How Duke Snider's Presidential Pardon Came Into My Life

Aloha, everybody, 

Duke Snider is gone, but he'll never be forgotten. 

This is the story of how an article I wrote for LA Dodger Report brought me into contact (in a small way) with the Duke of Flatbush. 

Aloha! 

Legends Never Breakdown

Aloha, everybody, 

I received a sweet little PWE full of legends from one of our community's legends, Gavin, over at Baseball Card Breakdown. 

The Big G is known for rocking an always interesting blog, his chase of number cards that match his birthday and the celebration of Beermas. Add to all of that, his spot-on, custom creations that he gets autographed by the stars on the cardfaces, and yeh, you've got a legend. 

But this post isn't about Gavin, it's about the Dodger legends on cardboard that he sent out to little ol' me. From the Legends of New York set...

Jim Gilliam led off for Brooklyn back in these days, but his card wasn't in this PWE, so we'll go with second in the batting order...

The Duke of Flatbush batted third...

Batting cleanup, Gil Hodges...

Batting fifth was World Series Hero, Sandy Amaros, who was followed by ATBATT's patron saint...

That closes out the boys of summer. Also in this legends envelope were a couple from The Perfessor. The first harked back to his playing days with the Brooklyn Robins...

How about those shades - they still rock over a hundred years later. 

The second card highlights Casey's managing days with Brooklyn...

Let's keep the WS Heroes rolling. From a different set, AND sporting a different photo than I've seen before (looks like he's in front of an apartment house), my favorite Brooklyn pitcher...

We'll close out with (still) the biggest World Series Hero that LA has ever seen. The Legend...

A nice set of cards. THANKS, Gavin! 

Aloha! 

World Cup of Trading Loot for Trade Deadline Day

Aloha, everybody, 

Did you participate in the World Cup of Trading? It was the final big bash, wahoo trade-a-thon sponsored by my great hermano, Wes, of Willinghammer Rising and JayBarkerFan fame. 

Wes put up a ton of offerings for trade, and all we had to do was pick a few items and trade back. I love that Wes' events are always simple, but the end results are far from it, and often spectacular. 

Here are the goods that I selected from Wes. Leading off is my first auto from one of the Boys of Summer, the Duke of Flatbush. 

Sweet, right? That wasn't my only autograph score. This next one is from an LA Dodger, who patrolled right field with a canon for an arm, and hit monster home runs. 

Nope, not Yasiel Puig. 

Raaaaaaaauuuuuuul Mondesi. 

This joins my very modest collection of signed baseballs, and proudly sits beside another of my favorite autographed spheres...

 Yup, signed by the big man hisself. Awesome. 

You know me, I've gotta have some vintage in my picks as well. I chose this baby.

1962 World Series MVP Ralph Terry. This card also slots right into my defunct teams collection. 

Terry wasn't just a WS hero, he also tasted WS ashes. He gave up the home run bomb to fellow WS hero, Bill Mazeroski in the 1960 Fall Classic. Great pick up. 

Those were the items I chose. As I said earlier, Wes takes simple things and makes them spectacular. Don't think for a minute that was all he sent to me. 

Sit back and check out this bonus loot my bro from Alabama sent as well. It's a stack THIS THICK! 

First up, more Brooklyn Dodgers. Forgive the scanner crop. Trust me, this Jackie Robinson Bowman refractor is complete and a beauty. 

Really digging these Diamond Kings. They've become my favorites of all the DK offerings. 

Jumping to present day LA, it's Yasiel. 

How about some shiny Mike Piazza. This Bowman is gorgeous. That's right. Cardboard gorgeousity. 

 I remember chasing these 1996 Leaf Preferred steel cards. Now I've got Piazza! 

After a particularly lousy season at the plate, in 1993 Jose Offerman abandoned all batting convention and employed an unorthodox "samurai chop" style swing. Needless to say, this method didn't work too well for him either. 

Here's a favorite. It's a Don Drysdale pull out card from Stouffers. That Stouffers lasagna is one of my guilty secrets. Love the stuff. 

Here's the Dodgers' present day skipper. 

One of my favorite cards of the bunch. The spacey kaleidoscope  effect on this Mondesi card makes the world around me drip. 

Young Dodgers coming up! 

Speaking of trades, the Dodgers just announced they traded Willie Calhoun to Texas for Yu Darvish. While I'm happy enough to get Yu, I'm really sorry to see Calhoun go. 

That said, it's probably a good move for Willie. He's going to the AL where his iffy defense won't be an issue. I'm sure he's going to be raking for the Rangers as a DH for a long time. 

In a return to simplicity, Wes also included a chip shot at my Dodgers team sets want list. Check off 1976 Rick Rhoden. 

Sadly, this was the swan song of trading with Wes via bloggery. However, this is far from the end of cardboard exchanges with my hermano. THANKS, Wes! 

Aloha! 

Old Bloggers Never Die - They Just Fade Away Into The Trading Zone

Aloha, everybody, 

When I first started blogging, it was a truism in the blogosphere that there were more Dodger bloggers than those from any other baseball team. 

That of course brought with it various plus and minuses. An example of a "negative" is all of the other bloggers out there had to somehow divvy up their Dodger giveaways if they traded with more than one of us. On the flip side, the Dodgers are somewhat plentiful on cardboard, which means there are lots of cards to go around. 

I haven't checked lately on how the high number of Dodger bloggers is holding up, but I do know that number dropped by one when Jim, from the now defunct, but forever cool,  Garvey, Cey, Russel, Lopes, hung up his keyboard. 

Jim didn't disappear, though. He's remained in the background dropping comments on our blogs, and dropping packages off at the post office. A couple of days ago I received a fat one of those myself. 

Jim's GCRL blog focused on "the Dodger infield of his youth". I've thought about focusing ATBATT in a similar way, but my collecting brain just doesn't compartmentalize like that. While I do love collecting the Dodgers, I'm more of a "shotgun collector", with interests that scatter around a variety of themes and teams. 

Jim's note was the first time I've seen cards referred to as "sludge", but I immediately knew what he meant. While every jam-packed package is going to have a few pass-along cards, there were far more than just "one or two" that filled player/set needs and satisfied my cool cards wants. 

 Believe it or not, it's only recently that I've begun to focus on completing team sets from past Topps issues. I've got a pretty good start on them, and Jim helped me to fill in a lot of blanks. 

I'll be updating my team set want lists shortly after this, so you all can see if you've got any extra past Dodgers that can help me complete those sets. 

To a scattershot collector like me, it's even better when cards hit on more than one level, like the Conlon Collection, players with cool nicknames, and old-time Brooklyn Dodgers...

The back of this card says Rattlesnake got his nick from his oft-told stories of growing up in Texas with snakes galore. According to the story on this card, a rattler once bit into one of his car's tires, and the rush of escaping air filled the unlucky snake like a balloon, until he actually exploded. Yikes! 
 

Often the best parts of these cards are the backgrounds featuring long gone stadiums, rudimentary wood dugouts, and fans in suits. 
 

Below is a great card from a great set. Once upon a time I had a lot of cards from this Upper Deck set; I think I sold most of them back in my old card show days. 
 

What a photo! A play at the plate, Billy Martin flying, World Series action, and best of all, Campy giving it his all on two good legs. 

 Above is an aging Duke, no longer in Flatbush, but always a Dodger. 

When I first saw this card, I figured it to be a pretty good action shot (despite the bad crop job) of Carter about to throw down to second. 

Thinking more about that half-unseen batter and Carter's eyes, I imagine that would be something like the look on Johnny Roseboro's face when Juan Marichal was coming at him with a bat and the intent to rearrange his hairstyle. 

More scattershot cardboard appreciation...

 Brett Butler was another one of those ex-Giants whom I came to appreciate as a Dodger. This is a a very cool action shot capturing Butler just at the end of his crow's hop - which is such a simple, yet graceful, baseball maneuver. Extra bonuses in the photo are Wrigley's ivy and the Tim Crews death patch on Butler's sleeve. 

Finally, a card from a set that I've always loved more for the photos on the rear, rather than the fronts...

1993 Leaf shopped the players onto their team's cities in such a way that presented them as gargantuan athletes. I've always dug the Godzilla feeling of these players stomping around and throwing baseballs between skyscrapers. Awesome. 

That's it for Part one of the GCRL package. Tune in next time for Part Two. 

Until then, let's dig some 60's go-go action...

Aloha!

Still Crackin Waxy Prizes - They Get Even Better!

Hey everybody.  You know what's happening. I'm still happily showing off the great prizes I got from Crackin Wax's Mystery Prize Raffle.

Time for Part 3.  These goodies were all contributed by Tom The Ripper (Digging that nick).  Tom was so generous, and gave so many cool cards, I'm going to split this into 2 posts.

First up, Mr. Pettitte with a Yankee grey swatch.  

2011 Panini Limited Materials. This baby is numbered 213/499.  The red swatch really pops against the dark card.

This one's a beaut from 2013 Topps.  I don't have the original, but this will certainly do.  Chipper here will stay in my collection for the time being.

How's about a cool relic card with the current Cy Young Award holder?  Great photo, great card.

How about this beauty? Patch and auto AND a low number 7/50.   Doncha dig that starburst auto?
Storen was recently called up by the Nats after posting an impressive 43/13 K/BB in AAA. 

Finally, this, my (believe it or not) first relic of the Duke of Flatbush!  This one is definitely staying in my collection.  It's a great looking card and numbered 78/99.

And that's just the first half of the great stuff from Tom the Ripper.

Next Post: More Stuffs!