Card of the Week:

Most fans and collectors only look at the front of the cards, then put them in plastic boxes or sleeves only to never be seen again. Not I. I like to inspect cards. I look at the photography and wonder what's going on in the play or what was the guy thinking when he made that face. I flip the card over and review the stats. I go through the description. I used to love the little cartoons once found on nearly every Topps card made. Now, it is a rarity if a card includes such artwork. I do love that many cards now feature photos on the reverse. Which brings up this weeks "Card of the Week."

Above is a 1993 Upper Deck card of former Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina that has a funny photo with 2 other teammates on the reverse. They are wearing t-shirts with the words "Frick... Frack... And Hack..." Unfortunately, I can't figure out who the other 2 players are, so if you know please pass that along.

Blog Kiosk: 5/17/2009

OK. So who jinxed Kershaw?

• Tony Jackson has just joined LA Dodger Talk.
  
• Big Brother in Baseball.

  What few, if any, of them reporting to their training camp in Tampa knew was that the Yankees — and every other major league team — had assigned someone in the organization to monitor them discreetly from the time they were notified of a test until they produced a urine sample, sometimes hours later.

• Jack Kerouac was a Roto-Baseball fanatic.

  He obsessively played a fantasy baseball game of his own invention, charting the exploits of made-up players like Wino Love, Warby Pepper, Heinie Twiett, Phegus Cody and Zagg Parker, who toiled on imaginary teams named either for cars (the Pittsburgh Plymouths and New York Chevvies, for example) or for colors (the Boston Grays and Cincinnati Blacks). He collected their stats, analyzed their performances and, as a teenager, when he played most ardently, wrote about them in homemade newsletters and broadsides. He even covered financial news and imaginary contract disputes.

• I love collectibles like this. This lady has a giant quilt with 135 embroidered autographs; including one from our old skipper Tommy Lasorda.

  “I didn’t go into it with any expectations,” she recalled. “I had no idea it was an impossibility. The ballplayers weren’t charging for their autographs then.”
  Balls and strikes didn’t appeal to Brown, but she didn’t go in with eyes closed. Each note was handwritten specifically to the player or manager, and the message was simple. “I told them I was making a quilt for my son,” Brown said. “I did it on faith.”

  Hat Tip: SCD:
• This video is just awsome and is a must see for the collector in all of us.

Hat Tip: Big League Stew: