the billy martin memorial patch

billy martin died in a single-car accident on christmas day, 1989.  the driver of the car, a friend of martin's, was charged with driving under the influence.  the yankees, the team that martin was most associated with during his playing and managerial days, added a memorial patch to their uniforms from the 1990 season.  instead of the traditional black armband, they added martin's retired number 1 to their left sleeves.

there it is on don mattingly's 1991 fleer ultra card

and jesse barfield's 1991 upper deck card

and dave lapoint's 1991 upper deck card as well

in a bit of a departure, i decided to use a card from 1993 to represent this particular memorial in the binder.  it comes from the 1993 rainbow foods dave winfield set that was released in minnesota (and perhaps elsewhere) to mark winfield's return to the twin cities.  this is a gold parallel version noting his time spent with the yankees.

martin had finished his playing career as a twin in 1961, and later returned to the team as their manager in 1969.  it was his first managerial job, and he led the team to a first place finish in the first year of division play.  after that, martin managed in detroit and texas before taking the job of the yankee skipper in 1975.  much turmoil ensued, and despite getting the yankees back to the postseason in 1976 and winning it all in 1977, owner george steinbrenner fired martin 52 games into the 1978 season.  of course, the boss hired martin back in 1979, but fired him again.

in 1980, martin took over the oakland a's and 'billy ball' was born.  martin guided the a's to the postseason in 1981 (they lost the alcs to the yankees), but the team fell to fifth place in the al west in 1982 and he was let go.  no problem - steinbrenner hired him to be the yankee manager again, but was fired after a third place finish.  martin returned the the job a fourth time, taking over for yogi berra in 1985, and was fired for a fourth time after the season ended.  martin was named the team's manager by steinbrenner for a fifth time going into the 1988 season, but was canned for a fifth time by steinbrenner after 68 games.  one has to wonder if martin, who was 61 when he died, would have been asked to manage the yankees another time (and been fired soon thereafter) had he not been in the accident.

double plays through the mail

i mentioned in the post earlier this morning that reader mark sent along some double play cards.  before we get to them, here is a 1970-72 fleer cloth sticker that was also included in one of the trade packages he sent.

i was thrown at first because all of the fleer stickers i have seen from that era have the 'la' logo on its side (along with a border surrounding the logo sticker), but a closer look tells me that the sticker here was likely removed and reapplied in its proper orientation.  it's pretty cool.  thanks mark.  and thanks for these new-to-me double plays.

1991 donruss ron oester

1991 fleer ultra greg gagne

i can't believe i haven't found this gagne in a dime box up here in twins territory.  same for this 1999 topps pat meares.

yes, i consider pretty much any 2nd base bag straddle to be a part of a dp turn.

just like this 1992 donruss jody reed card

although this 1992 donruss curtis wilkerson is easier to recognize as a double play turn

here's a nice 1992 upper deck card of tony phillips

on which he appears to have upended cal ripken jr who was just trying to complete the twin killing.

there's a dp turn on the back of bill doran's 1993 donruss card

as well as the front of marcus giles' 2007 topps opening day card

i've got some more stuff that mark sent to showcase later today.  stay tuned...

another edition of same play? same play.

this double play post begins with carlos baerga suspended in mid air - not just on his 1992 upper deck card

but also on his 1992 leaf card

thanks to jeff at 2x3 heroes for pointing this out to me.  jeff also alerted me to many of the cards that are in this post, prompting a quick visit to sportlots.  anyway, i think we can all agree that this is the same play, right?  i mean, there's really not enough evidence to pinpoint the angels' baserunner that baerga is so acrobatically avoiding but it is pretty clearly the same guy.

unfortunately, this is not the case on these shawon dunston cards.  first, from 1993 topps stadium club, dunston doubles up some poor schlub in spring training

and then takes to the air on this 1991 fleer ultra card

over an anonymous expo at wrigley.  at least dunston is consistent with his long sleeves and red wristbands.

back to 1993 topps stadium club, here's tony phillips turning two in some nice throwbacks

back to wrigley, courtesy of 1991 score.  here's jose oquendo

standing triumphantly over mark grace.

now back to the detroit tigers, for whom lou whitaker is certainly making the turn on his 1991 upper deck card

even though we can't see the runner.  there's really no other reason for him to have his left foot on the base.

we get runner and base on jose lind's 1993 score card

plus the ball as well!

back to wrigley once again for craig biggio's 1993 upper deck sp card

with another mark grace cameo.  who was hitting behind grace, anyway?

and then to fenway and john valentin's 1994 topps card

where brady anderson and his famous sideburns make an appearance

now for a couple of 1994 topps stadium club cards - neither of which feature tigers, wrigley field, or mark grace.  instead, we get alex arias

 and biggio again

i'll finish up this double play post where it began - with carlos baerga suspended in midair.  this time, courtesy of his 1996 score select card

featuring game 6 world series action!  ryan klesko gets doubled up in a rare 1-6-4-3 double play.  i'm guessing dennis martinez deflected the ball to omar vizquel who relayed to baerga at the bag.  good stuff.

more dime box double plays by proxy

earlier today i showed a hall of fame third baseman turning two, thanks to nick of dime boxes.  now, here's a very good hitting third baseman also turning two.  again, the card comes courtesy of nick (as do the rest of the cards in this post), but this time the subject is gary sheffield on a 1991 fleer ultra card.

looks like carney lansford has broken up the dp attempt.  but wait, you say.  sheffield played only third base in 1990, and only appeared at shortstop in 1988 and 1989. well, thanks to the number on sheffield's jersey, we know that this photo is from one of those two seasons (he switched to 11 for the 1990 season).  i would guess that the featured play took place on mother's day 1989 - may 14.  in the second inning, lansford reached on a single but was forced out (3-6) on a stan javier grounder.

less interesting, but still a turn at two, here is a 2004 fleer tradition d'angelo jimenez card

a 2005 fleer ultra david eckstein card

a 2007 topps omar vizquel card

a 2008 topps opening day mark loretta card

a 2010 topps jason bartlett walmart black card

a 2012 topps mike aviles card

a 2012 topps reid brignac target red card

a 2012 topps stephen drew card

and, finally, a 2013 topps ian desmond target red card

thanks again for being my dime box proxy nick!

turning two for the gazillionth time

double play cards just keep turning up!  i can't help myself from acquiring them, either.

here's a 1988 score marty barrett

with his back turned just like jay bell on his 1991 fleer ultra

scott garrelts on the basepaths, too!

bell gets upended a bit on his 1990 upper deck card

but rights the ship on his 1993 fleer ultra card

rafael ramirez gets a couple of dp's at wrigley - here's his 1990 upper deck card

and here's his 1991 topps stadium club card

craig grebeck also makes two stops in this post - a 1993 score card

and a 1993 score select card

thanks to score for not using the same photo!

how about a 1996 bowman jason mcdonald card?

don't mind if i do.

and here's omar vizquel doing what he does best on a 1999 upper deck card

there is some chromey double play goodness on this 2000 topps chrome mike lansing card

and some traded double play niceness on this 2004 topps traded alex gonzalez card

don't worry - i'm not even close to being done with posting all of my double play cards.  stay tuned.

double play cards from the dollar store

here are some cards that came my way via the blog sportscards from the dollar store.  doug took part in my 1983 fleer sticker group break, and offered to send some cards my way to offset the higher shipping costs to the great white north.  that he did.  here's a 2010 upper deck 'all world' insert of canadian catcher russell martin

that was the lone card in the package that did not feature a double play, if i recall correctly.  ready for some dp's?  here we go...

1990 upper deck ryne sandberg

1991 fleer ultra bill ripken

with a special appearance by harold reynolds

1991 score al newman

1992 classic i pat kelly

i am too lazy to look, but i think this is the same play that is on his 1992 donruss triple play awesome action card.  ok, i was motivated to look.  it's not, but it is eerily similar...

1992 classic i roberto alomar

with chuck knoblauch sliding in, which is kind of cool because here is knobby's 1992 classic i card

i had not seen any cards from this set before.  they feature questions on the back like other classic cards, but also have a stadium shot.  here's the back of knoblauch's card featuring the minneapolis skyline and the hhh metrodome.

there are a few newer buildings these days, and the metrodome's roof is new with a bunch of purple text on it since it is only home to the vikings now.  and that's just for one more season.

more dp cards from the dollar store coming up later.  thanks for the cards doug - you should be getting your stickers (along with a few other cards soon)!