CSI: Duryea, PA [2022 Topps series 1]

Topps continues to disappoint when it comes to action photos on their baseball cards in the past several years (I’m ignoring you for now, Stadium Club), but every now and then some good ones come along where we’re even able to nail down the specific play that the picture captures.

This year’s series one set of Topps had one action photo with a potential play to be identified by the Citizens of WGOM:

2022 Topps #12 Andrelton Simmons

Unsurprisingly, it was MagUidhir that took the challenge.

As always, first the visible clues:
1) It’s a day game.
2) Twins are wearing their home whites, and the opposing team is the Royals.
3) The sliding baserunner’s uniform (through process of elimination) says “SANTANA”.
4) Based on the background, this is at Target Field, and the play is at second base.

Andrelton Simmons appears to be leaping after touching second, and is ready to fire to first for the DP, so there are less than three outs at the time of this play. There were six games in Minnesota that Carlos Santana played in, and only one of them where he was out at second — May 2^nd.

Santana was out twice at second in that Sunday game, but in the first inning his force out was the third out. In the fourth inning, however, he singled, and after one out Jorge Soler grounds to Luis Arraez, who flipped to Simmons for the force out; Soler made it safely to first to avoid the double play.

The Twins went on to win the game 13-4, and Simmons hit one of Minnesota’s three HRs (as well as making a throwing error).

Good job, everyone!

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Ft. Myers Spring Training V

While vacationing in Ft. Myers Beach, it was announced that Spring Training would indeed be held, and that a limited amount of fans could attend at the stadium.  With that in mind, I looked forward to maybe attending my fifth Spring Training season, so I monitored the seat availability when the time came for sale of seats not picked up by season ticket holders.  I had my eyes on the March 4th game vs. the Rays, and with luck I snagged a pair of tickets.

The weather was absolutely beautiful.  Mo and I had seats next to the tunnel, with no one else in our row and an empty row between the fans seated in front of us and behind us.  MOST people wore their masks when they were supposed to, particularly on the concourses; not as well in the seats, but not bad.  Even so, we still felt safe enough throughout.

beautiful seats, beautiful weather

Having one quarter of the fans means that there was only one quarter of the cars in the parking lot to deal with, one quarter of the crowd at the concessions, etc, so there was that.

The game wasn’t all that cleanly played (it WAS Spring Training, after all), but there was plenty of action, and an Alex Kirilloff double off the right centerfield wall.

Kirilloff doesn’t get all of that one!

The Twins ended up losing 5-2, but with the beautiful weather and the opportunity to return to something like normal, we had a super day at the park.

Rumbling Into The Post Season

The AL Central Champion Minnesota Twins wound up with 101 wins, the season record for team HRs, a tie for the season record for Total Bases, and their offense finished in the top three in several MLB stats. Rookie manager Rocco Baldelli has a lot to be proud of, and fans throughout Twins Territory have reason to be excited.

Looking at the playoffs, there are several players I wish were around to participate — Byron Buxton (IL, out for season), Michael Piñeda (suspended), Sam Dyson (IL, what the heck?!) — or aren’t at 100% — Max Kepler, Luis Arraez, Kyle Gibson, Ehrie Adrianza, CJ Cron, Marwin Gonzalez — but the season is long, and every team has to deal with intangibles. With some good play and a favorable bounce, things will work out.

Before the postseason starts, here are some of my latest pickups:

clockwise, from top left: 2019 Topps Major League Materials #MLM-BB Byron Buxton (jersey); 2019 Topps Major League Materials #MLM-MS Miguel Sano (jersey); 2018 Topps Major League Materials #MLM-JM Joe Mauer (jersey); 2018 Topps Major League Materials Black #MLM-JM Joe Mauer [26/99] (jersey); 2019 Topps ’84 Topps 150^th Anniversary #84R-JM Joe Mauer [136/150] (jersey); 2016 Topps Gypsy Queen #GQR-TH Torii Hunter (jersey); 2019 Topps Retro Hat Logo #RHLP-JM Joe Mauer (manu-patch); 2018 Topps Major League Materials Black #MLM-MS Miguel Sano [36/99] (jersey)

What’s With The Homers?

Currently the Twins have the best record in baseball, and are on a record pace for HR in a season. How are they doing it? Beats me! Is it MLB’s first “millennial” manager, Rocco Baldelli, or their pitching coach Wes Johnson who came directly to the Twins from college ball? Is it the handful of offseason signings, including Jonathan Schoop, CJ Cron, Martín Pérez, Nelson Cruz, and Marwin Gonzalez? I’m sure it’s a combination of these and other things contributing to their success, and as Twins fans we’re hanging on for the ride.

Below are some GU and AU of Twins off the current roster (with Brad Radke as an added bonus) and some of their prospects, including first cards for me of Trevor Larnach and Brusdar Graterol.

clockwise, from top left: 2017 Topps Update 30^th Anniversary #87A-ERS Eddie Rosario (auto); 2019 Topps Tier One Prime Performers #PPA-ERO Eddie Rosario [084/299] (auto); 2018 Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection #CCR-MS Miguel Sano (jersey); 2018 Bowman Best #B18-FR Fernando Romero (auto); 2018 Bowman Chrome Prospects #CPA-ZL Zack Littell (auto); 2018 Topps Archives Fan Favorites #FFA-BR Brad Radke (auto); 2018 Topps Chrome #RA-FR Fernando Romero (auto); 2018 Topps Allen & Ginter #MFR-MS Miguel Sano (jersey)

Holiday Goodies

When the holidays come around, it means Black Friday sale from COMC, trades generated from The Bench, hitting eBay for reasonable value, and all of this means more to display here.

Among several of the AU and GU collected, there is included:

• new Twins AU to the list: Al Worthington, Bill Plies, LaMonte Wade, Ryan Jeffers, Blayne Enlow
• the 71^st and 72^nd unique Glen Perkins AU card (the Twin with the highest total in my collection)
• another Killebrew AU as well as a couple reprint AU of Twins players of long ago
• a printing plate and another letter manu-patch

And there are still others in the pipeline.

clockwise, from top left: 2017 Topps Heritage Real Ones #ROA-AW Al Worthington (auto); 2014 Topps Heritage Real One #ROA-BP Bill Plies (auto); 1999 Upper Deck Retro Inkredible #HK Harmon Killebrew (auto); 2014 Topps Opening Day #ODA-GP Glen Perkins (auto); 2007 Upper Deck Exquisite Rookie Signatures Common Numbers #CN-LC Alexi Casilla w/LaRoche [20/25] (dual auto); 2013 Bowman Platinum Prospects Ice #BP-NR Nate Roberts [05/10] (auto); 2007 Topps Co-Signers Hyper Silver Red #117 Glen Perkins [72/75] (auto); 2014 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects printing plate Magenta #CDP93 Michael Cederoth [1/1] (plate)

CSI: Duryea, PA [2018 Topps series 1]

Topps has been a disappointment regarding quality in-game action photos of Twins players in which the exact play captured by the photo can actually be identified. We’ve had lots of great baseball card photos in the past to work with (we’ve been doing this for over seven years!), but not recently.

On a whim, I chose a card of Brian Dozier from 2018 Topps series 1; while it does I nice job of capturing a play in the field, I didn’t harbor hope that the gang at WGOM could uniquely identify it:

2018 Topps #130 Brian Dozier

Remarkably, they did it again.

First off, the visible clues:
1) It’s a day game.
2) With this being Series 1, the photo is most certainly from a 2017 game.
2) A play at third, quite possibly a triple given the arm covering and helmet.
3) Most likely Target Field, given the home white uniform and the location of the distance marker on the outfield wall.

A lot of the discussion centered around the visiting team’s uniform, particularly the dark top and the single stripe on the gray pants:
– there are several teams who have a uniform variant that at least somewhat resembles that of the baseball card: Indians, Mariners, Padres, Brewers, etc.
– Dozier runs the bases with helmet and arm protection, at least some of the time, so he isn’t necessarily advancing to third base on his own at bat.

Given the above and some digging through Baseball Reference website, it was determined that this play was the sixth pitch in the bottom of the first of this game against the Mariners on June 15^th. Dozier opened the home half of the first inning with a double to right, and the play captured here was his advance to third on a wild pitch to Eduardo Escobar, Kyle Seager being the third baseman in the photo. Escobar subsequently homered, so he could have taken it easy on second base and avoided the faceplant (see photos below).

The Twins won the game 6-2 on a well-pitched outing from Jose Berrios, and Dozier went 1-for-3 with a BB and HBP, scoring once. Chris Gimenez homered twice in this game, which is much rarer than games in which he ended up pitching.

Well done, everyone! And two bonus screencaptures of the play:

A Note From Management

In my pursuit of certified Twins baseball card autographs, every now and then I find non-player cards (TC the mascot, scout Mark Wilson) and even less frequently, ones that are reasonably priced. Recently I found two, and along with a card of prospect Brent Rooker that now makes 224 different Twins players people.

clockwise, from top left: 2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Autographs #FFA-TK Tom Kelly (auto); 2018 Bowman High Tek Prospects #PHT-BR Brent Rooker (auto); 2008 Upper Deck UD Premier Red #154 Joe Mauer [24/25] (auto); 2012 Topps Update General Managers #AGM-TR Terry Ryan (auto)

And, as always, a few other pick-ups:

clockwise, from top left: 2009 Upper Deck Ballpark Collection Six Swatch Memorabilia #305 Joe Mauer w/Posada,Rodriguez,Johnson,Santana,Woods [225/300] (jersey); 2018 Allen & Ginter #MA-FJ Felix Jorge (auto); 2018 Topps Chrome #FA-FJ Felix Jorge (auto); 2017 Topps Update Commemorative Medallion #MVPR-RCA Rod Carew

An Order of Nachos, Please

I’ve been very remiss when it comes to revisiting some of the gang of card collecting bloggers, and decided to remedy that a bit. I noticed that there were a few Twins I needed on the trade page at Nachos Grande, and interrupted Chris’ Gint-a-Cuffs posts to put together a trade with him. It had been over five years since our last trade (?!) which does not really seem possible.

You can tell that someone went to a lot of work looking through their cards by the variety of cards in the trade, and besides the handful of Twins A&G minis from his trade page, here are some examples of what else he found:

clockwise, from top left: 2018 Panini Donruss Signature Series #SS-MG Mitch Garver; 2018 Topps Gypsy Queen Missing Blackplate #88 Byron Buxton; 2016 Topps Allen & Ginter #348 Trevor Plouffe; 2009 Topps Target Retro #212 Denard Span; 2003 Topps Heritage #293 Cristan Guzman; 2003 Fleer Box Score #121 Lew Ford; 2017 Topps Rediscover Topps Silver 1993 Topps #363 John Smiley; 2016 Topps Allen & Ginter #78 Jose Berrios; 2016 Topps Allen & Ginter #74 Brian Dozier

Meanwhile, I took his wantlist webpage and visited the friendly neighborhood LCS to roust up some cards he was looking for — scavenger hunt! It was good to get back to my roots, so to speak, and flip a trade with a blogger instead of off of a board like The Bench. Thanks for the swap, Chris!

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And as usual, a few more additional pickups:

clockwise, from top left: 2015 Topps Chrome Refractor Purple #AR-TM Trevor May [147/250] (auto); 2008 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Sweet Swatch Dual Memorabilia #DHM Justin Morneau w/Hafner (dual jersey); 2003 Donruss Team Heroes #290 Michael Cuddyer (auto); 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings Materials Framed Red B&W #132 Lew Ford [63/100] (jersey/bat)