Josh Reddick Dodgers Debut 2016 Topps Now Card - #310

Josh Reddick wore Dodger Blue last night for the first time.  Naturally, Topps saw fit to create a 2016 Topps Now card to memorialize the occasion.  This is Reddick's very first official card as a member of the team.  Go here to check it out and order.

Unfortunately, his debut didn't go exactly as planned.  He went 0 for 4 while batting cleanup in a losing effort against the Rockies, 7-3.  On the other hand, he did make a fantastic diving catch in the seventh inning off the bat of Charlie Blackmon.  You can watch that catch here.

On another note, I'm always curious how ballplayers (or any professional athlete) handle hearing their name bandied about in the rumor-mill, so when I read Reddick's solution I new he'd be a great fit for the team.  He recently told a gaggle of reports what he did to not be distracted, via a tweet by Bill Plunkett:

Josh Reddick said he watched Family Guy episodes on his iPad to tune out trade deadline rumors. #Dodgers.

— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) August 2, 2016

UPDATE:  Print run for this card is 256.

* Please follow on twitter @ernestreyes *

* Like Dodgers Blue Heaven on facebook *

* Dodgers Blue Heaven home page *

Starting Lineups are Back - A Look at the 1988 SLU Dodger Set

Do you know who's back?

Starting Lineups are back, and for folks like me, who were reared during the hobbies heyday in the 80's, this is welcome news.   Darren Rovell at ESPN has the scoop:

On Oct. 30, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will give away Starting Lineup figurines of quarterback Jameis Winston to anyone who buys a ticket to the team's game against the Oakland Raiders.

For the time being Starting Lineups will only be made as promotional giveaways, so it might be some time before we see any Dodger players in new SLU packaging.  (You can check the company out on twitter here: @SLUToys)

In the meantime, I thought I would confess to having a sizable group of Starting Lineups in my own collection.  I say confess because I had kind-of forgotten all about them, and frankly was a little embarrassed.  After all, none of them look anything like the player they are meant to depict. 

My collection mostly sits hidden within a huge bag in my closet - both cardless and completely out of its original packaging.  In fact, if memory serves right I am just a handful of figurines short of completing the entire 1988 SLU Baseball set.  Unfortunately, it's a set of just the figurines and not the cards themselves.

Anyway, since I had my mind on Starting Lineup's I thought I would take moment to pull out the five Dodger players in the set to share here.  Check them all out below.

As I said, none of my SLU figurines are still in their packaging, so I went ahead and grabbed an example of what each one looked like when sold in stores.  Of note, there appears to be at least two different packaging card backs available - one with or without the free autograph Baseball offer on the front.  I do not believe any one version is scarcer than the other.

Pedro Guerrero

Blog Kiosk: 8/3/2016 - Dodgers Links - Robinson Highway, Puig Problems and Brandon McCarthy

Brandon McCarthy came out to make his sixth start since coming back from Tommy John Surgery last night and didn't seem right.  Maybe it was the high altitude that did him in.  Or maybe it was the 38 minute rain delay in the middle of the first inning with him on the mound that did it.  I dunno.  Per Ken Gurnick at MLB.com:

"Never felt like that on a mound before," said McCarthy, whose first four starts were sharp, followed by one bad inning in a four-inning start, then Tuesday's three-run outing. "Coming back, there's a lot of ups and downs, but when the feeling was off, I was able to get through it. Tonight, just the opposite. There were just some horrific, bad pitches in there. I just felt very weird."

McCarthy needed 85 pitches to get through three innings.  He gave up three hits, walked five, struck out only two and allowed three earned runs.  You can listen to Dave Roberts talk about the outing here.  BTW, reliever Jesse Chavez did not impress in his first outing as a Dodger.  He came in to pitch the sixth inning and gave up three runs.  If not for an inning ending double play with the bases loaded it would have been much worse.

Fortunately, the slumping Giants couldn't get past the moribund Philadelphia Phillies.  They lost to keep the Dodgers two games behind in the division race.

Photo of Brandon McCarthy above via @Dodgers on twitter.  Below are more links to check out:

• This Day in Dodger History: In 1959 the second All-Star Game of the season is played at the LA Memorial Coliseum.  The AL defeated the NL, 5-3, on a third inning two-run homer by Yogi Berra off Don Drysdale.  In 2013 the Dodgers set a franchise record by winning their 13th consecutive victory.