El Tronco
How ’bout Ramon Troncoso? What an incredible outing he had last night and what an great call by Joe Torre to keep him in there to protect the lead. I guess there’s a reason he’s going to be in the Hall of Fame as soon as he decides to hang up the uniform. Troncoso’s numbers are sick but it’s his road ERA that blows me away – 0.53. I think we need a nickname for him. Tronco just doesn’t cut it. And while I love that his mom’s favorite player was former Rafael Landestoy, hence Ramon’s middle name, that might be a bit of a mouthful, too. Any ideas?
And how much more can one say about Juan Pierre? I don’t know that I’ve been this happy for a player in a long, long time. He easily could’ve pouted his way through the last year and a half and then stunk up the joint when he finally got an opportunity to play, but he didn’t and he’s been the catalyst for baseball’s best team over the past several weeks.
It’s a good time to be a Dodger fan, and we should all enjoy the good times as much as we hate the rough patches. At least that’s what I try to remind myself.
Meanwhile, it may be rainy and overcast here in LA, but out on Waveland Ave and in Wrigleyville, they surely don’t care about the 74-degree overcast weather. They’re probably starting their party early for some day baseball and here’s the lineup that’ll take to the field in a couple hours:
Pierre, LF
Martin, C
Hudson, 2B
Loney, 1B
Blake, 3B
Ethier, RF
Kemp, CF
Castro, SS
Billingsley, P
Inside the Dodgers 
Why did we call up a 3rd catcher when we never use our 2nd catcher? Oh and its MAY! why wasted one of Ellis’ options?
Gosh damn I’d rather have Kemp bat 2nd.
I’d certainly rather have Hudson bat second – he did well there when it was Furcal, Hudson, and Manny in that order. Now I want to see how Martin can respond in that spot and following all of my disparaging remarks. Get some fire in your belly, you, you former All-Star catcher.
Ramon “The Tank” Troncoso (or) Ramon “Tank” Troncoso. That’s got to be taken by someone but it sounds good and just fits.
Hey Max/aeversw!! I forgot to welcome you back the other day……………It’s great to see you here again!!!
LET’S GO DODGERS!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a great game Dodgers!!!
JOSH thanks for the update. And yeah EL TRONCO has been wonderful…we’ve complained about our pitchers, but boy surprinsingly they have done wonderful. PIERRE is another surprise…now I’m waiting for MARTIN’S surprise…LOL Wow rainy in L.A. rain hasn’t hit Riverside yet, but I do see the overcast in L.A. direction.
JOSH ********QUESTION********
Will Manny #99 be doing rehab with the 66rs (Inland Empire)?
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Ramon THE TANK….LOL I just don’t want to see him running around naked LOL! (Old School – movie Frank the Tank Will Farrel)
The Young Guns .38 Special… He has been point blank on the mound.
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LETS GO DODGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BEAT THE CUBBIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why not something simple for Ramon – El Toro. Then they can play Herb Alpert’s, The Lonely Bull when he comes in.
Enchanted love your idea…EL TORO…and each time he pitches and the batters strikes, we say OLE!
Too bad he isn’t Spaniard
The Lonely Bull:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16B5Xm8_IKw
E- Wait isn’t that song what Ethier is coming out too?
I like that name enchanted 🙂
Howzitgoin’ Everybody
Sorry I can’t think of a better nickname than, “El Tronco”
Just hoping for a nice afternoon in Chicago and more important, another win.
I gotta say I really enjoyed watching last night’s game on MLBN, I guess I’ll have to put up with MLB.TV today with all the problems, but it will be good to get back to Conners and the good humored Lyons.
GO DODGERS************************************
REDLINED! E- Wait isn’t that song THAT Ethier comes out too?
Don’t know Russy – I don’t get he broadcasts.
O.K. ANDRE’ Now shut off the oven and pick up that bat and CLOUT ONE.
El Tronco is good but how about R-Tron?
I was getting my mlb.tv set up to watch the game ( I told my class they can watch a half hour of it until lunch time), and I turned it on only to see Andre’s restaurant review he did a while back………………………… LET’S GO ANDRE!!!!!!! LET’S GO DODGERS!!!!!!!!!
I agree oldbrooklynfan …………………. let’s go boys!!!!!!!!!!!!
How about Ramon “The Road Warrior” Troncoso?
“Remain breathing.”
Excellent advice! LOL!!!
I liked the callup of Ellis to free up Ausmas to PH occasionally and get us back to a 12-man rotation until I read this:
“……but he’s expected to stay only until Hiroki Kuroda is activated off the disabled list, which could be as soon as next week.”
http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090528&content_id=5016794&vkey=news_la&fext=.jsp&c_id=la
Wouldn’t the return of Kuroda be the opportunity to can Mota? Either Milton or Stultz would go to the pen and either one would be more reliable than Mota. Of course, neither of them makes $3 mil.
I also applauded Torre’s decision to leave Troncoso in last night, but it’s a shame that he had no choice. Several rested arms down there and not a one to be trusted.
Herb Alpert’s TJ Brass……brings back a lot of memories. My dad used to listen to his stuff all the time. I remember drooling over one of his album covers in particular…..LOL!!! Anyone remember that one?
GO DODGERS!!!!
LOL!!!!
How about T-RAM, or just keep EL TRONCO (and when he is not doing so good we’ll change it to EL TRONCO-SO-SO)
I remember the TJ Brass, Dodgereric. And, yes, I remember the one you were drooling over! lol
In case someone missed that, Loney Ked to end the inning.
That’s O-Dog for you!!! Let’s go Boys!!!
O……..Yea!…………………..
Conners: “Hudson, as advertised”
Nice start Billz!!
Eric, so you like whipped cream?
I like it a lot lbirken! Especially when I was 13!! LOL!!!
Groan……..lead off walk…….started him 0-2…….
LOL!!!!!!
Another Ramon name: Ramon “El Oso” Troncoso (Ramon “The Bear” Troncoso)
Eric, that cover still looks pretty good.
Russell is batting and Rick and Charlie are still talking about Juan! They are definitely Juanpians!!!
The album cover in question I believe:
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http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/A/Alpert/herb_alpert.html
Thanks, Enchanted………now you can make Dodgereric and lbirken drool once again!
Good to see Russell can still reach the seats.
Very nice enchanted! I remember seeing a magazine years ago redo that cover, but with Salma Hayek. Those were some very nice pics!
JP or whipped cream! What a choice of topics.
Atleast Russell got the pitcher to pitch to him 9 times. Get him tired!
Make the Lilly wilt!!!
lbirken ~ I prefer whipped cream!!!
Eric, I am not going to post it here but check out the cover on the re-whipped album.
RE-WHIP it good!
I like to consider myself a boob man.
Surprising then I’m not a fan of Ned and Joe.
And, Enchanted, on that note…..I know I’m getting old when I put my bra on backward and it fits!!!
LMAO Tru!!
E – that’s cause you are a boob man not an *** man!
Butt man…sorry I forgot to bad words but it began with an ‘A’, and end in double ‘S’
Hey girls, you’re getting into my favorite spot.
LOL, oldbrooklynfan!
Yeah, probably too old.
Eric, see what you started?
Clint Hurdle has been fired……Jim Tracy will be new Rockies manager.
STRIKE out LIL’ TED
lbirken ~ it wouldn’t be so bad if we had some runs scored so we could chat about the game!
OMG Tru!
Poor Jim…..he sure has a lot of work ahead of him!
Tru, you are right; while we have been talking about body parts there is a heck of a game going on between our boys and the Cubbies.
Is it just me or are we zooming through these innings?
LMAO, lbirken!!! Chad and Ted are both pitching a great game right now.
We are zooming!!!!
C’mon Martin can we get a Homerun from you….pleaseee!
Get rid of Pierre; he has no hits and no runs scored today. He stinks. There, does that make everyone feel better?
Much better, lbirken. Thanks!
Not really – IBERKEN… Martin has done less and I don’t wish that for Martin, so I can’t wish that to others.
BILZ is having trouble in the odd number innings only.
You all know I’m just kidding about Juan! I want all of our players to do well.
🙂 lbirken
I meant the even numbered inning.
A senior moment there, I guess.
For what it’s worth, Torre might use Loney and Blake interchangeably in the cleanup slot, depending on whether we’re facing a righty or lefty. Of course, we’re facing Lilly on one of his really good days. Maybe we’ll have a chance to get into their bullpen, so hold on Billz for another inning, or better yet two.
IBER : that was odd!
Wow – heck of an inning!
WAY TO GO DODGERS!!!! WAY TO GO JAMES!!!! NOW LET’S GET SOME RUNS!!!!
I hope Piniella don’t get fired now.
Nice defense after Fukudome’s hit!!!
Did you hear Hurdle is done?
Hey, anything for a laugh.
We are now officially Happy Kempers!!
WAY TO GO MATTY!!!!!!!!!!!!
That was a scary moment with Fukudome…I was like “WHAT THE ***-U-DO-ME!”
Now that’s the MARVELOUS MATTY I Know.
It’s about time!
I sure am a Happy Kemper, sparkleplenty!
Getting totally fed up with Andre about this time. Sit down and let Hoffmann or anybody else play for you. Way to go Kemp – it was about time too.
OK time to sing…so ya’ll better get up:
http://search.live.com/video/results.aspx?q=take+me+out+to+the+ball+game+at+Dodger%27s+stadium&form=QBVR
That’s the problem with these day games! Work gets in the way and you have to step away and look what happens! Just what the doctor ordered.
Whoops, it happened again only for the bad guys.
ouch !!!!!!! a double play… what a terrible may. get this month over and hopefully he starts hitting and fielding like April. But he has more homers this month than Russel
Here we go again….
BILLI wha’zappenin’ BILLI!
Bills pitched a good game, but he’s over 103 pitches. What ot do?
Bills pitched a good game, but he’s over 103 pitches. What ot do?
It could have been worse . . . .
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Now, let’s get those bats warmed up and make something happen, boys!
we need hits
Another 7 inning gem for BILZ, but I think it’s time for the boys in the pen.
He losing it.
LETS GO DODGERS, LETS GO!!!!!!!!
Nice Ferk!
Looked like a bad call at first.
The umps sure blew that one . . . and then the DP – darn!!!
A struggle but to no avail.
What is going on…”Twilight Zone”…Rain in SoCAl in May…Martin gets on base and Hudson strikes out! YEY MARTIN! SNIFF SNIFF HUDSON!
Another job WELL DONE by the relief corps.
Come on Boy’s!!!!!! Keep on Battling!!!!
DO OR DIE.
Let’s go Dodgers, let’s go!
Let’s go Dodgers, let’s go!
Let’s go Dodgers, let’s go!
Maybe the Doders can do today what the Cubs could not do yesterday.
Hey, James, we want to sing the Loney Song!!!
4 K’s today for James…………..not good 😦
Is it going to be up either?
Thank God for that hit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Way to go Andre!!!!
ETHIER keeping it alive.
Still breathing . . . . . ouch my nails!!!
Way to go Dre!
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Let’s keep it going Matty!!!
Let’s go Loretta!
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U can do it!!!!
COME ON LORETTA!!!!!
Bummer….
Let’s get the next two in front of national audiences and show them exactly what we can do!
Well, what can you say…………..it was a well pitched game, and we were just on the short end this time……………….nothing to be upset about really.
GOOD TRY BUT LILLY BEAT US.
Almost! Good game!
Well get em tomorrow!!!
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GO DODGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nelly, my sentiments as well. Not much else to say except to come back tomorrow and try again. The Cubs got some good pitching today and turned the double plays they needed just like the Dodgers did yesterday.
OK, I’m not looking at whipped cream any more.
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So what’s happening? Did we win?
You are funny 🙂
We got whipped!
I was on my way to school this morning, and I was listening to my favorite gnat station (lol), and one of the guys said……..”Those Dodgers just tick me off because they are playing so well.” It’s great to hear even the gnat radio hosts admit we have an awesome team.
Have a great rest of your day everybody….:-)
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We are still in 1st!!!
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http://www.grandmasfrenchcafe.com/images/ice_cream_sundae.JPG
Music to my ears nelly!
Oh, D4! You really know how to hurt a guy!! LOL!!!
Three out of 4 in ChiTown still sounds good to me!
My desire to keep this a G-rated forum prevents me from saying anything about the whipped cream on top of the ice cream sundae with the cherry on top.
……..and that was funny, msrussy!!!
Things can always get worse. Check out this guy’s bad day…
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=05f_1243338815
Well, that got an “access denied” on this computer lbirken 🙂
Man, that must have been a real bad day. I wasn’t allowed access! I’ll have to wait ’till I get home!
Sorry about that. It is a site my son sent me showing a guy cutting down a tree but things did not go quite as he expected.
I don’t understand Torre, He pulls wolf after a lead off Home run yesterday, yet he keeps Bils in after the same.
When he was equally high in pitch count. I dont get it, especially when the bullpen had a rest. Oh well
this loss was tough, what happen to our offense.
Not exactly hammering the ball at Wrigley, huh?
“I don’t understand Torre”
By koufax1963
Boy, ain’t that the truth?
Tough game today. I missed most of it seeing as my opener at work overslept and I was called into work on my day off.
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So my day was pretty crummy to begin with. Then I get home to see the lead run score.
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I’m not to upset with the loss however. We aren’t going to win them all.
Oh & Josh I’m sort of in +1 if the bosses allow it. We’ll know by Monday! But we really want to drive down from Nor Cal to go. Just need to work out the logistics with work.
Could it be that Bills is the ace and Wolf is basic a 6 innings pitchers.
Gosh hate seeing former player hitting homerun off of us.
Sorry to hear about Snowboarding gold medalist Karine Ruby passing in a climbing accident.
Congratulations to the Martin Rink;
2009 Alberta Provincial Men’s Curling Champions
Hello everyone. Just to let you know, I’ve started a new blog, different from my drawing blog, at http://mlbsbiguglytruth.blogspot.com .
I am thankful that Major League Baseball has provided us with a free blogging community. Yet, I do have some disagreements with MLB about how the issue of PED’s is being handled. Not wanting to bite the hand that feeds, and wanting my Drawing blog to stay a positive site, I figured I’d use the other one to tackle the thoughts on the ugly issues that face the sport today, with the freedom of speech without doing it on Bud’s dime.
I’ll still do the drawing blog, I just feel these issues are too important to ignore, and I want to get into the minds of baseball fans and see how they view this growing problem. Thanks for your time.
I think it’s ridiculous for people to be saying Ethier should be benched because he’s going through a slump. The Dodgers wouldn’t even be where they are this season without his production the first month of the season and they may not have made the playoffs without his production last season. He was a solid player before Manny ever came to the team, so the reason he’s struggling right now has nothing to do with Manny. What really bothers me is the double standard.. He’s always been held on a really short leash as far as performance is concerned. Casey Blake and Russell Martin were terrible the first month of the season and Martin had a prolonged slump last season. I didn’t hear anyone calling for them to be benched. During the time that Ethier was raking the first month of the season, Kemp and Loney both went through pretty bad dry spells and I didn’t hear anyone say they should be benched either. Furcal hasn’t produced all season long and again, I don’t see people calling for him to be benched. I am not saying they should be benched, but neither should Ethier. He should be allowed to work his way out of it just like they have been. I have no doubt that he will pull out of his slump and be a huge contributor to the Dodgers again this season.
Come on Lakers don’t blow this lead after a prefect 1st half.
Bluecrewgirl ~ I agree with you 100%! Andre WILL BE EVERYDAY DRE very soon!
Come on Lakers don’t blow this lead after a prefect 1st half.
Urgh stupid double post.
BLUECREWGIRL – THAT POST GETS A STANDING OVATION AND ALL CAPS………………..FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! …………….and you know I agree with you 100%. He still has the 2nd most HRs on the team, he has scored the 3rd most runs (29) on the team, and he has 30 RBIs. Andre’s batting .257 with an OBP of .313. Just to put him in perspective with Grady Sizemore(who is one of my favorite non-Dodgers) who is in a slump of his own, and has been for some time. Grady has 8 HRs, 28 Runs, 30 RBIs and he is batting .223 with an OBP of .313, and he was an All-Star last year. I have no doubts that Grady will be batting his usual by the end of the season, and I have no doubts Andre will be doing the same.
ETHIERAHOLICS UNITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
…………..and we are winning regardless of how badly he is slumping, so he should be allowed to ride this out without worrying about losing his position.
I posted pretty much the same thing on the comments on the article on today’s game because some guy said he should be benched or in a platoon. He was also going on about how Joe took his advice to put Blake in cleanup, blah, blah, blah. It was pretty funny though because someone else quoted what he said and then commented as follows:
Comforting to know he trolls this site for your commentary. Yeah let’s make one of our best hitters a platoon guy.
I got a laugh out of that, lol.
Josh: I’m in +3 (maybe 4)
Hope I’m not too late.
I will really be ticked off if Andre ever becomes a platoon guy again! Last year was painful enough for me to endure. If Joe does that, I will lose all respect for him.
nsblues ~ You get to go? ALRIGHT!!!! …………..that’s awesome!!!!!
bluecrewgirl – I really don’t care how well JP is hitting the ball right now, come July 3rd, he doesn’t belong in center field anymore. His hitting is not worth him being there. I am sorry, but today, he literally had to run the ball in to the infield because it was faster than if he had thrown it in. I would also like to know is he going to get a day off to rest. I mean he hasn’t had a day off, and Andre and Matt have both had days off (and Andre was hitting everyday back then) to rest them up, so why shouldn’t he? Why can’t Hoffman play for him some day. Matt, O-Dog or even Raffy can take his lead-off spot for the day, and see what happens. Talk about a double standard.
Trublu, the funny/annoying thing is that when he starts raking again, which I know he will, these same people calling for him to platoon will be singing his praises. Of course the team and their overall success is the most important thing, but I’m loyal to the players I like. Conversely, though I give Pierre total credit for his contribution, I’m not going change my basic opinion that he’s not my style of player.
Totally agree, Nelly.
I know what you mean, Bluecrewgirl. I totally agree with you about Juan. How many games did he play last year when he coudn’t get on base to save his life?! But Joe stuck with him until he got injured and that is when Matt and Andre took off and became the players we all knew they were!
I see Tracy got his 1st win at the Rockies coach good job Tracy but we just had to beat the other Denver team lol.
NellyJune ~ Juan is so special, he doesn’t need a day off! :-{
BCG — Who is saying that Dre should be benched? Who? Show them to me! (Said in the voice of the guy from Seinfield when Kramer wouldn’t carry a flag or wear the pin — I can’t remember!)
Lakers looked much better tonight, Spit. They really came to play from the opening tip off.
BCG ~ did you know your name is coming up two ways — bluecrewgirl and BCG? Now it’s all back to Bluecrewgirl!
Yes I’ve been messing around with my nickname. I had never noticed the link under the profile where you can put a nickname, but when I posted on the comments on that article, it made me select a nickname before I could post. I tried to put in bluecrewgirl, but it said it was already taken. When I noticed it changed my name on here by inputting the nickname, I tried again to put in bluecrewgirl, but I capitalized the b and it accepted it. Not sure why it shows a little b now, but whatever. Anyway, I never could figure out why none of your email addresses showed and mine did, not that I use that email address for anything, I just used it to sign up for here. I guess I’m a little slow, lol.
That’s funny, Bluecrewgirl!
LOL!!!!
Good Night and God Bless everyone 🙂
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I am thinking Andre will be full of positive energy tomorrow.
Stults will be outstanding and the Dodgers will be as intense as ever….:)
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GO GET THOSE CUBBIES BOY’S!!!!!!!
GO DODGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BRING THE RING TO L.A. IN 2009!!!!!!!
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Have a wonderful night and fantastic Saturday everyone 🙂
Good Night Dodger4life!!!!! Take Care and God Bless!!!!!
Looks like JoJo wants to rush Kuroda back for no apparant reason. He stunk it up in his last rehab start against single A competition. What’s the hurry? Shouldn’t he take a couple weeks and stretch it out so that maybe he can go 7 innings? Another 5 inning starter isn’t what we need right now.
And then who is he bumping on Monday – Kershaw. Why not wait another few days and bump Stults (who still has a sore thumb) or Milton?
Tough game yesterday. Just got outpitched. The boys do have to start swinging the bats better as a team though. I’ll still be happy with a split in Chitown.
I agree. He doesn’t seem to be quite ready.
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Tough game yesterday, but the Cubs have a lot of good ball players, too. Catfish Hunter once said, “The sun don’t shine on the same dog’s *** every day”.
Who will be going if Kuroda is coming? I wish he’d wait a little bit on his return too, Enchanted. Three runs scored in two games, not good. However, we were able to win on of them. Today we are on Fox so, come on Dodgers, show the Nation what a fine team we are!
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Knouffbrock ~ Love the Catfish line!
Thanks,tru.
Good Morning ITD readers and writers!!!! With Stults pitching with a hurt thumb, let’s hope the bullpen is rested and ready to help win this one. I am with the rest of you………….why bring Kuroda before he’s fully ready. Do you think there is some other reason. We are winning so why would you push him back so fast? It doesn’t make any sense, but then sometimes, what the management does, doesn’t make sense, does it?
GO DODGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good morning, everyone!
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Hoping the bats come alive today – GO DODGERS!!
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Way off the subject – I have a job interview at 11 this morning, and I’d appreciate any who are of a mind to, please pray for favor for me here. I really believe this would be a good job for me.
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Talk to you all later! And thanks!
Good morning ITD, Dodger Faithful….
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Game 3 in the Windy City….. Stults vs Dempster. Live on Fox Saturday Baseball at 1:10 PT.
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LETS GO DODGERS, LETS GO!!!!!
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ROCK ME BABY!!!!!!
GO DODGERS!!!!!!!!!!!
THIS YEAR BELONGS TO YOU!!!!!
CARPE DEIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Enjoy your day everyone and enjoy the game 🙂
LIFE IS GOOD TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good morning spark, and good luck…I will say a prayer for you now 🙂
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GO DODGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me, too Sparkleplenty! You go get ‘um!!!
….Already done sparkleplenty, and best of luck to you:)
I get to watch the Nascar racing so far until the Dodgers/Cubs comes on.
Ramon Troncosco… R-Co? like Arco? I like it!