the phillies' 'b' memorial patch

two of the three buck brothers who purchased the phillies back in 1981 died during the 2010 offseason.  alexander 'whip' buck passed away in october 2010, while jim buck died in march of 2011.  as far as i can tell, the third brother - william - is still alive today.  they were the heirs to what is now known as the glaxosmithkline pharmaceutical company, and used a small amount of their fortunes to buy the phillies in 1981.

for the 2011 season, the phillies wore a circular patch with the letter 'b' inside to remember the two brothers.  the patch is visible on a whole mess of 2012 cards, including this 2012 topps heritage charlie manuel card

roy halladay is wearing it on this 2012 topps league leader card

clayton kershaw is also wearing a memorial patch - his is for duke snider.

here's a nice 2012 topps target red parallel of jose contreras with the patch

and a regular 2012 topps card of joe savery

i thought about using ryan howard's 2012 topps chrome card as the example in the memorial binder

but shane victorino's card from the same set is better

i'm not a victorino fan, so i kept looking.  here's a 2012 topps gypsy queen jimmy rollins card

and a couple of hunter pence cards - 2012 topps opening day

and 2012 topps archives

i probably like pence less than victorino, so i'll go with jimmy rollins' 2012 topps opening day card

as the representative card in the collection.

with all the talk about the new dodgers' ownership and the finances that the guggenheim group has, the buck brothers were also venture capitalists and have apparently set the phillies up with a vast amount of resources to remain competitive for a long time.

the robin roberts memorial patch

on may 6, 2010, hall of fame pitcher robin roberts passed away due to natural causes.  he was 83.  the phillies, his primary team during his 19 year career, subsequently wore a memorial patch with his number 36 on their right sleeves.  here's joe blanton's 2011 topps card as an example

and here is chase utley's 2011 topps 60 insert with the patch visible as well.

the card in my memorials binder, however, is this 2011 topps chrome carlos ruiz card

roberts was a member of the 'whiz kids' - the 1950 phillies team that captured the national league pennant but lost to the yankees in the world series.  that was the only postseason appearance of roberts' career (which also included time with the orioles, astros, and cubs; plus a 'zero year' appearance with the yankees) although he was the most successful pitcher in the national league during the first part of the 1950's.  he won 20 or more games in each season from 1950 through 1955, plus 19 more in 1956 while playing for some fairly bad teams.  he finished his career with 286 wins while leading the league in wins four years in a row and twice in strikeouts.  roberts just missed the pitching triple crown in 1953 by finishing second in era to warren spahn.

roberts' contract was purchased by the yankees following the 1961 season, and the phillies retired his uniform number in 1962, even though roberts was still active until the end of the 1966 season and even attempted a comeback with the team in 1967.  actually, it appears that the team may have waited a bit longer to retire the number (did they do as the dodgers and wait for cooperstown to call?), as baseball reference shows a player wearing 36 for the phillies in 1972, four years before roberts was enshrined in the hall of fame.

when in extreme doubt, turn two again

sometime last year, i got in the habit of scheduling two (or more) posts a day on weekends.  not every weekend, but most of them, plus on a weekday here and there.  i feel like i have a lot of cards i want to show and/or write about, so i plan to maintain a greater that a post a day pace this year.  i didn't have much to say for the first post that ran today, so instead showed some heretofore unseen on this blog double play cards.  why not show some more for the second post of the day.

2000 topps stadium club derek jeter

and 2000 topps stadium club chrome derek jeter

and 2000 topps stadium club chrome jose vidro

2000 fleer ultra miguel tejada

and 2000 fleer ultra todd walker

2000 pacific alex rodriguez

2001 pacific damion easley

2002 fleer royce clayton

2005 fleer ultra alfonso soriano

2008 topps stadium club gregorio petit (1st day)

and 2010 bowman kaz matsui gold parallel

two posts again tomorrow, except they will be memorial patch related, not double plays.  stay tuned...

when in doubt, turn two

i didn't have anything in the hopper for today's post(s), so why not show some new-to-the-blog double play cards?  

2004 upper deck bo hart

the best part of hart's card may not be the turn or the st louis skyline, but rather the fact that jim edmonds (i think that's edmonds) is assuming that the double play will be completed at first.

2004 upper deck alex rodriguez

throwbacks!

2004 upper deck ray durham

that's a nice card.

2003 bowman draft prospects jose reyes

which means there is also a 2003 bowman chrome draft prospects jose reyes card

2003 topps bazooka wilson betemit

2002 upper deck victory update brandon phillips

that card features a photo we have seen before

2002 upper deck ballpark idols omar vizquel

2002 leaf alex rodriguez

no throwbacks

2002 fleer ultra ricky gutierrez gold medallion edition

2002 fleer triple crown cristian guzman

and 2001 fleer ultra carlos febles

someday i will run out of double play cards to show.  until then, they do a nice job of filling in between more thoughtful posts.

neal before zack

earlier today i posted some cards i received in trade and made a monty python reference.  in this post's title, which features cards sent by jeff at 2x3 heroes in a pwe, i have made a superman 2 reference.

it's not perfect, but it's the best i could do in this moment.  here's a 1962 post charlie neal card

 followed by a 2013 topps chrome zack greinke card

consider your hand crushed.  or, since it the execution of the reference was far from solid, perhaps your hand should only be mildly discomforted.

there were two other cards in the envelope, one of which was this nice 1998 fleer tradition mark bellhorn card

thanks jeff.  i've got some pwe ammo ready to head your way soon...

i did not expect old foul cardboard

nor did i expect the spanish inquisition, but then again, who does?  a while back, i sent a pwe with a couple of yankee cards for kyle, whose dad chris runs old foul cardboard - no big deal.  i certainly didn't expect a return package.

that means i was more than pleasantly surprised last week.  i received some good stuff, like this 1975 topps walter alston/dodger team card with dodger stadium in the background

the orange and brown color combo isn't the best, but…

here's a 2008 upper deck clayton kershaw 20th anniversary card

kershaw made his debut in 2008.  less than 6 years later, he's the highest paid pitcher in big league history. well deserved, i might add.

2012 bowman platinum andre ethier

i like the way that card scans.

2012 topps chrome matt kemp

i wish that card scanned better.

2013 topps update jp howell

i still have quite a few dodger update cards that i should showcase before 2014 flagship hits the shelves later this month.  stay tuned for some puig and ryu sp craziness.

here are a couple of double play turns from update that were also in the package - matt carpenter

and didi gregorius - emerald style!

thanks chris!  i'll get another pwe or two out - no need to send anything in return - although i will probably wait until i have some 2014's to send.

what have they done to my fair stadium?

beach volleyball.  kiss.  nhl hockey.  these things will be taking place in dodger stadium on january 25th, and construction of the rink and other associated items is well underway.  i don't have any problems with that.  i've been to a couple of concerts at dodger stadium, and i contemplated going to the exhibition outdoor game that the nhl staged in las vegas several years back.  i know the folks here in the twin cities are hoping for the nhl classic to come to target field or the gophers' football stadium (where the golden gophers will play ohio state in some big 10 hockey action tonight in below zero wind chill).  still, here are some cards featuring walter o'malley's gem, the third oldest baseball stadium in the major leagues, as it was meant to be seen - as a baseball venue.

this card is from the baseball stadium facts inserts in 1969 fleer cloth sticker packs

yes, the playing field is symmetrical.  big deal. wanna fight about it?

here's ed whitson dealing from the dodger stadium mound on a 1989 fleer card

and here's nolan ryan hanging out in the bullpen.

that's a 1989 topps box bottom card, by the way.

here's a card back featuring the visitor's dugout area - orlando merced's 1991 upper deck card

and here's kenny lofton's 1992 upper deck card

i started to look at the lofton card a bit closer and wasn't completely sure that it was dodger stadium because the railing looks a bit dark.  however, wes chamberlain's 1993 upper deck card

gives a similar angle, and the railing looks the same.  lofton played in 2 games at dodger stadium among his 20 as an astro in 1991, so i say yes - that's dodger stadium in the background.

here's the back of chamberlain's card for good measure

there's no doubt that andujar cedeno's 1993 upper deck card features a shot from dodger stadium

that looks like juan samuel sliding in.

same goes for gary sheffield's 1994 upper deck card.  dodger stadium, not juan samuel.

those are the old low railings near the right field bullpen that have been replaced with a solid panel short wall.  the back of sheffield's card shows the full height outfield wall

complete with a championship banner.  this must have been opening day - the dodgers only bring out the banners then.

1997 fleer ultra todd hundley

i've never been to the stadium club restaurant at dodger stadium.  that's the area directly behind hundley with the window panels between the orange (loge - as in lower general admission) and blue (reserve) levels.

this is a nice card. it's from the 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game set - the first gotg release from fleer

i'm not sure if jerry royster is a true great of the game, but he is a former dodger and that is a nice photo of him playing short at chavez ravine.

last, but certainly not least, is a card of another former dodger.  wilton guerrero's 1998 fleer tradition update card

complete with his brother vladdy and the left field pavilion and diamondvision in the background is one of the best dodger stadium cards around.

enjoy the hockey at dodger stadium, but no tractor pulls please.