Dodgers Blog Kiosk: 9/21/2012

How awesome is this picture.  The Space Shuttle Endeavor flew over Dodger Stadium this afternoon.  Pic via LikeAgaveF on reddit. This might originally be a @Dodgers pic from instagram- I'm not really sure.

• No!  Stop it.  Shut him down already.  There is no need to threaten his (and our) future by having Kershaw pitch again this season.  Via Dylan Hernandez at the LA Times, "Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw Throws Off Mound, Raising Hopes of His Return."
• Tom Hoffarth of the Daily News takes a look back at the Summer of Stanley.
• The Dodgers Blogs Softball Tournament is next weekend.  Go here to sign up.
• A couple of Dodgers prospects help Israel to advance in the WBC Baseball tournament, via Christopher Jackson at Examiner.com.
• Patrick Dorsey at ESPN puts together a great interview with Dodgers photographer Jon SooHoo.

"Probably my biggest problem is I shot so much film. I have filing cabinets' worth of slides, negatives, color negatives, black-and-white negatives from format cameras that I shot. It's just a very large library of stuff.

“A lot of my best stuff is on film -- which is the Joe Montana years, and Jerry Rice, and old Dodgers stuff. ... There's a lot of images that I haven't even gotten to that have been shot on film that someday, maybe, will be digitized at some point."  

Hopefully, we'll get an opportunity to see some of those.

• Brandon Stroud at With Leather brings to you the Brady Bunch's 20 Greatest Sports Moments. 
• Ballhawk king Zach Hample was kicked out of the Dodgers/Nationals doubleheader, via Deadspin.
• This is what I've been waiting for.  The Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings recently announced a special DVD that includes Bob and Jim's call from Game 6 of the Finals.  Below is a preview from that game that includes the 5 minute major penalty from the 1st period and the Kings first goal.  (Hat Tip: LA Kings Insider)
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eBay: A Couple of Jim Gilliam Personal Awards

I recently ran across a very interesting lot on eBay featuring some memorabilia from a beloved Dodger- Jim Gilliam.  As you know, Gilliam spent his entire Major League career with the Dodgers franchise- from 1953 to his untimely death in 1978.  

During his playing days he garnered Rookie of the Year honors in 1953, earned 2 All-Star berths and was a member of 4 World Championship teams.  Not considered a superstar, he did the little things that were required to win.  Gilliam played the game with the kind of intelligence unequal during his time, and the versatility that allowed him to play just about any position at a moments notice. 

During the tail-end of his career he served the Blue Crew as a player/coach in 1964 and became a full-time coach in 1967.  He had the ambition to be the manager one day, and even interviewed for the Dodgers job after Alston's retirement- Lasorda and Gilliam were the only candidates.  As history tells us, Lasorda would become the manager, but that didn't stop Gilliam from continuing to serve the team as best he could.  Til his death, he remained loyal to the Dodgers.

To this day, Jim Gilliam remains the only Dodgers number to be retired who is not in the Hall of Fame.  In September of the 1978 pennant race, Jim Gilliam fell into a coma due to a cerebral hemorrhage and died nearly a month later- the day after the Dodgers won the National League title.  Two days later the Dodgers would formally honor him by retiring number #19.  If you want to check out a great biography on the man go to the SABR website, here.

(eBay Auction Link)

Featuring in this post are two personal awards given to Jim Gilliam from the Carson Black Heritage Association and some golfing buddies.  See the eBay auction here.  Strangely, the first award (the one directly above) was given to his family after his death, which naturally got me wondering if this was real.  So, I did a little bit of research and discovered that this along with many other personal effects were originally sold in a 1981 estate auction through Goldberg Auctioneers.  See that sale here (Auction #12).  It was a part of a 5 trophy lot that sold for $207.

Since I came across the original estate sale, I thought I would feature other items from Jim Gilliam's playing days that I thought were worth a look.

Below is his 1955 World Series ring.  It has sold for $26,450 in 1981.

Below is his 1959 World Series ring.  It originally sold for $7,475.

A 1963 Commemorative World Series Bowl.  It sold for $541.

And here is a memorabilia item I have never seen before.  Below is a 1971 East-West All-Stars glass and silver plated vessel.

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Just Awesome! Jackie Robinson Movie Trailer is Out

The first movie trailer for "42" the Jackie Robinson movie is out, and it looks good.  Let's hope it's as riveting as this preview.  The film is expected to hit the big screens in April.  (Hat Tip: Steve Dilbeck at the LA Times)

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Dodgers Dream Day Raffle- Help a Great Cause While Maybe Winning Something Cool

Do you want to have the ultimate Dodgers experience?  Well, check out the raffle at Omaze.com for details on Dodger Dream Day.

One lucky fan (plus a guest) will meet the Dodgers on the field for batting practice, shadow Dodgers CEO Stan Kasten, sit in the press box for a game against the Rockies on September 28th, and get field level seats.  

All you have to do is purchase a raffle ticket.  If you don't win, don't fret.  You should know that proceeds from the raffle sale will benefit InsideOUT Writers.

InsideOUT writer’s goal is to reduce recidivism among juvenile offenders by providing youth and young adults with tools for pro-social means of self-expression. IOW offers two innovative programs: The Writing Program offers writing classes for youth incarcerated at four Los Angeles juvenile detention facilities.  The Alumni Program provides a continuum of care for former Writing Program participants (Alumni) who have been released from detention.

Raffle tickets are inexpensive and looks like it helps a great cause.  Go here for more information.

BTW, Omaze.com has a whole bunch of charitable raffles going on; including experiences with Lady GaGa, Meet the Press, a recording session with Moby, etc.  So, be sure to check them out.

Hat Tip: Sports Business Digest

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Dodgers Blog Kiosk: 9/20/2012

Here is a photo of several Dodgers during the rain delay from Tuesday.  Taken by Jon SooHoo/ LA Dodgers 2012.

• Kemp on that strange scoring play from last night, via Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times.

“I probably should’ve just been running forward and not looking back,” Kemp said. “That was close. I don’t know if I made it or not.”

Told he didn’t make it, Kemp smiled.

“Yeah, I don’t think I did,” he said. “We got lucky right there.”

• Sports Collectors Daily features a scrapbook that was put together by a wife of a former White Sox scout that suggest that the Sox was offered Babe Ruth.  

Mills did as he was instructed and the next telegram from Comiskey, dated June 17, 1914, reads “Secure best price on men mentioned in your wire and when Dunn will deliver advise me at once.”  The names of the six players are written in vintage pencil notations along the base of the telegram: “Cree, Daniels, Twombley [sic], Midkiff, Derrick, Ruth.”

An unknown number of years later, Mills’ wife, Ethel, perhaps realizing the historical importance of this particular telegram, felt obligated to provide further details of the negotiations taking place at that time. Writing along the bottom and right-hand borders of the album page, framing the telegram, she added:  “Note: Earl told me he could have all six men for $18,000 but Comiskey turned thumbs down. Too much money. Ethel.”

• I didn't watch Survivor last night, but I understand that Jeff Kent suffered a severe knee injury, per FoxSports.

Kent reportedly suffered torn knee ligaments during a scene with a raft on Wednesday — no more than 10 minutes into the episode. It remains to be seen how the injury will affect him going forward, but we hope that it doesn't force his fellow castaways' collective hand in voting him off the island.

They haven't even had the chance to know Kent and dislike him, yet.

• With the news circulating that AEG is for sale (they own the Kings, Galaxy, several other sports teams, Staples Center and a bunch of other stadiums) speculation now circles around who are the likely buyers.  I suspect Guggenheim (the main Dodgers owner) will be involved, and now we hear from Bill Shaikin of the LA Times that LA's wealthiest man is also interested-- Patrick Soon-Shiong.
• Sports Illustrated puts together their list of 100 Top Twitterer's to follow.
• Chad Moriyama has a gif of the most awkward tag/non-tag ever.
• This is easily the best Baseball story of the year.  Via John Erardi at Cincinnati.com, "Ted Joins Reds for a Day, but Changed Team Forever".
• Jon Weisman at Variety writes about the newest Baseball flick to hit the big screens- Trouble with the Curve.

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2012 Topps Triple Threads- The Dodgers Base Cards

It's hard to believe that Topps Triple Threads is in its 7th year.  I didn't figure that it would be so popular, but here it is- a new set for collectors to fawn over.  As the name suggest, it features many of the games biggest stars paired with a triple dose of game-used jersey relics.  It remains to be seen if the set can survive the recent turmoil surrounding the game-used jersey's scandal, but for now we might as well enjoy what it offers.

Below are the Dodgers base cards to the set.  They do not have any jersey pieces embedded with in them (I'll feature those later).  Five Dodgers are represented; including 3 Hall of Famers.  Over the past several days I've been collecting images of the autographed/jersey relic cards of every Dodger I can find, so expect a bunch of postings over the next week or so featuring them.  There's a whole bunch out there, and I'm going to do my best to put them all up.

Anyway, check out the Kemp, Koufax, Snider, Kershaw and Jackie cards below.  As always, there are parallel versions of these cards in packs.  The below cards are the most common version.

12 Matt Kemp

34 Sandy Koufax

61 Duke Snider

95 Clayton Kershaw

98 Jackie Robinson

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