From the National Sports Collectors Convention- Various Links and Videos

I just can't look at enough photos and videos from the National.  Here are some links to other websites I enjoyed checking out.

• Here are some photos downloaded onto facebook from reporter Michele Steele.
• Susan Lulgjuraj at Beckett writes about the ladies from the All American Girls Professional Baseball League.
• Panini America posted up a bunch of pics from Day 2.  Then some additional photos from the next day.
• Chris Olds from Beckett also put up a bunch of photos from the National.
• All About Cards put up some Day 2 photos.

Now, on to some notable videos.

Here is a WBAL TV11 News report covering the National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore.

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From the Upper Deck booth, UDA talks a bit about what they have at the show.

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Here are images from Day One from the 2012 National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore. See a 1938 Babe Ruth coach's jersey, Lou Gehrig's 1934 Tour of Japan uniform, and many other historic game worn uniforms on display. Also the collection of E98 cards from the Black Swamp Find, vintage full unopened boxes and display boxes, and cards being opened at the Panini booth.

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A Babe Ruth Baseball that was on auction through Heritage Auctions.

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Here is a box break of a brand new Baseball card product called Panini Triple Play.  It's an inexpensive card set geared towards children and cheap enough for a youngsters budget.

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Dodgers Blog Kiosk: 8/4/2012

Here is an autographed Clayton Kershaw guitar that was auctioned off at his recent BBQ and Hoedown charity event.  According to Dodgers on Demand reporter Jessica Rosales on twitter, it sold for $700.00.  BTW, the hoedown was a great success.

• Sigh.  Ruben Amaro, the Phillies GM, said this about the Dodgers claiming Cliff Lee off of waivers, ""It's irrelevant. He's not going anywhere,"via Paul Hagen ay MLB.com.
• The Dodgers just announced their July Dodger Pride Award winners for their minor league system, via a press release.  On Double-A pitcher Matt Magill:

Went 3-1 with a 2.48 ERA, the 11^th-lowest mark in the Southern League, in five July starts. The 22-year-old limited opponents to a .215 batting average during the month while walking only three and striking out 30 in 29.0 innings. The Simi Valley native was honored with his third selection as Southern League Pitcher of the Week for the period of July 9-15, tossing 6.0 scoreless innings and striking out seven in his only start during the week against Pensacola. Overall, Magill leads the league with 119 strikeouts in 107.1 innings and is tied for third on the circuit with eight wins (8-5) and a 4.11 ERA in 20 starts. Magill is in his fifth professional season after being selected in the 31^st round of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft.

• In Magill's first start in August he continued his great pitching by striking out 12, via Sam Dykstra at MiLB.com.

"That's the ultimate goal when I go out there," the Dodgers prospect said. "I love seeing the guy walk back to the dugout, frustrated, with his head down. It's a great feeling. It's why I'm a pitcher." 

• The Foul Bunt card blog shares some heirlooms from former Major Leaguer Eric McNair that includes an album from when he was a member of a 1934 barnstorming team that toured Japan before WWII. 
• It was Star Trek Night last night, and William Shatner was there to throw out the first pitch.

(twitter link @Dodgers)

• Sax at the Sons of Steve Garvey points to a Keith Law report on recent Dodgers signee Yasiel Puig, and it is positive.
• Then, Orel at Sons of Steve Garvey retells the entire Vin Scully call from last night to tweet AJ Ellis in order to get him trending.  It worked!

And I said get something trending? A.J. Ellis?

They are trending, twittering, tweeting — you name it — about A.J. Ellis all over the United States.

He's a nice boy.

Heck, I even joined the fun last night.  See one of tweets from last night below.

(twitter link)

• If you missed out on Vin Scully's twitter call from last night then watch the video below.

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Pics and Video from Clayton's BBQ

A big thanks to Cathy for providing a some photos from Clayton Kershaw's Texas BBQ and Hoedown in benefit of Kershaw's Challenge.  This was a charitable event that raised needed funds for various projects the Kershaw's have planned.  I wish I could have been there- if only to see our lefty ace get down on the dance floor.  BTW, Roberto at Vin Scully is My Homeboy also has a bunch of pics from the Hoedown, so be sure to check those out.  And if you're so inclined, go to Kershaw's Challenge and drop a little bit of coin.

Also on display were a couple of Kershaw's awards.  Here is his 2011 Cy Young Award.

Here is his Gold Glove.

Here are a couple of pics featuring AJ Ellis and Clayton Kershaw with Cathy's son, Christian.

To finish things off, Cathy also passed along a video from the event.  3 year old Christian pitches to A.J. Ellis as Clayton Kershaw looks on at the BBQ.  In fact, he's chomping down as some great looking ribs. 


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Wow! Dodgers Also Claimed Cliff Lee - Will We Get Him?

Will we be able to replace the Cliff Lee photo above with him in Dodger Blue?

Jon Morosi at FoxSports provides the news that the Dodgers did in fact submit a claim for Cliff Lee and they were first in line.  So, all that remains is for the Phillies to make the next move.  They can either:

• Remove him from the waiver wire in order to keep him,
• Let the Dodgers take him for no additional compensation to them (thereby allowing the Dodgers to take over the remaining portion of his contract), or
• Make a deal with the Dodgers, via a trade.

BTW, they have 3 days to make a deal.

(twitter link)

In the best of all worlds, the Phillies can just let him come to Los Angeles, so they can have some payroll room for next season.  More likely, they will try to finagle a deal to get a prospect or two for him.  Considering the value of Lee's back-loaded contract, I can't imagine we would be willing to give up too much.  On the other hand, nothing may come of this.

UPDATE:  A buddy of mine suggested sending Billingsley to the Phillies for Lee since we appear to be filled up in the starting rotation.  I'm not sure if I like this idea, but could probably be persuaded to see it as a good idea.  What do you think?

FYI, Lee is owed $11Mil for this season, $25Mil over the next 3 season, and $27.5Mil vesting option in 2016 (or a $12.5Mil buyout).  That final year becomes guaranteed with 200 innings pitched in 2015 or 400 innings pitched in 2014-15.

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Welcome to the Blue, Joe Blanton

This wasn't exactly the news I was hoping to hear today.  With news circulating that Cliff Lee had been placed on waivers, I had been crossing my fingers in the hopes that the Dodgers would take the plunge and claim him in order to work out a deal with the Phillies.  Instead, we find that the Dodgers did do something with the Phillies on the waiver wire, but it was not what I was expecting.  The Dodgers have confirmed that they have claimed right handed pitcher Joe Blanton, per their tweet earlier today.

(twitter link)

Oh well, I guess there still is time for something to happen on the Cliff Lee front for the Dodgers.  After all, according to Jon Heyman at CBS, Cliff Lee did not clear waivers, so someone claimed him and it's possible the Dodgers could still be involved there.  On a humorous note, Jimmy Bramlett at the LAist made me laugh.

(twitter link)

According to MLB Trade Rumors:

Blanton has a 4.59 ERA with 7.8 K/9, 1.2 BB/9 and a 43.9% ground ball rate in 133 1/3 innings for the Phillies this year. The 31-year-old earns $8.5MM -- $2.8MM between now and the end of the season -- and is set to hit free agency this fall.

Every National League team but the Giants, Cardinals, Pirates, Reds, Braves and Nationals appears to have passed on the chance to claim Blanton. He drew interest from the Orioles from leading up to the non-waiver trade deadline, but Baltimore was reluctant to match Philadelphia's asking price.

Anyway, check out Joe Blanton's career stats below from Baseball Reference.


UPDATE:  From the Dodgers press release:

Blanton was 8-9 with a 4.55 ERA for the Phillies this season, but had been strong of late, averaging 7.2 innings pitched in his last three starts and posting a 2.74 ERA (7 ER/23.0 IP) since July 16. During that stretch, he has limited opposing hitters to a .200 batting average (17-for-85), while striking out 20 and walking only two. Blanton has pitched 6.0 or more innings in each of his last 10 starts and made six quality starts in his last eight outings dating to June 14, posting a 3.55 ERA (23 ER/58.1 IP) and a .233 opponents’ average.

The right-hander currently leads the National League with a 6.39 strikeout-to-walk ratio and has issued just 1.22 walks per 9.0 innings, which also leads the league. When pitching 7.0 innings or more this season, Blanton is 7-1 with a 2.24 ERA (19 ER, 76.1 IP) in 10 starts.

Since 2008, Blanton has the fourth-best winning percentage among all Major League starters after the All-Star break, (.739, 17-6) and in his career, Blanton is 38-20 (.655) with a 3.83 ERA in 99 games after the break.

Based on the above, Blanton appears to be a strong finisher.  Hopefully this rings true.

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Dodgers Blog Kiosk: 8/3/2012

What an awesome photo!  A boy sells souvenirs outside Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1913 to 1957. (Corbis)  Pic via Sports Illustrated.  You can clearly see many PM-10 pins; including many of the different ribbons, mini-bats and dolls attached to them.

• Roberto at Vin Scully is My Homeboy provides some helpful tips about getting autographs.
• Hey, Steve Garvey is on twitter.
• Ben at Let's Go Dodgers finds a photo of everyone's favorite neurotic father of Malcolm in the Middle, Bryan Cranston, sporting a Dodgers jersey.  You gotta love celebrities showing their Dodger pride. 
• Dodger Bobble shares some pics from the recent Kirk Gibson bobblehead game.
• "Cliff Lee Reportedly On Waivers: Your Move, Dodgers," via True Blue LA.  Dave Cameron at FanGraphs argues that the Dodgers should claim him.

Is 4/100 a gross overpay for Lee for a team with massive revenues? I don’t think so. He probably won’t be worth that money, and it could even be pretty ugly by the last year of the deal, but Lee’s still an excellent pitcher right now and projects to remain one for the next several years. Given the significant difference he could make to the Dodgers organization right now and the mediocre alternatives that they’ll have to consider overpaying this winter, claiming Lee on waivers is a risk the Dodgers should take. 

• 2012 Topps Mini boxes were officially debuted at the National and they can be only purchased directly from Topps.  With each box purchase a 5 card promo set is given out to collectors.  Matt Kemp is included in the promo set.  See it below.

• The Smithsonian National Museum of American History writes about Civil War Baseball.
• Via Metro.us, What if Every Olympics Was Photographed Like Beach Volleyball.  Fair is fair, right?
• Numerous Baseball teams had their facebook pages hacked, via Deadspin.
• Wow! So this happened.  A minor league umpire ejected the stadium music engineer for playing the song "Three Blind Mice," via SBNation. Below is a video of the ejection, via YouTube.

• I love boxing, so the blatant rigging of fights in the Olympics has me pissed off.  Check out Deadspin for their report.

It was, by any account, the biggest competitive disgrace of the Olympics so far. And there's reason to ask if this was more than the usual Olympic boxing incompetence, but rather something more sinister.

• Via Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness, a video from Lone Star Dugout features the newest Dodgers Cuban prospect Yasiel Puig's first professional at-bat.

Yasiel Puig debut vs. AZL Giants (8/1/2012) from Jason Cole on Vimeo.

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