does raul mondesi regret his tattoo, and other random musings

while it is true that raul mondesi had a cannon for an arm, i wonder if the cannon tattoo visible on his 1998 upper deck card

was fully thought out.  from one angle it looks like a cannon, although the fuse is still lit even though the cannon has discharged, and from another angle one might mistake it for some sort of rocket. or something else, i suppose.

the back of that card is pretty interesting, too, as we have pylons and a car in the background.

i'm also curious about mondesi's 1996 fleer emotion xl card, although it's no fault of his that the emotion fleer slapped on there is 'pounding'

i don't feel pounding.  or tardy, for that matter.  what was fleer thinking?

along the same lines of lack of thought, here are a few other cards that i've scanned without a real purpose. although i suppose you could say that i scanned them for inclusion in a random cards from my scanned folder post, so there was a purpose. whatever.

1987 topps orel hershiser

1990 donruss mickey hatcher

1992 score rookie and traded carlos hernandez

1997 topps stadium club pedro astacio

2007 topps heritage derek lowe

2009 upper deck o-pee-chee scott elbert black parallel

and 2012 bowman chrome prospects jt wise

as in wise enough to not consider 'pounding' to be an emotion?

a mish-mash of double play turns

i've allowed a number of new to the blog/collection double play turns to accumulate in my scanned folder, so today will be all about the pivot.

1984 topps traded tony bernazard

now granted this image is pre-pivot, but i consider second basemen waiting for the throw while standing at the base to be a double play turn. i remember waiting for these throws and wondering if i had enough time to turn and throw and not get bowled over.

1995 topps bret boone

ditto.

1992 topps stadium club manny lee

sorry - he goes by manuel here.  this is where i am thankful for others who collect double play cards, particularly jeff at 2x3 heroes and nick at dime boxes.  they will show off dp cards that they receive in the mail, and then i go and dig in my collection to see if i have those cards.  such was the case with this manuel lee card.  one of them showed it, and i didn't have it, so i went and bought it on sportlots for 18 cents.  this particular card shows a play from the first inning of a game played on june 30, 1991. harold reynolds has grounded to the first baseman (john olerud), who threw to second to force the lead runner (edgar martinez).  manuel lee is preparing for the relay throw, but reynolds is safe at first. thanks baseball-reference!

1982 o-pee-chee tim foli

not only was foli traded from the pirates to the angels (creating a team and text variation), but he's about to throw to first to complete a spring training double play.  i doubt that he's on the second base side of the bag for any other reason, so this is a double play turn.  now i just need another copy of his 1982 topps card for the dp binder.

1992 leaf mariano duncan

and 1992 leaf mariano duncan black gold

plus the back of another 1992 leaf card, that of terry shumpert

the photo on the shumpert back is very similar to the back of his 1992 fleer card.

my double play collection sometimes runs on duncan - here's his 1995 topps stadium club card

plus jody reed's card from the same set

nice junior griffey cameo, too.  i had previously shown a 1st day issue parallel of the reed card, but not the plain ol' base.

here's another couple of cards that have sort of been shown before - 1997 topps stadium club carlos garcia

i previously showed the members only parallel, which is really only different on the back due to some watermark text, and 1995 score rafael belliard

of which i have previously shown the gold rush parallel version.

last card of this post is brent gates' 1996 score card

thanks again to nick for showing this one on his blog. i couldn't believe that there was a brent gates double play card that i was missing.

how about that black armband for mel allen?

mel allen, the voice of the yankees, was better known to me as the host of 'this week in baseball'.  his trademark phrase 'how about that' was a staple of the show that, along with baseball cards, helped me learn about the game and its players as a young fan in the late 1970's.  allen passed away at the age of 83 in july of 1996, and the yankees added a black armband to their left sleeves in his honor.

here's a 1997 pacific card of darryl strawberry with the armband peeking through

and here's cecil fielder's 1997 pinnacle new card which also gives a glimpse of the armband

the back of the card gives a better view, actually

wade boggs' 1997 topps card is a good example

as is strawberry's 1997 topps stadium club card

that's a nice card even without the armband, as it captures the aftermath of strawberry's career home run number 300, a walk-off job against the royals.  

the card in the memorials binder, however, is this 1997 upper deck card of derek jeter

which features a photo taken a month or so following allen's death.

allen had begun his baseball broadcasting career with the 1938 world series, and he became a part of the yankees' (and giants') broadcasting team during the 1939 season. he took over the main play-by-play responsibilities for both teams in 1940 and continued to do so until he enlisted in world war ii.  following his service, allen returned to the booth - this time for the yankees only.  he wound up calling every world series from 1946 through 1963, as well as pretty much every all-star game during his tenure with the yankees plus some college and nfl football games, too.

allen was fired by the yankees after the 1964 season, although he was still invited to events such as old-timer's games and number retirement ceremonies. he eventually returned to do some broadcasting for the club in the late 1970's and remained a part of the crew into the 1980's.  his 'this week in baseball' hosting duties lasted from the show's inception in 1977 until his death.

while you're standing in line to vote, here are some cards featuring double play turns

i am not very vocal when it comes to politics.  i am smart enough to know that i am not going to change anybody's mind with my views, no matter how strongly i feel about a certain issue.  i let my vote do my talking, i suppose.

i'll be voting later today, and i'll probably be standing in a long line to do so.  so, in case your polling place also sees a strong turnout and you have some time to kill, here are some mindless baseball cards that show the double play turn at second base.

1995 topps stadium club cal ripken jr cause and effect subset

i suppose the cause is a sliding baserunner (hello john jaha) and the effect is a jumping ripken.  the back of the card notes that ripken holds the record (as of 1995) of 7 seasons leading shortstops in double plays turned.

1995 upper deck sp championship series ozzie smith

another hof dp

1998 upper deck spx craig biggio

and 1998 upper deck spx craig biggio radiance parallel

those are some soon to be hof dp turns.  with wally joyner joining in.

1998 upper deck spx nomar garciaparra

strange that on biggio's card, joyner also comes through in the scan, but on nomar's card, my scanner does not care for gary disarcina

1997 topps stadium club jose vizcaino

with a special appearance by steady eddie murray.  the viz has a bunch of dp cards to enjoy

2011 topps update dj lemahieu

i am guessing he landed hard on aj pierzynski, just to make michael barrett proud.

2012 topps ian desmond gold sparkle parallel

desmond has become a dp card regular

2012 topps cliff pennington

the guy sliding in on pennington's card is just barely visible in the lower right corner, but it's enough to convince me that this is a dp turn

1986 topps ricky adams

oh, the joy of the right foot swipe along the bag while making the relay transfer.  one of the best things about playing shortstop.

2009 topps chrome orlando hudson

o-dog turning the double play while i'm turning out the vote!

more 1997 double plays

card companies produced a lot of cards in 1997.  some featured double play turns.  here are a few more.

1997 upper deck collector's choice nomar garciaparra big shots insert

there were many other dp cards in collector's choice that year - i'll get to some of them later.

here's a 1997 topps stadium club ray durham card

with derek jeter making a cameo

less exciting is this carlos garcia card from stadium club

even though it's a 'members only parallel'.

mark grudzielanek goes horizontal in a cloud of dust on his stadium club card

i think that's jason kendall playing the part of pig pen.

barry larkin takes a flying leap over tyler houston on his stadium club card

now, back to 1997 ud collector's choice

craig biggio turns two over barry bonds

and i believe alex gonzalez is trying to avoid a slide aimed at breaking up two on his card

i also believe that andujar cedeno has run through the force out at second and mickey morandini tries to complete the double play on morandini's card from the set

he was unsuccessful.  i believe this thanks to baseball reference and cedeno's short amount of time spent with the pads in 1996.

no baseball reference for spring training games, but this is definitely a turn by pokey reese

last but certainly not least is a card that could fit into four of my mini collections.  first, it's walt weiss turning two on his 1997 ud collector's choice card

second, he's doing it in dodger stadium.   third, raul mondesi makes a lurking appearance.  and, fourth, weiss is wearing a memorial patch.  i only need three copies of this card, however, as there's a different rockies card in the memorial binder for that particular patch.  that post will be up tomorrow.

i cannot believe that this is not a card made by pacific

i have this card in my collection.

it's from 1997 and features the then top dodger prospect, karim garcia.  garcia was more highly touted (at least as far as i can recall) than 1996 nl rookie of the year todd hollandsworth, and i am pretty sure he has more cards than holly as well.  he wound up playing in only 29 games as a dodger over parts of three seasons, which means that there is something like 30 cards of garcia as a dodger for every regular season game in which he actually appeared as a member of the blue.

anyway, i would have sworn that this was from a set produced by pacific, but no.  it's from 1997 topps stadium club, and is a millennium insert.  i am learning more about my collection every day.