my favorite dodger double play combo

there should be no doubt that i am referring to bill russell and davey lopes when i mention my favorite dodger double play combo.  so, i appreciate when card companies match the two up.  back in 2005, upper deck did just that - putting russell and lopes on one of their 'classic counterparts' inserts in their 2005 upper deck classics set.

there were also dual autographed versions

and dual relic versions

of the card.  i picked up one of each over the last year or so.  here's the back of the relic card.

obviously russell's uni piece comes from dodger garb, but i was hoping that the blue lopes swatch was a dodger patch/lettering piece.  no dice, as it comes from davey's time in chicago.

here's a dodger turning two, just for fun.  it's delino deshields on a 1997 fleer card

i guess delino's primary dp partner as a dodger was greg gagne.  not as memorable as russell and lopes.

a patch for gehrig john neshek

a couple of days from now (october 2) will mark what would have been gehrig john neshek's first birthday.  he was born to a's reliever pat neshek and his wife in the midst of a division title race in 2012, but tragically passed away 23 hours later.

the a's, who clinched the american league west on october 3 - the same day that gehrig died - wore memorial patches during the playoffs.  you can see the 'gjn' patch on coco crisp's 2013 topps gypsy queen card below.

pat neshek returned to the team during the playoffs against the tigers, and he threw a perfect two-thirds of an inning.  neshek and the a's will return to the playoffs again this year, but i am not sure that it makes this time of year any easier on pat and his wife.  i cannot imagine the weight of that loss.

double plays until the cows come home

here are some more heretofore unposted double play turns for your enjoyment as you whittle down the moments before walter white does whatever it is that he is going to do with that machine gun in the trunk.

1999 topps stadium club rey ordonez

that card should seed nicely in the 'greatest double play card of all time' tournament.  coming this offseason to this blog.  finally.

2000 fleer ultra neifi perez

and the gold medallion edition parallel

the die cut works well with the photo used.

here's another insert - 2001 pacific private stock roberto alomar extreme action

my apologies to trot nixon, but now when i see number 7 for the red sox, i am forced to think of jd drew.  alomar, by the way, is going to get his own double play post soon.  so many dp cards!

craig biggio has a bunch of double play turns on cardboard, too.  here is his 2001 upper deck victory card with one of them.

2001 upper deck homer bush

2002 fleer box score anderson machado

2006 upper deck cristian guzman

are fairly pedestrian examples of double play turns.  the machado, at least, is interesting because he is taking the feed prior to the runner getting close to the base.

contrast those to this 2007 topps turkey red jimmy rollins card

there's a lot going on there.  i don't know who the slider is supposed to be, but it looks like he's got some old early 1980's stirrup action going on.  or maybe just a really thick pant stripe?  plus, it seems like he has a case of krumrie ankle.

here's a 2008 upper deck documentary dan uggla card

i only have the one - i would guess there are about 20 more cards in the set with this same wrigley field double play photo.

that's all the double play cards for now.  i still have a bunch more to show, however, and with 2013 topps update coming out soon there will likely be even more on the horizon.

double plays don't turn themselves

i recently considered putting a moratorium on picking up new double play cards.  i really didn't know just how many there were until i started to more seriously collect them a few years ago.  now i am behind on adding them to my have list and the binder(s).

but, when i come across a card as cool as billy ripken's 1991 topps stadium club issue, i am not going to pass on it.

that ripken is the rare double play card that shows the first baseman.  i like it very much.

double play master brent gates is back on his 1993 upper deck sp card

as well as his 1997 upper deck card

the opposing player seems to be kneeling at the altar of the double play turn.

master leaper jose lind shows his skills on this 1994 score select card

while royce clayton returns for some dp action on the back of his 1994 upper deck card

chris snopek turns two on a 1997 pinnacle new card

while derek jeter gets parallel to the ground on his 1998 fleer tradition card

pirate time - kevin polcovich looks like he has made the turn at dodger stadium on his 1998 pacific crown collection card

i would guess that brett butler is the guy sliding in, by the way; and tony womack introduces his knee to ray lankford's back on his card from that same set

womack is at it again on his 1998 pinnacle card

with slammin' sammy trying to break things up

from pirates to braves, here is a 2002 upper deck keith lockhart card

and a 2008 upper deck first edition edgar renteria card

for the purposes of this post, i will ignore the fact that the card says 'detroit tigers' on the bottom.

more double play cards to come!  stay tuned!

affordable cards from april

hello.  here are some dodger and expo cards i culled from cardboard collections' april affordable group break.  nine months is too long to have waited to show this 1998 pacific paramount die-cut mike piazza team checklist card, isn't it?

paul konerko is one of the names on the back of that checklist.  here is his 1998 pacific paramount card

same for raul mondesi

there was another pacific product in the break - 1998 pacific online.  here is the first trenidad hubbard card i have shown on this blog, and quite possibly one of the only cards to feature him as a dodger, period.

that's kind of weird because hubbard played more games as a dodger than as a member of any other team, and actually put together a couple of pretty decent seasons for them in 1998 and 1999.

darren hall also spent more time in the majors with the dodgers than he did with any other team (in his case, that would be the blue jays).  here is his 1998 pacific online card

and, like hubbard, this is one of very few (two?) cards i know of that showed hall in dodger blue.  i miss this kind of set - online, topps total, ud victory, etc.  although we did get paco rodriguez and randy choate cards from topps this year.

moving on to 2000 topps gold label, here is a shawn green card that i received

as well as a vladdy guerrero

how fortuitous it was for me to land the expos as my randomly assigned team.  i picked up a few vladdy cards, including one that features dodger stadium and a lurking dodger - courtesy of 1998 pacific paramount

that doesn't look like mike piazza back there.  let's investigate.  may 11, 1997 was a day game at dodger stadium with the opponent that day being the expos.  that would mean that tom prince is featured behind the plate. works for me.

i also received a random dodger card from 2010 topps update - this jackie robinson vintage legends insert

thanks colbey!

lefebvre years

today marks the fifth anniversary of this blog.  and, since i often associate numbers with dodger players, here is the guy that i think of when number 5 comes up.  jim lefebvre on his 1970 topps card.  

yes, i know that johnny oates wore the number during my formative dodger fan years (1977-1979), but lefebvre was my dad's guy, so i knew more about him than the dodgers' backup catcher at the time.

it's been a fun ride, and i am looking forward to this, the garvey year.  i have quite a few recurring post themes to finish up, plus a bunch of cards in the scanned folder to get posted.  and then there is the garvey binder that needs to be showcased.

by the way, the appropriate gift for a fifth blogging anniversary is cardboard.

carroll still cares

during spring training of 2012, i sent a 2011 topps update card to former dodger jamey carroll.  he signed and returned the card right around the start of the new season.  then, after seeing his very nice 2012 topps update card, i did the same thing in the spring of 2013.

unfortunately, i received no quick response like i had last year.  fortunately, however, carroll wound up taking the card with him to kansas city when he was acquired by the royals in early august.  here's what showed up in my mailbox about a week ago.

looks great.  one of the storylines i am following as this season winds down is whether carroll will get his 1000th career hit or not.  he's sitting at 999, but hasn't played for almost two weeks.  he has a club option for 2014, so it's not a given that he would be back in 2014 to get that last hit.  if he doesn't make it, i blame raul ibanez who robbed carroll of a home run a few years back.

seriously, though, pretty much every game i attended at target field the last couple of years included carroll signing autographs down the right field line during warmups.  thanks jamey, and good luck getting that milestone hit!

update!  carroll got hit number 1000 on the day that this posted - 9/27 - with a double to left field.  congrats jamey!

cards from ten years back

continuing with my efforts to clear out the scanned folder, here are some cards from that year of years, 2003...

hey! do you recognize this card? 

i would guess not, as it is not a regular 2003 topps card of chad billingsley, but rather one of those 'factory set exclusive' cards that topps used to (they don't do this anymore, do they?) put out to get you to buy the factory set after you had put together a hand collated set by purchasing packs.  jonathan broxton got one in 2006 as well.  i have the bills and brox cards with my topps dodger teams sets, but not the five 2007 cards that came in the dodger factory set that year.  inconsistent much?

here is a regular 2003 topps card, and it is of andy ashby

good lord, that's mondesi's number!

2003 topps chrome dave roberts

best remembered for half a season (or just one postseason game, really) for the red sox in 2004, roberts wasn't a full-time player until he joined the dodgers at the age of 30.

rickey henderson didn't join the dodgers until the age of 44.  here's his 2003 topps traded card

rickey had spent the first part of the season in the independent atlantic league before finishing out his big league career in dodger blue.

2003 donruss signature series hong-chih kuo

kuo was hurt in 2003 and didn't debut in the big leagues until 2005.  we'll always have 2008 and 2010, though - those were some nice seasons.

2003 fleer ultra hideo nomo

nomo was coming off of a great rebound year when he won another 16 games in 2003.  he threw the last two shutouts of his career that season, a four-hitter in his first start of the year, and a two-hitter a couple months later.

2003 leaf certified materials cesar izturis

and joe thurston

the double play combo of the future!  izturis stuck around for a couple of solid years (before being dealt to the cubs in 2006 for greg maddux), but thurston spent most of his time in the minors and then bounced around the majors after the dodgers sent him to the yankees in 2005.

2003 upper deck edwin jackson

speaking of bouncing around, jackson might give mike morgan and octavio dotel a run for their money.  he's pitched for 8 teams in his 11 years in the big leagues.

last, but certainly not least, 2003 upper deck vintage adrian beltre

can't wait for next year's vintage!

ravine-ous cards

it's time for dodger stadium on baseball cards!  here's one that i showed earlier today on the timeless teams blog (yes, i am slooooowly completing that 2004 upper deck legends set over there).  it's yogi berra in dodger stadium!

pretty sure the photo is from his coaching days during either the 1977 or 1978 world series.  berra was the yankees' manager for 16 games in 1985, yet he gets a card in the set.  meanwhile, tommy lasorda could not be convinced to sign for the set apparently.  

how about a 2002 fleer premium moises alou card?

stuck between the astros and the cubs, alou's card gives us a glimpse of jim gilliam on the outfield wall. i wish the dodgers would do this permanently like the cardinals and white sox.

here's another mural in the background of randy johnson's 2000 topps card

i think this was the world championship (or was it pennant winners?) mural.  that's ron cey's head - one of the three mvp's of the 1981 world series.

now it's pavilion time.  here's a 1985 donruss highlights dale murphy card

and now murphy and fellow brave bob horner on a 1986 fleer superstar special card

and then horner on his own on a 1986 fleer league leaders card

fleer liked dodger stadium.

more pavilion, courtesy of dante bichette's 1997 fleer ultra checklist card

with diamond vision visible at the edge, too.

back to the (plain) outfield wall on the back of brett butler's 1994 upper deck card

looks like the lurking cory snyder is playing tag, although he doesn't have the ball in his glove.  i also appreciate the visibility of both the tim crews and roy campanella/don drysdale memorial patches.

it pleases me greatly that dodger stadium will host some postseason play this year.  maybe we'll see some more photos of american leaguers in chavez ravine in next year's card releases...