Bo Knows Prize Number 8

Aloha, everybody, 

Bo chose Number 8. It's the Autos and Relics Prize...

Angel Pagan is numbered to 99. Greene numbered to 75. Chipper is a manufactured RC patch. 

Up next is Dime Box Nick. You can choose Number 1, 3, 5, 9-13. All of the previous prizes are available to steal. 

Let's run with a Late Night Bonus. Bo and Dime Box Nick are not eligible. Everyone else, just be first to comment below for the bonus. 

Aloha! 

Speed Should Never Have A Slump

Dee Gordon is tearing up the basepaths this season and has more stolen bases than anyone in the majors.  So today, Dee and his cards will stand as my symbol for speed. 

Some of you out there might be wondering about that "spinning wheel of death" that you first see when ATBATT's page loads.  

I've joined in the fight for Net Neutrality - and believe me, it's a fight that needs all of us to participate in - because it will definitely affect the future for all of us. 

The FCC is going to rule this month on whether or not internet providers can separate the net into fast lanes, slow lanes, and super slow lanes.  The internet corporations will charge more for access to the fast lanes, in effect creating toll booths for internet access.

If you can afford to pay, your website will receive preferential speed.  If not, good luck to your audience.  They'll just have to pour a cup of coffee and wait for your site to load. 

Make no mistake, this is going to create a "Walmartization" of the net.  Huge corporations will thrive, while smaller outlets will wither and die on the vine.  

If the internet providers get their wish and the FCC allows them to create fast lanes, I fear the internet corporations will then create slower lanes for sites that represent direct competition to their interests. We saw the roots of this when Comcast slowed the internet speed of Netflix. 

Many of us started our blogs here on Blogger because it offers us free access to build a little niche on the web. If Blogger has to pay for access, do you think it will remain free for us? 

If all free blogging sites were super slow, would you use one of those sites? If you had to pay, would you have started blogging? How many other blogs or websites would never be born because of a payola system?

It starts with starving out competition for the dollar, and may well expand to slower speeds for sites with views the corporates don't agree with.  Are slower speeds based on political views OK with you ?  Or whether or not your site shows the occasional pretty girl in a bikini?

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled corporations are people. Bloggers are people too! Voice your opinion to the FCC and don't allow the corporations to leap over the rest of us. Aloha!

Back From The Island Paradise

Aloha, everybody.  Hawaii was fabulous, exciting, fun, dramatic and a real blast. I can't wait to go back again. 

Here's some quick observations from my trip:

If you're like me, an L.A. Dodger fan who has no access to your beloved team on television, just book a flight out of LAX and watch the game in one of the airport bars. Problem solved.

70% of L.A. Dodger fans have no access to the Dodgers on TV, but apparently, the 95% of THE WORLD passing through LAX can watch them.

I only caught the All-Star Game in snippets, but it seemed first-time AS Dee Gordon kicked some 'A' on the bases and with the leather. 

When Gordon scored the first ASG run of his career, he was greeted by a pumped up and emotionally high NL dugout.  However, Yasiel Puig, the man at the far end of the dugout, had a sour puss look and appeared jealous. He didn't even high five Gordon.

 There are SF colors everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE around Oahu, especially the Windward Coast and North Shore areas where I spent most of my time. A lot wore 49ers gear, but most wore Giants colors. It was like being constantly surrounded by enemy flags. Dodger fans, if you're headed to Hawaii - REPRESENT! 

More on this next post

If you're going to get married there, have a sunset ceremony, as did my friend.  The sun is much too brutal for afternoon pics wearing gowns and tuxedos on an open beach.  I saw a few wedding parties cooking out there in the afternoon. 

 Girls in bikinis and gorgeous sunsets will quickly take your mind off the fact there aren't any baseball games on. 

Next post: I found something sports-related for us on my trip! 
Aloha!

The Maligned Dodgers Win The Game!

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press / April 21, 2014)

A month into the season and 70% of the L.A. market still can't catch a game on TV.  Even Vin Scully can't watch the boys while sitting in his living room.  For those of you who didn't see it, ATBATT will fulfill it's public duty and fill you in on what took place in tonight's battle against the Marlins - because you need to know! 

Let's begin by saying the Dodgers have not been living up to the 2014 hype yet, to say the least.  Every game these days seems to be a grinder.  If we fans feel like we've been through a shredder after the game, I'm sure the players themselves feel like they were in a machete fight.  

Tonight was more of the same.  We were easily winning 7-3 and feeling fully pumped up after a MASSIVE 3-run bomb off the bat of Puig.  It was the kind of shots they hit for show at the All-Star Home Run Derby.  Happy head slaps and puffy chests were seen up and down the dugout.

Then Brian Wilson (about to become a new member of The Maligned), immediately coughed up the lead and had to be pulled off the mound by Mattingly before our 7-6 lead became a 22-7 hole.  The rest of the bullpen couldn't hold them back and the Marlins forced the game into a tie and extra innings.  

The last thing the Dodgers needed was yet ANOTHER extra inning marathon, but it looked and felt like we were about to thrash around for 16 innings and then lose in heartbreaking fashion.  A lesser team would have wilted into that role and acquiesced.  They had just slept-walked through an uninspired loss yesterday - would they mentally switch it off again?

But that wasn't happening tonight.  Even Mattingly (much maligned by little ol' me) fired up his team in the top of the 10th with a legitimate and loudly-barked argument with the plate umpire.  

The umpiring crew must have been sensitive over losing so many instant replay challenges that they wouldn't even check a pitched ball for a dirt scuff.  Mattingly was right about dirt being on the ball - and the umps probably knew they would lose face again - so out of pettiness they wouldn't give the Dodgers the satisfaction of an on-field inspection of a ball in play, like they're paid to do.

Mattingly lost the battle, but in the end, it was a great managerial play because he showed his team he was ready to fight and scratch for every pitch.  His play set the stage for the win.  

Juan Uribe (ex-Maligned) opened the top of the 11th with a walk, and up stepped Carl Crawford (Maligned).  Crawford manned up and crushed a huuuuuge 2-run blast, the ball bouncing forcefully off of the concrete separating the upper and lower levels. The Dodgers went back ahead 9-7.

Then Flash Gorden Jr. (ex-Maligned) came up. BASE HIT!  Tonight was the first ever five-hit game in his career.  He also stole three bases.  He's the first Dodger to do that since 1914.  
Do you know who's leading the leagues in stolen bases?  I'll save you the trouble of looking it up. It's Dee Fricken' Gordon.

Could another member of The Maligned on the squad step up and cement the win?  While our big 8th and 9th inning guys have been a real cardiac squad lately, Brandon League has been quietly settling into a good pitching groove.  League pitched a quick and easy three up, three down, bottom of the 11th and sent the Fish back into the sea.  

Tonight showed the team it's not just El Jaguar and Puig, Grienke and Ryu.  Tonight's win, our not-able-to-watch-on-TV-audience -  was brought to you by The Maligned.

When A PWE From JBF, Isn't

Hey everybody,

As most bloggers out there know, Wes from Jaybarkerfan's Junk is an outstanding trader and more.  The guy is much more than a trader, as he generously sends out PWE bombs to his fellow bloggers just because he's cool like that.

I've received PWE's in the past, but today I'm showing off some cool cards that came my way in a YBM - a yellow bubble mailer.  Of course that package contained a nice fistful of cards, but I'm trying to get this posted before the start of the Dodgers game, so in the interests of time, I'll just show off some of my favorites.  Let's get to it...

I love cards of Pay-dro, the World Series hero.  This is a great looking, high gloss card, and the orange provides a nice contrast against the Dodger Blue.

You go Pay-dro, with the old school stirrups.

Next up, speaking of old school, some vintage featuring the greatest pinch hitter ever...

How about this blast from the past....

We were all so young back then. 

Speaking of young players, how about the breakout kid of 2014?  Dee Gordon is surprising almost everyone with his newfound bat skills and consistent play at second base.  In addition to that, pitchers around the league are looking up and seeing Gordon look like this very, very often...

SAFE! (again)

What about some hits, you say? Let's start off with an autograph...

Justin's claim to fame was after finally making it to the big club, he was dropped to make room for Manny Ramirez.

Here's my first swatch of El Jaguar...

How about a guy who's young at heart, and the last manager to take The Dodgers to the Fall Classic...

 

There were lots of Gypsy Queen Dodgers in the package, so I chose one to represent all...

Thanks a bunch for the great cards, Wes.  Enjoy the weekend, everybody.

Dustin Off A Past Trade With The Vealtones

Hey everybody,

Here's a long-overdue post celebrating a great trade with Dhoff Dustin, he of the fantastic blog,  Coot Veal and the Vealtones.  This is the latest in what has slowly but steadily become a string of very cool trades.   How cool was this one?  Check out these great hunks o' cardboard...

"Which are bigger, my 90's shades or my pearly whites?"

Leading off is the greatest Dodger pitcher I've ever seen, the venerable Bulldog Hershiser.  Sure, Kid Kershaw has yet to write his story, but in order to eclipse Orel, he's going to have to carry his Dodger teammates through an NLCS and a championship World Series, including pitching a minimum 59 consecutive shutout innings, all in the same season.

In winning the pennant against the N.Y. Mets, Bulldog won Games 1 and 3, got the save in Game 4 AND THEN pitched a shutout to win Game 7.  He then went on to beat the (cheating) Bash Brothers and the rest of the Oakland A's in 1988 W.S. Games 2 and 5.

 Sure, Clayton looks up to Koufax, but Hersh isn't exactly chopped liver.

Like Bulldog, the pitcher below, Fernando, was a pretty darn good batter. The great Dodgers manager, Tommy Lasorda, had no fear about using Bulldog and El Toro as pinch hitters from time to time.  Fernando also packed the bonus of occasional home run power.

Speaking of Dodgers with home run power, we move into some vintage cardboard and the Toy Cannon, whom with those awesome sideburns could certainly hold his own with any group calling themselves The Vealtones...

Did somebody say Dodgers home run power?  Move over, because here comes Senor Pay-dro Gurrr-rero, World Series hero...

Staying with the theme of Dodger sluggers, here comes a fantastic bat relic card of big bopper Adrian Beltre (numbered to 199, even)...

Next up is a sweet swatch that was a wonderful surprise. This man has a great spirit and heart.  I really hated to see Hiroki go off to the Yanks...

I don't know what the fates have in store for young Dee Gordon this season, but I totally dig this card of the young pup Gordon turning two against the old dog, Chipper...

Closing out the Dodgers portion of the trade is a great shot of the Angel's skipper in visiting greys directing traffic whilst waiting for someone's pop up to drop into his sure hands...

Just because we're done with the Dodgers portion of this trade, we're not quite finished yet.  Dustin and I both love the vintage, and he sent over a coupla beauts featuringYankee Hall of Famers.

The ONLY man to pitch a perfect game in the World Series  - and that despite having a foot shaped like a duck bill.

Finally, from 1959 Topps, good ol' duck bill returns and is featured on one of my all-time favorite cards, being schooled by "The Perfessor"...

Whew! Thanks for another awesome trade, Dustin, and THANKS, everyone for readin'.