the bournigal supremacy

rafael bournigal was the victim of the changing expectations from the shortstop position.  his 1995 topps stadium club card

is fantastic, but good cardboard doesn't keep you in the big leagues.  bournigal was a good field/no hit shortstop which would have been ok prior to the 1990's when guys like cal ripken jr and barry larkin were winning mvp awards based on big offensive numbers. the dodgers had jose offerman at shortstop in the early 1990's when bournigal was ready to play in the bigs, and they apparently enjoyed e-fferman's slightly better offense over bournigal's better defense.

here's a 1993 fleer ultra bournigal card

and a 1993 score bournigal card

both of which carry a 'rookie' designation.  bournigal's topps card from 1993 had no such distinction, but there was a gold parallel version

which is nice.

bournigal was a september call-up in both 1992 and 1993, but saw more playing time during the summer of 1994. he appeared in 40 games that year and made only 3 errors compared to offerman who made 11 errors in 72 games.  dodger fans were rewarded with the nice stadium club shown up top in 1995.  here is that card again, with bournigal catching what i imagine to be a line drive with the dodger stadium bleachers in the background.

topps also liked the image, as they used it on one of the 1996 topps pre-production cards, although they cropped it slightly more tightly

here's the back of the pre-production card

which was somewhat elusive. the cards weren't in the 1995 factory set that i bought, which is where the pre-production cards had been in 1994, so i had to go the online marketplace route.  i think i finally found one on ebay, although it could have been comc.  in case you are wondering, there was no 1996 topps rafael bournigal card as he spent the entire 1995 season in the minor leagues, splitting time between the dodger and expo organizations (he was traded to montreal in june).

anyway, i recently sent some cards to bournigal through the mail, and he was kind enough to sign and return them to me.

1995 topps

1995 upper deck

1995 upper deck collector's choice

weird to see him without the goggles

and 1993 topps

looks like he got some sharpie on the table...

with bournigal's dodger career complete, he went on to resurface with the a's from 1996-1998, and then spent the 1999 season with the mariners.  pacific gave us one more card of bournigal in their 2000 pacific crown collection set, and it features a nice double play turn

the dodgers didn't really embrace the new shortstop prototype until they brought hanley ramirez on board, and that will continue with corey seager in a year or two. even when seager is hitting 20+ homers every year, i'll still have a soft spot for guys like bournigal and cesar izturis who can field like nobody's business.

bert, be home blyleven for some final tributes.

bert blyleven - excuse me, hall of famer bert blyleven - attempted to extend his career with the minnesota twins in 1993, but did not make the team out of spring training.  that means that his 1993 cards are true final tributes, and there are a fair number of them.  these are the ones in my collection.

1993 fleer

you can see the deron johnson memorial (post coming soon) on blyleven's right sleeve.  here's the back of the card

which has 10 years of stats, including a portion of his 1992 minor league stats - the first time he had been in the minors since 1970.

1993 pinnacle

the tongue is out!  before michael jordan, there was bert blyleven.

the backs of the pinnacle cards just give the single season stats

so we'll move on to 1993 score

a photo almost certainly from the same game as the pinnacle card's image which makes sense because these cards were both made by score.  here's the back

those are bert's complete big league career stats.  score kind of missed with the text, however, by suggesting that the 42-year old had a 'good shot' at 13 more wins.

here's his 1993 score select card with another very similar photo

and again with the single year stat line, but some interesting text

he 'held' opponents to a .285 batting average?  'amazing durability' yet missed all of 1991 due to injury?  granted, he hadn't missed a full season prior to that rotator cuff injury, although he had missed some time with a broken foot during his cleveland days.  i just found it odd that score used that phrase right before noting that he came back from injury.

no surprise, here's my favorite of bert's final tributes - 1993 topps

good photo for a tribute.  and, of course, topps has the entire career stats on the back

although it gets tough to read with the inset photo.  

one other blyleven card i have in my collection is a 1990 topps card that he signed for a friend of mine back during his time with the angels.

i have come to be quite a fan of bert's since moving to minnesota.  he's reduced his workload on twins broadcasts since being voted to the hall of fame, but that's ok - he's earned the break.  i always thought blyleven should have been voted into the hall sooner than he was.  sure, he fell short of 300 wins, but he pitched for some bad teams and had ridiculously low run support at times.  his 3701 strikeouts were the third highest total of all-time when he retired (now 5th best in big league history) and even though they were a result of his durability (right, score?), they still amounted to a hall of fame worthy total.

here's to you, bert - circle yourself for a change!

swing and a trade

it's time for an overdue trade post.  this one features cards i received from bert at swing and a pop up last year.  i was able to help out with some of his set needs, and he sent me some dodgers in return.  works for me.

here's a 1985 donruss alejandro pena

quick - what does pena have in common with dazzy vance, johnny podres, sandy koufax, don sutton, kevin brown, and clayton kershaw?  well, beside the fact that they all pitched for the same franchise, they are the only brooklyn/los angeles pitchers to have led the league in era.  pena was the leader in 1984, the only season in which he was used exclusively as a starter.  unfortunately, he hurt his shoulder late in the season and didn't return until the end of the 1985 season.  he wound up in the bullpen, and was the winning pitcher in game 1 of the 1988 world series thanks to kirk gibson.

now for a 1988 kmart pedro guerrero card

pena missed out on guerrero's scorcher of a june in 1985, but i didn't.

it was awesome.

i had thought that there was a chance that the dodgers would break their rookie of the year drought last year with yasiel puig.  it didn't happen (maybe this year with alexander guerrero?).  here's the guy who started the run of roys in the 1990's, eric karros, on a 1993 score card celebrating his award

karros eventually was traded to the cubs, and the dodgers replaced him with fred mcgriff.  here's his 2004 topps opening day card

this was kind of like 1989 when steve sax went to the yankees to replace willie randolph, and willie randolph went to the dodgers to replace steve sax.  i was among those that thought mcgriff would hit his 500th home run as a dodger (he needed 22), but he was limited to 86 games and hit only 13 bombs. that was still one more than karros hit for the cubs, and they each drove in 40 for their respective teams. karros did have that big home run to deny roger clemens his 300th win when the yankees visited wrigley field for the first time since the world series in 1932.

here's a 2004 upper deck sweet spot classic jackie robinson

one of four or five cards he has in the set, i believe.  i have added the one that i still need to my 'nefarious 9' (which now stands at only 3 cards. i'm working on it!).  send one my way, and you will be rewarded.

i still miss russell martin.  here's his 2007 topps allen & ginter card

and here's a 2008 upper deck sp authentic card on which he shares space with the padres' jake peavy

cards like this give me pause.  did upper deck put these two together for a reason? or were they just (at the time) high profile or in this case up and coming division rivals?  for the record, through 2013, russell martin has faced only two pitchers more than jake peavy (dan haren and matt cain).  in 39 plate appearances, martin has only 4 hits (one double), no rbi, and 11 strikeouts.  advantage, peavy.

before there were blue borders, there were walmart black parallels, like this 2010 topps andre ethier card

and before that, it was pinnacle that ruled the black-bordered world.  here's a 2013 panini pinnacle card of carl crawford that brings to mind those releases from the early 1990's.

bert - thanks for a great trade.  let's do it again sometime.

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.

royce clayton vs. joey cora - a double play extravaganza

i have wound up with quite a few additions to the double play collection over the last few months.  i don't know if i will ever catch the posting up to the acquiring of these cards.  anyway, a fair number of the newer cards to my collection have featured two players in particular - royce clayton and joey cora.  let's see them face off in a double play tete-a-tete, shall we?

1992 pinnacle royce clayton team 2000

clayton turning two in dodger stadium, despite lenny harris' best efforts.

1997 upper deck joey cora

turning two (the card even says so!) vs cubs in spring training

back to clayton, this time it's a 1992 upper deck scouting report insert

now here's joey turning two against the orioles (and robby alomar) on a 1998 topps opening day card

back to clayton, and back to dodger stadium on a 1998 pacific online card

good to see clayton out of that giant uniform, and good to see todd hollandsworth doing his best to break up the turn.

here's cora on a 1995 topps stadium club with will clark trying to break things up.

one more of clayton in dodger stadium (and as a giant) courtesy of 1994 pinnacle

while cora knees an anonymous yankee in the head on his 1993 score card

it looks like clayton got upended but still made the relay on his 1998 ud collector's choice card

and cora is barely clearing what may well be jose canseco on this 1996 score card

except canseco hadn't been in oakland since 1992.

here's clayton clearing an astro on a 1993 ud sp card

and cora avoiding a brewer on a 1997 pinnacle card

finally, here is clayton leaping over a pirate on his 1994 topps stadium club card

while cora appears to make the turn despite the slide of what i believe to be an oakland athletic on his 1998 pacific paramount card

and these aren't even close to all of the double play cards featuring these two guys.  there are for sure a bunch more of clayton, whose cards i prefer over cora's simply because some of them feature dodgers.  i'm partial that way.