dodger (and other) cardboard from mets cardboard

what makes more sense than receiving a mike piazza dodger card from justin at mets cardboard? not much.  i sent him a bunch of mets, and he sent me some dodgers and other good stuff for my collection.  here's the aforementioned strongest man in socal on a 1993 topps stadium club card

i don't know the full story of piazza switching from number 25 to 31, but i know it had to do with time wallach signing with the dodgers for the 1993 season.  i wonder how much wallach had to give to get the number from piazza.

here's a 1996 fleer joey eischen

part of the reason that i scanned this card was that i was pretty sure that eischen hadn't been shown on the blog before. he pitched in a total of 45 games for the dodgers over the course of the 1995 and 1996 seasons, and non-closing relievers weren't showing up on a lot of cards back then.  but then i remembered that he made his debut on the blog as part of a mother's cards post earlier this year.

1996 skybox dugout axcess eric young axcess airlines frequent flyer insert

i don't care much for card companies when they misspell things on purpose, like 'axcess'.  or 'authentix', as is the case on this 2002 fleer authentix shawn green power alley insert

however, if those cards featured the dodger stadium murals like this 2003 fleer focus jersey edition shawn green card

i'd be more accepting of the spelling.  i'm not going to kick them out of my collection, mind you, but i'm  going to shake my head every time i see them.

2004 topps total robin ventura

the santa maria native finished up his career playing more first base than third base for the 2004 dodgers.  he also pitched in a game.

2008 topps finest hong-chi kuo autograph

always cool to find an auto card in a trade package.  it's also cool to find a card from a set that you're trying to finish, like this jr towles card from 2008 upper deck timeline.

there's been so little movement on my part with that set that it took me a moment to figure out why i was getting a card of an astro that wasn't a tatooine or double play card.  speaking of double play cards, justin sent a bunch of those, too, more than i showed last weekend.  i'll show the others that were new to my collection later.  thanks justin!

have you seen the turning of two?

somehow a number of double play cards have been accumulating in my scanned folder, and it's time to thin the herd.

2000 topps gallery todd walker

the heir to chuck knoblauch could hit pretty well, but manager tom kelly didn't care much for his defense, and so walker was traded to the rockies during the 2000 season.

1993 classic best tim stutheit

stutheit only played in 24 games in 1993, including just 19 for the a-level chiefs.  at least we have this double play card to remember him by.

1993 topps stadium club john valentin

valentin led the league in defensive war in 1993 (and again in 1995) but eventually had to move to third to make room for nomar garciaparra at short.

1996 upper deck collector's choice roberto alomar

and a silver signature parallel

i originally passed on these cards when looking through my collection for double play cards because it's a posed shot, but then i figured so is the 1953 bowman color pee wee reese.  welcome to the double play binder, 1996 udcc roberto alomar!

2004 topps total adam kennedy

what has five legs, three arms, and turns a double play? this card.

2001 upper deck victory felix martinez

felix the shortstop wpent about a month in the dodger organization in 2002, but didn't appear in any big league games for the blue.

2001 upper deck victory tony womack

and 1997 upper deck collector's choice tony womack

which womack wins? i prefer the '97 card thanks to the full photo crop and the mix of colors, although i do not like applebee's. double play cards, however, i do like.

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.

out with the old

any idea what these cards have in common?  i'll save you the trouble of guessing.  they are the cards that have been in my scanned folder the longest - they are some of the first cards i scanned for this blog in september of 2008.  i figured it was time to let them shine.

2005 donruss prime patches shawn green

while i am pretty sure i have one or two fake green patch cards in my collection (i was pretty naive about patch fakery in 2005) this one is not fake.  i am pretty sure of that.  i also am fairly certain that i don't feature shawn green enough on this blog.  i have a ton of his cards and he was my favorite non-dodger and then my favorite dodger and there is really no reason why he is not featured more often.

2004 topps total alex cora

here's a great dodger stadium double play shot.  can you believe that alex cora is still in the league and that he is the starting second baseman for the new york metropolitans?  crazy.  cora's highlight with the dodgers may well have been his 18 pitch at bat where he kept fouling off pitches before hitting matt clement's final pitch into the cubs' bullpen for a home run.

another double play, this time it's luis castillo on a 2002 upper deck victory card

i like that the ball is visible.  that looks like a yankee bearing down on luis, but i am too lazy to try to figure out who it is exactly.  coincidentally, i think luis might be alex cora's platoon partner in new york.

1990 fleer mike fitzgerald

and jim deshaies

featuring the right field pavilion and visitors' bullpen at dodger stadium, respectively.  i always get a kick out of seeing people behind the fence.

1990 upper deck alfredo griffin

another dodger stadium double play turn captured on cardboard.  apparently the sun is always shining in chavez ravine.  that's a nice pose by alfredo, by the way.

finally, here's a 1991 fleer jose vizcaino

with bip roberts trying to break up the double play!  vizcaino may be the unlikeliest guy to wear number 44.  aaron, reggie, mccovey, and vizcaino.

that's it - sorry to have kept these cards buried for so long!

all the colors bleed into one

like the colors of a rainbow, so too are the dodgers of brooklyn and los angeles.

there was black and gray, golden and brown, green and white,and, next to walter alston, even red

and if you notice - there's tommy lasorda on the card, too. no doubt bleeding dodger blue.