the calendar turns with some double play turns

looks like we made it through another year, and what better way to celebrate than to show some double play turns.  i've found a few more that are new to my collection, and none may be better than this 1991 pacific senior league jerry terrell card

it's a coach card to boot!

i had overlooked this 1997 upper deck neifi perez

double play turn due to the over application of foil, but now it has had its status upgraded in my collection from monster box fodder to double play binder material.

similarly, i had previously failed to show the back of mike bordick's 1993 upper deck sp card

even though i had shown the front a long time ago.

here's a 1998 pacific online scott spiezio card

i've shown the red foil parallel before, but not the base.

how about some derek jeter for all the fan boys out there.  here's his 2005 topps card

plus a 2006 upper deck

and a 2008 upper deck superstar card

i'm actually looking forward to some decent final tributes in 2015.

alfonso soriano was, at one time, jeter's double play partner.  here's a 2001 leaf rookies & stars card of the former yankee second baseman

i had almost forgotten he was once an infielder.

now how about some trevor plouffe?  here's a 2012 topps golden sparkle parallel,

a 2012 topps walmart blue parallel,

and a 2012 topps mini card

of the twins' current third baseman.  now, instead of turning double plays, plouffe hits doubles - he had 40 in 2014, which was good for fourth in the league.

i picked up this 2010 topps robin yount short print a while back

it would have looked nice as a 1978 or 1979 topps card, i think.

fast forward to 2014, and we have the somewhat rare double play card whose subject is the base runner - jordan danks in this case

and a pretty standard double play turn, although it is a red hot foil parallel, featuring the marlins' donovan solano

i'm hoping to see some photoshopped dee gordon as a marlin double play turns in 2015.

the eddie mathews memorial patch

eddie mathews played for the braves in boston, milwaukee, and atlanta - the only person to do so.  his rookie year of 1952 was the team's last in boston, and his last year as a brave, 1966, was their first in atlanta.  mathews led the milwaukee version of the braves to the world series in back-to-back years (1957 and 1958), and twice led the league in home runs while in wisconsin.

although he did not finish his career with the braves (he was traded to houston prior to the 1967 season, and then to detroit during that season where he played through the 1968 postseason), mathews still ranked first or second (either ahead of or behind hank aaron) in many team offensived categories at the time of his retirement following the tigers' world series win over the cardinals in 1968.

mathews passed away in february of 2001, and the team wore a memorial patch with his number 41 on their left sleeves for the entire regular and postseason.  here's a couple of cards showing the patch from recently inducted hall of famer tom glavine.  this first one comes from 2002 upper deck vintage

while this one is from 2001 leaf rookies and stars

of course, there is really only one player who should represent this memorial in my collection, and that's chipper jones.  like mathews, jones was a braves' third baseman, and like mathews and glavine, he will likely end up in the hall of fame.  besides, jones has supplanted mathews on many of those braves' career leaderboard categories, pushing the hall of famer into third place.  here's jones' 2002 topps total card

and his 2002 donruss fan club card as well

but the card in the binder is this 2002 topps gold label card

mathews was just the 7th player in big league history to reach the 500-home run plateau, and he held the record for most home runs in a season by a third baseman (47) that stood for 27 years until mike schmidt hit 48 in 1980.  the braves had retired mathews' number in 1967, but he wore it again when he returned as the team's manager in the early 1970's.

too many double plays

dennis of too many verlanders recently sent me a package that featured a few new to me double play cards.  i would like to think that it is getting harder and harder to find dp cards that i don't already have, but there are many more than i ever imagined when i started collecting them.  and it's not going to stop - i noticed at least 2 double play turns on the uncut 2014 topps sheet image that's been posted recently.

so, onward and upward with some new double play cards, like this 1998 pacific paramount jeff kent

featuring a sliding kurt 'what's that man' waring

and this 2000 pacific miguel tejada

and this 2001 fleer premium miguel tejada

here's a 2002 topps total luis alicea

and a 2004 playoff honors luis castillo

another athletic, but not tejada - 2005 donruss bobby crosby

another 2005 donruss - alex gonzalez

caught in between montreal and san diego

last but not least, another jeff kent card.  this one comes from 2001 leaf rookies & stars

i already had one in the dp binder, but then i turned the card over and saw that this one was a sample version

donruss/leaf put sample cards in beckett magazines back in the early 2000's if i recall correctly.  i remember buying some issues and selling the cards on ebay a couple of times.  anyway, this is why you should always look at the back of the cards!

thanks dennis - i'll post the 'better' stuff from your trade package later today...

the turns of kent

i don't seem to have any cards of jeff kent turning two while he was a dodger.  that's too bad, because i know i have cards of him doing so as a met and, as we will see shortly, as a giant.  i did stumble across this oddball a few weeks ago, however, and while not quite as cool as a double play turn, it was still interesting enough to acquire.  besides, it features kent as a dodger.  it's a card from 2005 topps hot button

which as far as i can tell was some sort of electronic game - possibly intended to compete with mlb showdown.  it must not have done well, because it didn't stick around, and topps moved on to toppstown and attax.

so, here are some gigante kent double play cards, as promised up top.  some of them aren't half bad.

2001 upper deck

1998 topps

these guys would eventually be teammates in los angeles

1999 pacific crown collection

2001 leaf rookies and stars

another card from 2001 upper deck - this one masquerading as a checklist

these two guys would be teammates, too - in houston

here's kent's 2002 upper deck card

which i believe features the same play shown on his 2001 leaf rookies and stars card i showed above.  i believe r&s came out late enough in the season for it to feature action from the 2001 season, which makes sense because adam hyzdu didn't play against the giants in 2000.  on 8/2/01, however, hyzdu did play in a day game at san francisco in which he was out on the front end of a double play that ended the 8th inning.  thanks baseball reference!

continuing on, here's kent's 2002 upper deck authentics card

featuring two future dodgers, although they were not teammates.

kent has also appeared on other double play cards, such as this 1998 pacific jose vizcaino card

and this 2003 topps opening day rich aurilia card

there are actually a couple more kent double play cards that i am on the lookout for - 2001 pacific and 2001 pacific private stock extreme action - if anyone can help.  it's weird, i know, to be wanting cards featuring a giant.  the things i do for some double play action...