2012 Leaf Memories Baseball - Dodgers Cards - Piazza, Lasorda, Valenzuela, Puig and Seager

Leaf has gone Baseball card crazy the past several weeks.  Since the end of the 2012 Baseball season they have released a Metal Baseball Draft set and Valiant Baseball Draft set.  Now, they release probably their best set this year.  Just out in stores is 2012 Leaf Memories Baseball.  See a complete checklist here.

This set takes a look back at a once loved and revered Baseball card set- 1990 Leaf.  It uses the exact same design while also including foil stamped buyback cards from the original 1990 set.  Heck, they even put together a 70 player checklist of autographed buyback cards that were inserted into packs.  BTW, this is a very limited product.  Only 155 (10-box) cases were produced.  The base cards to the new set are numbered to only 99, the autographed base cards are numbered to 25, and the buybacks are numbered to 20  (with a couple of limited parallels added on).

Check out the Dodgers base cards below.  Every base card has a companion autographed version available.  Click on any pic to embiggen.

#544 Corey Seager / #AU-CS1 Corey Seager

#552 Yasiel Puig / #AU-YP1 Yasiel Puig

#567 Mike Piazza / #AU-MP1 Mike Piazza

#575 Tommy Lasorda/ #AU-TL1 Tommy Lasorda

Fernando Valenzuela is the only Dodger in the autographed buyback checklist.  As you can see, it has been embossed with silver foil and is numbered to only 34 copies- this corresponds to his uniform number.

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Collection: A Couple of Joe Thurston Autographed Cards

Joe Thurston rose up quickly through the Dodgers farm system.  In 2001, he was a top-10 Dodgers prospect, and looked to have a bright future as a second baseman.  Heck, in 2002 he earned the Dodgers' Minor League Player of the Year Award and Baseball America's AAA Player of the Year honors.  Unfortunately, that season would prove to be the peak of his minor league career.

His stats continued to dip, and he was eventually traded to the Yankees in 2005.  From there, Thurston has bounced around.  In 2008, he finally garnered some significant playing time as a utility infielder for the Cardinals, but failed to stick with them long-term.  Today, I am unsure if he is currently playing ball.

Featured here area couple of 2003 Donruss Leaf Certified Materials autographed cards of Joe Thurston- in the Gold and Red parallel versions.

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Dodgers Blog Kiosk: 12/17/2012

Dodgers photographer Jon SooHoo shared a bunch of photos from this past weekends Dodgers Mall Tour with Nick Punto and Tim Leary.  See more photos here.

• Ned Colletti Explains Team's Spending, via Mark Saxon at ESPN.  Listen to the interview, here.

"Our payroll a year ago was $90 [million]," Colletti said in an interview on ESPNLA 710. "We're up over $200 [million] now. If you added it all up, it might be up over 300 [million] over two years. Had we been at 150 last year and 150 this year, nobody would be saying a word, right?

• Mark Saxon also writes of the Dodgers/Angels marketing rivalry.

Now, there's this exciting slugfest going on, the Dodgers and Angels bringing baseball's spending war 3,000 miles west, from the Interstate 95 corridor of Boston and New York to the I-5 corridor between L.A. and Anaheim. Everybody knows what it's about: TV money, ridiculous amounts. The Angels got theirs about a year ago, for $3 billion over 20 years from Fox. The Dodgers are in the process of hammering theirs out now and, according to some reports, they could land double what the Angels got. Moneyball was so 2002, so Bay Area.

• Ken Rosenthal at Fox Sports notes that the Dodgers are one of five teams to watch right now.  Both Harang and Capuano figure on being traded.
• Via Ken Gurnick at MLB.com, Dodgers bench coach Trey Hillman is excited to be reunited with Zack Greinke.

"He can be a little standoffish. There are days he doesn't speak," said Hillman. "But he's a good teammate, especially with his fellow starting pitchers. My objective was to stay out of his way. I had maybe six or seven conversations with him the whole year. There wasn't really a need for more. 

• Eric Stephen at True Blue LA writes about AJ Ellis and arbitration.
• With the recent influx of Cuban ballplayers into the Majors, Gary Ashwill at Agate Type takes a look at the first Cubans to play in the American minor leagues in 1904.
• I found this story hilarious.  Charlie Sheen, in a drunken filled episode, gave away his prized Babe Ruth autographed Baseball to Zach Efron, via Big League Stew.  BTW, the British press has it wrong.  No Ruth autographed Baseball has every sold for a value near $2.6Mil. 
• Below is a Happy Holidays message from the Dodgers.

Video Link:

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eBay: Some Great Vintage Dodgers Photos from HYee Auctions

Ya know... It can be difficult chasing sports memorabilia on eBay.  Oftentimes, you just aren't sure if you are really getting what is described.  Is it really vintage, or is it a modern knockoff?  Heck, eBay can be kind of like a giant flea market filled with all kinds of characters.  So, you've got to be careful when shopping and you must always be mindful of how an item is described.  On the flip side, sometimes you run into a seller who has consistently sold the good stuff, and who seemingly has a reputation (both online and in the collecting community) as a top notch seller. 

For this post I feature some incredible vintage photos and photo negatives from a eBay retailer who I would consider one of those top notch sellers- HYee Auctions.  Shown here are some items currently on auction (but closing soon) that I thought would be fun to share.

Below is a October 5, 1949, original glass negative from the archives of the New York Daily News featuring the meat of the Dodgers lineup that season.  In the photo is Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Carl Furillo and Jackie Robinson. 

(Auction Link)

The below photo comes from an original New York Daily News glass negative.  It is of a very young (19 years old) Sandy Koufax from the 1955 season.  As the auction description indicates, this may very well be the earliest known Baseball photograph of the Hall of Fame lefty.  It is dated to April 9, 1955 and was taken by Fred Morgan before the start of Opening Day.  As you can see, Sandy is showing off his 2-seam fastball grip.

(Auction Link)

I love this 1947 International News press photo by Harry Hirsch.  It shows the fans of Brooklyn cheering on their pennant winning Dodgers with a parade.  It is dated at September 26, 1947.

(Auction Link)

You have probably seen hundreds of photos of Jackie Robinson.  You've seen him batting, sliding, running and posing, but how about a photo of him getting beaned in the hand?  Well, know you can say you've seen that, too.  Here is a July 20, 1949 Associated Press photo of Jackie on the dirt while holding his battered hand as Pirates catcher Clyde McCullough chats with Hall of Fame umpire Al Barlick.

(Auction Link)

The next photo has nothing to do with the Dodgers, but is something I knew I had to share here.  Below is a May 25, 1943 Associated Press photo of four players from the All American Girls Softball League.  This photo immediately made me think of that Baseball movie, A League of their Own.

(Auction Link)

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Collection: James Loney Bowman Autographed Card

I had such high hopes for this kid.  He had a glove destined for greatness, and a bat that seemingly was poised to take off. It looked like he might hit for average, but can he hit for power?  Unfortunately, as time went on he could do neither.  Oh, well.  Maybe we can trade him for an All-Star caliber first baseman while taking on a huge contract another team no longer wants?

I never hated you, but am disappointed you didn't become the juggernaut I had hoped for.

As you might recall, James Loney recently signed a one-years $2Mil contract to play for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2013.  Good luck, James.

Featured here is a 2003 Bowman Baseball autographed card of James Loney in my collection.

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Dodgers Blog Kiosk: 12/14/2012 - Dodgers and Dick Clark Productions Sittin' in a Tree?

 

Holy mackerel! This is an impressive looking set from Panini.  They are set to release their 2012 Golden Age Baseball set soon, and recently provided some preview pics for collectors to enjoy.  There are over 100 different ones, so go over there to take look.  This is part Baseball and Americana, with a little bit of world history thrown in.  Above is a Jackie Robinson base card, and below is an insert mini-pennant of Jackie (these are reminiscent of the 1916 Ferguson Bakery Pennants designated as BF2's in the ACC).

• This is quite a scoop.  Mike Ozanian at Forbes reports that the Dodgers are speaking with Dick Clark Productions about possibly forming a regional sports network (RSN).  Keep in mind that Guggenheim Partners owns Dick Clark Productions, and as Mike reported yesterday the MLB's revenue sharing tax may be hampering any possible television deal with Fox.

RSNs have the advantage of getting revenue from two sources–carrier fees and advertising–and some in big markets that televise great sports brands, like the New York Yankees and the YES Network and the Boston Red Sox and the New England Sports Network, have become extremely valuable. Another advantage of teams that have equity stakes in RSNs: the revenue generated by the potential RSN that is not paid to the team would not be subject to revenue-sharing.

• Darren Rovell at ESPN writes about the "Confusion Over Dodgers' Endless Money."

Maybe the new owners really know what they're doing, and those who haven't been let in on their plan (read: everyone) can't see their genius. But there are certainly a lot of nervous people in the industry wondering where this is all leading. They wonder if it's possible they somehow miscalculated what the Dodgers would net from a TV deal and wondering if this is similar to the overly leveraged Frank McCourt that led to the mess that the new owners inherited. 

• Evan at I Bleed Dodgers Blue 2 takes down some notes from the recent Logan White interview on XM Radio.  He speaks about our best prospects.
• Wendy Thum at FanGraphs takes a different look at the Dodgers spending spree.
• Apparently, Josh Hamilton wanted to be a Dodger.  Heck, who wouldn't, right?  Via Ken Rosenthal at Fox Sports.
• Ryu will opt out of the WBC, via Kang Seung-woo of the Korea Times.
• The Dodgers need to do this.  Via Sports Collectors Daily, the Giants are holding a Game Worn Memorabilia sale.
• Susan Lujgjuraj at Beckett tells us that National Hockey Card Day is coming back in 2013.  I wonder, why?  There's no hockey!

NHC will be held on Feb. 9 in Canada and Feb. 16 in United States, Upper Deck announced Thursday.

• Panini provides a little preview of their 2013 Triple Play Baseball set that will be coming out in March 2013.
• I found this utterly fascinating.  Murray Chass, who has covered Donald Fehr for years as a Baseball reporter, adds his two cents on the current NHL lockout.

“It’s 1930s stuff,” said a veteran union man whom I asked about the league’s tactics. The man I wanted talk to I couldn’t because Marvin Miller died a couple of weeks ago. I can hear him laughing derisively, though, upon hearing what I had heard.

Miller heard the same things from the baseball owners in his first couple of negotiations with them. By the time the union had won those negotiations, the owners knew who Miller was and what they faced in future talks.

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