locally sourced double plays (mostly)

the double play cards just keep on coming…by trade or by card show purchase or by online purchase or even by way of my pre-existing collection.  every once in a while, i will stumble on to a dp turn that was/is part of a forgotten player collection, or my dodger collection, like this 2001 pacific mark grudzielanek card.

these next cards are mostly ones that i found in my collection and extricated from the monster boxes to place into the double play binders.  there are a couple that i went and purchased, however.

1989 score mike gallego

i appreciate that score cropped the photo so that the ball would still be visible, but at first glance the ball gets lost in the shirtsleeves of the crowd.

1989 upper deck jeff blauser (back)

the ball is much more obvious there on blauser's card

1989 upper deck steve buechele (back)

with both buechele and the angels' chico walker looking to first base for the call.  assuming this is the play from the 8th inning of the june 16, 1988 game, buechele was successful in breaking up the double play.

1989 classic juan samuel

leapfrog gone awry

1990 upper deck scott fletcher

1992 leaf andujar cedeno

1994 fleer royce clayton

1994 fleer rene gonzales

pretty standard double play fare on those four cards

the last two cards in this post come from 1997 topps gallery, and they both feature craig biggio.  here's biggio's card

on which he is turning two at wrigley, and here is ryne sandberg's card from the set

on which he, too, is turning two at wrigley.  at biggio's expense.

mike piazza final tributes!

this card is not a mike piazza final tribute, but it is fantastic.

it comes from 1997 topps gallery and is a 'photo gallery' insert card.  dodger stadium serves as a perfect backdrop for this or any other baseball card. that's one reason why i think that it's too bad piazza didn't return to los angeles for a farewell tour of sorts, because most of his final tributes wound up with the oakland coliseum dugouts in the background instead of chavez ravine.

like his 2008 upper deck card

the yellow paint is a giveaway for the a's home stadium.  as is the sewage on the dugout floor, but you can't see that on these cards.  upper deck gave us piazza's complete career stats on the back

although they didn't give his 1998 three-team travels three separate lines like topps usually does.  what if i want to know how many hits he had as a marlin?

here's his 2008 upper deck first edition card - front

and back

pretty much identical to the flagship, except no foil.

at least the 2008 topps opening day set had different colored borders than the topps flagship.  here's piazza's opening day final tribure

with his complete career stats on the back

including individual lines for each team in the 1998 season.

and here's the topps flagship version

look at those dodger seasons from 1993 through 1997.

monstrous.  when piazza was traded to the marlins, i was ticked.  then when he was traded to the mets a few days later, i was disappointed because he failed to homer as a marlin.  i knew that there would be an odd looking zero on the back of his cards, and there it is.  at least he tripled for the fish.

the strongest man in socal also got a card in the 2008 topps heritage set, which used a different background

it's nice to see some arizona landscape for a change

piazza's last season was his only season in the american league, and i think everyone knew that it would be his final campaign.  he stuck with the a's all year, and in his final appearance (game 162), he started a game winning rally against the angels with a leadoff single in the bottom of the 9th.  he was removed from the game for a pinch runner, and i hope he was given a standing ovation.

i, of course, think of piazza as a dodger, so here are a couple of cards that are more pleasing to me than those showing him in green and gold.  this one is from 1997 pinnacle fan fest

and this one is from 1997 upper deck collector's choice.

i'd say it's high time that piazza starts appearing in some new releases, and i hope that he does so as a dodger.

orioles begat dodgers

a while back i completed a trade with an orioles collector named ed. i'm always interested in turning other teams' cards into dodgers, and ed did not disappoint. here are just a few from the box he sent me.

1997 topps gallery eric karros.

this is a nice card, and ed included a few other dodgers from the set. i really like the hero shot with the top of busch stadium in the background. this is what you might call 'context sensitive design' - the stadium reflects the st. louis arch in it's architecture. very nice. i was very impressed with busch stadium when i visited in 1999. i expected much less from a former multi-sport stadium. back to the card, look closely and you will see italian american superstar slugger mike piazza lurking in the background.

1995 stouffers pop-up don drysdale.

i would have guessed that this card was from the early 80's at the latest. i haven't yet pulled the tab to make big d pop-up, and i don't think i will.

1985 topps candido maldonado.

some friends and i call candy 'check swing'. he seemed to check his swing at every pitch, except for those he actually swung at. maldonado was one of those guys who tore up the pcl for the dukes (along with greg brock and mike marshall) in the early 80's. although he didn't do the same in the majors, he was a member of the 1992 world champion toronto blue jays. good for him.

another 1985 topps card, this time it's rick honeycutt.

the current dodger pitching coach, honeycutt was a holdover from grady little's staff. i guess joe torre couldn't convince mel stottlemyre to head west with him.

1983 topps mark belanger.

displaced by cal ripken jr in baltimore, belanger spent one season in la with the dodgers. this gave the dodgers two no-hit shortstops. the 1983 cards are true final tributes for belanger, who retired after the 1982 season. i've always wondered if that last season was worth it to him, as it was the only one he didn't play as an oriole. sadly, belanger died in 1998 of cancer.

1971 topps bill buckner.

buckner's second multi-player rookie card, a feat matched by the penguin in 1973. here, he is the only player featured in a non-airbrushed hat. buckner debuted at age 19 in 1969, pinch-hitting for jim brewer against gaylord perry. he popped out to second.

1963 topps walt alston.

i like the managers' cards in the 1963 set. instead of the inset photo, they have the team logo (except for the colt .45's). here alston looks annoyed. notice the rotary phone in the upper right hand corner. true vintage.

ed also included some nice dodger stadium shots, such as this 1990 donruss jeff treadway card,

and some double plays such as this beautiful 1991 topps stadium club kurt stillwell card.
i have a feeling i should just become a stillwell super-collector because all of his cards i have seen are double play turns!

thanks ed! if you are reading this, i am amassing another batch of orioles for you!