a double play double play equals perfection on cardboard

it's the top of the second inning on june 29, 1991 in a game between the orioles and the visiting red sox.  former bosox sam horn has just victimized his former team in the bottom of the first with an rbi double to give the o's the lead.  with one out, carlos quintana lines a single up the middle.  second baseman juan bell is able to cut the ball off, but can't make a play.  this brings up tom brunansky.  brunansky is a man who has grounded into a fair amount of double plays, including 17 in a season twice.  he doesn't disappoint.  his ground ball to orioles' shortstop cal ripken is quickly fielded and ripken throws it to bell covering second.

juan bell's 1992 donruss card captures the double play turn beautifully.

bell is in midair, jumping to avoid the sliding (or is he rolling?) carlos quintana who comes in with his right arm outstretched.

but wait.  carlos quintana's 1992 donruss card also captures this baseball ballet

with bell back on terra firma and quintana still with his arm outstretched, both looking to see randy milligan catch the ball before brunansky arrives at first.  the inning is over.  this continuation is awesome.  reminds me of the 1993 gary gaetti/junior ortiz cards i featured a long time ago..

here's a side-by-side image, just for the heck of it.

1992 donruss just went up a notch in my book.

(thanks for the cards ryan)

the great dodgers-orioles trade project

it's only fitting that i start this trade post with a couple of juan bell cards.  that's because i recently completed a trade with ryan of the great orioles autograph project, and he sent me the cards, along with a bunch of other double play and dodger cards.  also, the dodgers traded juan bell to the orioles for eddie murray way back when.  on to the cards - first, a 1993 topps stadium club

and a 1994 fleer

there was anothe juan bell double play card in the trade, but that card is being saved for a future post.

on to the dodgers!  1991 topps traded darryl strawberry

such high hopes we had back in '91.  donruss had given darryl the gretzky treatment with the press conference photo on their card, so this was the first real dodger darryl i saw.

ryan also included a 1992 leaf strawberry from the heritage insert series

the back says he's wearing a 1944 brooklyn uniform and holding a jackie robinson bat.  jackie wasn't on the 1944 team, but that's ok. to me, darryl looks like another disappointing dodger in this photo - delino deshields.

1994 post mike piazza

this was a nefarious 9 card (ryan also included a 1987 topps lee lacy that was, at one time, also a n9 want).  i have since replaced this card on the list with another oddball piazza - his 1994 kraft card.

2007 bowman heritage ivan dejesus, jr

i didn't realize that he had cards from that far back.  with chin-lung hu out of the way, i would guess that dejesus makes the dodgers this year.  then ned can trade him to the cubs just like al campanis did with his old man.
2009 ud o-pee-chee joe nathan black border

i'm still working on this set (meaning i have a want list) and ryan included a few twinkies.  unfortunately, they weren't ones i needed.  still, they are good cards to put away for twinsfest or the autograph party.

2005 topps nomar garciaparra

a non-red sox nomat, with the chevron car in the background to boot!
we'll finish with another double play card - a 1994 score ryne sandberg

pure goodness.

thanks ryan!

2010 goose joak versions of topps update filler

so, what do i mean by that title?  i had created a few 2010 goose joak cards to highlight the four dodgers who made it to the all-star game, such as hong-chih kuo here, on a goose joak original i made towards the end of the season.

and what happened shortly after?  topps did the same thing in their update set.  here's their kuo card from the update series

and here are the all-star cards i came up with, followed by topps' offerings.

hong-chih kuo

andre ethier

rafael furcal

jonathan broxton

i also did a couple of combo cards, just like topps, although none of theirs featured any dodgers.  if i were really like topps, i would have come up with a stupid caption for these cards, like 'joined at the hip' for this one

or, 'two of us won't be here next year.  keep pitching like that and none of us will be here next year'.

any better ideas?

will the real tom goodwin please stand up, please stand up?

hey - look at this!  it's tom goodwin's 2000 upper deck sp authentic card!

i didn't realize goodwin was so...shall we say...bulky?  or that he hit from the right side.  or that he looks just like adrian beltre. 

goodwin was the dodgers' first round pick in 1989, and he made his debut for them in 1991.  he was selected off of waivers by the royals in 1994 and spent the next 6 seasons in the american league.  that included the 1999 season, when goodwin was a texas ranger.  so, this must be a photo from 2000 when goodwin rejoined the dodgers (double dipper post coming soon), right?  well, goodwin started the 2000 season with the rockies but was acquired by la at the trade deadline, and he did face the cubs at wrigley in august, but how likely is it that a picture from a late august game would wind up on a card that same year? 

really there is no need to wonder about this - clearly that is adrian beltre, not tom goodwin.  why a guy like goodwin would be featured in a limited set like sp authentic is beyond me. my guess is that upper deck intended to include the dodgers' highly touted young third baseman in the set, but some amatuer at upper deck saw the photo and thought beltre's uniform number looked like '28' rather than '29' due to the wrinkling of the jersey.  goodwin, who had worn 42 for the dodgers his first time around, wore 28 in his second stint. 

it gets worse, and a bit better.  here's tom goodwin's 2000 upper deck spx card.

 

at least they got the picture on the left correct - that is tom goodwin.  on the right we still have adrian beltre, this time a few moments after the photo on the first card.  we also get a better view of todd hundley following the flight of the ball while lurking in the on deck circle.

i wonder what collectors think of these sorts of cards, especially the first one.  it's kind of like the 1995 topps traded carlos beltran rookie that is really juan lebron and the juan lebron card from the same set that is really carlos beltran.  i think the card that says beltran was always valued higher than the one that actually featured his picture.  i don't know how many tom goodwin collectors there are out there, or adrian beltre collectors for that matter, but i would be curious to know if they include these cards in their collections.

it doesn't matter for me, though.  upper deck at least got the team name on the card right.

filling in the blanks with another gcrl card that should have been - 1970 topps steve garvey

topps gave bill russell a card in their 1970 set, but didn't bother to recognize the garv, even though he had made his debut in 1969.  i suppose that's ok - he only had 3 at bats.  i have decided to fill in the gaps topps left behind and created this, the 1970 topps steve garvey card that should have been:

the photo was from a topps vault image that was sold on ebay a long while back.  luckily for me, they didn't watermark it.  i did a back, too.

fellow garvey enthusiast mrmopar over at 1978, the year it all began has also featured a 1970 topps garvey with a nice dodger stadium photo and, quite frankly, a better back.

russell was the only member of the infield to be featured in the 1970 set.  the other two, cey and lopes, didn't debut until 1971 and 1972, respectively so they won't show up until those years are featured.

there's not much more to say other than i really wish garvey had been included in the 1970 set.  the dodgers had two multi-player rookie cards (bob stinson/ray lamb and bill buckner/jack jenkins) that would have been ok for garvey to have been featured on even though a solo card would have been much cooler.  i didn't bother slapping him on one of the rookie cards since i did that for one of the 1969 cards that should have been.

here's to you 1970 topps steve garvey card that should have been!

a money saving trade with dustin

a while back i completed a trade with reader dustin.  it was a good trade - he sent a bunch of cool dodgers.  in fact, he sent a card that i had been wanting for a while and was almost ready to 'bin' on ebay after watching a storefront listing for a couple of months.  it's this 2004 topps heritage duke snider insert

which commemorates his 4th home run of the 1955 world series (the second time he had hit 4 home runs in a single series).  it's even cooler because it has jackie robinson and gil hodges lurking with their hands extended in congratulations for the silver fox.  awesome card, and i didn't even know it was coming in advance.

speaking of jackie, here he is on one of his 1997 upper deck cards

nice and shiny!

staying with the brooklyn theme, here's a 1993 leaf studio eric karros heritage series insert

the back says that this is a 1911 uniform 'and bat from that era'.  1911 was the first year the team was called the dodgers, so that's cool.  i'm glad they ditched the pinstripes though.

2003 topps traded brennan king gold parallel

king made it to aa with the dodgers in 2002, and played in jacksonville through the 2004 season.  he then moved on to the royals and phillies systems, making it to aaa for the phils.  it looks like he peaked there, with 2008 being his final year in pro ball.

1993 leaf raul mondesi

i don't know what is going on here.  i had no idea mondesi was ever a switch hitter, but it's not a reversed negative so he clearly thought he could go lefty.  i suppose it's a good thing he gave it up, but who knows - maybe he raked?

1997 bowman joe lagarde

joe here has a unique look about him.  not quite sure what it is that strikes me as odd.  anyway, he pitched in the dodgers' system for 6 years, first as a starter and then as a reliever.  he made it to aaa in 1996 and 1998, which was his last year in pro ball.

1994 topps finest mike piazza

this card was tough to come across back in 1994.  i don't think i even tried.  it's nice to have now, though.

1987 tcma greatest teams ed roebuck and clem labine

roebuck and labine shared the 'closer' duties on the 1955 dodger team.  roebuck had 12 'saves' while labine had 11.  in the series, labine won game 4 and 'saved' game 5, while roebuck made one relief appearance and gave up no runs in two innings.  it's nice to see these guys on a card instead of the usual boys of summer.

thanks for the trade dustin! it is much appreciated!

perfection on cardboard. literally.

i recently picked up the last of the 1971 fleer world series cards to feature the dodgers.  as usual, it also features the yankees.  the two teams squared off in 1956, with the dodgers filling the unfamiliar role of defending champions.  here's the card:

nothing quite as effective as a scoreboard to drive the point home.  don larsen's game 5 perfecto is certainly worthy of being celebrated on the card since yogi jumping into his arms is the lasting image from the series, but this was the second year these cards were made.  i think the 1970 fleer world series card for 1956 highlights the yankees' record 12 home runs.  i wonder why they didn't go with perfection the first time around?