2019 Topps Now - #828 & the AFL Glendale Desert Dogs

Here's another 2019 Topps Now card with a Dodger involved. It includes Cody Bellinger and the card makes note of a new Major League record. The entire league has collectively hit 6,106 home runs - a new all time high. Go here to check it out and order.

As you can see, he shares the card with Pete Alonso and Mike Trout. Also Orioles infielder Jonathan Villar is on the reverse.

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Topps has just unveiled a brand new 2019 Topps Now Product. They are calling it 2019 Bowman Next and it features 10-card team sets for all six Arizona Fall League clubs. As you may know, the AFL often features several of the top prospects in the game -- many of whom are expected to make Major League rosters soon.

Is This the Holy Grail of Vin Scully Memorabilia? His First Employment Contract

I never, in my wildest dreams, ever thought something like this would end up at an auction. Heck, it's a travesty that it's even available for sale. This piece of history, no doubt an important relic of Dodgers history, needs to be in a museum. How it ever ended up in private hands, I can only speculate (I've heard rumors of various Dodger artifacts being pilfered several decades back).

Featured here, at SCP's current Summer Premier Auction, is the very first employment contract between Hall of Fame Dodger broadcaster Vin Scully and the Brooklyn Dodgers -- countersigned and initialed by the esteemed Branch Rickey. (Auction Link) Per the auction description:

How does one land his dream job? For starters, one must know how to ask. When an aspiring 22-year-old broadcaster named Vin Scully typed up this two-page letter to Brooklyn Dodgers President, Branch Rickey, in December 1949, he never imagined in his wildest dreams that he’d spend the next 67 years of his life with the same organization doing what he loves – what he was born to do. Of course, it wasn’t just the polite and humble manner in which Vin applied that impressed Rickey; the ambitious young man came with rave reviews from his mentor and current Dodger play-by-play man, Red Barber, who had recently recruited Scully to cover college football on CBS Radio. As fate would have it, Rickey signed the letter, which apparently turned into the official contract to hire Scully. And the rest, as they say, is history. Within just a few years on the job, Scully would take Barber’s spot in the Dodgers’ booth for good. Presented here is this very contract that started it all.

Blog Kiosk: 9/12/2019 - Dodgers Links - Some Odds and Ends

AJ Pollack had a big game, going 2-for-4 with a two-run homer in the sixth inning. Unfortunately, the rest of the guys seemed to be elsewhere. Per Rowan Kavner at Dodger Insider:

“I think we were focused,” Pollock said. “Maybe the energy was a little bit down, but we for the most part pushed pretty hard. We were just a little flat on offense.”
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“I wouldn’t say anybody necessarily stayed up later than we usually do or anything,” Stripling said. “Certainly not an excuse by any means. I imagine it may not be a winning record for teams after they clinch, but it’s definitely not an excuse that we’ll use.”

The Dodgers lost to Baltimore, 7-3 (boxscore). Photo above via Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2019 at Dodger Insider. Go here to check out more pics from yesterdays game. Below are more links to check out:

• This Day in Dodgers History: In 1930 Dodger catcher Al Lopez hit the last Major League bounced home run. It was off Ray Kolp at Ebbets Field. Prior to the rule change any hit ball that bounced over the outfield walls was ruled a homer. Now, it'll be a ground-rule double. In 1963 the NY Mets hold a pregame ceremony in honor of Brooklyn favorite Duke Snider - "I look up into the stands, and it looks like Ebbets Field. The Mets are wonderful, but you can’t take the Dodger out of Brooklyn." In 2000 Dave Hanson broke former Dodger Johnny Frederick's record for pinch-hit home runs during a season when he hit his seventh pinch-homer of the year against Curt Schilling of the Diamondbacks. BTW, Johnny Frederick set his record of six pinch-homers on this exact same date in 1932.
• Happy Birthday, John Gochnaur, Masao Kida & Franquelis Osoria!