showdown throwdown

let us team collectors mourn the 2000's - with upper deck victory and topps total and upper deck 40 man and the like - sometimes the only way to get cards of our third string catcher or long reliever.  not quite as heralded as those releases was mlb showdown.  still, in 2000, it provided we dodger fans with a card of pedro borbon jr!

borbon jr was almost a dodger triple dipper - he was originally drafted by the dodgers in 1986, but did not sign.  they later signed him as a free agent in 1998, and he pitched in 70 games for them during the 1999 season.  after that, he was included in the raul mondesi for shawn green deal, but returned to the dodgers in the spring of 2003.  unfortunately, he was released before the season started so he didn't even double dip according to my definition.  anyway, i think that the 2000 mlb showdown card is the only one of borbon's that i have showing him in dodger blue.  it might be the only card made for him now that i think about it, as he was a loogy but never a closer.  ok, no.  he has a few cards from his mid-90's stint with the braves and even has one in 2002 ud 40 man as a blue jay.  good for him.

oh, and using my 20-sided die (thank you dungeon master), i rolled a 13.  looks like borbon got me to fly out.

here's another card from 2000 mlb showdown.  it's mark grudzielanek

it's too bad the g-man and doug mientkiewicz didn't both play for the cubs.  harry caray, who had enough trouble with grudzielanek, would have had a heart attack trying to describe a routine ground ball.  anyway, before grudz was dealt to the cubs, he had a few years with the dodgers and got a lot of cards.  he got me a single just now, as i rolled a 14.

another guy with a lot of cards, including one in the 2000 mlb showdown set was todd hollandsworth

i have to admit that i really don't understand this game.  are we to believe that todd hollandsworth does not fly out?  whatever, i rolled a 6.  first and second, one out baby!

hey, it's todd hundley from his first stint in dodger blue.

i rolled a two. figures. a strikeout.

raul mondesi was still a dodger in the 2000 mlb showdown set.

i really like all dodger cards from 2000 a lot.  many of them show the dodger heroes patch on the left sleeve that were worn during the 1999 season.  here, we can see mondy paid tribute to number 11, manny mota.  shouldn't borbon have worn mota's patch?  he wore a tommy lasorda patch instead.

upon closer inspection, i see that the hundley and the mondesi cards are 'edition 1' cards.  parallels, perhaps? who knows?  anyway, i rolled a five - mondy walks to load the bases. mondy walks - yeah right.

devon white has a few dodger cards, including a 2000 mlb showdown card

what will he do with 2 outs and the bases loaded?  if you guessed strike out, you are correct.  i rolled a one.

the last of the 2000 cards i will show is eric young's.

ey is rocking the jackie robinson patch, and he gets to lead off our second inning.  he walks with a rolled 6.

that brings up shawn green on a 2001 mlb showdown card

shawn green is certainly not a guy with only a handful of dodger cards.  no, he was in every set, every subset, every insert set - you name it, he was in it.  he also just cleared the bases with a 2-run home run thanks to a roll of the die that equaled the average age of the us serviceman in vietnam.  19.  19. 19 19 19.  at least according to paul hardcastle.

so, it's 2-0 if in fact i am doing this right, with nobody out in the 2nd inning.  here's a 2003 mlb showdown card of another frequently featured dodger, kevin brown

between brown and gary sheffield, i had a hard time buying dodger cards 10 years ago.  maybe that's why i branched out my pc's around that time to include more non-dodgers.  anyway, brown just pu'd with a 1.  and what's with the 21+ category?  does he have a bat +1?  and if so, then how many hit points?

here's shawn green again, this time working the goatee on a 2003 mlb showdown card

will he go deep twice in the same inning? no, he will not.  he will strike out with a second consecutive 1.

that brings up marquis grissom

grissom was traded by the brewers to the dodgers for the aforementioned devon white after the 2000 season.  he spent all of 2001 and 2002 with the dodgers, and actually played in 246 games as a dodger. he has that 2001 topps traded relic card, too, of which i swear i have a dozen copies.  by the time this card came out, grissom was up in san francisco hitting .300 for the nor-cals.  i rolled an 8, so he's on base with a two-out walk.

also gone from dodgertown in 2003 was eric karros, although he still got a dodger card in 2003 mlb showdown

the all-time los angeles dodger leader in home runs hits a single with a rolled 13.  actually, i'm sure he hit a gapper, but could only muster a wide turn of first thanks to the piano that he carried with him on the basepaths.

let's see what the guy who was supposed to replace karros can do, shall we?  here's one of fred mcgriff's few dodger cards, also from the 2003 mlb showdown set.

i'll assume that grissom went to third on karros' single, but it doesn't matter since the crime dog drew a walk with a 10 on the die.  bases loaded.

do you remember odalis perez's 2002 season?  15-10 with a 3.00 era and an all-star berth.  he was just 12-12 the year this 2003 mlb showdown card came out.

now i really know i am doing this wrong.  i rolled a 20, so that's a double.  maybe it's impossible for perez to homer.  4-0 with runners on second and third with two outs.

now we're back to why i started this post in the first place.  this is one of just a few paul quantrill dodger cards.

quantrill did get cards from topps in 2003 and 2004, most likely due to the fact that he led the league in pitching appearances in both of those seasons.  like borbon jr, he was drafted by the dodgers in 1986 but did not sign, so he's not a double dipper either.  he is a rally extender-er, though, as he just drew a two-out walk with a 19.

and that brings us to one of the jewels of the 2003 mlb showdown set, paul shuey.

though his face is obscured by shadow, shuey gets some cardboard love.  he pitched in 90 games for the dodgers over the course of the 2002 and 2003 seasons, but i think this is his only dodger card aside from one in the 2003 upper deck 40 man set.  he strikes out to end the inning (i rolled a 4) but that's ok. i can't find fault with a card that features paul shuey in a dodger uniform.

breaking up two is hard to do

i wonder if jason kendall was able to prevent mark grudzielanek from completing the double play, as his 2000 topps gallery card might indicate

that's a nice looking card, with a slightly higher vantage point than we usually see on cards.  and, it's a clean photo, too.  case in point, this 2000 upper deck delino deshields card features a field level photo.

and, with the text bar, we almost don't get to see paul loduca sliding in.

same with this 2008 bowman freddy sanchez gold parallel

you'll have to take my word for it that rafael furcal is under there trying to break up the twin killing.

james loney gives it a shot on former teammate julio lugo's 2009 topps update card

by the way, what are the chances that the cardinals retire jd drew's number to try to break up that 6-9 action on the outfield wall?

here's a 2004 fleer classic clippings card of mark teixeira

who appears to have successfully upended brandon phillips.  hopefully phillps was able to complete the double play despite teixeira's best efforts.

here's a card from 2001 mlb showdown

i don't know if nomar is trying to break up a double play or what.  it seems like there are too many rangers lurking around the bag for it to be a double play attempt.  but, the card mentions a double play, so i put it in my binder.

this next card is only in my lurkers binder.  it's al martin's 1999 topps stadium club card, and it features a play at second base

except this play if of martin reaching second with a double while jose vizcaino waits for the throw from right field.  i looked it up.

speaking of which, as far as i can tell from baseball reference, kendall was not able to break up the double play.  on memorial day, 5/31/99, warren morris hit into a 3-6-1 double play, with kendall out at second and grudzielanek making the force out and the relay.

nice try, though.

cora cora cora the ex-doyer

he's a super cool ex-doyer, cora.

alex cora also turns double plays expertly, according to the back of his 2004 topps total card

which also features a tiny photo of him doing just that.  it's the same photo as the front of the card

i realize now that i was remiss in last night's final post by not mentioning that johnny evers was responsible for giving us the merkle boner.  had he not realized that fred merkle never touched second base, we probably wouldn't be able to say 'boner' in mixed company today.  i apologize for the oversight.

back to cora - he is shown turning two on his 2001 topps card

which means he is also shown turning two on his 2001 topps chrome card

and the same goes for 2004, although i will only show the chrome card here.

i'm glad topps started to vary the photos in their chrome sets, but at the same time, i've stopped buying chrome.  i used to buy boxes of the flagship and chrome every year, but it's been a few years since i've done that.

here's cora's 2005 upper deck card

which is the same as his 2005 upper deck first edition card (not shown).  cora turned 646 double plays in his career (or at least was involved in that many, according to baseball reference) including 116 in 2003 alone.

by the time that 2005 card was released, cora was in cleveland with the indians.  his time in cleveland was short, however, as the indians dealt him to boston during the 2005 season where he continued to make the turn at second base, as seen on his 2007 upper deck card

and his 2007 upper deck first edition card

i guess he learned a thing or two from his older brother, shown making the pivot on this 1998 pacific card

even with all that double play turning, alex cora is probably best remembered (at least by me) for his 18-pitch at bat in 2004 against matt clement of the cubs.  with the count at 2 balls, 1 strike, cora fouled off 14 consecutive pitches before hitting the 18th pitch of the at bat into the stands for a home run.  it was one of only 35 home runs he would hit during his career, although he did hit 10 of them in 2004.

not all of the cards i have of cora show him turning the double play.  i recently picked up a couple such specimens.  here's a 2001 mlb showdown card showing him running the bases presumably

and here is his 2004 mlb showdown card which shows him tracking a pop-up

either that or cesar izturis has lobbed the ball to second while trying to start a dp.

there are more actual double play cards on the way, so don't fret.