Blog Kiosk: 1/27/2012

• The Negro League Baseball Museum Legacy Awards Banquet is this coming Saturday, and as I reported several months ago, both Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw are getting awards. Kemp took home the Oscar Charleston (MVP) and Josh Gibson (Home Run Leader) Awards and Kershaw took the Bullet Rogan "Pitcher of the Year" Award. See a press release from the Negro League Baseball Museum, here.
• "Hiroki Kuroda talks about leaving Dodgers, and why he chose Yankees," via Steve Dilbeck of LA Times.
  
• Big League Stew celebrates Steve Sax's 52nd birthday.
  
• Will Manny Ramirez be with the A's, via SFGate.
  
• "Darth Vader, Meet Frank McCourt," via Through the Fence Baseball.

  You remember when the Dark One, Darth Vader, has a bit of good inside his evil heart and does The Force a solid by sacrificing himself to save his son, Luke Skywalker. Well, after hearing that Frank McCourt had been trying to bring Fielder to Los Angeles for the past couple months, I feel a little differently about him.

• Likely to be one of the more sought after redemptions in 2012 Topps packs, "1 of 1" solid gold cards will be available. There are 16 of them, and Sandy Koufax and Jackie Robinson are included. Beckett shares a pic of the Lou Gehrig Gold card.
  
• For Baseball historians this is just another place to put on the "must visit one day" list. Cleveland's old League Park is about to get a face-lift, via Cleveland.com.

  The old ballpark, once home of the Cleveland Indians and the 1945 Negro League champion Cleveland Buckeyes, and adjacent parkland will undergo $5 million in renovations, said Ken Silliman, chief of staff for Mayor Frank Jackson. Silliman said work will begin late this spring or in early summer and be finished in about a year.

• Several LA Kings stars make an appearance on Funny or Die.

The Fame Makers with the Los Angeles Kings from Anze Kopitar

• Hat Tip: Steve Dilbeck of LA Times. A trick shot video with Don Mattingly.

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Collection: Garvey INKredibles

With the Dodger auction sale underway, and with Steve Garvey in the hunt as a potential bidder I thought it would be a good time to share this Garvey autograph in my collection. This is a 1999 Upper Deck Retro INKredible autographed card. These are cards are plentiful and can be purchased on eBay for under $10 a piece, if you are patient enough. Over the past month 3 examples have sold at a range of $4.99 to $7.00.

SABR Day on Saturday

I just ran across this, so I thought I would make note of it for everybody. This coming Saturday is the 3rd Annual SABR Day. Regional meetings are being held throughout the country. If you don't know, SABR is the Society for American Baseball Research, and their principal goal is to study the game. Ernie Harwell called it, "the Phi Beta Kappa of baseball, providing scholarship which the sport has long needed. ... An excellent way for all of us to add to our enjoyment of the greatest game."

Anyway, attendance is free for everyone; including non-members. Think of it as an opportunity to see what it is all about. Below is info for a local southland meeting. Go to this link for general information.

Time: 10:15 a.m.

Where: La Habra Library, 221 E. La Habra Blvd., La Habra, CA 90631, (562) 694-0078

Contact: Barry Mednick, bmednick@roadrunner.com

Allan Roth Chapter program: Former Milwaukee Braves All-Star catcher Del Crandall will be joining us for SABR Day at the La Habra Library. High school coach Eddie Alvarez will speak and Eric Dearborn will present photographs of final games at various ballparks. Authors Daryl Grigsby ("Celebrating Ourselves: African-Americans and the Promise of Baseball") and Ron Selter (on .400 hitters) will also speak. As always, beverages will be provided; bring your own lunch. Please advise Barry Mednick (bmednick@adelphia.net) if you wish to make a research presentation.

2012 Topps Tribute Preview Pic- Ethier Auto

The upcoming Baseball card collecting season is about start. With all of the excitement centered around Topps release of their flagship Baseball card product next week (on Wednesday) they went ahead and released a preview pic, on twitter, of one of their other sets called Topps Tribute. This set should be arriving in stores in just under two weeks. Here is a 1 of 1 Andre Ethier 2012 Topps Tibute card with a nice little inscription.

(pic link: Twitter @Topps)

Close Only Counts in Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

Am I the only one who doesn't care that the Dodgers where charging hard to try to sign Prince Fielder?

As reported by Jon Heyman at CBS,

Although they managed to stay under the radar all the while, the Los Angeles Dodgers pushed hard for weeks to try to sign Prince Fielder and thought for a while they might have a legitimate shot at their own secret signing.

Yawn! Sure... it's nice to know the Dodger aren't passively sitting on the sidelines. It was even better imagining a lineup that featured Kemp, Ethier and Fielder. But, based on the numbers released we never really had a chance. From Ken Rosenthal:

As it turned out, the Dodgers recognized that they stood little chance on Fielder nearly a week before he agreed with Detroit. At that point, Boras informed them that were $50 million to $60 million short of an offer that he already had — the offer that turned out to be the Tigers’.

“It didn’t get to the ninth inning. It got to about the sixth inning,” the source said.

You know what? I've changed my mind. After all, I'm a cynic at heart.

This whole thing is starting to sound like a ruse to me. I don't believe that the Dodgers were ever really in the hunt, but were more than willing to throw their name in the ring as a sign that they aren't just sitting on their laurels. On top of that, McCourt could use the positive publicity showing that at least they tried.

Here is what we know. Based on the actions of the team this winter the Dodgers do not have the budgetary flexibility to sign a big name like Fielder.

We know this is true, so why bother imagining that we can. We are better off focusing on the upcoming season with what we have, and the intentions of the future owner once they are selected. Big free agent signings is a luxury we will only experience after McCourt is gone.

Dodgers Squash Giants!

The rivalry never takes a break. Even as Baseball hibernates over the winter the battle between blue and orange, south and north, right and wrong never pauses.

To prove that point, the MLB Network recently premiered a new game show called Baseball IQ. It is

"a recall-based trivia show featuring two participants, 30 minutes and a chance to win up to $45,000 for charity. Questions will cover all things baseball, from current players and managers to World Series champions, MVPs, Cy Young Award winners, Hall of Famers, milestones and more. Participants include front office personnel, equipment managers, scoreboard operators and museum curators. When possible, participants have been matched up opposite club rivals: think Cardinals-Cubs, Red Sox-Yankees, Dodgers-Giants and more."

In the first round of this bracket-styled tournament they pitted the Dodgers against the Giants, and aired it last night. Dodgers Director of Ticket Operations, Seth Bluman, faced off against Giants Manager of Client Relations, Greg Marinec. And I am happy to report that Seth kicked some major Giants Butt. Look at that score. The Giants never had a chance. Even better is the look of dejection and disappointment from the rival. I've got the biggest smile on my face just thinking about it.Anyway, I'm sure it'll be on replays on the MLB Network so go to your local listings to see it, or you can just watch the final inning of play below. BTW, go here for more info on the show.

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