27 February 2015

a mish-mash of double play turns

i've allowed a number of new to the blog/collection double play turns to accumulate in my scanned folder, so today will be all about the pivot.

1984 topps traded tony bernazard
now granted this image is pre-pivot, but i consider second basemen waiting for the throw while standing at the base to be a double play turn. i remember waiting for these throws and wondering if i had enough time to turn and throw and not get bowled over.

1995 topps bret boone
ditto.

1992 topps stadium club manny lee
sorry - he goes by manuel here.  this is where i am thankful for others who collect double play cards, particularly jeff at 2x3 heroes and nick at dime boxes.  they will show off dp cards that they receive in the mail, and then i go and dig in my collection to see if i have those cards.  such was the case with this manuel lee card.  one of them showed it, and i didn't have it, so i went and bought it on sportlots for 18 cents.  this particular card shows a play from the first inning of a game played on june 30, 1991. harold reynolds has grounded to the first baseman (john olerud), who threw to second to force the lead runner (edgar martinez).  manuel lee is preparing for the relay throw, but reynolds is safe at first. thanks baseball-reference!

1982 o-pee-chee tim foli
not only was foli traded from the pirates to the angels (creating a team and text variation), but he's about to throw to first to complete a spring training double play.  i doubt that he's on the second base side of the bag for any other reason, so this is a double play turn.  now i just need another copy of his 1982 topps card for the dp binder.

1992 leaf mariano duncan
and 1992 leaf mariano duncan black gold
plus the back of another 1992 leaf card, that of terry shumpert
the photo on the shumpert back is very similar to the back of his 1992 fleer card.

my double play collection sometimes runs on duncan - here's his 1995 topps stadium club card
plus jody reed's card from the same set
nice junior griffey cameo, too.  i had previously shown a 1st day issue parallel of the reed card, but not the plain ol' base.

here's another couple of cards that have sort of been shown before - 1997 topps stadium club carlos garcia
i previously showed the members only parallel, which is really only different on the back due to some watermark text, and 1995 score rafael belliard
of which i have previously shown the gold rush parallel version.

last card of this post is brent gates' 1996 score card
thanks again to nick for showing this one on his blog. i couldn't believe that there was a brent gates double play card that i was missing.

7 comments:

Seth Marlowe said...

Perhaps my favorite all time double play turn card is the 1978 Felix Millan, doing so over a sliding Dave Parker. See: http://randombaseballstuff.com/2009/12/13/mets-autograph-1978-topps-felix-millan/

gcrl said...

@seth i like that one, too. it may well have been the first double play card i ever saw.

BobWalkthePlank said...

I love that Brent Gates card. Wipe out double plays make for good cardboard.

Nick said...

I can always get behind an all-double dip post. I was going through some cards the other day and I started to wonder what single player had the most double play cards issued. I have to believe it's either Gates or Walt Weiss. Or maybe Craig Biggio...

Sounds like a question we double dip collectors should tackle.

gcrl said...

@nick i have at different times thought about this. kurt stillwell looked to be in the running early in his career. gates may have the highest percentage of double play cards among all of his cards, but i would guess weiss or biggio or barry larkin or royce clayton. i'll take a look through my collection sometime...

gcrl said...

@nick - i looked through my collection and have the following card totals (this includes parallels which may not be fair).

biggio - 37
gates - 18
weiss - 20
larkin - 19
clayton - 26
sandberg - 22
alomar - 46
tejada - 28
cora brothers - 27

i forgot all about roberto alomar

JediJeff said...

" i remember waiting for these throws and wondering if i had enough time to turn and throw and not get bowled over."

I second that emotion! Loved making the turn, but was always afraid someone wanted to go all big leagues on me and see if they could send me flying.