russell martin shines

man, this 2008 bowman sterling russell martin bat relic card shines like nobody's business.

you remember russell martin, right?  he was the dodgers' catcher from 2006 through 2010, and had a couple of really good seasons for them even though his batting average dropped each season following his .293 clip in 2007.  that categorical decline continued even after he joined the yankees via free agency prior to 2011, and it wasn't until last season, his first with the pirates, that his average saw an uptick.

this year, martin is hitting .288 (through yesterday) with a career-best .409 obp.  good for him, i say.  he also is sitting on exactly 1000 career hits - tied with (as vin scully might say) old friend jamey carroll.

it has been well documented that martin has many fantastic baseball cards to his name, but not all of his appearances on cardboard are credited.  he at least shares the credit on a couple of cards from 2007 topps update & highlights - this card with his future teammate alex rodriguez

and this one with cole hamels

hamels is sporting the john vukovich memorial patch, while arod is wearing a black armband in memory of cory lidle.  martin, meanwhile, is just wearing the tools of ignorance.  as it turns out, being a catcher is a good way to show up on other people's cards.  just ask jerry grote.

that's martin crouching on kevin youkilis' 2008 topps update card

and there he is again on this justin morneau card from 2008 upper deck documentary

that's two canadians on one card!  both of those cards above were made possible by martin's presence at the all-star game in new york that year (morneau did some lurking of his own at that game as he wound up on brian mccann's 2008 topps update & highlights card)

sometimes a regular season game is enough to earn your way onto another player's card, as is the case with this 2009 topps andy laroche card featuring martin

and sometimes it is a horrific event in a postseason game that gets you some bonus cardboard time.  martin was there behind the plate when matt stairs of the phillies hit a go-ahead two-run home run in game 4 of the 2008 nlcs.  the scene was captured on this 2009 topps card

two canadians, again.  that card brings to mind the 1994 upper deck all-time heroes card of reggie jackson's third home run in game 6 of the 1977 world series (also shown on an upper deck masterpieces card) that features dodger catcher steve yeager (and charlie hough), as well as the 1994 topps card that recalled hank aaron's 715th career home run that features dodger catcher joe ferguson behind the plate.  and, somewhere, i have a card showing mickey owen giving chase to his dropped third strike in the 1941 series.  and they aren't the only dodger backstops to suffer this losing while lurking fate - take a look at this 2005 topps card that presents highlights from the 2004 nlds between the dodgers and cardinals.

there on the bottom half behind albert pujols (who has just hit a series-clinching home run) is dodger catcher brent mayne.  mayne, as far as i know, appears on only one other card as a dodger, so this is half of my brent mayne dodger collection.  i have quite a few more cards of russell martin as a dodger than that, thankfully, and if aj ellis doesn't get some offense going, maybe ned will see to it that i get some more martin as a dodger cards in 2015.

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.

almost a turnabout turn

as you can tell, i enjoy finding cards that show the same play, or continuation of plays, or complement each other in some fashion like that.  i thought that i might have found another matching pair of cards when i first saw these two from 2008 upper deck - yuniesky betancourt

and wilson betemit

both feature double play action from yankee stadium, with slightly different camera angles, as the canon sign attests.  i was hoping for a mariner/yankee double play and a yankee/mariner double play, but alas, betemit appears to be doubling up a tiger.  oh well, the two cards still look nice together.

here's another double play turn from yankee stadium - it's ray durham and his 1997 pinnacle card

i don't think that's jeter sliding in - the '2' looks like part of a two digit number.  tino martinez maybe?

here's a card from 2008 upper deck documentary featuring brandon phillips and darin erstad

as is the case with this set, it features a photo from an entirely different game and series than the one described on the card.  also, there should be about 20 other cards in the set with this same photo.  i guess i need all of those, too.

from 2009 topps chrome, we get this alexei ramirez card

with jd drew actually trying to break up the double play.

this next one is one of my favorites.  it's brett butler's 1990 upper deck card

with roberto alomar laying on the ground and both players looking for the call at first base.  there's a good chance that this play comes from the april 5, 1989 game at jack murphy stadium.  in the third inning, butler drew a lead-off walk and robby thompson hit a ground ball to short.  the padres got the force out at second base, but thompson was safe at first.  well done, brett butler.

moving on, we have a 2004 fleer ultra barry larkin

and some cards from 2009 topps update - alex gonzalez

and cesar izturis

from 2009 upper deck, we get another yuniesky betancourt dp card

along with a howie kendrick card

and a jimmy rollins award winner subset card

i'll finish up with a couple of cards from 2010 topps chrome - including another card of rollins

and one of yunel escobar

don't worry - not too many more double play posts ahead.

the spirit of the trade

i'm trying to get into the habit of posting trades in more 'real time' which means within the same month.  maybe.  i still have a few trades from the past year whose scans have not yet cleared the scanned folder, but i am making progress.  these are some cards i received in mid-april, and are from the first of two recent trades i have completed with rhubarb runner.

i had initially sent him, admittedly, a fair amount of junky twins with a few cards with redeeming value tucked in.  i knew i could do better, especially since i live in the heart of twins territory. so, i wound up picking up some vintage and autos for him at a recent card show - thus the two trades.

anyhoo, first up is a 2004 donruss studio spirit of the game insert featuring hideo nomo

apparently, donruss decided that the spirit of the game is old, nostalgic looking equipment set on an american flag with a picture of a japanese player.  rr also included a 2002 donruss studio spirit of the game for comparative purposes.  this one features paul loduca

and a much more patriotic theme.  the names of various legends of the game at the bottom of the card is a nice touch, but it seems a bit contrived. i don't know how you convey friendly competition and fair play on a card, but to me that is the spirit of the game.  using a mitchell report subject doesn't seem quite right in hindsight.  in a related note, you knew it was a sad period for the blue when the dodger insert cards featured paul loduca.  thank goodness for matt kemp and clayton kershaw these days.

speaking of the mitchell report, here's eric gagne on a 2004 fleer tradition 'this day in history' insert

gagne recorded his 55th straight save on september 2, 2003 which broke the previous record set by tom gordon.  tom gordon was not named in the mitchell report.

there were a couple of adrian beltre cards in the package, including a 2004 upper deck jersey card

and a 1999 fleer ultra insert

it is crazy to think that since 1982, beltre is the longest tenured dodger third baseman.  which reminds me, i need to get back to my position evolution posts.

finally, it wouldn't be a package from rr if it didn't include some 2008 upper deck documentary cards.  sure enough, there was a healthy stack in there, including a nomar!

and three "different" matt kemp cards.

i have to admit, however, that three of these four cards actually mention the cover subject on the back.

thanks rr!

hey, remember when the dodgers were in the postseason?

i do.  barely.  but, thanks to these 2008 upper deck documentary cards (that were issued in 2009) we can relive the glory of the 2008 nlcs.  sort of.

i know that the disconnect between the photos and the games on these cards has been well documented by me and others, i can't help myself.  here we go.

game 1 - dodgers at phillies

there's andre ethier.  he's got the road grays on, which is good, but i don't know if that is citizens bank park.  there's not enough red.  it used to be that brick in a photo like this meant wrigley, but now there are a few stadiums that could fit the bill.  i would guess pac-bell/at&t due to the smattering of orange.

the caption references a 'clutch slugger' and a 'career lcs rbi total'.  ethier had not appeared in a lcs prior to 2008, but i suppose that he added to his career lcs rbi total if he drove in the first run of the game and then later drove in the dodgers' second and last run as well.  unfortunately, andre ethier didn't drive in a run during the entire series.  he didn't add to his career total until 2009.  the caption refers, of course, to manny ramirez who drove in a run in the first inning with a double off of cole hamels.  ethier scored the run, at least.
manny makes an appearance on the card for game 2, again dodgers at phillies

again the road grays are a good start.  plus, there are some fans wearing red, so maybe this is a photo from philadelphia.  the caption is vague enough so that manny could be an appropriate subject, too.  things are looking up. lo and behold, it was manny who hit the 'three-run longball' in the dodgers' loss.  this card is about as accurate as upper deck could manage to get, assuming that the photo is from the nlcs, although i doubt that it is.  manny's still got the dodgers' 50th anniversary patch on his right sleeve, and i don't recall whether the team continued to wear that patch during the postseason, or if they switched to an nlcs patch.
at any rate, as the card for game 3 (phillies at dodgers) reaffirms, getting the photo right wasn't a priority for upper deck

nomah!  not in the home whites, though - that's strike one.  strike 2 comes when we realize that while the dodgers' offense was indeed 'on fire' to start the game, nomar's contribution to their 5-run first inning was a strikeout.  he did drive in a run with a single later in the game, however.   blake dewitt, whose 3-run triple was the highlight of the first inning assault would have been a better subject.  strike 3 comes for upper deck just because of their aversion to put a player like blake dewitt on one of these cards.
game 4 (phillies at dodgers) features rafael furcal

home whites! dodger stadium! caption regarding the bullpen with a photo of the shortstop? the caption is correct, as the combination of clayton kershaw, chan ho park, joe beimel, hong-chih kuo, cory wade and jonathan broxton in relief of derek lowe couldn't hold on to the dodgers' 3-2 and then 5-3 leads.  in fact, beimel was the only one who didn't allow a base runner or allow a run to score (kershaw was charged with a run when chan ho park's wild pitch allowed ryan howard -whom kershaw had walked - to score).  this was the matt stairs game, so i'll take furcal (who was 1 for 2 with 2 runs and 2 walks in the game) over seeing broxton serve it up, even though he would have been a better choice for this card.
game 5 (phillies at dodgers)

same deal as game 3 as far as the photo goes.  this time it's matt kemp in the away grays instead of the home whites.  as for the caption, the dodgers offense was pretty quiet, managing just 1 run and 7 hits against the phillies in game 5.  the lone run came on a home run by manny ramirez, but kemp was not the poster boy for the anemic offense as he was 2 for 3.  furcal and ethier were both 0 for 4 and would have made more sense. 

nice try upper deck.

the blue and the gold from a pwe

rhubarb runner surprised me this week with an envelope in my mailbox.  we completed a trade a couple of weeks ago, but he apparently found some more dodgers and sent them my way.  i'm glad he did.

2008 upper deck documentary nomar garciaparra

and greg maddux

i think david has opened more documentary than anyone else on the planet.  in game 152, nomar started and went 2 for 3 with a double, a run, and a run-batted-in.  he left the game in the 5th inning, but upper deck still managed to get this card right.  game 153 was started by clayton kershaw.  maddog did not appear.  documentary is still a huge disappointment.

speaking of disappointments, here's orlando hudson on a 2009 topps update gold parallel card

two years in a row i have had high hopes for the o-dog, and two years in a row he has disappointed.  hopefully he can stay healthy next year, although i won't really be following him now that he's not a dodger or a twin.
finally, here's a 2009 topps update gold parallel xavier paul card

i am really hoping paul comes through this spring (and beyond) so ned doesn't do something stupid and bring in johnny damon for 2 years/$14 million.

thanks david!

more traded sets contest winnings!

a few weeks ago i won one of andy's contests over at traded sets. he sent me some dodger goodness.

2009 upper deck piece of history russell martin jersey.
better than a piece of shirt from 'the mask' or some other such piece of s#itory.

2008 topps russell martin year in review.

proof that russell did, at one time, hit home runs. not this year, not yet.

2009 upper deck goudey russell martin. the third and final installment in the russell martin portion of the winnings. this card is pretty nice. he doesn't look as one dimensional as some of the other cards i have seen from this set.

speaking of which, it's a 2009 upper deck goudey andre ethier.

greg the night owl has pointed out how bad the orange background makes exposed skin look. ethier's been dipping into someone's orange bronzing lotion apparently.

2008 (or is it 2009?) upper deck documentary vlad.

i can't believe upper deck is updating this set. the back is all about torii hunter, so they didn't bother to correct the disconnect between the photo and the actual game.

2008 topps brad penny.

one of the few cards that shows penny with his head turned. i know fernando used to look straight up at the start of his windup, but penny doesn't turn his head until he starts to bring his leg down.

2008 topps chad billingsley.

how do you say cy young in jive? sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

finally, 2006 topps rookie of the week mike schmidt.

shouldn't they have just used the single player 1973 topps template, rather than make a single player card from the multi-player rookie card? i think so. at least they used an early photo of schmidt. i have the brooks robinson card from this set, and they used the 1978 topps record breaker photo shoot on a 1957 card. it looks like brooks was a 40 year old rookie.

i also won the 'jackpot' at andy's site, and i'll break down those packs in an upcoming post.

thanks andy!