Went to the Shrine of the Eternals and an Autograph Convention Broke Out

Aloha, everybody,

Last Sunday I headed out to Pasadena for the 20th Induction Ceremony of the Shrine of the Eternals. The class of 2018 included Rusty Staub, Nancy Faust and Tommy John. There was also an appearance from the San Diego Chicken ( a former inductee as well).

It was a great day for baseball lovers such as myself, but the autograph collector inside of me grimaced at the mockery made by autograph hounds who took advantage of the celebrity and athlete's goodwill.

Hope you enjoy the video, and if you do watch, please do so on the Youtube site. Your views on Youtube help the channel generate buzz. Thanks and Aloha!

Visiting The Baseball Reliquary - The Gifts (Part 2)

Aloha everybody,

Here we go with Part 2 of the great gifts that we received from Terry. I believe the following are called caches. 

They were designed and produced by Terry and they commemorate various sporting special events and personalities. These are for you basketball enthusiasts...

Of course the last couple are baseball-centric. Cool stuff. 

In addition, Terry dropped a couple of packs of cards on us to enjoy ripping. Last time  I didn't have too much luck, but these packs were A-OK.  I pulled several guys that I am always happy to get cards of - and they are all new for my collection...

Rickey...nuff said

Last time I got Griffey Sr. Now I got The Kid. Nice!

Check that bat!!!!

Check out Doc's eyes. Does he always look that way when he pitches - or is he checking a runner on second?

BOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!

Sweet Kirby. His autograph is one of the tops in my collection. 

After our great day at the Reliquary, Wallet Card and the boys stopped at a local establishment to check out some craft brews.  You can see my selection just above Wallet Card. I chose Oskar Blues because...well, you know...

 Now if they would just get that tarp off the field in St. Louis and play ball! 

Alohaaaaaa 

Visiting the Baseball Reliquary - The Gifts (Part One)

Aloha everybody,

It's a sad day in Dodgers Nation today as another fan (and team)  favorite - Juan Uribe - was unceremoniously dumped....errrr, traded...to the Atlanta Braves. I want to like my team, but those new front office guys seem to think nothing of shipping off fan favorites (Matt Kemp, Dee Gordon, and now Papi).  *sigh* 

On a brighter note, my recent visit to the Baseball Reliquary (Institute for Baseball Studies) also included some awesome gifts from good ol' Terry. Let's get right to them, shall we? 

We begin with another uncut sheet of baseball cards. These are from a tribute set of the infamous Black Sox. 

One new thing we learned about Terry from our last visit was Terry used to produce baseball cards - back in the junkwax era. These uncut sheets and cards are from one of those past endeavors.  

The blur is from the sheet being too large for my scanner.

 If you should ever visit the Reliquary, ask Terry to tell you about his past limited edition autographed sets of the top high school players in the country - and his great gets of young high school phenoms Derek Jeter and Manny Ramirez. 

Back to the Black Sox. In addition to the uncut sheets, Terry also gave us complete sets of the cards. Here's the back of card number one...

Note: Produced in an edition of 5000, by our hero.

Here are a couple of sample cards and backs. I absolutely dig this set.
 

Terry tossed in more limited items, programs from the past ceremonies to induct folks into the Shrine of the Eternals. Here is a look at two of them...

 The program from 1999 is from the first year and the first class of Eternals. I chose to show the 2006 program because of the Roy Campanella stamp. 

Speaking of stamps, I want to also point out the special postmark the Pasadena Post Office made for the Induction Day. Terry designed these special baseball-themed postmarks that changed every year. 

Here's a look inside the 1999 program...

Dock Ellis' page...

Hey, ol' Dock was born in L.A., just like me!

Here's one of the back covers. I chose it because of the Brooklyn connection. Note the emcee for the night was Elayne Boosler, and they had legendary Dodger Stadium organist, Nancy Bea Hefley. Wow! I'm sure sorry I missed that night.

That's all for now, folks. Part Two will feature more cards and something special for you fans of vintage basketball. 

BTW - I didn't even notice my previous post was Number 500! Wow.  That makes this one just another, but apparently I'm now on my way to post number 1000. 

Aloha! 

Another Trip To The Institute For Baseball Studies

Aloha everybody,

Laker Dave and I met up with Terry at the Institute for Baseball Studies recently, and we had a blast!  

 I mentioned in my previous post about visiting the Institute that it's currently housed in a small space, and they only have enough room to display just a fraction of the goodies and memorabilia in the archives. 

Terry Cannon, Executive Director, took us behind the scenes and showed us the storage room. I would sure love to be there and help Terry when he cracks those boxes open and sorts through all that fun baseball stuff.

By far the best part of visiting the Institute is talking with Terry, who is a walking baseball encyclopedia of facts, trivia, and stories from old time baseball, as well as many of the baseball names that you and I grew up with.

We took seats around the table and had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon talking with Terry about a multitude of subjects from the Dodgers' TV blackout fiasco, to the windfall of Negro Baseball League paraphernalia coming to the Institute, to the junk wax era of baseball cards, to fascinating behind the scenes stories of Tommy Lasorda and Sparky Anderson.
 

Terry brought out a great piece of baseball history that I think ol' Matt from Bob Walk The Plank will appreciate.

Terry is showing us one of the baseballs from Pirate Rennie Stennett's record-setting 7-hit night back in September, 1975. That night Stennett became the only player in the 20th century to get seven hits in seven at bats in a nine inning game.

The seventh baseball that Stennett hit went to the Hall of Fame. Terry is holding in his hands the sixth ball hit that night.

The ball had been autographed, but unfortunately time has almost erased the signature...
 

Nevertheless, it was an awesome feeling to be so up close and personal with an artifact from a Hall of Fame worthy accomplishment...

Of course, not only is Terry generous with his baseball knowledge and personal warmth - he's also been very, very giving with goodies for us when we've visited, and this time was no exception. 

Coming up in the next post we'll see some of the awesome items that Terry gifted to us. 

Aloha! 

Visiting the Institiute for Baseball Studies -The Loot

Aloha,

A couple of posts ago, Wallet Card and I visited the Institute for Baseball Studies. You'll find that post, filled with plenty of intriguing baseball memorabilia here. 

It was my pleasure to meet and talk with Terry Cannon, Executive Director of the Baseball Reliquary, when I visited - and for an extra bonus, Terry generously shared some fantastic baseball memorabilia with me to take home.  Let's take a look at the new additions to my collection, THANKS to Terry and the Reliquary...

Below is a large card (5" by 8") that will be a giveaway to accompany the upcoming visit of Masanori Murakami to Whittier College and the Institute on Tuesday, July 7...

Terry then noted that I'm a Dodgers fan. He asked if I'm a Fernando fan...and he gave me a set of these...

I love those Fernando cards. I don't think I'll be opening up the set too soon, though. I want to enjoy them in their original packaging for a while. 

Then Terry really blew me away. He dropped an UNCUT SHEET of some very cool cards on me.  This was from a set of "Legends of the Minor Leagues". Check these out...

Look at these legends...Lasorda!  and Castro! (last row)

Yup, before Puigmania, there was Fidel, the original Cuban...
 

 Last - but as all card collectors know - absolutely not least,Terry dropped some unopen packs in my hand. Nice! 

 

1991 was right around the time I entered card collecting. Who might be waiting in these packs?

Nolan Ryan, the Big Hurt, Cheater Bonds, Junior was everywhere, Paul Molitor, Ricky Henderson.  Lots of great possibilities. 

Did I pull any of those guys? Well...here are the top cards, from Studio first...

I caught a Griffey...but...not Junior. 

Never a bad thing to pull a Dodger card. Eddie Murray is no slouch to be sure.
 

Boggsy was in a lot of packs back then as well. 

On to '91 Leaf. That was a hot pack full of Cubs and Phillies.
 

 Maddux! Pre-glasses and pre-umpires giving him an extra two inches off the plate, "just because"....

Nice to catch an Angel. 

One Cubbie to round it out....

 What a sweet bunch a baseball collector's loot. 

A million THANKS to you Terry, for the warm welcome you extended that day, our wonderful baseball conversation, and the awesome gifts that you shared. I'll surely be back to the Institute soon (as soon as Laker Dave and I can coordinate). 

Good evening and Aloha everybody!

Wallet Card Visits the Institute for Baseball Studies - Is Blown Away!

Aloha everybody,

I featured a DVD in my previous post, which talked about the Baseball Reliquary and the Institute for Baseball Studies. As I mentioned in that post, I was inspired to visit the Institute, so I grabbed Wallet Card and my son, and we took a road trip to Baseball Heaven. 

The Institute is located on the campus of Whittier College. We stopped in on a Friday afternoon and found Terry Cannon, Executive Director of the Baseball Reliquary, visiting with someone who had just been gifted the wonderful box of Dodgers goodness that is shown above with Wallet Card. 

Here's a closer look...

This box - and its awesome contents - were given to her by a friend, who believe it or not is a Giants fan! Let's take a look inside. 

What's in the box???? 

 Just a bunch of Dodgers retro-coolness....

Drinking glasses with Dodgers from the 60's. You can see some of the names on the side of the box: Carl Furillo, Don Drysdale and Johnny (I hate Marichal) Roseboro. Also included are Sandy Koufax, Duke Snider and Wally Moon. 

Here's Koufax...

The Duke...

And Wally (Moonshots) Moon...
 

How cool is this set of glasses? They're in mint condition as though they were made yesterday. What a lucky break it was for me to visit the Institute on the same day those glasses were there. 

Above is a shot of the lucky lady who owns those glasses and Terry. I cannot express enough what a friendly person Terry is, and what a pleasure it is to talk all things baseball with him. The time flew by like a fast breeze.

Check out that wild artwork over Terry's head. Here's a closer look...

It's the first baseball game ever! The mastadon is the batter, and beyond the center fielder you can see the outline of the old MLB logo. 

Here's another quirky baseball artwork...

This was made by a former semi-pro player. Take note of the baseball. It's an actual ball with a monkey skull. Yikes! 

Speaking of quirky artworks, the walls were covered in paintings from a Dodger fan whom Terry tells me makes a new painting for every game and displays them out in his yard....

The center painting above was specially made for the Reliquary.  Here are a few other jewels that are up on display...

You might recognize the large photo of Anthony Perkins as Jimmy Piersall from the film classic "Fear Strikes Out". As auspiciousness would have it, I happened to watch that film for the first time that very morning, so it was a treat for me to see that photo, which Terry says was a donation from a Hollywood studio that was about to toss it out! 

Of course most of you should recognize the photo prints right below Perkins/Piersall - it's Willie Mays' "The Catch".  

You heard about A League of Their Own. How about The Blessed Virgins League?  

Do you go to hell if your team beats them in the World Series?

Below is a banner from a special night for Shoeless Joe Jackson, in his home town...
 

Below is a tribute to the East Los Angeles baseball team, Los Chorizeros, who were part of the Mexican-American baseball leagues that played across the American Southwest from the 1920's until the early 70's.

Never heard of them? Me neither; I was born just as the leagues were dying out - and courtesy of their sacrilegious omission from Ken Burns' (now flawed in my mind) baseball documentary, most of America has remained uninformed of this great historical slice of baseball. 

Much like the Negro leagues, the Mexican-American leagues were formed because they too were kept out of The Show by all those guys who thought exactly like Al Campanis.

 For every lunch counter sign denying service to African-Americans in the south, there was an equal one denying service to Mexican-Americans in the southwest - particularly down home in Texas (my father's home state). 

Thanks to the Institute, word of these players' contribution to the American fabric of baseball will slowly be brought out to light. 

I'm personally glad that Terry had this display up on the day I visited, because it turns out the leagues were most popular in East L.A., right in the neighborhoods where I grew up, in the shadows of Dodger Stadium.

If not for the Institute, I may never have known of the Chorizeros, so named because of their connection to the Carmelita chorizo factory, which I am sad to say is no longer in business. The closing of Carmelitas was a personal blow to me because they made the BEST CHORIZO EVER, bar none. 

The Chorizeros were such a baseball powerhouse, they were referred to as The Yankees of the West. 

If you check the photo closely, you'll see the logo is a baseball playin' pig. That was the same logo on every package of Carmelitas chorizo. All my young life I wondered about why that pig loved baseball before giving up his life for the breakfast table.

Here's one for my buddy Matt....
 

Please pardon the slightly blurred image below. I chose to include it because of the interesting displays the Reliquary presented in the past...

That's not nearly everything I have to share from our visit to the Institute, but time is running short as Wallet Card and I will be going to the ballgame tonight to see Kershaw and the Dodgers battle the Rockies. 

We'll have to continue in the next post where I'll showcase my loot - the wonderful things that Terry gave to me on my visit. 

Here's a teaser...

Join Wallet Card and I next time for Part Two! 

Aloha!