random rules the day

here's a smattering of randomness from the scanned folder.  no rhyme or reason, just some dodger cards…

1980 topps ken brett

when ken brett joined the dodgers, it was the first time that i became aware of the 'wrong brother' syndrome. not that i wanted george brett to join the dodgers and mess up the infield thing they had going on, but i still recognized that the younger george was the better player.  that wasn't what was expected, however, as ken brett was thought to be the best athlete in the family when he joined the red sox in the late 1960's.  with the dodgers, brett pitched in 30 games during the 1979 season and was released during spring training the following year.

1983 dodgers police tom lasorda

i used this photo for one of lasorda's cards that should have been.  i still have a few of those to make.

1984 ralston purina pedro guerrero

i found it odd that the same company that made dog food also made cereal.  anyway, i had a bunch of these mail in sets. or were those the cereal series cards that were mail ins?  i don't remember.  we ate a lot of chex cereal in 1984.

1987 baseball's all-time greats carl erskine

erskine threw 2 no-hitters (one against the giants) and struck out 13 yankees in a single world series game.  that's my kind of dodger.

1989 upper deck juan bell

more 'wrong brother' syndrome here.  bell was the younger brother of blue jays' slugger george bell.  the younger bell didn't actually play for the dodgers - he was part of the 'haul' that the orioles received in the eddie murray trade.

1990 topps mike morgan (in dodger stadium)

and 1991 topps stadium club mike morgan

i'm working on a 'on the road with mike morgan' post.  stay tuned.

1990 upper deck lenny harris

i could do a similar post for harris, i think.  although he only played for 8 franchises (morgan wore 12 different uniforms), he made multiple stops in cincinnati and new york.  no player has been used as a pinch hitter more than harris, and no player has more pinch hits than harris.

1990 upper deck mike marshall

between this mike marshall (who was a met when this card was issued) and the other mike marshall, there was a mike marshall in the major leagues from 1967 through most of the 1991 season.  i guess that's not that impressive, since nolan ryan was in the bigs from 1966 through 1993.

1992 donruss triple play roger mcdowell

to me, the oddest thing about this card is mcdowell's hair - forget about the sandpaper sticking out of the bottom of his pantlegs, what is that thing on his head?

more double play cards from the dollar store

as promised this morning, here are some more cards that i received from doug of sportscards from the dollar store.  

1992 donruss triple play royce clayton

featuring craig biggio.  between those two guys there are a ton of double play cards.

1992 pinnacle lou whitaker

when i first started collecting dp cards, i was more concerned with second basemen making the turn, since that was the position i played most of the time in high school and beyond.  but then i started to play more shortstop after moving to minneapolis and remembered that the best turn is the groundball to the shortstop's left that he can take to the bag himself.  so, i don't discriminate.  still, i might enjoy seeing lou, steve sax, biggio and other 2b's making the turn a little bit more.  like jose lind on his 1993 donruss card.  no, not the front which has the o-pee-chee like traded text

but the back

not sure what sort of pin lind is wearing on his cap there.  any ideas?

here's another second baseman who also is wearing a pin on his hat - joey cora on a 1995 donruss card

i think cora's pin(s) had to do with his home country of puerto rico.

here's a 2012 topps yuniesky betancourt card

betancourt is playing more first base these days as a brewer.  at least that's where he was the other night when i saw him play at target field.

also from 2012 topps, here is aaron hill

and dustin pedroia

the last two cards are from 2012 topps chrome - troy tulowitzki

and jordany valdespin

it's nice to see that topps used a different photo of valdespin than the one they used for his update card.  this one shows the 'kid 8' memorial patch very well.  it might even make the memorial binder, but i'll leave that to a separate post.

thanks again doug!

double play cards above and beyond

here are the rest of the double play cards that i received from bo of baseball cards come to life a while back.  it is worth noting that bo contacted me and said that he had a bunch of dp cards that would be new to my collection.  at that time, i did not have my list of owned double play cards posted.  that meant that bo went through all my double play posts from the past (almost) 5 years, and figured out what i had and didn't have.  that is dedication to our hobby and to the trade.  i appreciate it very much.

here we go.  

1992 donruss triple play pat kelly (and ron tingley) awesome action!

even donnie baseball gets a mention.  i noted in the post earlier today that pat kelly must have a high ratio of double play cards.  this is further proof.

from the same set, here's cal ripken

standing over kevin maas (i think), who was apparently able to break up the double play since cal jr is left holding the ball.

here's an odd one - a 1988 topps big cory snyder

better remembered as an outfielder, the corndog did play some shortstop during his first few years in cleveland.  he turned 20 dp's as a rookie there in 1986, but this is more likely one of the 6 he turned in 1987.

here's a 1992 topps stadium club shawon dunston

landscape double play turns are nice.

here are a couple of turns from 1993 fleer ultra - freddie benavides

and luis rivera

plus a craig biggio turn from 1993 topps stadium club

1994 fleer jeff kent

and two each from 1995 donruss - gary disarcina

and jeff reboulet -

and 1995 leaf - craig biggio

and jose vizcaino

thanks bo!

super chicken with a side of canseco

he knew the job was dangerous when he took it.  oh, that's super chicken.  this is the famous chicken (formerly known as the san diego chicken) on a 1992 donruss triple play card.

here's a bona fide double play turn, or at least it's aftermath, from the same set

on the back, donruss compares jerry browne and dave henderson to professional wrestlers.

ok, now we start with the jose canseco business.  here's julio franco's 1991 topps stadium club card

hello, jose!

there's more, but first here's tom foley's 1991 upper deck card

and jose lind's card from the same set

this is the card that shows him jumping over mike lavalliere on the back

here's another card from the set, this time it's robby thompson

this is the time on the blog when we show 1992 donruss cards - gregg jefferies

jose oquendo

and geronimo pena, doing a nice jose lind impression

now, that oquendo card (with andres galarraga and ozzie smith) may not be a dp turn since oquendo seems to be so far in front of the bag, and galarraga isn't sliding.  but, thanks to baseball reference, i will assume that the card shows a play from the april 28, 1991 game in which the big cat walked in the fifth inning and was quickly erased on a 6-4-3 double play.  as for pena's card, i believe it shows a play from june 2, 1991.  tommy herr walked in the 8th inning, but was out on the front end of a mackey sasser 6-4-3.

ok, let's get back to oakland sluggers being forced out, like on this 1992 upper deck manny - sorry, manuel - lee card

except that's mark mcgwire.  the other bash brother is back on luis sojo's 1992 upper deck card

as well as jeff huson's 1992 upper deck card

and possibly even lou whitaker's 1992 upper deck card

turnabout is fair play, as oakland's mike bordick tries to turn two on his 1992 upper deck card

but it looks like he failed.

on his 1992 upper deck card, ozzie guillen is able to get rid of the ball

and i assume willie randolph has done the same on his card from that set

hello, tim wallach!

finally, here's the back of bill spiers' 1992 upper deck card

i think this is the same play that was on spiers' 1991 fleer ultra card.  it's in milwaukee against the indians, and there is that person with the red shirt on in the stands.  anyway, it's a nice turn so i don't mind seeing it twice.

that's all the double plays we'll show for today, kids.  beats visions of sugar plums, don't they?