7 In A Row!

It's amazing how quickly the tide can turn.

It was only a short few weeks ago when it seemed like the whole of Dodger nation was about to tear itself apart at the seems. We were in last place in the Western Division, had a pitching staff bordering on unwatchable and defense only a T-ball coach could appreciate.

Screams for Colletti's head and pitchforks aimed at Torre and Honeycutt could be read daily from blog to blog, message board to message board, and from water cooler to desk.

Unsurprisingly, as quickly as the naysayers gained steam the Dodger pitching staff regained their composure. Starting last Sunday the Dodgers have pulled off 7 great starts with 7 great relief appearances by the pen. Not only that, the Dodgers offense, one of the only bright spots in this young season, has not regressed. They continue to hit the cover off the ball.

As it stands tonight, the Dodgers are on a 7 game winning streak. They are only 2 games behind the division leaders and take the mantle as the hottest team in the league.

Blog Kiosk: 5/16/2010

What is there to worry about? We got 6 wins in a row.

• Night Owl Cards writes about Dodger stickers. I use to love these too.
• Check out the Baseball Die-Hard Index, via Trolley Dodger. Although I agree with most of it, I do believe the Dodger Die-Hard numbers are a little light. After all, it's telling me that Houston Astros fans are more Die-Hard than us- NO WAY!
  
• Reed Johnson has a blog called Reed Between the Lines.
  
• Read what ballplayers have to say about Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's batting stance. It's some fairly light-hearted stuff.
• The real life "Field of Dreams" is for sale in Dyersville, Iowa. For $5.4Mil you could own the 193 acres that Ray Kinsella used to plow over for a Baseball field. This field was built by Universal Studios for use in the movie and has been maintained by the property owner ever since.
  
• Frank and Son Collectible Show is still alive and kicking. I remember this weekly show from the mid-90's.
  
• What a disaster. Incredible photos, as always, from Boston.com.
• Lenny Dysktra is now selling stuff on Craigslist, via Sports Locker.
• Star Trek: The LOST Generation.

YouTube Link:

2010 Bowman's Are Live

The 2010 Bowman Baseball set is now out. As always, it focuses on up 'n coming rookies, but there are base cards of current Major League players.

In the base set there are 8 Dodger cards. See them below. I'll follow up this post with other cards from the set. The typical base card has a black border, but there are limited edition parallel cards that come in different colored borders; such as blue, gold, orange and red.

Base Cards

9 Matt Kemp

30 Andre Ethier
49 Clayton Kershaw

69 Chad Billingsley
84 Russell Martin
106 James Loney
178 Manny Ramirez

192 Carlos Monasterios

A John Ely Dodger Card

John Ely now has a Dodger card in the newly released 2010 Bowman Baseball set. Stay tuned as I put up more Dodger cards from the set in the next few days.

T206 Brooklyn Dodgers: George Hunter

Here is another member of the old Brooklyn Superbas who didn't last very long. George Henry Hunter played one full season in 1909 and one game in 1910 before returning to the minor leagues for good.

In 1909 he had the dual role as a Brooklyn starting pitcher and an outfielder. He was both a left hander on the mound and a switch hitter at the plate. Considering how bad the team was Hunter appeared to have pitched fairly well. He won 4 games and lost 10 while recording a ERA of 2.46 (team ERA was 3.10) and a WHIP average of 1.243. As a hitter, though, he was only average. He hit .228 in 23 games on a team that batted a collective .229. The weird thing about George Hunter is that after pitching for Brooklyn in 1909 he never again pitched a game in the majors or the minors. We went on to play 8 more seasons of professional ball in the New York State League as an outfielder after reaching the show.

Meet LA Dodger Frank Robinson

(eBay Auction Link)

Yes, Frank Robinson did play for the Dodgers for one season in 1972. His stay was short as he batted only .251 and belted 15 home runs with 59 RBI's.