an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of giants collectors

i believe economist adam smith would agree that a baseball card is only worth what someone is willing to give up to obtain it.  well, i was willing to send some giant cards to another smith - arpsmith - of arpsmith's sportscard obsession in order to obtain some random dodger cards.  smith also noted that individuals who own surplus stock would generally look to gain from the excess, and arpsmith clearly subscribes to that theory because he sent me some of his collection's excess - mainly these (and a few more) dodger cards.

1967 topps ron fairly

it's always nice to see some vintage in these blind trades.  even better when the dodger is wearing number 6 which means it's either a carl furillo, fairly, or steve garvey card.  those three were the only dodgers to wear the number from 1946 through 1982.

1988 topps traded alfredo griffin

when i saw this card i thought of baseball card vandals and wondered if they had changed this into a nate griffin card yet.

1993 score select henry rodriguez

outfielders that the dodgers kept instead of henry rodriguez (who hit 140 home runs over the five and a half seasons following his 1995 trade from the dodgers to the expos) included can't miss prospects billy ashley, roger cedeno, and karim garcia who between them had 33 home runs for the dodgers (although power admittedly was not cedeno's thing).

2001 pacific shawn green

and 2001 pacific jim leyritz

thank goodness for pacific.  i have plenty of shawn green dodger cards, but only a couple of leyritz in dodger blue - this one and a 2001 upper deck victory card.  i don't know if any others even exist.

2001 pacific private stock adrian beltre

beltre will be inducted into the hall of fame, i have no doubt.  he is 7 home runs shy of 400 and about 450 hits shy of 3000 (just 41 behind steve garvey) and is signed through next season with a vesting option for 2016.  it is likely that he would get his 3000th hit in 2017 at the age of 38 if things stay relatively the same.  if he does it as a ranger, that would mean that he would have played as many seasons in texas as he did in los angeles, and so i would guess that he would be inducted wearing a rangers' hat.  we will have to wait and see what happens.

2013 topps joe blanton gold parallel

smith was a critic of mercantilism which endorsed the keeping of gold reserves as part of a country's economic stability.  i guess i disagree in that i will hoard all gold parallels of dodger cards.  even those of joe blanton, who was 2-4 with a 4.99 era in his 10 games as a dodger.

2014 donruss matt kemp power plus insert

here's a card dealing with surplus - a surplus of talent, a player not one-dimensional, making dodger fans happy, while providing financial gain for the individual to the tune of a $160-million contract through 2019.  i actually already owned this card, so perhaps i will attempt to turn my surplus into gain by trading with a fellow dodger collector…

thanks for the trade adam!  i'll have some excess giant cards headed your way soon!

victory is mine! along with a complete list of the double play cards in my collection!

so i picked up a few upper deck victory singles a couple of weeks ago from both 2001 and 2002.  some of which featured double plays, like this adam kennedy card from the 2002 set

and this jose offerman card from the 2001 set

and these cubbies - ricky gutierrez

and eric young, also from the 2001 set

and i can't forget about damian easley from the 2002 set

or this dick schofield card from 1991 upper deck that seems to show kenny lofton getting a cheekful of glove after trying to break up a double play

these cards have been added to my double play binder, as well as the complete list of double play cards in my collection that is now posted over at my want list site.  any card not listed there is greatly desired by me. 

another card on that list that is fairly new to me is this 1995 upper deck minors danny klassen card.

klassen, the pride of leamington ontario, played in the majors for a handful of seasons, but never had a better card than that.

i also grabbed this nomar garciaparra card.  i know - it is not a non-red sox nomar - but at first i thought it might be a shot of the aftermath of a dp turn.

turns out, i think bernie williams has just stolen a base.  false alarm.

some of the impetus to pick up the victory cards came because i was looking for some cards of obscure dodgers.  it doesn't get much more obscure than bruce aven.

aven played in a total of 30 games for the dodgers over the course of the 2000 and 2001 seasons.  he had 13 hits as a dodger, 3 of which were home runs.  two of those homers, including one of the ones that resulted in the photo used for his 2001 upper deck victory card shown above, came in his second game as a dodger at the expense of kerry wood in chicago.

there are more cards of andy ashby as a dodger than there are of bruce aven, but this one features the good ol' former team's uniform

not that he wore the dodger uniform much in 2001.  ashby won both of his starts for the dodgers in 2001, each of which came against the eventual world champion diamondbacks.  he then missed the rest of the season due to an elbow injury, but returned to pitch for the dodgers in 2002 and 2003.

jim leyritz only appeared for the dodgers during the 2000 season, his last in the big leagues, making this 2001 card a final tribute.

unfortunately, i didn't scan the back.  if i had, you would see that he hit 1 of his 90 career home runs for the dodgers.  he appeared in 41 games as a dodger and hit an even .200 after starting the season with the yankees.

that was .125 points below gary sheffield who led the team in batting average over the course of the 2000 season.  how did i know that? because i picked up a team leader card, too.

i was excited about chan ho park's 2000 season - 18 wins, more than 200 strike outs, an era of 3.27, but he still had way too many walks.  he led the team in wins in 2001 as well, although his total dropped to 15 and his era crept to 3.50.  after that, he was gone to texas.

whatever, this post was about some double play cards and my comprehensive 'have' list of people turning two or at least a reference to a twin killing.  check it out and let me know if you have any cards (or just know of any) that aren't on the list!