fun at the ballpark, indeed

it is odd to think that, after nearly seven years of posting, i have not yet featured this 1993 donruss triple play card of former dodger reliever roger mcdowell

so, when it arrived recently in a trade package from bo at baseball cards come to life, i figured that now was the time.  here's the back

 

mcdowell's teammates may have been amused by him wearing outrageous things, but i as a fan will just accept good baseball in a beautiful setting.  a setting like dodger stadium.  that's where this next card bo sent comes in.

that's a 1996 score select bret boone card, featuring a photo taken in dodger stadium.  the unnamed dodger in the scene is roberto kelly, who twice stole second against boone and the reds on july 30, 1995.  the wrist guard and red glove/sweat bands were a big clue as to the runner's identity, but really it was either him or chad fonville, and with kelly wearing number 21 it was fairly obvious.

this next one is easier.

that would be mitch webster sliding in while jose oquendo turns two in dodger stadium on his 1996 donruss card.

moving away from dodger stadium (to tatooine, in fact), we see rafael furcal sliding in front of freddy sanchez on sanchez's 2008 bowman card

as sanchez makes the double play pivot.

staying on tatooine, here's a 1993 score select joe girardi card

that would obviously fit into that particular mini collection of mine if it weren't already destined for the lurker collection thanks to dodger dave hansen making an appearance on the back

there are many more cards that bo sent that i'll be showing over the next few days - thanks for the cards bo!

los angeles dodger commemorative patches through the years

i've been meaning to do this for quite some time, however it was a review of brian's want list at highly subjective and completely arbitrary that proved to be the push i needed to get it done. you see, brian collects cards showing commemorative - not memorial - patches.

the dodgers have worn a few commemorative patches recently, but not nearly as many as some teams for whom there seems to be something worth celebrating pretty much every year.  i'm limiting these posts to the los angeles dodger team, which means there won't be any discussion of the new york world's fair patch worn by the brooklyn dodgers in 1939.

well, aside from that 1961 fleer card, there won't be any discussion.  this list also does not include single game patches, such as the jackie robinson day patch that has been worn on april 15 in some recent seasons.

the task is fairly easy, because the dodgers didn't wear any patches, especially team specific patches for quite some time after moving to the west coast.  here's a year by year rundown.

1958 - none

1959 - none

1960 - none

1961 - none

1962 - none

1963 - none

1964 - none

1965 - none

1966 - none

1967 - none

1968 - none

1969 - major league baseball 100th anniversary (1971 dell's today team stamp maury wills)

1970 - none

1971 - none

1972 - none

1973 - none

1974 - none

1975 - none

1976 - national league centennial (1977 topps manny mota)

1977 - none

1978 - none

1979 - none

1980 - dodger stadium all-star game patch (1982 topps reggie smith)

1981 - city of los angeles bicentennial (1982 fleer bob welch)

1982 - none

1983 - los angeles dodgers 25th anniversary (1984 fleer derrel thomas)

1984 - dodger stadium olympic venue (1985 donruss orel hershiser)

1985 - none

1986 - none

1987 - dodger stadium 25th anniversary (1988 score steve sax)

1988 - none (vero beach 40th anniversary patch during spring training - 1988 donruss baseball's best alfredo griffin)

1989 - none

1990 - dodger national league franchise 100th anniversary (1991 topps debut '90 luis lopez)

1991 - none

1992 - dodger stadium 30th anniversary (1993 donruss triple play brett butler)

1993 - none (don drysdale/roy campanella and tim crews memorial patches)

1994 - major league baseball 125th anniversary patch (1995 fleer henry rodriguez)

1995 - none

1996 - dodger stadium 35th season (1997 upper deck tommy lasorda)

1997 - jackie robinson 50th anniversary patch (1998 topps finest brett butler)

1998 - los angeles dodgers 40th anniversary (1999 fleer brilliants eric karros)

1999 - dodger heroes (1999 keebler dodgers tripp cromer)

2000 - none

2001 - none

2002 - dodger stadium 40th anniversary (2003 topps total david ross)

2003 - none

2004 - none

2005 - none

2006 - none

2007 - none

2008 - los angeles dodgers 50th anniversary (2009 upper deck matt kemp)

2009 - none

2010 - 1955 world championship 55th anniversary (2010 topps update reed johnson)

2011 - none (duke snider memorial patch)

2012 - dodger stadium 50th anniversary (2013 topps josh beckett)

2013 - none

2014 - none

2015 - none

there were several missed opportunities that could have been celebrated - inaugural season on the west coast (1958), defending world champions (1960), opening of dodger stadium (1962), defending world champions (1964), defending world champions (1966), defending world champions (1982), defending world champions (1989), etc. as you can see, there were lots of chances to have worn defending world champions patches in the past, and i'm hoping next year they'll be in a position to wear one (or not) again.

a memorial patch and armband for jean r yawkey

earlier today i showed a card that featured the black armband that the red sox wore after their longtime owner, tom yawkey, passed away in 1976.  this post will focus on the memorial the red sox implemented following the death of his widow, jean r yawkey.  mrs. yawkey took over ownership of the team following the death of her husband and remained the team's owner until she passed away in february of 1992.  the team wore not a black armband, but rather a black stripe on their black sleeves with her initials in red above it.

this 1993 donruss triple play billy hatcher card is a good example

here are some others - 1993 score select phil plantier

1993 topps stadium club jack clark

1993 upper deck frank viola - front

and back

that viola card is nice because it features both home and away uniforms.  speaking of uniform variety, the red sox also used white initials with the black stripe on their spring training jerseys, as modeled by tony pena on this 1993 upper deck card

joining pena in my memorials binder is this 1993 upper deck ellis burks card which gives us a full glimpse of the memorial

mrs. yawkey was active in the boston community and also the first female on the baseball hall of fame's board of directors - a post she held.  through the yawkey family trust, the yawkey family retained ownership of the team for about 10 years following her death, until selling the team to john henry's group.  a more permanent memorial to both yawkeys exists on the green monster in fenway park - both of their initials are featured in morse code.

a double play junkie gets his fix

so, quite a few of the cards that the junior junkie has sent me over the last few months have been cards that feature double plays.  that is fine by me.  here are a few of them as the junkie takes over the gcrl airwaves today.

1987 sportflics ozzie guillen

i assure you, that is a double play card.  take a look from another angle

and another

and another

double play lenticular goodness!

1990 leaf mike gallego

i did not have much 1990 leaf in the collection, so this gallego is appreciated.

i can't believe, however, that i did not have a 1991 score casey candaele card

or a 1992 score jose lind card

or a luis river card from the same set

prior to the package arriving.

same goes for this 1992 upper deck jose oquendo

with ryno sliding in.  actually, i did have this oquendo, but it is part of a complete set so i am happy to have another.

here are a couple of jay bell cards - 1993 donruss triple play

and 1993 leaf

the dirt on the triple play card is largely what gives me reason to recognize the card as a dp turn.

here's another 1993 leaf card, this one of the royals' keith miller

i like this 1995 topps stadium club mike bordick card very much

more than this 1994 donruss ozzie smith

that features craig biggio, or this 1995 leaf ozzie

that features way too much busy-ness

the final card for this post is another card from 1995 leaf, but this one is of barry larkin

and comes from a great gloves insert set.

thanks again, thomas.  more cards coming soon!