State of the Blog, May 13, 2013

I am still here and reading all your blogs.  My time is being consumed with work and putting stuff on ebay to finance my trip to San Diego next month.  I will be driving down the California and Oregon coasts with some friends.  We  will taking Hiway 1 from the Southern Oregon coast to San Diego.  I am going to get to see two Padres games against the Braves.  This will be the  first time I have been to Petco Park, I am looking forward to it.  I also plan on spending some time going to card shops and Goodwilling.  I am going to spend a night with Travis of Punk Rock Paint fame, and his wife.  See the latest issue of Becketts Sports Card Monthly for more information on what Travis has been doing.  Those of you who live or have lived in San Diego, what local card shops should I make sure to visit.

I have been picking up a few cards here and there and have gotten a few spring training TTM request back, including one from Spring Training 2012.  I will packages going out to several of you when I get back from my trip in mid June.

I am going to try and blog here and on my other blog readerman.us during the whole trip, we will visiting several places that I used to live along the California coast.  If you don't know of my other blog, readerman.us, I review everything I read.  Stop by and visit me there also.

Game 2, 0-2

In game  2 my favorite current Padre came up with the loss, although this time the Padre hitters did a little better than Monday.  Gyorko and Hundley both had hits and Evereth Cabrera had two hits, put got picked off at first attempting to steal.  If the bats continue to increase their productivity, things may turn around.  I would like to see the team salvage one on Wednesday.
I had big dreams the way the team finished the season last year.  I had not envisioned the Padres starting out with two losses to the Mets, who many people had thought would be terrible.  As one friend of mine constantly reminds me, wait at least until one third of the season is over before starting to panic.

Game One-0-1

I had high hopes for this year, but this is not the way I saw things beginning.  Edinson Volquez only went three innings and gave up something like six runs in three innings and the Padres only had 4 hits in the whole game.  Hopefully things will get better for the team and they will come together as a team.  I am not yet ready to give up on the team yet.

There is kickstarter and indiegogo, but I am using Ebay

I have funded several projects on Kickstarter, including a book about the intersection of dance and baseball and a movie about women playing baseball.  I have looked at indiegogo but am not a fan of that particular model.  I am taking a trip to San Diego in June so I am trying to fund that trip by selling items on ebay.  Dodger fans check out the True 1/1 Autograph of legendary Dodger outfielder and Hall of Famer Duke Snider, relic collectors and Tony Gwynn fans that are some awesome and unusual relics of Mr. Padre available.  There are Ozzie Smith, Dennis Eckersley and Trevor Hoffman relics, inserts from various sets and an autographed card of Marvel Comics editor Joe Quesada.  Thank you for your help.  Here is a link to the items  on sale

A picture that needs to be a card

A Pilgrimage Must be Funded

I will be heading south in June of this year.  A friend is going to a conference in San Diego and asked me to drive down with him.  I agreed so we are going to drive along the Oregon and California coast and end up in San Diego just in time to see the Padres whup the Braves for three games.  I also hope to visit with the proprietor of Punk Rock Paint and his talented wife, and maybe listen to the musical stylings of Rob Deez and Isaac Cheong.  I have to pay for the trip so I am putting several items up on ebay.  I am going to try and sell a bunch of stuff from every team, I even have a true 1/1 from a Dodger Hall of Famer that will be going up eventually.  If you are interested in helping out here is a list of the things that I currently have for sale on ebay. Thank you for your help.

The Padres year by year 1969

I have an autographed card from each year the Padres have been a major league franchise.  I have chosen a different player to represent each year.  I will showcase that card in this feature until we get to this year.

In 1968 four cities were awarded major league baseball expansion franchises.  Montreal, Kansas City, Seattle and San Diego started playing in the major leagues in 1969.  In 1968 an expansion draft was held to stock the teams from the current major league teams.  Montreal and San Diego went first, and with their first pick San Diego choose Ollie Brown from the San Francisco Giants.  Ollie went on to play in the majors until 1977, he played in San Diego from 1969 to 1972 when he was traded to the A's.  Ollie Brown also had a brother who played in the NFL, Willie Brown and a brother Oscar who played for the Braves.

In 1969 the Padres were managed by Preston Gomez and finished 52-110, sixth in the division.  It was just the first of six consecutive losing seasons in San Diego.  

1969 Hall of Fame

Stanley Coveleskie and Waite Hoyt were selected to be inducted into the Hall of the Fame by the Veterans Committe.  Roy Campanella and Stan Musial were elected by the Baseball Writers.  Stan Musial just passed away on Sunday and I was reminded of the one time I got to meet Mr. Musial.  He was doing a signing at a mall here in Portland, it's gone now.  I went to the show with my friend Craig Lockwood and after we shopped, me for Padres stuff and Craig for football, we got in line and were talking.  Craig stepped up and spoke to Mr. Musial and Stan told Craig that he had a great voice for radio.  Craig and I chuckled and moved on.  The thing is Craig was a disc jockey for a local country music station.

1968 Hall of Fame

Kiki Cuyler and Goose Goslin were elected by the Veterans Committe for induction in 1968 and Joe Medwick was elected by the Writers.
In 1968 Dad got transferred again this time to be the Executive Officer of the USS Excel in Long Beach.  This time we drove and camped along the southern route, with four kids between 11 and 4.

1967 Hall of Fame

Branch Rickey and Lloyd Waner were elected by the Veterans Committee and Red Ruffing was elected in a special runoff election by the Baseball Writers.

1966 Hall of Fame

One inductee was selected by the Baseball Writers and one by the Veterans Committee.  Casey Stengel managed all over the place but primarily the Yankees and Mets. Ted Williams was the first player to go into the Hall of Fame with ties to the Padres.  He played for the Padres in 1936 when he was scouted by the Red Sox.  He is one Padre that I always wished I could have gotten a signature of.  In 1966 my Dad got transferred from the Charles H. Roan in Newport to the Charles Dahlgren in Norfolk and so we moved again.

1965 Hall of Fame

In 1965 only one player was inducted into the Hall of Fame.  Pitcher Pud Galvin was selected by the Veterans' Committee.

1964 Hall of Fame Class

From here on out I will be presenting the Hall of Fame Classes with out too much editorial comment.  In 1964 Luke Appling was the only player elected by the BBWA, and that was in a special election.  There were six other players elected that year, during 1964 my younger brother was born in Ferndale, CA and then we moved to Newport, RI.  My parents drove from CA to RI camping along the way, with 4 children age 7 to newborn.
If you see a card you want or need, I will trade you for another card of the person.

1963 Hall of Fame

In 1963 we were still living in Ferndale, CA, camping and picnicking among the giant sequoias along the Eel River.  Four men were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
     John Clarkson had a career record as a pitcher of 327-177, and one season won 53 games and pitched over 600 innings in two different seasons.  Between 1882 and 1894 he played for the Worcester Ruby Legs, the Chicago White Stockings, the Boston Beaneaters and the Cleveland  Spiders.  He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1963, 54 years after his death.  He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1905 or 1906 and spent the rest of his life in and out of mental hospitals.  He came down with pneumonia in 1909 and passed away at the age of 47.
        Elmer Flick played for the Philadelphia Phillies, the Philadelphia A's and the Cleveland Naps between 1898 and 1910.  In 1907 his value to the Naps was so high that they turned down a trade that would have brought the 21 year old Ty Cobb to Cleveland. His career batting average was .313.  He was voted into the Hall by the Veterans Committee. He passed away in 1971 in his lifelong hometown of Bedford, OH at the age of 94.
       Edgar Rice changed his name to Sam Rice when he became a player, and moved from being a pitcher to an outfielder for most of his career.  He overcame a great deal of grief just to become a player, in 1912 he traveled to a baseball tryout.  While he was away from home, a tornado hit his home and killed his wife, his wife, two children, his younger sisters, his parents and a farmhand.  Shortly afterwards he joined the Navy. In 1914 he tried out for a baseball team in Petersburg, VA and was signed up as a pitcher.  The team owner, Doc Lee, owed Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith $300 and offered him Rices' contract to pay off the debt.  Griffith took the contract and Rice played 19 years for the Senators and played one season for the Indians before retiring at the age of 44 in 1934.  His most famous or infamous moment came during the 1925 World Series, when he made a catch in the outfield and fell over the fence, when he came back up he had the ball in his glove.  There arose a controversy about whether Rice had possession of the ball the entire time.  He wouldn't answer any questions about the catch, but he was asked about the catch so much that he left an envelope with a note in it to be opened upon his death.  The envelope contained his account of the catch and ended  with the line, "at no time did I lose possession of the ball."  He remarried years later and he and his family were being interviewed for a program to honor him and he told the story about the tornado and his family learned of his previous family.  He was voted into the Hall in 1963 by the Veterans Committee after being on the ballot thirteen times, his highest percentage was 53% in 1960.  He passed away in 1974 at the age of 84.
      Eppa Rixley was the first player to die between their election and induction, he died just a month after his election.  He played from 1912-1933 for the Phillies and the Reds, ending with a career record of 266-251.  He leads the Reds in innings pitched with 2,890 2/3 innings, and was well known for destroying the locker room or disappearing for days when he would lose.  He missed the 1918 season to serve in the Armys' Chemical Warfare Division.  After he retired he sold insurance in his Father in Laws insurance agency, during his career he would teach Latin at a high school in Alexandria, Virginia.  He was elected by the Veterans Committee after being on the ballot 16 times between 1936 and 1962, in 1960 he attained his highest percentage with 50%.  In 1921 he surrendered just one home run in 301 innings pitched.  
       

1962 Hall of Fame

     In 1962 we had moved from Honolulu, HI to Ferndale, CA.  Dad was now stationed at NavFac Centerville Beach, I remember going past a horse, peacocks and a statue of the Virgin Mary in a hillside on the way to the base from home.  Ferndale is where I went to the first of the 10 schools I would attend in the next 12 years in 4 states on 2 coasts.
When I started this project years ago this was the first year that I had heard of any of the inductees, and I had met one of them, several times.
       Bob Feller was inducted into the HOF in his first year of eligibility in 1962, he played for the Indians from 1936-1956 with 4 years of service in the U.S. Navy aboard the U.S.S. Alabama.  He is the only Chief Petty Officer enshrined in the HOF, his bunk is highlighted on the Alabama at Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, AL.  He played for the Indians from 1936-1956 and then retired to Van Meter, IA.  He then crisscrossed the country signing autographs all over the country.   I believe I got his signature at least three different minor league ballparks, one dinner and a couple of shows.
He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962, in his first year of eligibility with 93.8% of the vote.
He was diagnosed with leukemia in August of 2010 and he passed away in December of that year.
     Bill McKechnie played from 1907-1920, and his managerial career overlapped from 1915-1946.  He was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1962 by the Veterans Committee as a manager.  He managed the Pirates to a World Series victory in  1925 and the Reds in 1940.  McKechnie Field at the Pirates spring training facility in Bradenton, FL is named for him.  He died in 1965 at the age of 79.
       Jackie Robinson was also inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962, he was elected with 77.5% of the vote.  There isn't much to say about Jackie Robinson that hasn't already been said.  He passed away in 1972 at the age of 53.  His number, 42, has been retired by all the major league baseball franchises and on Jackie Robinson day each April all major league players, coaches and managers wear 42 in honor of Jackie.
       Edd Roush played for the Indiana Hoosiers, the Reds, the Newark Peppers, the White Sox, and the Giants from 1913-1931.  He had been on the writers ballot almost every year from 1936-1960, he was elected by the Veterans Committee.  He played for the Reds in the 1919 World Series and insisted that even if the Black Sox had played on the level the Reds still would have won.   He died in 1988 at the age of 94.