Cardboard Countdown - One day - I Say, Just ONE DAY to Go!

Aloha, everybody,

This is it! I can smell the hot dogs and taste the over-priced beer. My team doesn't play until Monday, but tomorrow will be Opening Day for lots of other teams, so let's count down with the only two number ones that I could find in my collection...

And we'll close with (perhaps) everyone's favorite number one on one of my favorite cardboard issues ever...
 

Less than 24 hours to "Play ball!" Wooooooooo!!!!!
Aloha! 

Did Damn Mattingly Just Deliver My First Christmas Present?

THIS doesn't look comfortable.                               Nick Ut / Associated Press 

So today everything got aired out.

The Dodgers said: "You'll take a one-year contract and be happy."

Damn Mattingly said: "I say screw your one-year deal, and raise it to a multi-year."

Which should bring forth an interesting week in Dodgerdom.  Now we'll see who's bluffing, who's bullying, and who's folding.  I'm glad it only took 72 hours for the knives to come out. 

Regular ATBATT readers know I'm no fan of Mattingly Baseball.  No way indeed.  To recap - the guy can't manage a batting order or a bullpen, and he sure as heck can't manage bases loaded with nobody out!  I'm not saying he'll never learn these skills, but I'll always say I don't want him learning his craft on my team.

He summed everything up himself at today's press conference.  Mattingly said something to the effect that he's been managing for three years and ownership knows what he's got by now.  What more do they need to see?

Well, the man is right.  He's managed three years and sat under Joe Torre's terrific tutalage as he ran the Dodgers for another three.  If the guy hasn't figured out N.L. baseball tactics by now, he may never.

This is ownership's big chance to drop Mattingly like his managing prowess dropped back-to-back pitching masterpieces by Kershaw and Greinke to start off the NLCS.  Heck, they can even lay it at Mattingly's plate as he essentially called them out and dared them to do SOMETHING.

Good luck, skipper.


In other news, Dodgers Trainer Sue Falsone won't be back.  This is a good move.  As much as I disagree with the sexists who say this proves a woman can't do the job, I sure don't believe this one can do the job.  She may not have caused that original avalanche of injuries, but I would have liked to see a lot more prevention of the second and third injury waves. 

Mattingly is also demanding the return of all of his coaches.  Please, oh please, Magic...do what you can to make sure Cheater Mcgwire doesn't bring us yet another year of "The Dead Bat Era".  If you're gonna keep him, then hire some bad-ass Asst. Batting Coaches.

Ultimately, I won't complain if the Dodgers give Mattingly his multi-year Christmas present.  At least, not until Spring Training.  However, if we do open 2014 with a new skipper, I have one more request for Magic:

     Please DO NOT replace Damn Mattingly with The Jinx!!!!

Binder Page Heroes - Vintage Calling!

Here we go again with another page pulled from my PC binders. Here comes a mix of old-timers from Topps base, subsets, and even an Upper Deck oddball.

These first cards were inserts before there were inserts.  They come from 1973 Topps and featured the All-Time stat leaders (up to that point) for a variety of baseball accomplishments.

I'm chasing this bunch, so I'd appreciate if anybody out there who has some of these lying around would send 'em my way - in a trade of course.  Just check my "Sets I'm Chasing" page to see what I have and what I need.

Before Pete Rose was The Hit King, there stood The Georgia Peach. 

 This card of Walter Johnson has yet another WJ card creeping up into him. We'll see that lower card again in a sec.

 Here's good ol' Walter once again, leading his second category in the set: Most K's.

Coming up - down below - is that long rectangular card that was creeping into WJ's "Shutout Leader" card.  This is from 1993 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes....

These are patterned after the T-202 Hassan Triple Folders cards. There's 165 cards in the set and I have 3 or 4.  Not chasing.

The cards immediately above and below come from a set I'm sloooowly chasing, 1963 Fleer.

About a week ago the Dodgers tied, and then broke the franchise road game-winning streak record.   It was previously held by the 1924 Brooklyn Robins.

What most sports writers or bloggers didn't tell us was the fact that back in those early days in Brooklyn, the ballclub was called by a slew o' nicknames, depending upon who was doing the slewing.

They were called, for example, the Superbas (which I always read as the Super-Bras), the Grays, the Grooms, and the Robins.

It's said Manager Wilbert Robinson, affectionately known as "Uncle Robbie", was the reason they were called the Robins.  Baseball history will record this as the last time any manager was affectionately called anything.

Here's the Dodgers' All-time Hit King.  Way to rock that hip-hop cap waaaay before anybody, Sir Z to the Ack. 

The final three in the line up come from vintage Topps...

I'm a big fan of knuckleballers.  Here's a prime example of old-timer knuckler Phil Niekro, with old-time Dodger Stadium lurking in the background.

1962 Topps brings us one of those great shared cards featuring former Dodger and Yanks skipper, Joe Torre and his amazin' eyebrows. 

Finally tonight, another knuckler showing us how to grip it.  Contrary to the pitch's name, you don't really use your knuckles at all. Just another tricky facet of that dang tricky pitch.

Playing Taps For Team USA

Hey everybody,

I was really hoping this was going to be the year that Team USA is able to step up and make a serious play for the WBC Championship.  Sure, it's a fledgling, young, imperfect, and at times, deeply frustrating tournament, but it's nonetheless a REAL tournament that U.S. MLB cannot and should not ignore or continue to treat like a quaint distraction. 

And if we are gonna play in it, then we should play to win it, period.  Among the many WBC naysayers out there is one group that says this tourney might injure their favorite players, so they don't like it.  Anybody who's played sports for fun or money will tell you that one of the surest ways to get hurt is to play a physical game half-assed or to not take it seriously when you play against a serious opponent.  Take the tourney seriously or get (pushed) outta the way.

This time Team USA managed to open the WBC by losing their first game, and from there they went on to hit one dramatic grand slam for one dramatic win...

One grand slam comin' up - courtesy of Captain America

...and then they played the rest of the tournament like dramatic game-winning grand slams can simply be ordered up at any time in order to make up for mismanaged bullpens. Welcome to Joe Torre baseball!

Apparently all those years of managing powerhouse Yankees teams (that even I could have managed) spoiled him for running any type of "regualr" team.

That said, Team USA gave us some quality baseball performances. Starting pitchers brought enough game for us to still be alive in the tourney.

Dickey got dinged a bit, but always recovered well enough to keep the club close..

The worst possible pitching at the worst possible time came from Cleveland's Vinnie Pestano.  He came into the elimination game against Puerto Rico with the game still very much on the line.  But he promptly walked two, including walking in a run with the bases loaded. 

...but Manager Torre, who 5 minutes prior had an quick trigger finger in pulling starter Ryan Vogelsong, felt the urge to stick with Iffy Pestano.  I'm sure Torre was counting on some magic grand slam to just materialize later.  You can't really blame a guy who clearly hasn't got it for proceeding to blow it further, and that he did (yes, I was referencing both Pestano and Torre). We never recovered.

While there were offensive spots in the lineup that stunk it up...

Exhibit 'A'

...there were a couple of guys who shone in the WBC spotlight...

Exhibit A

It's going to be a long few years until the WBC makes its way around again, and while I'm disappointed as a Team USA fan that we're out of it, I'm very happy as a Dodger fan at the way the Dodgers are being represented on other teams...

Hanley Ramirez has been blasting WBC baseballs out of the park for Team Dominica

Nick Punto batted .421 for Team Italy

Adrian Gonzalez blasted a sweet homer for Team Mejico, unfortunately it was against Team USA

Jansen has jumped over to pitch for the Dutch.  I'm looking forward to him getting a chance. 

Plenty has been printed that "we woulda won if Captain America (David Wright) had not been injured and dropped out of the lineup."  I don't buy that theory myself.  It's happened before that a committed star has been injured and left the rest of the team to finish the crucial remaining games without him - and the team managed to rally and win when it counted.

Go look up Kirk Gibson and the 1988 Dodgers.  Both men inspired their teams with momentous home runs and quickly exited due to injuries.  One team came together (under a brilliant manager) while the other fizzled and shizzled.

There's rarely one reason for anything, and there was certainly more than one reason Team USA has bombed out of the WBC -YET AGAIN.  I, for one, am hoping MLB takes the blows to national and sports pride to heart and commits to winning the next time around.

Thanks anyway for the efforts Team USA.  You'll be back again for the next one, I'm sure. And so will I.