Category: Dailies

First a bobblehead, then a Sportscenter commercial…

Even without Andre Ethier in the lineup, the Dodgers won their ninth straight last night on his bobblehead night and there was a packed house at Dodger Stadium.

Now, Andre is over at ESPN Los Angeles studios to film a “This is Sportscenter commercial,” which usually means you’re pretty darn big if they’re asking you to do this sort of thing. And even better, you’ll get to see the behind-the-scenes footage of the commercial shoot, as the Dodgers Media Network is here getting some pretty cool stuff. Amazingly, there are like 40 people on the set for a 30-second spot. Pretty crazy.

What’s next for the budding star?

Well, he’s got an upcoming action figure night (July 8), a poster (Aug. 20) and a few other big time media requests we’ve gotten for him. We’re going to try to bang out most of these while he’s hurt because unfortunately, he can’t play at the moment. But, hopefully he’ll be back soon and by then, who knows, maybe the Dodgers will be on a 23-game winning streak…

A chance to move into a first place tonight at the Ravine against the Padres…

Eight straight…

Another great start from John Ely…I hope everyone is enjoying this run of wins. Andres bobblehead night is tomorrow night and well have well over 50,000 screaming fans in the house. There are still very few tickets available left and while it doesnt look like hell play, who knows what will happen. Manny Ramirez didnt play on his bobblehead night last year and we all saw how that turned out!

Dodger prospects making headlines

A couple of Single-A Dodger prospects are in the news in Midland, Michigan for all the right reasons.

Great Lakes Loons’ prospects Rafael Ynoa and Elisaul Pimentel helped save a life last weekend. We’re proud of actions and would like to think that everyone in the Dodger organization would have reacted the same way, had they been in their shoes.

Down here in San Diego, the Dodgers are getting set to try and complete a perfect road trip for the first time since the end of the 2006 season. Andre Ethier is en route to Los Angeles to be checked out by a hand specialist. We hope to know more after the game, so keep an eye out for the latest news. Hopefully it won’t be too serious and he can avoid a DL stint.

Homestand opens up tomorrow at Dodger Stadium, with two against the ‘Stros, three against the Pads and three against the Tigers.

Ethier, Yankees and other such stuff…

Andre Ethier jammed the pinky on his right hand during batting practice and was scratched from the lineup. Garret Anderson moves into his place…

On a happier note, by the time this blog posts to Facebook, we’ll probably be at 200,000 fans so nice work, people! We’re about 30 fans short but it never ceases to amaze me how many people out there love the Dodgers. Just looking around the ballpark here in SD tells you that.

And as a response to 636566cy’s post about tickets to the Yankees series, I’m glad you asked about why we aren’t putting individual tickets on sale. Here’s the deal.

Every year, for games like Opening Day and the Postseason, we offer our Season Ticket holders the opportunity to purchase additional seats prior to the public on sale. It’s a very common practice for sports teams across the country. As we stated in our news release, the volume of requests that we’ve already received from our season ticket holders has been extremely high. Obviously there are a lot of people who want to come to this series. While we have Opening Day every year and we’ve been fortunate enough to be in the postseason in four of the last six, the Yankees don’t come to down that often. Demand for these tickets is quite large.

At this point, we can already tell that once we give those season ticket holders the opportunity and take care of our internal ticketing needs, there will not be seats available to put on sale for the public. We obviously can’t sell what we don’t have and we have to take care of those who commit to season seats.

A side benefit that this also helps assure is that we will have Dodger fans in the house for those three games and that the ticket brokers won’t snap up every seat in the house. If we were to put them on sale to the individual public, I think it’s fairly safe to say that an enormous portion of those seats available would wind up on eBay or other such sites and begin selling for four or five times face value, if not more. And a huge portion of the people who will buy them will be Yankee fans in Los Angeles, whereas Dodger fans are much more interested in seeing seven games over the course of the season.

The seven-game plans start for as little as $9 per game, or $63 for an entire week’s worth of games. We believe that’s a very fair price, and there are plenty of other options, too (including some that have food included in the right field pavilion).

I hope that helps you understand the reasoning behind our approach…and now here’s to another win tonight in San Diego! First pitch is a minute away…

The hottest team in baseball…

A big win tonight and it’s really cool to see the sea of blue not only at PETCO Park, but at the team hotel. Dodger fans came out in full force tonight to show their love and it was a really fun game to watch.

And there’s another place where the fans are out in full force…Facebook, where we’re about to top 200,000 fans (we’re about 500 fans shy at the moment). That’s pretty incredible when you think of how recently we really started updating that page on a regular basis. But of course, there are a lot more than two hundred thousand Dodger fans out there. You guys are millions strong, all around the world.

Keep the streak alive…we’ve won 10 of the last 13 for the first time in about a year…

 

Last chance to nominate someone special in your life…

For those who have not yet heard, MLB and People Magazine have teamed up for the PEOPLE All-Stars Among Us program for the second year in a row. This Friday is the deadline and thousands of submissions are pouring in for everyday people who go above and beyond in their community.

Maybe they mentored disadvantaged children, cared for abandoned pets or started a community garden. You tell us! You can even nominate yourself.

A total of 30 everyday All-Stars (one representing each MLB team) will be honored at the 2010 MLB All-Star Game in Anaheim on July 13 and one will be featured in PEOPLE magazine.

Take a few minutes and think about the people in your life who make an impact in other people’s lives. You’ll be glad you did (and so will they!)

A nice night in the desert…

The roof is open at Chase Field and it’s nice to be in Arizona when the thermometer is still in double digits. And the Dodgers have won seven of their last 10, so hopefully they’re getting into a groove.

Meanwhile, how about this nugget we dug up today? The last time a Dodger flirted with batting .400 this far into a season was Willie Davis in 1971. After May 10 that year, he was hitting .375 and went 4-for-4 to put himself at a .395 clip. With Andre Ethier striking out in the first inning, I believe he falls down to .392 but it’s still pretty impressive what he’s done for the first five-plus weeks of the season.

And for those who have been waiting for individual tickets to go on sale for the Yankees series in June, we officially announced today that a mini plan is the only way to get tickets for that series. Based on the overwhelming demand we’ve had from our season ticket holders, who have always had first crack at buying extra tickets for games like Opening Day or the playoffs, it has become clear that there simply won’t be any tickets to put on sale to the general public.

Of course, that also means we’ll hopefully have a lot of Dodger fans in the house for one of the most anticipated series we’ve had in quite some time at Dodger Stadium.

Anyway, back to the game…John Ely just got out of the first inning and there’s no score. At this point, it’s probably too late to post the lineup. If you’re reading this, you probably already know our starting nine…

All You Can Ethier…

Got some grief yesterday for jokingly touting Jeff’s return to Weaverwood so trying a new one today…just trying to keep it fresh. I’m sure the Andre Ethier fans can’t get enough of the guy.

Prior to today’s game, Manny Ramirez was officially activated and he’s in the lineup tonight. Meanwhile, had the chance to catch up with Jim Tracy before the game and he’s one of the classiest guys in baseball. You can’t help but root for a guy like that…unless, of course, he’s playing against us. So, here’s to sweeping the Rockies but seeing them do well when they’re not facing the Dodgers.

For those still looking for Mother’s Day plans, we’ve got a game tomorrow and tickets are still available. No better way than to spend the day with your mom at Dodger Stadium. After the game, fans are allowed down on the field to walk around the warning track with their family, which is always a fun memory. And the players will be using pink bats to help raise awareness for breast cancer in support of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation.

That’s about all…first pitch just a few minutes away. Here’s the lineup:

Martin, C

Kemp, CF

Ethier, RF

Manny, LF

Loney, 1B

Blake, 3B

DeWitt, 2B

Carroll, SS

Haeger, P

Weaverwood opens tonight, Mannywood tomorrow

Jeff Weaver will be activated for tonight’s game from the DL, with a corresponding move to follow soon.

As for Andre Ethier, what more can you really say? The guy has been arguably the best offensive player in baseball for five weeks. Hopefully it’ll begin to rub off on those around him…

Joe Torre also said that Manny would be back tomorrow night, so that means we’ll likely start seeing fans returning quickly to Mannywood. Let’s hope he starts out as hot as he was when he got hurt.

For tonight, X Paul is in his place…here’s the lineup:

Paul, LF

Kemp, CF

Ethier, RF

Loney, 1B

Blake, 3B

Martin, C

DeWitt, 2B

Carroll, SS

Kuroda, P