Thursday, May 31, 2012

Calling All Dodger Bloggers


you know who you are...



GCRL
Greg from Plashke's Sweater,
Roberto, who's got the best homeboy of 'em all,
Dodgerbobble,
Speigel,
little 'ol me (Stealing Home),
and the king of all bloggers - the mighty Night Owl.....

whew !  when bloggers from other teams say there are a lot of us, they aren't kidding !



and that's just the guys i can think of from the top of my head, and THAT'S just the ones i see around the baseball card blogs. 

 i know there's a bunch of others that i read from time to time who don't even blog about cards, but use their blogs to sing the praises of the Dodger Blue Nation, or break the latest Dodgers news or rumors, like mike scioscia's tragic illness and his cohorts.  i wonder if they look down upon us card geeks and our 'silly hobby', while they write serious blogs about serious matters.  yes, sometimes we even specialize in ranting about the unique frustrations of being a die hard Dodger fan - doncha miss Dodger Blues?



anyways, now that i've got your attention, i wanna make a pitch about an idea Dodgerbobble hatched after we met the other night at The Infield bobblehead night.  I'm suggesting the First Annual Dodger blogger night out at the Ravine. 



it's a chance for us to meet over a beer, take a few pics, whip up some good blog material, and cheer on our favorite team.  sounds corny? hell yeh, it does.  that's why it just might work.  i'll bet half of you are already season ticket holders and you'll be there anyway.



before we start getting ahead of ourselves with choosing what game to meet at, and where to have a beer pregame, and so on...i just wanna put out this feeler and see if i can get a couple of you interested.  just drop a comment here if you're down for this idea, perhaps suggest a game or two for options,  and then we'll go about getting shite organized.   i know you're on the least coast, Night Owl, but i also know you'll be there in spirit. THAT"S how impossible this improbable idea is. 



Besides, i need something to get my mind off this losing streak funk that we're in...


Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The Bobblehead Game Part 2

hey everybody,

...and a pleasant good evening to you, wherever you are.  here's the second part of my photo post from 'The Infield' bobblehead game.  let's get to it...

there goes Bill Russell, Ron Cey and Steve Garvey after tossing out thier first pitches.  Davey Lopes, who coaches first base for the Dodgers, has already dashed off into the dugout.

here comes the first pitch of the game ( it was a STRIKE!) 

here's Tommy Lasorda sitting with (we thought) recently fired angels batting coach, Mickey Hatcher.  over in the front row, you can see the back of Magic's head. 

what do you think ? is that the back of Mickey Hatcher's head?


  there's Lopes coaching at first.  I love the way this photo captures everybody - including umps - dashing into position for the play.

Kemp's first at bat on returning from the DL.  although as i write this, there's a chance he's headed back to the DL again.  dang it !

OK...so here comes the 'is it racist?' portion of the night.  I'm mostly joking, but check it out.  here's the scene: 3rd inning.  the know-it-all gesturing in the photo below was a couple of rows behind us loudly pontificating to everyone within earshot about 'The Infield', and how he grew up watching them play.  oh, they were the most classic Dodgers of them all,  and they were HIS team ... and blah, blah, blah.


and i quote:  "there they are, all on one bobblehead...Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Bill Russell, and...Pedro Guerrero."   really?  the non-white guy is Pedro Guerrero?  LoL  please, enlighten us further, master. 

I almost forgot to mention, the meeting of the bloggers.  Since this game was special, i sent a feeler out to Dodgerbobble to see if he was coming out as well.  Turns out he was, so we met during the 6th inning, right as Andre Ethier was hitting a double to cut the brewers lead down to 2-1.  Joshua was very cool and friendly.  i didn't get a pic because i left my camera back at the seats.  maybe next time.  It was a real pleasure to meet you, Joshua. 


9th inning, we're losing 2-1.  Matt Kemp trying to get a rally going.  He hits a full count double !!

next man up - Andre Ethier gets hit by a pitch.

9th inning, two men on......double play :(

last chance Loney comes up.  two out, Kemp on third....

Loney grounds out.  *sigh*   Mattingly shoulda gone with a pinch hitter.

game over.  we lose.  proof my brother-in-law is a jinx.  good night, everybody !


I Met A Bobble At Bobblehead Night

hey everybody.  i went out to the ballgame last night.  had to, as it was the bobblehead giveaway and special night to honor the HOF Dodgers infield i grew up with; the great iron infield of Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Bill Russel and Davey Lopes.  i shot some great pics and got to meet a fellow Dodger blogger, Dodgerbobble.

Let's go the ballgame...

rolling in from the east. here we come...(i know, my brother-in-law needs to wash his van)

the friendly neighborhood ticket scalpers.  everybody's got 'em.

a beautiful sight indeed

this is why Dodger chicks are the bomb. check out this car we followed into the lot. erica's got mini-dodger helmets in the rear window, and her bug is Dodger Blue !

here comes a crew of Dodger choppers.  as if loud ass harleys aren't enough, the last chopper had his sound system super loud playing East LA oldies.  I love it !

we had seats on field level, but they were a bit far out, so we decided to try out some open seats behind the plate.


these seats will do.  we had a great view of Steve Garvey and ex - Dodger manager Bill Russell (in the Brooklyn Dodgers shirt).  when Russell got the managing gig, that forced Mike Scioscia over to the angels, and we dodger fans know what happened after that. WS angels.  *sigh*  the only good thing about that was watching jinx manager dusty baker's bay boys blow it.

when i met Dodgerbobble later during the game, he mentioned Garvey is a very tough auto to get.  This night i noticed Garvey signing autos for just about everyone.

here he is telling somebody (for the thousandth time) how he came THIS CLOSE to owning the Dodgers. 

then i noticed Matt Kemp over by the left field wall signing autos. i dashed over there and got a few shots.

of course, there was a ton of people down there

i returned to the seats and decided to check out my prize of the night - the great bobble head.  here's a shot of the box.

here's the backside.  i wonder where Garvey was signing these boxes?

presenting, the bobblehead

heres the boys taking to the field to throw out the ceremonial first pitch

The Infield circa 2012

the pitch !  well, a second after the pitch

then the boys gathered round and saluted Vin Scully up in the pressbox

Scully smiled and gave them a thumbs up

then, as thier final act together as a group, they announced Vinny's nightly welcome to the crowd, "It's Tiiiiiiime For Dodger Baseball !" 

next post: the game and 'is it racist' ?

Monday, May 28, 2012

A Moment Of Silence

For all of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice...THANK YOU




Sunday, May 27, 2012

Group Break Trade Bait

hey everybody,

happy memorial day eve.  before i talk about miniscule stuff like baseball cards,  i wanna take a moment to acknowledge and thank all of our men and women in the service, past and present, who paid the ultimate sacrifice of life and limb for all of us. THANKS ! a million thanks...

now, some cardboard i picked up in a group break over at, where else would one get some fine cardboard, Cardboard Collections.  i grabbed a couple of teams that i don't usually, because the checklists were showing some great autos i was hoping to catch.  the way things turned out, i didn't get any autos, but i'm sure i can trade away at least one of the teams - the hated yankees.  i'm not gonna post what i pulled in from them, because i'm pretty much just setting those cards aside for the dutch card guy. 

 my second team was the red sox.  although i've seen a couple of red sox bloggers out there, i haven't got a designated red sox trader, so here comes a post hoping to pimp out these cards. check em out...

HOF, AL MVP, retired number #14 by red sox

major league moustache

Won Loss record 78-77  scoreboard, baby !

if you squint your eyes just right, that red sox logo looks like it's bouncing right through buckner's legs.



this cool donruss set was included


i didn't even know david cone played for the red sox




i also caught a couple of great extra cards...

a cool numbered card

a very cool die cut. i always seem to get these from other teams, so i'm stoked to finally get a Dodger.

here's my new super cool nomo card !  fantastic !

it was a great break.  everybody get over there for the next affordable group break. THANKS for a fun break and the great extra cards !