Platter Substitute

Over the course of many years, I have seen many different types of teachers in school.  I have had teachers that are always positive and seem motivated with a high energy level.  There have been some teachers that I have had that seem to be more babysitter types, that just hang out in the class room and coast through lectures just to get it over with.  Teachers that are burnt out and are sick of delivering the same lecture for the thousandth time.

Another type of teacher that I have encountered is the teacher whose style is of a rambler.  The lectures often veer off the point into another zone completely.  The teacher even acknowledges this problem but, still can't control it.  Each discussion can go on for several minutes at a time without the teacher mentioning anything from his outline that he just wrote on the board.

The rambler type is especially fun to have as a history teacher.  The rambler in a history class may start a class by discussing the reconstruction years post Civil War and mention such "key" Civil War figures such as Herodotus, Napolean, and Richard Nixon.  I seem to learn a little bit about every era in a history class like this.

What if a rambling history teacher wrote at the Platter?  Lets find out......

Paul Lo Duca was a pretty good catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1998-2004.  This card, here has a piece of Paul's jersey in it.  I looked at this card closely and studied it.  You can see a speck of blood from a Giant that Paul Lo Duca must have gotten on his jersey after stepping over his rival.

Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself.  My name is Mr.Dryskell.  I am filling in for Spiegel and taking over his writing duties for the day.  I am a history teacher by trade and always wanted to try my hand at blogging since blogs were invented in 2009.  The Platter is getting to be so big time that Spiegel now can afford a substitute to write for for him as he is off getting into hot night clubs due to his blogger fame.

This card was sent to Spiegel by an individual named Night Owl.  According to my records, this Night Owl guy writes a blog and lives in New York.

Lo Duca was born in Brooklyn,New York.  He was born to be a Dodger because Brooklyn is where the Dodgers were born.

Television and radio icon Larry King became a Dodger fan during the Brooklyn years.  King claims to have been at Jackie Robinson's first game as a Dodger.  Many other folks also make this claim.  Spiegel told me he was also in attendance at this game.

Roger Kahn wrote a good book about the Brooklyn Dodgers called The Boys of Summer.  I recommend this book.

Photography must be a key component of collecting baseball cards.  I was never much into collecting baseball cards.  I do see the appeal after seeing a photo like this.  This photo is evidence of Shawn Green hitting a home run against the Giants.

The Dodgers and Giants are major rivals.  The games between these two teams are filled with passion, anger and lots of grit.

The Russians and the United States had a huge rivalry during the Cold War.  These two countries fought against spreading one another's ideals across the globe.  The race to build more missiles and the race to have the best space program was also part of the Cold War.

I really enjoy old Civil War photography.  The black and white photos that are now tinted yellow for the most part.  Color photos are okay but, I love seeing the darkness in the eyes of the subjects in old Civil War photos.

Whoa, this is too shiny.  Spiegel must have given me this one to write about because he knew it would temporarily blind me when light reflects off it.  People are pranksters at the offices of the Platter.  There are clowns all over this building.

No wonder Spiegel posts only once a week.

I remember reading a good book about clowns.......ummmmm.......I forget the name now.

I think it was written by a famous writer from the Bay Area.

No, I am way off, the book is called "It" by Stephen King.  He is from a place slightly worse than the Bay Area called Maine.

This card is much classier than that Mike Piazza catastrophe.  A Gypsy Queen card of Matt Kemp with a nice frame.  I researched Spiegel's records and found that he doesn't have many of these framed 2012 Gypsy Queen cards.  That is a shame due to the beauty of these cards.

This card is pure art.  If this was blown up into a big enough size to hang in a living room, I am sure this would be hung up in the White House.  Barack Obama is a big baseball fan.  Obama, probably is a huge Matt Kemp fan even though he pulls for the White Sox.

Night Owl sent Spiegel some very nice cards.  Maybe I can sub for him more often because he has a bunch of other stacks of cards to go through.  The Archives Department at the Platter needs to work extra hard to get through this.

Peter the Great was once the ruler of Russia.  He was a hands on type of leader that would actually help to build ships for his military.

Nickelodean used to have a show on called the Adventures of Pete and Pete.  I just remembered that.  It has nothing to do with the Russian Czar Peter though.

I got sidetracked, I am sorry.

I will end my first post with a thank you from Spiegel to the Night Owl.