Whatever Ails Baseball is the Fault of McCourt

Well played Yahoo! Well Played.

We all know that an evil northeastern troll is the cause of everything that troubles the game. After all, he's ruined the Dodgers, so we might as well blame him for everything.

UPDATE: Maybe it's better said that McCourt is driving us all to drink- since the union and MLB are considering a alcohol plan.

Music For Lunch

I can't believe I've never taken the time to search YouTube for pieces by Steven Reich. He is one of my favorite composers, and is noted for being a pioneer in the minimalist sound. His tune "Clapping Music" is, in my mind, a masterpiece, as well as, the below song called "Piano Phase." Before you take a listen let me set up how amazingly difficult this song is. It is basically one musician playing two pianos (it's usually played by two musicians), but each hand is playing the tune in a different time signature. For the laymen that may not mean much, but try to imagine banging on a drum with one hand at 4 beats per second and then using the left hand to bang on another drum at 3 beats per second- and maintaining that for entire song. What you'll find is that the song starts to fold and phase in and out of sequence. It's like witnessing a musical battle as your ear tries to decipher the inherent madness of what's going on.

YouTube Link:

Blog Kiosk: 5/6/2011

It's hard to believe much else could go wrong in this years Dodger season.

• Number 5 Type Collections shows his 1962 Topps Venezuelan Sandy Koufax card, here. Awesome and very scarce.
  
• Punk Rock Paint is now doing some retro sets for the Baseball Card Blog and starts it off with some Muppets retro cards. Check out Beaker here and the rest of the Electric Mayhem here.
• Check out the worlds largest model airport, via AOL.
• This is for you tech geeks out there. Jerome Svigals, one of the earliest computer programming pioneers and father of magnetic stripe technology, is on reddit today answering all of your questions. Check it out here.
  
• Kung Fooled! (Hat Tip: Reddit)
  

YouTube Link:

Some Custom Dodger Cards

I was a little bored last night, so I decided to try my hand at some custom card building. I have to admit, though, that I cheated a bit. I used MyTradingCards.com, but I'm sure you won't tell. Check them out below.

This was a great photo the Dodgers provided earlier in the year. I believe it's a pic from Jon Soo Hoo/ LA Dodgers on a 2011 Topps card design.

Victoria Beckham threw out the first pitch during a game in 2007 and Juan Ocampo of the LA Dodgers captured this great pic. It's on a 2009 Topps design.
A vintage photo from the Dodgers of Elton John from his 1975 concert at Dodgers Stadium. It's in a 2007 Topps Design.

I just love this pic. Unfortunately, I'm not sure where is originally cam from, so I apologize in advance. Here's a flopping Tommy Lasorda on a 2008 Topps card.

The Case Break Big Hits: Gypsy Queen's

Here are the cards that had me so excited. A patch, a bat, a stamp and a printing plate... oh my! The only thing that would make this better would be an autographed card, but why be greedy? Here are the "big hits" I received from the fine ladies at "A Cardboard Problem."

There are only two Dodger mini relic insert cards in the set, and I got them both. Wow!

A Matt Kemp game-used uniform piece.

And the best of them all- a game-used bat piece of Jackie Robinson. WooHoo! This is my very first Jackie relic card- and possibly the only one I'll ever get.

There are scarce stamp relic card, numbered to only 10, available for every player in the base set. I was fortunate to snag a Jackie Robinson. Sweet! Even better is that the stamp is nicely aligned.

Here is a Duke Snider printing plate, 1 of 1, card. This is also my very first printing plate, and I'm glad it's of this great Dodger Hall of Famer.