double play progression

it's thanksgiving and hopefully everyone is full and with family and/or friends (if they so choose). here's a post of a bunch of double play cards i've added to the collection over the last several months. i've put them in a sort of order that shows the progression of the pivot at second base.

2003 topps traded damian jackson

1998 fleer tradition nomar garciparra

2000 upper deck gary disarcina

2021 topps trevor story

2021 topps heritage miguel rojas in action

2021 topps fernando tatis jr 1952 redux

2020 topps archives fan favorites autograph ray durham

2003 topps gallery jeff kent

2021 topps chrome carlos correa xfractor

1990 elite senior league sergio ferrer

1990 elite senior league tim ireland

2015 topps gypsy queen dustin pedroia

1988 score robby thompson young superstars (hello john shelby)

2006 fleer craig biggio (hello oscar robles)

2000 upper deck subway series edgardo alfonzo

now go have seconds!

the yeager-meister

happy 73rd birthday to the catcher on the team of my youth, steve yeager.  i acquired a badass yeager autograph card for my collection a few months ago

it's from 2014 panini golden age, and as always, catchers in their gear look just fine on unlicensed cards. throw in the aviators, and the throat guard, and it's classic yeager. a great card of a fan favorite for sure.

knuckles

there are lots of examples of cards - both specific subsets and cards featuring posed shots - that highlight different pitch grips. it's not as easy typically to find action shots with visible pitch grips, except maybe those that show the knuckleball.

when it comes to pitchers who threw the knuckleball, the dodgers have had their share, including tom candiotti.

that 1996 fleer e-motion xl card is one that i added via sportlots last year to help fill out an order and get me one card closer to a complete team set. i didn't know ahead of time that the grip would be featured.

this next candiotti card also came from sportlots, and actually completed a team set.

that 1994 fleer flair card shows candiotti with two different grips. i recall a couple of post-game interviews that he gave where he would talk about being a pitcher first and a knuckleballer second. perhaps he was frustrated being pigeonholed as a knuckleballer instead of being seen as a starting pitcher with a greater repertoire of pitches.

the first knuckleball pitcher i was aware of was charlie hough. his 1994 topps stadium club card shows him in his later years but still with the grip

i am never surprised to see the knuckleball grip on cards of candiotti, hough, niekro and the like, but i was surprised to see this john stuper card from 1985 fleer

i don't recall knowing stuper threw a knuckleball. perhaps he was experimenting or goofing off like i did in babe ruth and high school. i never did summon up the courage to throw one in a real game.

and then there is a gem like this 1996 topps stadium club kirby puckett card

puck is definitely messing around here, just like me and my teammates did while warming up, although i never did so in the skydome.

my favorite cards of the year - 2021 edition

i recently introduced my mini collection focusing on my favorite cards from each year that i've been a collector. the basic gist is that i wanted to create a space for the cards that i most appreciated having in my collection in the year that they were released. these were cards that i acquired in the year that they were issued, and that i considered to be my favorites at the time. i have disallowed (most) cards that are already in other mini collections in order to avoid having a mini collection consisting of more steve garvey, double plays, and dodger stadium cards.

i was sort of waiting for update to come out, as my favorite card from 2020 came from that set, but i had my mind made up pretty early in the year. there was nothing in update that changed my mind, although i am very happy to see a dusty baker astros card (autographed only, unfortunately) in this year's archives release. of course, my favorite card from 2021 is my covid-19 vaccination record card, but that doesn't qualify for this collection.

favorite non-dodger card: topps 70 years of topps cal ripken jr chrome

ah, the often ignored 1978 design! it could not be avoided with topps' 70 years of topps insert sets this year, and ripken's card from series 2 was fantastic! i could definitely see it as part of the '78 team set next to action shots on the cards of ken singleton and rudy may. this "chrome" parallel made me long to see the design elevated in 2027 heritage, but alas along came fanatics.

favorite dodger card: topps heritage world series champions

how could this card not have been my favorite dodger card of the year?!  i just wish topps had used a more traditional team photo like they did for the red sox in 2019 and nationals in 2020. this photo just features the guys who could get to the mound the quickest. still, it's my favorite dodger card of the year!

that's a wrap on this series - let's see what 2022 will bring!

head over heels for junior

ken griffey jr is 52 years old today. happy birthday to the guy formerly known as "the kid". i've said it many times - time waits for no man.

anyway, i used to have a pc of griffey, and i recently moved this 2001 fleer ultra card

from that defunct collection in to my lurker mini-collection. it wasn't until about a year ago that i noticed that the other player on the card was a dodger, and so it qualified for that collection. i am pretty sure that it is mark grudzielanek who is upside down on the card, with this photo coming after a hard slide by junior breaking up a double play attempt on april 23, 2000. here's a photo of the play from a different angle. 

at some point in the last year or two, gavin at baseball card breakdown showed this 2000 pacific omega card on his blog

and so i tracked a copy down for the dodger stadium collection. that's the "e" in "dodgers" behind griffey as part of the murals that used to adorn the outfield wall at chavez ravine in the late 1990's and early 2000's.

not to be outdone, brian at highly subjective completely arbitrary showed this 2007 upper deck scott hatteberg card

at some point which had me hunting down a copy for the aforementioned lurker collection. that's griffey with the backwards hat (of course) at the right of the card.

i also added a couple of other cards featuring an uncredited griffey - this 1997 donruss mariners team set jay buhner card

and this 2017 topps stadium club roy oswalt card

griffey is a foreground lurker on this card that is reminiscent of the 1976 topps tom seaver record breaker card. 

the last card in this post is another one that i salvaged from the pc. it's griffey's 1996 select card

and it's been installed in my "meaningful and just because" mini-collection. this was one of my favorite cards back in '96 and i still enjoy looking at it. not only does it remind me of the mariners' run to the alcs in 1995, but griffey in that moment exuded pure joy and happiness. that game helped bring me fully back in to my fandom, and griffey's style and attitude was a big part of it.

happy birthday junior!

repack recap

i was super surprised to find a repack hanging in a walgreen's a couple of months ago. actually, there were two, but i only bought one.  here's a post from the lost collector about an identical repack, and i share all of the observations he made about the ambiguity of the contents based on the new packaging.

now on to the cards, presented here in the order in which they were found!

first card was a 2020 topps jesse winker card

i almost wish i were a reds collector in 2020 just to have a bunch of cards showing all the different uniforms they wore during the 2019 season.

a couple of vintage 1968 topps senators

and then on to the mish-mash

big glasses on ernie camacho, and a nice ripken from 1994 topps. i think the 1994 topps set should have been a full horizontal set - i think the design works a lot better that way.

more junk

although one is a dodger

a hit!

i was surprised to see this card in the box. it's from 2019 panini national treasures. not sure when springer wore green (maybe in spring training on st. pat's?) but it is what it is.

more junk

it's interesting to note that the 1987 topps mohoric and davis are from the same set, yet the wood grain on the laminate design is way different. i know the burlap in 1968 topps varies, but i thought that was between different series, not cards from the same series.

more junk

although rickey!

more junk

greg brock hot repack!

the sealed pack inside was from 2021 topps opening day. here's what it yielded:

an ohtani, a parallel, and an insert. it could have been worse.

just last weekend, i saw about six or seven of these at the same walgreens and passed. i did see a different type of repack at the front counter though. it was four sealed packs plus a random bonus card. the images on the box showed cards from topps online releases like brooklyn or montgomery and the living set.  i bought one and it had two packs of 2019 topps series 1 (found a dodger stadium brandon crawford card), 

a pack of 2020 topps heritage, and a pack of 2018 topps series 2. the bonus card was a 2019 topps allen & ginter tim raines card, which i guess is a short print. probably not going to go for a repack again anytime soon!

it's wasn't the heat, it was the humidity

some extended family members thought it would be a good idea to head to baltimore in early july back in 1999. i went along knowing that i could at least get a baseball game out of the deal, and so i went to my eighth stadium - oriole park at camden yards. i have this 2002 fleer orioles checklist card

in my stadiums i've seen games in mini-collection to represent the event.

here's my ticket stub:

as you can see, the blue jays were in town.  this was the trip during which i saw roy halladay out on the street walking around which was kind of cool i guess. i didn't say anything to him, and there was a group of other players and wives who called out to him anyway.

as for the game itself, david wells was pitching against scott erickson. for me, the best thing was that shawn green (my favorite non-dodger at the time) hit a home run and cal ripken jr played (this was after his streak had ended so it wasn't a given that he would be in the lineup).

what i remember most was how humid it was. it really was almost unbearable. we walked around the stadium and i enjoyed seeing the statue of babe ruth outside of an american league east rival's stadium as well as eutaw street and the warehouse beyond right field. by the time the game started, some in my group decided to head in to one of the stadium's restaurants to try to cool off. others followed suit as the game progressed, and i will admit that i remained in my seat only until about the sixth inning and then joined them.

i didn't take many photos, and most of the ones that were taken that night didn't turn out very well. here's (part of) one that was taken inside the stadium somewhere,

with me standing next to a franchise world championship banner. the 1966 title bothered me since it came at the expense of my favorite team, but i have no issues with the other two. the orioles were the world champs when i was born shortly after the 1970 title was won, and i was rooting for eddie murray and company in 1983.

camden yards was so different from the seven stadiums i had been to previously, and it is still a standout in my memory. if only it hadn't been so humid!