Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Lelands: A Campanella Gamer

Here is another great Dodger related item available in Lelands current auction. This is a game-used Roy Campanella Baseball bat from the 1953 season- the year Campy won the MVP award.

Lelands: Even the Dodgers Loved Honus Wagner

Lelands is running in recent auction to coincide with the National Sports Collectors Convention happening this week Illinois. 100 items are on the docket with a handful featuring treasures related to the Dodgers. This gold watch is one of those items.
To celebrate the return of Honus Wagner to Baseball as a coach after his retirement from play in 1917, Pittsburgh and many other Major League clubs reached out to honor him in 1933.
The broad community of National League baseball welcomed his return, and the Brooklyn Dodgers even threw a gala banquet for him when the Pirates first visited Ebbets Field that year. The coat-and-tie feast was held at the Half Moon Hotel on Coney Island where, among many others, celebrities Jack Dempsey, Bill Benswanger, Johnny Evers, and Max Carey toasted their hero. And it was during the course of this formal dinner that Wagner gifted the pocket watch to Max Carey.
Carey was a former teammate and close friend of Wagner. He was also the manager of the Dodgers at the time. This watch resided in Max Carey's estate.

SI Features Matt Kemp

Sports Illustrated newest issue praises Matt Kemp and reminds us that even with this lousy season seemingly bringing down fan excitement we still have a lot to look forward to. It's pretty good and even has a choice quote regarding last years distractions and a certain lady in his life.
Kemp concedes that the attention wore on him. "I wasn't used to going to a restaurant, and there would be 100 cameras outside," he says. Even he attributes his turnaround partly to a new embracing of baseball's monotony. "Everything is repetition in baseball," he says. "When you get all out of whack and do something different, you feel weird."