RIP, Boyd Hartley - Former Dodger Player and Scout

Another Brooklyn Dodger has passed away.  Via, Nick Diunte of the Examiner.com:

The roster of the living former Brooklyn Dodgers is now one player lighter. Boyd Bartley, former shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers passed away Friday evening in Richland Hills, Texas. He was 92. 

Bartley was signed out of the University of Illinois in 1943 after receiving a bonus from the Dodgers to steer him away from his hometown Chicago Cubs. The young shortstop was heralded for his defensive prowess and received comparisons to then-Indians shortstop Lou Boudreau. The Dodgers wasted little time in testing Bartley’s skills, inserting him in to the lineup a day after he was signed, starting both games of a doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds.

Bartley went to war with the Army in the Pacific campaign in 1943 and returned to Baseball in 1947.  Unfortunately, a shoulder injury he suffered in the Army ended his dreams of Major League stardom, so he signed on to become a player-manager in the Dodgers system when he came back.  In 1968 he began scouting for the Dodgers, and is noted for being the man who signed Orel Hershiser. 

Be sure to check out Nick Diunte's excellent article about the man.  Below are his stats, via Baseball-Reference.

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Sunday Dodgers Videos

Adrian Gonzalez pays a visit to the East L.A. Civic Center to deliver gifts to the children.

Video Link:

For a look back, Michael Ozanian of Forbes interviews Irwin Raij who lead the Buyers deal team for the Dodgers sales transaction.

Video Link:

Drafted in the 10 round (2012) by the LA Dodgers, Zach Babitt will inspire many.

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Dodgers Blog Kiosk: 12/22/2012

Above is a preview pic of a Sandy Koufax 2013 Tier One autographed card.  Check out more pics at Beckett.

• Jimmy Bramlett at the LAist puts together a list of the top 5 sexiest LA Sportswriters.
• Jonathan Garza at Dodgers Nation believes we should trade Andre Ethier.
• I don't know what the heck this is, but apparently Topps will be producing Big League Mini figurines next season. (via Sports Card Info)  They will be 3" tall.  Both Matt Kemp and Adrian Gonzalez appear to be the only Dodgers on a checklist right now.  

(pic link: Baseball Card Vandals)

• I declare Baseball Card Vandals the best new sports card blog of the year.  Take a look at the Jose Gonzalez card atthe right to see why.  Check it out here. 
• If you are in college then consider applying for a SABR scholarship.  Get info here.

With generous funding from The Anthony A. Yoseloff Foundation, Inc., SABR will award up to four scholarships to college students who wish to attend the 2013 SABR Analytics Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 7-9, 2013. This scholarship will pay for registration, transportation and lodging up to a total value of $1,250.

The objective of this scholarship fund is to encourage student engagement with baseball analytics, and to engender an active interest in baseball research and SABR. The Yoseloff scholarship is to assist young researchers who want to attend SABR's Analytics Conference and to introduce them to fellow SABR members and professionals within the baseball community. Through this fund, SABR hopes to inspire future baseball research, expose students to high-quality research and build the research capability of interested students.

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2012 Bowman Sterling Baseball - Dodgers Cards

Topps just released a new Baseball card set earlier this week and it is called 2012 Bowman Sterling.  It is a set that focus' on prospects and rookies, so by consequence it is very light on Dodgers players.  In fact, I could only find two Dodgers in the entire set- Corey Seager and Jesmuel Valantin (both are 2012 Dodger draft picks).

There are no Dodgers in the base sets, but both Dodger farmhands do have autographed cards inserted into packs.  Unfortunately, it appears that Corey Seager didn't sign his cards in time, so redemption cards can only be found.  See the Jesmuel Valentin autographed prospect card below. A Seager version exist, as well.

#BSAP-JV Jesmuel Valentin

There is also a dual autographed card featuring both Valentin and Seager, and for some strange reason these cards are inserted into packs.  These appear to be sticker autographs rather than the "on-card" autographs like the one above.

#DA-SV Jesmuel Valentin / Corey Seager

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Zack was in the Tweet Seat

I had meant to write about the "Tweet Seat" event the Dodgers held last week for Zack Greinke much earlier than today.  If you don't know, this is a kind of "ask me anything" exchange between a twitter user and a Dodger player.  Last week, following the Greinke press conference at Dodger Stadium they did a short #AskZack dialog on twitter, and I was happy to follow along.

(tweet link @Dodgers)

As you might know, the Dodgers had done the same thing for Hyun-Jin Ryu when they held his press conference the day before, and I wrote a post poking fun at some of the ridiculous questions asked then.  See that post here.

I figured following the Greinke "Tweet Seat" event would provide just as many laughs.  Instead, I was bored silly.  Maybe the fact that Ryu's name cast a wider net of goofballs since it's related to a popular video game character had something to do with it.

Anyway, I just didn't run into the same kind of idiocy in the Greinke Tweet Seat as I did in Ryu's.  So, instead, I thought I would share some of the answers Greinke gave to eager fans.  The complete thread is below.

There wasn't really much to learn except that he's an Orlando Magic fan (boo!), and his favorite Dodger is Sandy Koufax (yeah!).  On top of that, he list Adrian Gonzalez as the one player on the Dodgers roster he is most happy not to have to face again.  If you remember back, he said in the press conference that there were two Dodgers on the roster that he had no real plan on how to get out, but refused to name them.  Well, I think it's safe to say that Adrian is one of those Dodgers.

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Collection: Duke Snider 1994 Nabisco Autographed Card

Featured here is a 1994 Nabisco All-Star Legends autographed card of Duke Snider in my collection.

There is no doubt in mind that this is the most common Duke Snider autographed card in the hobby.   I remember going to card shows over the past couple decades and seeing giant stacks of them for sale- literally stacks in the hundreds.  They were so plentiful you had to figure they just tied Duke to a chair and had him sign non-stop for months.  Really, there are that many of these cards out there.

My recollection is that upwards of 5,000 cards were signed by Duke, but I can't seem to find exact information anywhere.  A 2010 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards does not provide a total.  I do know that they were distributed as part of a proof of purchase marketing program through their snack products.  You would send them $5 bucks, and they would send you an autographed card of a Hall of Famer.  Really, that's the best deal a collector could ever want.  Other Hall of Famers available in 1994 were Frank Robinson, Bob Gibson and Jim Palmer.  A Sparky Lyle cards is also available that year, but they were personally handed out at local events.  The 1993 promotional set includes Ernie Banks, Catfish Hunter, Phil Niekro and Don Drysdale.

BTW, if you're looking for an inexpensive Snider autograph this card is the best way to go.  You really shouldn't pay more than $10.00 for one on eBay, and be sure that it includes the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) - as shown above.  Although each card is not numbered and the COA doesn't specifically correspond to the card, you still need it for peace of mind. 

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