Dodgers Blue Heaven: Jan 18, 2016

Monday, January 18, 2016

When Glenn Frey Sat In with Vin Scully

We lost another great one.

It has just been announced that legendary musician and one of the founding members of the Eagles, Glenn Frey, passed away today. He was 67 years old. Via Ariana Bacle at Entertainment Weekly:

“It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our comrade, Eagles founder Glenn Frey, in New York City,” the band wrote on its website. The Frey family would like to thank everyone who joined Glenn to fight this fight and hoped and prayed for his recovery. Words can neither describe our sorrow, nor our love and respect for all that he has given to us, his family, the music community & millions of fans worldwide.”

With his passing I thought I would present a fantastic video I ran into that features him living a life-long dream. He had the opportunity to announce a Dodger game with Vin Scully. Although we don't know exactly when this segment was aired, we do know it was originally recorded during that fantastic month of June in 1985. In fact, based on the details from their play-by-play the game Frey called was on Sunday, June 23, 1985 against the Houston Astros. We know this because he called one of Pedro Guerrero's 15 home runs during that month. Watch it below.

Video Link:

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My Picks for the 10 Best Dodgers' Cards of 2015

It is that time of year again. With the 2015 Baseball card collecting season basically over (save a holdout set still waiting to be released), I now rank my favorite 2015 Dodgers cards. Check out my past list in the below links:

For the most part, I've stayed away from the glitzy and super-rare relic and autographed cards, and stuck to the more common and easily achievable base and insert cards. I also grouped a bunch of cards together because there were too many cards to chose from and I just loved far too many of them. So, in reality this list includes more than just my Top-10 favorites. Also, at the very bottom I included some "Honorable Mentions" that barely missed the cut.

So, without further adieu, here are my Top-10 Dodgers' cards of 2015:

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#10

I thought I'd begin with this perfectly designed card. Shown below is Panini's 2015 Black Friday "Panini Collection" card made available only through special packs handed out at local card shops on that most hated of all shopping holidays. It features Clayton Kershaw and is beautifully framed within black shadows. This card is so well done, I don't even miss the fact that there are no team logo's to be found. It just doesn't matter.

2015 Panini Black Friday

Panini Collection

#6 Clayton Kershaw

2015 Panini National Treasures - Colossal, Silhouette and Treasured Materials Cards

Following up on Friday's post showing pics of the Dodgers base cards found in packs of Panini's 2015 National Treasures Baseball card set, I now share photos of some of the inserts that are available. Check out the Colossal, Silhouette and Treasured Materials/Signature cards below.

Colossal

#48 Yasiel Puig (#/25)

Diamondback President Derrick Hall Channels Trump in Preseason Campaign Video

This video has come out of left field.

Featured is screengrab and a video (as seen below) of Diamondbacks President Derrick Hall doing his best to rally the troops to get behind his insurgent team. The 2016 season is just around the corner and I guess he figures this is a good way to build excitement.

I dunno.

After watching it I'm not sure if I should be offended or if I should fall over laughing. As Gene Hackman might say as Brill in the movie Enemy of the State:

"This either incredibly smart or incredibly stupid."

I think it might be somewhere in the middle.

In the video below he does his best Donald Trump impression on the campaign trail, and manages to call Dodgers fans just about every non-expletive word in the book. Apparently, we are all dirty, smelly, rotten, disgusting, despicable, evil and vile. We also wear offensive colors.

Wow! Right?

Anyway, go below the fold to watch it yourself.

Blog Kiosk: 1/18/2016 - Dodgers Links - Genovese, Wills and some Paint-Balling Dodgers'

This past Saturday the 13th Annual Pro Baseball Scouts Foundation Awards Dinner was held in Beverly Hills. One of the highlights of the event was the presentation of an "Player Lifetime Achievement Award" to Dodger legend Maury Wills.

The photo at the very top is via Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2016. Go here to check out more pics from Jon of the evening. Below are more links to check out:

Via Barry M. Bloom at MLB.com, "Late, great scout Genovese eulogized in LA."

Genovese, 93, was eulogized in a stirring 60-minute memorial service at the stadium club down the right-field line in Dodger Stadium on Saturday. A native of Los Angeles, Genovese died this past Nov. 15 at Providence St. Joseph's Medical Center in Burbank, Calif., shortly after a visit from Mike Lieberthal, the catcher and Genovese signee who finished his career in 2007 with the Dodgers.
...
"George was a special man. He was like a grandfather to me," Lieberthal said. "George was almost like my protector. He would protect me from my dad, who'd be yelling at me all the time when I was on the field. George would just say, 'Hey, leave him alone. He's going to be all right.'"

Via Nick Diunte at the Examiner.com, "How Don Newcombe paved the way for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."

“In 1968, Martin had dinner in my house with my family," Newcombe recalled in a 2007 interview with Time Magazine. "This was 28 days before he was assassinated. He said to me, ‘Don, I don't know what I would've done without you guys setting up the minds of people for change. You, Jackie, and Roy will never know how easy you made it for me to do my job.’ Can you imagine that? How easy we made it for Martin Luther King!”

Via Mike Bertha at MLB.com, "Martin Luther King Jr. and Jackie Robinson: Friends and civil rights icons."

"People used to tell me a lot of things about Dr. King, that he was trying to take over the world, that he was making money on the civil rights issues. I didn't believe them, of course. I knew this was a dedicated man and that he has made tremendous personal financial sacrifices in the cause. I sort of wondered why people would stoop to talk about him. Then I realized that the world has always talked against great men. The best way to keep from getting talked about is to do nothing."

Via Tom Singer at MLB.com, "On the rise, Kazmir excited for NL challenge."
This past weekend Yasiel Puig, Austin Barnes and Joc Pederson did some paint-balling at the Hollywood Sports Park in Bellflower. Joc posted a pic of the group on Instagram (link here), and Puig shared a short video (link here). Below is a video of the guys having some fun.

Video Link: