u/william92371

…who would that be?

I mean, let’s be honest here: it’s not like you guys need any help. As a Brewers fan since birth (but very much an admirer of the Dodgers and their rich history, and a lover of “the Boys of Summer”), I have to admit to being envious of how good your team is.

You’ve got a hell of a shot to three-peat, and while I’d like to get some payback after you put the beat down on my Brewers, and cost me my long hoped for trip back to the World Series (I’ve been waiting for forty-four years), the baseball lover in me can’t help but admirer how good you are. There’s a thrill that can only come with seeing the game played at the highest level. It’s poetry in motion.

Baseball….is like no other sport in the world. It’s my greatest passion. It’s a team game that lives and dies on the individual matchups. In the NFL, a quarterback can throw the ball forty times. Matthew Stanford, or Patrick Mahomes, can take over the game. In the NBA, a guy like Kobe Bryant or Steph Curry could conceivably shoot the ball every time they came down the court. Remember when Gretzky was on the Kings? He could put the puck on the goal every time he had a shift.

That can’t happen in baseball. If Shohei or Freddie are in a groove, they have to wait for eight other teammates to bat before they get another shot. Baseball is the ultimate chess match, a beautiful mixture of athleticism and intelligence. You guys have both in spades.

But looking at the team you have now…who would you bring back? This player has to have played at least part of one season while the team was still in Flatbush. We’ll jump in the old DeLorean, grab a couple of canisters of plutonium, get up to 88 mph, and snag on of “the bums” from their career peak.

Do you take a pitcher? Sandy Koufax or Don Drysdale? Don Newcomb? How about a guy that could spot start, or work as a long reliever like Carl Erskine? Do you grab Duke Snider to help add another power bat in the outfield while Mookie is healing up? Gil Hodges would be a real nice bat off the bench.

I’ve included some selections from my personal collection to whet your appetites for the discussion. A nice 1955 Topps Jackie, a number of 1909-‘11 T206 Dodger tobacco cards, a couple of 1965 Topps cards of Koufax and Drysdale, 1957 Topps examples from Pee Wee Reese and Gil Hodges, a 1953 Bowman Color “Oisk”, and a 1960 Topps of Duke Snider. And after I’d started putting stuff away, it dawned on me: I can’t have a discussion of the Brooklyn team without Roy Campanella, so I had to get one of his, too.

Let me know who you’d take, and what your thinking was behind the decision.

As this is a group for the Dodgers franchise, and it originally existed in Brooklyn, I wonder if anyone knows of a place I could find an upload of the HBO documentary “The Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush.”

This came out in 2007, and it was fantastic. I had the broadcast saved to my DVR in high definition, but when we switched providers, the DVR, and all my programming, went bye bye.

There is an upload on YouTube, but it looks like it came off of an old VCR. I’m not kidding. The quality is terrible.

If HBO ever showed it, I’d save it. If they made it available for purchase, I’d buy it. But they’re terrible about their sports documentaries, many of which are never shown again.

I’d be good with even a 720p copy.

If anyone can help, I’d appreciate it more than you could know. Thank you.

Hey all.

As I am fast approaching my fifty-fifth year, I find myself becoming a bigger and bigger fan of The Chairman of the Board.

And where a couple of collections were once able to satiate my listening needs, I am really wanting to build my Sinatra albums collection. And quite honestly, it’s a little daunting, as Frank was so prolific over the decades.

I’m both a fan of his film work and his music. I’ve got a pretty good start on his movies.

My blu-ray collection:

Anchors Aweigh
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
On the Town
From Here to Eternity
Ocean’s 11
Guys and Dolls
Pal Joey
The Manchurian Candidate
Robin and the Seven Hoods

But my album collection is in its relative infancy.

I have the following CDs:

In the Wee Small Hours
Songs For Swingin’ Lovers!
Come Fly With Me
Only the Lonely
Sinatra at the Sands With Count Basie + Orchestra

Sinatra Reprise: The Very Good Years
Sinatra 80th: All the Best

The two collections did a pretty good job of covering many of Frank’s best known songs. And while we live in the era of downloads and streams, I’ve found that the devoted fan is often rewarded with some of the lesser known gems that can only be found when listening to an entire album, start to finish, as the artist intended.

Maybe I’m approaching dinosaur status, but I still revel in lying on my back, putting on my headphones, pressing “play”, and just losing myself in the music.

So this isn’t so much a straightforward question as it is a discussion. I’m looking to benefit from all your knowledge.

What albums would you all suggest that I pick up next, and why? What are your favorites? Which resonate with you on a personal level?

Thank you all in advance for helping me to find the next steps on my journey!

Bill