A trade with Plaschke (in-person)

Greg of Plaschke and I traded some cards while we waited in line at Mike Piazza's Long Shot book signing in Pasadena last week.  I posted about the event here.  Here is what I received from Mr. Zakwin:

Per usual with my trade posts, here is a selection of some of my favorite cards from the trade.  The Anze Kopitar parallel (top row, second from left) is numbered to 25.  The Dee Gordon blue parallel on the bottom right is #'d to 500.  My Hideo Nomo collection has been quite neglected of late, so it is nice to refresh the ol' binder with some new "Tornado" cardboard.  Charles Nagy is on the back of the Nomo card in the bottom row, second from left.  He was pretty good.

On the left is a 2010 Upper Deck Series 1 Baseball (hell, there was only one series before UD was shut out), Hong-Chih Kuo gold parallel, #'d 75/99.  Some of you may know that Hong-Chih Kuo is one of my favorite players.  I have an impressive collection of his cards that I plan to post at some indeterminate time.  This gold parallel was one that I insanely desired.  Now I have it!  Cue maniacal laughter.  My Nomo rookie card collection has also been disregarded recently.  But, the rookie card above was definitely one I needed.

2009 UD Signature Stars, James McDonald rookie autograph.  McDonald is not on the Dodgers, having been traded with Andrew Lambo to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Octavio Dotel in 2010.  The trade seems ultimately pointless in retrospect - because Dotel kind of sucked and Lambo tested positive for substance abuse - but at least McDonald got the opportunity start in Pittsburgh.  McDonald had himself a half-awesome, half-shite season last year, and I am rooting for him to have an all-awesome season this year.

Such an odd card.  I like it!  Card collectors and bloggers have all probably seen these 2003 UD Game Face Gear cards before.  This is the first one that has come into my possession.  I wouldn't call it a "good" design per se, but I enjoy it.

2008 Red Hot Rookie Redempion #11 of Clayton Kershaw.  It is a gorgeous card.  This was actually a contest prize from Greg, not part of the actual trade.  Nevertheless, it is awesome!  Kershaw's nickname is "Kid K," though I prefer to call him "Kid Kilowatt."  If you know who or what Kid Kilowatt is, then you are a pretty cool cat.  (Hell, I'll just tell you... to me, "Kid Kilowatt" alludes to two great things - baseball and a certain supergroup composed of Massachusetts hardcore and metal stalwarts.)

2007 Tristar Elegance Showtime game used patch #CK, Clayton Kershaw.  It's a three-color patch.  Might be hard to tell from the photograph.  Elegant, indeed.  Looks fabulous.

Thanks for a fantastic trade, Greg!  It has been a while, but we got it done.

A Brief Meeting with Mike Piazza

Greg of Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle and I attended Mike Piazza's signing of his new autobiography, Long Shot, at the Vroman's Bookstore in downtown Pasadena today.

 #31 jerseys abound.

The whole experience, minus the line, felt rushed.  I managed to exchange a few pleasantries with Mike Piazza before I was swiftly ushered away to allow the next batch of fans to seek his autograph.  Still, I walked away with a feeling that the overall experience was very cool.  I met numerous current Dodgers players less than a month ago at Dodgers FanFest 2013, yet the brief book signing, photo op, and quick exchange of "thank you's" felt somehow more poignant to me.

 I like pictures of signs.  This sign is bossy.

Maybe it's not necessarily that I was starstruck, but perhaps it was the simple fact that it was Mike Piazza himself sitting there.  He wasn't some baseball player near my own age to whom I could more easily relate.  Hell, professional athletes are just mortals, right?  We're all pink on the inside or whatever.  It wasn't until after I left the queue that I finally realized, "Whoa, I grew up watching that dude play, rooting for him."  So, I guess that was the point when I understood just how grand and badass these players can seem to a kid - especially since I was apparently starstruck and in awe after all, if however briefly.

Here are some more photos from the event (unfortunately a few did not come out super sharp):

(More after the jump!)

Dodgers FanFest 2013

Dodgers FanFest was insanity.  I want to start off by thanking my fellow Dodgers-blogging friends.  I do not think I could have lasted the day without them.  Pretty much the entirety of the event was spent standing and waiting in some sort of line.  I had fun, though.  Perhaps more so than mutual interests, mutual commiseration and suffering tends to build bonds.  I like that I finally got to meet several of my fellow bloggers, of whom I have only known by name and reputation for a few years until yesterday.  I will use the photos I took to help tell the tale of FanFest:

I arrived at Dodger Stadium around 10 AM.  You can see some of the outfield construction and remodeling here.

The line to get wristbands (!) for autographs did not seem too bad from this point.  But, then I crossed the ridge and saw that the line seemed to have no end.  Spiegel of Nomo's Sushi Platter fame met up with me around 10:20ish AM.  Spiegel and I had drawn up a cursory plan to get autographs from Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu.  The plan was doomed to fail from the start.  The autograph line must have been at least a mile long because it wound, folded, and curved on itself.  I thought that there must have been at least ten thousand people there, though Dylan Hernandez said that the Dodgers thought the number was closer to 21,000.  After about an hour of waiting in line and shooting the shit, Greg of Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle fame met up with Spiegel and yours truly.

This was where we were a little more than an hour and a half into our riveting line-standing.  It was almost noon.

At some point during our wait in line, Josh Dodgerbobble, Stealing Home and his son met up with the three of us.  Dodgerbobble managed to score himself a Magic Johnson autographed baseball, the lucky duck.  We all traded a few cards and chatted for a while.  Dodgerbobble and Stealing Home left early.  We finally got to the wristband tent some time between 1:30-2:00 PM.  That was a three hour line!  Spiegel, Zakwin, and I each got our one autograph wristband for Hyun-Jin Ryu and proceeded into FanFest.  It wasn't necessarily better inside the event area than what was outside.

On stage right is Matt Kemp playing at DJ'ing and on stage left is Nancy Bea.  As you can see, it was super crowded inside FanFest.  This was the view from where we were standing in line to get Ryu's signature.

More after the jump...