His Name has Two Zs because his Packages are Twice as Good

Aloha, everybody, 

The blogosphere is filled with generous collectors and traders, some more known than others. My friend, Zippy Zappy, is one of those generous guys that trades under the radar. If you've ever been Zippy Zapped before, you know what I'm talking about. If not, dig this.

Let's lead off with a World Series Hero (Rookie Cup Edition)...

A hopeful future southpaw hero...

Speaking of southpaws, look out for these three next season...

When Kershaw was out with an injury, Alex Wood was mowing down NL batters. He earned a no-doubt-about-it spot on the All-Star team...

A Saxy throwback (that didn't end up in the first base seats)

How about this cool surprise? I thought these only featured football players. More of the big man later. 

While ZZ knows I'm not a Yanks fan, he tossed this into the mix. Who wouldn't appreciate this exceptional beauty? 

ZZ and I have recently became LA Kings/NY Rangers traders. Unfortunately, I've been committing rookie mistakes - sending Islanders instead of Rangers, but there are no errors in this hockey cardboard.

There's nothing like starting off your hockey collection with cool Oh-Pee-Chee cardboard...

Hat trick card! 

 Stanley Cup goalie! This is a good choice for a future auto. 

Gretzky with the Art Ross trophy (his ninth). This goes to the league's leading scorer. 

My first hockey relic. As a fan of the old time Kings, I'm glad he's wearing the original Kings' purple and gold. 

A zippy zapping isn't complete unless there are a few Japanese cutie cards. Good ol' ZZ came through once again...

I'm not sure why these gals are on trading cards, but they sure make my day happier.  

And now, something completely different. I'll bet you never got one of these in a trade package...

Yup, it's a program from the Met. Not a Mets game - The New York Metropolitan. I think ZZ tossed this in because I show my art side in my twitter life. Thanks, ZZ. I appreciate this little something extra. If I ever get to NYC, a visit to the Met would definitely be on the agenda. 

Finally, the big zapping from the package. Big Frank Howard makes his second appearance in a beautiful 8x10 photo, with a well-placed and great auto. 

Big Frank was a Dodgers Rookie of the Year and won a World Series with LA in 1963. He later played in Japan for the Taiheiyo Lions (Maybe that's the Zippy Zappy connection?). 

THANKS ZZ. What a zapping - the best yet. It's going to take some doing for me to even things out, but I'm working on it. 

Aloha! 

Bad Camera Productions Presents: L.A. Kings Game Review

Hey everybody,

Taking a break today from The Grand Salami Of Trade Bait, I'd like to share a few pics and comments from my adventures last night.  I was invited on free ducats to last night's Kings vs Capitals hockey game at the Staples Center, right here in picturesque (at times) and vile (at times) downtown L.A..

My long-time readers know that I've done this a few times for outings to Dodger Stadium, such as "A Night At Chavez Ravine"  and "So I went To See Puig Play For Myself" from last season.  If you haven't read those posts, and you'd like to check out some cool pics and see a bit of behind-the-scenes at the stadium, I recommend you click on the links and check those posts out.

One major difference between those posts and this one - beyond the obvious difference in sports, is the quality of camera I had available.  I used my digital camera for those past posts, but this time I was equipped with only my lousy ipod camera.  Hence, the name "Bad Camera Productions". 

That said, since some of my readers and fellow bloggers are hockey fans, I figured what the heck - bear with the cheap photos and I think we'll have a pretty good ride.  And away we go....

Picturesque and vile downtown L.A. dead ahead.

Here's some trivia for those of you who wonder how old I am...Look over at the right hand edge of the photo at the electrical towers, the ones Godzilla loves to melt.  Just to the left of the towers, you will see a tiny building.  That's L.A. City Hall.  When I was born here, that was about the tallest building downtown.  It sure aint that anymore, but it's still a beautiful building to me. 

More trivia: Watch the original War Of The Worlds movie and you can see the attacking UFO's blowing it to bits.


 Staples Center!  And the grand statues. Below is Magic Johnson.  Yup, that's our Dodger connection...

Hey, It's a Capitals fan. BOOOOOO !!

Here's Oscar De La Hoya

We arrived just in time, walking into the arena mid-Star Spangled Banner...

Not two minutes into the game, and FIGHT!!!!

What a great brawl.  It went on for quite a long time, as the players kept slugging it out, and the refs were reluctant to get anywhere close.  Don't know who the Battling King was, but I'll declare him the winner as he landed a couple of awesome upper cuts and even a knee to the face.  Whew!

Action in front of the Capitals net as seen from our seats.

The Kings Ice Girls stopped by and danced a little dilly for us.  Check out homeboy in the white hair sitting with the wife.  Apparently he's not allowed to notice those three gorgeous ladies right in front of him. What torture!


The Kings held a 1-0 lead through 7/8ths of the game.  They gave up the tying goal in the final minutes and we went to overtime tied 1-1. 

The five minute overtime passed with nobody scoring, so we got a shootout - Awesome!

Three men shoot per team. Our first King missed, but we hit pay dirt on the second shot -

The Capitals came right back and tied it at 2-2.  Each team had one shot left...

The King's goalie Jonathan Quick blocked the Cap's third shot and the Kings won the night!

Turns out it was a historic night as Kings goalie Quick tied Rogie Vachon's record of 171 wins and Coach Darryl Sutter got his 500th win.  Congrats, gentlemen.

That's all folks.  Thanks for reading!