Blog Kiosk: 1/17/2010

• Check our Chris's excellent story at Dodgerfan.net about the Winter Development Program at Dodger Stadium this past Sunday. He was the only blogger in attendance and he represented us well. The Winter Development Program features some of our best minor league prospects.
  
• GCRL creates some amazing fantasy cards. Here, he makes a Jim Bunning card that never was. As you may know he briefly played for the Dodgers during the tail end of the 1969 season. Below GCRL makes a Bunning in Blue card using the Topps 1970 design.
• Olbermann sets it straight. Koufax did not do steroids. He did, though, use corticosteroids (better known as cortisone shots today) which is commonly used throughout Baseball.
• 1207 Consecutive Games shares his 1971 Dodgers Dell Stamp Book. BTW, this is a great new Dodger collector blog that has a bit of a focus on Steve Garvey.
• Here is a great story of how Mike Pitt caught McGwire's homerun #57, gave it back to the slugger and parlayed it into a college scholarship to pay for med school. Another fascinating part of the story is that the scholarship came from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. Jack Kent Cooke, as you may know, was the former owner of the Lakers and LA Kings. He also built the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood. (Hat Tip:Sports Collectors Daily)
  
• Check the Biz of Baseball's MLB Salary Database that includes some player incomes from over 100 years ago, and has inflation adjusted values.
  
• Ken Burns will be updating the wonderfully made Baseball documentary.

  He’ll update the film with “The Tenth Inning,” focusing on the player strike in 1994, the New York Yankees dynasty; the role of the game following Sept. 11, 2001; the revival of the Boston Red Sox; and the emergency of Latin American and Asian players in the major leagues; and the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

  (Hat Tip: Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius)
  
• American hockey player David Backes is on the war path. Since being named to the American Olympic team he has had fights with 3 different Team Canada players. He means business. Thanks to the Common Room for pointing this out. Go USA!
  
• The Wall Street Journal looks at sports cards as an investment and declares that it has done pretty well relative to other traditional investments.

  For 2005 through 2009, the 30 cards that make up the Sports Card Industrial Average, an index put together for The Wall Street Journal by sports-memorabilia company Beckett Media, had an average return on investment of 12.4%. Over that span, the return on the 30 companies that now make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average was an average 7.9%.

  (Hat Tip: Card Collectors Universe)
  
• Is this not the greatest quilt ever, from the Shorpy blog.

  August 17, 1937. "Joseph's coat of many colors had nothing on this unique quilt which is now being completed by Mrs. Ethel Sampson of Evanston, Ill., after six years of collecting. Parts of wearing apparel from President Roosevelt, Mrs. Roosevelt, members of the Cabinet, diplomats and notables from all over. From Hollywood, Bing Crosby sent a tie while Mae West and Shirley Temple contributed parts of dresses. Former Emperor Haile Selassie's neckties and a linen of Windsor are also included on the quilt. Diapers from the Dionne Quintuplets are also prominently displayed."

  
• Wow. Manabu Kurita catches a world record tying largemouth bass at 22 lbs 4 oz.