Weekend Autograph Opportunities

This is the last weekend of the year for autograph hounds to capture signatures of your favorite sports stars. As you can imagine, not much of anything is planned for the Christmas and New Years weekends. As always, check out my Blue Heaven Calendar for listings of sports related events throughout the southland, here. Unfortunately, there isn't a Dodger opportunity, but there sure is football galore at LA Live! all weekend long and some vintage Angels in Orange County.

This weekend is the Verizon Training Ground football event at LA Live. It will be from Saturday to Monday and features everything from games to free autographs of some legends. Go to this link for more information.
Here is a list of the autograph guest.

• Saturday 12/17= Marcus Allen 2pm – 4pm
• Sunday 12/18= Ronnie Lott (1pm – 3pm) & Junior Seau (3:45pm – 5:30pm)
• Monday 12/19= Tim Brown (3pm – 5pm)

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For the Orange County based fans there are a couple of free signings at the Angels Store at Angels Stadium. OC Register has some details, here. One free autograph per person, and no bats or jerseys will be signed. On Saturday, gritty second baseman Bobby Grich will be on hand, and on Sunday Doug DeCinces will be signing. They will both be there from 10:30 AP to 12:30 PM, on their respective days.

Dodgers Unveil 6 New Bobbles for Fans

In addition to the already revealed bobblehead of Sandy Koufax to be given away on Tuesday, August 7th against the Rockies, the Dodgers reveal 6 more to wet your appetite. Here they are:

• Maury Wills with Don Drysdale on April 28 (vs. WAS),
  
• Orel Hershiser on May 15 (vs. ARI),
  
• Dodger infield of Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell and Ron Cey on May 29 (vs. MIL),
  
• Mike Scioscia on June 12 (vs. LAA),
  
• Hall of Fame Manager Tommy Lasorda with Hall of Fame Manager Walter Alston on July 14 (vs. SD); and
  
• Fernando Valenzuela on August 21 (vs. SF).

This is pretty exciting as several of these bobbles will feature more than one subject. On top of that, Mike Scioscia gets a bobble as well to be given out during a freeway series game. Check out the Dodgers Press Release, here.

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One thing to note, there is a special give-away for the game that will highlight Clayton Kershaw's Cy Young Award presentation. According to the Dodgers promotional schedule, a Kershaw Cy Young Replica will be given away. I imagine this will be a mini-plaque of the award similar to the Lasorda HOF mini-plaque award given away a couple of season ago.

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Check out this video from the MLB Network featuring Matt Kemp with his thoughts about the Ryan Braun situation.

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Blog Kiosk: 12/14/2011

• NBC speculates that McCourt is angling to try to keep the team. More of these kind of stories are popping up and it's killing me. I don't know what I'll do if this is what happens.
  

  ...There is speculation that McCourt will turn around and tell the court, hey, this is how much the media rights are worth. I have money now. I'm no longer bankrupt. I can pay off the creditors, leave bankruptcy and hold on to the team.
  

• Check out some photos from Justin Sellers' signing at Valley Sports Cards last weekend, here.
  
• Wall Street Select puts together a list of Top 10 PR miscues of 2011 and, unsurprisingly, the Dodgers make the grade. Guess which issue made the bill.
  
• There is a nice write up on Yu Darvish in the LA Times blog The Fabulous Forum. As expected, the Dodgers are not believed to be in the race for his services.
  

  But don’t hold your breath. Not only do the Dodgers already appear to have their rotation set, the bidding for Darvish may just be too rich for the team.

  Enough said.

• Roberto at Vin Scully is My Homeboy captured Andre Ethier at Best Buy doing some holiday shopping for 10 lucky youngsters, here and here. One kid is the size of a NFL lineman, and wearing a awesome Epic Mealtime t-shirt.
  
• The Amen Break. It breaks down one of the most important 6 seconds ever recorded into its musical and legal/Copyright importance. Via Life Signs Project.
• National Hockey Card Day sponsored by Upper Deck is finally coming to America on February 11, 2012.
  
• Urban Skiing at its best.

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Collection: A Couple of Elbert's

Our 2004 1st round draft pick has finally secured a spot on the roster. Scott Elbert was called up on May 11th of last season and never left the team. He pitched in 47 games, primarily as a left handed specialist, and impressed with a 2.43 ERA. Overall, Elbert had 34 strike outs in 33 innings while have a 154 ERA+. He figures on being a mainstay in the bullpen for several years.

Featured here are 2 autographed insert card of Elbert's from my collection. Above is a 2005 Bowman Heritage 'Signs of Greatness' card and below that is a 2005 Team Topps autographed card.

eBay: 1947 Radio Broadcast Recordings on Record From Valdosta, Georgia

I find this eBay auction item totally fascinating. I'll let the auction describe it:

You are bidding on three, rare, flexible metal, record transcriptions from March 24 and March 27, 1947, from the radio station W.G.O.V. in Valdosta, Georgia. The records are of the radio's Sports Cast of those two days. The announcer is Vic Zodda, the business manager for the Valdosta Dodgers which was a farm club of the major league baseball Brooklyn Dodgers. Zodda was filling in for the regular sports reporter, Curley Bovers, who was at a golf tournament. The three records are flexible metal and are played at the 78 rpm speed.

Knowing that the dates coincides with Jackie Robinson's entrance into the league I naturally wondered if he was mentioned. Unfortunately, he is not, but there are some other interesting tidbits.

• Vic Zodda describes Mr. Branch Rickey, himself, (owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers) being on the pitching mound and giving advice to the pitchers.
• There is a lengthy monologue about the charges by baseball commissioner Larry MacPhail brought against three members of the Brooklyn Dodgers in connection with gambling at a previous spring training stint in Havana, Cuba. Those involved included Branch Rickey and manager Leo Durocher. The actions were declared as, "detrimental to baseball".

Other sports are also spoken about. Since I don't have a record player this item is not for me, but I sure would love to hear them. If anybody takes these home please record them and put it on youtube.

(Auction Link)

"That's a good dude. That's my homie"

Matt Kemp weighs in and takes the high ground. Via TMZ.

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