Touring the stadium…

Thanks to those of you who made it out today…it was a fun afternoon tour and given that we only had about 20 total people on hand, we took some detours into areas that we’re not normally permitted to go. A peek inside the clubhouse, inside the weight room, up the clubhouse tunnel and into the area where Kirk Gibson got loose before his big homer in ’88. We even ran into a few different Dodger folks who were kind enough to say hello, including Manny Mota, who spent a good amount of time with the group.

Series finale is tomorrow night on ESPN, so it’s a 5:10 game…hope we’ll see some of you out here again.

Congrats to SooHoo!

Tonight, the Dodgers honored Jon SooHoo on his 25th anniversary with the team and it’s been a great night for those who know him. Usually the guy behind the lens, he had 50 photographers shooting his every move and his entire family and tons of friends on hand to celebrate. Well deserved and here’s hoping he’ll be here for another quarter century.

For those of you joining the Inside the Dodgers tour tomorrow, we’ll see you at noon at the top of the park gift shop.

Kershaw or Lincecum?

Talk about a no-hit jjinx…I had literally typed these words when Casey just got a hit:

“Sitting here watching Roy Oswalt throw five-plus no-hit innings while Clayton Kershaw has 11 strikeouts through six innings and”

That’s as far as I got. So, I’ll go back to my original thought. With Tim Lincecum’s Giants coming to town this weekend (he won’t be pitching), I thought back to the 2006 draft when we took Kershaw a couple picks ahead of Lincecum.

Of course, the right-hander has gone on to win a couple Cy Youngs so clearly he’s an incredibly talented pitcher but here’s my question to all of you: As you sit here on Sept. 1, 2010, with Kershaw leading the NL in strikeouts and just 22 years old, would you rather have him or Lincecum under your team’s control over the next three years.

Obviously Lincecum has had a down year by his standards, though still not bad (11-9, 3.80, 179 K, 1.35 WHIP) while Kershaw is 11-8 (possibly 11-9), with a 3.01 after today’s outing.

Given what you know about both, if you could only have one on your team next year, who would it be and why? And of course, pretend you’re not a Dodger fan and try to be objective.

A new thread…

As it turned out, I wasn’t on the last road trip and today has been a rather busy day, as you can imagine, so it’s been a while since we had a new post. Sincere apologies. Hopefully we’ll be more regular now that the team is back in town.

Congrats to Rod Barajas on going deep in his first game as a Dodger and first home game as a Dodger. I caught up with him earlier this afternoon in the clubhouse and the guy seemed downright giddy to be wearing this uniform.

There’s honestly been so much to talk about, I wouldn’t even know where to start. But frankly, I think you’re much better served hearing from the actual newsmakers on the Manny front and the trial, so I’ll leave you all to read those stories at the various media outlets and weigh in with your thoughts. But at the very least, I thought everyone needed a new thread…

Hot Rod

Quite a debut for Mr. Barajas last night…I know that we expected him to provide a boost to the offense from the behind the plate, but hard to imagine he would have done what he did yesterday that helped lead to a win. And the fact that he grew up loving Vin Scully makes it even more cool for him to have a debut like that.

And, it’s actually nice that A.J. Ellis got to make the trip to Milwaukee, where he makes his offseason home, and spend a few days there with his wife and kids before reporting back to Triple-A. For those who hadn’t read about it when it happened, he actually watched the birth of his son via webcam earlier this year because he is that dedicated to this organization. Now, he’s getting a little time with the little guy and you’d be hard pressed to find a nicer person in baseball than A.J.

Also, congrats are in order to Eric Collins, who was named one of the Big 10 Network’s lead football broadcasters today.

And finally, for those still interested in the Inside the Dodgers Tour, please see below for more details. Right now, I believe we only have about nine people, which I think makes it clear that this doesn’t really need to be an annual event. But, I’m happy to host those nine people and anyone else interested should email bretts@ladodgers.com

 

Vin in In for 2011!

What great news to start a Sunday morning…there has never been anyone like him and while I never say “never” when it comes to the future, it’s fairly safe to assume that there will never be another like him in our lifetime.

He’s not only the best at what he does for a living, but he’s every bit as humble and kind as you would hope he would be. Welcome back, Vin. We’re looking forward to a fruitful 2011 — hearing your voice and watching you “work.”

 

90s Night

It’s 90s night tonight and I just got my hands on a partial playlist for the game…what’s your favorite 90s song? Can’t make any promises, but among the tunes we’ll hear tonight are:

No Scrubs – TLC

Motownphilly – Boyz II Men

Give it Away Now – Red Hot Chili Peppers

My Prerogative – Bobby Brown

One Week – Barenaked Ladies

Enter Sandman – Metallica

All I Wanna Do – Sheryl Crows

Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana

Tennessee – Arrested Development

Ironic – Alanis Morrisette

Plush – Stone Temple Pilots

Regulate – Warren G

Jump Around – House of Pain

Jump – Kris Kross

Humpty Dance – Digital Underground

Losing My Religion – R.E.M.

Good Vibrations – Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch

And lots more…personally I’m bummed not to see Dave Matthews Band on there, but three of the band members were down on the field yesterday for BP (Carter Beauford, Rashawn Ross and Jeff Coffin).

I hope those of you here tonight will celebrate a great decade that rarely gets its due when stacked up against the 60s, 70s and 80s!

And please forgive the delay in posting…have had some computer issues and just been jammed up with other projects.

 

Dodgers Sign Zach Lee!

It’s official…at least pending a physical. The Dodgers have signed Zach Lee, their first-round pick who had been previously considered unsignable by many baseball experts. He will give up football at LSU and focus on baseball full-time.

It’s a huge signing for the Dodgers, who earlier today signed 11th-rounder Joc Pederson and 26th-round pick Scott Schebler to give them a total of 30 of their 50 picks signed, including nine of their top 10 and 13 of their top 15. Many believe that he would have been in the Top 10 in talent had everyone not assumed he was committed to playing football.

It makes tonight’s awful loss just a little easier to swallow, though admittedly not much. That was yet another tough one. 

 

Road trip starts off right…

The offense seems to have clicked last night and raise your hand if you thought Jay Gibbons was going to start out this hot! He’s back in the starting lineup tonight.

It’s no secret, the Dodgers need to start winning series against every team to help erase the 4 1/2 game wild card lead and 7 game division lead. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s far from impossible. Last night was a good start to a big road trip.

Tonight, Chad Billingsley is going for his 10th win for the fourth straight season. That’s pretty impressive consistency (Derek Lowe was the last Dodger to do it and before that, I think it was Chan Ho Park, but I’d have to go back and really look it up!)

I was surprised to learn today that the Dodgers have won 12 of the last 14 season series with the Phillies going back to 1996. Of course, they’ve gotten the best of us in the two series that matter most, but a game like last night is important because right now, the Phillies are ahead of the Dodgers in the wild card race, too.

Game time tonight is at 4:05 p.m. PT on PRIME Ticket so tune in…

Garret Anderson, Jay Gibbons, Sylvia Fisk and Esther Rosen

In today’s L.A. Times, Bill Plaschke found one of the amazing stories in the building so make sure you check it out. It’s always great to see some of the hard working people here get some recognition and the incredible thing is, there are stories like this behind so many people who work for the Dodgers, yet few ever learn of their tales.

It’s only fitting, since Bill points out that they’ve never met a player in four decades of Sylvia working here, that we put their names in the headline with two players who made news today. The club designated Garret Anderson for assignment to make room for Jay Gibbons, who has been tearing up Triple-A all season long after spending last year retired in Thousand Oaks. Garret has been a class act throughout a difficult year and we wish him well. Hopefully Jay can come up with some big hits for this club in the final seven-plus weeks of the season.

As for Sylvia and Esther, the timing of the story was also ironic because yesterday we had the latest installment of the Starting 9 program. Various stadium workers – from ushers to ticket takers, security to parking attendants and food service workers, etc. are nominated by their colleagues to be their department’s member of the Starting 9. Those nine employees then get to watch batting practice from the field, meet a Dodger player and, here’s the kicker: Meet Vin Scully.

It’s awesome to see the reaction on their faces when they meet the person who ties all Dodger generations together and hopefully Sylvia will be honored in the future if she hasn’t been already.