Bobby. BagPipes. Mickey’s injuries. Hammerin’ Hank. Teddy Ballgame.

•December 27, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Roberto Clemente making a great catch. Not enough great things can be said about Clemente as a player and a person. If there was a definition of a “Perfect Baseball Career” it would have to be Roberto Clemente’s.

 

An awesome photo of Jeff Bagwell in action at First Base. Bagwell was one of my favorite players growing up and still is to this day. 2011 is the first year that he is eligible for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame and while it is almost certain he will not be inducted this year, it would be a travesty if he does not in time get into the Hall within a few years. Hopefully before 2014, as the class eligible that year is filled with some unbelievable players. Also, a kind of crazy note: Bill James has recently listed Bagwell as the 4th best First Baseman of all time.

 


Mickey Mantle and the injuries that plagued him throughout his career.

 

The steroid issue in Baseball has been beaten to death and it is almost not even worth talking about any more as it is said and done in some aspects. In any case, I found this comic today while doing Google image searches for Hank Aaron and I really liked it for it’s humor and the point made. Hammerin’ Hank is still the true Homerun  king (I put Josh Gibson up there with him also) and will forever be until someone clean breaks the record.

 

Ted Williams and The Cleveland Shift.

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Some great Baseball videos on YouTube.

•December 25, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Pretty awesome video of both Satchel Paige and Warren Spahn pitching in Game 5 of the 1948 World Series.

 

Old footage of Bob Feller pitching.

 

I was way stoked to find this: the introduction of the 1989 National League All-Star team. Some of my Padres heroes from my childhood (Mark Davis, Tony Gwynn, Benito Santiago) being introduced brought back some serious memories.

 

Will Clark liked to party.

 

Nice little excerpt from a Cool Papa Bell interview….Of course Satchel Paige is  talked about!

 

And last but not least, a sweet 8 minute video on the legacy of the Homestead Grays. There is some great Negro League footage worth checking out in this video.

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My Recent eBay finds of the Baseball nature.

•December 23, 2010 • 1 Comment

2 of my favorite blogs that I follow are Comic Noize and Vinyl Noize which both have the same kind of idea: they comb through eBay and do reviews on Records/Music Related items & Comic Books/Comic Related items that are currently for sale. Sometimes there is an actual review or sometimes it is a funny story. There is no real actual guideline to their posts but they are very enjoyable to read if your into Records and Comic Books like myself. Check them out if you have some extra time on your hands.

The reason I bring up these 2 blogs is because it gave me an idea to do a little eBay & Amazon thing on ninety feet of perfection. The only difference is that I am going to put up photos of items I have personally purchased as pretty much the only thing I ever search for on eBay & Amazon are Baseball related items and the occasional Comic Book related item. Maybe it will be fun to read or maybe not, in any case I like looking at photos of what I have scored for pretty cheap prices. Enjoy!

 

Dave Winfield Padres Bobblehead: I love Winfield and I love him in a Friars uniform more than anything else, so when I saw this I knew I had to have it. In addition, I got it for dirt cheap ($1.50) so I could not turn it down. Something that got me extra stoked on this item is the fact that he is standing in old Jack Murphy Stadium, so rad.

 

20th Anniversary Padres Shirt: First of all, I don’t expect many people to appreciate this shirt. 2nd of all, I do not care. This shirt brought me back to my childhood as 1987/1988 was appropriately when my interest in Baseball first started taking off. I remember being in 3rd grade looking at my 1987 a& 1988 Topps Baseball cards I had collected and thinking that the guys that wore the Padres uniforms were god-like. These were the colors of the team that I fell in love with and I miss the Friars wearing these colors like crazy. I got this shirt for dirt cheap ($5.99) and it was obviously only worn once or twice. What’s great is that it is a XL but first like a Medium, so it fits perfect on me.

 

Satchel Paige Bobblehead: Yep another bobblehead, I actually don’t own too many so don’t think I am a crazy collector or anything. It’s pretty obvious from this blog that I am crazy about Satchel Paige and on top of that I am always on the lookout for cool Negro League related memorabilia and Satchel WAS the Negro Leagues in a sense. While he is wearing a Cleveland Indians uniform on this bobblehead, it’s still very cool. What sold me on purchasing this ($19.99) is that he is captured in mid-kick which you dont see in many bobbleheads. I felt like a little kid opening a present on Christmas morning when I got this in the mail.

 

Padres PCL League Patch: I decided to search “Padres & PCL” recently and found this little gem. According to the description (which who knows if it is legit) it says: 

Made out of felt.  This patch comes from 1960’s before the Padres became a MLB team. The Padres played in the Pacific Coast League and boasted such players as Ted Williams and Tony Perez. The last team that they were the minor league affiliate for was the Phillies. Hence the colors are red and blue. When the Padres became a major league team in 1969 their colors were yellow and brown. This patch was made before then.

Regardless of whether this patch is really from their days as a Phillies affiliate is up for debate as the patch looked almost brand new but I really don’t care as it was only $1.00. I promptly had my roommate sew it onto my messenger bag & now I am sure to get harassed by Giants fans on Muni on a regular basis when they notice it…not to say that hasn’t happened many times already when wearing SD hats or shirts.

 

Buck O’Neil Kansas City Monarchs Shirt: Now this is the eBay find that I am most excited about. An awesome Buck shirt for only $5.00 as it was 33% off. I found this and it made my day as I am such a nerd about Buck O’Neil and the Kansas City Monarchs. I got in the mail last night and wore it proudly today. It is in great condition and is now my favorite shirt that I own.

 

Joe Dimaggio San Francisco Seals Bobblehead: Ok, last bobblehead for awhile. So we have Joltin’ Joe in a Seals uniform, what’s not to like about this? These were given out at AT&T Park this last August and I actually had a ticket to go to the game and unfortunately I could not go at the last moment. It didn’t occur to me until recently to try and find one online and I did pretty quickly. I only spent $14.95 on this baby and don’t regret it whatsoever. PCL memorabilia of any kind is worth buying in my opinion and this straight up rules.

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The Pacific Coast League…again.

•December 20, 2010 • 1 Comment

It is very apparent that this blog often reflects my deep interest in Baseball leagues other than the Major Leagues as I often talk about the Negro Leagues, Independent Leagues and the old Pacific Coast League. The PCL is probably the league I am most fascinated with as I often spend a lot of time reading whatever books I can find on it and researching online about the teams and players that represented the league roughly from 1903 to 1958 or so.

As I have mentioned before, I am sure it has to do with the fact that I am a San Diego Padres fan and both my Grandmother and my Father used to watch the Padres when they were a PCL and/or Minor League team and the fact that I live in San Francisco. This city has a extremely deep Baseball history that goes back long before the Giants moved here in 1958. Last month I mentioned I am working on a PCL post focusing on just the San Francisco Bay area which is still in the works, but in the mean time I thought I would share these gems I have come across over time. Enjoy and I hope that in some way I spark some interest in the PCL in some of you who read my blog regularly.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, Artie Wilson recently passed away which really is sad. I really wish more people knew about this dude. Besides playing in the Major Leagues and Negro Leagues, he was a PCL star who played for 4 different teams in the league during his career. He played Shortstop with the Oakland Oaks from 1949 to 1950 and split the 1951 season between the New York Giants and Oakland Oaks.

This is a rare photo of the 1934 San Francisco Mission Reds aka. The Missions. The Missions represented San Francisco’s Mission District from 1926 to 1937. While the San Francisco Seals were one of, if not the most popular and celebrated teams of the PCL; the Missions could be called the red-headed step children of the league as they failed to gain acceptance by fans during their 12 year existence in San Francisco. According to wiki “The Missions were the team to watch only when the Seals were on the road” and from what I gathered that is pretty on point. They played in the shadows of the Seals and even played in the Seals homes (Recreation Park & Seals Stadium). This is not to say the Missions never had any success as a team but due to the fact that the Seals had such a solidified fan base, the team was bound for disaster in the long run. A cool little side note, a Baseball Club that I am a member of here in San Francisco adopted the Missions cap as our own.

Eddie Church. Another Missions find and I know I am not going to find much more online as Missions photos are hard to come by. I found this on Flickr of all places. The user’s name is _lmc and the information provided on the card goes as: “My grandfather played for the san francisco mission reds (aka missions) in the pacific coast league for a couple of years in the late 20’s/early 30’s. i found this baseball card at a card show – years ago and gave it to him before he died.”  Simply incredible.

The 1937 San Diego Padres. This is easily the best team photo I have come across online of the Padres from their second season in existence. That would be Ted Williams in the back row, 2nd from the right.

A October 5th, 1945 article in the LA times regarding a game between the Seattle Rainers and the Seals.

The 1946 San Francisco Seals. One thing that cannot be debated about the majority of the PCL teams is that they had extremely cool uniforms and logos. The Seals were no exception to this and their white home uniforms from 1946 were sweet. As I have mentioned before, all 3 DiMaggio brothers played with the Seals at some point or another and the oldest brother Vince is featured in this team photo in the bottom row, 2nd from the right.

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1908 Seals. Lefty. Joe. The Flying Dutchman. Tiant Jr & Sr.

•December 18, 2010 • Leave a Comment

The 1908 San Francisco Seals of the PCL. Holy shit, this rules.

 

Lefty O’Doul’s Baseball Card from 1952 as Manager of the old San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League. He was previously the Manager of the Seals from 1937 to 1951.

 

A great photo from the 1975 World Series. Joe Morgan up to bat and Carlton Fisk behind the plate. When I look at this photo, I like to think that this is a hanging curveball that Morgan is going to smash.

 

Honus Wagner at bat. Wow this photo is good, if I had a time machine one of things I would do is go back in time and check out Wagner play.

 

1975 World Series. Luis Tiant Jr of the Boston Red Sox watches his father Luis Tiant Sr throw out the ceremonial first pitch of the game. Fidel Castro himself allowed Tiant’s mother and father to leave Cuba to see their son play in the World Series which for the most part is unheard of. This is well documented in “The Lost Son Of Havana,” if you ever get a chance to watch this please do so. It is actually on Netflix Instant View, so you have no reason not to. By the way Tiant Sr, was a southpaw Negro League star who pitched from 1926 to 1947 and was known for his incredible screwball. Read up on him HERE.

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