Wha??? The Hated Ones, Here?? It's All For Dad

Aloha everybody, 

Happy Father's Day to all my fellow dads out there. Now, about these Giants...

My earliest memories of baseball are sitting with my father, watching the old-time Dodgers vs Giants games live from Candlestick Park on our black and white TV. 

The crazy thing was, my father was a gung-ho Giants fan. He hated the Dodgers. None of that Giants love trickled down to me, but there is plenty of nostalgia (and the great memories of dad) there. 

So, in honor of Father's Day, ATBATT is all about the Giants...

 The greatest Giant of all...but they say...not a nice person to the fans.

I don't recall ever seeing him pitch, but according to his career years, I'm sure I did. I was probably too busy booing. 

 I always respected Williams as a player, and hated to see him bat against the Dodgers.

 A shiny beauty from a set I'm casually chasing. 

 You're nobody if they don't name a cove after you.

 This one's a reprint, of course.

Happy Father's day, dad. Those were for you. 

Aloha! 

Live Blogging Blaster Pack 8

Brian from Play At The Plate just joined us.  Welcome, buddy! Hope we pull something you can add to your collection.  Greg from Plashke's Argyle Sweater is with us as well.  Hopefully the power of a trio of Dodger bloggers will now complete the triumvirate to bring Mighty Dodger Cards from our packs!

BTW-  my pack count was way off.  Seems I got my numbers mixed up.  There's 8 cards in a PACK - not in the blaster.  Actually, we have 3 more packs to rip - which is good news because that means MORE CARDS !!!

Here's a great card.  Love the pose, which somehow fits the uni.  I almost hear the silent movie piano soundtrack.

Hmmm...more cards is not always a bonus.  Sometimes it means more cards...of the enemy.

See what I mean?

 2 packs to go! Really...honest...pinky swear...

Binder Page Heroes Rookie Cards(Not) Part 3

Welcome to the third and final installment for this edition of my binder page filled with early cards from some of my favorite players who are not Dodgers.  I've got another binder page full of early issues from different players, but I think I'll hold off on posting that one for a while.  I'm feeling like I want to change things up a bit, and riff on a different topic next.

It so happened to work out that these final three players are all featured on other California teams, two being Western division rivals.  And away we go...

Leading off is Reggie, and his third-year card.  His RC is in '69 topps, and I just haven't had a chance to find it available (i.e., affordable, but not mangled).

with apologies to Nick, from Dime Boxes, who just posted that every scan on his blog must pass the 'perfect' test (a scanning quirk).  My scan here is kinda blurry, but I'm moving onward.  Perhaps my quirk is accepting mediocre scans. 

 I mentioned that Reggie's RC has been unavailable up to this point, but his second year card isn't even on my radar screen.  That's because it sits within '70 topps, which I consider one of the ugliest, yet simultaneously boring releases of all time.  I have no desire to chase cards with those dulled-out grey borders.

Check out the beauty above.  I dig this card for so many reasons.  First of all,  '71 topps is a great set, sporting those black borders.  Here we get Reggie kneeling on deck, holding two bats.  Just as Phil Bechtel pointed out with the Molitor card in Part 2,  Reggie looks like a freakin' kid.   And how can you not love that sweeping arm on his middle initial 'M'?

Next up is Tony Gwynn.  I wish I had his RC, but haven't been able to nail one down yet.  Till then, his second-year issue will do...

Tony poses here showing all the confidence of a guy who just knows what a cool baseball career  lies ahead of him.  It might also be the satisfaction of polishing off the last slice of a double dish, Chicago style pizza.

As we get a gander at the final Hero, I need to say two things first.  It's a finally a rookie card! and...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!

Will the Thrill.  Sure, he played for the hated ones, but he was always one of the respected ones.  I loved having Will Clark as an opponent.   He played a helluva game, swung a fearsome bat, and despite a smile that only a mother could love on the RC above, Will always wore badass eye black on the field to go along with his equally badass scowl.

Will Clark will forever remind me of the no holds barred, baseball wars of the Dodgers vs the enemy at candlestick park.  Good times. 

THANKS for reading, everybody!

Something About The Enemy? Here? WTH?

hey everybody,

whilst bouncing around the blogs, i came upon inspiration for this post from brother blogger arpsmith
over at Arpsmith's Sportscard Obsession.  he mentioned his memories of candlestick park, and although i never attended a game there, as a lifelong Dodger fan i have lots of baseball memories of the stick.

when i was a kid, ESPN didn't exist, and your team's every game on cable wasn't an option - heck, cable itself wasn't an option.  But good ol' channel 11 always broadcast games for us here in L.A. when the Dodgers played up in S.F.  i remember watching just about every game.  some of my favorite memories from my youth are watching the game on our black & white tv with my dad.

i remember Vin Scully always talked about the swirling bay winds turning the act of catching an innocent pop fly into a daring adventure. 

back in those days - the LA/SF rivalry was deeply felt from the players to the managers, to the fans.

the scene from above was before my time, but it epitomizes that rivalry.  juan marichal is shown here parting Dodger catcher Johnny Roseboro's hair with a bat.  Sandy Koufax is in there too.

they say candlestick was notorius for Dodgers/giants fan fights, but the new park is much more peaceful.  i've been to quite a few games up there, but never to a Dodgers game. what do you think. arpsmith?

the S.F. fans love to hate the Dodgers, and they really loved to hate Tommy Lasorda.  at the stick, Tommy would have to take a long walk along the stands from the clubhouse to the visitors dugout, and the frisco fans just loved to shower him every step of the way with a healthy portion of BOOOOOOOO !!

the Dodgers were the visitors again at the last baseball game ever played at the stick.  even though Tommy was no longer the Dodgers manager, he was invited to walk that gauntlet one last time.  (that's the picture shown above.)  which brings me to the memorabilia portion of this post.  at one of the games i attended in S.F.'s park with the giant soda bottle, i bought this...

this is a cool connection to old, personal baseball memories.  also cool because it says 'FINAL' game.  finally, extra cool because the Dodgers gave candlestick a great farewell present.  yup, the Dodgers won that game 9 - 4.  

THANKS for reading!