Attic Hunting, Some of my Dodger Treasures Found

I mentioned in yesterday's post that one of this weekend's chores was some attic remodeling and I knew what that meant.  There would be time to go through some boxes to search for some treasures.  Over the years I have held on to a lot of old Dodger stuff and i knew there was some cool stuff up there.  I found the '88 Vinyl LP of the 1981 Dodger Season highlights.  Something that I have never played because, who has a record player these days.  There are boxes and boxes of baseball cards, something that I need to sort and organize.  I'm fairly certain I won't be able to do that until after I retire.  I'm not kidding either.  It'll take weeks to complete that project.

So I pulled some things down and decided to photograph some of the findings.  One day, I will dedicate a room in my house to awesome Dodger Collectibles.  It'll be my shrine to the team.  Unfortunately, I thought that a room would be freed up by now, but the adult kids in my home are still here.  I'm not complaining, I love them and all, but I kind of doubt that I'll have a room to display all my stuff anytime soon.

I ran across Newspapers that I saved that were from the day after the Gibson Home Run in Game one of the '88 Series.  I had the foresight to know they would be worth looking at one day.  I located the pages from the Herald Examiner, October 16, 1988.  I haven't located my L.A. Times pages, but I know they are up there in storage too.

They are a bit yellowed, but that gives them more character in my opinion.

Next I ran across this collectibe plate, it’s of Duke Snider.  It isn’t very old, manufactured in 1987.  On the back it is labeled, “Sports Impressions, The Superstar Collector Plate Series,” by Brian Johnson.  I don’t think it is worth much, but I think its kind of cool for display purposes.  I wish I had made the effort to have it signed by Duke before he passed.

I have boxes and boxes of baseball cards up there, but I found a few that I didn’t realize were there.  First is a 1989 Topps Randy Johnson Rookie card in mint condition.   Also, I was shocked that I forgot about this lucky pack pickup I got about 10-11 years ago, an Upper Deck Mickey Mantle Game Worn Uniform Swatch, with a clear pinstripe visible.  I’m not even sure what year it is from, but I believe it is 2001.  It’ll be worth getting both of these rated in my opinion.

Next found was a box of cards I really wanted to locate.  They are signed cards from players of the 1988 championship team.  My plan was to mat and frame them when I started collecting this group about 15 years ago, but I never got around to finishing the project.  (Additionally I was doing the same for the '65. '63 and '59 teams, I knew '55 would be virtually impossible).  With the '88 team, I'm real close to having a complete signed set, missing cards from Mike Davis and Mike Sharperson who is now deceased.

There are more and several duplicates from players.  I think it is time to mail off a card to Mike Davis for signature and take a trip to Michael's Arts and Craft Store to complete this frame.  When done, I'll show the finished project.

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In a classic Brian Sabean type move, the San Francisco Giants signed journeyman infielder Ryan Theriot to a one year contract for $1.25 million.  Am I surprised?  Only that Ned Colletti didn’t sign him first.  Theriot batted .271 for the Cardinals last year and saw action in 132 games.  The Giants will probably be playing Theriot at shortsop this year.  He played 91 games at short for the World Champion Cardinals and moved over to second base after Rafael Furcal arrived in a mid season trade.