A Wonderful Oddball From Out of Left Field

Aloha, everybody, 

My son recently handed a flipbook to me, asking if I wanted it. Boy, did I ever! 

I couldn't find much info on this little flipbook, but it looks like it was produced by L.A. County government to celebrate the Dodgers' 50th season in Los Angeles, an to encourage voting in the 2008 Presedential election. 

Of course, it commemorates Kirk Gibson's legendary World Series home run.

Here's a peek inside. I've opened the front cover and the first image is visible... 

Later in the sequence, Gibby and Dennis Eckersley watch the flight of the ball on it's way into the L.A. night sky...

How about some fist-pump action...

The sequence actually plays out very well when you flip through it. Kudos to the county government for getting something right. 

Finally, a look at the back cover...

I never get tired of watching replays of Gibby's home run, or of the various TV and radio calls from that magic night. Now I have a flipbook to view it in an entirely new way. 

Aloha! 

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!

One Man's Dime Box Cards Are My Treasure

Hey everybody,

Spring Training is well underway and Opening Day is right around the corner.  What a great time of year!

Something else that's great is making trades with fellow bloggers and ATBATT's readers.  Today I'm covering a trade with one of the top bloggers in the game today, Good 'ol Nick, from the venerable Dime Boxes blog. 

This time Nick included a note expressing regret that he was low on Dodgers and how he hoped the inclusion of some other HOFers would make up for that.  Are you kidding, Nick?  Your trade packages are ALWAYS chock full of fantastic cardboard, and this time was no exception.

As usual, Nick sent so many cool cards I had a difficult time just to separate out nine cards to fit on my scanner for this post. That said, let's check the top nine I chose:

One can never go wrong sending Dodger vintage to me. 3-Dog was one of my earliest favorite Dodgers.  I was just a kid, but I quickly latched onto Davis because he was a southpaw just like me!

 I dig this psychadelic 70's card of Maury Wills and his well-used mitt.  It's said that the groundskeepers for the evil Giants over at Candlestick Park used to saturate the area around first base with water in the hopes of slowing down the speedy Wills. Ha! Good luck with that.

Now for one of today's Boys in Blue...

 RYYYYYYUUUUUUU !!  Now that Zack Grienke is not going on that ridiculous opening weekend trip to Australia, Manager Mattingly has declared Ryu will take the mound for Game Two of the season. 

 I love Ryu's game face when he pitches. Intense, baby! Come git some....

 How about this crazy card of Roger the Dodger?  Just what the heck is going on here?  I'm guessing this photo was snapped during the laid back days of Spring Training. I wouldn't be surprised if the camera were pointing backward, thus unintentionally creating the first selfie ever.

Nick also sent over some cool cardboard from other teams...

 The Catfish!  I'm presuming someone may have sent this card to Nick because of his "Grips" collection. If so, thanks for parting with this awesome card, Nick.

Another great card of a great pitcher.  Although pictured here with his first team, the Indians, I'll always remember him as an Oakland A.  Hey Ecks, can you hear it?  "High fly ball into right field....SHE IS GOOOOOOOOONE !!!!!"

These Cooperstown Collection cards are beautiful.  I only have a handful, and now I can add the Georgia Peach to that group.

Finally, this little foldout whose origins I don't know, but I am now proud to own.  I've mentioned before that I may not be a Yankees fan, but I can appreciate those Yankee greats from yesteryear.  Yogi Berra is certainly one of those Yankee players whom I admire and collect.

Yogi lost his wife of 65 years - 65 YEARS! - this past week.  What an epic love.  My deepest condolences, Yogi. 

And Nick, my THANKS for a great trade.  I'm already gathering a fistful of cards to send out to you  for our next trade.

Thanks for reading, everyone.