dp or not dp?

i have slowly been prepping for the 'greatest double play card ever' tournament for quite a while now.  it turns out, there are more of these things than even i imagined.  i decided to hold off on the tournament until i finished cataloguing all of my double play cards.  look for the tourney to kick off towards the end of the season.

part of the problem is that topps keeps churning out cards showing the turn at second base.  some are pretty cool, some are not.  here are some recent and not so recent double play cards.

this first one, from 2012 topps, is actually not a double play turn.  

as far as i can tell, the play shown on the above card comes from the bottom of the 9th inning on august 28, 2011.  kyle seager was on first base with no outs when josh bard hit a grounder to beckham.  the white sox were up 9-2, so beckham just went for the sure out at first rather than try to get seager at second.  so, not a dp turn, but still a pretty cool card.

this one is definitely a double play turn - it's robinson cano (red border target exclusive, y'all!)

with josh hamilton steamrolling in.

let's take a break from the new stuff and look back at some double plays unearthed from my collection. 2004 topps seemed to have quite a few.  here's alex cintron

and ray durham

current dodger mark ellis

and cristian guzman

jeff kent (i see you, pokey reese!)

and jack wilson

2009 topps gave us jj hardy

and placido polanco

last year, there were a couple of good troy tulowitzki double play turns, including the one from topps' opening day release

although i still like the topps marquee card better.

back to 2012, and we have recently surging power hitter trevor plouffe making the turn in oakland.

this card is actually from the 2012 topps twins team factory set.  i just received the regular topps issue in the mail yesterday, so you'll see this card again in a near future trade post.

finally, here's a card from 2012 topps allen & ginter, featuring alcides escobar (right? is that the right escobar? i kind of wish the first names were on the cards)

i am envious of the braves, white sox and any other team whose outfield walls have those murals that we first saw at dodger stadium.  i really wish they would get rid of the mccourt-installed billboards and either go back to the blue padding or the murals.

the dodger 1978 topps dodgers in 1980

most of the gang was still wearing dodger blue when the 1980 topps set came out.  this was the first set that i collected that had the facsimile autograph, and i wasn't too impressed.  1980 was also the year that the dodgers went into the final weekend of the season down three games in the standings to the astros.   they beat houston three in a row to force a game 163.  i remember suggesting to my teacher that perhaps we be allowed to watch the game (he was way ahead of me), but sadly, i also asked him to pull the plug when the dodgers were down by 6 after four innings.

here's dusty baker

baker had one of the best seasons of his career in 1980.  he hit .294 with 29 homers and 97 rbi and finished fourth in the league mvp voting.  he also won a silver slugger award for the first time.  he had a couple of two-home run games in 1980, including one against tom seaver. his last home run of the season, number 174 of his career came off of the padres' rick wise.  baker would hit his first homer of the 1981 campaign off of rick wise.  i may be the only one that finds stuff like that interesting.  i can just hear vin scully saying something like 'the last time baker faced wise, he hit a home run, and there's a high fly ball to deep left field and wouldn't you know it, dusty did it again!'

ron cey

did not have a home run off of rick wise in 1980, but did hit four of his 28 bombs off of seaver. cey had 77 rbi and a .254 average and was left off of the all-star roster for the first time since 1973.  he was the only member of the infield to not make the team and play in the game as it was held in dodger stadium for the first time.  it was cey's two-run homer in the bottom of the 8th in game 162 that gave the dodgers  their 4-3 victory and forced game 163.  unfortunately, cey was injured and could not play in the one game playoff, and was replaced in the lineup by a rookie named mickey hatcher.

terry forster

was still dealing with injuries and bone chips in 1980, and pitched in just 9 games as a result. he earned no wins, losses or saves in those appearances, nor did he have a plate appearance. in a statistical anomaly that had nothing to do with forster's pitching, the dodgers lost all 9 games in which he appeared.

steve garvey

was up to his usual tricks in 1980 - 163 games played, 200 hits, .304 average, 26 homers and 106 rbi.  it turned out to be the last time in his career that he reached those numbers.  garvey also started for the national league in the all-star game for the 7th straight year and finished 6th in the league mvp voting in 1980.  his home run off of nolan ryan was the difference in game 161, but the garv was held hitless in game 163.

burt hooton

was 14-8 with a 3.66 era in 33 starts for the dodgers in 1980.  he also made a single relief appearance in which he earned a save.  that save came in a 17-inning game on april 12 against the astros in which both hooton and rick sutcliffe entered the game as pinch hitters.  sutcliffe, in fact, singled in his at bat and did not even pitch in the game.  hooton, on the other hand, sacrificed dusty baker to second in the top of the 17th, and johnnie b eventually scored the go ahead run on a mickey hatcher single.  hooton started game 162 for the dodgers, but was replaced by bobby castillo after he allowed 2 runs in the second inning without recording an out.

charlie hough

didn't make it to the final series of the season with the dodgers, as the rangers purchased his contract from the team in mid-july.  hough had appeared in 19 games for the blue, and had a record of 1-3 with a save at the time of his departure.  in texas, hough went 2-2 in 16 appearances.  both wins with the rangers came in hough's two starts - one a complete game and the other his first career shutout.

tom lasorda

guided the team to 91 wins in 1980, a 12 game improvement over 1979.  he was named as a coach on chuck tanner's squad for the all-star game at dodger stadium, and, well, you read the rest yesterday in my tommy john write-up.  later in the season, lasorda chose dave goltz to start game 163, and has been second guessed ever since.

dave lopes

started the all-star game for the national league for the second year in a row, despite a .236 average at the break.  i was partially to blame for the ballot stuffing as i voted straight dodgers multiple times.  lopes had a better second half as he raised his average to .251 by the season's end.  he stole only 23 bases on the year, his lowest full season total as a major leaguer.  for what it's worth, lopes hit 10 homers, 6 of which were lead-off blasts. his first dinger of the season came at the expense of the aforementioned rick wise.

rick monday

returned from an injury plagued 1979 season to play in 96 games for the dodgers in 1980.  relegated largely to pinch-hitting duties, monday still hit 10 home runs including a walk-off pinch hit job against the reds in june.  mo drove in the dodgers' only run in game 163.

manny mota

appeared on two cards in the 1980 topps set, the only dodger to do so.  he got a highlights card thanks to his career pinch-hit record set in 1979

i thought this was pretty cool.  it was the first dodger highlight/record breaker card to come along since i had been collecting, and the dodgers' first since mike marshall got one in 1975.  i only had to wait until 1982 for the next one, thanks to fernando valenzuela.  as for mota, he had actually retired after the 1979 season, so i thought that his base card would be a final tribute, but the dodgers activated him late in the season.  he wound up going 3 for 7 as a pinch hitter in september, and he had a big rbi single in that role in the bottom of the 7th inning of game 162 to cut the astros' lead to one run and help set the stage for cey's two-run blast to win the game.

johnny oates

was released by the dodgers during spring training 1980, so i guess i should have shown this card yesterday.  no matter.  oates wound up signing with the yankees of all teams, and played in 39 games for them in 1980.  he hit the final home run of his big league career that year, a solo shot off of dave hamilton of the a's.  while the yankees made it to the alcs in 1980, oates did not make an appearance in the three games of the series as the bronx bombers were swept by kansas city.

doug rau

missed the entire 1980 season due to injury.  next!

bill russell

was the third and final member of the infield to start for the national league in the all-star game.  it turned out to be the final all-star appearance of his career.  on the year, russell hit .264 with 3 homers and 13 steals.  russell missed the last couple of weeks of the season and was replaced in the lineup by derrel thomas.

reggie smith

was the fourth dodger to be named a starter in the all-star game.  he earned it with 15 homers and a .328 average at the break.  after the all-star game, however, smith suffered a shoulder injury and then needed stitches to close a wound on his arm that may or may not have been the result of a clubhouse scrap with derrel thomas.  he wound up not playing in a game after august 13, and finished the year hitting .322 with those 15 home runs.  jay johnstone took his spot in the lineup.  it's amazing that the team finished as well as they did, now that i think about it.

don sutton

was 13-5 in 31 starts for the 1980 dodgers.  he also made a single relief appearance, earning the save in game 162 - two days after starting and throwing 8 innings in game 160.  sutton also led the national league in era (2.20) and whip which made me so happy.  that's because i knew sutton would appear on a league leader card in 1981.  having started collecting in 1978, i missed the glut of dodger leaders from 1975 through 1977, and so was pretty excited when 1981 topps was released.

steve yeager

appeared in 96 games in 1980.  he hit .211 on the year with a couple of home runs.  yeager missed a couple of weeks in late august/early september, and when he returned, he was used mostly as a pinch hitter and late inning replacement for mike scioscia and joe ferguson.  yeager singled in game 162 after entering the game in the 8th inning, but did not play in game 163.

i need to also mention that of the 1978 topps dodgers that were active in 1979 but not included in the 1980 set, vic davalillo was the only one who played in 1980, and a couple of guys (glenn burke and lance rautzhan) were denied 'final tributes'.  more about that in a future post.

21/27 members of the 1978 topps dodgers were featured by topps in 1980

total appearances:

baker 10 (1971-1980)
burke 2 (1978-1979)
cey 9 (1972-1980)
davalillo 14 (1963-1974, 1978-1979)
forster 9 (1972-1980)
garman 8 (1971-1973, 1975-1979)
garvey 10 (1971-1980)
goodson 6 (1973-1978)
grote 15 (1964-1976, 1978-1979)
hooton 9 (1972-1980)
hough 9 (1972-1980)
john 17 (1964-1980)
lacy 8 (1973-1980)
lasorda 7 (1954, 1973-1974, 1977-1980)
lopes 8 (1973-1980)
martinez 9 (1971-1976, 1978-1980)
monday 14 (1967-1980)
mota 18 (1963-1980)
oates 9 (1972-1980)
rau 8 (1973-1980)
rautzhan 2 (1978-1979)
rhoden 6 (1975-1980)
russell 11 (1970-1980)
smith 14 (1967-1980)
sosa 7 (1974-1980)
sutton 15 (1966-1980)
yeager 8 (1973-1980)

teams represented so far:

18 (dodgers, indians, colt .45's, pirates, white sox, astros, mets, a's, red sox, angels, expos, cardinals, braves, cubs, orioles, giants, phillies, yankees)

one who left and the ones who were already gone - the non-dodger 1978 topps dodgers in 1980

so, here we are in 1980, and another 1978 topps dodger has seen his career come to an end.  at least topps gave ted martinez a card in 1980, unlike teammates lance rautzhan and glenn burke.  all three played their final big league games in 1979, but only teddy got a card.  here is his 'final tribute'

here's the back, with his complete career stats

i like the double play turn in the cartoon!  it's too bad that topps couldn't find any sort of highlight from martinez' 1979 season and had to resort to a couple of plays from the 1978 campaign to write about.  they could have mentioned that martinez' final major league hit was an 8th-inning double off of the astros' vern ruhle that came on september 28, 1979, and it started a 5-run dodger rally in a game that they won 6-5.  maybe that's too verbose for the back of the card.  anyway, martinez was released by the dodgers in early april of 1980, and, although he never did make it back to the big leagues, they must have re-signed him shortly thereafter as he played 86 games for the aaa dukes that same year.

in his second year away from la, tommy john posted a career high in wins with 22 for the yankees.

john also returned to dodger stadium for the first time in 1980, as a member of the american league all-star squad.  the story goes that tommy lasorda, a coach on chuck tanner's national league staff, recalled the success that ken griffey sr. had enjoyed against john while john was pitching for the dodgers, and suggested that griffey hit against john.  sure enough, griffey hit a home run off of tj to put the nl on the board.  the problem with that tale is that griffey entered the game when the american league starter, steve stone was still in the game (although maybe tommy saw john warming up), and then didn't face john until john's second inning of work came around.  besides, the american league was still leading 2-1 after griffey's solo shot.  john did go on to take the loss in the game, however, after he allowed three straight hits and ed farmer couldn't shut the door in the 6th inning.  it should be noted that jerry reuss, john's replacement in the dodger rotation, earned the win for the national league.

lee lacy had a pretty good season in 1980, even though he was in a left field platoon with mike easler

lacy played in 109 games for the defending world champs (at that point, it was the most games he had ever played in a single season) and hit .335 with an obp of .394 - both career highs.  he hit two home runs in a game for the first time in his career, including one off of steve carlton for the second straight season.

rick rhoden returned from injury in june of 1980

he wound up making 19 starts and one relief appearance for pittsburgh, going 7-5 with a 3.84 era along the way.  his first win of the season (and as a pirate) came against the dodgers as he out dueled the pitcher that essentially replaced him in the rotation, bob welch on july 18th.  rhoden also had a couple of complete games in 1980, and slugged a home run (the fifth of his career) off of houston's gordie pladson.  it was the second home run pladson gave up in the game, and the last of his career.

here's elias sosa, who spent 1980 in montreal, and so was featured with the proper team on his 1980 topps card for the first time since 1977

sosa was 9-6 with 9 saves for the expos in 67 relief appearances.  i find it interesting that on june 11, 1980, sosa was allowed to bat not once, but twice in a tie game against the padres.  sosa popped out to lead off the bottom of the 8th, but then singled in the bottom of the 9th to put chris speier in scoring position for ron leflore, who ended the game with a single of his own, with sosa obviously getting the win.

tomorrow we'll look at the 1978 topps dodgers who were, in fact, dodgers in 1980.

beast mode never sleeps

here's the second of the dodger parallel short prints in 2012 topps series 2 to show up in my mailbox.  matt kemp unleashing his undershirt and beast mode at the same time

it reminds me a bit of that 1993 upper deck roger mcdowell card on which he is wearing the 'lasorda u' t-shirt, and is much better than the 1978 sspc tommy john card.

i am looking forward to the return of beast mode, although beauty mode would be ok if that's what it takes to keep the hamstring healthy.

living too much in '82

me and uncle rico.  truth be told, i don't care a whole lot for the 1982 topps set.  even back as a kid, the hockey sticks, the colors the dodgers were given by topps, the facsimile auto, and the lack of postseason cards were only slightly offset by the inclusion of the steve sax/mike marshall/ron roenicke rookie card and four fernando valenzuela cards.

it was a set that more recently, i typically avoided when sending out ttm requests.  if i did send out a card from the set, it was usually one of the in action cards or rookie cards to send because of the absence of the aforementioned facsimile auto, or, as in the case of dennis lewallyn, it was one of the only options.

still, a card signed by a dodger is a card signed by a dodger, and when i saw a well known grapher selling some of his wares on ebay, i took a shot with a few cards.  i didn't win any of the 1978 topps cards he was offering, but the low opening bid was good enough to score some 1982 topps cards.

here's terry forster

forster is one of the guys i am still chasing for the modest 1978 topps dodger autograph project.  i did buy a card off of ebay a while ago, but i would prefer something more verifiable.  i sent a card to hall of fame sports last year, but forster was too ill to attend the event.  they are trying again this year and i have my fingers crossed.

here's davey lopes

good, clean, bold lopes autos are tough to find.  i am more and more thankful that he signed both of his 1978 topps cards for me back in the early days of my pursuit.

rick monday

monday is another tough one to get ttm.  i have a card signed by him that i will be showcasing sometime down the road.  it's pretty awesome, but i had to pay for it through hall of fame sports.  i'm not complaining, though.

here's jerry reuss

not much different between then and now for reuss, who is a fantastic ttm signer.  after i posted my first success from him back in 2009, he emailed me and asked how to get the word out about his availability for ttm.  i think the word is out.  speaking of which, i have a few ttm successes of my own yet to share - maybe in a post in a couple of weeks to coincide with reuss' appearance on the oh my o-pee-chee blog.  hopefully i don't get another email telling me to stop sending him cards to sign

finally, i picked up a steve garvey in action auto

pretty sure i have one already, but i can put this in the ttm/non-certified auto binder instead of the garvey binder if that's the case.

i should note that, while i won each of these for the opening bid ($0.99), i paid $4.95 in shipping (essentially $0.99 each after the seller discount).  a bit steep for five cards, but not too out of line when you win multiple items from most sellers.  i was shocked when the cards arrived in a pwe with a 63 cent stamp on it.  the cards were obviously protected, but i did not expect a pwe when i paid almost $5 in shipping.  to the seller's credit, he did refund me $1 after i complained, but i don't think he understood what my beef was.

anyway, i have the cards and i am happy to add them to my non-certified autograph collection!

i spy an sp

i was relieved when 2012 topps series one came out and there were no dodger variations.  no pies in the face of whomever, no rodents or seagulls or anything else.  not even a frank mccourt in effigy variation.  now that series 2 is out, there are two dodgers sp's (that i am aware of), and the first of them arrived in my mailbox recently.

good golly, those are some baggy uniforms on the clayton kershaw variation

think of the wind resistance!

i didn't have the regular version of the card in hand when writing this post, but i did have a golden moments insert that features it for comparative purposes

of course, the image is the same (or at least similar) to the 2012 topps opening day kershaw card, as well as his card from the 2012 topps dodgers blister team set.

and, with series 2 out, that means i can get to my annual post comparing the flagship cards to the factory team set.  look for it soon!

sportscaster goodness - sandy koufax

i picked up another sportscaster card recently - this one features sandy koufax as the subject

here's the back

norm sherry gets a mention thanks to his sage advice, but there is another story centering around koufax's early career that wasn't included on the card, even though we seem to hear a lot more about it.  that's probably due to the fact that the central figure in that story is more vocal about it than sherry seems to be regarding his koufax influencing tale.  i am referring, of course, to the fact that tommy lasorda was the player demoted to make room for koufax on the dodgers' 1955 roster.

i am down to needing just one sportscaster card to complete my dodger team set - i've got my eye on you, roy campanella!