an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of giants collectors

i believe economist adam smith would agree that a baseball card is only worth what someone is willing to give up to obtain it.  well, i was willing to send some giant cards to another smith - arpsmith - of arpsmith's sportscard obsession in order to obtain some random dodger cards.  smith also noted that individuals who own surplus stock would generally look to gain from the excess, and arpsmith clearly subscribes to that theory because he sent me some of his collection's excess - mainly these (and a few more) dodger cards.

1967 topps ron fairly

it's always nice to see some vintage in these blind trades.  even better when the dodger is wearing number 6 which means it's either a carl furillo, fairly, or steve garvey card.  those three were the only dodgers to wear the number from 1946 through 1982.

1988 topps traded alfredo griffin

when i saw this card i thought of baseball card vandals and wondered if they had changed this into a nate griffin card yet.

1993 score select henry rodriguez

outfielders that the dodgers kept instead of henry rodriguez (who hit 140 home runs over the five and a half seasons following his 1995 trade from the dodgers to the expos) included can't miss prospects billy ashley, roger cedeno, and karim garcia who between them had 33 home runs for the dodgers (although power admittedly was not cedeno's thing).

2001 pacific shawn green

and 2001 pacific jim leyritz

thank goodness for pacific.  i have plenty of shawn green dodger cards, but only a couple of leyritz in dodger blue - this one and a 2001 upper deck victory card.  i don't know if any others even exist.

2001 pacific private stock adrian beltre

beltre will be inducted into the hall of fame, i have no doubt.  he is 7 home runs shy of 400 and about 450 hits shy of 3000 (just 41 behind steve garvey) and is signed through next season with a vesting option for 2016.  it is likely that he would get his 3000th hit in 2017 at the age of 38 if things stay relatively the same.  if he does it as a ranger, that would mean that he would have played as many seasons in texas as he did in los angeles, and so i would guess that he would be inducted wearing a rangers' hat.  we will have to wait and see what happens.

2013 topps joe blanton gold parallel

smith was a critic of mercantilism which endorsed the keeping of gold reserves as part of a country's economic stability.  i guess i disagree in that i will hoard all gold parallels of dodger cards.  even those of joe blanton, who was 2-4 with a 4.99 era in his 10 games as a dodger.

2014 donruss matt kemp power plus insert

here's a card dealing with surplus - a surplus of talent, a player not one-dimensional, making dodger fans happy, while providing financial gain for the individual to the tune of a $160-million contract through 2019.  i actually already owned this card, so perhaps i will attempt to turn my surplus into gain by trading with a fellow dodger collector…

thanks for the trade adam!  i'll have some excess giant cards headed your way soon!

it comes in colors everywhere

yes, it's like a rainbow.  i guess not technically 'everywhere', but certainly in my mailbox, thanks to daniel from it's like having my own card shop.  his end of a recent trade had this beauty - a 1953 bowman color carl erskine

that's only the second card from the set that i own - here's the other -  and i was pretty surprised to see it arrive in a trade package for a bunch of chrome diamondbacks.  awesome.

the goodness didn't end there, as oisk's teammate gil hodges was along for the ride on this 2002 topps tribute card

hodges did indeed surpass 1250 rbi in his career.  in fact, he had 1254 as a dodger, and an additional 20 in his time with the mets at the end of his playing career.

more color - this time a blue parallel of the silver fox - on a 2004 fleer greats of the game card

and then a 2001 pacific private stock eric karros bat card

plus a 2013 topps chrome clayton kershaw orange refractor

just a great group of colorful cards that daniel sent.

there was one more card in my mailbox, although daniel didn't send it to me.  tom from angels, in order was kind enough to share an address for former dodger pitcher dave patterson with me, and yesterday i received my 1980 topps dodgers future stars card back from patterson.

i now have two signed copies of this card (the other is autographed by joe beckwith).  i sent a third copy to mickey hatcher about three years ago, but never got it back.  i might give it another shot with hatcher since he signed some cards for me earlier this year.

patterson is the only guy on the card not to double dip with the dodgers.  his career in la lasted only one season - 1979 - when he was 4-1 with a 5.26 era in 36 appearances, all in relief.

thanks for the trade daniel. and for the addy tom!  and thanks for signing my card mr. patterson!

double plays until the cows come home

here are some more heretofore unposted double play turns for your enjoyment as you whittle down the moments before walter white does whatever it is that he is going to do with that machine gun in the trunk.

1999 topps stadium club rey ordonez

that card should seed nicely in the 'greatest double play card of all time' tournament.  coming this offseason to this blog.  finally.

2000 fleer ultra neifi perez

and the gold medallion edition parallel

the die cut works well with the photo used.

here's another insert - 2001 pacific private stock roberto alomar extreme action

my apologies to trot nixon, but now when i see number 7 for the red sox, i am forced to think of jd drew.  alomar, by the way, is going to get his own double play post soon.  so many dp cards!

craig biggio has a bunch of double play turns on cardboard, too.  here is his 2001 upper deck victory card with one of them.

2001 upper deck homer bush

2002 fleer box score anderson machado

2006 upper deck cristian guzman

are fairly pedestrian examples of double play turns.  the machado, at least, is interesting because he is taking the feed prior to the runner getting close to the base.

contrast those to this 2007 topps turkey red jimmy rollins card

there's a lot going on there.  i don't know who the slider is supposed to be, but it looks like he's got some old early 1980's stirrup action going on.  or maybe just a really thick pant stripe?  plus, it seems like he has a case of krumrie ankle.

here's a 2008 upper deck documentary dan uggla card

i only have the one - i would guess there are about 20 more cards in the set with this same wrigley field double play photo.

that's all the double play cards for now.  i still have a bunch more to show, however, and with 2013 topps update coming out soon there will likely be even more on the horizon.

double play stragglers

well, the day is finally here.  i have, after this post, showcased all of the double play cards that i own.  i think.  i haven't gone through all of my sets to make sure, but i am thinking i've scanned and shown them all.  so, it makes perfect sense to start this post off with a non-double play card.

that's a 1997 pacific prism rey ordonez card from the 'gems of the diamond' insert set, and it features tony gwynn on a forceout at second base.  who knows, it might be a double play if gwynn is sliding in to second from the third base side after ordonez snagged a line drive.  sadly, i believe that this is a forceout, and that it occurred during the mets/padres series played in monterrey, mexico during the 1996 season.  in fact, i believe that this is from the ken caminiti 'snickers' game - 8/18/96.  in the bottom of the seventh, after a tony gwynn single, steve finley grounded to second baseman edgardo alfonzo who threw to ordonez to get the out.

believe it or not, i was a fan of ordonez from 1996 through 2000 or so.  i didn't see him play often, but i admired his defensive abilities.  so much so that i had a pc going of his for most of his mets career.  once he made the move to the devil rays, however, i was no longer as enamored.  there were a couple of times playing in my adult baseball league when i successfully imitated his 'slide to the right, plant the foot, and throw to first' approach to a ground ball that might otherwise be backhanded.  and, when i turned double plays, i sometimes looked like ordonez as well - especially as he is depicted on his 1998 score rookies/traded card

here he is on his 1999 topps chrome card looking a little more controlled while turning two

and this 2000 mlb showdown card is pretty standard when it comes to dp turns.

hello, ryan klesko.  as the card notes, ordonez won three gold gloves prior to 2000.  he wound up missing most of the 2000 season after dodger fp santangelo slid head first into ordonez's forearm after being picked off of first base in a late-may game at dodger stadium.  ordonez had a broken arm that required a couple of surgeries and screws and metal plates and all that jazz.  he missed out on the mets' world series appearance, but did return to play pretty much full-time in 2001 and 2002.

this 2001 pacific card is my favorite of the ordonez double play turns.

the confidence and the flexibility to not bother to jump as preston wilson is bearing down on you is pretty awesome.

and now for some jeff kent double plays, including this one which is also from the 2001 pacific set

this was one of the cards that i mentioned i was on the lookout for when i did my 'turns of kent' post a couple of weeks ago.  it's a wonder what sportlots can do for you.

here's the other kent card i mentioned needing in that post.  it's a 2001 pacific private stock 'extreme action' card

with mike piazza sliding in.  the back makes mention of kent and his double play partner rich aurilia and their offensive prowess

here's another kent card that i didn't know i needed.  it's a 2001 donruss retro '99 insert

kent looks sort of reno 911-ish on that card.

here's a 1994 topps stadium club walt weiss card

probably one of his weakest double play cards

and here's a ho-hum 1995 topps stadium club mark grudzielanek card

with another appearance by ryan klesko

alex rodriguez looks to see if his turn was successful on his 1997 pinnacle card

as does marty barrett on his 1991 topps card

a quick look at baseball reference tells me that barrett was successful, as charlie o'brien there was out on the front end of a 6-4-3 double play off the bat of gary sheffield on april 14, 1990.  i'm not sure about a-rod, though.

finally, here is a 1993 upper deck sp mark mclemore card

the front is so nice, that they put a different double play on the back

even though the play on the front is from a spring training game, i really like the background.  i will guess that this mclemore will show up in the 'greatest double play card of all time' tournament.  which might just be a series of posts ranking the top 50 or so.  i haven't decided.

thanks to all for suffering through my seemingly endless flurry of double play card posts.  i am glad that these fantastic cards showcasing my favorite play got their due on the blog, though.

2000 zero zero party's over oops out of time

once again, happy new year.  i had hoped that i would be done with the double play dump today, but there are just too many of them.  expect to see folks turning two for a few more days.  here are some double play turns from 2000 (and beyond).

2000 pacific ray durham

2000 skybox jay bell

2000 topps carlos febles

2000 topps mike lansing

2000 topps ron belliard

there's that nice 'second basman taking it himself' play that i like to see.  also, notice the brewer logo that is shown on bellieard's series 2 card, and compare it to the one on the series 1 cards of jose valentin

and fernando vina

did the brew crew change their logo and topps not realize it?

here's enrique wilson's 2000 topps card

complete with the chief wahoo logo

now some 2000 upper deck dp turns, courtesy of bret boone

and mike caruso

and rey sanchez

and a 2000 upper deck victory card featuring carlos febles

who is appearing in this post for the second time.

moving on to 2001, here's a fleer ultra card of edgardo alfonzo

and an 'extreme action' insert of nomar garciaparra from 2001 pacific private stock,

a somewhat pedestrian 2001 topps kurt abbott card,

a 2001 topps stadium club carlos febles card (yes, him again),

and a 2001 topps stadium club warren morris card

that's a good one to end this post on.  more to come in four hours' time.