Six Degrees of Blogging Separation - ATBATT Style

Aloha, everybody,

Last week Fuji-san from The Chronicles of Fuji laid out a very intriguing post referencing the Six Degrees of Separation game. In it, he connected Jackie Robinson to Tony Gwynn, and then challenged the rest of us to have a go at the six degrees angle ourselves. 

Ok, I'll bite, but my approach will be a little different. You see, Fuji ran a masters class in using baseball-reference.org in order to establish his connections. 

I won't be sleuthing through the baseball archives quite as deeply as Fuji, but I hope you'll still enjoy this six degree journey to connect the patron saint of ATBATT, Jackie Robinson ...

...with little ol' me...

As you all know, I'm located in LA, so I'm going to use Hollywood to make our connections. And away we go...

1. Jackie was brought from Chicago to Brooklyn to sign with the Dodgers by Clyde Sukeforth, who was a coach with the Brooklyn Dodgers at the time. Sukeforth was the only other person present in the room when Branch Rickey signed Jackie to the big club. 

Sukeforth and Robinson

2. Clyde Sukeforth was played in the movie "42" by
actor Toby Huss. 

That's Huss on the right, and Han Solo is playing Branch Rickey. 

 3. Earlier in his career, a young Toby Huss played Kenny in the movie The Basketball Diaries.

Left to right: Huss, young Mark Wahlberg and young Leonardo DeCaprio

4. The Basketball Diaries is a film biography of N.Y. junkie-athlete-poet, Jim Carroll. It was based on his book of poems with the same title. DiCrapio played Jim Carroll. 

5. Jim Carroll eventually kicked heroin and started a most excellent rock n roll band named - the Jim Carroll Band. 

1980: Jim Carroll with my all-time favorite rocker, Keith Richards

5. Back in the early 80's my crew and I used to frequent the rock clubs on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. The music was electric and new, exciting bands were popping up in LA and rocking Hollywood and downtown LA, as well as coming over from the equally vibrant San Francisco, London and New York scenes. 

The Whiskey a GoGo was one of my regular spots. I dropped by to see bands I was hearing on punk and new wave radio shows, as well as just to see who was playing. That was how I came across the Jim Carroll band. They were touring behind their inaugural album, Catholic Boy. 

There are only a few moments in life when we experience a musical epiphany. We can usually count those moments on one hand. 

That happened the night I witnessed Jim Carroll sing at the Whiskey. His poetic lyrics blew my mind, and his band was spot on, rocking the house in a way that connected everyone through the music. 

6. Watching Jim Carroll from the front of the Whiskey's stage I had no idea that 20 some-odd years later I would be writing a blog. I chose my nom de blog - Stealing Home - with a nod to Jackie Robinson, and thus completed the sixth degree of connection. 

Aloha!  

You Also Say JENGA When You Save Cardmas!

Aloha, everybody, 

And the Cardmas magic just keeps on rolling. 

In my previous post I showed off some of the cardboard stocking stuffers that Tony B from WRJ sent to me, but I forgot to show the cool oddball that he sent along with the bunch. 

Somehow I left said oddball in the envelope, and at scanning time it remained there, forgotten. Have no fear, because Tony noticed it wasn't in my post, and he sent an email asking me if he had forgotten to pack that oddball in the first place. 

It turns out the timing of all of this was perfect, because a Dodgers news story broke since that first WRJ post, which grooves right into this new post perfectly. 

The Dodgers just announced they will dedicate their first stadium statue in 2016. Statues at stadiums are far from a new thing, but up until now, Dodger Stadium hasn't had one (I certainly don't count a giant Tommy Lasorda bobblehead as a statue). 

Who gets the honor of the first statue? Of course, he's the patron saint of ATBATT, and the player whom I take Stealing Home, my nom de blog from..

 Tony included this oddball of Jackie in the envelope as well, and I must point out that although I already had a couple of these, this one is in pristine shape, as though it came out of a pack yesterday. 

That however, was not the original oddball that Tony was referring to, and I had forgotten. This is...

It's a slightly oversized bio/portrait card of Branch Rickey, who some might refer to as the patron saint of Mr. Robinson. 

For the three of you out there who don't know yet, Branch Rickey was the guy who convinced the Dodgers to take on the task of breaking the black/white color barrier in MLB.  He also convinced Jackie to suck up the abuse hurled at him from the stands and opposing dugouts, and show through his playing ability that he, and others no different than him, deserved to play alongside white, Caribbean and Latin ballplayers. 

He was also played by Han Solo in the movie 42 . 

Here's the bio on the back. Check out Rickey's birthday - he's a Christmas baby - more Cardmas magic! 

 So I now have a piece commemorating one of the most influential men in baseball, and it's thanks to Tony B. 

P.S. for Zippy Zappy. Please grab my email from my profile and shoot an email to me, ZZ.  
P.S.S. for Matt and Tony L. Check my reply to the beer trading comments on Matt's blog. It's in the "Skinny Bonds" post. 

 Aloha - and Merry Christmas, everybody, wherever you may be.

Today Everybody Wears No. 42

Thanks for everything, Jackie.