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Cardboard appreciation: 2008 Topps Stadium Club Russell Martin

(I've worked for several companies that instituted "Customer Appreciation" programs, which were basically schemes to squeeze more money out of their clientele. And most of them had one underlying theme: "the customer is always right." That drove me stark-raving loony, because I saw examples of the customer being WRONG on an almost hourly basis. But there is nothing wrong about baseball cards. And that's why this is another edition of Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 14th in a series):

I'm firing up the Cardboard Appreciation post a couple of days early this week because my "Blog Bat-Around" post is almost due, and I need to write it on Sunday, a day traditionally reserved for Cardboard Appreciation.

But the other reason is that the poll results are in for what you think (or what all 15 of you think, anyway) is the best Russell Martin card of 2008. In an upset of epic proportions, you have selected the Stadium Club card as the easy favorite, knocking off my personal favorite, the Masterpieces card.

But I ain't angry. I love the Stadium Club card. And the results just back my opinion that a great action photograph beats a painted (or faux painted) card almost any day.

What does annoy me a little is that I can't figure out when this play pictured on the card happened. I did a quick baseball reference scan of Dodgers at Pirates games from 2007 and 2008 and didn't find anything that seemed to match this play. I'm quite tired after work right now, so it's entirely possible I missed it. If someone has already figured this out, please clue me in.

But that's a small matter in the face of everything that's great about this card. I'm not going to go into all of those details. I've done it already, and if you can't figure out what's great about this card, then you need to set your phasers on yawn and start collecting A Piece of History.

For me it's just good enough to say: 2008 Topps Stadium Club Russell Martin is a card that I, and the nine people who voted for you, can appreciate.

Comments

MMayes said…
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN200804160.shtml
On April 16, 2008, in a game at Dodger Stadium, Nady was thrown out at the plate by right fielder Matt Kemp trying to score from 2nd on a single. I wonder if that's the shot?
madding said…
I was going to say, if you can't figure it out then it's probably photoshopped, but maybe MMayes is onto something there.
Anonymous said…
I doubt the play happened at Dodger Stadium considering that Martin is in his away greys and Nady is in his home whites.
night owl said…
Yeah, I agree with topher.

MMayes is correct in saying the play he's referring to happened in Dodger Stadium. But that is definitely a Dodger road uniform Martin is wearing. (The blue piping on the end of the sleeve is only on the road uniforms).

Hmmmmm.
skoormit said…
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT200706030.shtml

An interesting play in the bottom of the 4th. Nady is on third, the only runner. Gorzelanny hits a ball to 1B. Nady scores, and Gorzellany is safe at first. The play is ruled a fielder's choice. I think what happen is that the 1B (Garciaparra) threw home to try to get Nady, but Nady beat the throw. The official scorer did not want to credit Gorzelanny with a hit on the play.
night owl said…
I did come across that play in baseball reference, and wondered about it. But because it said fielder's choice (and I was so tired), I ignored it. I think that's the play!

If that's it, thanks. I didn't want to know that photo was photoshopped.
MMayes said…
I was too lazy to look at 2007 and Nady wasn't with the Pirates when the Dodgers visited Pittsburgh in 2008. Let's believe it was the play Topher found instead of a photoshop.