Kuroda to DL

Uh-Oh

Dodgers pitcher Hiroki Kuroda has been placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left oblique muscle, and Eric Stults will be recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque to start Saturday for the Dodgers against the Diamondbacks.

Let's hope this is not a season long problem.

"It isn't pain, it's tightness in a very specific area where we worry about for pitchers, on the opposite side," Conte said. "The key is we think it's mild, but it can be serious and take six to eight weeks. We think we caught this early."

Mid-Week Blog Kiosk: 4/10/2009

I hope you all have a safe weekend. Please do not drink and drive.

• Blogger Matt Capp writes a tribute to his friend Henry Pearson who died in the Thursday morning car crash that also took the life of Nick Adenhart in Fullerton. The Daily Titan writes a story to honor Courtney Stewart, as well. (Hat Tip: Big League Stew)
  
• From Dinged Corners. Verse by: A.E. Housman

  Smart lad, to slip betimes away
  From fields where glory does not stay,
  And early though the laurel grows
  It withers quicker than the rose.

• From White Sox Cards.

  In a strange way, I feel honored that Nick got his one win against the White Sox. I feel sad that he will never get the chance to win his second game. Nick left behind a 1-0 lifetime record. We'll never get to see Nick blossom into the pitcher that he was destined to be.

• I have no respect for these vultures.

  What’s even worse is the “fans” who have unloaded all their in-person autographs trying to make a quick buck. So this is how collectors repay Nick’s generosity? By unloading everything you own to make some quick cash?

• Matthew Barry writes that in light of recent events we should all be mindful of what we drink.

  The Stanley Cup playoffs are less than a week away. There will be parties, there will be drinking. I'm not asking you to stop. I certainly love a cold beer or two while watching the games or even at Staples Center before the game.
  
  But if someone asks "you want another one?", think about it.
  
  Just think about it.

• In Vin Scully's own words:

  If I may speak for every member of the Dodger organization, our heartfelt and deepest sympathies to the mother and family of Nick Adenhart, and to every member in the Angels organization, for the untimely accident and death of young Nick last night at the tender age of twenty-two. Nick, from Maryland, had pitched six scoreless innings and was in a car with three friends, and a driver apparently went through a red light and T-boned the car, killing three of the four, including Nick, and one other member is in critical condition. And if there is one thing I’ve learned in all my years — and I haven’t learned much — but the one thing I’ve learned: Don’t even waste your time trying to figure out life.

  Ground ball through for Andre Ethier, and life continues for those who still have it. And with a leadoff single, Russell Martin will be coming up.

  But I would say, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take a moment and say a prayer in memory for Nick, especially for his parents. What a shock to lose a twenty-two-year-old.

  Andre Ethier at first base, Russell Martin the batter, James Loney on deck, and the Dodgers try to strike in the second inning against Kevin Correia.

MHCC: March Auction

Mile High Card Company auction recently concluded a great auction that included some very rare cards and memorabilia.

First, I'll start off with a Dodger related card of one of the scarcest 1950's issued region sets made. Below is a 1954 Wilson Franks card of Carl Erskine. These cards are very difficult to find, especially in this condition. The card sold at a healthy price of $775.00.

Auction Link: 1954 Wilson Franks Erskine:

Now, on to something that truly boggles the mind. Mile High had the honor of auctioning off one of the rarest Topps test issues ever produced. Below is possibly the only complete master set of 1968 Topps All Star Player Plaks. Last year a huge lot of these rare plastic bust were found hidden in a small bucket inside the garage of a former Topps employee. They were discarded and forgotten about.

Acting on a phone call from a couple outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Brian Drent, founder and President of Mile High Card Company, recently traveled to The Topps Company's former hometown to examine what he'd been told was a pile of plastic baseball parts produced sometime in the late '60s. The owner's mother had worked at the Topps factory for a number of years and would occasionally treat the neighborhood kids to free candy and miscut cards. She also had permission to take home any of the failed test issues, as she did with an armful of Topps Plaks wax packs.

She quickly learned, however, what Topps management had already concluded, that what kids wanted most was cards and candy, that you couldn't really flip a plastic bust, and that they had no negotiable street value. So she put them in a bucket on a shelf in her garage where they sat for the next forty years.

As proof of it's scarcity it sold for an amazing $55,612.00.

Auction Link: 1968 Topps Plaks Set:

Here is a Type 1 vintage photograph of a very young Jim Thorpe.

One of the single greatest athletes of all time, Thorpe won Olympic gold medals in both the pentathlon and decathlon, excelled in football (his favorite sport) at both the collegiate and professional levels, played professional baseball and basketball, collegiate lacrosse, and even ballroom dancing, winning the 1912 intercollegiate ballroom championship. On the gridiron, he excelled in almost every position, routinely scoring all of his team's points as running back, defensive back, placekicker, and punter. His athletic career, according to legend, began in 1907 when he walked past Pop Warner's track practice and beat the team's best high jumper with a spontaneous 5'9" leap while still in his street clothes. Pop Warner immediately took his new track star under his wing, discouraging Jim from playing the comparatively violent game of football. Thorpe, however, eventually convinced Warner to let him run some plays against the team's defense, and the rest, as they say, is history.

It sold for $1,433.00.

Auction Link: Jim Thorpe 1910 Photo:

RIP: Nick Adenhart

Pic Link: Nachos Grande:

My deepest condolences to his family and the Angels organization. This man was far too young to be taken so quickly. Halos Heaven has more here and here.

Blok Kiosk: 4/5/2009

The long march is about to begin.

• Check out this Dodger blog by a fan surrounded by the enemy- SF Dodger Fan.
  
• Steve of the Wait 'Til Next Year blog writes about Mike Marshall's first hit.

  "In his very first at bat in September of 1981, he hit a rocket towards (over) the right field wall at Dodger Stadium. Being hit so hard, it bounced off the stairwell and right back onto the playing field where Jack Clark (of the S F Giants) scooped it up, threw it towards the infield and Marshall had a double. Not sure if it was days or years later but Clark did admit to Marshall that his first hit should have been called a homerun!"

• Dodgers Blue Blog recounts a great story of how Hall of Famer Zach Wheat came to sign his contract with the Dodgers in 1917.
  
• Check out this new blog- 1924 and You Are There! Jeff brings back the past. Here he writes of a May 1st game at Ebbets Field between Brooklyn and Philadelphia.
  

  Then I started getting nervous. The Phillies kept getting little hits off Vance and I began to worry what might happen if they won. Would Rachel hate me and want me to leave town? Would Margie never stop talking and give me deadly brain sickness? Thankfully it was the Phillies they were up against, and sure enough, Ring gave singles to Neis and High to begin the bottom of the 8th. Wheat flied deep to right but it was caught this time, and after Fournier walked, Huck Betts was called in. He got Brown on a force-play at home, but then Mitchell took four straight balls and the Robins were ahead for good.

• Obama sells. Beckett, famous for their Baseball card price guides, has come out with a special issue featuring cards and memorabilia of Barack Obama and those other Presidents. (Hat Tip: Trader Crack's)
• Topps 2009 Allen & Ginter offering will include a limited insert set called "World's Biggest Hoaxes, Hoodwinks and Bamboozles." One of the more infamous and timely subjects is Bernie Madoff. Oh Vey!
• This is worth checking out. The SportsCard Database is a virtual library of every card created from 1948 to 1992 with photos, values and comparison pricing tool. (Hat Tip: SCD)

Stand By Me from David Johnson on Vimeo.

How Did I Miss This?

Last year REA (Robert Edwards Auctions) sold a game-worn Brooklyn Dodgers Baseball cap I failed to notice. Now, this ain't no regular game-used cap of a Brooklyn regular, but a cap worn by one of the greatest players to ever put on a uniform- Babe Ruth. He spent one lone season with the Brooklyn club in 1938 as a first base coach in hopes it would one day lead to a regular coaching job in the majors. Unfortunately, his years of cavorting around as a playboy and heavy partier created a stigma that followed him in his later years. Teams did not believe he could lead a team since he didn't display the kind of leadership qualities desired at the time.

This particular garment is of special significance in that it not only represents the final chapter in Ruth's Major League career but also the close of his hope to be a Major League manager. Although Ruth openly campaigned for a managerial position in the years immediately following his retirement as a player, offers were not forthcoming. Ruth felt particularly slighted that the Yankees had not given him an opportunity to manage. His only official association with any club following his 1935 retirement as a player came on June 19, 1938, when he was hired as the Brooklyn Dodgers' first-base coach by general manager Larry MacPhail. Ruth took the job with the explicit understanding that he would be given an opportunity to eventually take over for then-manager Burleigh Grimes. Unfortunately, the Dodgers were less than truthful with him. Whereas Ruth thought he was being groomed for the manager's job, the Dodgers looked upon him strictly as a drawing card. Right from the start Ruth was ordered by management to put on pregame "home run displays" and stay late to sign autographs for fans. To his chagrin, Ruth quickly realized that he had been duped once again. (The Braves, in 1935, also signed Ruth with the false promise of a future managerial position.) Ruth had no interest in being a sideshow attraction; he wanted to be manager. Disgusted with the situation, he left the Dodgers at season's end. Unfortunately, his dream of becoming a manager never came to fruition; thus his Major League career came to an official close with the Dodgers at the end of the 1938 season.

Another interesting thing about the cap is its origins. It comes from the Barry Halper Collection. This was a collection considered to be one of the finest ever assembled. It sold for $60,000.00.

Auction Link: Babe Ruth Brooklyn Game Worn Hat: