Blog Kiosk 8/3/2008

Count me in as I jump onto the Manny bandwagon. We have a legitimate shot at the playoffs and with our pitching staff we can go a long way. It's time to get hot now.

• Say hello to a new Dodger blog called Bleeding Dodger Blue.
  
• If your an autograph hound go to Roscoe's Deli in Fullerton on August 8th from 4PM to 6PM to grab Rex Hundler's John Hancock. (Hat Tip: Bad Wax)
  
• Just in case your curious below is Manny Ramirez's Rookie Card. It's a 1992 Bowman.
• The PSA 5 Honus Wagner card sells for $1,620,000 at the Mastro Auction during The National. Go here to see the results from the auction. Here is Yahoo's story.
• Check out Beckett's coverage from The National.
  
• As I wrote previously, Steve Bartman did not show up at the National Sports Collectors Convention. He was offered $25,000.00 for his signature. See the empty display with 250 $100 bills in a briefcase waiting for his arrival. Check out the story here.
• This is where Jar Jar belongs- frozen in carbonite. Photos of the ILM campus.
• Gary Coleman was signed by the Madison Mallards to a one day contract to play Baseball. Check out his signing, first pitch and at-bat below.

Hat Tip: Home Run Derby:

Card Of The Week: Milt Thompson

Below is this weeks card of the week featuring Milt Thompson's 1995 Pinnacle Baseball card. As you can see he is performing the great task of clearing the ballfield from one of those pesky beach balls. Vin would be so proud.

National Rarities

Below are 3 new photos from DMcD of some rare cards and memorabilia found at the National. Go here to see his photoalbum.

These 6 cards belong to the 1894 Alpha Engraving Baltimore Orioles set. They are a part of the collection of Patrick Preece and are on display at the SGC grading booth. This set has 14 cards and only one example of each card is known to exist. Players below include (from the top row, left to right) HOF'er Joe Kelley, soon to be Dodgers coach and HOF'er Wilbert Robinson, HOF'er Ned Hanlon, HOF'er Dan Brouthers, HOF'er John McGraw and HOF'er Hughie Jennings. Willie Keeler is the only other HOF'er not shown here. Needless to say, but with a collection of 7 Hall of Famers on one team you know this group was good. In fact, they were champions that year and are considered by many to be one of the greatest teams to ever take the field.
Below are a couple of Kalamazoo Bats tobacco cards of Jim O'Rourke and Tim Keefe, as well as an Old Judge cabinet card of King Kelly.
This is an extremely rare game used glove from William Wamby. What makes this glove so rare is that it was used during the 1920 World Series when he performed the only triple play ever recorded during the October classic.

Photos Link: DMcD:

Laundry Guerrilla Marketing

Blue Heaven reader, Lupe, just sent me some unbelievable pics. While doing her laundry at a local laundromat she found a whole bunch of red socks. What's so unusual about that you say. Well, these aren't just any red socks. These socks closely resemble Boston Red Socks. Not only that, they had a special tag from ESPN welcoming Manny to LA. Check out the pics below.
"Lose a sock, Boston? ESPN joins Los Angeles in welcoming Manny Ramirez."

I Wish I Was There

More pics from the National are here. This time MikeH has some photos to view. Check out the rest of them here.

My favorite part of these large shows are the display cases filled with stuff. Check out the Baseball gloves below- especially the gloves on the second row from the bottom. The two gloves on the left are examples of fielder gloves used nearly a hundred years ago. They were small with very little webbing. A far cry from the giant mitts used by todays ballplayers.
The top row in the display case below has some Baseball statues that were very popular from the 1950's to 1960's. You can see the Japanese version made in post WWII Japan on the top left, the original American made Rittgers statues are in the center and the Africanized version (made in post WWII Japan) is on the far right. The African version has some obvious racist overtones.
Slot machines and Baseball- my two favorite things.
Can you say bobbleheads.
Hat Tip: Vintage Baseball Memorabilia Forum:

2008 National Convention VIP/ Promo Cards

With every large card convention comes limited edition VIP/ promotional cards only available at the show. Everyone from Topps to Press Pass (known for NASCAR cards) are there to pass out these little gems. After a little scouring I found a few pics of this years offerings. (Taken from Kit Young's website)

Topps Allen & Ginter is passing out a 6 card set to VIP registrars that includes the great Jackie Robinson (below).
Here is the complete 6 card set that includes Don Larson, Jackie Robinson, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth and Johnny Unitas.
Here is a 5 card retro VIP set from Topps designed to look like the 1958 Topps set. The Bob Gibson card below is a fantasy card since he did not have a Topps card in 1958. I guess you can say it's his "rookie card."