Ely Mania

Courtesy of Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness and Memories of Kevin Malone we find that John Ely has gained star status among Dodger fans. Twitter is all aflutter with #ElyMania. Below is just a sampling.

• John Ely is so good, he struck out Chuck Norris. Twice. (@kjasalter)
• John Ely struck out Chuck Norris... with 2 pitches. (@Russaldo13)
  
• John Ely CAN tailgate at Dodger Stadium. (@IEEric)
• John Ely was the first to be with CoCo.(@MrLASportsFan)
• Coco is with John Ely. (@militantangleno)
  
• John Ely can't walk and chew gum at the same time, because he doesn't walk anybody. (@ToddKaplan)
• John Ely made Casey Blake's beard grow back. (@barkinj)
• The only reason Andre Ethier's pinkie hasn't healed yet is because John Ely hasn't touched it. (@truebluela)
• John Ely has heard of Andre Ethier. (@truebluela)
• John Ely is the antidote for Kryptonite (@tinatinita)
• John Ely knows how Lost ends. (@dpwtv)
• Al Gore invented the internet. John Ely invented Al Gore. (@nineteen84)

Ely Cool and Efficient

Eight in a row, Baby!

John Ely had another solid outing as he threw 67 strikes out of 97 pitches. He succeeded by changing speeds effectively and moving the ball from left to right, and up and down. Even with pitches that rarely broke above 90 mph he had the Houston Astros hitters baffled.

On another note, doesn't the pic above kind of freak you out. Not only did that guy have 8 fingers on one hand, he had 7 on the other and two pupils in each eye.

(Pic link from David Hoy/ Russiam Wax Museum)

2010 Bowman Dodger Throwbacks

The 2010 Bowman Baseball product has a special throwback set included that hearkens back to its' heyday in 1992. This was the year that Topps Bowman release really took off. Originally reintroduced to the hobby in 1989, the 1992 set was starkly different from prior years. They converted the set into a premium product complete with thicker white card stock instead of the brownish drab card stock of previous years. Rookies also continued to remain their primary focus. That 1992 set consist of rookie cards for Mike Piazza, Manny Ramirez, Carlos Delgado, Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman.

For this years set, they take the 1992 design and insert current players. It just looks phenomenal. Check out the Dodgers from the set below.

2010 1992 Bowman Throwback

BT11 Russell Martin