age of ultra

no superheroes here, just humble baseball players on some fleer ultra cards.

here's a 1999 fleer ultra chan ho park

the latter years of ultra feature some nice photography, as evidenced by jeff shaw's card

which features dodger stadium and the three sisters in the background.

a less scenic part of dodger stadium is in the background of antonio osuna's card

but we get charles johnson (i believe) in the foreground

mark grudzielanek is on the road on his card

but ismael valdes is back at home on his

in addition to lots of dodgers and dodger stadium cards, ultra has contributed many double plays to my collection. here are a few that i haven't shown before

2001 fleer ultra edgar renteria

i hope renteria was successful in his giant twin killing

speaking of giants, here's a 2002 fleer ultra rich aurilia card

jeff kent can only stand and watch

2004 fleer ultra orlando cabrera

nice to see the expos now and again

2004 fleer ultra marcus giles

most of the marcus giles dp cards i have seem to show him horizontal.  must not have been much of a jumper.  like placido polanco

or michael young

this is a 2004 fleer ultra update card of giant prospect brian dallimore

who is being taken out by juan pierre.  hopefully dallimore got some lessons in sliding runner evasion from double play professional ray durham, seen here on a 2005 fleer ultra card

it's too bad that fleer went under - we could use more ultra these days.

a black armband for bob lemon

former yankee maanger and scout bob lemon died in january of 2000, and the team's owner george steinbrenner decided that the club would honor lemon by wearing black armbands for the 2000 season.  pitcher mike stanton's 2001 topps card gives a good view of the armband

as does jose canseco's 2001 fleer ultra card

well, not the front of the card - the back

i am not ashamed to say that i was a canseco fan, and his short tenure with the yankees really bothered me.  he was picked up on a waiver claim by the team who were trying to block the blue jays from landing him.  it didn't seem like the yankees expected the devil rays to just give canseco away, but they did and joe torre publicly expressed his confusion regarding brian cashman's move.  don't worry, though - i have a different card in the collection for this memorial.  it's derek jeter's 2001 fleer ultra card

 the captain looks pretty young there.

bob lemon was a third baseman who was converted to a hall of fame pitcher by the cleveland indians following world war ii.  although he was the team's center fielder at the beginning of the 1946 season (he was in the outfield for bob feller's no-hitter on april 30 against the yankees), manager lou boudreau decided to put him on the mound, and the rest is history.  following his retirement as a player, lemon began managing in the angels' minor league system and was chosen to replace charlie metro as the royals' manager during the 1970 season.  

lemon also managed the white sox before he was hired to replace billy martin as the yankees' manager towards the end of july, 1978.  the yankees were 52-43 at that point, 10.5 games behind the first place red sox.  they responded to lemon's presence (or was it martin's absence?) and went 47-20 the rest of the way to force a game 163 against the red sox for the al east title, wherein bucky freakin' dent happened.  lemon's yankees beat the dodgers in the world series that year, just as martin had done the year before, and his place in yankee history was secured.  still, lemon was fired and replaced by martin during the following season.

fast forward to 1981, and the boss was again playing musical chairs with his managers. he had lemon (who had been scouting for the team since his firing in 1979) replace gene michael with just 25 games left in the season and a postseason berth assured based on their first half finish in the strike-shortened year.  lemon again won the pennant, although this time the dodgers beat the yankees, thanks in part to lemon's decision to remove tommy john for a pinch-hitter early in game 6 that didn't pan out.  lemon was again fired (this time replaced by michael) early in the 1982 season, and he returned to his job as a scout which he kept until his death at the age of 79.

the twins' calvin griffith memorial patch

calvin r. griffith, the lifelong baseball man who inherited the washington senators from his uncle clark in 1955, passed away in october of 1999.  for the 2000 season, the minnesota twins (the team formerly known as the washington senators) wore his initials on their left jerseys in griffith's memory.  you can see the patch on this 2001 topps jacque jones card

as well as his 2000 upper deck mvp card

doug mientkiewicz (possibly the twins' next manager) is wearing the patch as he tries to break up an adam kennedy double play turn on kennedy's 2001 fleer ultra card

and joe may sports the patch on his 2002 topps heritage card

there's the patch again on torii hunter's 2003 upper deck big league breakdown card

but it's hunter's 2002 fleer platinum card that represents this memorial in the binder

griffith moved the senators to the twin cities in time for the 1961 season, and he remained the team's owner until 1984 when he sold the franchise to carl pohlad.  griffith's tenure saw many great players come through the twins' system, and the team won the 1965 american league pennant to go along with a couple of other division championships, but his legacy was tarnished by racist comments made near the end of the 1978 season.  as a result of those comments, rod carew sought and received a trade, and the twins continued to languish in the american league west for the remainder of griffith's ownership tenure.

when in doubt, turn two

i didn't have anything in the hopper for today's post(s), so why not show some new-to-the-blog double play cards?  

2004 upper deck bo hart

the best part of hart's card may not be the turn or the st louis skyline, but rather the fact that jim edmonds (i think that's edmonds) is assuming that the double play will be completed at first.

2004 upper deck alex rodriguez

throwbacks!

2004 upper deck ray durham

that's a nice card.

2003 bowman draft prospects jose reyes

which means there is also a 2003 bowman chrome draft prospects jose reyes card

2003 topps bazooka wilson betemit

2002 upper deck victory update brandon phillips

that card features a photo we have seen before

2002 upper deck ballpark idols omar vizquel

2002 leaf alex rodriguez

no throwbacks

2002 fleer ultra ricky gutierrez gold medallion edition

2002 fleer triple crown cristian guzman

and 2001 fleer ultra carlos febles

someday i will run out of double play cards to show.  until then, they do a nice job of filling in between more thoughtful posts.

roberto alomar and the art of the double play

yes, it's double play dump time, but this post is different.  these are all roberto alomar double play turns that i welcomed into my collection over the past few months.

this 1994 fleer card

might look familiar, as it features the same play shown on his 1994 topps card.  if you ask me, sandy could have slid harder.

here's a 1993 score select card

with george brett sliding in.

i contend that this 1992 fleer ultra alomar award winners (gold glove) insert is, in fact, a double play turn

i base this on the fact that the umpire seems to be looking intently to make sure that roberto has touched second base.  that means that i believe alomar to be airborne on the card, even though it's tough to tell.

this one is much easier - 1992 topps stadium club

as is this 1992 score impact player insert

here we have a couple of cards from 1994 sportflics - first alomar's base card

and second, a starflics subset card

i have no idea whose glove that would be in the foreground.  it's not a second baseman since alomar played second base exclusively as a blue jay.  it's not a first baseman's glove, and if it were the pitcher covering first, i doubt that they would be wearing a batting glove.  very strange.

here's alomar's 1995 sportflix card (i don't know why the went to the 'flix' instead of the 'flics'in '95)

it's nice when these things scan well enough to see what it is that i want to see.  in this case, the double play turn.

this next card is from 1994 upper deck sp.  it's a holo view insert or something like that.

i am guessing that alomar made the pivot before landing on scott cooper on this 1995 bowman card

that's the thing about a lot of dp turns - what goes up must come down.

getting tired of seeing alomar yet?  let's mix things up with a card of alomar turning two as a member of the baltimore orioles.  this is a 1997 score hobby reserve card

it's almost a tatooine card too, if it weren't for that grass in the lower right corner.

this 1997 topps stadium club may not be a dp turn since kenny lofton is sliding headfirst

in fact, based on the game logs i found from '96 when the indians hosted the orioles, i am pretty well convinced that this is not a dp turn.

this one is, though.  from 1999 fleer ultra

as is this 2000 fleer ultra

and this 2001 fleer ultra

good on fleer to produce dp cards three years in a row for collectors like me.  you probably noticed that alomar moved to the indians during that timeframe, essentially replacing carlos baerga (although he was traded from cleveland to the mets in 1996) as omar vizquel's dp partner.  alomar and vizquel made some pretty incredible plays together.

alomar followed in baerga's footsteps once again when the indians dealt him to the mets after the 2001 season.  here's a 2003 fleer focus jersey edition card of alomar turning two in mets gear.

i probably have a few more alomar dp cards yet to share, but that's all the alomar i can handle in one sitting.