who's coming to dinner?

i recall reading back during the second bush administration that the president arranged for a lunch or dinner at the white house that included a number of baseball hall of famers. i believe he made it an annual event and so was able to spend time with a large number of the greatest baseball players from the 1950s through the 1990s. there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that i would do the exact same thing if i were ever in a position to do so.

it's a play on the old question of who you would invite to dinner if you could invite anyone. sometimes, the "dead or alive" option is granted, and i think i will apply that to this exercise.

like michael scott, let's say that i only have six wine glasses so here are the five baseball dignitaries i would invite to join me for dinner.

vin scully

this is a no-brainer. scully would serve as the emcee - keeping the conversation going while staying quiet when others are carrying the conversation. and, he had stories for days about the game.

pete rose

i was at a couple of hot stove dinners that rose attended back in the late 70s and early 80s, and i remember him commenting at one of them that it had turned in to a mild roast. the other players were sharing some benign stories about rose, and i would love to hear his side of those stories as well as others that probably weren't fit for a hot stove crowd. one of my favorite pete rose quotes comes from george will's "men at work" where pete says during a moment of severe turbulence on a team flight something along the lines of "we're going down but at least i have a .300 lifetime average - what do you have?" it would be a blast, i think, to hear more stories from rose.

steve garvey

another no-brainer for me as a fan, although they say never meet your heroes. i would definitely run the risk with the garv. i would love to ask him about a few things and maybe even bring up don sutton or the 1981 world series mvp announcement that initially had him as a co-winner and not steve yeager.

jackie robinson

robinson would bring some gravitas to the dinner, i think, but i would want to focus on the on-field activities and hear about playing in the 1950's. sometimes i wonder if because of who he was and what he represented, jackie's playing experience and record lacks the level of respect it deserves.

lou gehrig

gehrig would bring the pre-war perspective to the party. i've been a fan of him since reading a biography back in elementary school. he may turn out to be a boring guest, but i would take that chance.

others i thought of in the first minute or so of this exercise

dusty baker

rickey henderson

old ross hadbourn

joe jackson

ty cobb

sandy koufax

tommy lasorda

and did i consider inviting jim tracy

just to ask him what the heck he was thinking with his lineups back in 2005? yes i did. these days, i don't care so much about tracy and his band of ja(y)sons, but 18 years ago he may have made the invite list.

not sure if this is "bat around" material, but i'd be interested in hearing your ideas for baseball dinner party guests. happy thanksgiving no matter who your dinner guests are!

i'm not fooling about comics this time

back on april 1, i posted an april fool's joke regarding a new blog of mine focused on comic books. while i do still have a fair number of comics, i never intended to write about them on that blog. in the months since, i have instead picked up a few cards that are reminiscent of comic books, and i have no qualms about writing about them!

this is a 2022 donruss mookie betts "diamond marvels" insert

it may be the vector parallel, but i am not sure.

it certainly looks like a comic book cover, and an interesting touch by panini - the oct 92 date refers to mookie's birth (october 7, 1992). or maybe it's just a coincidence. 

another betts comic card from 2022 is this one

from topps heritage which features some nice mookie trivia and an appearance from babe ruth. the design is attributed to 1973 topps comics which i don't know were really a thing.

bazooka comics, however, have definitely been a thing. i recently picked up another copy of this comic

for my "games i attended in person" mini-collection. it comes from 2003 topps bazooka and recognizes shawn green's 4 home run game in milwaukee. the announcer could be one of the brewers' or the dodgers' broadcasters, but i am pretty sure vin scully wasn't traveling to milwaukee anymore back in 2002.

speaking of scully, he was the topic of a recent release from the pop fly pop shop, and i was sure to buy a copy

for those of you who don't know, the pop fly pop shop is run by an artist named daniel horine who creates sports-themed replicas of comic book covers. they are a thick card stock product suitable for framing. unfortunately for me, steve garvey was a relatively early subject and i missed out on his release. i first learned about these from collecting cutch, who showed off the awesome dave parker issue.

it's unfortunate that the scully comes with an error - his quote "it's a mere moment in a man's life between the all-star game and an old-timer's game" is left incomplete in the middle left. still, it's a great collection of quotes and i would encourage you to check out the site.

finally, i did pick up a more literal comic book card that crosses over from comics to cards in a different way than the items shown previously in this post

this is a 1992 impel dc card of nightwing, dick grayson's alter ego and leader of the teen titans.  grayson, of course, was the original robin to bruce wayne's batman who forged his own identity and allowed jason todd to take over as robin.  i was a collector of all publications related to the teen titans reboot led by marv wolfman and george perez, and i still have my titans comics including their premier in dc presents and all of the crossovers up until around 1988 or so. i am happy to have a card in my "meaningful and just because" mini-collection to represent comic books that features a character from that title.

'nuff said!

custom built heroes

well, that was a disappointing postseason for dodger fans like me. looks like this team was more like the 2001 mariners than the 1998 yankees. i am happy for the padre fans - i know a few - while at the same time sad for my fellow dodger fans. this was a very good team that just didn't hit in the last two games. one hit with runners in scoring position? well, only one hit that drove in any runs, anyway. that's not going to get it done.

in my 46 years of following the dodgers, i have been disappointed 43 times - to varying degrees, of course. i would put this year's disappointment behind the 1978 and 1985 seasons, and possibly 2017, but it is definitely top 5.  wait 'til next year once again!

moving on - i stumbled upon an ebay listing for a dodgers heroes patch a couple of months ago. the listing was pretty vague in that it didn't mention the year of issue, among other details. it also gave the size of these patches as slightly larger than standard baseball cards. they looked pretty good and the price was decent, so i went ahead and ordered a few:

of these six patches, i have the full size, original issues of steve garvey, ron cey, and kirk gibson (i also have a bill russell patch, but there wasn't a version of it offered by this seller). i've seen the tommy lasorda and fernando valenzuela patches for sale for reasonable prices, but the jackie robinson patch always has a larger price tag on it.

i knew going in that it was unlikely that this seller stumbled upon a cache of unknown and undistributed patches, and when i received my order i confirmed that they were customs. sure, i could have done that before i ordered, but i don't mind having some customs in my collection - especially when they are something like this that i really enjoyed seeing back during the 1999 season (and on cards in that and subsequent years).

i scanned the new patch (it's the one in the middle) together with my known-to-be official garvey patches:

you can see that the red background is different on the mid-sized patch (the smaller one is the known "mini" patch produced in 1999 along with the standard jersey sized patch on the left).  also, the blues are different. the big giveaway for me, however, is the stitching. the custom has shorter stitches, and the direction is different in the beige portion at the left of the patch.

i did a bit more research and found that someone had even made a vin scully patch using this design

which made me wonder why he wasn't included in the set back in 1999 - he was certainly a franchise icon by that time. i've mentioned before, but i'll say it again - the set included 24 different subjects, including longtime trainer bill buhler. sandy koufax was in the set, but he objected to the use of his name and image, and so there were very few of his patches sold to the public.  here's the complete set:

heroes indeed.

i did buy a different patch to add to my dodger jersey - it's the vin scully memorial patch:

i already have the full size garvey heroes patch on one sleeve and the jackie robinson 50th anniversary patch on the other, so this went on the chest. now i just need to get to a dodger game to wear it.

vin

i woke up this morning to a text letting me know that vin scully had passed away. he was 94, and i knew this was coming given his absence from the gil hodges number retirement ceremony but even so it took a while for the news to sink in.

i've had this 2013 panini cooperstown matrix parallel card

in a draft post for awhile - waiting for today perhaps? it's a sort of obnoxious looking parallel, which doesn't suit scully at all.

all of the anecdotes you hear about people in southern california of a certain age in regards to the dodgers, scully, and transistor radios are true. i am living proof of that.

i will share again an essay i wrote for eric neel at espn back in 2005. eric didn't wind up using it in his article, but i am glad he prompted me to write it.

Eric

Glad to be able to share and help. I apologize in advance for the verbosity.

Answering your first question - I don't know if his voice inspires thoughts for me separate from baseball, but it is certainly a catalyst for non-baseball related memories and reflections through the baseball related memories it conjures. Vin's voice is absolutely a connection between my present and my past (and hopefully, my future), all of which are much (although sometimes not too much) more than baseball. It takes me back to my youth in Santa Barbara county, and my college years in southern California. It reminds me of so many things, but, as I mentioned in my Dodger Thoughts post, the first things I think of when I hear his voice are the late (for a 8 or 9 year old) nights, spent sitting at the dining room table with my dad and his transistor radio, watching him finish some paperwork while Vin and Ross and Jerry told their tales. It also reminds me of my late grandmother, who didn't know much about baseball, but knew who Vin Scully was, and would always say "that must be ol' Vin Scully" when she would hear the radio broadcasts we were listening to. Of course, I am also reminded of the trips we made as a family to see the Dodgers play, and how we would always take the radio into Dodger Stadium with us (just like everyone else, it seemed). So, I suppose that his voice is a gateway to thoughts and memories for me beyond just the game of baseball itself.

Because of the connection I have with him and my past, there is definitely a safety and comfort factor that cannot be denied. Baseball is a sort of escape for me, I suppose, and hearing him call a game is about as safe and comfortable as I can imagine being for 3 or so hours. After moving from Orange County to Minneapolis (an American League town, for goodness sake) in 1997, I decided to road trip to see the Dodgers once a year. In 1998, I went to Wrigley for the first time, and I was more excited about seeing Vin again (even though I couldn't hear him) than I was about seeing the actual game. Last year, I went to Fenway, and was thrilled that he made the trip. He threw out the first pitch one night, and I got one of my favorite souvenirs from the trip - a picture of me, Sandy Koufax, and Vin. Granted, they are on the field in the background, and I am behind the dugout up in the stands, but still, we were in the frame together. Anyway, this is the first year since I moved here that I have purchased the indemand baseball package, and so have had the ability to hear him regularly, and the memories have been overwhelming at times. It has also given me the opportunity to introduce him to my 5 year old. I cannot tell you how stoked I was the other night to be sitting on the couch with my son at my side, watching Dodger baseball, and listening to Vin Scully.

Your second question is a great one. There are many things I enjoy, among them the daily greeting: "hello, and a very pleasant good evening to you, wherever you may be." this holds more meaning for me now that I am in Minnesota. There is also the way he (and the camera crews) find and describe the children in the stands. He always has kind words, and often something creative to say about the "tow headed youth" or the kid that lost his ice cream cone. It makes me wonder if I were one of those kids that he saw 28 years ago, and what did he have to say about me in my Steve Garvey shirt? I have also come to enjoy his mid game reminiscences of "this day in Dodger history", not just for the information he provides, but the way he smiles, sometimes winking, and says "let's get back to this one" when he's done. It's like we went to the kitchen to get a beer together, had a little conversation, and then realized the next inning was upon us. And then there are the stories he tells each night, the history lessons.

These are probably my favorite things that he provides. One reason I love the Dodgers is that it is easy to trace back from the team of my youth to the teams my dad followed, and even back to Brooklyn, in very few steps. For example, you could essentially go backwards from Russell to Wills (ignoring the time he spent with other teams in the late 60s) to Reese at shortstop. To get to Russell from Izturis would take a few more steps, to be sure. In the booth, however, there has been Vin Scully. He is the direct link that I have to the history of the team, and really, the game, that I love.

I have to add that I also love him for his ability to watch and call the game (fairly, I might add - no homers here), and tell his stories while at the same time being very attentive to the TV feed that the rest of us are watching. It's quite frustrating when the announcers are oblivious to what is appearing on TV, and Vin is able to incorporate what is being shown into whatever else he is describing. I am sure it is harder than it seems, given the fact that he is the only one I have seen who does this.

today i join baseball fans from all over the world in remembering vin scully. i wish him a very pleasant good evening and thank him for the memories.

to vin, the greatest of all time.

my favorite cards of the year - 2013 edition

i recently introduced my mini collection focusing on my favorite cards from each year that i've been a collector. the basic gist is that i wanted to create a space for the cards that i most appreciated having in my collection in the year that they were released. these were cards that i acquired in the year that they were issued, and that i considered to be my favorites at the time. i have disallowed (most) cards that are already in other mini collections in order to avoid having a mini collection consisting of more steve garvey, double plays, and dodger stadium cards.

i looked back at my first blog to see what i was writing about eight years ago, and there was a lot about retail purchases (i pulled some decent stuff that i sold and traded away as i recall) and trades with bloggers like play at the plate and royals and randoms, as well as still-current trade partners cards on cards and baseball cards come to life. i was posting more than once a day, and going through my memorials mini collection posts. that is appropriate, given one of my favorite cards from that year...

favorite non-dodger card: topps archives joe mauer

i was not a fan of 1990 topps when it came out, but i slowly began to appreciate it and its lichtenstein-esque design in the early 2000s. when topps went to it for one of the archives subsets in 2013 i think the brighter stock helped me appreciate the design even more. mauer's card caught my eye because of the harmon killebrew memorial patch, but it was the color scheme that kept me coming back. there were a few twins cards in 1990 that received the purple border treatment, but what ties this card together are the red inner border and the red outlines of mauer's chest protector.

favorite dodger card: panini cooperstown vin scully

in 2013 i chased the rainbow for ted lilly's topps card, as well as nick punto's update card, but scully wins out. like those other two, the photo used features dodger stadium as a background so i am breaking one of my rules here, but after waiting for a solo scully card for my entire collecting existence, i (and like minded collectors) was rewarded by panini and i couldn't have been happier. i also added this card to my collection of cards featuring game 1 of the 1988 world series thanks to the line score and write-up on the back. that means this card is part of my dodger collection and three other mini-collections and i just might create more mini-collections just so i can hoard more copies of it.

up next - 2021. stay tuned!

a very pleasant leaf card for you, wherever you may be

i really don't know why topps has been unable to put vin scully on a non-autograph card.  i used to think that he wouldn't allow the use of his likeness, and that is why we got cards from topps of ernie harwell, bob sheppard, and even joe buck, but not vin.  however, fleer put him on a card (with steve garvey) in 2004, and panini put him in their 2012 and 2013 cooperstown releases earlier this decade.  i don't think topps put vin on a card until 2016 with their transcendant and mint releases - both of which were low-numbered autograph issues.

there have been good reasons in recent years to give vin a card - he finally retired following the 2016 season after 67 years in the booth and he was given a spot on the dodgers' ring of honor during the 2017 season (and helped throw out the first pitch prior to one of the 2017 world series games) - but topps has fallen short.

i was happy to find a 2017 leaf national sports collectors convention card recently

showing vin as he appeared during the announcement that he would be the grand marshal of the 125th tournament of roses parade in 2014.  it's a final tribute of sorts, as it was issued the year following his final season, so i may just track down another copy for that mini-collection.

i picked up a magenta printing plate while i was at it

even though it is not a 1/1. it seems that leaf had used multiple sets of plates to create the card, so maybe that is one way that topps is doing things better than leaf.  still, i'm ok with these sorts of shenanigans if it means more vin scully cards!

well, that didn't take too long...

...but it would have been well worth the wait.

i suppose this also counts as my day 6 entry into the 30-day baseball card challenge, as it is most definitely a card i spent more than $10 to obtain.  very happy to have spent that money, too.

let's see how long this takes, shall we?

two card bloggers meet in an office lobby...

last fall i found myself in the pacific northwest on a work related trip, and i reached out to gavin from baseball card breakdown to see if he was up for a quick meet and greet.  i had ulterior motives, as i was hoping for his help in printing a bunch of the custom cards i had created over the past several years.  gavin was amenable to both requests, and that is how, on a sunny afternoon in the city of portland, two card bloggers met in person.

i've now met three - paul from carl crawford cards, brian from highly subjective completely aribitrary (twice), and now gavin.  we had a short chat, and exchanged a few cards.

gavin gave me this 1999 skybox premium todd hollandsworth autographics card

as well as a couple of his more recent customs - this 1990 fleer-ish yasiel puig/madison bumgarner card

and this 1989 upper deck-ish vin scully card

when we met, i had mentioned that i saw the scully on his blog a few days prior, and was hoping i would be able to get my hands on one. a few moments later, i opened the package and there it was!

after we met, gavin went to work on printing many of my custom cards - particularly the 1978 topps update/burger king dodgers that i had created.  he sent them to me just after the new year, along with several other cards, one of which was this 2016 topps archives corey seager card

if this were fifteen years ago, i would have pc's of seager and clayton kershaw.  as it is, i am content to have as many of their cards in my dodger collection and trade off the rest.  this one completes my archives base set from last year.

i never had a pc going for kevin brown, but i do have a ton of his cards as his tenure as a dodger coincided with a ridiculous amount of sets and inserts being printed.  this is a 2004 leaf certified materials mirror red parallel

and it makes me feel ornery just looking at it.

here's a black bordered mini justin turner card from 2016 topps allen & ginter.

who knew that turner would turn out to be such a good player. i wonder if the mets would rather have him back than continue with the annual david wright ambulance brigade.

josh reddick has more dodger cards than he should, given how little time he spent with the team and how poorly he played during that time.  this is one of those 2016 topps holiday cards

it's even one of the metallic snowflake inserts.  yay.

you may have noticed based on recent posts at baseball card breakdown that i sent a bunch of 1965 topps cards to gavin in return for his work.  he also sent some to help me with my set quest, like dan osinski

i wonder if he and gil hodges ever got into a staring contest, and if so, who won.

i am also slowly working on my 1972 topps set, and gavin included a few towards that effort, including one clarence "cito" gaston in action card

by the time this card was issued, the giants' catcher on the card (dick dietz) was playing for the dodgers.  i had to tie this back to the dodgers somehow...

thanks gavin!

a very pleasant goodbye to you, wherever you may be

my childhood is officially over.  vin scully, who was the soundtrack to my summer nights, has retired.

this comes from a post over at garveyceyrusselllopes from almost 8 years ago, but it bears rebroadcasting in light of the retirement of scully.  back in 2005, eric neel from espn was writing a piece on the dodger announcer, and asked some of us who posted at jon weisman's 'dodger thoughts' site to weigh in on the man and our 'relationship' with him (weisman, by the way, is now the dodgers' director of digital and print content).  anyway, here's what i sent to eric:

-----------

Eric

Glad to be able to share and help. I apologize in advance for the verbosity.

Answering your first question - I don't know if his voice inspires thoughts for me separate from baseball, but it is certainly a catalyst for non-baseball related memories and reflections through the baseball related memories it conjures. Vin's voice is absolutely a connection between my present and my past (and hopefully, my future), all of which are much (although sometimes not too much) more than baseball. It takes me back to my youth in Santa Barbara county, and my college years in southern California. It reminds me of so many things, but, as I mentioned in my Dodger Thoughts post, the first things I think of when I hear his voice are the late (for a 8 or 9 year old) nights, spent sitting at the dining room table with my dad and his transistor radio, watching him finish some paperwork while Vin and Ross and Jerry told their tales. It also reminds me of my late grandmother, who didn't know much about baseball, but knew who Vin Scully was, and would always say "that must be ol' Vin Scully" when she would hear the radio broadcasts we were listening to. Of course, I am also reminded of the trips we made as a family to see the Dodgers play, and how we would always take the radio into Dodger Stadium with us (just like everyone else, it seemed). So, I suppose that his voice is a gateway to thoughts and memories for me beyond just the game of baseball itself. 

Because of the connection I have with him and my past, there is definitely a safety and comfort factor that cannot be denied. Baseball is a sort of escape for me, I suppose, and hearing him call a game is about as safe and comfortable as I can imagine being for 3 or so hours. After moving from Orange County to Minneapolis (an American League town, for goodness sake) in 1997, I decided to road trip to see the Dodgers once a year. In 1998, I went to Wrigley for the first time, and I was more excited about seeing Vin again (even though I couldn't hear him) than I was about seeing the actual game. Last year, I went to Fenway, and was thrilled that he made the trip. He threw out the first pitch one night, and I got one of my favorite souvenirs from the trip - a picture of me, Sandy Koufax, and Vin. Granted, they are on the field in the background, and I am behind the dugout up in the stands, but still, we were in the frame together. Anyway, this is the first year since I moved here that I have purchased the indemand baseball package, and so have had the ability to hear him regularly, and the memories have been overwhelming at times. It has also given me the opportunity to introduce him to my 5 year old. I cannot tell you how stoked I was the other night to be sitting on the couch with my son at my side, watching Dodger baseball, and listening to Vin Scully. 

Your second question is a great one. There are many things I enjoy, among them the daily greeting: "hello, and a very pleasant good evening to you, wherever you may be." this holds more meaning for me now that I am in Minnesota. There is also the way he (and the camera crews) find and describe the children in the stands. He always has kind words, and often something creative to say about the "tow headed youth" or the kid that lost his ice cream cone. It makes me wonder if I were one of those kids that he saw 28 years ago, and what did he have to say about me in my Steve Garvey shirt? I have also come to enjoy his mid game reminiscences of "this day in Dodger history", not just for the information he provides, but the way he smiles, sometimes winking, and says "let's get back to this one" when he's done. It's like we went to the kitchen to get a beer together, had a little conversation, and then realized the next inning was upon us. And then there are the stories he tells each night, the history lessons. 

These are probably my favorite things that he provides. One reason I love the Dodgers is that it is easy to trace back from the team of my youth to the teams my dad followed, and even back to Brooklyn, in very few steps. For example, you could essentially go backwards from Russell to Wills (ignoring the time he spent with other teams in the late 60s) to Reese at shortstop. To get to Russell from Izturis would take a few more steps, to be sure. In the booth, however, there has been Vin Scully. He is the direct link that I have to the history of the team, and really, the game, that I love. 

I have to add that I also love him for his ability to watch and call the game (fairly, I might add - no homers here), and tell his stories while at the same time being very attentive to the TV feed that the rest of us are watching. It's quite frustrating when the announcers are oblivious to what is appearing on TV, and Vin is able to incorporate what is being shown into whatever else he is describing. I am sure it is harder than it seems, given the fact that he is the only one I have seen who does this.

---------

i would be remiss if i did not also post that vin is directly responsible for the greatest mail day ever, as he signed and returned a card to me.

just one more reason to say thank you, vin.