Adrian Bomb-zalez To D-Backs: "Wear This!" As The LA-AZ War Rages On

Aloha everybody,

Yeah, yeah, it's Week One for the NFL, but the big news for me today was El Jaguar, Adrian Gonzalez, blasting two big home runs against the Arizona Diamondbacks. 

In back-to-back innings Gonzalez went yard and he ended the day with 6 RBI's, matching his career high.  He did it once before - also at Dodger Stadium - but he was playing for San Diego back then. 

Sixth inning for Bombzalez, with Dee Gordon and Han Ram on base - 

BOOM!!!! 3-run home run

 Next inning, again with Gordon and Ramirez on base - 

BLAMMO !!!! Another 3 run bomb

 The next batter up was this guy...

KA - BLAM !!!!  Solo Blast! Another homer.

Next up was the man who's gone missing this season, who is now listed behind September call-up Joc Pederson, now standing as LA's sixth outfielder, Andre Ethier.  

Ethier better be do something spectacular, or he may not even make the playoffs roster.

There was a boom on his at bat, but it was the sound of Arizona intentionally drilling Andre Ethier.

BLAM! Sneak attack on Ethier's ribs.

 Is it me, or do those Diamondbacks just love to throw at batters?

Dodger Stadium erupted in boos, the umpires warned both benches, Mattingly argued vehemently with the umps without getting thrown out (amazingly), and then (equally amazingly) this guy got thrown out for yelling from the dugout...

Ya think Kid K has a time bomb waiting for the D-Backs for next season?

What a game! 

One last note - Lots of folks out here are pushing for Kershaw to win the NL MVP award, but my vote goes out to Bombzalez, who was unconscious at the start of the season, hitting home runs left and right, then slowly but surely knocked in runs for the Dodgers all season, and is definitely heating up again at the right time. 

100 RBI's - BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

Cardboard Breakdown Of A Great Trade

So Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown posted up some 2014 Gypsy Queen extras and I jumped forward to claim a few.   After a couple of emails we settled on a trade.  

That's par for the course, but what took this from the level of your basic trade and elevated it to "Great" level, was the fact that Gavin was generous and tossed in some cool extras.  

I first had my eye on a select few of the Dodger cards that he offered up, but when I opened the package he sent over, it was packed with just about the entire Dodger team set. Since I haven't bought a single pack of GQ yet, this was a most unexpected and excellent bonus.  Hence, greatness. 

Most of us love the cards that show our team's big boppers at the plate blasting a home run, but I also dig cards showing them play defense.  Here's El Jaguar taking care of business quietly and confidently, which is pretty much the way he approaches all aspects of his game.  That's why I apply the "Jaguar" moniker to A-Gon. 

Speaking of my favorite Dodgers, here's Hyun-Jin Ryu, insert-style...

 Bringing on yet even more pitching greatness is Kid K (these Dealing Aces inserts were what I originally asked for in the trade)...

Here come a couple of Dodger Glove Story Inserts...

How cool would it be to be clearly portrayed in the background of a baseball card?

 Below is another one of my favorite Dodgers.  Dre continues to get a bad rap as an underachiever that I don't think is deserved.  His name is always floating around in trade rumors, and I think if he is traded, he's going to be solid for his next team.  

Matt Kemp has lower RBI's, strikes out twice as much, can't throw anybody out (beyond second base) any more, places himself above the team ("I'm not a platoon player, I'm a staaaaaarterrrrrrr"), and yet he gets all the LA love.  Go figure.

Finally, these very cool inserts, the N174's.  These are based on a set from 1888...

I can't have too many Yogi cards.

THANKS for the great trade, Gavin!  Looking forward to the next one. 

The Maligned Dodgers Win The Game!

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press / April 21, 2014)

A month into the season and 70% of the L.A. market still can't catch a game on TV.  Even Vin Scully can't watch the boys while sitting in his living room.  For those of you who didn't see it, ATBATT will fulfill it's public duty and fill you in on what took place in tonight's battle against the Marlins - because you need to know! 

Let's begin by saying the Dodgers have not been living up to the 2014 hype yet, to say the least.  Every game these days seems to be a grinder.  If we fans feel like we've been through a shredder after the game, I'm sure the players themselves feel like they were in a machete fight.  

Tonight was more of the same.  We were easily winning 7-3 and feeling fully pumped up after a MASSIVE 3-run bomb off the bat of Puig.  It was the kind of shots they hit for show at the All-Star Home Run Derby.  Happy head slaps and puffy chests were seen up and down the dugout.

Then Brian Wilson (about to become a new member of The Maligned), immediately coughed up the lead and had to be pulled off the mound by Mattingly before our 7-6 lead became a 22-7 hole.  The rest of the bullpen couldn't hold them back and the Marlins forced the game into a tie and extra innings.  

The last thing the Dodgers needed was yet ANOTHER extra inning marathon, but it looked and felt like we were about to thrash around for 16 innings and then lose in heartbreaking fashion.  A lesser team would have wilted into that role and acquiesced.  They had just slept-walked through an uninspired loss yesterday - would they mentally switch it off again?

But that wasn't happening tonight.  Even Mattingly (much maligned by little ol' me) fired up his team in the top of the 10th with a legitimate and loudly-barked argument with the plate umpire.  

The umpiring crew must have been sensitive over losing so many instant replay challenges that they wouldn't even check a pitched ball for a dirt scuff.  Mattingly was right about dirt being on the ball - and the umps probably knew they would lose face again - so out of pettiness they wouldn't give the Dodgers the satisfaction of an on-field inspection of a ball in play, like they're paid to do.

Mattingly lost the battle, but in the end, it was a great managerial play because he showed his team he was ready to fight and scratch for every pitch.  His play set the stage for the win.  

Juan Uribe (ex-Maligned) opened the top of the 11th with a walk, and up stepped Carl Crawford (Maligned).  Crawford manned up and crushed a huuuuuge 2-run blast, the ball bouncing forcefully off of the concrete separating the upper and lower levels. The Dodgers went back ahead 9-7.

Then Flash Gorden Jr. (ex-Maligned) came up. BASE HIT!  Tonight was the first ever five-hit game in his career.  He also stole three bases.  He's the first Dodger to do that since 1914.  
Do you know who's leading the leagues in stolen bases?  I'll save you the trouble of looking it up. It's Dee Fricken' Gordon.

Could another member of The Maligned on the squad step up and cement the win?  While our big 8th and 9th inning guys have been a real cardiac squad lately, Brandon League has been quietly settling into a good pitching groove.  League pitched a quick and easy three up, three down, bottom of the 11th and sent the Fish back into the sea.  

Tonight showed the team it's not just El Jaguar and Puig, Grienke and Ryu.  Tonight's win, our not-able-to-watch-on-TV-audience -  was brought to you by The Maligned.

When A PWE From JBF, Isn't

Hey everybody,

As most bloggers out there know, Wes from Jaybarkerfan's Junk is an outstanding trader and more.  The guy is much more than a trader, as he generously sends out PWE bombs to his fellow bloggers just because he's cool like that.

I've received PWE's in the past, but today I'm showing off some cool cards that came my way in a YBM - a yellow bubble mailer.  Of course that package contained a nice fistful of cards, but I'm trying to get this posted before the start of the Dodgers game, so in the interests of time, I'll just show off some of my favorites.  Let's get to it...

I love cards of Pay-dro, the World Series hero.  This is a great looking, high gloss card, and the orange provides a nice contrast against the Dodger Blue.

You go Pay-dro, with the old school stirrups.

Next up, speaking of old school, some vintage featuring the greatest pinch hitter ever...

How about this blast from the past....

We were all so young back then. 

Speaking of young players, how about the breakout kid of 2014?  Dee Gordon is surprising almost everyone with his newfound bat skills and consistent play at second base.  In addition to that, pitchers around the league are looking up and seeing Gordon look like this very, very often...

SAFE! (again)

What about some hits, you say? Let's start off with an autograph...

Justin's claim to fame was after finally making it to the big club, he was dropped to make room for Manny Ramirez.

Here's my first swatch of El Jaguar...

How about a guy who's young at heart, and the last manager to take The Dodgers to the Fall Classic...

 

There were lots of Gypsy Queen Dodgers in the package, so I chose one to represent all...

Thanks a bunch for the great cards, Wes.  Enjoy the weekend, everybody.

Down With 2013 Giants, and Arp With 2014 Dodgers

Hey everybody,

I completed a few trades at the close of 2013, and it's about time I give up some props to those awesome trade partners - whom I'm looking forward to making even more trades with in 2014.

First up is a perfect example of what makes our hobby so cool.  As we all know, the Dodgers and the Giants have one of the most storied - and violently heated - rivalries in sports. The bad blood between the teams goes all the way back to when the clubs were just a streetcar's ride apart in the old time boroughs of New York.  The hatred for the other team's uniforms continues to burn to this day, unfortunately leading to bloodshed between the fans more often than any hard collisions between the players out on the basepaths.

Which brings me back to our cool hobby.  Out here in the blogoworlds, Dodger and Giants fans read each other's blogs, Yankee and Red Sox die hards trade unwanted cards of their rivals to each other, and fans from other rivalries, old and new, comment on each other's blogs and even meet up in real life as friends.  Aint it grand?

I'm always able to pass off cards of the hated Giants to good ol' Arpsmith ,  and his unwanted Dodgers can always find a good home in my binders.  Although, now that I think of it, this trade was started by me actually shipping a Dodger card TO Arpsmith!

  He was collecting the Double Play set of game cards and I offered to send him an upgrade for his misprint Claude Osteen card.  Let's lead off with that clean but misprinted card that Arp sent to me...

 Arpsmith sent over some sweet extra cards as well. Naturally, being the cool Giants fan that he is, he sent over more Dodgers...

  You say Lou Brock?  You say Ricky H?   I say Maury Wills.  He's the guy that reinvented the game and made the stolen base a (once again) legitimate and dangerous offensive weapon.

The card was apparently part of some giveaway sets with messages about fire safety on the rear.  Check out Smokey the Bear's ever-lovin' mug under Mr. Wills.


What's better than a Hideo Nomo card that you never had before? 

BAAAAMMMM !!! Having its matching mini of course. 

Batting clean up is the man whom I dubbed El Jaguar last season...

I'm sure that baseball fans from San Diego to Oakland can appreciate the flag of the great Bear Republic gracing this hunka awesome cardboard.   What a glorious backdrop for A-Gon.

THANKS for the great trade, Arpsmith !

BTW, a reminder that you all have until Super Bowl kickoff to enter ATBATT's first contest of 2014.
See yesterday's post for details. 

One Down, Two To Go!

RIIIIIIIP goes the little foam tomahawk.

Game One was great.  Simply fantastic. I loved it.

For a minute there, I was a bit worried, as many Dodger fans were, about how the Dodgers were going to perform in this first round of the playoffs.

Although they played like gangbusters in the second half of the season and crushed all opponents like a steamroller running over play-doh animals, they finished September looking very much like that non-hitting, injury-prone team from the first half .

And darn it if they didn't start out like the latter, with the first Dodger batters opening the game with three quick and sickly looking strike outs.  I'm sure the Atlanta fans were going crazy with their annoying tomahawk chop chant, but I had the TV sound turned down so I could listen to Vin Scully on the radio.  Maybe the chant was audible on the radio, but who can hear that static when Vinny's voice is up front?

Things didn't start out too well for the Boys in Blue (and visiting greys).  But then came the one.  Our ace.  Kid K. Clayton Kershaw was having none of that and he proceeded to stop the chop with two strike outs of his own, and it was on!  Actually, I should say, it was OVER!

Daniel Shirey - USA Today Sports

  
KUDOS:

Yasiel Puig.  Congratulations to Puig for knocking out the first Dodger hit of the 2013 postseason.
Double kudos for scoring the first Dodger run as well.

El Jaguar. Congratulations to Adrian Gonzalez for blasting the first Dodger home run of the playoffs!

A.J. Ellis. Two doubles.  Ellis found his batting groove right as the season was ending and it's carrying forward.  Sweet!

Of course, Kershaw.  He once again entered the Koufax zone by gritting out 12 strike outs - the most in a Dodger postseason since Koufax struck out 15 in 1963.  At one point Kersh struck out six in a row!  Awesomeness personified.

I can't really wrap my head around the fact Kershaw pitched 7 innings, struck out 12, allowed only one run, and yet we're viewing it as an outing where he "struggled" at times.  As one of the talking heads on one of the highlight shows I later watched said, those are the kind of struggles and troubles he would take any day back when he was pitching.

Vin Scully.  As Dodger fans know, Vinny doesn't travel west of the Rockies, so we never get to hear him call games from faraway stadiums any more.  Furthermore, as Dodger fans know, one of the best things about the Dodgers playing in October is having our beloved broadcaster in the room with us, calling the game.  This time Vinny went to Atlanta and I got to enjoy that golden voice just as Dodger baseball in October should be.  Now that's home cookin'. 

HONORABLE MENTION KUDOS:

Andre Ethier.  He pinch hit tonight and grounded out, but the positive note is, (apparently) nothing happened to cause him to re-aggravate his ankle injury.  WHEW!


BAH!: 

Those silly Atlanta fans.  Two reasons.  The first is that inane "chop chant".  The marketing folks at Turner Field gave everyone foam tomahawks so the fans can use them with their chanting.  It was wonderful to see the Dodgers make them all sit down and put away their tomahawks for another day.

Those tomahawks bring me to my second reason.  Marketing must be stuck with thousands of leftover foam toys because Atlanta fans don't even support their team enough to sell out their stadium for a playoff game.  I guess they figured Kershaw was pitching, so why waste money on a ticket for a losing game?  I wonder if they know who's pitching for the Dodgers in Game Two?

The people who can't (or won't?) synch up the radio broadcast with TV.  I love listening to Vinny, but it was slightly annoying that for innings 1-3 the radio was 5 seconds ahead of the TV.  Hence, I knew balls, strikes and outs before the pitcher on TV even began his wind up.  However, it was kind of sweet to know A-Gon's home run was a home run ahead of time.  Just for laughs, innings 7-9 switched it up and had the radio lag behind TV for five seconds.  That was slightly less annoying.

Damn Mattingly.  Speaking of inane. The Dodgers were up 4-0 in the 5th inning and had Atlanta reeling.  We had two men on, and Juan Uribe at the plate.  Uribe could have broken that game wide open if allowed to swing, but Mattingly had him bunt!!!  Stop already with these ridiculous bunts in ridiculous situations.  Sheesh!  Other than that, Mattingly was a genius.


I can't wait for Game Two.