20 Wins!!!!

Clayton Kershaw gets win #20 against the Giants. WooHoo!

Congrats Big Guy!

It wasn't all his doing. He had a little help from his friends. Loney knocked in a run in the 1st inning and Jerry Sands hit a homer in the 2nd. Then, Kenley Jansen helped Kershaw out of a mess by striking out both Sandoval and Beltran to finish off the 8th inning, and Guerra pitched a scoreless 9th.

The only thing that would be better would be to knock the Gnats out of the playoffs. I think that will come later.

(Pic Credit: Jon SooHoo LA Dodgers)

Check Out This Marquee Koufax

Holy mackerel! Here is a Sandy Koufax 2011 Topps Marquee Gametime Momentos booklet with both an autograph and relic uniform piece. With one day left it is already over $1000.00.

(eBay Auction Link)

Star Wars Night This Past Friday

As you know, it was Star Wars Night at Dodger Stadium this past Friday and I thought I would collect some photos and videos of the occasion. I didn't go to the game myself, but I did enjoyed a viewing of "Jedi" and some of the bonus videos from the newly released Blue-Ray CD that evening. Yhea, I'm a bit of a geek.

Anyway, let's start off with a brief video of the night from the Dodgers.

Video Link:

By the way, there are several other blogs and message boards that provided a great first hand look at the event. I thought the best one was Victor's R2D2 Building Diary. See it here. Victor is the master genius builder of the R2D2 in attendance and he provided a whole bunch of pics and videos worth a look. Then check out their entire photoset in flickr.

Here are some Twitter pics I found.

(Pic Link: @ears_of_steam)

(Pic Link: @gregsanchez)

This is the Dodger press box. In the middle is DJ Severe who is the DJ at Dodger games.

(Pic Link: @djsevere)

And to conclude this post is the definite highlight of the night. Check out some fire works set to the music of Star Wars.

Video Link:

Daily Conlon: 334 through 342

This is todays Daily Conlon cards numbered 334 through 342, and it features nothing but deadball era no-hitters. Unfortunately, no Dodger is highlighted as throwing one in this group, but it does point to a couple of no-hitter pitched against the Dodgers. Even worse, both no-hitters were thrown by Giants.

Red Ames (on the top row, far left) threw his "no-no" early in the season in 1909. He blanked us in a 13 inning game against Kaiser Wilhelm. Both pitchers were phenomenal, unfortunately, Ames was just a little better. Wilhelm gave up 3 runs in the 13th inning to lose it 3-0. An amazing fact about the game is that the Giants outfield did not record one putout.

Giants pitcher Rube Marquard (bottom row, far right) threw his no-hitter against the Dodgers in 1915. It was his first start of the season as he blanked us 2-0. Of special note, Marquard would orchestrate his own trade to the Dodgers later on in that season. He wanted to play for his mentor and favorite coach, Wilbert "Uncle Robbie" Robinson.

Blog Kiosk: 9/16/2011

Here's Fernando Valenzuela, this morning, at City Hall being honored during Latino Heritage Month, via Los Angeles Dodgers Twitter Lockerz.

• Longtime Dodger fan Larry King is canceling his season tickets due to McCourt, via Farther Off the Wall.
  
• Dodgers ask whether ownership is affecting season-ticket renewal, via Bill Shaikin of LA Times.
  
• Bob Lemke recalls what happened to some of the relics from Ebbets Field.
  

  The TSN article did have other specifics, though. It was mentioned that $2,300 was realized in the auction. By far the biggest bid was for the cornerstone, purchased for $600 by then-president of the National League, Warren Giles.
  
  The Ebbets Field cornerstone was described as about 3' by 4' by 1', cut from red-brown Connecticut Granite. After considerable effort, the stone was busted open and a copper box extracted.

• Panini enters the Baseball card market. They will be releasing Baseball cards, licensed by MLBPA, later this year.
  
• Jesse at Los Angeles Inspiration was a big winner during the Dodgers #SocialSeptember. Congrats!
  
• In LA Kings news, standout franchise defenseman is now officially a holdout. Damn you Drew! Read the interview with Kings GM about this situation at LA Kings Insider. In my opinion, a 7 year deal at $6.8mil is more than fair- way more than fair!
  
• Nick Diunte puts up Part 5 of his interview with Carl Erskine. And watch the video below.

Video Link:

Daily Conlon: 325 through 333

Here are todays Daily Conlon cards numbered 325 through 333. It features not only Charles Conlon himself (located on the top row, far right) but also Dodger hurler Nap Rucker (bottom row, far right). As you know by now, Charles Conlon is arguably the most famous of all Baseball photographers. He worked the field for nearly 4 decades, and as is credited with capturing the Ty Cobb "sliding into base" photograph that every fan has seen. Strangely, photography started out only as a hobby for Conlon (then in his mid-30's) until a sports editor for The Spalding Base Ball Guide encouraged him to take it on full time. He subsequently dominated the field throughout the 20's and 30's.

The Rucker card celebrates his no-hitter on September 5, 1908 against the Boston Braves. As stated on the reverse:

Nap Rucker, a career .500 pitcher, was struck with a hapless Brooklyn team in 1908 that finished 46 games out of first. But on September 5, the crafty Georgia southpaw was overpowering. He walked no one and fanned 14, striking out the side in the fourth inning. Three Brooklyn errors deprived him of a perfect game.

That figures. The Brooklyn Bums ruined his chance at perfection.