Weekend Autograph Opportunities: The Long Beach Coin, Currency, Stamp & Sports Collectible Show

Here are this weekends autograph opportunities and events throughout the Southland. As always, be sure to check the Blue Heaven Calendar for other events (a link can always be found on the tab at the top of this page, just left of center), and always confirm with the establishment. Everything is subject to change.  Please email me with any tips about upcoming events in Southern California.  As the rest of the week progresses I'll update this post with other events (if there are any) as I become aware of them.  Also, I don't always list every event below, so be sure to check my Calendar.  I always try to favor free signing events over paying events.  Click on any pic to embiggen.

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Unfortunately, I am not aware of any autograph signing this weekend, but there is local card collectors convention worth checking out.  At the Long Beach Convention Center is the longtime-running Long Beach Expo that starts this coming Thursday to Saturday.  This has primarily always been a coin, currency and stamp show, but has recently included some sports collector dealers.  Go here for information.

You can get free admission by being a Collectors Universe member (which is free).  Go here to check it out.

Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center
300 E Ocean Blvd
Long Beach, CA 90802

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2016 Topps Now Trayce Thompson Card in Honor of his Walk Off - #135

Trayce Thompson is the talk of the town.  He came to Los Angeles over the winter as part of trade that most fans dismissed since we didn't get a big name player.  Heck, he wasn't even the most talked about prospect coming our way.  That was reserved for pitcher Frankie Montas.

Instead, he seemed like more of an "throw-in" in that trade. Obviously, if you thought that then you were wrong.  And let's be honest, we all thought that.

Trayce Thompson is a beast, and last night he came up big in the ninth inning.  He blasted a pitch over the left wall for a walk-off home run.  In honor of that Topps has issued a 2016 Topps Now card to commemorate it.  Go here to check it out and order. 

UPDATE:  This card sold 431 copies.

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Blog Kiosk: 6/8/2016 - Dodgers Links - Jansen, Uribe and Trayce Thompson

Walk off magic!

For the second time this season Trayce Thompson came up to the plate in the ninth inning and won the game.  He lined a walk off home run over the left field wall.  Via Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider:

“I didn’t know I hit it enough to go out,” Thompson said. “I was running hard out of the box … trying to get into scoring position. I saw the outfielder kind of look up, kind of give up on it, it went out, I never really slowed down, and all of a sudden I was talking to you.”

This guy is a big game player.  Via Jack Baer and Ken Gurnick at MLB.com:

"I want to be the guy up in that situation," Thompson said. "I feel like the reward for having success far outweighs the disappointment of failure and I'm not afraid of failure, that's the only way to have success in this game. I just want to be that guy the other team fears in that situation and my team has confidence in. Sure, I'll have times I fail, but that's not going to stop me from wanting to be that guy."

Photo at the op via Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2016.  Go here to check out more pics by Jon from yesterdays game.  Below are more links to check:

• This Day in Dodgers History: In 1955 Tommy Lasorda was optioned to Montreal in order to make room for Sandy Koufax on the Dodgers roster.  In 1968 Don Drysdale's scoreless innings streak ends at 58 1/3 innings. 
• Happy Birthday, Van Lingle Mungo and Kevin Gross.

2016 Topps New Era Cap Baseball Cards at LIDS - Joc Pederson

It appears we have entered into a new era of retail sponsored Baseball cards.  In the 80's there were numerous specialized sets sold by retail stores throughout North America.  You could go to places like Toys "R" Us, K-Mart, Kay-Bee Toys or Woolworth's to pick up an exclusive set.  You could also find cards in specific products like Ralston-Purina dog food or Nestle's.  Then it suddenly all stopped.  The Baseball craze was over, and partnership deals between card manufacturers and the retail sector had all but ended.  Now, twenty years or so later, we have our second retail exclusive Baseball card set of the year.

Featured here are the 2016 Topps New Era Caps Baseball cards.  This follows on the heels of the Walmart cards created by Topps earlier in the season. 

As you can see, the cards use the exact same design as the Topps flagship set this year, but includes a unique new photo.  The base set consist of only the nine ballplayers who are also New Era spokesman.  BTW, a New Era Ambassadors Cap Relics card and an autographed relic card also exist as limited inserts.  Go here for a complete checklist. 

Collectors can get these cards by visiting your local LIDS store and purchasing any New Era MLB cap.  You will then receive one unopened pack of four cards (example shown above). 

There is only one Dodger player available.  Check out the Joc Pederson card below.  I do not have a pic of either the relic or autograph relic to share.  Also, the autograph relic card is an "1 of 1" card.

#4 Joc Pederson

#NEPR-JP Joc Pederson

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Blog Kiosk: 6/7/2016 - Dodgers Links - Puig & Goff

Yasiel Puig and the presumptive Rams starting QB Jared Goff are now best friends.  After being drafted in late April by the Rams word spread quickly that not only is Goff a SF Giants fan but he was also a Puig-hater.  Jared Goff had made an uncouth comment about Puig on twitter back in 2013.  See my post about that here.

As you can imagine, a mini brouhaha occurred.  Folks expressed their disdain online.  Fans started to take sides.  Bloggers wrote a bunch of stories.  Soon thereafter, Puig and Goff exchanged greetings on social media, and then they quickly buried the hatchet.  Yasiel Puig even offering to escort Goff around town.  Fast forward to yesterday and we get the makings of an Los Angeles love-fest.  They met before the game for the first time, and it now seems clear that are now buddies.  Via ESPN:

"We made up a long time ago, but it was good to talk to him," Goff said. "He's a real cool guy. It was funny. It was something I tweeted when I was like 17 years old. He thought it was funny and it's cool to be down here. It's a good chance to meet him through that crazy way."

BTW, Goff was not the only Rams player in attendance.  Five other teammates came out to meet the Dodger Stadium crowd.  Check them out wearing Dodger Blue on the right.

Photo at the very top via @Dodgers on twitter.  The pic on the above right via @RamsNFL on twitter. Go here to check out a bunch of pics from Jon SooHoo from yesterdays game.  Below are more links to check:

• This Day in Dodgers History: In 1898 Charles Ebbets took over as manager of the team.  His team would go 38-68 under him.  The next year Ned Hanlon came on board to skipper the team.  In 1957 Jackie Robinson, along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., receive honorary degrees of Doctor of Laws from Howard University. In 1982 Steve Garvey becomes the fifth player in MLB history to play in 1,000 consecutive games.He would receive a one-minute standing ovation from the Dodger Stadium crowd.  In 1995 Tommy Lasorda would win his 1,500th game as manager in a victory over the Expos.

Dodgers to Give Away Topps Jumbo Baseball Card on June 18th

Here's a new promotional giveaway that has yet to be officially announced by the Dodgers.  Fortunately, Topps decided to let us all in on what will be coming.  On Saturday, June 18th, in a game against the Brewers, the Dodgers will be giving away a jumbo sized (5" x 7") Baseball card of Adrian Gonzalez to fans in attendance.  Specific details beyond that have not been released, but I gotta think every fan (40,000 of you, at least) will probably be getting one.  (UPDATE:  The Cubs promotional schedule online indicates that only 10,000 of the cards were distributed to fans at their game, so this giveaway might be limited.)

Go here for more information.  Every team in Baseball has partnered up with Topps - with the Phillies, Cubs and Rangers having their Baseball card promotions this past weekend. 

At this time we don't know exactly what the AGon card will look like, but we do know that the cards given out by the other teams resemble the respective players card from the flagship set.  So it's likely the Adrian Gonzalez card will like the one directly below.

In case you're interested, the Angels will be giving away a Mike Trout card this coming Saturday.  Again, go here for more information about this promotion from Topps.

UPDATE:  Strangely, I have yet to see any of the jumbo cards supposedly given away this past weekend by the Cubs, Phillies and Rangers for sale on eBay yet.  It usually doesn't take very long for something like this to show up for sale.  This makes me wonder if the promotion is limited in number.  When I find out more I will surely pass that along (and update this post).

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