who is rick monday's career torchbearer?

in his final big league at bat, the dodgers' rick monday, the center fielder on the team of my youth, faced the reds' jeff russell 6/20/84 as pinch-hitter and struck out.  this is monday's card from the 1984 dodgers police set

mo finished his career with 1619 hits and one huge postseason home run.

jeff russell, shown here on his 1995 fleer update card,

pitched in his last game on 9/27/96 as a member of the texas rangers. the last batter he faced was the angels' randy velarde who drew a walk.

here's randy velarde on his 2002 topps total card

which is appropriate because velarde played in his final game on 9/29/02 for the oakland a's and grounded into a 5-4-3 double play in his last at bat.  the pitcher that induced the dp was cj nitkowski of the texas rangers.

on june 7, 2005, nitkowski (i could only find a 2001 topps card of cj)

pitched in the big leagues for the final time.  he was with the washington nationals then, and in a game against the a's, he gave up a single to eric chavez and then walked scott hatteberg before being lifted for a reliever.

now with the reds (as evidenced by this 2008 topps year in review insert that i lifted from ebay), hatteberg

was used as a pinch-hitter on may 25, 2008 against the padres.  he faced off against bryan corey and fouled out to the catcher in what turned out to be his last big league appearance.

corey, who had relieved greg maddux to face hatteberg, made his last big league appearance just a couple of months later.  he doesn't seem to have many cards, so i'm showing a 2006 topps '52 card of him in a bosox uniform.

anyway, in the padres' game on august 9, 2008, corey was summoned from the bullpen to start the 9th inning against the rockies' 3-4-5 hitters.  with an 8-2 lead, corey allowed a single to matt holliday and then another to brad hawpe, and he was removed in favor of cla meredith.

brad hawpe, shown as a padre on his 2011 topps card,

eventually made his way to the angels' roster in 2013 where he played his last game in anaheim against the twins on july 22, 2013.  playing first base, hawpe's final big league at bat ended in a ground out while facing sam deduno - a former teammate of hawpe on the 2010 rockies.

deduno

pitched for most of 2014 with the twins (that's his 2014 topps card above), but was picked up on waivers late in the season by the astros.  i'll assume that he'll continue to carry rick monday's torch in 2015 for the 'stros.  if not, curtis granderson becomes monday's torchbearer which would be ok - from one center fielder to another.

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...

more cards from tatooine

warning - the geek quotient is high with this post.

sometimes, in between the landspeeder races and droid purchasing, folks on tatooine take time out for baseball.  here are some examples.

1996 topps joey cora

this is one of my favorite 'dirt only' cards.  the teal mariners jersey is the star of the card.

1994 upper deck alan trammell

and his teammate travis fryman on a 1995 score select card

there may be a hint of green on this 1993 upper deck dave valle card

but then again, that might just be some womp rat remnants.

it looks like the moisture vaporators are malfunctioning on kevin young's 1993 upper deck card

better get those droids to the south rim to work on the condensers.

speaking of droids, it looks like mike piazza has spotted the incoming escape pod on his 1998 topps stadium club card

here's a classic that i am pretty sure i have shown before - dmitri young's 2002 fleer ultra card

but he's not the only one that can dive back to the bag on tatooine - there is also carlos santana on his 2010 topps update card

turning double plays on tatooine doesn't happen often, but here are a couple of examples - 2007 topps turkey red 'turning two' with hanley ramirez and jose bautista

and 2002 topps total russ johnson

i wouldn't be surprised if the florida teams drew bigger crowds on the planet furthest from the bright center of the universe than they do in miami and tampa.

this card almost made my header

when i was putting together the header for this blog just over 4 years and two months ago, i considered including a card of an expo.  specifically, this 2002 topps total orlando cabrera card.

that's why the first time i showed it, i used a photo (like the header) of it rather than a scan.  i considered using it in the header because i thought that it showed a couple other elements of my collection - cards featuring dodger stadium, and cards featuring the double play turn.  in the end, i decided against using it, mostly to keep the header free of non-dodgers.  besides, this version of the play, featured on cabrera's 2002 fleer premium card, 

shows dodger stadium better - that's sandy koufax's outfield wall retired number mural - but was strangely cropped and doesn't show the double play as well.

cabrera's 2002 topps gold label card is quite shiny and shows the same play as well

i know i have shown all three of those cards before, but i can't show one without the others.

here are some o-cab cards that haven't been featured here before.  like his 1999 skybox premium card

his 2003 donruss card

his 2003 topps opening day card

his 2006 topps card

and his 2008 topps chrome card

with refractor!

you may recall that cabrera was the guy who replaced nomar in 2004 and went on to win the world series as the red sox's starting shortstop.  that 'short stop' in boston kind of kickstarted the weary traveler stage of cabrera's career that saw him play for 7 franchises in the next 7 years.

another guy who bounced around a bit was roberto alomar, seen here on his 2003 topps traded card

here he is again on his 2003 fleer double header card

before he was traded to the white sox.  the first time.

cabrera is not alone in regards to his 2002 fleer premium card, either. here is rafael furcal's card from the set, which also has him turning two in dodger stadium

although he's turning two in philly on his 2001 upper deck card

other 2001 upper deck double plays include edgardo alfonzo

warren morris

and pokey reese

who also turns two on his 2001 fleer ultra card

that's not the last we'll see of pokey reese, either.  more double play cards coming tomorrow!

the a's have it

thanks to dick green and bert campaneris and walt weiss, i have a few great double play cards featuring oakland athletics.  they are certainly a team that is well represented in the binder.  here are several more oakland a's players turning two.

1995 topps brent gates

and 1996 upper deck brent gates

and 1997 fleer ultra brent gates

three years in a row for ol' cemetery gates, and that doesn't include his 1993 upper deck card that has a turn on the front and the back.

here are some 1997 pacific cards of tony batista

and mike bordick

they both have a lot of dp cards - in fact, here's another tony batista card.  it's from 1997 upper deck collector's choice

and here's a 1998 score rookies/traded card of scott spiezio

in recent years, the oakland a most often featured turning two has to be miguel tejada.  here is his 1999 fleer ultra card

and his 1999 skybox premium card

his 1999 topps card

i loved this play, by the way.  as a second baseman, being able to step on the bag and throw to first was more fun than just shoveling the ball to the shortstop.

here's tejada's 1999 upper deck card

i'll interrupt the tejada show again to feature this 2000 fleer tradition update card of a's second baseman randy velarde

like some of the other cards we've seen highlighting the triple play, this one seems to show him getting ready to make the pivot to first.  i'm not sure if this photo is from the actual play which occurred at yankee stadium, as velarde caught shane spencer's line drive, stepped on second base, and then tagged the runner coming from first base.  there was no throw involved.  it should be noted that velarde made an error earlier in the inning to set up first and second with no outs and make the triple play possible.

now, back to tejada.  here's a 2001 fleer triple crown card

and a 2002 fleer ultra card

and a 2002 topps stadium club card

pretty sure that they both feature the same play.  i like the kid in the background leaning over the wall as if he were trying to get closer to the action. or maybe he's just bored.

last tejada of this post comes from 2002 topps total

and features a completely different play than the previous two cards which is nice.

moving on, here's bobby crosby's 2006 topps card

and we'll finish with a couple of future dodgers - a 2009 topps update adam kennedy card

and a 2009 upper deck mark ellis card

ellis still has the ball which means that the tigers player was successful in breaking up the double play.  good for him.

more double plays with teams other than the a's coming shortly.