It's Opening Day! Here's a Quickie Video (with beer review)

Aloha, everybody, 

It's the big day we've all been waiting for! Opening Day is finally here, and everyone's team is dreaming of a shot at the World Series. 

In case you're still waiting fr your team to hit the field, and you've got a few minutes, check out my Opening Day Eve Youtube video that I made last night. 

It's got my take on the Great Flood of Chavez Ravine, the Great Robbery of Andrew Toles, the Great luck of Joc Pederson, and the Great Heart of Enrique Kike Hernandez. 

There's also my beer review of a Belgian IPA from To Ol Brewing. Enjoy, and don't forget to hit "like" if you did. 

PS...in an move to up my game...I'm using a new mike for improved sound. 

Aloha! 

RYU = YAAAA-HOOOOO!!!!

 

Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Well, THAT was exactly what the doctor ordered:

A packed house at Dodger Stadium.  Not bad for everyone trying to get to Chavez Ravine at the height of LA rush hour.  C'mon, TV...how about a 6 or 6:30 p.m. start?

A calmed down and most excellent outing from our third ace, Hyun-Jin Ryu. He pitched a masterpiece that I'm sure everyone back in Seoul enjoyed.

Richard Mackson - USA Today

Adrian Gonzalez getting his batting groove back. Cardinal Adam Wainright was irritated by El Jaguar's hand explosions after he knocked in Mark Ellis with a double.  Haha!

Hanley Ramirez back in the line up and doing what he does best.  Manley busted two hits and knocked in a big run, all with a fractured rib. 

Puig chilling out the plate and bashing the ball again.  He missed a home run by a foot or two.  He might have snatched an inside-the-park home run if he had been off and running on contact - instead of vogueing at the plate.

The Beard and bad-ass Kenley Jansen punching out the Cards in the final two innings.  Boo-yah and Good Night little birds.  Sweet.

Finally, a note to the TBS execs who chose the boring announcing crew for the TV broadcast - It should tell you something about your choice for announcers when your own post-game show uses Vin Scully's voice for the highlights of the game. Doncha think?

A Night At Chavez Ravine Dodgers vs. Brewers

Earlier this week my man inside Dodger Stadium offered two tickets to me for last night's game. Because of his position at the stadium, he's eligible to receive two complimentary tickets for two games every homestand.  He says he's never used the seats, but after six years, it's time.  I was lucky enough to be first in line.

I was especially excited, as this would be my first trip out to the stadium this season.  Last night my seats (started out) in the Club section of the stadium, so why not show a few photos from there, as one or two of you may not have seen things from that perspective. 

Here we go...

It's a beautiful evening in LA.  On my way to pick up my tix at Club level.

Club level is cool for a few reasons.  It's the level with the large party suites. This is where LA politicians, Hollywood, and the riche watch the game in elegance and tubs of champagne.  That was not where I sat.

It's also home to the media and Vin Scully's broadcast booth.  Lots of fancy rooms with impressive names are here as well.  I couldn't find the Tommy Lasorda commissary.

Lots of Dodgers history on display around here.  Below you see a wall displaying press and media guides all the way back to Brooklyn...

Here's the 1956 guide, showing the Bums finally won. 

Our seats were on the third base wing, beyond the executive suites. To the right you can see the left field pavilions - bleachers on the east coast.  In the space between and down is the Dodger bullpen.

For you Kemp fans...

The walls were lined with these photo blowups of all the Dodger yearbooks through the years.  I took this pic for GCRL.  Sorry Jim, blogger insisted on adding this photo sideways. 

On the right side of the photo below you can see these yearbook blowups.  This Lopes photo was magnificent on that scale.

Here's the old bullpen pitcher's delivery cart from back in the day.  How cool would it have been to be that driver?

There was a charity auction for the Dodgers Foundation. 

Wall display of ticket stubs from past events gone by. 

After a few innings my buddy stopped by to check on us and he mentioned he had some empty seats lower and closer to the plate.  So we moved in time to catch this view of what an incoming home run pitch looks like to Carl Crawford...

A split second later - BLAMMO !  Home Run !

These new seats were in the section reserved for visitor's families, so there were a few Brewer fans around.  This guy was wearing a Yount jersey and wouldn't stop eating his mitt.

Carl Crawford got hit by a pitch...so Rolando Belisario unleashed some Dodger chin music.  Note the Brewer looking for his contacts in the dirt.

We returned to our original seats for the 9th.  The Dodgers won what was a good back-and-forth battle, 7-5.

We returned to the cushioned (and warmer) Club seats in order to have a good view of the postgame fireworks show.  Fans can go out on the field and watch. 

It's Fireworks!  What a great night out at the stadium.  Thanks for the tickets, Dave!

One last bit of good news - the giants lost! 

THANKS for reading, everybody!

Top 20 Movies In Cardboard - Part 2

 Hey everybody,

 The movie/baseball card countdown continues...

 14. A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS
It's not easy choosing just one of Clint's cowboy classics.  I chose this one because director Sergio Leone seamlessly recreated a Japanese Samurai film as a Western, which Bruce Willis and Christopher Walken later re-recreated as a 1930's gangster piece. 

"My mistake, 4 coffins."

The Dodgers have had no shortage of high priced mercenaries such as this guy...

...i think we all know this dollar chaser.

That said, aside from what they were paid, both of our mercenaries here did well enough wearing Dodger Blue.  They were certainly not high priced busts like Andrew Jones.   I would show a card of Jones, but criteria #2 for this post demands the card shown must come from my collection.  Andrew Jones cards have no place in my collection. 


 13. ENTER THE DRAGON
 This film took Bruce Lee - and martial arts movies - out of the obscure 3 movies for $2 movie theaters (that's where I first discovered him) and brought them into mainstream American culture like gangbusters.  Although Bruce Lee had a short film career, and died tragically at the height of his popularity and talent decades ago, he endures as an iconic figure to this day. 

"My style?  You can call it the art of fighting without fighting."

Much like Bruce Lee, Clemente had a short, brilliant career that was cut short by a sudden, unexpected death. And like Lee, he is spoken of in almost god-like terms.

12. SCARFACE (Paul Muni and Al Pacino versions)
Who don't know Scarface?

"You want a war? Hokay - I take you to war!" 

You cant see it from this card, but good ol' uncle Robbie here sported a Tina Fey-sized cheek scar.

 11.ROBOCOP
I love sci-fi movies, and I really love director Paul Verhoven's science-fiction visions.  For the longest time, I couldn't watch "That 70's Show" because I knew the dad on the show as the bad guy in Robocop.  I just couldn't see him as anything other than a brutal, bad man.

"Dead or alive, you're coming with me." 

Of all the Dodger catchers I saw play, nobody - and I mean NOBODY - wore the Blue armor and protected the plate as well as rock solid Scioscia.

10. PATHS OF GLORY 

Stanly Kubrik's totally awesome WWI anti-war film starring Kirk Douglas kicking ass in glorious black and white.  If you've never seen this one, by all means, treat yourself and watch these great actors paired with a legendary director and a brilliant script. 

"We will take the Anthill."

It's an unspoken secret here in LA that in order for the Dodgers to occupy Chavez Ravine, well, the current occupants would have to be removed.  An entire community had Eminent Domain dropped on them and had to go live somewhere else because MLB was comin' to town!

I'm torn by this part of my city's history.  On one hand, I hate that the residents of Chavez Ravine got a raw deal, and on the other hand...I can't wait to get my hands on Opening Day 2013 tickets!


9. THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY

Laugh out loud comedy that doubles as a love story.

" Is that hair gel? Can I have some?" 

There was definitely something about Mari - lyn Monroe.  Back in the day, every Red-Blooded American over the age of 13 wanted to give Marilyn a right-rogering.  And how!  Joe D married the sexiest girl in America, and oh yeah, he had some kinda hitting streak as well. 


 8. HEAT 
Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro play cat and mouse as the leaders of adversarial detective and thief teams, featuring the expansive backdrop of LA as an equal player.  Director Michael Mann is at his best.

The film climaxes in an awesome shootout through the streets of downtown LA. that foresaw (inspired?)  the real-life shootout that many of us watched live on TV as bank robbers in body armor and using automatic weapons fought the ENTIRE LAPD.

"I'm not selling anything, baby.  This sh*t sells itself."

The Ryan Express.  'nuff said.

 7. CABIN BOY
An obscure, funny as hell, Chris Elliot  comedy that nobody saw.  It's Elliot's twisted take on Rudyard Kipling's classic, Captains Courageous, which was also made into a Spencer Tracy film. In Elliot's vision, Cabin Boy is a rich, spoiled idiot, bumbling obliviously through life. 

"These pipes are CLEEEAAANNN !!!"

Sure the Dodgers gave us the first African -American in the major leagues.  Then Al Campanis decided we should give that progressive thinking a wake-up call by declaring on national TV, there are so few African-American managers in MLB because, you know, they can't float."  SAY WHAT????!!!!

THANKS for reading, everybody!

Next Post: Movies 6- 1

When A Trade Is Cards On Cards On More Cards

Hey, everybody.  Kerry from  Cards On Cards has been posting trade bait for the past couple of months.  I've been lucky enough to snag some of that cardboard awesomeness and generosity.  In my previous post, I included a Roy Campanella card from our latest trade.  Here are the remaining fruits from this great trade package...

Reggie is one of the great contradictions in my collection.  Although he was a dreaded Yankee during the great Dodger/Yankee wars of the 70's, and he accomplished one of his biggest WS accomplishments to cement him as Mr. October against my Dodgers, and although he cheated and stuck his hip out in order to knock a double play ball off-track and keep a Yankee rally alive, I still love collecting his cards.  Believe it or not, the card above is my first cloth sticker from that set.  Nice.

Reggie was one of baseball's biggest figures and I had the privilege of watching him play. I loved to hate him.  He was larger than life and he often backed it up.  However, one of my greatest memories of the Fall Classic was watching rookie Bob Welch come in and freakin' STRIKE OUT Reggie in a major world Series pressure situation.  This was also one of Tommy Lasorda's great moments of trusting his players.  Sometimes that bit us in the behind (Tom Neidenfuerer), but Tommy's hunches mostly played out in the positive for the Blue.

I really wish we had a baseball card of Welch's World Series heroics.  It was WS drama at its best.  Reggie vs. a rookie - game on the line - 9th inning and a slim lead to be protected - one of the WS biggest bats ever at the plate - you could cut the tension with a knife.

Welch threw absolute heat and dared Reggie to hit 'em.  Mr. October swung with ALL of his might.  I could feel the wind whooshing off of Reggie's bat and through my TV set!  The frustration on Reggie's face when Welch blows strike three past him is absolutely priceless.  Let's watch...

Back to the cards...

I can't resist cards featuring the K-Boys

I'm a big Eddie Murray fan.  I was glad when he was a Dodger.  I usually only want cards from guys in thier time with the Blue Crew, but I make an exception for Murray.  He's certainly more widely known as an Oriole.  

Kerry, being the cool trader he is, didn't stop with with the cards I requested.  He generously tossed in some extras: Dodgers and HOFers.  Check out some of my faves...

I didn't collect much heritage, and the packs I did buy yeilded very few Dodgers, so I'm very glad to get these.

 Unfortunately, I don't remember who posted earlier about this card capturing the magnificence of a day game at good 'ol Chavez Ravine.  The blue bullpen gates, the All-You -Can-Eat Gluttony Pavilion, the towering palm trees.  The card really is beautiful. 

Who don't like cards of the Bison?

This is a cool card that I didn't know existed till it was in my hands. 

Sooner or later I'm gonna have a binder page of Lou Gehrigs...and that's only going to be possible because you all helped me get there.  :)

 

Last up, Teddy Ballgame in classic form.  This is a great card from a great set!  Fantastic. 

THANKS for the awesome trade, Kerry.  Looking forward to the next one.