A Furillo Bread Label

Here is a great and very scarce 1952 Tip Top Bread Label of Brooklyn Dodger Carl Furillo. These are very hard to come by and highly desirable to vintage Dodger collectors- even in this condition. In fact, it's virtually impossible to find in mint condition. Heck, I don't think I'd trust a mint version to be real. Why's that, you ask?

Well, these labels were affixed to the ends of a loaf broad that would typically be wrapped in some sort of paper or cellophane. So, they would constantly be peeled off and put back on over the lifetime of the loaf. As a result, surviving examples are creased and well worn. Sure, I can see a kid begging mom to give him the prized label right away, but considering the flimsy paper it was printed on it too would likely be damaged.

Right now the auction sits at under $20.00, but I suspect it will be in the 3 figure territory before it closes.

(eBay Auction Link)

It Gets Better

Do you mean the season? Is this our version of "Wait Til Next Year?"

No, not at all. It's actually a more loftier goal. The Dodgers just released a video in support of the "It Gets Better" campaign that seeks to curb bullying and remind lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth that they are supported throughout society. From the press release:

The Dodgers' contribution features several Dodger players and coaches including Don Mattingly, James Loney, Matt Guerrier, Jamey Carroll, A.J. Ellis, Rod Barajas and Hiroki Kuroda.

"The Dodgers have been outspoken advocates for equality and against all societal prejudices dating back to the days of Jackie Robinson," said Dodgers Senior Vice President, Public Affairs Howard Sunkin. "Our club wholeheartedly supports an end to bullying and violence against LGBT youth. There is zero tolerance for violence of any kind for any reason in our community."

The Dodgers' It Gets Better Project video can be viewed now at www.dodgers.com/dmn. It includes messaging in English, Spanish and Japanese.

The Dodgers join other MLB clubs in support of the It Gets Better Project. The It Gets Better Project helps prevent bullying of LGBT youth and teen suicide by providing support through encouraging video messages. Video submissions and more information on the It Gets Better Project can be found by visiting www.itgetsbetter.org.

Collection: Pedro Guerrero Post Season Performers Auto

Here is a 2005 Upper Deck Classics Post Season Performers autographed card of Dodger slugger Pedro Guerrero from my collection.

Overall, Pedro only hit a paltry .225 is post season play, but he sure knew how to turn it on when it really counted. In the 1981 World Series, after going 5 for 36 in division play, he earned co-MVP honors with Ron Cey and Steve Yeager by belting 2 home runs while knocking in 7 runs during the 6 game series. From Wikipedia:

In somewhat of a symbol of the insufficient attention he received during his impressive career, he was the only one of the three not to be interviewed during the nationally televised post-game celebration.

Ya know, the above statement is so true. Pedro did have a heck of a career, and it always seems like this is overlooked.

Some Dodgers Inserts in Marquee

Here are just a handful of Dodger inserts from the recently released Topps Marquee set I tracked down on eBay. Check them out.
Here are some really nice Kershaw autos. Amazingly, I still don't have a Clayton Kershaw autograph in my collection. What's up wit dat?

It Just Shouldn't Be

I should be ecstatic that the hockey season is about to begin. Instead, I feel a great level of disgust at a fellow hockey fan. If you haven't heard the news yet, former Kings standout Wayne Simmonds had a banana peel thrown at him during a pre-season scrimmage. That's right a f***'n banana peel.

As you would expect, Wayne brushed it off. Still, I found part of his response a bit disturbing. From the Washington Post.

“When you’re a black man playing in a predominantly white man’s sport, you’ve got to come to expect things like that,” Simmonds said. “Over the past 23 years of my life, I’ve come to expect some things like that. But I’m older and more mature now, I kind of just left things roll off [my back]. I try not to think about stuff like that.”

I absolutely understand where Wayne is coming from. Being a minority requires that you learn to accept and look beyond the subtle (and sometimes overt) forms of racism around you, but it shouldn't be like that. It just shouldn't be.

Read Frozen Royalty Kings reporter Gann Matsuda's excellent write up about this, here. Other Kings bloggers also respond: Surly & Scribe. Battle of California.

(Pic: Harry How/Getty Images)

Some Dodgers Special Announcements

There have been a handful of Dodger related announcements that made it into my inbox that I thought were worth making note of. First, though, I wanted to extend my congratulations to Clayton Kershaw for win #20. (Pic from Dodgers yFrog: Jon SooHoo) Pitching Triple Crown and Cy Young, here we come!Dodgers wives pitching in!

Several Dodger Wives visited St. Anne's, a social service agency in Silverlake that works with at-risk young women, children and families, to donate close to $10,000 in household goods and baby products. Maggie Ethier, Tiffany Billingsley, Cindy Ellis, Aurielle Lindblom and Ellen Kershaw made the donation on behalf of all of this year's Dodger Wives, as they each contributed.

Check more about this here at MLB.com. Tonight, the Dodgers will honor employees with over 25 years of service!

The Los Angeles Dodgers will honor all employees with 25 or more years of service to the organization on the field prior to Wednesday's 7:10 p.m. game against San Francisco. Among those being honored will be Hall of Fame Broadcaster Vin Scully, Hall of Fame Manager and Special Advisor to the Chairman Tommy Lasorda, Special Advisor to the Chairman Don Newcombe and Hall of Fame Spanish-language broadcaster Jaime Jarrín.

On top of that 38 other folks, ranging from ticket takers to Ushers to Security Guards, will be honored on the field prior to the game. Check out more about these long-term Dodger faithful employees here.

Matt Kemp wins the 6th Annual Roy Campanella Award.

The Los Angeles Dodgers announced today that All-Star center fielder Matt Kemp was named the winner of the sixth annual Roy Campanella Award, which is given to the Dodger player who best exemplifies the spirit and leadership of the late Hall of Fame catcher. The award, which was voted upon by Dodger uniform personnel, will be presented to Kemp by Campanella's daughter, Joni Campanella Roan, during pre-game ceremonies tomorrow night.

Read more about this great honor here.

Collection: Raul Mondesi UD SP Auto

Here is a 1993 Upper Deck SP card I picked up a few years ago on eBay. It features an autograph of Raul Mondesi. I believe this was a UDA aftermarket card sold directly by Upper Deck several years after 1993. Notice the UDA sticker on the reverse.

Daily Conlon: 343 through 351

Here are todays Daily Conlon cards numbered 343 through 351, and it celebrates, once again, no-hitters during the deadball era. This time, fortunately, no notable Dodger collapses are included in this lot, but it does feature a duel no-hitter by Ernie Shore (bottom row, far right) and Babe Ruth.

On a June 23rd game in 1917, Babe Ruth, then a star pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, started on the mound against the Washington Senators. To the very first batter he faced, Ray Morgan, Ruth gave up a walk. Being unhappy with the call, he argued with the umpire. He screamed, whined and eventually threw a punch. As you would expect, he was thrown out of the game. Ernie Shore subsequently came in to take over for the Future Hall of Famer and proceeded to get 26 straight outs for the Sox after Morgan was thrown out trying to steal 2nd base.

20 Wins!!!!

Clayton Kershaw gets win #20 against the Giants. WooHoo!

Congrats Big Guy!

It wasn't all his doing. He had a little help from his friends. Loney knocked in a run in the 1st inning and Jerry Sands hit a homer in the 2nd. Then, Kenley Jansen helped Kershaw out of a mess by striking out both Sandoval and Beltran to finish off the 8th inning, and Guerra pitched a scoreless 9th.

The only thing that would be better would be to knock the Gnats out of the playoffs. I think that will come later.

(Pic Credit: Jon SooHoo LA Dodgers)

Check Out This Marquee Koufax

Holy mackerel! Here is a Sandy Koufax 2011 Topps Marquee Gametime Momentos booklet with both an autograph and relic uniform piece. With one day left it is already over $1000.00.

(eBay Auction Link)

Star Wars Night This Past Friday

As you know, it was Star Wars Night at Dodger Stadium this past Friday and I thought I would collect some photos and videos of the occasion. I didn't go to the game myself, but I did enjoyed a viewing of "Jedi" and some of the bonus videos from the newly released Blue-Ray CD that evening. Yhea, I'm a bit of a geek.

Anyway, let's start off with a brief video of the night from the Dodgers.

Video Link:

By the way, there are several other blogs and message boards that provided a great first hand look at the event. I thought the best one was Victor's R2D2 Building Diary. See it here. Victor is the master genius builder of the R2D2 in attendance and he provided a whole bunch of pics and videos worth a look. Then check out their entire photoset in flickr.

Here are some Twitter pics I found.

(Pic Link: @ears_of_steam)

(Pic Link: @gregsanchez)

This is the Dodger press box. In the middle is DJ Severe who is the DJ at Dodger games.

(Pic Link: @djsevere)

And to conclude this post is the definite highlight of the night. Check out some fire works set to the music of Star Wars.

Video Link:

Daily Conlon: 334 through 342

This is todays Daily Conlon cards numbered 334 through 342, and it features nothing but deadball era no-hitters. Unfortunately, no Dodger is highlighted as throwing one in this group, but it does point to a couple of no-hitter pitched against the Dodgers. Even worse, both no-hitters were thrown by Giants.

Red Ames (on the top row, far left) threw his "no-no" early in the season in 1909. He blanked us in a 13 inning game against Kaiser Wilhelm. Both pitchers were phenomenal, unfortunately, Ames was just a little better. Wilhelm gave up 3 runs in the 13th inning to lose it 3-0. An amazing fact about the game is that the Giants outfield did not record one putout.

Giants pitcher Rube Marquard (bottom row, far right) threw his no-hitter against the Dodgers in 1915. It was his first start of the season as he blanked us 2-0. Of special note, Marquard would orchestrate his own trade to the Dodgers later on in that season. He wanted to play for his mentor and favorite coach, Wilbert "Uncle Robbie" Robinson.

Blog Kiosk: 9/16/2011

Here's Fernando Valenzuela, this morning, at City Hall being honored during Latino Heritage Month, via Los Angeles Dodgers Twitter Lockerz.

• Longtime Dodger fan Larry King is canceling his season tickets due to McCourt, via Farther Off the Wall.
  
• Dodgers ask whether ownership is affecting season-ticket renewal, via Bill Shaikin of LA Times.
  
• Bob Lemke recalls what happened to some of the relics from Ebbets Field.
  

  The TSN article did have other specifics, though. It was mentioned that $2,300 was realized in the auction. By far the biggest bid was for the cornerstone, purchased for $600 by then-president of the National League, Warren Giles.
  
  The Ebbets Field cornerstone was described as about 3' by 4' by 1', cut from red-brown Connecticut Granite. After considerable effort, the stone was busted open and a copper box extracted.

• Panini enters the Baseball card market. They will be releasing Baseball cards, licensed by MLBPA, later this year.
  
• Jesse at Los Angeles Inspiration was a big winner during the Dodgers #SocialSeptember. Congrats!
  
• In LA Kings news, standout franchise defenseman is now officially a holdout. Damn you Drew! Read the interview with Kings GM about this situation at LA Kings Insider. In my opinion, a 7 year deal at $6.8mil is more than fair- way more than fair!
  
• Nick Diunte puts up Part 5 of his interview with Carl Erskine. And watch the video below.

Video Link:

Daily Conlon: 325 through 333

Here are todays Daily Conlon cards numbered 325 through 333. It features not only Charles Conlon himself (located on the top row, far right) but also Dodger hurler Nap Rucker (bottom row, far right). As you know by now, Charles Conlon is arguably the most famous of all Baseball photographers. He worked the field for nearly 4 decades, and as is credited with capturing the Ty Cobb "sliding into base" photograph that every fan has seen. Strangely, photography started out only as a hobby for Conlon (then in his mid-30's) until a sports editor for The Spalding Base Ball Guide encouraged him to take it on full time. He subsequently dominated the field throughout the 20's and 30's.

The Rucker card celebrates his no-hitter on September 5, 1908 against the Boston Braves. As stated on the reverse:

Nap Rucker, a career .500 pitcher, was struck with a hapless Brooklyn team in 1908 that finished 46 games out of first. But on September 5, the crafty Georgia southpaw was overpowering. He walked no one and fanned 14, striking out the side in the fourth inning. Three Brooklyn errors deprived him of a perfect game.

That figures. The Brooklyn Bums ruined his chance at perfection.

Blog Kiosk: 9/15/2011

Here is a team photo of the entire organization, via Dodgers yFrog.

• Check out the 2012 Dodger schedule right here.
• Who owns the Dodgers. Answer in 2012. Via Steve Dilbeck of LA Times.
  
• Me not like. "If things had been just a little bit different in 1958," via Flip Flop Fly Ball. (Hat Tip: It's Time for Dodger BaseBlog)
  
• Baseball Interactions is now one of my favorite blogs. Check it out as Juan Rosales writes to various different former ballplayers to about their time in the game. Here, he speaks to former Dodger Chuck Essegian about his year playing in Japan in the 60's and his World Series experience. Then he hears from Carl Erskine here and here. (Hat Tip: Baseball by the Letters)
  
• CBS speaks with Jon SooHoo (the Dodgers photographer) about his 26 years with the club. (Hat Tip: LFP)
  
• Ethier undergoes succeddful knee surgery, via MLB.
  
• Kershaw was not a happy camper against Parra, via Opinion of Kingman's Performance.
  
• Chad Moriyama has a rundown on last nights madness.
  
• SCD has an interview with Sal Durante, the man who caught Roger Maris's 61st home run. It was the 50th anniversary a few days ago.
  
• Cartoon Manny! (Hat Tip: Baseball Musings)
  

Video Link:

2011 Topps Marquee- Dodger Base Cards

As I wrote about yesterday, Topps just released their newest product called Topps Marquee. This is the inaugural year for this brand and is geared towards the higher end card market. A box will probably run about $200.00 a piece, and includes only 4 packs with 5 cards within it. So, don't expect to find this at your local Target store. The draw to this set are the inserts- which are plentiful. Each pack is guaranteed to have either a relic or autograph piece.

What I like is that the Dodgers fill up 8 spots in a base set that consist of only 100 cards. I call that dominating the set. Furthermore, the Keshaw and Kemp cards feature them in their vintage baby blue uniforms that were used this season. As always, there are numerous parallels to the base set. Numerous examples of them are below.

Pee Wee Reese, #24

Jackie Robinson, #45

Matt Kemp, #52

Andre Ethier, #56

Sandy Koufax, #64

Clayton Kershaw, #67

Duke Snider, #75
Roy Campanella, #78

Daily Conlon: 316 through 324

Here are todays Daily Conlon cards numbered 316 through 324, and it featured former Brooklyn Dodger Lyn "Broadway" Lary. He was only on the team for a little over 3 months in 1939, having been purchased by the Dodgers from the Indians earlier in the year then selected off of waivers by the Cardinals near the end of the season. In 29 games for Brooklyn he batted a measly .161.

His best years was when he first came up to the big leagues with the New York Yankees. He was purchased from the Oakland Oaks of the PCL, along with Jimmy Reese, to man shortstop. In 1931 he became their starter and batted an impressive .280 while knocking in 107 and scoring 100 times. He was also a bit of a heel when he cost Lou Gehrig the home run title that year by incorrectly gauging a homer as caught and passing by Gehrig on his way back to the base. Gehrig was called out and the home run negated. He would tie for the title with Babe Ruth instead of outright winning it.

Best Topps Koufax Auto So Far- 2011 Marquee

Look at this card. It's radiates awesomeness. This Sandy Koufax autographed card would look beautiful in my collection. Unfortunately, I think the price is far above what I can spend today. It is from the newly and just released (literally today) Topps product called 2011 Marquee. It features a huge game-used uniform relic piece with an accompanying autograph on a shiny sticker. Check it out right here.

Daily Conlon: 307 through 315

Here are todays Daily Conlon cards numbered 307 through 315, and it features former Dodger great "Gentleman" Jake Daubert (located on the top row, on the far left) in a great pinstripe photograph. This card celebrates his 1913 season when he won the Chalmers Award. This was equivalent to the MVP award back then. He batted .350 with 178 hits, a .829 OPS, and a .991 fielding percentage.

Jake Daubert is arguably one of the best ballplayers who isn't already in the Hall of Fame. He batted over .300 for 10 season during the deadball era while being considered one of the best fielding first baseman during his time. Unfortunately, Jake died unexpectantly in 1924 while playing for the Reds. It is thought that a contributing factor in his death was a beaning to the head early that season- one of 8 he experienced throughout his career.

Collection: Eric Karros Topps Rookie All-Star Auto

Eric Karros was a great Dodger. He spent 12 years as the primary first baseman, batting .268 with 270 home runs in Blue.

Here is my 2005 Topps autographed Rookie Cup card.

A Vintage Brooklyn Dodger Mini Camera Viewer

Here is a great eBay Auction of a vintage mid-50's era mini picture camera viewer of the Brooklyn Dodgers. It features 17 different photos of the Brooklyn Dodgers and is much like those viewmaster kid toys. These are very scarce and rarely ever come up for auction. In fact, this is the first Dodger camera I have in several years. A Yankees and Giants camera are known to exist. As with most oddball memorabilia items it sold at a value that is relatively cheap compared to how infrequent they show up. It recently sold at $397.00.

Check out the photos from the viewer above and below. Jackie Robinson, Jim Hughes and Sandy Amoros are above.

Carl Furillo

Don Newcombe

Billy Loes

Duke Snider

Clem Labine

Gil Hodges

Roy Campanella

Pee Wee Reese

Joe Black

Carl Erskine

Johnny Podres

Jim Gilliam

Walter Alston

Jim Hughes

(eBay Auction Link)