1916 World Series on paper

Some numbers
In 2017, the Dodgers reached the World Series for the first time in 29 years and lost. 101 years earlier, they reached the World Series for the first time and lost as well. In 2017 it was against a cheating team from Houston. In 1916 against the Boston Red Sox. Champions in 1915 who would repeat and two years later would win their last title for 89 years. It was against that same Boston team the Dodgers lost their last World Series in 2018.

1916, It was a different time. No television, no radio, a war going on. The Dodgers were the Robins, they played in Brooklyn and Ebbets Field was only three years old. The New York Yankees were seven years away from their first World Series title of the 27 to come. The Brooklyn baseball team, the Robins, named after their manager Wilbert Robinson, reached the World Series with a 94-60 record in the National League.

Dive into the past
All the information about the series is available on Wikipedia, but I got my hands on some newspapers from 1916 and seeing the report in a document from that period is kinda cool.

The York Dispatch, celebrating its 40 year anniversary in 1916, is still in publication to this day. It serves York County, Pennsylvania but found the Brooklyn vs. Boston match up interesting enough to dedicate a quarter of the front page on the World Series.

The Robins lost 4 games to one. Only being able to win game 3. Game 2 was the longest World Series game in innings until game 3 of the 2018 World Series. Yes, the one between the Red Sox and the Dodgers! Game 2 saw 14 innings of pitching by Babe Ruth. Another interesting name... Casey Stengel, outfielder for Brooklyn.

Below are the five headlines in The York Dispatch.

LIFE Magazine

Life, April 5th, 1948
This issue of Life magazine is readily available on Ebay. I’d seen it many times and always loved the cover. So, last month I thought ‘what the heck!’ and finally bought a copy. I forgot how large Life magazine is and the cover really is a thing of beauty at that size. It begs to be framed.

It’s great to see all those big league hopefulls. They probably watched the 1947 World Series where the Dodgers almost got their hands on their first title. 550 players were brought up by Branch Rickey to Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida. Rickey, a visionary, had clear goals for his Dodgers: win at least five pennants in the next ten years. I wonder what readers would have thought about that statement at the time. As we all know now he did just that AND won a World Series title to boot.

The Dodger's Way
Or, more precisely: Rickey's way! The rookies all got their chance to prove their fitness, their speed, ability to hit and field. Every possible trick was used to asses a players abilities.

Every trick in the book, but also some new ones. Rickey was a master in conjouring up new ways to test the players. He used batting cages and pitching machines. Protecting them was important as well, he introduced the batting helmet.

Looking at that cover again, I wonder how many of these guys made it to the majors and maybe even played in the 1955 World Series when the Bums finally were Bums no more.
This issue of Life is a great addition to any Dodgers collection and not too costly. If you get your hands on a copy, the article can be found on pages 117 through 120.

Vintage 8MM film, pt. 2

Continued from 'Vintage 8MM film'

It arrived! 

The container was just like the picture. It felt heavy in my hand. The moment of truth... I lifted the lid and there it was. Looking all right. No damage what so ever.

5" of 8mm which would be something like 15 minutes of material. Not just some images from years long gone. No, color footage of either game 3, 4 or 5 of the 1955 World Series at Ebbet's Field. I closed the container and decided to wait till the next day to find out more.

That night I dreamt about the film. About the content being 1 minute of World Series footage and the rest being family trip images. I woke up early and prepped my projector. I wasn't off the mark, I'm afraid...

Not what I was hoping for
Let's get the negative out of the way first. I hate to dwell on that. Of the 15 minutes of shots, 6 minutes are from Ebbets Field. Which is a shame for an item advertised as '8mm film of the 1955 World Series'. The footage clearly is from Yankee fans who were hoping to clinch in Brooklyn, took their camera along with them. Why I think they are Yankee fans? Because the only film Yankee players. With that being said, let's move on and see what those 6 minutes brings us.

1955 World Series, game...?
The film starts with shots of Yankee players warming up at good old Ebbets Field. It felt weird, seeing Ebbets in color. Sure, I'd seen it before on youtube, but never from a World Series day, as far as I know. The 1955 World Series was the first World Series televised in color. Of the official broadcast only sections of game 5 exist. So color images of that Series are mostly those of fans bringing in their camera’s. Loads of them would have used black and white film, come to think of it.

So, there is smooching with some Yankees and a good view of Ebbets Field. I never knew the ushers wore red coats and a red cap. So there is that! The score board with the Schaefer sign and game start. Dodger players running onto the field from the dugout and then the big question. Which World Series game is this? Game 3, 4 or 5?

Welcome to game...
The starting pitchers for game 3 was Johnny Podres, for game 4 Carl Erskine and for game 5 Roger Craig. There is no time or date stamp on these kinds of 8mm films, and recognizing players in this particular film is not possible. Sure, when I see a catcher, I know it's Campanella, but who is on the mound? So, this first piece of film is followed by another (after an interlude of 'funny' takes with some cops). So, I thought the makers of the film had gone to two games, either game 3 and 4 or 4 and 5. The pitcher has a very high kick so my first guess was Erskine in game 4. Since Podres was a lefty it has to be Erskine.

More Yankee smooching
The second part brings us more smooching. We see some Yankees players up close. Not shabby ones at that. You'll see, among others, Billy Martin, Yogi Berra, Irv Noren and Mickey Mantle. There is some more batting practice and another view of Ebbets Field.

So, there you go, roughly 6 minutes of color images of the 1955 World Series. I had hoped for more but it's still a cool artifact to have.

Vintage 8MM film

I've been scrounging for stuff on ebay for over twenty years. Mostly Dodgers related items. Sometimes recent baseball card or pins but once in a while I go looking for vintage stuff from the Brooklyn or early LA era. Through the years I found some fun items that really tie the franchises history together. A signed book, a written letter by a world series game winning pitcher, press pins to name a few.

Recently I stumbled on something I had not encountered on ebay before. It was titled ‘vintage 1955 world series Brooklyn Dodgers vs New York Yankees color 16mm film’. Well, my interest was piqued!

The 1955 world series were the first broadcast in color, but on youtube, I have never seen actual color footage from that series. 16mm could suggest a private party having filmed it. I tried contacting the seller but all my questions stayed unanswered because they did not own a projector so could not say anything about the filmstrip. If it were damaged or what precisely was on it.

My only lead were the photographs in the ebay listing. The first was a picture of the film case on which was written ‘world series 1955’ and the ruler measuring 5 inch of film. I googled it and 5 inch of 16mm film would suggest a running time of about 15 minutes.

Then there was a picture of a few frames of the filmstrip. While grainy I clearly recognized Ebbets Field. The film would have to be from either game 3, 4 or 5 from that year’s World Series. Now, looking at those frames I realized that it was actually an 8mm film. Which made it even more certain it would be a movie shot by a fan, not a commercial party. Maybe a Brooklinite, feeling that ‘this is the year’.

I had to make a decision. Leave it or buy this piece of history, with the chance it won’t play because of old age, damage, or who knows what. But maybe... it’s fine and I get a personal view of Ebbets Field... during the World Series... in color.

I bought it!

Continued HERE!

Stealing Home: Review

The dramatic story of Chavez Ravine starts long before the Dodgers hit their first home run at Dodger Stadium. Eric Nusbaum paints a very lively picture of the neighborhood. He has the abillity to make the locals come alive in a way you get sucked into their history from page one.

It's a history about communism, mexican immigrants, social housing, a city council in doubt.

It might be the single most important book about the history of LA Dodgers baseball, that's 95% not about baseball. It explains why the Dodgers had so much difficulty to gain a Mexican American fanbase in the early years, before Valenzuela.

I can recommend you read it before or after 'City of Dreams: Dodger Stadium and the Birth of Modern Los Angeles' (my review available HERE). Both books give you an excellent understanding of Los Angeles and how it's basics for the city today were laid down in the 50's and 60's.

Topps commemorative card set

The moment Urias threw out that last Ray, I started a shopping frenzy. Our boys in blue had just won their first World Series in 32 years and you bet I wanted some mementos! Caps, shirts, Christmas ornaments, you name it!

Then I came across a baseball card set by Topps. Looked interesting and every box would include an autographed card. Sounded good for $99. The cards were made by Ben Baller. I never heard of the guy so I did a search.

Ben Baller?
Turns out Baller is a quite well known actor, musician and jeweler, totally missed that apparently. He also designed cards for Topps. He did it before so I was curious and went ahead, spent $99 and waited for a few weeks.

Cards
The box arrived and it looked great. The cards were in a hard plastic protective case, which is nice! It was sealed by a Topps adhesive tape. Topps really doubled down on the Baller collaboration. His name is everywhere on the box and the cards. On every front side of the card it says ‘Ben Baller did this card’. Seriously, I couldn’t care less. His initials are in the upper left hand corner.

The back gets even weirder. Instead of mentioning the World Series stats for every player it has the same two sentences on every card. It mentions the Dodgers twice and the name of Baller FOUR times and his initials are there as well. It’s like a sponsored card, only… not cheap. He’s like the Tyler Perry of baseball card design. ‘My name first, then the rest!’.

The design is okay, not spectacular. The box holds 32 cards. 27 of our 2020 boys in blue and 5 Dodgers legends. Great to see Robinson, Lasorda, Koufax, Sutton and Snider on a modern card. The picture used for Koufax’ card is a bit blurry, though. There must be a better picture of him somewhere.

Autographed cards
Next to the base set there is an autographed card. These cards can be:

blue, unnumbered

purple, 1 thru 99

red, 1 thru 25

orange (weird choice for a Dodgers card), 1 thru 10

gold, only 1 per player

So, any of these could be in your set. I was very, very happy to find a purple card with NLCS and WS MVP Corey Seager in my set 85/99. There are 18 different autographs and they are fresh, so I might try to get my hands on some of them. Maybe frame them as a memento. One down side… no Kershaw and Betts autographs and personally I would have loved a Dave Roberts auto.

Verdict
It’s a bit of a mixed bag. Too many Baller mentions, average design, some must have autographs are missing. But I still love this set because for what it stands for: The Dodgers winning the World Series!