Binder Page Heroes 10 Hank Aaron & Pirates Ed.

hey everybody,

in honor of the braves getting burned on a bogus infield fly rule call, today's edition of Binder Page Heroes features the most famous brave of them all - yes, even more famouser than chipper, the legitimate home run champ, hammerin' hank aaron.

i don't have a whole lotta aaron cardboard, so the rest of his page is currently occupied by some pittsburgh pirates.  let's check 'em out...

this is hank's first card showing him as a member of the 500 HR club.  he's also creepin up on the 3,000 hits milestone.  he eventually finished close to 4,000 hits.

i often use reprints of a card i want to fill in a spot in the page until i can get the real mc coy.

here's the real mc coy. bill white, pictured here, went on to become N.L. president. 

it's a miiiiiiinnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiii commemorating his breaking of the babe's all-time HR record.

this one's my favorite.  hank is forever young in this card.

 onto the pirates....

manny here finds a place in my binder because he was a pretty good catcher, but more than that, he got to play in 2 fall classics, and he was a WS hero both times.  his first WS (1971) he got 11 hits.  the only other player to get more ?  roberto clemente with 12.  in his second WS (1979), he got a game-winning hit.  nice work, manny.

lifetime games: 1062   lifetime hits: 1009

yet another WS hero.  gotta love that huge wadda chaw in maz's cheek.

"big dave parker", as Vinny always referred to him, is one of those players with good career stats across the board that fall just beneath the cut-off numbers for the HOF voters.  as a result, he'll probably never get in the HOF, but i suspect every pirates fan would vote him in if they could.

THANKS for reading !

Platters, Traded Cardboard And Mountains Of Sushi

hey everybody,

Speigel, from the awesome blog Nomo's Sushi Platter , was right when he said the fraternity of Dodger bloggers have a great sense about trading within the brotherhood.  even though i've been blogging for just over a year, we conducted our first trade just last month.  it was a non-specific, blind trade, and it was very good.

waitaminute ! that reminds me that i just passed my one-year anniversary of starting up ATBATT ! wow - i totally missed that milestone! hmm...if i can find some time, maybe i'll put together a quick "one year" contest. any enthusiasm for another contest out there?

while you chew on that, let's check out the trade....

as a member of the brotherhood, speigel instinctively knows i need a Buckner all-star rookie card.  this card is so awesome that even Billy Buc's eyebrows are in overdrive.

  speigel included a very nice sampling of non-Dodgers.   i bought very little heritage product, so the only way i get these flashback cards is in trades - and i definitley like these cards.  there's always room in my collection for the legitimate HR king.  this is a great photo with hammerin' hank sporting the baseball cap under the batting helmet look.

 how cool is this?  speigel is an awesome, unselfish trader to include an autograph card in a first time, blind trade.

how about a cool oddball that i've never seen before, featuring one of the Dodger gods that would definitely be included when we carve the Dodger version of mount rushmore into the side of the elysian park hills beyond the outfield.

hmmm...i like that idea.  what should it be called?  Mount Chavez Ravine?  Mount Scully?   what four Dodgers should we carve on it?  I nominate Gibby, Podres, Jackie and Koufax. Lasorda?   wow, that's tough narrowing it down to four.

great card with 2 great players.  the irony here is this card is 'inter league preview', but to be honest, i'm pretty much done with inter league play.  it's played out and cuts down on chances for us to play division rivals.  and it seems 2013 is gonna bring us yet even more interleague crap.  i know, we're gonna play at yankee stadium, and some are jazzed by that, but i think it's time to drop the whole thing.

 a very cool manny card.  it doesn't show here, but the shiny factor is high on this one. lots of people wanna hate on manny now that he's gone and he tarnished himself with the cheating, but when he was here, he really lit it up Dodger stadium. 

 i still remember taking friends from taiwan to a game.  it was the bottom of the 9th and the Dodgers were losing.  manny came up and i told them not to worry as he's our best guy for this home run hero type of situation.  later in the at bat, i had to explain even though he had 2 strikes on him, no worries, as manny was actually the best 2-strike hitter in baseball, and he would win the game for us.  sure enough, as if on cue - BLAM ! deep center field...game winning home run !  it was fun while it lasted, manny.

here's yet another card from forever young, now - i'm- on - your - team, rickey henderson. awesome. 

here's the guy they named the famous arm surgery after.

Speigel sent me a bunch of great 70's Dodgers cards, including my first card from one of my favorite 70's Dodgers, Willie Crawford.  the brotherhood always knows what the brotherhood wants.  THANKS for a fantastic trade, brother !