The Greatest Bobble Head Ever

I got some really nice gifts over the holiday season.  It was the typical holiday fare such as clothes, gift cards, and DVDs.  I am okay with all those types of gifts.  The clothes is usually something sports related such as a Dodger shirt or a Raider jacket.  I always need new sports gear.  I always need new Dodger gear because I go to a lot of games and even when I am not at Dodger Stadium, I still like to rep the team.

There was one gift that just blew me away.  It was given to me by my family on New Years Day.  I was shocked when I pulled it out of the box.

The gift was a bobble head of me!  This is a genuine 1/1 of yours truly.  This looks just like me and was at first kind of creepy.  I have never seen a miniature version of myself.

Here is the real me playing some Trivial Pursuit.  Not all of you know what I actually look like.  You may have only seen photos of me from various autograph signings or my blogger profile picture.

As you can see, the bobble Spiegel has my signature sideburns.  My sideburns have been one of my trademarks for several years.  I also have lovely thick hair that will be with me for a very long time and my bobble also has some nice locks.

This is my sister and I.  She is the genius that set up, getting a bobble head made of me.  She know I collect them and knew that I would be overjoyed with such a killer gift.  I am also showing this photo so you guys can see how my face looks.  Some of the photos that you may have seen shows me with shades or regular glasses.

 My bobble head even has my name on it.  This makes it official.  The only Spiegel bobble head in existence.  I also hope you guys can compare my real life pictures with my bobble pictures.  Maybe some of you guys will get confused and not know which is which.

This gift will make Dodgerbobble jealous.  Even the great Dodgerbobble himself will never have a Spiegel in his collection. 

I Must Get Organized!

As everyone in the blog world knows, 2012 Topps is coming out soon.  I also know that I still have cards from 2011 that I need to catalog and organize.  Some trade packages are still sitting at my bedside waiting for me to write about and then put away in there proper spots.

I must get my cards in order because pretty soon 2012 Topps will be opened up and that will get me even more behind.  I have the next week off from work.  I have these days off, not because I needed a vacation or because my inappropriate work place comments have finally caught up with me.  I have a week off because nobody is shopping at retail stores so, there isn't much of a need for a truck driver to deliver product to the store.  This week will be dedicated to drinking beer and organizing my collection.  In that order.

Part of my organization process will also involve posting more about cards that bloggers have sent me.  This particular Kirk Gibson was sent to me by Matt from Cardboard Conundrum.  This is a Topps card that must have been sold at Ames.  I don't have any other cards from this set but, this must be the best one that the Topps/Ames team up had to offer.

This card is commemorating Gibson's 20/20 seasons.  Being a 20/20 player seems like an amateur season compared to the greatness of Matt Kemp.  Kemp will be a 20/20 player by the beginning of May.  Kemp will also destroy any single season home run record that baseball fans recognize.

For the record, the Roger Maris record is tops in my book.  My book is also the only book that matters.

This is a rookie card of the Dodgers Minor League Player of the Year, Scott Van Slyke.  It is also a cool photo of him.  He is spinning his helmet like a Harlem Globe Trotter.

Van Slyke mashed last year in Double-A Chattanooga.  He is a first baseman and an Outfielder.  The Dodgers lack good offensive players in there system so, Van Slyke may have a good shot at the Majors.

Here are is numbers from last year:
.348 Batting Average
.427 OBP
.595 Slugging
1.022 OPS
45 Doubles
20 Homers

Those numbers are solid.  I hope he continues to rake in Triple-A next season and maybe gets called up to LA this year.  The Dodgers will need a new first baseman soon because James Loney is still a bum.

This was the prize of this trade with Matt.  This card is a dual relic of Shawn Green.  The card is also serial numbered out of 100.  Diamond King relics look pretty sweet and will fit in nicely with my other Shawn Green relics.

I wish that card companies would tell you what game or games that this bat was used in.  I would love to go online and check out just how many home runs Green hit against the Giants with this bat.  I think it is safe to assume that Green hit 7 bombs in a three game series against the Giants with this bat.  The 7th homer sawed him off but still clear the fence because Shawn Green is awesome.

Thanks for the trade!

Andy Ashby Signs For Me

It feels that I should be posting more.  I don't post as much as I should.  It seems like it has been awhile since my last post but, according to blogger, my last post was on 12-27-11.  That is not too long ago.  But, since the 27th, I am sure that the other bloggers that I follow have made several posts.  Those guys are on point and give there fans something to check on a daily basis.  Maybe 2012 will be different at the Platter.  Maybe I could be one of those guys that churn out post after post.

That is one of my 2012 goals.  The goal of posting more and getting better at writing as time goes on.  My hours are getting cut at work so, that should leave me more free time to write some gold.  I am also on the job hunt and that means no more medicating with the greens.  That should enable me to stop being lazy when it comes to blog upkeep.

Another mission of mine is to keep sending out letters to baseball players that wore Dodger blue.  This mission has already started a few weeks back and it should continue in 2012.  Even if the player was only briefly a Dodger.  That is the case for Andy Ashby.

Ashby played a few seasons in LA.  I enjoyed watching him pitch even though his prime years were behind him by the time he put on a Dodger uniform.  I am a skinny dude and I enjoy seeing skinny athletes succeed at the big league level.

His signature is beautiful.  Everyone has a different signature that is unique to them.  I am not sure about the psychology of what makes a person sign the way they do.  Maybe a psychologist or an arm chair psychologist can enlighten me on that topic.

I also wish that I had included a page in the envelope with some questions for Ashby.  Tom from Baseball by the Letters has been a major inspiration to me.  I enjoy reading his blog and seeing some of the responses he gets.  I have also seen a few other bloggers do the same thing and some players actually respond.  I find that to be very cool for a ball player to answer a few questions for a fan.

A special thanks to Andy Ashby for being nice enough to mail me a couple autographs.  Ashby is a cool dude!

Eight Men Out

I was digging through the dime box at my local card shop the other day.  They always have a wide selection of cards to choose from  I usually pick up some random oddball cards when I am building a stack to purchase.

I found a couple of cards from the movie Eight Men Out.  I am a big fan of this film.  It captured the era well and had some good acting.  This set came out in 1988 and was produced by Pacific Trading Cards.  I did some research and I think this set is rather large.  I thought that the set was going to be in the 20 card range.  I believe that there are over 100 cards to this set.

The condition of these cards is kind of shabby. The Don Harvey card has some creases.  The condition doesn't matter much to me though.

I was wondering if any of you guys have these cards for trade.  My favorite character in this film was Buck Weaver played by John Cusack.  I am also a big Charlie Sheen fan.  I would be willing to trade cards with photos of real ball players as opposed to actors playing ball players for more of these cards.

I am sure that there are some White Sox collectors out in the blog world that may have some extras to spare.  Please let me know.

Trading Off The Wall

Trades have almost come to a screeching halt since the holiday season began.  More bloggers are busy with family obligations or on vacation.  Even posting has been moving at a snails pace this month.  Trading should pick up again in the New Year.  I miss coming home from work and finding a couple bubble mailers waiting for me.

I have been slowly chipping away at some of the 1981 Topps cards that I have been seeking out.  Shane from Off The Wall sent me a handful of cards that I was looking for.  This was my favorite of the 1981 Topps cards that he sent me.  Dennis Eckersley is showing off a stunning mustache and hair combo.  I almost would like to comb my hands through his hair in a heterosexual way.  If there is such a way to do so without being mistaken for something that I am not.

Here is a Dice-K rookie card with his name in Japanese.  That was a cool touch used by Topps.  It makes this card a little more unique.  Shane is a Red Sox collector so, he must be bummed that Dice-K was a bust in Boston.  They paid tons of scratch for his services and didn't get much in return.

Also, this is off topic, but I hope that Shane named his blog after the Michael Jackson album.  Off the Wall is probably my favorite Jackson album.  The track "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" gets me on the dance floor every time I hear it.  Even if I hear when there isn't a dance floor available, I create an impromptu dance floor to show off my moves.

 I am still trying to build a collection of cards featuring hall of famers from the 60s-70s.  This Lou Brock will fit right in.  This card is in good shape and will go into my Hall of Fame box.

Sadly for Brock, all of his stolen base records will be smashed by Dee Gordon.  This is great for Gordon and Dodger fans.  Gordon is going to put on a speed show this year for the Dodgers.

I can't remember what the centerpiece of our trade was.  Maybe Shane can remember.  I think it was the Brock League Leaders card but maybe it was this signed Kazuhiro Sasaki card.  I am also curious to know the back story to this card.

I have stated this before, but I love hearing a good back story on some cards that come across here at the Platter.  Sometimes it may be an old vintage card that has something strange written on it or it is an oddball card that I have never seen before.  In this case, it is a signed Sasaki card.

This card has a crease in it.  That may indicate that this was signed through the mail.  The card is also signed in pen.  This may also indicate that Shane obtained this card through the mail.  I hope Shane will comment on this post and give me and the readers the story on this card.

Thanks for the trade!

Ex-Doyers Are Good To Me

The saga of my new found addiction continues to impress me.  My new addiction is sending out letters to ball players and asking for autographs.  Not an evil addiction that would be fun in the short term but have long term consequences like cocaine addiction.

TTM is a good addiction that has given me some cool results so far.

Of the Dodger autographs that I have obtained, Ron Cey may have the nicest signature.  The way his first and last name bleeds into one another is sweet.  The way he puts the number 10 in his "R" is a nice touch.  I also dig that he used a blue sharpie on my TTM request.  Cey is a true Dodger that understands what his fans like.

I guess the blue works when a Cubs fan asks for his autograph also.

Cey sent me these to me really quickly.  He lives about 20 minutes from my house so, that is probably the reason.  He could have held onto my letter and read and then re-read my words over the course of several days.  Luckily, he didn't and sent these two cards back to me.

The next return that I received was from former Dodger shortstop Greg Gagne.  His name is pronounced how it is spelled not the French way like Eric Gagne.  Gagne is American so, I'm sure his ancestors assimilated and the pronunciation became Americanized.

  Gagne also added a 3:16 inscription to his autograph.  I have seen this before.  I am not a religious man so, I am not sure what 3:16 means.  Maybe a reader may be able to educate me on that.

Gagne also answered a couple questions for me.  I had asked about the biggest difference for him when he came from the AL Central to the NL West.  He mentioned that the travel was a lot tougher.  Gagne had played in the 1991 World Series for the Minnesota Twins.  I asked him about the crowd noise.  I asked him this because I remember how loud the Metro Dome got during the playoffs.  The place sounded insane.  He wrote that he felt a different vibe from the crowd but, he was able to block out the sound and concentrate on the game.

It was cool that he answered my questions.  I am going to try and include a few questions in each letter that I mail out.  It will be fun for me to get some responses back from the men that played the greatest game ever at the highest level.

I believe that I have lived in the same city as Mike Lieberthal throughout his entire playing career.  So, I have watched him play for a huge chunk of my life.  When he started his career for the Phillies in 1994, I had just move to the Philadelphia area from SoCal.  Then, when Lieberthal came to the Dodgers to finish his playing career, I was already back and living in LA.  We kind of followed each other.

Sadly, I only had one card of him as a Dodger to send him.  This card came out nice though.

This is kind of a Phillies card.  It has the Phillies logo on the bottom corner but, Lieberthal is wearing his high school jersey.  This is my favorite card that he sent back to me.  He looks so young in this photo.  Obviously, he does.  But, I always thought that Lieberthal looked like a grizzled vet throughout his career.

This card is sweet because his high school stats are on the back of this card.  He hit 13 bombs his senior year and even stole 8 bases.  What happened to those wheels?

This is a full on Philadelphia Phillies card.  This is also one of those mid-90s Fleer cards that were made to get signed. I am not sure if I ever had one of these signed before.  I didn't open too many packs of these back in the day even though I enjoyed Fleer products.  I was more of a Fleer Ultra man anyways.

I am having a ton of fun sending cards and letters out to ballplayers.  I should be sending more out this week and I hope to get more returns.

An Envelope From A Legend

This TTM adventure that I started a couple weeks ago has been amazing.  I have actually been getting signed cards back from former baseball players.  I was a little skeptical at how this whole process would come into fruition.  I wasn't sure if I would get anything in return.

My skepticism was totally wrong.  I am naturally cynical.  Being cynical is part of being a Dodger fan.  At least a Dodger fan of my generation that missed some beast Dodger teams back in the day.  For the record, I was born in 1983.

 My mailbox has been getting solid returns since I started this adventure.  I have sent cards out to several players and they are coming back auto graphed in droves.

This is my favorite return so far.  This is a signed Upper Deck Masterpieces card of Bobby Doerr.  Doerr is a baseball legend.  He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1986.  He is also the oldest living Hall of Fame baseball player.  His baseball reference page lists his age at 93.

Doerr was a great player for the Boston Red Sox between 1937-1951.  There was a brief gap in his career due to military service during WWII.  Doerr was still able to accumulate nice counting stats as a strong defensive second baseman.  He hit 223 home runs and drove in 1247 RBIs.

I know new school stat geeks would scoff at me mentioning counting stats but, those stats do help you get enshrined in Cooperstown.

Here are some numbers that new school dudes love:
Career .823 OPS
Career OPS+ 115
Career OBP .362
Career WAR 47.7

Those are all great numbers for a second baseman.

His signature is also very great.  He even added a HOF '86 inscription. Doerr was also nice enough to sign a couple index cards for me.  I did not ask him to do so.  The index cards were just there for card protection. But, Bobby Doerr is a cool dude and a baseball legend.

Thank you, Bobby!