another trade collision

i received some cards from fuji and p-town tom within a day or two of each other recently.  there was some overlap, but that's ok because dodger overlap is the best kind.  fuji sent some 2013 bowman gold in the form of clayton kershaw

i appreciate the dodger stadium shot, with the brooklyn cap.  the photo must be from jackie robinson day in 2012, right?

before we see some other 2013 bowman niceness, here's a 2012 topps chris capuano walmart blue parallel

i appreciate the airbrush - at least topps got his number right.

ok, back to the 2013 bowman.  here's a josh beckett home state parallel

josh hails from texas.  yee-haw.

here's his gold parallel version

as well as that of hanley ramirez

not since 1996 donruss has there been a set that seemed to censor the crotchal region like this.

p-town tom sent the same hanley

and beckett gold cards

but he also included the blue parallel hanley

as well as a beckett base

he also sent an andre ethier base

and a hyun jin ryu gold parallel

plus a joc pederson card, too.

and, just to be different, there was some 1991 donruss studio in the package too.  here's hall of famer gary carter

thanks guys!

don wilson remembered

don wilson's name was mentioned on mlb network a couple of weeks ago after homer bailey threw his second no-hitter.  that's because wilson had two of his own.  during his career, wilson logged double-digit win totals in each of his 8 full seasons with the astros.  he made the all-star team once, and finished fourth in the league in strikeouts in 1969.  prior to the 1975 season, however, the 29-year old wilson died.  for more information, it's probably best to check out the a great article on wilson that mike lynch at seamheads put together.

here is don wilson's 1975 topps card

which i borrowed from night owl's 1975 topps blog

early in the 1975 season, the astros retired wilson's number 40, and his teammates wore a memorial patch on their uniforms. it is prominently featured here on wilbur howard's 1976 topps card

as well as that of rob andrews

but for my memorials binder, i'll use this 1975 sspc card of bob watson

the card seems to have the appropriate tone to it.

turning two for the gazillionth and one time

for the second time today, let's celebrate the art of turning two.

1982 fleer bill almon

saw that one for the first time in 31 years on jeff's 2x3 heroes blog.  jeff also alerted me to this card, a 1992 donruss wally backman

not completely sure it's a dp thanks to the stand-up slide employed by the pirate player, but i'll go with it until proven otherwise.

1992 leaf pat kelly

and 1993 score select pat kelly

both times turning two against the a's, but different plays.  for some reason, oakland was home to a lot of double plays displayed on baseball cards.

1993 fleer jeff frye

frye is avoiding the forearm shiv to the groin

here are a couple of edgar renteria turns - 1997 pacific

and 1998 donruss

back to oaktown, here is a 1994 upper deck sp die cut brent gates

and a 1996 fleer ultra gates, too

and i still have a bunch more brent gates double play cards yet to show.

here's another guy with a lot of double play turning cards - edgardo alfonzo

that's a 1997 fleer ultra gold medallion edition card, and this is a 2000 fleer skybox card

the fancy artsy detailing on that card almost wiped out any evidence of the player sliding in.  thankfully, there is just enough to know that it is a double play turn.

last but not least, as far as this post goes, is a 2002 donruss jimmy rollins card

looks like the dp has been broken up there.

more double plays to come over the next few weeks.  stay tuned.

turning two for the gazillionth time

double play cards just keep turning up!  i can't help myself from acquiring them, either.

here's a 1988 score marty barrett

with his back turned just like jay bell on his 1991 fleer ultra

scott garrelts on the basepaths, too!

bell gets upended a bit on his 1990 upper deck card

but rights the ship on his 1993 fleer ultra card

rafael ramirez gets a couple of dp's at wrigley - here's his 1990 upper deck card

and here's his 1991 topps stadium club card

craig grebeck also makes two stops in this post - a 1993 score card

and a 1993 score select card

thanks to score for not using the same photo!

how about a 1996 bowman jason mcdonald card?

don't mind if i do.

and here's omar vizquel doing what he does best on a 1999 upper deck card

there is some chromey double play goodness on this 2000 topps chrome mike lansing card

and some traded double play niceness on this 2004 topps traded alex gonzalez card

don't worry - i'm not even close to being done with posting all of my double play cards.  stay tuned.

garvey, you're a star. even in brown and yellow

here, with minimal commentary, are the rest of the 1984 star steve garvey cards.  they skip his cup of coffee in 1969 and jump right to 1970.  full season recaps from there through 1983, his first year with the pads.  they must have run out of photos of garvey in dodger blue because they get to the brown and yellow pretty quickly.

i think that middle photo was used in 2012's panini golden age release

haha. the padres were almost out of san diego in 1974.  they were nowhere near the postseason.

hey look! it's mike schmidt!

many a kid in socal ripped their pants trying to do the 'garvey stretch'

that middle card would be a good one for the ray kroc memorial post, thanks to the 'rak' patch and the mcdonald's wristband.  you'll have to wait and see if it makes the memorial binder.

there you have it.  the set was printed too early to capture garvey's 1984 nlcs heroics, but they did give him the 'future hall of famer' tag, so that was nice.