Musical Dodgers, Accompanied by Brewers

Everyone knows Jim as the creative force behind Garvey Cey Russell Lopes, Timeless Teams, Oh My O-Pee-Chee, and, now Frankendodger. Jim's understated style and writing is a true credit to his favorite team, the Dodgers. 

On the other hand, it seems that the Dodgers have spawned some truly, well, interesting  songs as tributes to the Dodgers. I did a little poking around on YouTube and found a few fan songs. I don't know how to describe them adequately -- words are entirely insufficient. You have to listen to these to truly appreciate them. Thankfully, there are enough songs for me to use to show off the cards that Jim sent to me.

1.  Danny Kaye -- "D-O-D-G-E-R-S Song"

Danny Kaye's old song about the Dodgers came out of his love for the team -- having been born and raised in Brooklyn and later moving to Los Angeles to become a star. You have to be at least in your late thirties to have any recollection of Danny Kaye as an entertainer, since he passed away in 1987. 

Kaye, though, was a lifelong baseball fan who was a part-owner of the Seattle Mariners for its first five years of existence and who would, from time to time, travel with the Dodgers and his old pal Leo Durocher.

Let's start appropriately old school to accompany that song. I know that I should have saved that fantastic Lou [sic] Burdette and Bobby Shantz card for last. I love how Shantz looks like he is about 12 years old next to 1957 World Series hero Burdette. Considering that Shantz stood just 5'6" tall and, according to Baseball Reference, weighed just 139 pounds while Burdette was a strapping 6'2" tall, that size difference is just about right. Incidentally, Shantz is still with us and will turn 91 years old in September.

The two Spahns are from 1994 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes set. I needed both and actually still need both again for my Milwaukee Braves collection. That team collection is where the Mathews card will go.

2. DJ Felli Fel f/Ice Cube, Tyga, & Ty Dolla $ign -- "Dodgers"

DJ Felli Fel name checks about the entire 2013 team, front office, announcers, and most of the first three rows of Dodger stadium in this hip hop tribute. Did you hear, by the way, that the 2013 Dodgers started from the bottom?

Listen to the song and you might hear that.



Apropos of starting from the bottom, it's your 2016 Milwaukee Brewers stickers! I am as much of a proponent of having a simple set as anyone. But, somehow, I never see any of the "modern" stickers -- say, the last 3-5 years -- really show up on blogs. I guess either people are not proud that they have these Topps stickers in their collection, or literally no one actually collects these stickers.

Thoughts?

3. Becky G -- "Dodger Blue"




Becky G is an attractive woman -- almost a girl, really, in that she is barely 19 years old. In the past, she has collaborated with Pitbull and she has even gotten a CoverGirl contract beginning in July 2014. 

None of that happened thanks to this song. Lyrically, it's horrendous. Musically, it sounds like what it is -- a teenager trying to sound cool or tough. God this is terrible. 



The only thing that Jim sent my way that really deserves to be paired with that execrable song is Gary Sheffield. His time in Milwaukee was a trainwreck that ended with a 50-game 1991 season in which he slashed .194/.277/.320. He was traded to San Diego and promptly led the National League in batting average in 1992. He later played a little over 3-1/2 seasons for the Dodgers after coming to LA as part of the trade that sent Mike Piazza to the Marlins. 

4. "Dodgers Fight Song"

Holy crap -- is that Mr. T as Max Headroom? Bloody hell, as the Brits would say -- that is absolutely awful too.  Let's try something else....

Ozomatli -- "Can't Stop the Blue"

At least that video by Ozomatli doesn't cause epileptic seizures. This song is actually much more of a funk song than it is anything else. That makes it eminently more acceptable to my ears than that previous ... "song".

Dodgers fans, did either of these songs ever get any airtime in the stadium?

Let's get things back on track with an oddball, a parallel, and the logoless. That Ryan Braun is from 2016 Donruss, while the Lucroy is my first Diamond King card from this year. I do like the canvas feel that the Diamond King cards have, and the artwork on the cards is top notch. Diamond Kings hide the licensing issues much better than Donruss does.

The Yount is the 1992 Cracker Jack Donruss card. Importantly, it is a different photo from the one used on his regular Donruss card. If Topps did these today, you know damn well that they would recycle the same photo from the flagship set -- those photos are expensive after all, and collectors don't deserve anything "new"!

5. "Los Angeles Dodgers 2013 - We Own the West"

This is just a fan video of photos/clips set to a Dropkick Murphys song. Why the Dropkick Murphys, though? I don't get it. The Murphys are as Boston as Boston can be. I understand it's the theme, but couldn't they find a song by someone not so clearly associated with another city?

Of course, it's still a great song, and this person put a ton of work into this video. If you're a Dodger fan wanting to get fired up about some recent nostalgia, this is the video to watch.

Recent nostalgia for Brewers fans has been hard to come by in many respects. Trading Khris Davis away was a good move for the team, since in return the Brewers got a real live catching prospect in Jacob Nottingham. 

Trent Clark was the fifteenth pick overall in 2015. He's struggling a little bit this year as he is a 19-year-old playing in the Midwest League, but his batting eye and approach is top notch. Through 113 plate appearances so far this year, he's slashing .217/.357/.380 (yes, that .217 is correct -- 20 hits in 92 at bats, but 20 walks, 8 doubles, 2 triples, and a home run are in there too). It's very early in his development, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him making his Milwaukee debut at the age of 22 in 2019. 

6. "Dodgers Fan Song"

This song isn't bad. It's not great, either. There is something very generic about it...it really seems like the intent of this song was not to get fired up so much as it was not to offend anyone. No smack talk. No name checks. It's really cliche-filled nothingness to me.

It's like it's meant to appeal to a 55-year-old woman living in Simi Valley. And, judging solely by the look of the posting account, that might be exactly who wrote the song.

Not that there is anything wrong with being a suburban housewife.



These early 2000s Topps cards have much the same feel to me. Generic. Well, they are less generic looking than the cards from 2010-2014 that Topps put out -- what with that ubiquitous white border every year and all -- but these cards do not appear to be anything about which someone will wax nostalgic. 

At least I won't.

Jim -- thank you very much for the great cards you sent my way. I hope my critique of Dodgers fan songs from YouTube led to some laughs for you.

Junkie Man, Tell Me What Your Story Is

I've been going with a lot of theme posts lately.  They are more fun for me to write than the usual "thanks for the cards" posts, and I hope they haven't been too over the top. Of course, I'm an obnoxious lawyer from Milwaukee, so "over the top" is part of my DNA.  It is part I've suppressed being in the South for the better part of 25 years between college, law school, and life, but it's still there.

My post title, though can only mean one thing: the Junior Junkie bestowed a bubble mailer on me. 

Well, I suppose it could just mean I'm a big fan of the band Rancid too.  There was a time back in law school where I listened to the album ....And Out Come the Wolves on a very regular basis, so that is part of it too.  With the title being "Junkie Man", how about a link to that song:

I do love me some mid-1990s ska/punk/grunge music. But, I don't think I have a theme post in me today -- sorry TJ -- so a simple review of the great cards that came my way from Louisiana will have to suffice.

STICKERS!

I remember buying some of these packs of Fleer team stickers back in about 1980 or 1981. The gum tasted funny -- almost that fake sweet that sugarless gum had back then -- and it was disappointing then not to see pictures of real baseball players.  It was also disappointing that Fleer stickers believed that the centerfield fence was 480 feet from home plate.  Who wants to see that?

These stickers, though, now make me feel nostalgic for a far simpler time.  

LOGOLESS ELITE EXTRA EDITION MINOR LEAGUERS!

I talked about Lara in a post fairly recently as the kid who might move quickly up in the system because of his talent -- but he is incredibly young.  DeMuth was a 4-year player at Indiana University who was pushed upwards fairly rapidly in the Brewers system. He struggled in the Midwest League last year, but at age 23, he'll need to keep progressing quickly.  Kole was drafted in the 8th round last year out of Villanova.  He got knocked around pretty good in rookie ball last year -- a 7.64 ERA and 48 hits in 35-1/3 innings, which isn't good even if the league ERA was 4.72 -- so, well, good luck JB.  Sneed wasn't much better -- a 5.92 ERA in 38 innings -- so, once again, work on that stuff, Cy.    Stokes spent last summer in the Arizona rookie league and showed good speed and OBP but no power at all.  We'll see about these guys.

SHINY SEGURA!

You can't tell it, but I think this Segura was one of those Foil parallels.  Add it to the PC!

1973 Originals!

As a team collector, I like different cards like this. But, I can't treat this as anything other than an oddball. I don't know what to chase here, because Topps doesn't tell us how many of each card exist, which cards have the "original" stamp, etc.  So, it's stick it with the cereal box cards from the 1980s and add it to the Brewers database, but otherwise, I view these with some disinterest.  If I get them, fantastic -- I love them when I have them.  But, without a set list, I don't know what I'm missing.  

GLOSSY Gallardos!

A Chrome Refractor and a Topps Tribute card for a pitcher whose time in Milwaukee put him 6th all-time in WAR for pitchers, 5th in ERA, 5th in wins, 3rd in Win-Loss Percentage, 7th in fewest hits per nine innings, 1st in strikeouts per nine innings, 7th in innings pitched, 1st in strikeouts, and 6th in games started in his career.  In other words, he's all over the leaderboard.  That's why he's a PC for me, and these both go right into the PC.

THE ONES WHO NEVER MADE IT

I remember Barker.  He came in with all kinds of promise, but his career with Milwaukee consisted of 78 games in 1999 and 2000 with very little power but decent OBP skills.  That didn't cut it for a first baseman.  

Bausher?  His biggest claim to fame was that the Brewers signed him in 2003 out of an Independent league after seeing him pitch in just one game.  Bausher got all the way to Triple-A -- in 2005 with Boston and in 2006 with Boston and then Cincinnati.  Then the trip back down happened.

Then, there was this one:

What in the heck is this? Some weird cross-promotion between Topps and some card graders, I guess?  Belcher got as far as Double-A for Milwaukee and Montreal in 2004 and then 2005 (with Washington, the erstwhile Montreal, of course), but then found himself in the Independent leagues from 2006 on.  He was an OF and C whose bat couldn't carry him past Double-A.  

Too bad, because this strange looking presentation actually is kind of cool and includes his certified autograph!

Thanks, TJ, for these great cards -- especially the Gallardos and the Segura!