the calendar turns with some double play turns

looks like we made it through another year, and what better way to celebrate than to show some double play turns.  i've found a few more that are new to my collection, and none may be better than this 1991 pacific senior league jerry terrell card

it's a coach card to boot!

i had overlooked this 1997 upper deck neifi perez

double play turn due to the over application of foil, but now it has had its status upgraded in my collection from monster box fodder to double play binder material.

similarly, i had previously failed to show the back of mike bordick's 1993 upper deck sp card

even though i had shown the front a long time ago.

here's a 1998 pacific online scott spiezio card

i've shown the red foil parallel before, but not the base.

how about some derek jeter for all the fan boys out there.  here's his 2005 topps card

plus a 2006 upper deck

and a 2008 upper deck superstar card

i'm actually looking forward to some decent final tributes in 2015.

alfonso soriano was, at one time, jeter's double play partner.  here's a 2001 leaf rookies & stars card of the former yankee second baseman

i had almost forgotten he was once an infielder.

now how about some trevor plouffe?  here's a 2012 topps golden sparkle parallel,

a 2012 topps walmart blue parallel,

and a 2012 topps mini card

of the twins' current third baseman.  now, instead of turning double plays, plouffe hits doubles - he had 40 in 2014, which was good for fourth in the league.

i picked up this 2010 topps robin yount short print a while back

it would have looked nice as a 1978 or 1979 topps card, i think.

fast forward to 2014, and we have the somewhat rare double play card whose subject is the base runner - jordan danks in this case

and a pretty standard double play turn, although it is a red hot foil parallel, featuring the marlins' donovan solano

i'm hoping to see some photoshopped dee gordon as a marlin double play turns in 2015.

kemp and kershaw go together like a horse and carriage

happy new year!  i'm not making any resolutions, but i would like to see the dodgers' front office resolve to give clayton kershaw what he wants and sign him to an extension, and also resolve to not trade matt kemp.  i am willing to hitch the team's fortunes to these two guys and see what happens.

with that, let's have a look at a few kershaw and kemp cards that i've been scanning but not posting for a while.  we'll start with a 2011 panini playoff contenders combo card of the two

here's another combo card - these two are like peas and carrots - this one is from 2013 topps heritage

now for some shiny solo stuff - 2013 topps finest kershaw

and kemp

and a kemp refractor

2013 topps tribute kershaw

and kemp

here's a 2011 bowman international parallel, reminding us that kershaw is from texas.

kemp's home state of oklahoma also makes an appearance on that card.  see?  they're even neighbors!

here's a matt kemp 2012 topps mini card that was handed out at the national convention

now for a 2010 upper deck biography kershaw

and a 2011 topps marquee kemp - the blue parallel version

here's a 2010 bowman chrome kershaw

and a 2010 bowman platinum kemp

obviously, most of kemp's cards show him with a bat, but he does have a few that show him fielding or on the bases.  pretty much all of kershaw's cards show him pitching.  i'm hoping that 2014 opening day at least shows him at the plate delivering his 2013 opening day home run against the giants.  but if the rest of his cards show him pitching in dodger stadium like this 2011 bowman finest futures card, i won't complain.

here's a black bordered 2008 topps allen & ginter kemp mini that i picked up on sportlots for 18 cents a couple months ago.

and here's a 2009 upper deck goodwin champions kershaw that i've had scanned for a while

just a few more - 2013 bowman platinum kemp

and 2009 upper deck signature stars kershaw

and last but not least - some 2013 topps stickers of kemp

and kershaw

man, do i hope these two stick together with the dodgers.  in 2014 and beyond.

whatever will i use to protect my furniture from the condensation on my cold beverage?

in one of the more odd items i have received in a trade package, tom from waiting til next year sent me this coaster last week

as far as i can tell, that's a 2012 topps mini matt kemp card in there.  strange, but useful.

there were a few cards in the package, too, such as this 2012 panini triple play james loney

and this 2013 panini triple play andre ethier

the trade was borne out of the 2013 panini triple play post (tom wanted the starlin castro card) and the ethier was the only one i was expecting in return.  it was a nice surprise to find other cards and the coaster. thanks tom - i'll get starlin (and a few friends) in the mail on monday.

double dutch

i recently posted some cards from a package sent by jeroen, the dutch card guy.  here are some more boys in blue sent by the orangeman.

2012 panini triple play matt kemp

this is the first time i have featured any of these on the blog.  i did buy a couple of packs of the stuff when it was released, just out of curiosity.  

this might be the last time james loney appears on the blog. this is his 2012 bowman card

the same set (i think?) that this joc pederson card came from

but different from this 2012 bowman chrome prospects jt wise card.

bowman is too confusing.

jeroen included some minis - like this 2012 topps mini andre ethier

and the double play turning dee gordon.

that's cool because now i have a dupe of the gordon for the double play binder.  same for this next card, a 2013 topps emerald parallel of gordon, once again, turning two.

the other cards in the package were 2013 minis of adrian gonzalez

and clayton kershaw

i know jeroen collects kershaw, so i appreciate him giving this one up.

thanks for the cards jeroen - good luck with your studies!

grande (and mini) impact

chris over at nachos grande recently hosted a group break that included 2000 fleer (skybox?) impact and 2012 topps mini.  i picked up the dodgers in the break, and received a complete team set from the impact set.

the dodgers won 86 games in 2000, but were 11 games behind the division winning giants, and 8 behind the wild card (and pennant) winning mets.  all 6 of these guys had pretty good seasons in 2000 - sheffield absolutely went off - but they couldn't pull it all together and get to the postseason, although they would have won the second wild card if there were such a thing back then.

here's a nice logo tattoo that was inserted into packs.

i don't have any tattoos, and if i did, it wouldn't be this one even though i really like the logo.

as is the case with most breaks these days, i was randomly assigned a second team.  i wound up with the marlins, which meant i got some more dodgers.  like josh beckett.

he's made five starts for the dodgers, and the team is 2-3 in those games.  run support has been a problem, as the dodgers scored 0, 2, 2, and 1 runs in his first four starts.  welcome to la, josh.

i also got a hanley ramirez card from the mini break

ramirez is hitting around .260 since joining the dodgers, which is better than he was doing in miami.  his power numbers seem to be there, so hopefully he can get the average up next year.  what has disappointed me the most, i think, is that he's not running like he used to.  he was only 3 for 6 in stolen base attempts as a dodger when i wrote this post.  i'm hoping that davey lopes can help him get his success rate up, because it looks like this team can't sit back and wait for the 3-run bomb.

here's a clayton kershaw insert from the mini break

i'm not going to show any of the base cards because they look just like the regular set cards.  i know that's how it was done in 1975, but i was hoping for some variation.

i also asked chris to throw in this card from 2012 topps archives.  it's a tulo double play card with matt kemp lurking.

it's also the same photo topps used for its 2011 topps marquee tulo card.  whatever, it's still a dp card and it's still the kem-v-p.

thanks chris.