Oscars, Smoshkers - How About Some Cardboard Awards?

Aloha, everybody,

Coming to you direct from Hollywood - sort of Hollywood, anyways - are the 2016 ATBATT Cardboard Awards. 

Leading off is the only voice that could possibly emcee such a prestigious event, the Best Baseball Announcer Ever...

Best Chameleon...

Best Forearms...

 

 They used to call Garvey "Popeye" for two good reasons. 

Best Romantic Tragedy...

 

 Best Frozen Head Tragedy...

 Best World Series Villian...

 You think Chase Utley was out of the baseline? You shoulda seen ol' Hipcheck Jackson in action against a double play throw to first. 

Best Baseball Villians (Team Edition)...

 BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Best Baseball Curse...

Best One, Two Punch...

 

Best One That Got Away...

 

Sure, the Pedro Martinez trade ranks up there as one of the worst trades ever for the Dodgers, but I figure the best Pedro could give was a win once every four or five games. 

Konerko lived up to his potential of being an iron man with an iron bat, anchoring the lineup just about every single night.

Best Brow Ever...

Best Foreign Import (Asian Edition)...

 

Best Foreign Import (Latino Edition)...

Best Ensemble...

 

It still wasn't enough for a World Series. 

Best Cheater...

 

  

Best Man of Honor...

 

Best Baseball Marriage...

Homeboy married Marylin Monroe. Nuff said. 

Aloha! 

Binder Page Heroes - Vintage New York Yankees Edition

Aloha, everybody, 

I'm home sick today, battling a very annoying head cold. Most annoying, perhaps, was this condition forced the cancellation of tonight's poker game. 

Now that I'm home sick, with nothing to do and nowhere to go, I figure I'll make myself useful and get a blog post up. 

As a Dodger fan, I certainly don't have much love for the damn Yankees, but as a collector, I've got plenty of love for timeless players captured on cardboard.  

Presenting more Binder Page Heroes, led off by my very small PC of Yankees legend, Thurman Munson. 

I love vintage "in action" shots. There's something about that old-time film processing vs today's digital shots that grabs a different part of my collecting heart.

 The tools of ignorance in full splendor, with optional New Yawk style sideburns. 


Coming up, one of the best baseball cards, ever...
 

 Once again, it's the grittiness of the photo that delivers the impact on these old slices of cardboard. The past becomes an almost tangible element of the card as well. 

How about an oddball Yank?

 This here is a 1984 Fun Foods pin of a very young Don Mattingly. Speaking of the quality of photography, this image looks like it was lifted from videotape. 

Some might not consider the medium, but the player to be the oddball...

But how can you not love good ol' Dock, the holder of a baseball accomplishment that will most likely never, ever be repeated?

Nor should those shark sideburns fading into the fu-man-chu style mustache ever be repeated either. 
 

I love it when two classic players share such a great looking card. 

The following Yankee single-handedly stopped almost every single Dodger rally in the 1978 World Series. At least, it felt like it at the time. I hate the guy, but his awesome World Series play earned my respect and a place in my collection...
 

Did I mention my love for timeless baseball figures captured on vintage cardboard?

 1959 Topps Casey Stengel and Don "Perfect WS Game" Larsen.

I don't know about Larsen, but had I pitched a perfect game in the World Series, I would have worn a permanent smile on my face for the rest of my life - even while sleeping. 

Aloha!

ATBATT's Blog Post Recommendation Of The Day

Because EARS

Without Communication, Who Are We?

Aloha, everybody, 

I've spent today in an email chain trying to solve a puzzle. Different people (who could be referred to as teammates of mine) are giving me contradictory answers to the same seemingly simple question. 

On top of all that, I'm trying to get to the bottom of this in a way that won't offend anybody, all the while knowing some fundamental communication between us teammates would have prevented this in the first place. *sigh*

Of all sports, baseball seems to be the most reliant upon communication between teammates. It takes place on a number of levels, mid-game and even mid-play, using words and coded body language. Nowhere is this more evident than the constant non-verbal communications between a pitcher and his catcher. 

I dug into my binders today and pulled out a few random pitchers, curious about who they spent their time communicating with. The results surprised me. 

 Hall of Famer Jim Palmer pitched for the Orioles for 19 years, and won more games than anyone else through the 70's. In checking on his past battery mates I discovered a former Dodger, Rick Dempsey. 

 Dempsey was behind the plate for eight of Palmer's shutouts. That's certainly some top-notch communicating. 

Note Dempsey sporting a 40th anniversary Vero Beach (Spring Training) patch. 

The next pitcher I pulled from my binder was Phil "Knuckleballer" Niekro. 

 Niekro also threw to a former Dodgers catcher, Johnny Oates. 

More great communicating took place, as Oates caught two of Niekro's shutouts. Although I suspect Johnny simply held up the "knuckleball" sign 90% of the time. 

Here comes another great pitcher from the past (with a lurking Mets coach, who was probably communicating with the batter)...

I was amused by this Carlton being caught by a different Carlton - Fisk. 

Amazingly (?), Steve Carlton also was caught by Oates and Dempsey. 

I then pulled Eck...

 Who did he communicate with? Steve Carlton's battery mate, Carlton Fisk - for four shutouts. 

Eckersly was the only one of these pitchers who did not have a Dodger for a catcher, but the final pitcher of the post...

...returns us a battery mate who, you know it, also caught for the Dodgers...

From team to team, across divisions and seasons, they communicated with wig-wagging fingers, and now we honor them with our fingers wig-wagging across keyboards. 

Aloha!

How to Destroy Wishlists - Part Two

Aloha, everybody, 

In my last post I showed off the utter carpet bombing that Tony from Off Hiatus Baseball Cards laid upon my cardboard wishlists.  

1958 Topps Boss and Power - Nuff said.

 See that cardboard work of art there? That was the totally unexpected, atomic-powered, surprise that Tony dropped in my package along with everything else. 

Lots of times I would have held the blockbuster card until later in the post, but this one is just too good on several levels. 

First of all, Jedi Master and eagle-eye, Jeff from 2x3 Heroes immediately spotted it and mentioned it in the comments for Part One. Jeff got me to thinking it's simply too good a card to hold off on until later. 

Something I figure the Supertraders will be focused on is the latest, limited edition, autographed on card, hits that are out there. Nothing wrong with that. I dig that stuff too. 

But a hefty portion of my collecting heart loves vintage. Needs vintage. I gotta have that vintage. 

I've seen and coveted that Boss and Power card since my earliest days of crawling the card shows; it's price always a bit out of reach (or overvalued, IMO). 

And then Tony dropped that elusive, vintage, white whale into my package as an extra. KA-BLAMMO! I won't forget it, and I'm going to make it a point to do just like that in future packages for others whenever I can. 

I know, that was a lot of words for one card, but vintage Dodgers are always worth it. Here are some other favorites from that package...

Night Owl recently showed off a spittoon-full of chaw chewin' ballplayers. It appears Mr. Weiss has a jawful himself. Or early mumps? He also appears to be sporting the same ridiculous eyeglass frames I wore in high school. 

Come on, who don't like cards of Tommy laying down the law?  
 

 Boomer's big swing...

No logo? No problem. Murray's no-nonsense mustache is the logo here...
 

I never even knew this card of future World Series hero, Mickey Hatcher existed. He looks like a young Danny Aiello here. This was a very cool surprise. 
 

A beautiful card of Scioscia in action. Note the "Yeager-protector" dangling off the mask. All catchers wore that following a near-tragic accident when a broken, jagged bat slashed Boomer Yeager's throat. 

How about a card featuring two heroes from the 1981 World Series? 
 

Tony's Wantlist Crushing Machine also attacked PC Ron Cey wishlists...

"Oscar Gamble who?"

  
More excellent surprises in the form of Fernando cards...

Three years after the World Series and Pedro was still tearing it up...
 

 Thanks again for that wonderful package, Tony. My collection just took a big step forward. 

Aloha!