Fan Satisfaction Ratings

ESPN put out their annual fan satisfaction ratings covering every team in North America's four largest leagues- MLB, NFL, NBA & NHL. As you can see, the Dodgers ranked 77th overall and just 4th against other LA (and vicinity) based franchises.
How sad is it when the OC teams not only beat all of the LA teams, but well outpaced the group? The Ducks and Angels are in the top 10 in the nation.

ESPN summarizes the Dodger fan experience.

Last Year's Rank: 60
Title Track: 41
Ownership: 64
Coaching: 21
Players: 76
Fan Relations: 85
Affordability: 65
Stadium Experience: 48
Bang for the Buck: 107

Looks like Dodgers fans haven't minded going back to their East Coast roots. The replacement of Grady Little with Brooklyn native Joe Torre vaulted the Coaching ranking 45 points. It's also clear Angelenos didn't appreciate every change this year. The Dodgers faithful endured, but clearly hated (given the 31-place Affordability plummet), a 26.9% spike in average ticket prices (up to $26.28, the biggest bump in the bigs), plus a 50% rise in parking costs, to $15. An upper-deck seat behind home plate is still just $9, but fans must save pennies to enjoy the newly renovated Field Level. "It makes me thankful for two things," wrote Xeifrank on dodgerthoughts.baseballtoaster.com. "Home games are televised and parking in my driveway is free." This season marks the Dodgers 50th b-day in the City of Angels, but not everyone feels like celebrating. - Doug Mittler

McCourt continues to have a lot of work to do. Not only that, the Kings, my other sports team passion, of the NHL have a long way to go.

Story Link: ESPN Ratings:
Hat Tip: Inside The Kings:

Heritage Auction: Jackie, A's and Ancient Balls

Heritage Galleries has an upcoming auction that includes a great Jackie Robinson artifact. After the 1956 season Jackie Robinson was traded to the hated Giants for cash and mediocre middle relief pitcher Dick Littlefield. Jackie refused to go. As the story goes, Jackie considered the Giants to be the enemy and joining them would be treasonous. The letter below, however, seems to refute that story.

Heritage is auctioning a January 14, 1957 letter written by Jackie Robinson officially announcing his retirement from Baseball to New York Giants owner Horace Stoneham. Within it, Jackie indicated no ill feelings towards the Giants. In fact, he compliments them.

Dear Mr. Stoneham:

After due consideration I have decided to request to be placed on the voluntary retired list as I am going to devote my full time to the business opportunities that have been presented.

My sincere thanks to you and to Mr. Feeney for your wonderful cooperation and understanding in this matter.

I assure you that my retirement has nothing to do with my trade to your organization. From all I have heard from people who have worked with you it would have been a pleasure to have been in your organization.

Again my thanks and continued success for you and the New York Giants.

Sincerely,

(signed) Jackie Robinson

Auction Link: 1957 Jackie Robinson Signed Retirement Letter:

Also available is an incredible 1929 World Series Champion Philadelphia A's autographed photo album.

"All of this elite squad's legends are present and accounted for, with Foxx, Cochrane, Collins, Simmons, Grove and Connie Mack representing the Hall of Fame contingent. Other notables include the very tough Thomas Shibe, 1919 Black Sox manager Kid Gleason, Dykes, Earnshaw, Quinn, Walberg, Boley and more."

This is one of the greatest team in history. Below is the reverent Connie Mack.

Eddie Collins

Jimmy Foxx

1919 Chicago Black Sox manager Kid Gleason.

Auction Link: 1929 Philadelphia Athletics Team Signed Photographic Portrait Album:

Below is a circa 1870 lemon peel Baseball.

The infancy of our National Pastime is represented by this ancient homemade sphere used in the years immediately following our American Civil War. You'll first note the unique stitching pattern, quite different from the figure-eight model that has dominated the game for well over a century, and then the enormous heft of the ball despite the fact that the circumference is actually smaller than modern examples.

Imagine playing with something like this.
Auction Link: 1870 Lemon Peel Baseball:

Call Me Impressed

I've been waiting to hear more about these kinds of improvements since Frank McCourt first stated his desire to re-engineer the stadium grounds at the time of his purchase of the Dodgers. Fortunately, he has not disappointed. Overall, I think this will be a very nice change to the facility. Whether fans actually show up early and stay late remains to be seen, but at least the option is there.

My favorite part of the deal is the proposed Dodger museum. Although it is being billed as an interactive setting, I hope it also includes a more traditional museum. How great would it be to be surrounded by the memorabilia and artifacts of Dodgers long gone. In one corner are the uniforms of Jackie, Campy, Duke and Pee Wee. On the other wall are Campy's MVP awards. Sandy's glove is in another display and the flag Monday saved is hanging at the front entrance.
For the official press release go here. For the gallery link go here.

Hat Tip on the links to Dodger Thoughts.

Card of the Week: Mickey Hatcher

I've been thinking about doing something like this for awhile. After all, I've been collecting cards since I can remember, and I still, literally, have tens of thousands of cards sitting in a closet nicely organized by year and manufacturer. There is more dust sitting on those little treasures than what you might expect to find in your attic. And yes, I can't, for the life of me, even consider throwing them out. One of these days I'm gonna pick through them just for old times sake and pull out some of my old-time favorites to share here.

Unfortunately, since I've been too lazy to actually go through them this week I figured I'd steal a photo of a card I remember very well from my youth and make it my card of the week.

Above is the always jovial Mickey Hatcher showing off his new glove. Man-O-Live! He can catch everything with that. It comes from the 1986 Fleer set.

Pic Link: Squeeze Play Cards:

Tampa Bay Does The Unthinkable

After only 6 Major League games the Tampa Bay Rays signed highly touted 3rd base prospect and former Long Beach Dirtbag Evan Longoria to a 6 year $17.5Mil contract that includes bonuses and extensions that can reach as high as $44.5Mil over 9 season. This guy has played in less than a weeks worth of real games and, yet, they felt confident enough to sign him to this sweetheart deal. I guess time will tell if this was a smart move, but considering the quality of their youngsters it might just be the right move.

As some of you know, the Rays have been aggressively tying up their young players to long term deals. They include Carl Crawford, Rocco Baldelli, James Shields, Carlos Pena, and Dan Wheeler. Furthermore, they are in talks with the agents of Scott Kazmir and B.J. Upton. So, I think their future is looking bright.

Now this news has got me thinking. Should the Dodgers do the same thing? Is there anybody on the Dodgers you would like to have signed up to a long term deal? How about any prospects that will be coming up soon or later this year?

Of course we would like to see Russell Martin signed up, but, as we all know, the Dodgers were rebuffed by Martin's agent over the Winter. Right now James Loney and Andre Ethier come to mind as potential beneficiaries of a long term deal. Also, if we wanted to take a risk I would sign Matt Kemp to a contract. Should we consider something along these lines for Clayton Kershaw, or how about Andy LaRoche? Should Blake Dewitt be considered at this time? These are tough questions that has me thankful I'm not a GM.

eBay: Scarfs and Games

Here are some Dodger treasures recently found on eBay.

I had seen a silk scarf like this years ago at a card show in the early 1990's. It was framed and matted in a nice display along with some autographs. I think they wanted a few hundred dollars for it then. The scarf dates from 1951 and has bright blue borders with a green infield frame. It measures approximately 32" square. There are drawings, done by famous sports cartoonist Willard Mullin, of the Brooklyn Bum, Ebbets Field, a map of the Brooklyn borough and a scoreboard. This particular scarf recently sold on eBay at a very reasonable price of $56.25. In fact, this was really a steal. I wish I had spotted this auction sooner.

eBay Auction Link: 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers Scarf:

Here is a board game made in the late 50's to early 60's featuring the Los Angeles Dodgers. It comes with a game board, some disk and several deck of cards. Now, I'm not sure how the game is played, but it clearly has been well used. Or as my sister would say, "It has been well loved." I'm sure there are several "kid at heart" grown-ups out there who can let us all know about the game.
A great feature to this game is that it includes head shots of several Dodger players along the edge of the board game box. I see Gill Hodges and Roger Craig. Anyone see anyone else?
This game board did not sell in the eBay auction. In fact, I can't figure out why the seller placed such a high reserve price. It received a high bid of $89.59. I think that is more than generous for the item considering its condition.

eBay Auction Link: 1960's LA Dodgers Board Game: