Walked to the park today in perfect weather…Derek Lowe decided that rather than run around the track inside PETCO Park, he’d run around downtown San Diego, so we exchanged head nods and hand signals while listening to our iPods. Funny how modern communication has changed the way we all interact.

Also stopped by a room in our hotel where a number of our sponsors and dugout club members were checking in for a two-game trip. That’s one of the perks of being tied into the club in that fashion – they took a trip to Vegas earlier this year and I think they’ve got another one later this year.

For the third straight year, you can take your dad to Dodger Stadium this Sunday to celebrate Father’s Day. The annual Father’s Day Catch will be from 10 a.m to 1 p.m. and is free, but it fills up quickly, so come down early and have a catch with your dad on the outfield grass.

Reporting early to the park was Chad Billingsley, who said he slept well last night, given the circumstances, but that his phone started ringing off the hook around 6 a.m. from friends back home who had read the news. Needless to say, he’s pretty psyched about tomorrow’s start and said that Andy LaRoche’s homer last night was a bomb. LaRoche has two taters in two games with the 51s.

Today’s lineup:

Furcal, SS

Lofton, CF

Nomar, 1B (could qualify for the batting title by the end of the night with 5 PA)

Drew, RF

Kent, 2B

Ethier, LF

Aybar, 3B

Martin, C (has an RBI in six straight)

Penny, P

Hard to believe Don Newcombe turns 80 today. The former Dodger right-hander is the only player in baseball history to have won the three major awards during his career — Rookie of the Year (1949), Cy Young Award (1956) and Most Valuable Player (1956). This season marks the 50th anniversary of Newcombe capturing the first-ever Cy Young Award, posting a 27-7 record for the N.L. champion Brooklyn Dodgers.

Newcombe remains active with the Dodgers as the team’s longtime Director of Community Relations. He is also a vital link to a critical time in baseball history when Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier with the Dodgers in 1947. Newcombe played with the Negro League Newark Eagles and joined the Dodgers in 1949. He pitched a shutout in his debut and was a member of the N.L. All-Star team. That game, played at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field, featured the first appearance of black players – Newcombe, Robinson, catcher Roy Campanella and Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians.

While Major League Baseball annually salutes Robinson’s historic debut on April 15, 1947, Newcombe had a distinguished career of his own, both on the playing field and in the front office. He also played a major role in helping counsel those with substance abuse problems.   

After the game, Grady just announced that tomorrow we’ll purchase the contract of Chad Billingsley and he’ll start on Thursday here against the Padres. Joel Guzman is heading back to Vegas and Jason Repko went to the 60-day DL.

Seo left the game with tenderness in his right shoulder…doesn’t seem too serious, but he’ll get checked again tomorrow.

Odalis Perez is headed to the bullpen following two innings of relief tonight.

Jeff Kent is back in the lineup again today. Still not sure what the corresponding move is, but we’re working on it right now.

Furcal, SS

Lofton, CF

Nomar, 1B

Drew, RF

Kent, 2B

Aybar, 3B

Kemp, LF

Martin, C

Sele, P

In case you missed it, there’s an awesome feature in today’s USA Today about all the rookies on the Dodgers right now. Matt Kemp’s picture is actually on the front of the entire newspaper and why shouldn’t it be – he leads all Major Leaguers with six homers this month! And speaking of rookies, the L.A. Times speculates that we could see Billingsley sooner rather than later.

A tough loss for the U.S. soccer team today. Nomar, who’s a huge soccer fan (he actually was before he met his wife, too), is probably pretty bummed. At least Mexico won yesterday (it was on in the clubhouse before the game in Colorado).

We’re back in LA for the day and head to San Diego tomorrow. We’ll know more about Gagne tomorrow. Jeff Kent should come off the DL then and J.D. Drew should be back in the lineup, barring a setback.

Enjoy the off day.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that at times I tend to throw the lineup up and don’t get much time to comment on it. Your comments were correct…Lofton had a scheduled day off today. Guzman was Grady’s decision and is okay after last night’s HBP. Drew is available to pinch-hit.

Before the game, when Grady addressed the media, I was in the visitor’s dugout and managed to sit down in day-old red gatorade. Fortunately, with Grady’s relaxed dress code, it only messed up my khakis, not a suit, but the visiting clubhouse manager was kind enough to wash them for me. I had to borrow a pair of shorts from someone inside the clubhouse and not surprisingly, I took quite a bit of grief from our reporters, announcers and players for my dress shoes, brown socks and shorts. It was a sight not to be missed, but fortunately the pants came back clean before first pitch.

Finally, with nothing much to discuss on a Sunday morning, the topic of quotes came up among the beat writers. For those who read every article in all our papers each day, you might have noticed that Grady had a similar quote in the Daily News, L.A. Times and O.C. Register regarding our starting rotation. The words were only slightly off in each version, but it might have made fans wonder if Grady actually spoke to all three writers about the same thing but at different times. In reality, these sorts of minor differences come from the normal shorthand notetaking that each writer uses. In this case, Bill Plunkett’s quote that said, "The changes we’re going through with our starting rotation now are about all we can stomach at this point in time," was the correct quote.

It’s little things like this that keep everyone entertained at a high altitude. Of course, each quote is basically the same, but one person used the verb "stomach," one used "stand" and one used "handle." At the end of day, it doesn’t mean much, but in case you all were curious…

Back to the game, where Matt Kemp just hit his second homer of the game…his family drove out from Oklahoma to watch the series and are being rewarded handsomely.

J.D. is still a little too sore for today’s game after getting a knee to the quad.

Here’s the lineup for the series finale:

Furcal, SS

Cruz, RF

Nomar, 1B

Kemp, CF

Aybar, 3B

Ethier, LF

Martinez, 2B

Martin, C

Lowe, P

First pitch: 6:07. Game time temperature: 82 degrees. Days until summer actually starts: 11

It was a warm day in Denver and has turned into a picturesque night. So after waking up early today and getting my game notes done by about 10:30, I decided to avoid the heat and went to go see a movie that I had been wanting to see for awhile.

An Inconvenient Truth is about global warming and dangers that we’re facing as a society. At the risk of offending one or two people who might read this blog entry (and I truly apologize if it does), I have to say the movie today will probably be the highlight of my road trip, even if we go undefeated from now through the end of next weekend.

Let me assure you that I have no plans to turn this into a political blog and truth be told, this movie actually should mean as much to Democrats as it does to Republicans and as much to both as it does to Independents and those who couldn’t care less about politics. There really isn’t a political theme to the film, so if you are turned off by the fact that its main character is Al Gore, I would think twice before staying away from the theatre.

I also want to be clear that I’m not on a soap box here because I have to say that up until recently, I hadn’t really given much thought to the issue and I’m guessing that many people don’t. Therein lies the problem.

Sure, I bought a Prius a year and a half ago, but that had more to do with the fact that I’d be able to drive in the carpool lane from Redondo Beach to Dodger Stadium every day without a second passenger. That and the fact that 44 miles per gallon sounded pretty good to my wallet. Helping the environment only played a small role in that decision.

But having watched this movie and feeling like I have a much better grasp of the problems we’re going to face in our own lifetime, I felt it was my duty to spread the word to those who read this blog. If I convince just one or two of you to see the film or visit the website climatecrisis.net, I feel like I’ve done just a little bit to help the cause.

After all, as a baseball lover and student of the history of the game, I think it’s equally important to be a student of the world we live in. It’s often said that those of us who work in baseball and more importantly, those who play in for a living, are caretakers of the game and have a responsibility to maintain its integrity for the people who come after us.

The same can be said for the environment and at the end of the day, if we don’t take care of that, there won’t be any baseball in the future, either.

Working on an interesting post for later tonight. In the meantime, here’s the lineup:

Furcal, SS

Lofton, CF

Nomar, 1B

Drew, RF

Kemp, LF

Aybar, 2B

Guzman, 3B

Martin, C

Tomko, P

Furcal, SS

Lofton, CF

Nomar, 1B

Drew, RF

Aybar, 3B

Ethier, LF

Martinez, 2B

Martin, C

Penny, P