Weekly Blog Kiosk 5/25/2008

Let's win one for the kid.

• Check out this bat twirling bear. Video here. (Hat Tip: ShysterBall)
• This is the best stadium give-away ever. The Saint Paul Saints will be giving away a limited edition "Bobble-Feet" at today's game featuring one of the funniest stories to come out of Minnesota last year. Senator Larry Craig will be forever enshrined in Baseball lore.

  A Saints press release notes that, "It doesn't matter if your tapping style is done with a 'wide stance.'"

  (Hat Tip: Atrios) Update: The Larry Craig bobblefeets are already selling for big bucks on eBay.
  
• Terry Tiffee instead of Andy LaRoche? Rob of 6-4-2 says it ain't right. On the other hand, MSTI takes credit for starting a Free Terry Tiffee campaign.
  
• Erin of Beantown West was in Chicago to take in a White Sox game and ran into Carlton Fisk Night.
• Just when you've heard everything. A minor leaguer was traded for a bunch of bats.

  For now, Odom is headed to the Laredo Broncos of the United League. They got him Tuesday from the Calgary Vipers of the Golden Baseball League for a most unlikely price: 10 Prairie Sticks Maple Bats, double-dipped black, 34-inch, C243 style.

  (Hat Tip: Baseball Card Blog)
  
• Orel talks poker and Baseball.

  A lot of the skills are transferable; the preparation, the ability to control your emotions, the ability to understand when the moment is, the ability not to make a snap decision, the ability to understand limping or pitching around a guy, and the ability to fold and intentionally walk somebody. Going after a guy because that is the only thing you can do, because runners are at second and third and you only have a one-run lead, and the blinds are up to 4,000 and you only have 16,000 in chips; you know, I’ve got to go with my best pitch, I’ve got to all in — those kind of comparisons.

  (Hat Tip: Dodgerfan)
• Just another gimmick card. Topps Bowman has a new insert set featuring autographed cards of 20 Major League scouts, including a mystery scout who would rather remain anonymous.

Thank You Piazza

I loved Mike Piazza. He was one of my favorite Dodgers in the 90's. As I am sure you've all already heard Mike Piazza has decided to hang it up. He is officially retiring from Baseball. The only question that remains is what cap will he be wearing at Cooperstown. TCPalm write Ray McNulty suggest that he forever belongs in Dodger Blue.

It's too easy to forget, because it now seems like so long ago, that Piazza was a Hollywood star, as much an LA sports celebrity as anyone who played for the Lakers. He was the biggest name on the Dodgers' marquee — at a time when the Dodgers still were as big in LA as the Yankees are in New York.

He enjoyed it. He embraced it. He never wanted to leave it.

And it was wrong that he was forced to go.

I say this as someone who covered both the Mets and the Dodgers in the 1990s, as someone who covered Piazza on a daily basis in LA and enjoyed an amicable working relationship with him:

He never should've been a Met, never should've had that chance.

Piazza should've been a Dodger for life.

....

And for all he did as a Dodger, he should go in — to the Hall of Fame — wearing a cap with an "LA" logo.

I fully concur. It pains me every time I think about that trade to Florida and it hurts even more that he might be going into the Hall of Fame with another cap on his head.

Vintage Dodger Photos

Every sports collector has their own niche. Some folks like modern cards with its thick card-stock and shiny gloss or vintage cards of players we read about in books. Others, however, prefer memorabilia like bats (such as Dodger collector Mark in Washington who I interviewed a few weeks ago here), pennants or autographs.

The most unusual type of collectible to recently become popular are vintage Baseball snapshots taken by everyday regular fans. This is a niche collector Dan Bretta enjoys. Check out his photoalbum here featuring Dodger snapshots from 1937 to 1941. Below is a photo from Spring Training in Florida in 1937.
As I was going through his online album I came across numerous photos featuring a Peterman and Claassen. (See the pic above) Who are those guys? I searched various databases and could not find any reference to players with those names being connected to the Dodgers or Baseball. Sure, I know who Manush is. That's Heinie Manush the Hall of Famer who had his last great year with the Dodgers in 1937. To the right in the picture above is Luke Hamlin who played in Brooklyn for five years- winning a career high 20 games for the Dodgers in 1939. The mystery still remains though. Who are Peterman and Claassen? Well, Dan helpfully put up a snippet of a news article that solves it all. Check it out below.
Wow. How great is that? Peterman and most likely Claassen are hardcore fans. They were able to follow the team to Florida (or Cuba as some of the pics suggest) to hang out and work out with the team. How great would it be to be able to do that.

Hat Tip: VBCF:

DeWitt is the Toast of LA and Sikeston, MO.

Blake DeWitt has been a great surprise this season. So much so that he is featured in two of LA's papers today. Check out the LA Times story and Press-Telegram story for some background about his small town roots.

UPDATE: I missed this one. Diamond Leung of the Press Telegram also has a Blake DeWitt story out today.

Card of the Week: Hudler & Fielder

I just can't get it together. Once again I missed a "Card of the Week" last week so I will make it up today by posting 2 cards. If you haven't noticed yet I love the weird and offbeat cards. There are only so many photos of a guy taking a swing I can look at. Give me a player picking his nose or a slugger lowering his guard to take a rest on a beach chair while being serenaded by the Famous Chicken any day. Below is the very rotund Cecil Fielder in just that situation as he rest his bones for the camera.
The card below comes from the newest Dodger blog to come across my screen, Fire Ned Colletti Now. This writer makes his grievances known to all. He's not happy with the Dodger front office and he's certainly not happy with the moves Colletti has made since joining the Dodgers. What really endears me to this site, though, is that he dislikes Rex Hudler as much as I do. How that guy ever got into broadcasting I will never know. He is unwatchable.

Nice to Get a Victory

Last nights win was a perfect antidote to the lackluster showing our team displayed this weekend against our regional rivals, the Anaheim Angels. I still have not been able to put into words how disappointed I was in those games. It's like being kicked around by a younger sibling after years of being the master of the house. Now the kid is all grown up.

Anyway, beating the Reds has put me at ease. Sure, our starter -our #1 pitcher Brad Penny- did not instill much confidence. He consistently got into trouble by giving up 5 runs on 9 hits while walking 4 batters. Fortunately, Bronson Arroyo was just as bad. He gave 5 runs in 5 innings of work while giving up 9 hits and walking 3. By the time the ninth inning came around the Dodgers and Reds were tied at 5.

At the top of the ninth inning Saito quickly disposed of the Reds- 1, 2, 3. The Reds could not do the same against the Dodgers. In fact, an evening filled with errors and mistakes finally unraveled and doomed the Reds in the ninth inning.

Russell Martin hit a ground ball to the shortstop who threw wildly to first base. The ball sailed into the dugout and Martin ended up at second base. Kent grounded out to the right side of the infield allowing Martin to advance to third base with just one out.

Then, Dusty Baker did something crazy. With Loney and Kemp up next he chose to walk both intentionally to get at Dewitt with the bases loaded. I guess he figured that, given his choices, he was better off facing Dewitt and Hu rather than Loney and Kemp.

Dusty's mistake was our gain. Dewitt had been 5 for 5 in bases loaded situations this season and he did not disappoint. He slapped a single to the left side and Russell Martin walked across the plate easily. Our young hero has certainly been a huge bright spot this season.