i was there when the impossible happened and i've got the photos to prove it

not that i need an excuse to post a fantastic card like this 1995 upper deck sp championship series kirk gibson die-cut classic performances card

but i thought that i would expand on something i've mentioned a time or two before.  mainly, that i was at game 1 of the 1988 world series with my dad.  i came across some of our photos from that game recently, and scanned a few.  let's relive the excitement, shall we?

pre-game

we were sitting in the right field pavilion, and were in line for dodger dogs during the team introductions.  debbie gibson sang the national anthem.  when we got to our seats, the good year blimp was flying above the top of the park.

bottom of the first inning

that's mickey hatcher about to round second after hitting a home run to put the dodgers up 2-0.  hatcher was starting in left field in place of the aforementioned gibson, who had two bad legs following the nlcs against the mets.

the second photo there shows hatcher nearly catching up to steve sax as he nears third base.  when sax turned around after touching home plate, he was visibly surprised to see hatcher right behind him.

top of the second inning

tim belcher loaded the bases, partly by walking dave stewart (that's stew at second base), but he got dave henderson (at the plate in the photo above) to strike out for the second out, but that brought up jose canseco.

canseco took the first pitch in the photo above, but sent the second pitch on a line over the center field wall.  one of the hardest hit balls i have ever seen in person.  here's a photo of canseco rounding the bases

after what turned out to be his only hit in the series.  and here's a photo of him out in right field afterwards

i believe this is when the 'steroids' chants began that night.  did he flex for us? i think he did, but don't recall for sure.

bottom of the third innng

mickey hatcher came up again, and i thought his home run so improbable, that i took a picture of the diamondvision scoreboard.  hatcher drew a walk, but mike marshall lined out to third to end the inning.

bottom of the fifth inning:

here franklin stubbs (as the tying run) grounds out sharply to mark mcgwire at first base with tracy woodson on second base to end the inning.

bottom of the sixth inning:

with one out, following mike marshall and john shelby singles, mike scioscia is at the plate

and he singled to left to drive in marshall, making the score 4-3, which is how it stayed going into the final inning.

bottom of the ninth inning:

dennis eckersley is on the mound pitching to mike davis with two outs in that photo. davis draws a walk to extend the inning…

…and look who's coming up!

that's gibson, of course, making his way to the batter's box.  everybody in the stadium was up, and most were hoping for a home run, i am sure.

the next two pictures are from the first pitch eckersley threw - my dad's photo is better

than mine

must be the cameras.  the pitch resulted in a foul ball to the left side.  many hopes for a home run were dashed after that swing, i would guess.

here's the 0-2 pitch to gibson

i think this was also the pitch after which a's catcher ron hassey threw back to first to try to pick davis off.  i remember thinking that it would have been a terrible way for the game to end.

after that pitch, both my dad and i stopped shooting and watched instead. we are glad that we did.  i took this next photo after watching gibson's hit land in the pavilion to our left.  we have eck walking off the mound with steve sax holding his head in disbelief.

here's where we all were losing our minds.  the pavilion was rocking and i was full of adrenaline and joy, so this picture didn't come out at all

that's gibson, though, approaching second base.  i remember seeing the fist pumps.  it was awesome.

after that, i focused on home plate, which is too bad because i missed gibson rounding third.  this photo shows mickey hatcher and orel hershiser up the line to greet him

as does this one

but now gibby is somewhere in the mass of dodger humanity at home plate.

this series of photos is really not much to look at - it's just the celebration at home plate blurrily taking place, but i like it more for the slow progression of a's left fielder stan javier making his way off the field.  he's there at second base in the above photo

now he's almost half way to first base

and now he's just about out of the frame.

about the only person i can make out in all of this is tracy woodson, as he was wearing the blue pullover.  you can tell by the poor quality of these photographs that i am very happy to have so many cards in my collection that capture gibson's home run, including the one up top.  that's partially why there are two such cards in my header, which reminds me to remind you to get your entries in for my contest - only a few days left.

i know a guy who has only attended one baseball game in his lifetime, and it was game 7 of the 1991 world series.  he says that he's never felt the need to go to another after seeing that game in person.  game 1 of the 1988 world series was not the first game i had been to, obviously, but i kind of know what he means.  it is a hard act to follow, but that's the beauty of the game - anything can happen on any given night - and that's why i keep going back.

the next two sheets from the steve garvey binders mark the end of the century

sheet 28 in my first of two primary steve garvey binders picks up where we left off with sheet 27.  have a look:

those cards are:

1. 1994 upper deck all-time heroes 125th anniversary parallel
2. 1994 upper deck all-time heroes (heroes of baseball) 125th anniversary parallel
3. 1995 sonic baseball greats
4. 1994 upper deck the american epic
5. 1995 upper deck sp championship (october legends)
6. 1995 upper deck sp championship (classic performances)
7. 1995 upper deck sp championship series (october legends) die-cut parallel
8. 1995 upper deck sp championship series (classic performances) die-cut parallel
9. 1996 danbury mint

and so begins the glut of parallels.  it was great to have a couple of parallels to find back in the late 1990's, but it is quite tedious today.  i see that i have a card out of sequence on this sheet, but i'll fix that later.  lots of good stuff on this sheet, but the highlight may well be the pete rose card from the 1994 upper deck the american epic set (a companion set to ken burns' baseball documentary) that features garvey lurking in the background as rose celebrates hit number 4192.

here are the backs:

the next sheet includes the first certified garvey autograph cards, one of which is the first card i ever purchased on ebay. here's sheet 29:

those cards are:

1. 1998 fleer sports illustrated world series fever
2. 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game
3. 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game autograph
4. 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game cover collection (dodgers)
5. 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game cover collection (padres)
6. 1999 upper deck retro
7. 1999 upper deck retro gold parallel
8. 1999 upper deck retro inkredible auto
9. 2000 nabisco all-stars

garvey has been on the cover of sports illustrated four times, and three of those covers are represented on this sheet.  the first card features a cover from 1974 during the world series between the a's and dodgers.  that's garvey in the lower left corner of the montage.  the other two cards featuring covers showcase the 1976 and 1983 covers, respectively, with the '83 cover also being used for the autograph insert.  the only garvey si cover not used for a card is the april, 1982 baseball preview issue cover.

in other news,  the inkredible auto from 1999 ud retro was the first card i ever purchased on ebay.  i had gone onto the site to find a 1995 upper deck sp championship kirk gibson card that i had seen somewhere, and i discovered that the garv had an autographed card on the market.  the first of many, as it turns out.

here are the backs:

i appreciate fleer's bold coa on the back of the greats auto.

the 2000 nabisco all-star card was the last card of garvey in the 20th century, and it is the 36th post-playing career card in the binders.  that's an average of about 3 new garvey cards per year.  the 21st century would blow that ratio out of the water.  stay tuned.

while you're standing in line to vote, here are some cards featuring double play turns

i am not very vocal when it comes to politics.  i am smart enough to know that i am not going to change anybody's mind with my views, no matter how strongly i feel about a certain issue.  i let my vote do my talking, i suppose.

i'll be voting later today, and i'll probably be standing in a long line to do so.  so, in case your polling place also sees a strong turnout and you have some time to kill, here are some mindless baseball cards that show the double play turn at second base.

1995 topps stadium club cal ripken jr cause and effect subset

i suppose the cause is a sliding baserunner (hello john jaha) and the effect is a jumping ripken.  the back of the card notes that ripken holds the record (as of 1995) of 7 seasons leading shortstops in double plays turned.

1995 upper deck sp championship series ozzie smith

another hof dp

1998 upper deck spx craig biggio

and 1998 upper deck spx craig biggio radiance parallel

those are some soon to be hof dp turns.  with wally joyner joining in.

1998 upper deck spx nomar garciaparra

strange that on biggio's card, joyner also comes through in the scan, but on nomar's card, my scanner does not care for gary disarcina

1997 topps stadium club jose vizcaino

with a special appearance by steady eddie murray.  the viz has a bunch of dp cards to enjoy

2011 topps update dj lemahieu

i am guessing he landed hard on aj pierzynski, just to make michael barrett proud.

2012 topps ian desmond gold sparkle parallel

desmond has become a dp card regular

2012 topps cliff pennington

the guy sliding in on pennington's card is just barely visible in the lower right corner, but it's enough to convince me that this is a dp turn

1986 topps ricky adams

oh, the joy of the right foot swipe along the bag while making the relay transfer.  one of the best things about playing shortstop.

2009 topps chrome orlando hudson

o-dog turning the double play while i'm turning out the vote!

double plays for the weekend

it's saturday, and the twins and indians will be playing two today.  that has nothing to do with anything here, other than i was going to do a play on words with ernie banks' famous double header exclamation and title this post "let's turn two".  i chose not to do that, but i will show some new to the blog double play cards that i found in the recesses of my collection or picked up recently from various sources.

1998 ud spx finite nomar garciaparra 

nomah has another double play card in this set that i am tracking down.  i do have his 1999 fleer sports illustrated card, though

here's astros top prospect fletcher thompson on his 1995 ud minors card

fletch was such an astros' top prospect that at the time this card was released, he was no longer in the houston organization - playing independent ball before being signed by the brewers later in the season.  he never did make it to the majors.

1995 upper deck special edition barry larkin

when i think of hall of famers that played during my fandom, larkin does not readily come to mind.  i was surprised when larkin was elected on the third ballot when alan trammell had been on the ballot for a decade without coming close to election.  not to say larkin doesn't deserve it and trammell does - the voters may have got it right - but the disparity between larkin's vote totals and those for trammell does not compute in my mind.

1996 upper deck jose valentin

a brewer turns two against the cubs

1998 donruss jeff blauser

and a cub turns two against the mariners.  sorry, at first glance i thought that was a brewer sliding in, and i was going for a tit for tat thing, but amaral was a mariner.

1998 pacific invincible chuck knoblauch gems of the diamond insert

knobby was supposed to enter the twins hall of fame this year, but his induction was canceled due to some legal troubles for the former rookie of the year.

2013 topps howie kendrick silver slate blue sparkle parallel

i found a few of these parallels on the cheap.  anybody want a jp howell?

1995 upper deck sp vinny castilla

hello bip!

1995 upper deck sp championship series vinny castilla

it just doesn't look right to see castilla playing shortstop, but that's what he did until walt weiss joined the rockies.

1995 upper deck sp championship series ray durham die cut parallel

i like the view from the third base side - this post was getting a bit monotonous.