as much as i enjoy seeing some variations between the topps flagship set and their opening day release, i am happy to see many of the same double play cards in both sets.  this one is a strong candidate for my favorite dp card of the year - it's danny espinosa

he's elevated over tony gwynn jr at dodger stadium, which is very nice.  not sure that tg2 is going to get a card in series 2 or update (he's in minor league camp and not on the 40-man roster) so it's good to see him on espinosa's card.  by the way, if this play is from the 1st inning on april 28, 2012 (and i'm pretty sure it is as that was bryce harper's big league debut with lots of cameras on hand), then gwynn failed to break up the double play.

now here's aaron hill with yadier molina apparently doing what gwynn could not.

even though hill is still holding the ball, i put this card (and others like it) in my double play binder.  that's part of what i like about the play at second - there needs to be a decision made as to whether the turn can be completed or not.  sometimes, it's best to hold on to the ball and jump.

on a quick tangent, here's a baseball fun card of hill that i also pulled from a pack

i had not seen the double-bubble shower before.  thankfully it's not abc gum.

jason kipnis' opening day card is the same as his series one card

as is howie kendrick's

but marco scutaro's is not

scutaro had a world series highlight card in series one, but his regular base card will be in series 2, i assume.  perhaps this is a preview of it.  i like the chevron cars from the phone booth in the background, but it's too bad that the coke bottle is so high up in the left field stands.  it would be nice to see that on a card once in a while.  not that i want more giants cards.

here's another tangent - as i mentioned earlier today, the opening day packs i purchased had a 'bonus' pack of series one cards.  i was duped into thinking that i had pulled an 'out of bounds' short print of ryan raburn

until i found a second one in one of the other 'bonus' packs.  it's still a nice looking card.

back to opening day, here are a couple of play hard inserts - david freese

and alex rodriguez

it seems like it's been awhile since arod has been featured prominently in any set, doesn't it?

the last of the opening day cards i'll show is this brandon phillips ballpark fun card

i suppose it is fun to clinch the division.

hold on - i'm not done with this post yet.  seeing that danny espinosa card reminded me of another double play card. this 1990 upper deck bill doran card

features tony gwynn sr sliding in to second, trying to break up a twin killing.  no word on whether he was successful or not.

while i'm at it, i'll show a few more double play cards that i have recently acquired.  here's a 1994 topps stadium club geronimo pena

and a 1994 pinnacle pena as well

they are nice, but not as nice as pena's topps and collector's choice cards from that year.

finally, here is a 2011 topps short print of phil rizzuto

i tried to convince myself that ted williams is the bosox player sliding by, but i can't quite do it.  the number on the back of the player looks more like '8' than '9', but i'm not completely sure. what do you think?