Dodgers Blue Heaven: Apr 10, 2013

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Game 8 Game Preview: Billingsley's 2013 Debut

Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego Padres

Chad Billingsley vs. Eric Stults

Game Start: 7:10 p.m., April 10
TV: This really sucks. Today's and Friday's game have moved channels due to conflicts. See the pic below for info.
Radio: 570 AM (English), 1020 AM (Spanish)

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Former Dodger Eric Stults pitches against a Dodger coming off of the disabled list (Chad Billingsley).
Mark Saxon at ESPN asks, "Can Billingsley Get Back on the Beam?"

Chad Billingsley might be the best candidate to solidify the middle of the rotation as the No. 3 starter. But going into Billingsley's first start of the season tonight in San Diego, the Dodgers still have more questions than answers about him.

Dodgers Lineup:

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Padres Lineup:

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Another Yearbook from My Collection: Jackie Robinson - a 1940 UCLA Yearbook

Apparently, it is Jackie Robinson yearbook day. Following up on my 1939 Pasadena Junior College yearbook, I now show you a 1940 UCLA yearbook. As you can see, it's very different than most, with its unusual cover made up of a faux leather material.

Jackie was a very prominent member of the UCLA football team. Check him out in the team portrait below. He is on the middle row, far left.

Below is a posed shot of Robinson in his UCLA football uniform.

The best thing about this yearbook is that it includes a bunch of action photos of Jackie on gridiron.

Robinson is seen above carrying the football down the field. Below, he is the recipient of a hidden ball trick that allows him to move down the field through a wide open lane.

This is a distressing photo. Jackie Robinson is on the ground being choke-tackled from behind. The captions says, "Stanford men are amazed as a teammate plays a dirty choke on Robinson."

Here is Jackie as a UCLA basketball player.

He wore #18 and is captured in several game action photos below.

Of course, a look at his college years wouldn't be complete without a photo of him sporting a Baseball uniform. Unfortunately, there are no action photos of Jackie, but we do have a team portrait.

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Something From My Collection: Jackie Robinson - A 1939 Pasadena Junior College Yearbook

As I had indicated yesterday this is unofficially Jackie Robinson week, so it's only proper that I take a moment to share some Jackie Robinson memorabilia in my collection. Over the years I have posted up pics of a bunch of my stuff, but realized the other day that I hadn't shared some of my more oddball items. A couple of years back I posted up a 1938 Pasadena Junior College yearbook that I have (see that post here), but failed to follow up with other yearbooks I have featuring Jackie Robinson. In fact, I have a total of 4 different vintage yearbooks; one of which is from a school Jackie didn't even go to. In this post I show you the 1939 Pasadena Junior College Yearbook.

UPDATE: Check out the 1940 UCLA yearbook with Jackie here.

As you would expect, Jackie was quite the athlete in college. The below pic is from the first page featuring the schools football team. As you can see, Robinson is prominently mentioned as a juggernaut.

Pasadena Junior College's greatest football team sparked by its greatest individual athlete, Jack Robinson.

Click on any pic to embiggen.

In the yearbook they recount every game the team played, and Robinson is mentioned throughout. Below is his football portrait.

Jackie also played some basketball for the California Junior College Champions.

Jackie wore #30 for the basketball team. Below, he is ready to grab a rebound.

And here is his basketball portrait photo.

Jackie was also singled out for membership in the Pasadena Junior College Mast and Dagger honorary club. Twelve students out of a 7,000 class body received this honor. They are students who participated in outstanding service to the school and whose scholastic and citizenship record is worthy of recognition.

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Blog Kiosk: 4/10/2013

Check out this great photo tweeted by @SI_Vault of Vin Scully interviewing Stan "The Man" Musial in 1963.

Via Evan Drellich at MLB.com, "Long gone, Ebbets Field continues to live on in lore."

"They make Ebbets Field look like Ebbets Field," McGee said. "I don't know how they did it. It must have been computer-generated. It had to be, how did they do it?"

"I mean, when I saw this, when the actor who's playing Jackie," Schweiger went on, "he's walking up the ramp, and he gets to the top -- there's Ebbets Field. There's the inside of the ballpark.'"

"That's the way Ebbets field looked," McGee said. "Exactly the same."

Lee Trocinski at Beyond the Boxscore provides a detailed look at Hyun-Jin Ryu's performance so far.

The 26-year-old South Korean lefty was thrust directly into the rotation, which has looked to be a great move so far. In his first two starts, he's allowed five runs in 12 2/3 innings, walking two and striking out 11 so far. His stuff is decent, but his polish is where he makes his living.

Evan Bladh at Opnion of Kingman's Performance writes a review of Josh Suchon's book: "Miracle Men."
Topps Tribute officially goes live today. Topps tweeted out a preview pic of the Duke Snider bat card below. I'll have the Dodgers cards up soon.

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BTW, the Jackie Robinson 2012 Panini National Treasures autographed booklet card has just been pulled and posted on eBay. Take a look at it here.

Dodgers Pride Night is coming to a LA Kings game on April 18th. Get more information here. In past years a Dodger was there to represent the team, but I am unsure if any former players are scheduled to appear. To get the Kings Baseball you must order tickets through this deal.

To finish up the recent Ramon Hernandez trade, our other backup catcher Tim Federowicz has been sent back down to AAA, via Ken Gurnick at MLB.com.

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2013 Panini Triple Play Baseball - Dodgers Cards

Panini released their first Baseball card set of the 2013 season last week, and it's Triple Play. This is a set geared towards kids. Players are represented as cartoon figures, sometimes creating hilarious results. See what I mean below.

Base Set

Adrian Gonzalez looks... well, Asian. Am I wrong?

#40 Adrian Gonzalez

Andre Ethier has a very serious yet somewhat sad stare in the drawing below. It's like he's pondering his place in the world or his ability to hit left-handed pitchers in the Dodgers lineup.

#41 Andre Ethier

Clayton almost looks like Randy Johnson or some character in the movie Deliverance. Anyone have a banjo you can gift to our ace?

#42 Clayton Kershaw

This Matt Kemp is clearly the best of the bunch. As Samuel L. Jackson might say, he's a "bad mutha....!"

#43 Matt Kemp

Unfortunately, I have no idea what it says on the reverse. So, if you happen to have this card please let me know what this is all about. Based on what I see, Clayton played a little bit of floor hockey as a kid. However, since they are wearing football helmets maybe it's some sort of hybrid hockey/football game he made up that consist of tackling and sanctioned fighting.

#96 Clayton Kershaw