Dodgers Notes from Spring Training: Spring Game 24/Home Game 10

Throughout Spring Training the Dodgers PR department sends out helpful daily notes from Camelback Ranch, and I am happy to pass them along.  See what they've written below.

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San Francisco Giants (9-15-1) at LOS ANGELES DODGERS (10-10-3)
Friday, March 25, 2016 – 7:05 p.m. MT | Camelback Ranch
LHP Clayton Blackburn (0-1, 4.38) vs. RHP Carlos Frias (0-0, 3.38)
TV: SNLA Radio: KLAC

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(Kershaw and Daughter, pic via Ellen Kershaw on twitter)

BABY STEPS: The Dodgers were unable to win for the first time since March 16 last night, but the silver lining is they didn’t lose either. Los Angeles scored three in the ninth and ended up tying the Cleveland Indians, 5-5, in Goodyear. The club is now 0-7-1 in its last eight contests. Clayton Kershaw made 96 pitches and allowed two runs on seven hits in 5.0 innings, as he prepares for his sixth consecutive Opening Day start. He fanned seven batters and walked three. At the plate, Justin Turner went 2-for-3 with a double, his fifth of the spring in just his sixth game, while AJ. Ellis, Yasiel Puig and Trayce Thompson also collected two hits apiece. Following Kershaw, Kenley Jansen, Chris Hatcher and Scott Barlow all worked a scoreless inning.

Former Brooklyn Outfielder Jimmy Sebring and his T204 Baseball Card

I've always loved this Baseball card set.  The design is so un-Baseball like; with its embossed flowery vines encircling an oval portrait of a gentleman in a button-upped shirt.  If not for the name and team designation at the bottom you wouldn't know it was of an athlete.  I think most first impressions would pin it as a personal portrait photo that would be passed down from one generation to the next.  Instead, it is one of the scarcest and more unique Baseball card sets ever made.

Featured above is a T204 Ramly Cigarettes tobacco card of a former Brooklyn Superbas/Dodger outfielder named James "Jimmy" Dennison Sebring, and it is currently on auction at Brockelman and Luckey (link here).  Produced by The Mentor Company in 1909, it ushered in a new product line that sought to take advantage of the rising popularity of Turkish tobacco.  Originally sold as a high-end brand these cigarettes were expensive, and as a result this set is rather scarce.  Heck, the tobacco pack/box these cards were packaged in can by themselves sell for up to four figures.  Take a look at a pack on the right.

As for the value of the Baseball card, a common player like the Sebring above in VG condition can sell for a couple hundred dollars.  Although, some might say that Jimmy Sebring shouldn't belong in a commons pile.  He has a unique place that is worthy of some attention.

Blog Kiosk: 3/25/2016 - Dodgers Links - Grandal, Seager and Adrian Gonzalez

Adrian Gonzales tweeted a fantastic team photo featuring himself as an youth.  He was a member of the Liga Municipal de Tijuana ballclub.  No date is provided.  BTW, he is the kid standing in the top row, fourth from the right.

Below are more links to check out:

• Yes, Dylan Hernandez's story at the LA Times is dumb and immensely short-sighted.  Check it out here for yourself.  In it he laments how the club is wasting the prime years of Clayton Kershaw; which is funny considering the club has won the division the past three years in a row for the first time in its history.  But I digress... After all, I have little patience for this kind of skullduggery.  Fortunately, Dave Cameron at FanGraphs takes on the task of challenging Hernandez's piece (Link Here).  It's worth your time to check out:

Of course, things haven’t gone as well in the postseason, with the team getting knocked out in the Division Series twice and getting eliminated in the League Championship Series once. But judging a team’s commitment to winning based on how they perform in the postseason is a bit silly, given how small the margin is between advancing and being eliminated in a short series. Last year, they got eliminated in a winner-take-all Game 5 by a 3-2 margin, so their season literally ended because they got outscored by a single run.