Category: Dailies

Who's coming with me?

Sitting at LAX, ready to head to Camelback Ranch – Glendale. Hard to believe it’s here, but I can’t wait to see the place. It’s changed dramatically since I was there in November.

Be sure to keep checking back regularly for updates as well as watching the Inside Dodgertown webisodes that are on dodgers.com (if you’ve disabled autoplay on your home page, you have to make sure to click on it to watch them). The video group from the Dodgers has been doing some great work on a daily basis and there will be new video from Arizona daily.

Meanwhile, if I hadn’t booked my flight a month ago, I would have hopped on the Lasorda bus, which departed from Dodger Stadium this morning at 10 a.m. They’ve got to be closing in on Arizona by now even with their stop for six-dollar burgers at Carl’s Jr. and a gas fill-up at 76 (got to plug our sponsors, right?). I can only imagine the stories being told on that bus but keep an eye out for updates on KABC from Josh Suchon all day long; a story on dodgers.com from Rhett Bollinger, who is riding along; reports on KCAL with Gary Miller; and a column by the Daily News’ Ramona Shelburne. I’m sure Tommy will post a blog about the trip, too.

Tomorrow there will be tons of coverage from Arizona, as Joe Torre will meet with the media around 2 p.m. and Inside Dodgertown is hoping to catch with him first thing in the morning before the entire baseball operations staff sits down together for the first time this spring.

Dodgers on Game Shows…

It is somewhat ironic, I think, that the Dodgers recently visited the “Price is Right” set, given the last three months of trying to find the right price for Manny. As you surely know by now, he granted his first interview in a while to the LA Times and it was great to hear from him and know how much he enjoyed playing in Los Angeles. As you can imagine, it’s not always easy to work through intermediaries in any business sense, but it’s a necessary part of the game and his agent is very good at what he does. That said, I hope that Manny’s comments are an indication that we can work something out (hopefully before the Price is Right episode airs in mid-March!!!)

Meanwhile, our team historian, Mark Langill, has been a contributor to this blog from time to time and I’ve asked him to send us a weekly post that touches on something historical from the club. Sometimes it’ll be an anniversary, sometimes it’ll be a relevant piece of history tied to current events and they’ll vary in length, I’m sure. But, there’s so much knowledge kicking around in his head, we want to make sure you guys all enjoy it, too. So, here’s his first weekly post…

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The Dodgers’ recent winter caravan included a visit to “The Price Is Right” game show with host Drew Carey at CBS Studios, rekindling memories of a time when Dodger personnel often appeared on the non-baseball airwaves on game shows, variety specials and even in the movies.

During their tenure in Brooklyn, the New York-based game show “What’s My Line?” included mystery guests from the world of sports, including Dodger catcher Roy Campanella and Duke Snider.

In Los Angeles, sitcoms in the early 1960s featured Dodger coach Leo Durocher in a “manager” role because acting didn’t appeal to the low-key Walter Alston. Durocher appeared on “The Beverly Hillbillies,” scouting Jethro as a pitcher; “The Munsters,” scouting Herman Munster as a power hitter; and received advice from a talking horse on “Mister Ed.”

Arguably the most versatile Dodger in an acting role was pitcher Don Drysdale, who could appear as a gun-toting villain in such shows at “The Rifleman” and then wear a tuxedo and sing love songs, like he did after the 1963 World Series on “The Joey Bishop Show.”

In one scene, Drysdale masterfully performed “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” until he suddenly stopped when starting the song’s last line which began, “Your golden sun …” The supposedly startled Bishop approached Drysdale and the pair staged a conversation away from the microphone. Like a manager, Bishop then summoned relief pitcher Ron Perranoski, who slowly walked onstage in his Dodger uniform, complete with warmup jacket slung over his shoulder. Perranoski handed his jacket to Drysdale, who walked off the stage. “There’s another one Don couldn’t finish,” Bishop joked. Perranoski quickly sang the song’s final four words, “… will shine for me” to get the save.

Back in the Valley…

Welcome back to El Camino Real’s own Randy Wolf, who is back in the mix on a one-year deal. He’s a favorite of many because of his local ties and he fits very nicely into the rotation with Billingsley, Kuroda, Kershaw and a fifth starter to be named later (at least those are the names we all assume are going to be in there…can’t say I’ve personally talked about it with Joe Torre).

 

 

 

Vamos a Mexico!

It was great seeing some of the ITD faithful out at Canter’s Deli yesterday. I didn’t get to make it over to The Price is Right, but I heard it was awesome and can’t wait to see it on air on March 18.

The caravan heads really far south now, as I’m blogging from an SUV en route to Mexicali, where we’re announcing that we’ll host the two top teams from the Mexican League at Dodger Stadium on May 16. Should be a really unique event and I hope you’ll all be out there. We’ve got Fernando, Jaime and Pepe with us and anytime you can trek into Mexico with Fernando, who is the biggest name in Mexican baseball history, it’s a pretty special event. Tickets go on sale today on dodgers.com and will be as low as $5 for the family section (alcohol free pavilions)…

And congratulations are in order for former Dodger groundskeeper Larry DiVito, who was named as the Twins’ head groundskeeper yesterday. It’s always great to see former Dodgers moving up throughout baseball and our own Guru of the Grounds, Eric Hansen, has proteges around the league, which is why our field is considered by many players to be the best in baseball. Of course, Larry was already the head guy in Washington before making the move, so apparently he likes starting new stadiums! Congrats, Larry. 

 

The next Jim Morris…

Some of you probably recall the former left-handed pitcher Jim Morris, who was as a professional pitcher in 1983 before being released in 1989 and becoming a high school coach, only to return to the Majors in 2000 (including a brief stint with the Dodgers in Spring Training the following year).

Well, the blogosphere has it’s own version of Jim Morris. Meet Jon Weisman. A budding superstar of a sportswriter back in the day, he took his talents to a more intimate setting and created Dodger Thoughts many years ago and turned it into a must-read blog for Dodger fans.

Now, out of the blue, the big leagues came calling again. DodgerThoughts will now be hosted by the LA Times and Jon explains the decision-making process on his site. Congrats to him on the call-up! I wonder who would play him in the movie version (it was Dennis Quaid who played Jim Morris in “The Rookie.”) Perhaps his friends at the Daily Variety can create a cast.

Meanwhile, that means that the Brothers Kamenetzky, who have the most popular Laker blog out there, will get the chance to focus on that while also contributing their witty Dodger content to a different LA Times blog, The Fabulous Forum. Plus, you’ll still see their stuff in ESPN the Mag, so we’re happy that they’ll be around quite a bit at the stadium, too.

And, in sticking with the blog theme, I just learned that the Isotopes, our Triple-A affiliate in Albuquerque, will also be hosting a blog this season so be sure to check them out, too.

The Caravan has left Dodger Stadium this morning and is on its way to City of Hope, one of our two partners in ThinkCure. I did see one question posted as to why the Caravan only stays in the general Los Angeles area rather than venturing to the outlying communities like the Inland Empire and the answer is simply that with Los Angeles being as large as it is, it’s very tough to make multiple stops if you have to travel more than an hour to get to each one.

But, that’s not to say it’s out of the question. I will definitely bring the suggestion up when we plan next year’s event and appreciate the feedback.

We taught them everything they know…

I remember that day back in September, when Cory Wade, Joe Beimel and I popped by Steelers practice. I took Santonio Holmes over to a side field and we went through some drills, showing him how to catch passes in the corner of the end zone while dragging his toes in bounds. It looks like he finally took to heart the lesson.

OK, so maybe that didn’t happen, but because of our visit to their practice facility and the kindness of their staff in opening their doors to Cory and Joe, two lifelong Steelers fans, that’s who I was rooting for yesterday and it turned out to be an amazing game. Congratulations to that entire organization on an unprecedented sixth title (coincidentally, the same number as the Dodger franchise).

Meanwhile, a group of fans from around the community had a chance to come out to Dodger Stadium and watch the big game from the Baseline Box Club in our second annual Superbowl party. So, with the completion of that game, it’s official. Baseball season is upon us – sure, there’s NBA, the NHL, and college hoops still going on, but we leave for Camelback Ranch – Glendale a week from tomorrow and everyone’s getting pretty fired up.

Hope to see some of you out at our caravan stops tomorrow and Wednesday.

 

Happy birthday, Jackie and Happy Trails, John

Today would be the 90th birthday of Jackie Robinson and we stopped to celebrate this great day today with the second annual celebration at Dodger Stadium on the eve of Black History Month. Nearly 100 local youngsters came to the ballpark and heard first-hand stories from Jackie’s old teammates and friends to ensure that his story lives on forever.

While we’re fortunate enough to have people like Don Newcombe, Tommy Davis, and Sweet Lou Johnson, among others, who can tell today’s kids what life was like for them back during the Civil Rights movement (and before it), we know that won’t always be the case so making sure that these kids hear it first-hand ensures that they can tell their grandkids that they heard it straight from those who experienced it…

Meanwhile, this evening at Dodger Stadium, we’re hosting a retirement party for the AP’s John Nadel. As Jerry Crowe of the LA Times wrote earlier this week, John is one of the few newspaper people who have left on their own terms of late, as that industry continues to take hit after hit. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard anyone say a bad word about John, who has covered our team for several decades. He’s always been far more concerned with getting the story right rather than getting it first, and he’s been a class act in every way. We’ll miss having him around the stadium next year. Congrats, John!

 

Caravan

You’ve all been waiting for this info so please forgive the delay in getting it out. Our eight-day community caravan begins tomorrow, with public events on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

All the info you need is here!

Hope to see many of you along the way…

ITD Tour

So, it looks like we’re going to have to wait until the season starts for the Inside the Dodgers tour. I promise it will still happen, but as you might have heard, we’re actually re-doing the entire field and it’ll be better for you all to see it when it’s done. For those who understand horticulture better than I, here’s a description of what is taking place from our rockstar head grounds crew member, Eric Hansen.

“As you look down over the next 10 days you will see quite a transformation.  This project began yesterday (Sunday) morning at about 7 AM with the removal of existing turf and scheduled to conclude the middle of next week with the installation of new sod.  We will install the same type of turf as was removed which is a hybrid bermudagrass base (Tifway 419) over seeded with a perennial rye.  West Coast Turf in Palm Desert will be providing and installing the turf.  West Coast Turf is the company that provides most of the turf to the high profile stadiums in the South and Southwest.  They are also the company that has provided the turf for most of the Super Bowls.

This is what you can expect to see over the next few days.  The sod is being removed by a machine (Karol Toymaker) that uses teeth that cut and shred the material (sod & soil) at a depth of approximately two inches.  At the present time, Bush Turf is close to finishing its first pass.  They will make a second pass over the entire field to clean up the organic matter still remaining on the surface.  Once this is finished, approximately 200 – 300 tons of sand will be added to the field to replace that which was removed.  Once this is finished, 2000 lbs of gypsum (Calcium) will be applied to the surface and blended into the top 6″ of soil.  By the way, our soil profile consists of approximately 12″ of high quality sand meeting well defined specifications.  Once this phase is completed, the sprinkler heads that we have buried will be raised and set.  The sand will be watered to help it settle and grading will begin.  Bush Turf will use a blade equipped with two receivers that read a signal sent from a laser set up on pitchers mound.  The signal being sent are predetermined elevations programmed into the transmitter. The blade on the tractor adjusts up or down based on the signal it receives.  With this equipment the field can easily be graded with 1/8″ – ¼’ of desired  elevations. Once the grading is finished, the only thing left to do with the soil prior to installing sod is apply preplan fertilizer and wait for the sod to show up.

There are a few other things that will also occur.  We also have to work on the infield skin which will involve blending amendments into the profile and then finishing with a final laser grade.  Also, once the turf has been installed, we will add about 50 tons of new warning track material which will help freshen up the color and appearance.”

It’s obviously quite complicated but that’s why he does what he does and we do what we do, right? All I know is that a few years ago, Major Leaguers rated our field as the best to play on, so I know that we’re in good hands with Eric and his crew. In the meantime, thanks for your patience on the tour. We’ll definitely set it up when we get back from Spring Training…