Dodgers Blog Kiosk: 12/26/2012

Dodgers photographer Jon SooHoo shared a late 80's pic of Dodger Stadium organist Nancy Bea Keulen Hefley.  (photo credit: Jon SooHoo LA Dodgers)

• Marc Hulet at FanGraphs shares his list of top 15 Dodgers prospects.
• Old Time Family Baseball shares a recording of the Dodgers 1959 as told by Vin Scully.  Listen to it here. You can even download both the A and B sides of the record to enjoy later on.
• It's been "15,000 Days Since Two Big Dodger Trades," via Chris Jaffe at Hardball Times.
• How the mighty have fallen.  Andruw Jones was arrested on Christmas Morning for domestic battery, via a AP report on Yahoo.
• David Schoenfield at ESPN writes a great piece about recently visiting the Philadelphia Sports Card and Memorabilia Show in Prussia, PA earlier this month.
• TPM shares a bunch of great photos that celebrate the year in space.  Check them out here.
• Are you ready for the coming deluge of end-of-the-year best-of lists?  Check out the below video featuring 50 of the best viral videos of 2012. 

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Rize Draft Baseball - Dodgers Cards - Yasiel Puig

There's a brand new card set in the hobby.  While doing some searching on eBay I ran across a card company I had never heard of.  They were a non-licenced kind of concoction with no team logos and a poorly crafted design.  Still, it focused on many up-'n-coming prospects; including Yasiel Puig, so I had to pay attention.

The card company is called Rize, and the set has been dubbed Rize Draft.  On the reverse it indicates Leaf Trading Cards as the manufacturer, so I naturally assumed it was one of their products.  As I read more about the cards on a forum thread on FCB, I realized my assumption was wrong.  Rize is a separate company who purchased a licence from Leaf and had them produce the cards on their behalf.  This actually caused a bit of confussion and controversy on the FCB thread, so Leaf President Brian Gray responded to collectors on the thread.  

The cards appear to only be available online, via eBay, from a handful of dealers.  It's likely that cards were sold directly to those sellers.  For the time being, there are no packs available, and no autographed cards - although, an advertising sheet I saw indicates that some autographs will be made.  Of note, these cards provide the only base cards available for many newly drafted prospects.  For instance, the only Yasiel Puig non-autographed base cards in the hobby are these cards.

See the Rize Draft Dodgers cards below (front and reverse).  Click on any pic to embiggen.

#67 Yasiel Puig

#79 Corey Seager

#90 Jesmuel Valentin

This is a part of a insert set called World Class.  Yasiel Puig is the only Dodger in the set.

Here is another insert card of Puig called Rize of the Prodigy.

This insert set is called Emergence and includes both Puig and Seager.

The card below clearly looks like it should be an autographed multi-card.

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Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

I just couldn't resist making this holiday themed fantasy card of Tommy Claus and Alyssa Milano.

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Dodgers Blog Kiosk: 12/24/2012

Matt Luke, Paul LoDuca, Sweet Lou Johnson and Bobby Castillo are at the Holiday Ham Giveaway at Dodger Stadium on December 18, 2012.  Photo Credit: Larry Goren/ LA Dodgers 2012.

• Murray Chass writes of the "Battle for LA in Baseball and Geography."

Finding the name intellectually offensive from the day Moreno announced it, I bring it up now because of recent developments. If the name the Angels have usurped were legitimate, Major League Baseball could promote one of the highlights of the coming season as the battle for Los Angeles. The Angels and the Dodgers have certainly spent a lot of time and money creating that picture.

• The Jackie Robinson game-used jersey on auction through Lelands that I featured in a post last week closed at an astounding $401,968 (including the 19.5% buyer's permium).

• David Laurila at FanGraphs interviews Dodgers pitching prospect Chris Reed.



(credit: Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept.)

• Former Angels wunderkind slugging prospect Dallas McPherson has just been signed by the Dodgers to play in AAA, via Eric Stephen at True Blue LA.
• Come on man!  Why do you have to disrespect the uniform like that?  Some idiot has been roaming East LA robbing stores decked out in LA Dodgers gear.  This guy really sucks. Story at CBSLA.com.  See the suspects photo to the right.
• The Dodgers wish you a happy holidays!

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Collection: A Couple of Andre Ethier 2007 SPx Signatures

With all of the talk and crazy rumors centered on whether the Dodger will trade Andre Ethier, I thought sharing these two cards of him would be timely.

Featured here are a couple of Andre Ethier 2007 Upper Deck SPx Young Star Signatures cards.  The top card is the base autographed insert card, and the silverish card is a parallel autographed card that is numbered to 25 copies.

As to whether the team should trade our right fielder?  I say no.  Why bother making what amounts to an incrimental change when we have a slugger who would more than suffice.  Was he the best option we can get out there?  No, but I think it's safe to say we are much better off in that position that a vast majority of the league. 

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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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