I Got Stacked by a Dodgers PWE

Aloha, everybody, 

Have you ever been stacked? 

Well, you ain't been stacked till you been stacked by The Pancake King! 

Check out this Dodgers cardboard stacked inside a PWE

Aloha!

Wills was Paid to Steal Bases, and I Paid to Steal a Maury

Aloha, everybody, 

Do you remember the Fun-at-a-Time book exchange that John from Summer of '74 and I started? Back when I was looking for books to offer from my end of the exchange, I came across a book that was an awesome surprise and I thought would be fun to share with you all. 

Full disclosure, I showed this off here once before, but it was a long time ago. I'm figuring I have a new crop of readers now, who didn't see that post way back then. Besides...I was happy to pull the book out and I'm happy to show it off one more time. 

Back in the day I grew my library by hunting used book stores and library sales. It was a poor man's way to pick up valuable literature on the cheap. One day while perusing a library sale, I came upon this...

The Maury Wills story. Well-loved, but not beat up, and a bargain at fifty cents. 

Then I opened the cover to find this...

Yup, that's Maury Wills' sig, in all it's glory. SOLD! 

I suppose folks stumble across signed books all the time. It's not such a rare acheivement. But this is different - to me. 

A Dodgers and baseball legend signed this book that probably began as a personal item. It eventually made its way into the library system, and was read by who knows how many kids forced into writing book reports and by true fans who wanted to know the story of a sports hero? It was days away from the scrap pile when I came across it in a "last chance, take it or we'll dump it" book sale. 

Now it happily rests in its final home. 

Aloha! 

The President of Card Bloggers Sent Cards to Me

Aloha, everybody, 

As the above title notes, I received a package from the dean of card bloggers, the GBOAT (Greatest Blogger of All Time), the venerable, wise old owl - who probably won't appreciate being referred to as old.  Indeed, if the blogger world had a president, this man would be that...Mr. Night Owl. 

We all know it's a good day when a package of cards arrives in the mail, but it's a very good day when I find a package from Night Owl. 

Lots of folks send Dodgers cards to N.O., and if I'm lucky, I receive some of the cardboard runoff from his bounty. Night Owl ends up with plenty of dupes and upgrades, and that's where we fellow Dodgers bloggers come in. The trickle down economics theory may not work out in the real world, but it sure does apply in the blogosphere. 

Let's have a look at (just a sample of) the goodies that came to me from the frigid and snowed over east. 

Leading off is an absolutely beautiful hologram 3-D card from the 30th anniversary of Dodger Stadium. THIS is how to do 3-D illusion right. The stadium image lifts right off the card surface and stands upright...

Young Joc on a sweet Diamond Kings rookie card edition...

What about the Brooklyn boys? Sir Night Owl always delivers...

I love how this shot of Campy shows the tools of ignorance in their full glory. Compare that chest protector to the almost tiny flak jackets catchers wear today. 

These are from 1979 TCMA Star of the 50's. I now have six of these Dodgers. Time to find out how many more I need to complete the Dodgers set. 

Jumping to the LA club and a Dodgers star from the 60's...

The 70's brought awesome 'staches to the Dodgers...

Here's Charlie Hough, the Dodgers' resident knuckleballer for many a year...

Steve Sax brings us into the 80's on 1985 O-Pee-Chee...

The next decade brought Raaaaaauuuuuuuuullllll....

Looks like a cold day in Chi-Town in this shot. Mondi's wearing winter headgear and the ivy has gone brown. 

If you think Dodgers baseball in the early 00's, you've gotta include the one who got away, Adrian Beltre...

Numbered cards? Yes, please...

Brown had such an unlikeable personality, but I'll admit, I liked it when he took the mound. He was lights out! 

Here's one for the Tatooine crowd...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish they'd shipped Tracy to Tatooine. 

Speaking of the great ones who got away...

The card is dark, so it's not easy to read the name of this Dodgers prospect. It's appropriate because it was a dark day Paul Konerko was traded away. I'll never forgive Tommy for that one. The Dodgers received Jeff Shaw, one of the elite closers in the game at the time. Pfffffffffffffftttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally, the one who didn't get away. 

The Teenager on a pre- LA Dodgers, Oklahoma City Dodgers card!!! Wow! 

Now THAT'S what you get when the president sends you cards. 

THANKS Night Owl! 

Aloha! 

Three Weeks in a Row to the Card Show. Do I have a Problem?

Aloha, everybody, 

Yup, despite the slim choices of card dealer tables, I headed out to the card show for my third week in a row. 

I'm trying to fill gaps in my PCs, and looking for cards to send out to my trading buddies. This week's trip brought modest success on both fronts. 

I won't be showing what I picked up for you all out there, because  I prefer those to be surprises. I'll tease a bit by saying I picked up cards for collectors of teams on the east coast, the World Series champs, some for entries into a blogger's contest, some for folks waiting for return-trade packages, and a couple for folks who commented on recent ATBATT posts. 

Here are the cards I rounded up for myself. Let's start with the vintage. These three are from 1960 Topps. I already had them, but I picked these up cheap enough to take a chance they might be upgrades for the ones in my binder...

Turns out, happily, the 60's I already own are in better shape than these. All three have soft, roundy corners. 

That said, if any set collector, or someone looking for starter vintage wants these, let me know, since they are up for trade. 

These filled holes in my Dodgers team checklists...

That's a great action shot of Willie Davis in a day game at Dodger Stadium. As the great Vin Scully would say, it's a "shirt sleeve crowd". 

Davis is either ducking away from a high and tight one, or he's reacting to being hit by the pitch. Note his batting helmet is nowhere to be seen. Philadelphia catcher Jim Essian's posture suggests he's possibly caught the ball. Anybody out there know the history of this one? 

More in-game action from the seventies...

The Dodgers wore those away uniforms with blue piping through the 60's and 70's. They dropped the piping in the 80's, and the unis have remained the same since then. 

Norm Sherry knocked one more off the 1962 Dodgers set...

Sherry's rockin' that man hair that runs all the way up to his neck. 

The last three cards are of the modern variety. First up is Larry Doby. After learning Doby was the pioneer who broke the color barrier in the AL, I decided to collect him. 

Zippy Zappy has announced he's collecting Doby as well, so I'll be keeping my cardboard eye out with two of us in mind. 

The final two cards hail from a tribute set. They're not particularly handsome cards, but they fill collecting needs because, believe it or not, I didn't have any cards from these players. These are my first. 

Now that I've cracked the ice, it's time to find better looking cards from these baseball legends.

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!

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. 

Down With 2013 Giants, and Arp With 2014 Dodgers

Hey everybody,

I completed a few trades at the close of 2013, and it's about time I give up some props to those awesome trade partners - whom I'm looking forward to making even more trades with in 2014.

First up is a perfect example of what makes our hobby so cool.  As we all know, the Dodgers and the Giants have one of the most storied - and violently heated - rivalries in sports. The bad blood between the teams goes all the way back to when the clubs were just a streetcar's ride apart in the old time boroughs of New York.  The hatred for the other team's uniforms continues to burn to this day, unfortunately leading to bloodshed between the fans more often than any hard collisions between the players out on the basepaths.

Which brings me back to our cool hobby.  Out here in the blogoworlds, Dodger and Giants fans read each other's blogs, Yankee and Red Sox die hards trade unwanted cards of their rivals to each other, and fans from other rivalries, old and new, comment on each other's blogs and even meet up in real life as friends.  Aint it grand?

I'm always able to pass off cards of the hated Giants to good ol' Arpsmith ,  and his unwanted Dodgers can always find a good home in my binders.  Although, now that I think of it, this trade was started by me actually shipping a Dodger card TO Arpsmith!

  He was collecting the Double Play set of game cards and I offered to send him an upgrade for his misprint Claude Osteen card.  Let's lead off with that clean but misprinted card that Arp sent to me...

 Arpsmith sent over some sweet extra cards as well. Naturally, being the cool Giants fan that he is, he sent over more Dodgers...

  You say Lou Brock?  You say Ricky H?   I say Maury Wills.  He's the guy that reinvented the game and made the stolen base a (once again) legitimate and dangerous offensive weapon.

The card was apparently part of some giveaway sets with messages about fire safety on the rear.  Check out Smokey the Bear's ever-lovin' mug under Mr. Wills.


What's better than a Hideo Nomo card that you never had before? 

BAAAAMMMM !!! Having its matching mini of course. 

Batting clean up is the man whom I dubbed El Jaguar last season...

I'm sure that baseball fans from San Diego to Oakland can appreciate the flag of the great Bear Republic gracing this hunka awesome cardboard.   What a glorious backdrop for A-Gon.

THANKS for the great trade, Arpsmith !

BTW, a reminder that you all have until Super Bowl kickoff to enter ATBATT's first contest of 2014.
See yesterday's post for details.