Social Distancing Diary with Baseball Cards: Mantle, the Babe, and Giants

Aloha, everybody, 

In this episode of Social Distancing with Baseball Cards, we check out some tribute and vintage Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, the Babe and more.

Enjoy and aloha! 

Blog Bat Around - All Autograph Team

Aloha, everybody, 

My buddy Zippy Zappy started a Blog Bat Around that consists of a team lineup that's made from autographs. It doesn't matter if the auto is on cardboard or any other memorabilia (like a signed Penguin lamp, for example), the only caveat is: the auto has to be in our possession. 

While it sounds like a fun idea, I thought for sure I didn't have enough autos to put together a nine-man lineup, including relief pitchers and PH/DHs. Once I got into my binders, I was surprised that I had just enough to field an auto-team alongside those you all are putting up. However, I did have to place one player out of position, and you'll see how that played out soon enough. 

Without further ado, I give you the ATBATT All-Auto All-Stars:

Batting leadoff, and playing second base: Maury Wills

Maury is third on this triple-autographed card I received through trade - the other two are Manny Mota and pitcher Claude Osteen. 

Batting second, and playing right field: Tony Gwynn. 

I got this Gwynn auto TTM. I originally had two, but traded one away. 

Batting third, and playing center field: The Duke of Flatbush

The Duke came to me through trade with mi hermano, JBF. 

Batting cleanup, the DH: Paul Molitor 

Molitor is a TTM auto. 

Batting fifth, in left field: The Straw (He's out of position, but I don't have any left fielder autos, and I figure Daryl can handle LF better than Gwynn) 

My only Strawberry auto came to me in trade. 

Batting sixth, and at third base: The Penguin

While I don't have an autographed lamp, this traded Cey will do. 

Batting seventh, the backstop: The Boomer

I got this Yeager auto (and another) in person at a local pizza place. The second auto I sent off to the guy with the Penguin lamp.

Batting eighth, and at shortstop: Alan Trammell

I got two Trammells TTM. One is traded away. 

Batting ninth, and at first base: Big Mo

Mo Vaughn is a TTM auto. Isn't this a great one? I dig the way Big Mo wrote his name on that monster arm. 

We'll close the starting nine with that awesome auto and save the pitching staff, PH, and also-rans for Part Two. Stay tuned. 

Aloha! 

Wes' Big ol' Cube - The Finale

Aloha, everybody, 

I hope you're all doing fine out there. I had a wonderful getaway to Laughlin, Nevada this past weekend. If you're unfamiliar, Laughlin is kinda like a VERY much slower and smaller Las Vegas. It's located along the shores of the Colorado River, with Arizona sitting on the other side. 

I needed to decompress from daily life and crazy politics on my mind, so Laughlin really hit the spot. Now that I'm back, let's get this part of daily life back on the burner and roll out the final highlights from the cube o' cards that mi hermano, Wes, sent out to me. 

We'll lead off with some cool vintage 1975 Topps that also filled in slots from my Dodgers team checklists...

Above is Boomer rockin' the 70' sideburns, and below is the greatest pinch hitter ever. 

Mota's beautiful card features the bonus of the Dodger Stadium pavilion with the old school scoreboard and paint scheme, and the famous palm trees, that Vin Scully dubbed "The Three Sisters". 

Speaking of beautiful cards: We get World Series Hero, Joe Ferguson, Hall of Fame skipper, Walter Alston, and a slew of Dodgers in the background...

For years I had only the mini version of this Mike Marshall card. Thanks to Wes, I now have its big brother. 

How about that? Two Hall of Famers on one card...

Here's Tommy John wearing his cap like the Sears photographer plopped it on him at the last second...

No, Marshall is not flinging a "poop ball special". Those brown things are small tears on the card surface. 

Here comes a nice surprise: A fistful of 1986 Oh-Pee-Chee Dodgers...

Gotta love that spelling on VandeBERG. The Dodgers have 22 of these, so Wes has given me a good head start on the team set. 

BTW, the cards look just like they came out of a pack last week. 

More newish-looking cards from 1987 Leaf...

I've never even seen variations like these before. The card backs feature text in English and French. Very cool. 

That finishes off the cube. As always, another fun pummeling from good ol' Wes. I'm still putting together my return salvo, so keep your helmet on, hermano. Fire directed at you coming soon! 

Aloha! 

Not All Giants For Dodgers Trades Are Bad

Aloha, everybody,

Current Dodgers front office suit and previous GM, Ned Colletti, came over to the Dodgers from the San Francisco Giants. 

As Dodgers GM, Colletti had a bad habit of acquiring former Giants. Those deals often stank. They stank enough to make a lot of Dodger fans wonder whether Colletti was in reality a spy from SF sent here to undermine the team from the inside. 

On the other hand, I often cite Jeff Kent as a good Giant to travel down the coast to join LA. Juan Uribe, once beloved in SF, even carved out a niche of his own here in LA. Thus, transactions between Nor Cal and So Cal can certainly work out well. Such was the case after I recently showed off a set of metal Willie Mays cards as trade bait. Of course, a Giants fan came a callin'. 

Arpsmith from Arpsmith's Sportscard Obsession put in a claim, and soon enough, another Dodgers-Giants trade was on. The Say Hey Kid was on his way to the bay and some good ol' Dodgers were headed down to LA. 

Leading off the loot that came from Arpsmith are a couple of 2013 schedules featuring the former 1-2 punch of the Dodgers pitching rotation...

"Hay un nuevo blue" translates to "There's a new blue". Prophetic, as the new blue rotation for 2016 will be all Kershaw and no Grienke.

Here come some new blue additions for my collection, from Pinnacle...

Arpsmith knows I like me some vintage, so these Dodgers were the meat of the deal...

I already had a 1958 Demeter, but this one is a considerable upgrade. 

Notable: Demeter's photo always looked to me like one of those creepy ventriloquist mannequins. 

The Harris card below is primo vintage - and it chips one off of my 1960 Dodgers team wanted list...

 It's a very clean card, with sharp corners and a good amount of surface gloss. Nope, nothing chewy about these cards. 

Finally, the trade capper. A triple-autographed Heritage Dodger Stadium tribute card featuring Claude Osteen, Manny Mota, and the guy who's auto sealed the deal for me...Mr. Maury Wills...

 I recognize Mota's auto as I have a couple of other IP autos from him, and these are my first Osteen and Wills sigs. I love that Wills added his number "30". 

I was initially disappointed that Wills signed low, in the shadow of the light standards, but it turns out I was looking at things all wrong. I was looking at the card as three separate autographs.   

I think Wills may have signed low in order to not cover up the action on the baseball diamond. Now I see and appreciate the entirety of the card as one whole piece. This new perspective makes the it look even better to me.

THANKS for this great batch of cards, Arpsmith. It's another trade between west coast rivals that benefited all.

Aloha!

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.

Yet Even More Ticket Stub Nostaslgia

Hey everybody,

Hope you all had a great Fourth.  In yesterday's Fourth of July post, I featured a couple of 1995 ticket stubs that featured a series titled  "Great Moments"  from the Dodger's history.

There are 11 moments in the series.  Yesterday showed numbers 5 and 8.  Let's see how many others I have...

1. Missing ?

2. Missing

3. Sandy Koufax hurls 4th no-hitter and the only perfect game of his career as the Dodgers defeat the Cubs. 

4.  This one would have been appropriate for yesterday also.  Rick Monday snatches an American flag from two would-be flag-burners.

5. Steve Garvey, Reggie Smith, Dusty Baker and Ron Cey become the only foursome to hit 30 or more runs in a  season.

6. Bob Welch strikes out Yankee slugger Reggie Jackson in the 9th with 2 men on to win Game 2 of the '78 World Series.  AWESOME !

7. Manny Mota sets the major league record with his 145th career pinch hit. AWESOME!

8.  Fernando Valenzuela beats the Astros, 2-0, on Opening Day to start "Fernandomania".

9. Missing

10. Missing

11. Missing? 

The final stub doesn't have a Great Moments number, so I'm not sure if it's number 11 or number 1.  However, since this moment was so incredible, I'm tempted to think this was number ONE....

Kirk Gibson's two-out, ninth inning home run beats Oakland in Game One of the 1988 World Series.
But of course, AWESOMENESS PERSONIFIED! 

Thanks for reading, everybody!

G-reat C-ards R-each L-A. I'm a L-ucky C-ollector

Hey Everybody,

Whew, that was a tough title to construct!  As you can see, I worked in the initials from the two bloggers who most recently sent some great cards my way. 

Super-blogger - not just Super Dodger Blogger, but Super Overall blogger, Jim, from the Super Dodger blog, Garvey, Cey, Russell, Lopes (GCRL) recently sent a package to me full of Dodgers goodness.  Just out of the Dodger Blue, he sent a set of the 2013 Topps Dodgers to me.  WOW ! How cool is that?  Well, if you're a Dodger fan, or just a fan o' the cardboard, you certainly know how cool that is.

 Just to make an already generous action even MORE AWESOME, Jim added some cardboard cherries on top. Check it out....

Man, I can't have me enough Dodgers vintage.  Awesome!

I'm really glad to see other bloggers starting to talk about chasing vintage because vintage cards really are what I love the most.  New or re-newed interest in older cardboard is great news for me because I'll enjoy checking it out on everyone's blogs and I anticipate we'll increase it in our trades across the board.

My first card of ol' 3-Dog.  Thanks, Jim.  :)

Only the best pinch hitter there ever was.  Or ever will be. 

Perranoski went on to become a member of Tommy Lasorda's Dodger Coach Mafia.

'Rube' Walker was a Brooklyn Dodger who transferred over to L.A.  N.Y. fans might remember him as a pitching coach for the Mets. 

Great cards.  I also jumped on a vintage trade offer from A.J., The Lost Collector , who is quickly becoming someone I trade often with.  A.J. posted up some vintage for trade, and I took this bait...

 I remember Campy from my first days of watching baseball.  He was a steady player for the A's, and I considered him to be one of their star players.  Catching this card was one of those examples of a hunka cardboard that reminds me of being very young and watching baseball on TV, without a worry in the world.

Keeping the streak of receiving 2013 Topps Dodgers alive, A.J. added this cool Matt Kemp insert.
Once again, a card I didn't have, brought to me by the generosity of my fellow bloggers.

THANKS, Jim and A.J., for all the great new cards.

Next post: Loot from the Great Baseball Card Giveaway of 2012.