well, hello to dodgers and double plays

i'm in the midst of some plain white envelope swappin' with brian from play at the plate. i sent him a few senators stamps from the 1971 dell's today issue, and he sent me some dodger cards from the present.

2015 bowman prospects scott schebler yellow parallel

schebler went 1 for 3 in his big league debut in june. he's back in the minors now (as of 7/12 when i wrote this post), and was named the pcl player of the week at the end of june. why is oklahoma city in the pacific coast league?  i do not know.

here's a 2015 bowman chrome prospects jose deleon card orange wave parallel that brian also sent

deleon is a starter in double-a at the moment.

brian rounded out the envelope with a couple of cards from 2015 panini prizm - jimmy rollins

and hyun-jin ryu

i doubt we will see much of ryu in 2016 product, which hopefully leaves more room for whichever pitcher the dodgers pick up at the trade deadline to receive more cards as a dodger next year.

thanks brian - be on the lookout for another standard no. 10 in the near future!

i received another return package of cards, this time in a bubble envelope, from justin at mets cardboard.  i'll show more of the cards later, but here are a few double play cards that were new to my collection

2001 pacific adam kennedy

with dodger fp santangelo sliding in. i'm guessing this is the same play showed on kennedy's 2001 topps card

2002 fleer alex gonzalez

stepping on a giants' head

2002 fleer adam kennedy

this guy again?

2002 fleer felipe lopez

a kodak moment

2002 fleer jose vidro

a candidate for the 'nob' collection, if there were such a thing. i'm still not sure.

thanks justin!

when in extreme doubt, turn two again

sometime last year, i got in the habit of scheduling two (or more) posts a day on weekends.  not every weekend, but most of them, plus on a weekday here and there.  i feel like i have a lot of cards i want to show and/or write about, so i plan to maintain a greater that a post a day pace this year.  i didn't have much to say for the first post that ran today, so instead showed some heretofore unseen on this blog double play cards.  why not show some more for the second post of the day.

2000 topps stadium club derek jeter

and 2000 topps stadium club chrome derek jeter

and 2000 topps stadium club chrome jose vidro

2000 fleer ultra miguel tejada

and 2000 fleer ultra todd walker

2000 pacific alex rodriguez

2001 pacific damion easley

2002 fleer royce clayton

2005 fleer ultra alfonso soriano

2008 topps stadium club gregorio petit (1st day)

and 2010 bowman kaz matsui gold parallel

two posts again tomorrow, except they will be memorial patch related, not double plays.  stay tuned...

a random sampling of what i collect

let's take a sunday stroll through the categorical fields of my collection, shall we?

i collect, first and foremost, steve garvey and dodger cards. like this 1971 dell today's team stamp. ok, so it's not really a card per se, but you get the idea.

i also collect dodger (and other players of interest) autographs, especially through the mail successes. here's a 1973 topps steve garvey with wes parker lurking, which makes it another type of card i enjoy.

i wish wes parker would sign through the mail - it would be nice to get him to sign this one, too.

i also collect post-2000 twins, primarily joe mauer. excuse me, that's mvp joe mauer.

cards featuring dodger stadium are also part of the collection, like this 1993 fleer luis salazar

just another day hanging out at the cage in chavez ravine.

here's a double play turn on augie ojeda's 2002 fleer cardand a classic play at the plate from 1973 topps you can guess from the text that george hendrick (scourge of the stirrup) is safe at home.

finally, there are the final tributes, whether they are announced as such or not.

true, this 1995 upper deck ryne sandberg final tribute is premature as he would return to play for a few more seasons, but you get the idea.

if you or anyone you know has cards that look like the ones above, please take a look at my want lists, and let's trade!

let's enjoy the scenery in chavez ravine!

here are some (more) cards featuring dodger stadium!

2002 fleer ronnie belliard the future dodger takes his lead from first base...

2002 fleer carlos guillen

featuring a blurry outfield wall mural...

1999 upper deck dustin hermanson

happy to be in la...

1997 pinnacle new greg maddux

the future dodger with the people behind the bullpen fence...

1992 fleer ultra lloyd mcclendon

featuring the camera men in the well...

2002 fleer triple crown marlon anderson

the future dodger and the obscured on deck hitter...

2002 topps total ramon ortiz

with more people (or just one person) behind the bullpen fence...

2004 topps juan uribe

featuring more blurry outfield wall mural faces...

1984 donruss johnnie lemaster

lemaster of the batting cage, and of non-sanctioned hat pins. someone alert the uniform police...

1984 donruss scott garrelts
featuring the glasses, the torn shirt, and dodger stadium seats.

here's to you chavez ravine!

let's turn two

when i played baseball, i spent most of my time at short or second. mostly second as i got older and my arm got weaker. it makes sense, then, that my favorite play was turning two. i really loved it as a shortstop - breaking towards second to field a ground ball up the middle, gliding over second base and throwing to first as my momentum took me out of the path of the runner. playing second base was different - running to cover the bag, waiting for the throw, and then heaving the ball while somehow avoiding the slide. i got taken out a few times, of course, but that wasn't enough to sour me on the cosmic ballet that is the double play.

so, i collect cards that show the turn at second base. sometimes the fielder is standing his ground, sometimes he is airborne, and sometimes he gets taken out. all's fair with the hard, clean slide into second.

here's a good sampling of the three: rey ordonez standing tall in the face of john cangelosi on his 1999 topps card,

rafael furcal jumping over ordonez on his 2004 upper deck card,

and mike scioscia barreling into tom foley's knees on foley's 1989 upper deck issue, at dodger stadium no less!

finally, it wouldn't be prudent to ignore the fact that the dodgers beat the cubs in game 1 tonight, so, courtesy of 2002 fleer, here's then dodger and former cub mark grudzielanek trying to avoid former dodger and cub todd hundley at chavez ravine.

it's the trifecta! good times!