Celebrating Jackie - Take a Look at a Rare Pasadena Junior College Photo

With this unofficially being Jackie Robinson week, I'm gonna take a little bit of time to post up some rare photos I've run across and some memorabilia that I have in my own collection. 

To start off, I thought the below photo would be fun to share.  It is a vintage press photo that features Jackie along with 3 other teammates from Pasadena Junior College.  I ran into this pic on reddit this afternoon and immediately asked the poster if I could share it here.  Thankfully, the redittor who goes by "threeslaps" said yes. 

"Threeslaps" tells us that the gentleman on the far right is his grandfather, Warren Williams.  As is often the case, the photographer wanted to feature the main subject in the center of the photo, so Warren was "x'ed" out (so to speak).  In fact, I've seen versions of this photo before (with only the three guys), but never had I seen the complete photo that includes threeslaps grandfather.  Unfortunately, I do not know who the other 2 gentlemen are.

(pic link)

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Game 7 Game Preview: The Dodgers First Road Trip

Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego Padres

Josh Beckett vs. Clayton Richard

Game Start: 3:40 p.m., April 9
TV: KCAL, MLB Network
Radio: 570 AM (English), 1020 AM (Spanish)

This game is the Padres home opener to the 2013 Baseball season.  Hopefully the Dodgers can play spoilers.

• As Jbox at Gaslamp Ball writes, the Padres first 6 games of the season may be a bad sign of things to come.  
• BTW, both tomorrow and Friday's game have conflicts with Prime Ticket, so they are tape delayed.  Fortunately, some alternatives exist if you want to watch them live.  Go here for more info.

Dodgers Lineup:

(twitter link)

Padres Lineup:

(twitter link)

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Happy Birthday, AJ Ellis!

Oh, Captain!  Thou are great behind the dish.  In honor of your date of birth, I have immortalized you.  You have been Warholized.

The Dodgers also tweeted their own birthday pic of AJ Ellis.  See it below.

(twitter link)

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Blog Kiosk: 4/9/2013 - Kershaw Named Player of the Week

Clayton Kershaw has been named National League Player of the Week.  Pic via twitter @Dodger.  From a Dodgers press release:

Kershaw went 2-0 in two starts last week and did not allow a single earned run in a Major League-high 16.0 innings of work. His 0.00 ERA ranked tied for first among Major League starters. His two victories ranked tied for first in the Majors and were tops in the N.L., while his 16 strikeouts were good for third-most in the Senior Circuit.

Furthermore, Kershaw walloped a home run on Opening Day to help his own cause.

• BTW, Jon Heyman at CBS passed along a tidbit that although a new long term deal for Kershaw doesn't appear imminent, it is likely already over the $200 Million mark.
• Just awesome!  GCRL shares the completion of his 1978 Fleer grand slam hi-gloss baseball stickers reverse poster of Dodger Stadium.
• "He interviewed Jackie Robinson near the end," via Ron Rapoport at LA Observed Native Intelligence.  Hat Tip: Jon Weisman at Dodger Thoughts.  Jon is right.  This is a must read for anyone interested in Jackie Robinson.
• "Carl Crawford is loving the fresh breezes of L.A.," via Mark Saxon at ESPN.

“You see how loose Matt is right now going through it. That’s how I was,” Crawford said. “I’m like, ‘I’m going to hit.’ I was exactly the same way. He’s not stressing or worried, but if he was in Boston right now, they’d probably be ready to trade him, you know? “

• "Ramon Hernandez ready for new role with Dodgers," via Eric Stephen at True Blue LA.

"This is one of the best pitching staffs in the major leagues. You have Kershaw, Greinke, Beckett. You're talking about number ones and number twos," Hernandez said. "They have so many good pitchers I forgot to name a few."

• LA Times reporter and Hockey Hall of Fame member Helene Elliott has more details about the proposed hockey game at Dodger Stadium in 2014.

The game would be played at night to avoid sun on the ice. The rink could be in place a week before and a week afterward to stage community events, minor league games or alumni games with Dodger Stadium as a stunning backdrop. The Kings are considering designing a special commemorative uniform that would be worn only for that game.

• This does not make me happy.  Red Sox President Larry Lucchino at WEEI recently remarked:

On last summer’s trade with the Dodgers: “We got a lot of what we wanted. Ben [Cherington] did an excellent job with the pitchers [Allen Webster and Rubby De La Rosa], and holding out for both of them. We would have been happy I think to get one. We were really pleased to get two.”

So, are you telling me that we could have gotten away with just trading one of those guys?  Son of a ....!

• Kenny Shulsen at Lasorda's Lair shares a talk he recently had with Dodgers GM Ned Colletti.
• Steve Wulf at ESPN writes about how Topps has kept the magic of Baseball cards alive for 62 years.
• Mike Oz at Big League Stew writes: ‘The Sandlot’ turns 20: Stories from the cast on the film’s 20th anniversary.

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2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Baseball - Dodgers' Relics

Finishing up on the Dodgers' cards within Topps 2013 Gypsy Queen Baseball card set, I now show the various relic insert cards that are available.  To take a look at the other Dodgers' cards I've shown so far go to this link.

First up are the mini card button cards.  As you can see, it includes an actual button piece from a game jersey.  Both Andrian Gonzalex and Clayton Kershaw are included, but I have only seen the Gonzalez card so far.  See it below.  Each card is numbered to only 3 copies.

#MBC-AG Adrian Gonzalez

These are your more basic game-used jersey relic cards.

Relic Cards

1 Per Hobby Box - Black Parallel #/25

#GQR-AE Andre Ethier                      #GQR-DG Dee Gordon

#GQMR-CK Clayton Kershaw                      #GQMR-MK Matt Kemp

#GRMR-JR Jackie Robinson

Topps also made inserted art cards that included an embedded piece of a uniform.  They are all unique and are numbered "1 of 1".  Topps shared a photo of the Clayton Kershaw card on twitter.  It is below.  A Don Sutton and Tommy Lasorda card exist, as well.

Original Patch Cards

#OAP-CK Clayton Kershaw 1/1

Also available are Bat Barrel cards of Duke Snider, Matt Kemp and Adrian Gonzalez.  They are also numbered to just 1 copy.  See them below.  I have yet to see the Adrian Gonzalez card.

Bat Barrel Cards

#BB-DS Duke Snider

#BB-MK Matt Kemp

Below are the Jumbo Relic cards.  Andre Ethier, Dee Gordon and Hanley Ramirez are in this insert set.  I have yet to see the Hanley Ramirez card.

Jumbo Relic Cards

#GQR-AE Andre Ethier

#GQR-DG Dee Gordon

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A King Reacts to Hockey in Chavez Ravine

Mayor's Manor blog has become essential reading for LA Kings fans everywhere.  Heck, Mayor's Manor may be essential reading for all hockey fans.  After all, you don't get named "Blog of the Year" by Yahoo Sports' Puck Daddy and the "Best Sports Blog in LA" by LA Weekly for nothing.  And with Kings hockey looking like it will be heading for Dodger Stadium, it may soon become essential reading for Dodgers fans, as well.

Following up on my post from yesterday on the news that hockey may be played at Chavez Ravine, John Hoven at Mayor's Manor shares some responses from Kings defenseman Drew Doughty about the future Winter Classic game in a post this afternoon.

- On the Kings playing January 2014 at Dodger Stadium: “No, I didn’t see that. Who are we playing? (The Ducks.) Oh, cool, that’d be cool. Yeah, I don’t understand how that would work…”
Rob Scuderi from across the room – “They’ll put an ice rink on the field Dewey.” (lots of laughs)
- Doughty: “Isn’t it too hot? The ice would be crappy for sure. It’d be fun though, playing in front of a bigger crowd instead of the 18,000 or whatever an NHL rink is. To be able to do that would be fun.”

Drew is right.  The ice is likely to be slushy and bad to play on.  Still, I wouldn't miss this event for the world. 

BTW, playing in the outdoor heat isn't without precedent.  In September 1991, the Kings and New York Rangers played an outdoor exhibition game at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas that got as warm as 95 degrees during the game.  As you can imagine it created some significant challenges.  Via Melody Huskey at LAKings.com:

The weather itself did not provide difficulties during the game, but the conditions were less than ideal for creating the ice. Kings color commentator and former Kings forward Jim Fox was on hand to call the game with Bob Miller, but first he had to help out in preparing the ice.

“They had a sheet of ice in the back parking lot and they put a tarp over it elevated above the ice about six or eight feet to keep direct rays of the sunlight off the ice” said Fox. “But when they were taking the tarp down, they let the tarp hit the ice.

On top of that, grasshoppers made a strange appearance. 

“There were these big giant grasshoppers jumping on the ice” said Kings President of Business Operations and former player Luc Robitaille. “They would land on the ice and freeze right there, so by the end of the second period they were everywhere on the ice and it was kind of funny.”

Just over 22 years later ice rink technology has advanced significantly, so I wouldn't expect many issues, although the ice may still be less than ideal for a game.

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