this is the time of year to drop strong hints

do you make a christmas list? i was told at an early age by my uncle that it is better to give people an idea of what you would like to receive this time of year than to leave it to chance and perhaps wind up with a box of handkerchiefs.  lesson learned.

i recently noted on a night owl post that i was looking for a 2014 topps stadium club mike piazza card (of which night owl had two), and not too long after, i received the card in the mail from said blogger.

piazza didn't travel alone, either.  greg threw in a 2014 topps chrome hanley ramirez purple refractor

and a 2013 topps gypsy queen clayton kershaw white framed card

as well.  i will take night owl's dodger hand-me-downs any day of the week.  yes, that was a strong hint.

jeff at 2x3 heroes and i have been swapping pwe's for a while now, but the pace has increased recently.  i was quick to return the three-pocket insert that he used to send me the previous batch of cards with a note that said something like "you're it" or "your turn" or "send me more!".  he got the hint.  here's a 2014 bowman chrome mini card of mr cy young and mvp

plus a 2013 topps sandy koufax (also mr cy young and mvp) cut to the chase card

you want more mr cy young and (world series) mvp?  ok, here's orel hershiser on a 1994 fleer ultra card

and a chan ho park insert card from the same set.

park was neither a cy young nor an mvp, although piazza once went on record saying that chan ho had cy young stuff.

jeff also sent a 2014 bowman chrome prospects auto card of brandon trinkwon.

he must have bought these in bulk, because i am pretty sure he sent one to zakwin also.

last but not least, there was this card - a 2008 upper deck michael young card

the future dodger is not, however, playing baseball on tatooine as there is a little sliver of grass in the upper left corner.  a clearing on the forest moon of endor? perhaps. tatooine? no.

thanks for the cards guys.  send me more.  hint hint.

card show piazzapalooza

the 1990's were heady days for card collectors.  there were new manufacturers, legion sets, innumerable inserts and parallels.  i stayed pretty close to the topps flagship and traded sets throughout the decade, with a fair amount of upper deck in 1992-95 and again in 1998-99.  other than that, i kind of stayed out of the loop.

that means that i missed out on a ridiculous amount of mike piazza inserts.  a dime box at the card show last week made up for a lot of that.  first, i should clarify.  the box of cards i looked through wasn't necessarily a dime box.  i asked the dealer before looking through the cards what the deal was. he said that the price varied.  after i had found about 100 piazza inserts, he said 10 bucks.  i wound up with about 160 cards (about 120 of piazza), and he charged me 15 bucks.  so, just about a dime box.

on to the piazzapalooza! 

1993 fleer ultra all rookie insert

the colors pop on the black background. 

1993 fleer major league prospects insert

piazza wearing number 60.  the same number he wore at some point in the minors, as evidenced by these 1992 classic best blue bonus

and red bonus parallels

note the carl sawatski memorial patch, too.

here are a couple of inserts from 1994 fleer ultra - homerun king

and rbi king

there's the number 31 that we know.  i think piazza also wore 25 at some point, but 31 is the number he wore for the majority of his career.

1995 fleer update soaring star insert

those rods of green kryptonite are actually bats.  i didn't realize this until i looked at the back of the card just a few minutes ago.

1995 score hall of gold

hall of fame class of 2015? i hope so.

1995 upper deck sp silver parallel

i liked the gray gear that piazza wore.  i also liked the way he flipped his helmet after every game on his way out to the mound.

1994 king-b disc

seventh annual?  where are the previous 6 years of discs?

1997 bowman chrome international parallel

as jimmy kimmel used to say, that's 'italian-american superstar slugger mike piazza'.

1998 upper deck 10th anniversary preview insert

i have a few of these preview cards, but i don't think i have any of the actual 1999 10th anniversary team cards.  no dodgers in that insert set, i don't think, so maybe that's why.

piazza appeared on his share of combo inserts.  two of the most common players he was paired with were tim salmon (the al roy in 1993) and ivan rodriguez.  this is a 1996 upper deck sp marquee matchups insert 

where salmon got the 'marquee' part.

this is a 1996 topps stadium club midsummer matchup insert

which features rodriguez on the other side

rodriguez gets some time on the same side as piazza (and darren daulton) on this 1996 donruss dominators insert

so far, i have resisted the directive to remove protective film.

last card of this post, a 1998 fleer sports illustrated cover card featuring ken griffey jr

so good, so young, and so many inserts.  i'll show some more later today.  stay tuned...

double plays turns for freedom

the 7th anniversary of the 4+1 game occurred the other day, giving me a chance to remember jeff kent, jd drew, russell martin, and the man who hit the game-tying home run in the ninth against trevor hoffman - it was his second homer of the game, by the way.  that person was marlon anderson.  here he is turning two over a blurry dude on a 2003 upper deck 40 man card

ray durham never played for the dodgers, but he still turns a good two.  here's his card from the same set.

i guess major league base runners don't get blurred out.

here's durham in more familiar duds on a 1997 fleer ultra card

here are some more double play turns

1994 topps stadium club doug strange

1994 upper deck collector's choice spike owen

1994 upper deck sp brent gates

1994 fleer ultra brent gates

1996 fleer ultra brent gates gold medallion edition

i need to compare brent gates to pat kelly and see who has the higher percentage of double play cards over their career.  gates has to be over 50%.

1998 pacific crown collection domingo cedeno

with bip!

1999 topps gallery todd walker

2011 topps update jeff keppinger

nice stirrups

2013 topps robert andino

with the slidin' hawaiian.

my gift to you

i've finished going through all of the double play cards in my collection, and over the next week or so, i will be showing off the ones that have not been featured on the blog before.  it will be a week long double play dump.  there are a lot of them, so i have many many posts scheduled.

it all leads up to the 'greatest double play card of all time tournament' which now might just be a top 50 countdown. i haven't decided.  but there will be a contest of sorts - i have to figure out a way to thin the herd that is my collection.

so, here we go.  let the double play displays begin.

2001 upper deck alex rodriguez

i like this card.

1997 pinnacle zenith

this card is not my favorite

1992 topps ryne sandberg all-star

1994 score ryne sandberg gold rush

1997 score hobby reserve ryne sandberg

2011 topps marquee ryne sandberg

ryno's dp form is pretty consistent when he doesn't have to leave the ground.

2002 fleer premium jimmy rollins

i like the look of this set.  there are a few dp cards in it which is always nice.

1994 fleer ultra barry larkin

it's a card of two barrys.

2010 topps chrome derek jeter

leapin' jeter batman! topps forgot to put the glossy coat on this chrome card!

2011 topps tsuyoshi nishioka

this might be the play in which nishi had his leg broken.  no, that happened in new york after the toronto series.

2011 topps opening day rafael furcal

this is a nice card.  some teams, like the a's, seem to have a lot of double play cards.  the dodgers - not so much.

get ready for an avalanche of double play cards - they're coming and there is nothing you can do to stop them.

tim wallach - third baseman, third base coach, double dipper

[this is the forty-second installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, and ken mcmullen.]

before he was coaching third base, tim wallach was, of course, playing third base.  he actually debuted in the major leagues as an outfielder, subbing for an injured ron leflore in the fourth inning of a game on september 6, 1980.  in his first at bat, he walked, but the next time he came up he hit a home run.  not a bad debut.

wallach played mostly right field in 1981, but was moved to third base permanently in 1982 after the expos traded larry parrish to texas.  he stayed there for 11 years, winning four gold gloves and hitting 204 home runs during his expos tenure.  but, this post is about his dodger days, so let's get to that.  

wallach was traded in december of 1992 to the dodgers for a minor leaguer.  the dodgers were still trying to replace ron cey (10 years later), and wallach gave them some stability at the hot corner right away.  in his first game as a dodger, which was also the first game in the history of the florida marlins, wallach hit a home run in his third at bat off of marlins' starter charlie hough, becoming the first player to homer in joe robbie/pro player/dolphins stadium.

his best season with the blue was the strike shortened 1994 campaign, when he hit .280 with 23 home runs and 78 rbi in 113 games.  he reached a couple of milestones (2000 hits, 250 home runs) as he helped the dodgers win the west the following year, but was just 1 for 12 in the nlds against the reds.  here's his 1996 upper deck collector's choice card

and here's his other 1996 upper deck collector's choice card

after the 1995 season, wallach became a free agent, and he signed with the (not really) crosstown angels.  thanks to udcc being released in series, we get two wallach cards in the set, one with each team.

unfortunately, wallach did not hit a home run in his first game with the angels, as he had with the expos and dodgers.  no, wallach was intentionally walked in his first at bat for the halos, which was also his only at bat in his angels' debut.  in his next game, however, wallach started at first base and homered in his third at bat.  he was just being consistent - he homered in his second plate appearance as an expo, in his third plate appearance as a dodger, and then in his fourth plate appearance as an angel.

wallach's tenure with the angels was short lived, however, as he was released in july of '96 after hitting .237 with 8 homers and 20 rbi in 57 games.  as the fates would have it, wallach's release coincided with a season-ending knee injury suffered by his replacement on the dodgers, mike blowers.  so, the dodgers re-signed the 38 year old wallach, and he returned to third base for the dodgers.  in 45 games, wallach hit .228 with four home runs and 22 rbi as the dodgers returned to the playoffs, this time as the wild card team.  they were swept for the second year in a row, this time by the braves, and wallach had another bad postseason series - 0 for 11 at the plate.  that was all she wrote for wallach's playing career, and i am thankful that upper deck issued this card as part of their collector's choice set in 1997.  a true final tribute!

here's the back with the complete career stats

with a bill russell trivia thingy!

many current dodger fans know of wallach thanks to his run as the manager at aaa albuquerque and his current gig as the dodgers' third base coach as mentioned up top.  it is interesting to note that wallach also double dipped as a minor league manager.  he led the dodgers' high a team in 1998, and then managed in the angels' system in 2001 before returning to the dodger camp and eventually taking over at albuquerque in 2009.  as the isotopes' manager, wallach was kind enough to sign and return a bunch of cards for me, including a 1993 leaf

two 1993 upper deck cards (one of which i sent to night owl)

1994 fleer ultra

1994 topps

1994 upper deck (hello, tommy!)

and 1995 topps

i was among those who was hoping that wallach would get the dodgers' managerial position when joe torre retired.  while i am happy to see wallach in the coaching box, i will not be surprised when he goes elsewhere to manage.  heck, we might see him in minnesota in 2014 if gardy doesn't get things going next year.

here's to you, tim wallach! thanks for double dipping and for signing my cards!