turning two in black and blue and other colors, too

here's a quick post to show some double play cards that i picked up last november during a black friday spree.  timely, i know.

2012 topps chrome dee gordon black refractor

and 2012 topps chrome dee gordon blue refractor

blue works better for the dodgers, and so i picked up a couple others as well

2009 topps chrome orlando hudson blue refractor

(hello, juan castro)

and 2011 topps chrome rafael furcal blue refractor

with the position error

i am on record as noting that the best card in 2014 topps update belonged to justin turner, but before he was turning two as a dodger, he made the pivot in the flagship set as a met.  i picked up some of the parallels for my dp collection

2014 topps justin turner gold

2014 topps justin turner red hot foil

2014 topps justin turner toys r us purple

2014 topps justin turner walmart blue

unfortunately, turner wasn't included in the chrome set last year - either as a dodger or a met - so no blue refractor for me.

speaking of blue refractors, i am still trying to piece together the 2007 topps chrome blue refractor dodger team set, and could use some help...

it's the end of the year as we know it, and i feel like showing some dodger double play turns

one last post in 2014, and it's all dodgers and all double play turns.  too bad there's no davey lopes or bill russell.  there is, however, their infield coach jim gilliam, turning two on his 1995 topps brooklyn archives 1956 reprint card

i dont think i knew that topps had listed gilliam as an outfielder on his 1956 card.  he's definitely not playing as an outfielder on the card.

here's a 2009 topps chrome orlando hudson xfractor

i'm working on updating my double play binders. there are a number of dodger dps, like the hudson above, that i only have one copy of.  i'm trying to get a handle on that so i can pursue duplicates appropriately.  i know i only have one of these - a 2011 topps ivan dejesus factory set limited edition card

but i might have two of his diamond anniversary parallel

conversely, i actually do have two copies of rafael furcal's 2011 topps factory set limited edition card

but maybe only one of the diamond anniversary parallel

furcal's 2011 topps card may be the best double play card of the set (remember - dee gordon's fantastic double play card came in 2011 topps update), and i had been lax in chasing the parallels.  so, here are the cognac,

gold,

and walmart black versions

the same photo was also used in 2011 topps chrome, thankfully, so here are the orange refractor

and xfractor parallels

gordon got his first taste of the topps flagship in 2012, when he was featured on a rookie cup card and another card that showed him turning two with larry 'chipper' jones sliding in.  this is the golden sparkle parallel

fast forward to 2014, and we had more parallels of dodgers turning two.  i found a yellow parallel of mark ellis from 2014 topps a while back

i definitely only have one of those.

same with this other retail parallel - a 2014 topps alex guerrero green border

it's a tatooine card, too, but i'm currently focused on two copies - the tatooine collection can wait.

i'm less certain about some of the other parallels of this card that i have, like his gold card,

red hot foil,

and 2014 topps chrome cards

pretty sure i have two copies of his 2014 topps chrome refractor

but i know i only have one 2014 topps chrome blue refractor

orange refractor,

and xfractor.

in fact, the duplicate xfractor is one of my nefarious 9 - my most wanted cards.

i'll finish the post, and year, with this - one of my 1953 bowman color pee wee reese cards

that i finally removed from its casing.  this is the one in my dodger binder - the one with the pinhole is in the double play binder.

happy new year everybody - if you can't tell, i'm resolving to work on my want/have lists.

while you're standing in line to vote, here are some cards featuring double play turns

i am not very vocal when it comes to politics.  i am smart enough to know that i am not going to change anybody's mind with my views, no matter how strongly i feel about a certain issue.  i let my vote do my talking, i suppose.

i'll be voting later today, and i'll probably be standing in a long line to do so.  so, in case your polling place also sees a strong turnout and you have some time to kill, here are some mindless baseball cards that show the double play turn at second base.

1995 topps stadium club cal ripken jr cause and effect subset

i suppose the cause is a sliding baserunner (hello john jaha) and the effect is a jumping ripken.  the back of the card notes that ripken holds the record (as of 1995) of 7 seasons leading shortstops in double plays turned.

1995 upper deck sp championship series ozzie smith

another hof dp

1998 upper deck spx craig biggio

and 1998 upper deck spx craig biggio radiance parallel

those are some soon to be hof dp turns.  with wally joyner joining in.

1998 upper deck spx nomar garciaparra

strange that on biggio's card, joyner also comes through in the scan, but on nomar's card, my scanner does not care for gary disarcina

1997 topps stadium club jose vizcaino

with a special appearance by steady eddie murray.  the viz has a bunch of dp cards to enjoy

2011 topps update dj lemahieu

i am guessing he landed hard on aj pierzynski, just to make michael barrett proud.

2012 topps ian desmond gold sparkle parallel

desmond has become a dp card regular

2012 topps cliff pennington

the guy sliding in on pennington's card is just barely visible in the lower right corner, but it's enough to convince me that this is a dp turn

1986 topps ricky adams

oh, the joy of the right foot swipe along the bag while making the relay transfer.  one of the best things about playing shortstop.

2009 topps chrome orlando hudson

o-dog turning the double play while i'm turning out the vote!

the braves' beach memorial patch

68-year old former braves player, coach, and then-current minor league outfield instructor jim beauchamp passed away on christmas day, 2007 from leukemia.  the braves added a "beach" patch to their uniforms for the 2008 season in tribute.  

here's tim hudson's 2009 topps chrome card with the patch (beach was beauchamp's nickname) on the left sleeve of the jersey

similarly, the patch shows up on james parr's 2008 upper deck card

but it is outfielder gregor blanco's 2008 topps stadium club card with the patch in clear view

that represents this particular memorial in my collection.

beauchamp followed up a 10-year big league career as a player with 16 years as a minor league manager.  the last six of those years (1985-1990) were spent managing in the braves' system, and he was added to bobby cox's big league staff for the 1991 season.  beauchamp spent the next 10 years or so as cox's bench coach before taking on the outfield coordinator role.

jamie hoffmann double dipped

jamie hoffmann is a dodger double dipper even though he has never appeared in the major leagues for any team other than the dodgers.  it may seem strange to you that i do not consider the likes of shane victorino or ted lilly or scott proctor to be dodger double dippers because they never appeared in a big league game as a dodger before they were sent to other teams only to eventually return.  nor do i consider ramon martinez (pedro's brother) or willie crawford or tommy lasorda to be dodger double dippers because they never appeared in a big league game as a dodger after returning to the franchise, yet i do consider someone like denny lewallyn to be a dodger double dipper, even though he did not appear in a major league game for another franchise in between his stints as a dodger.  still, he left the organization after appearing in the big leagues as a dodger, and appeared in a major league game as a dodger after returning to the fold.  make sense?  well, such is the case of jamie hoffmann.

[this is the fiftieth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, and joe beckwith.]

hoffmann was signed by the dodgers as an amatuer free agent in 2003, and made his big league debut with them in 2009.  here's a gold parallel version of his 2009 topps update card

over the course of 14 games that year, hoffmann went to the plate 24 times and had 4 hits, three of which were for extra bases - two doubles and a home run.  he also had 2 sacrifice flies and 7 rbi in total.  after the season ended, the washington nationals selected him in the rule 5 draft and immediately sent him to the yankees as the player to be named later in an earlier deal between the two teams.  during spring training in 2010, hoffmann was returned to the dodgers by the yankees.  he spent the entire year at aaa albuquerque, hitting .310 with 8 homers and 74 rbi.  the next year, he was hitting .297 with 22 home runs and 84 rbi, which earned him a callup to the big club.  in 2 games with the dodgers, hoffmann was 0 for 4, but he was officially a dodger double dipper in my eyes.  since there are no cards of hoffmann as a yankee, and i don't think there have been any cards made for him since 2009, here's a chrome refractor version of the card i showed up top.

since his return to the dodgers, hoffmann has been selected off of waivers by the rockies (december 2011), signed as a free agent with the orioles (march 2012), and signed as a free agent with the mets (november 2012), but he has yet to resurface in the majors.  he's only 28 though, so there's still time for him to join juan castro as the only triple dipper in dodger history.  make it happen, ned!

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.