Newly-discovered Doppelgangers

While others have been at the National, buying stuff on eBay or busting wax, I’ve been at home quietly reorganizing all of my cards from 1991. I started out with somewhere around 3500 1991 cards in my collection, I’m down to 2000, still working it and have been experimenting with a slightly different way of organizing my cards from a particular year… but that’s a story for another day.

While going through my cards and placing them into a pair of binders I’ve found a couple of “doppelgangers” I hadn’t been aware of.

It’s been a minute since I’ve written about Doppelgangers. That’s my term for two cards from different companies (or at least different sets) which depict the same moment, more or less.

This is my favorite example, featuring Geronimo Pena and Brett Butler, comes from 1994 Topps and 1994 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice:

Pretty much all of the Doppelgangers I’ve found so far have been from the early 1990s, so it’s no surprise that I found two more within 1991 sets.

The first one I discovered was this pair of Jeff Reardon cards from 1991 Topps and the back of a 1991 Upper Deck card:

Feel free to make your own guess as to which photo was taken first.

The second one I found shows Walt Weiss turning two (or attempting to) while Cleveland’s Joel Skinner slides into second.

Now these aren’t definitively the same moment, but so much is the same including the dirt stains on Weiss’ knee, so I’m pretty confident they are.

Since there are two different companies involved in sharing this moment, I feel pretty confident that the game played was from the year prior (1990). Cleveland didn’t visit Oakland a lot at the time and Joel Skinner played in only 49 games that year, so it wasn’t hard to determine that the game was from July 18th, 1990, Skinner’s only game in Oakland.

According to the boxscore on Baseball Reference, Skinner reached base twice that game… but the first time on base there wasn’t a play at second involving Skinner.

In the top of the 5th, Carlos Baerga lead off the inning with a single off of A’s pitcher Dave Stewart. Skinner followed with a walk, and then Jerry Browne grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, moving Baerga to 3rd (where he’d be stranded by by a Dion James popout). Seems like that’s our play.

Fun Comes In Threes

In going through my backlog of “Stuff to write about” I realized that there are a number of situations where the cards I wanted to write about came in groups of three… So I decided to go with it and make it the theme of this post.

The last time I went through a dime box – sadly, a few years ago – I happily grabbed three cards from the “Now & Then” subset of 1993 Pinnacle.

Cards like this pop up in sets – I’ll go ahead and say it – every now and then.  1983 Topps had a similar subset called “Super Veteran”.  One thing I’ve noticed about cards like these… At the time they are “pretty cool”, but the more time passes, the cooler they get… maybe it’s a matter of getting some distance from both the “Now” and “Then” parts of the card.  In 1993 these cards these cards got a tiny bit of attention from me, but now I think they’re pretty awesome.

---

I recently bought a bunch of commons online and one particular common completed a triptych that I’ve been wanting to finish since 1992… It was the third of three “1992 cards of Mike Felder bunting while wearing a throwback New York Giants uniform”!

I got the Score and Upper Deck cards in 1992…


…And this 1992 Topps card completes the collection.

As someone who loves when more-or-less the same moment appears on different cards from different angles, this has been a white whale for me… Now I just need to figure out which binder it goes in.

---

Last year I picked up three particularly cheap Korean cards of former Cardinals pitcher Kwang-Hyun Kim, who has since returned to Korea. These cards show him with the SK Wyverns of the KBO (Korea Baseball Organization).  After pitching for the Cardinals he returned to his previous team, only the team rebranded after being sold to another corporation, so they’re now the SSG Landers.

The first two cards are from “2015/16 Ntreev Soft KBO Baseball’s Best” and other than being some sort of gaming card I know very little about them… I didn’t so much care about the sets as much as getting cards of a recognizable player from a foreign set and being able to say “I got some cards from South Korea!”

Both cards have the same back:

The third card in this Kwang-Hyun Kim trilogy is from a set called “2018 Daewon KBO Premium”… Once again, I know nothing about the set. While this doesn’t come across in the scans, this card is printed on foilboard.

…and here’s the back…

Doppelgangers? ….Maybe….

A couple of years ago I had a short series of posts about what I called Doppelgangers, which are pairs of cards which were from different manufacturers but showed the same moment from slightly different angles.  For those of you who don’t want to click on links, here’s my favorite example:  The Geronimo Pena cards from 1994 Topps and Upper Deck Collector’s Choice:

The Dodger underneath Geronimo Pena is Brett Butler.  These two cards feature photos that were clearly taken by different photographers at the same moment.

The pairs I’m featuring today appear to be from the same play, but aren’t from the same moment and could conceivably be from different plays… but they’re close enough to be cool.

First up, we’ve got the patron saint of the baseball card Blogosphere, Bip Roberts.  Bip appears to be turning two against the A’s while Eric Fox (#28) breaks it up.

Since 1993 was before Interleague play, you wouldn’t see the Padre`s and A’s appear in the same game outside of Spring Training, so there’s no way to know which game this is from.  I don’t even know for sure that the Athletic on the ground in the second card is also Eric Fox.

Next up is a pair from 1994 Score and Collector’s Choice, this time featuring the Red Sox’ John Valentin and the A’s Brent Gates.

I could make guesses as to the play, but I couldn’t even swear that this is the same play.  I’m comfortable in saying that it’s either from July 8th 1993 or July 10th (Gates didn’t get on base on the 9th).

This final pair of cards isn’t really a Doppelganger because both cards are from 1994 Upper Deck sets, but I’ll feature it anyway, mainly because I kinda liked Anthony Young when he pitched for the Mets.

Doppelganger: 1994 Score Select and Upper Deck Chuck Finley

It’s been quite a while since I’ve shared a “Doppelganger”, which for the purposes of this blog I define as two cards (ideally from two manufacturers) which show the same play or the same moment.

This one clearly falls into the “moment” category, and was one I found while creating my 1994 Frankenset… Chuck Finley is showing off his guitar skills… or air guitar skills, anyway.  The top card is from 1994 Score Select, the bottom is an “Electric Diamond” parallel of 1994 Upper Deck.

I do not believe we will get Eddie Van Halen until we have a triumphant video!

Doppelganger: 1994 Fleer/Score Terry Steinbach

My latest Doppelgangers (two cards from different manufacturers featuring different photos of the same play) come from 1994 Fleer and Score, and involves a play at the plate involving A’s catcher Terry Steinbach and Mariners catcher Bill Haselman.

Here’s what I believe to be the play pictured: August 4th, 1993, Mariners at Oakland on a Wednesday afternoon. In the top of the 7th, the Mariners are leading 4-2 and Bill Haselman draws a walk off Kelly Downs. Omar Vizquel comes up next, singles up the middle and Haselman moves over to third. Mike Felder came up next, and the runners must’ve been going because Felder hit the ball to A’s 2nd Baseman Brent Gates who threw to Steinbach to get Haselman out at home. Felder got to first on a fielder’s choice, but neither he nor Vizquel would score.

The Mariners would hang on to that lead going into the bottom of the 9th, and starter Tim Leary was cruising along. After Leary gave up a leadoff triple to Ruben Sierra, Dennis Powell was brought in to face Lance Blankenship, walked him, and that was it for Powell. Jeff Nelson comes in, gives up two runs, loads the bases and plunks Mike Bordick to drive in the winning run. Athletics 5, Mariners 4.

---

My goodness! Where are my manners?

This past Monday I was featured in the latest edition of Nachos Grande’s “Better Know A Blogger” series, and unthinking cad that I was, I forgot to thank him here in my own blog. Thank you, kind sir, for stretching the definition of a “theme week” and allowing me to take part.

And for the record, there’s no truth to the rumor that Nachos Grande is related to Ariana Grande.  That being said, I couldn’t say whether or not he’s got one less problem wit’out cha.

Doppelganger! 1994 Topps and Collector’s Choice Gerónimo Peña

Nick over at Dime Boxes recently featured a 1994 Collector’s Choice Gerónimo Peña card in his “Frankenset” voting.  Peña’s card lost to the 1991 Topps Walt Weiss (a most excellent card), but the Peña has something that the Weiss and other cards don’t have.

A Doppelganger!!!!!

These were among the first – and maybe THE first – Doppelgangers in my collection.  A number of these doppelgangers occurred in 1994, and I’m pretty sure that’s when I started keeping them in a separate place in my binders.  (For those new to the blog, I keep a mini collection of cards which feature different photos of the same play, preferably from different manufacturers and different angles.)

I tried to pinpoint the play, but failed.  It wouldn’t surprise me if someone’s attempted this before, maybe they had more success.  The guy underneath Peña is Brett Butler.  Using the pretty safe assumptions that the picture was taken in Dodger Stadium in 1993, the best I could do was to narrow it down to the series:  April 13 – 15, 1993.  Both players were in all three games, but Brett Butler got on base far too often for me to figure out which particular play we’re looking at.

Doppelganger! 1994 Topps & Collector’s Choice Mark Whiten

While re-organizing my 1994 cards as part of my latest project, I realized that there was a previously unknown pair of cards to add to my sub-collection of what I call “Doppelgangers”.

My definition of a Doppelganger is a pair of cards from different sets that feature two distinct photos of the same play…  Preferably they would be at more or less the same moment, and the two cards would be different manufacturers.

Both of the “preferable” qualifiers apply to this pair of 1994 cards for Mr. Mark Whiten:

Both photos are from a Cardinals game at Shea Stadium, most likely from 1993… I didn’t think there would be enough information to figure out the play, but from the way Whiten is about to chuck his helmet, I guessed that he got thrown out at second.  Since there are no Mets around him, I’m also guessing that it was the last out of the inning and all of the Mets had already trotted off the field.

I decided to research it based on my assumptions, and once you factor in “Whiten out at 2nd at Shea in 1993”, it does seem to come down to this play…  June 26th, 1993:  Top of the 6th, Whiten gets on by fielder’s choice, scoring Ozzie Smith.  Whiten then gets caught stealing 2-6 (Todd Hundley to Tim Bogar), and that ends the inning.

Going through my 1994 cards made me realize there were some other Doppelgangers from the early 1990’s which I haven’t gotten around to sharing… I’ll make sure to bump those up in the schedule.

Since I started featuring these during the summer and some of you may have missed them, here are the other two pair of doppelgangers that I’d shared, along with links to the original posts:

1994 Score & Collector’s Choice Greg Meyers

1993 Topps & Upper Deck Rick Wilkins

Doppelgangers: 1993 Topps / Upper Deck Rick Wilkins

Today we have another entry from my little mini-collection of pairs of cards which feature the same play shown by two different card companies and/or photographers.  Today we’ve got a pair of Rick Wilkins cards from 1993 Topps and 1993 Upper Deck.

Unlike the prior post in this series, I don’t think there’s any way to figure out which game these photos came from, other than narrowing it down to a Cubs home game in 1992.  If you look at the far right on the Upper Deck card, you can see the hand of the baserunner.  All you can tell about the Mystery Runner is that he’s wearing a Franklin glove and has a red wristband.

In the crowd, you can pick out some of the same people… The easiest one to spot is the guy in the green and yellow cap.  He’s over Wilkins’ head on the Topps card, and off to the far left on the Upper Deck card.

I’ve got two more pairs of cards like this, plus Shlabotnik Report readers have suggested two other pairs.  I know there must be a bunch out there, does anybody know of some?

Doppelgangers: 1994 Score/Collector’s Choice Greg Myers

For a while in the 1990’s, I had a sort of sub-collection going of cards that featured the same play but different photos. I didn’t stop collecting these types of cards as much as the supply (or my awareness, anyway) dwindled as the number of sets declined.

I’ve been meaning to share some of these pairs for a year or two; Now’s as good a time as any to start with this lovely pair of Greg Myers cards from 1994 Score and 1994 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice:

At first glance, it looks like the same photo, but when you look closer you can see that the photos were taken from slightly different angles… but at the same moment.

Despite the way we’ve been conditioned for the past dozen years, this particular #34 with the Red Sox is NOT David Ortiz… rather it’s 3rd baseman Scott Cooper.

I think I figured out which play is involved. Since two different card companies used similar photos in 1994, I feel comfortable in saying that the photo is from 1993. If one looks at day games involving the Angels in Fenway, and then eliminated games where Greg Myers did not play, Scott Cooper didn’t get on base or scored only on home runs, then that leaves Sunday, May 2nd. In the 3rd inning Cooper is on third, John Valentin on 1st and Tony Pena hits into a 5-2 fielder’s choice. Despite the FC, the Red Sox would go on to score 3 runs that inning and won the game 4-3.

Does anybody know of any other “doppelgangers” like these?
I’ve got a few more pairs to feature, but I’m sure there are more out there than the ones I’ve stumbled across. Please let me know, and I’ll add them to my collection and feature them here.