More Baseball Art from 20x200

I’ve written about the occasional baseball related art available from 20x200 in the past: Don Hammerman’s Baseball Series and the Babe In the Negroe Leagues. They released another piece last fall, In The Ballpark by Tatsuro Kiuchi.

Being the OC type, I ordered it and have grown to appreciate it over the last few months. The picture reminds me of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe: just the solitary outfielder among faceless spectators. Will he catch it for the team or maybe drop it on purpose to spite them? Or, maybe I'm reading too much into it. Regardless, I love the sparseness of the piece. No umpires, no teammates, no billboards!

As with other 20x200 artwork, these come in various sizes - each in a limited edition and signed by the artist. I can't wait to see what they may have for Opening Day 2010!

St. Louis Cardinals Winter Warm Up 2010 - Day 1

This was our third year at the warm up but first as a Father - Son duo. My wife and daughter decided to sit this one out. The event moved down the street to the Hyatt, a change Isaac loved: huge widescreen TV's in the room, "Dad, they have four ESPN's!!!", and way better food. While the location changed, it was still all Cardinals, all the time. As always, I told Isaac we'd stay in the autograph lines as long as he could last. He had to take a break midday, but that was the only break he took all weekend and ended up with autographs from 23 different players!


Onto the autographs!



We started the day with two Cardinal alum's. Isaac didn't have a Reuss card so we picked up this rookie card for a buck before heading to the autograph lines. David Green was supposed to be a killer first baseman. He wasn't... but was a super nice guy to Isaac.



I told Isaac I'd pay for $75 worth of autographs. In the past he has spent that money on cheaper, younger players. Not this year. He knew exactly who he wanted to "buy" and which card to sign for each player. He picked two core Cardinals. This Carpenter card came in a trade with Project '62 from nearly a year ago. He stared at this card at every chance after meeting Carp and getting the auto. Garcia may very well be one of our future core players if he can bounce back from Tommy John surgery this year. Given the Holliday contract and looming Pujols contract, we're going to need plenty of young, cost controlled contributors in the future.



Two more youngsters. We don't know much about Hamilton but Tyler Greene made his debut last year and was a solid contributor and has a chance to make the team this year as a utility player.



The Baby 'Birds just keep coming. Kozma is a nice defensive player but needs to step up the offense. Even then, he may be stuck behind Brendan Ryan and Tyler Green in the future. Ottavino is the next in a long lines of righty starters / middle relievers in our farm system.



Two former Cardinals here. One from my teenage years and the other more recent. To be honest, I don't remember Costello ever playing for the team... at least in the games I watched. Eldred was only with us for a few seasons but stuck around after retiring and can be seen or heard on gameday. He includes reference to the bible in his auto.


And we end with Glenn Brummer, the man who, without his manager's permission, stole both 3rd and home in the bottom of the 12th inning to beat the Giants on August 22, 1982. The Cardinals would go on to win the World Series later that year.

Well, its been awhile as Ike lost interest in blogging / trading but we just attended the Cardinals Winter Warm Up last weekend and he's excited to post the autographs he got this year. More to follow!

Playing with Dolls...

Ok... figures. Thought it would be fun to post Isaac's ever growing collection of bobbleheads, figures, etc...

Click on the image for a larger file.
Left to right:
Back Row - Padres & Mets Baskin Robbins sundae helmets from my childhood my parents found during their last move; Fredbird Bobble Belly, Matt Morris / Albert Pujols bobbleheads, Pujols SGA bobble, Gehrig Starting Lineup, Musial Starting Lineup, Pujols figure, Griffey & Big Mac big head figures. The Gehrig, Musial & Pujols figures sit on three autographed baseballs: Aaron Miles, Brad Thompson, and.... ???

Front Row - Lou Brock bobble, Red Schoendienst SGA bobble, Isaac bobble, Gibson Starting Lineup, Ruth Starting Lineup, Ryan Howard figure, Ruth pitching as a Yankee, McFarlane Jim Edmonds McFarlane, Jackie Robinson stealing home McFarlane, Lou Gehrig speech McFarlane.

Cap Envy

I've been eyeing the Cooperstown Collection caps for a few weeks but at $25 - $30 a pop I just couldn't pick just one, much less pull the trigger. Good thing as it turns out. We stopped by TJ Maxx over the weekend and wouldn't you know it, they had a ton of Cardinal caps including many of the Cooperstown caps! These caps were priced from $5 - 10 each so for the price of one cap from the MLB site, I picked up four. They're all fitted and are wool blends.

Clockwise from upper left:
Cooperstown Collection - 1942 Home Cap
Cooperstown Collection - 1943 - 1956
Nike (Saw this one at the ball park last night at 50% off MSRP for $19)
Cooperstown Collection - Not a replica, just an old style cap.



I'm on the lookout for the the 1903, 1918 - 1919, and 1940 caps now. They also had a few St. Louis Browns caps that I would have bought if they were in my size. I may stop by another TJ Maxx or Marshall's to see if they have any more of these. If any other Cardinal fans not in STL are interested, I can grab one for you locally. Just send your hat size.

For fans of any other teams, check out your local shops for your favorite team! They also had modern caps as well if you don't swing it old school.

Happy Birthday!!!

Isaac turns 7 this week but we had the family party over the weekend. Needless to say, we had a Cardinals theme ready for him along with special homemade cookies. The weeklong celebration continues tonight at the Phillies vs. Cardinals game!

Run The Bases

We surprised Isaac with the first of seven games under our modest season ticket package last Sunday, April 12. It was part of the Cardinals week long Opening Day festivities with a special slant for the younger fans. Fans 15 years old or younger received a regular sized Ryan Ludwick “Big Stick” bat and were invited to run the bases after the game. Surprisingly, they handed the bats out BEFORE the game and not afterwards. Good thing that Loshe pitched a three hitter and there were no bad calls. Can you imagine hundreds of bats being thrown onto the field after a bad call? Yikes!

The Bat. DVD included as a frame of reference for actual size… and as a symbol of what might be in 2009.

 

The view the Clydesdales have as they trot onto the field in the right field corner.

Isaac’s little sister as she high five’s Fredbird at first base. That’s Isaac’s hand on the left.

Scoreboard. I didn’t get a good shot of it but MLB parks are displaying the player picture and stats on the scoreboard using the Topps flagship design just like last year.

Our seats are in the right field corner, field level, right at the fair pole: two seats in foul territory, two seats in fair territory. Here’s the reverse view of everyone’s favorite Pujols baseball card picture. This was taken in the first inning. Matsui singled on the first pitch of the game. He would be the Astro’s only base runner until the 9th inning. Absent that hit, Loshe would have had a perfect game going into the Ninth!