text: 1st Vice Commander Roy Dixon from the American Legion Post 9 in Garden City shared the following remarks during Saturday's Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Kansas Veteran's Cemetery at Fort Dodge:
  1st Vice Commander Roy Dixon from the American Legion Post 9 in Garden City shared the following remarks during Saturday's Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Kansas Veteran's Cemetery at Fort Dodge: "We could quote for you the statistics of individuals buried around the country, but all you would have is a bunch of numbers. We instead, ask you to take a moment and visit a gravesite. Write down the information on the person placed there and when you return home, research their name on the Internet and find out all you can about this person. You will find they were real Americans with families, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles. They were and are more than just a statistic."
  This coming August 14th is the 4th Annual Blue Heaven Sleepover at Dodger Stadium. What a great name to call it- "Blue Heaven."
  The Dodger game against the Diamondbacks will air on DodgerVision at 6:40 p.m. after which fans will have the opportunity to play catch on the field and watch “Field of Dreams” before sleeping under the stars. Fans are asked to bring their own sleeping bags, as tents will not be permitted inside Dodger Stadium.
  The price of the event is $200 per adult and $100 per child and includes a Dodger goodie bag, dinner, and a buffet breakfast. The Dodgers are also offering a special family price of $500 for two adults and two children. The first 200 people who purchase spots will receive a free sleeved blanket.
  It's a little pricey for me right now, but if you have the means I think this should be worth a look. Go here for more info.
  Here is a sneak peek at Manny's new bobblehead that will be given out on September 16th. It is being called the "Curtain Call" bobblehead.
  Joe Landrum had a fairly short stay in the Majors in 1950 and 1952 for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was a right handed starter who showed some promise in the minors. He had won 19 games for the AA Fort Worth team in 1949 and had a career Minor League ERA of 2.71 while recording 81 wins. Then, like many ballplayers of the period, he entered the service in 1953 and never again reached the Majors afterwards. Nevertheless, his son, Bill Landrum, did get to have a decent 8 year career in the late 80's and early 90's.
  Below is another letter written to Roy and dated from 1976. He ask the old Dodger about his time in the pro's, the players he knew and his fondest memory. Being an old Dodger farmhand means he hung out with some very well known Dodger players. He list Tommy Lasorda, Danny Ozark, Sparky Anderson, Dick Williams, Chuck Connors as former teammates.
  "However, one of my fondest memories concerning the sport is that I was elected to the Clemson University Athletic Hall of Fame two years ago, only the second baseball player to be selected. The first was Billy O’Dell, who pitched for Baltimore, Washington, Atlanta, etc. This was especially pleasing to me since it came at a much later stage in my life, after the Baseball days were over.”
  In his first start as a freshman at Clemson, March 29, 1946, he pitched against Carl Erskine and threw a complete game no-hitter, striking out 15 with no walks. Go here to his Clemson Tigers page for more about him.
  For several years now card manufacturers have been hiring artist to produce paintings that would eventually end up on a card. From time to time, the original paintings would end up for sale. Currently, Upper Deck is selling several paintings that are worth taking a look at. See all of the available paintings here.
  Since I am a rabid King fan I am especially smitten with this Rogie Vachon painting that was used for the 2008-09 UD Masterpieces hockey release.
  With the recent citywide celebration of the Lakers championship I would be remiss not to include a painting that features the team. There are 3 Laker paintings available, but only one really caught my eye. Michael Cooper was my favorite Laker. Check out his painting below.
  As some of you hardcore Sports collectors already know, this weekend is the 30th annual National Sports Collectors Convention being held in Cleveland, OH. The opening sneak peek was held last night. Once again, I am left to wallow at home as others get to enjoy the most important event of the year for sports collectors. So, instead of sulking I will pass along some great links of others who are in attendance.
  JamesRyanJ shares a free poster featuring T206 cards. He also has other pics in his TwitPic album which I am sure will be added to throughout the weekend.
  MUST GO HERE! SportsAntiques.com once again will post a bunch of pics (I mean a whole bucketload) from the National. See them here. Throughout the week this site should be the first place you go to as it will be constantly updated.
  UPDATE. How could I forget about Beckett. They will be posting all week from the National and already have several videos available from Cleveland. Check them all out here. In fact, check out all of their YouTube Videos from the event here.
  It appears that the Dodgers have shored up their relief staff with the addition of Orioles left handed closer George Sherrill. Of course, this is still pending official confirmation.
  MLB.com's Ken Gurnick reports that the Dodgers acquired George Sherrill for Josh Bell and righty Steve Johnson.
  This is a great pick-up. He should add some depth and solidify an already good bullpen- they just need a little help to get us over the hump.
  For those whose morning ritual includes scanning through the sports page of your daily newspaper to find the box scores, today is your opportunity to give thanks. 150 years ago the original Baseball historian, Henry Chadwick, invented the box score.
  He is credited with devising the baseball box score (which he adapted from the cricket scorecard) for reporting game events. The first box score was a grid with nine rows for players and nine columns for innings. The original box scores also created the often puzzling abbreviation for strikeout as "K" - "K" being the last letter of "struck" in "struck out." The basic format and structure of the box score has changed little since the earliest of ones designed by Chadwick. He is also credited with devising such statistical measures as batting average and ERA.
  The above plaque is from his grave in Brooklyn, New York. Check out this link to see the rest of his burial site. It is adorned with Baseball equipment and memorabilia.
  Here is another Allen & Ginter rarity currently up for auction on eBay. Below is a "1 of 1" sketch card drawn by famed sports artist Dick Perez of Manny Ramirez. You may know Perez from his artwork that was a regular feature in Donruss Baseball sets in the 80's and a collaborative postcard series created with Frank and Peggy Steele called Perez-Steele postcards. The below card has 3 days left and is already up to $635.99.
  Here is an incredible story from Cooperstown of a recent meeting between Pete Rose and Sparky Anderson.
  Are you good with photoshop and love Baseball? Well, join Goose Joak as he calls out for some custom made original Allen & Ginter cards.
  Check out these photos from comic-con 2009 in San Diego. Or go here. Or here. Or here. Or here. But you should really go here.
  I hear that Matt Kemp was a little tipsy at the ESPY's. Of course, it appears that truth is more boring than fiction.
  Erin Andrew's was cornered at LAX and spoke about getting whacked in the face with a ball at Dodger Stadium (Hat Tip: Diamond Leung)
  Ichiro paid his respects to George Sisler at his grave. He had broken Sisler's single season hits record in 2004.
  I don't know if this is real or not, but I got a good laugh about it. Mickey Mantle was quite the player- if you know what I mean? NSFW (Hat Tip: Memories of Kevin Malone)
  Upper Deck is trying to cash in on the Michael Jackson's gravy train. They will be inserting 4 different limited edition cards of him in their upcoming 2009 UDx Baseball set. See one below. See them all at Wax Heaven. So are these cards a cheap gimmick or a worthy tribute? (Hat Tip: Wax Heaven)
  What is great about this card is how distinctive it is. I'm not talking about the player (who had a 12 year career that ended in infamy), but a location that any Baseball novice can immediately tell you about. This 1993 Upper Deck card of Denny Neagle features a pic of him being engulfed by the outfield ivy at Wrigley Field before an afternoon game. He looks carefree as he is probably just hanging out before the game snagging batting practice balls. Well, he's hanging out since running after Baseballs seems to be the furthest thing on his mind. I would do anything to just have a moment to lay back on that ivy wall for just a second.
  Modern cards borrowing their design from vintage sets is all the rage today. Topps has the Allen & Ginter set, Upper Deck will be releasing their inaugural Goodwin Champions set and now TriStar (maker of minor league cards) has Obak.
  As indicated above, TriStar has become the preeminent producer of Minor League Baseball cards for the hobby, so it only makes sense that their throwback set take its design from a vintage minor league set. Obak tobacco cards were produced from 1909 to 1911 and featured only West Coast minor league teams and players. They are very rare and complete sets are scarce in the hobby. VG examples of common cards will set you back about $65 to $85 a piece. The vintage set has been designated as T212 and are of the same size as other tobacco issues from the period. Go to this link for some more info about it.
  Anyway, the only card released so far that interest us Dodger fans is the below Duke Snider autographed card with him in his Texas League Fort Worth Cats uniform. When this photo was originally taken he could only dream of the Hall of Fame career he would eventually have.