Social Distancing Diary ~ With Baseball Cards #6

Aloha, everybody, 

Today we check out some custom cards made by the very talented Baseball Card Breakdown, and we see the first of many Dodgers autographs to come. 

Enjoy and aloha! 

Who is the Dodgers' Ace - Clayton Kershaw or Hyun-Jin Ryu?

Aloha, everybody, 

Clayton Kershaw has been the Dodgers' Ace for almost a decade. Hyun-Jin Ryu is a monster on the mound and at 31 scoreless innings. Is it time to proclaim a new Ace in LA? 

All Things Come to an End

Aloha, everybody, 

One of the biggest lessons that I took to heart while studying Buddhism (on the way to a Masters in Buddhist Psych) is that everything is constantly changing. Thus, everything comes to an end.  

Case in point...

The voice of every past summer of my life has retired and gone quiet.

Long before I came along, Vin Scully was bringing the Dodgers to life for fans over the radio. He was there when, as a young boy, I committed myself to love the Dodgers forever. He was there all summer long as I grew up, became a man, and raised a family. 

But everything changes, and I'll never hear Vinny call a (live) game again. 

Perhaps no other sports fans know the lesson of all things coming to an end (or felt it deeper) than the heartbroken fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers. 

For generations the Dodgers were the beloved team - the fricken' identity - of the borough. And then Walter O' Malley uprooted the club and moved it to sunny Los Angeles. 

What was tragedy for those east coast fans was welcomed on the west coast. Nothing would be the same again. 

It once seemed the Iron Horse's record of most consecutive games played would never be broken. Then the Iron Man came along and he played every game too, for even longer. 

Until one day, he wasn't in the starting lineup, and his run ended. 

Everything changes. Circumstances that we take for granted will be the same tomorrow can change without a moment's warning. 

When I was putting together my list for Operation PWE, I was surprised (and saddened) to discover the passing of several blogs that had been part of our community long before my humble little blog came along. 

I visited blogs of past trading partners to check on wantlists, and instead I found messages of goodbye and farewell. Bloggers I considered friends, and a couple I was barely acquainted with, had hung up their keyboards - and I never knew. 

I get it. Collecting and trading is fun and easy - consistently scanning and writing, not so much. 

Those blogs went dark without my knowledge because I was missing in action from the blogosphere for a good part of the year myself. The joy of blogging can become a slog sometimes. New circumstances in life arise, and suddenly there's no time for a hobby. Everything changes. 

On the other hand, not every change of circumstances is tragic...

As the old saying goes, "When a door closes, a window opens". Bloggers retire and move on, just like legendary sportscasters. New ones will take their places. 

I bid aloha to my old comrades who closed up shop in 2016. I'll miss your posts, but I look forward to what 2017's bloggers will bring. 

Jackie Robinson Day At Dodger Stadium - What A Night, Indeed

Aloha, everybody, 

On Jackie Robinson Day I attended my first ballgame of the year. It was Dodgers vs Giants, Clayton Kershaw vs Madison Bumgarner, the teams were tied for first place in the National League West, and the Dodgers were giving everybody a Jackie Robinson Commemorative jersey, with fireworks after the game. The best part? I was there. 

We arrived early, because it was a sellout and I didn't want to miss a second of it. 

Check out homeboy's Vin Scully t-shirt. Scully is definitely THE MAN in LA. 

It's about 45 minutes to first pitch and the grounds crew is putting the finishing touches on a large Number 42 on the infield, just beyond second base. 

 They brought out the color guard and we heard an amazing National Anthem. I forget the guys name, but you can look him up if you need a most excellent National Anthem singer. He moved the crowd, he was that good. 

It felt pretty special to be there and see all the players suited up with Jackie's number. 

Almost sunset, and the outfield was bathed in beautiful twilight.  

Frank Robinson, the first African-American manager in the big leagues threw out the first pitch to Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts, the first minority manager in Los Angeles. 

Vin Scully was ready to rock, so it was Time For Dodger Baseball! 

Hunter Pence fouling one off of Kershaw. You can see the ball trailing off behind the umpire. 

Dodgers rally! Kike Hernandez just sent a double into left field (He also blasted two home runs in the game). The Giants are starting the relay in as Dodgers are clearing the bases...

It coulda had something to do with this rally banana in the stands. Kike began the tradition of the rally banana last season. 

Kike and his rally banana led the Dodgers to a 7-3 win over the Giants, putting the Dodgers in first place. Life was good. 

But there was still a fireworks show to come!

I like to think every time a firework explodes, a Giant loses his wings...

We were in higher seats and there was a bit of wind, so the smell of the fireworks wafted over us. Sublime. 

I regularly use the metro option to go to the game. So we headed to the shuttle bus stop after the game. 

 It was a sellout, so traffic was horrendous. Our shuttle buses were stuck in it too, and the line got pretty long...

 Look down that row of trees. See those bright orange-yellow lights at the end of the horizon line? THAT was the bus stop. The line has taken on a "U" shape. We are in the middle of the U. 

We waited about a half hour and suddenly an army of buses pulled up. 

After a bus ride to Union Station, we took the train. Home at 12:30. All in all, it was a wonderful night.  

Stop by LADodgerReport tomorrow morning to check out even more - and larger - photos from the game. Aloha! 

Is your Cardboard World Customized?

Aloha, everybody, 

Are you familiar with King of all Customs, Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown? If you don't know his blog and his work, you should. Homeboy knows his way around customs, I'll tell you that.  

Some custom card makers are content to whip up a few wacky pieces here and there, but Gavin is constantly honing his craft, perfecting his artwork, and expanding the medium. 

His latest project has been creating customs with the end goal of having them autographed. He's been having some measure of success, and I'm very happy to have a couple of his most recent works of cardboard art in my collection. 

Aint this a beauty? G tells us the story of this card here. 

The photo is taken from the Penguin's monster home run in Game 3 of the 1981 World Series. The semi-blurred flash of a magical moment in time is forever captured in the imagery. The perspective could not be more perfect than this one - showcasing the classic outfield pavilions and the old-time Dodgers DiamondVision scoreboard. 

Here's the backside...
 

 Gavin made three of these babies:

1. Mandated for King of all Bloggers, Sir Night Owl
2. A keeper for himself, and 
3. One up for trade. 

BAMMM!!!!! I jumped hard.

It's well known blogosphere lore that Night Owl's favorite Dodger is Ron Cey. I figure few beyond my loyalest readers know the Penguin is my all-time Dodgers favorite as well. 

Strange thing is, in all of my collecting travels, I have never acquired a Ron Cey autograph. I've run across him a couple of times at Dodger Stadium, and was unfortunately unprepared to get an auto both times. So I wanted that card.

(Aside for GCRL Jim: Gavin mentioned to me that he hoped this Cey card would inspire a trade between the two of you. So heads up, Jim, Gavin's interested in trading.) 

When Gavin sent a Cey card off to Night Owl, he included a second Dodgers-related custom card, a faux vintage Vin Scully. Guess what Gavin added to our trade? 

BLAMMO!!!! My very own vintage Scully! 

Just as important to my Dodgers experience - in fact, more so than that of Ron Cey - is my "relationship" to Vin Scully. I doubt fans from other cities can fathom how a fan can feel connected to a baseball announcer like Dodger fans do to Vin Scully. It's surreal. I'll have to drop a blog post about that one day. 

Today, however, is about Gavin's art. This card feels like authentic vintage. It's complete with bends, soft corners, the right patina, and again, the perfect photograph. 
 

When I was an artist back in the day (I'm a painter), I used to make fun of how overused the word "visceral" is in the art world. This time the word fits. 

Gavin had produced a Scully custom before, and having now received this new one, I'm seizing upon the opportunity to riff off of an idea that Night Owl had, which he called Start to Finish.  

In Start to Finish one compares a players first card issue with his last. Let's use the Scully customs and see how that plays out...

The vintage Scully shows us the young redhead in a humble radio booth in long-gone Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, NY. The enjoyment and excitement he finds in his work is evident in young Scully's face. 

The other card is an 88 year-old Scully at the end of his career, solidly established at the summit of the baseball broadcasting world. 

He's still thin, now sporting a World Series championship ring, and  displaying that ever-present Hollywood smile and his trademark shock of red hair. 

From a small broadcast booth to the diamond of Chavez Ravine, Vin Scully absolutely rules on (custom) cardboard. 

And a Ron Cey autograph aint too shabby, either. 

 

Aloha! 

A Cardboard Tribute To The Thin White Duke

Aloha, everybody, 

What a sad, sad day for music fans around the world. One of the most creative, innovative and beautiful rock voices went silent last night when David Bowie returned to the stars and left us all behind.  

I've been listening to Bowie's music all day, and I figured I'd put together this humble little tribute to some of my favorite Bowie songs, but blending them with cardboard - cuz that's the way we roll here at ATBATT. 

Three.....Two....One....Liftoff....

Joc Pederson holds out the hope and potential of a promising baseball career that we all (most of us?) dreamed of as Young Americans.  

The video itself has a sketchy sound on the high end, but what a thrill to see Bowie perform. I'll take it.

"Aint there one damn song...that can make me break down and cry?"

Maury Wills pretty much re-invented the game of modern day baseball by firmly establishing the stolen base as an offensive weapon. The kid ran Wild Like The Wind. 

The song itself isn't very fast paced, but damn, Bowie steals something from me every time I hear this song. 

 Steve Howe had a promising career that was unfortunately cut short by alcohol and drug addiction. He kept trying to come back, and kept stumbling back. He would revive his brilliance, only to succumb to the demons again - Ashes to Ashes.

"Time and again, I tell myself, I'll stay clean tonight." 

Good ol' Jackie brought some much needed Changes to all of MLB.  

"These children that you spit on, as they try to change their worlds...don't tell them to grow up and out of it."

Of course the big three get Heroes.  (An excellent live version here)

"We can beat them forever and ever." 

Dang, listening to this song is still bringing tears to my eyes tonight. Every time I hear it, I think Bowie is swimming with the dolphins now. 

What can be scarier than having big Don Drysdale reaching back and firing off a brush back pitch straight at your head? Oh, you're backing off that plate alright. 

"Keep me running. Running scared."

Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella and Carl Furillo

Dodger fans will always have the Golden Years of the Boys of Summer.  

"Nothing's gonna touch you in these golden years."

Of course, who else but the venerable Vin Scully should get this song? Vinnie has been the Sound and Vision of my baseball summers for my entire life. 

"I will sit right down, waiting for the gift of sound and vision." 

Ol' Willie Davis was the Dodgers' Three Dog, so he gets Diamond Dogs, a song with some of the best rock lyrics ever. 

"This aint rock and roll, this is genociiiiiiiiiide!" 

So many teammates and LA fans complained about Jeff Kent when he was a Dodger. It wasn't because he was an ex-Giant, they said he was grumpy and always simmering. It seemed to me the only thing he wanted was for his team to give 100% every game, which is all I ever saw from him. 

Sometimes I think I was the only Kent fan in LA.  Kent gets Slow Burn. 

Man, that bass line cuts right to my gut and I love the way Bowie hits those notes - "Sloooow Buuurrrrrnnn."

I lived through Fernandomania, I knew Fernandomania. You "Manny bein Manny", are no Fernando. 

If you didn't live in LA or otherwise did not experience Fernandomania, check out the excellent 30 for 30 docu on it that's on Netflix. LA was bonkers for Fernando, and he deserved it all. 

Let's have some fun with that video of Bowie doing a bad lip sync job on Soul Train. Yup, Soul Train. 

Of course, the man who would be a Fashion model, Mr "The Gap" Kemp. 

"We are the goon squad and we're coming to town."  

Finally, the Dodgers' very own Starman, who hit home runs so high and so far, they were called "moonshots".  

Now Bowie is the Starman waiting in the sky.  

Aloha, David, wherever you may be. 

The Curse Of The Billy Goat Finally Gets A Baseball Card

Aloha everybody, 

Welcome to the final post presenting the fantastic package of winnings that Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown sent out to me when I took second place in his fun World Series contest. 

Gavin packed so much cardboard into my winnings package that it was going to take more than one post to cover everything. Since the actual World Series took five games to complete, I broke up the presentation of my prize into a series of five posts. 

This is the final, the shortest, and perhaps the best post of them all, because now I can show off the awesome custom cards that Gavin crafted.

First up is the custom that I requested. In my cardboard travels, I've seen plenty of cards covering lots of wacky happenings from the world of baseball, but one thing I haven't seen is a card commemorating the legendary Billy Goat's Curse which has kept the Chicago Cubs out of the World Series since 1945. 

Presenting, in the style of the Topps Kmart Memorable Moments set from 1988: The custom Curse of the Billy Goat card...

Cardboard awesomeness!

 And the back...

Better still, that card was not the only custom I received from G. He dropped in a surprise custom for me, which was so good, I didn't even peg it as a custom until I was sorting the cards for my binders a couple of weeks later...
 

One reason I didn't realize it wasn't an original is because I took it for granted that of course Topps would honor the venerable Vin Scully on a baseball card. 

Gavin chose the perfect photo and created something that could stand up to anything the Topps crew would come up with.  

THANKS for that great prize package you sent to me, G. Much appreciated, and it was a heckuvalot of fun. 

Aloha! 

The Dodgers Lost Today - So Let's Have A "Win" First Pitch

Leave it to our friends in Asia to give us another great first pitch in the tradition of pretty girls and baseball mash-ups. 

Now I'm going to do a "Vin Scully" and simply let the pictures speak for themselves...

And how about those jaguar print uniforms? 

A few years back I visited Taiwan, and although it was baseball season at the time, and I asked anybody who spoke English, unfortunately I couldn't find a game to attend.  

I did catch a baseball game on my hotel TV one night, and I was surprised at the low level of athleticism the game was played at. It seems a decent college team could dominate the leagues over there.

That said, I would happily attend any game that featured first pitches and cute baseball cheerleaders such as those offered up by the Taiwanese. 

For new readers, this isn't the first time ATBATT has featured an unusual first pitch from Asia. Back in August of last year, we checked out an attractive first pitcher from Korea. If you missed it the first time around, visit this post.

Good night, everybody.

Every Day Is Jackie Robinson Day In Baseball

Hey everybody,

As we all know, MLB celebrated ol' number 42 yesterday.  I had a post idea ready to go, but I figured I would post after last night's Dodgers - Giants game.  As L.A. and S.F. fans know, the game went on until just around midnight. Don't ask who won.

Suffice to say, I went to bed and never posted last night.  Today I thought this post would make me late by one day, but then I realized our acknowledgement of Jackie's amazing feat of climbing the highest mountain created by man should not be restricted to only one day.  The discrimination Jackie had to endure, even within his own team, and his ability to succeed beyond anyone's expectations, except perhaps those of himself and Mrs. Robinson, should rate at least a week's worth of honor and recognition.

So in my bid for a Jackie Robinson Week, I present today's post which features my favorite piece of Robinson memorabilia.  I humbly present my ceramic Jackie stealing home:

These were a Dodger Stadium giveaway back in 2005.  Very cool!  The figure is roughly 10 inches long and Jackie's head sits about 5 inches high.

"Outta my way, Yogi!"

Finally, I'm going to leave you all with a bit about Jackie the way only the venerable Vin Scully can spin it.  It's a true story that perhaps inspired the tradition of all ballplayers wearing number 42 on Jackie's day.  It's a story from one of the darkest and perhaps most frightening days Robinson (and his Dodger teammates) had to endure while playing in Cincinnati.

Well, I couldn't DL the audio into blogger, so here's the link.  The story takes less than two minutes, and I assure you they're two minutes well spent.

THANKS for everything, Jackie!