Tweeting from the meetings

Indeed, if you’re not already following the club on twitter, that might be the quickest way to get news because it’s so easy to post. Ken Gurnick has his usual great coverage on dodgers.com, but obviously he has to take the time to write it, whereas we’re posting stuff as it comes out of Ned’s mouth. Last night, he talked about George Sherrill, Juan Pierre, Joe Torre, Josh Lindblom, Scott Elbert, James McDonald and Brad Ausmus, so be sure to follow the team on twitter.

Mark Timmons from LADodgertalk.com is fortunate in that the Winter Meetings invaded his hometown, so he’s been writing about the experience.

Otherwise, not a heck of a lot to report. We spent the morning in PR meetings which we do each year, and go over various issues that come up during the season. Last night, Chris Haydock in player development and myself talked to about 100 students from our alma mater, Indiana University, and we brought in Tommy to wow them with stories at the end. It was a pretty cool event for those who came.

Tonight, we’ll have a dinner/meeting with all our minor league partners, as this is the best time to get everyone in the same place.

Hope to most more tonight when Ned speaks to the media again…

Winter Meetings are underway…

Touched down in Indianapolis last night with the baseball operations core and for the next few days, this town will be the center of the baseball world. Lots of agents wandering the halls, baseball execs in their suites, PR types in their league-wide meetings and rumors flying every which way. It’s an exciting time to be a fan during these few days, but it’s safe to say that you have to be a little more careful what you believe during these few days that usual. Every imaginable scenario is discussed between teams and before you know it, the Yankees have traded A-Rod to the Pirates for Ryan Doumit. Or something like that.

The last few years, the winter meetings have been in relatively warm places but this year, there’s snow on the ground outside and it is downright freezing out there. I’m guessing the people from the Twins, Yankees, and the rest of those teams aren’t nearly as cold as us West Coasters.

And, I just got an email confirming that Whitey Herzog and Doug Harvey were elected to the Hall of Fame. Tough pill to swallow for those who remember the ’85 LCS, but congrats to both.

I hope to post more info throughout the week here in Indiana.

For all you baseball/theatre buffs…

The families of former Dodger catcher John Roseboro and Giants pitcher Juan Marichal are expected to be in attendance on December 5 for the performance of “Juan and John,” a one-man stage production at New York Public Theater by actor Roger Smith, who witnessed the incident on television when he was six years old. A horrified Smith burned his Marichal baseball card after the pitcher struck Roseboro over the head with a bat during the famous incident at Candlestick Park during the pennant race on August 22, 1965. The play traces the events after the game, including the eventually friendship between the two men and Marichal ultimately delivering the eulogy at Roseboro’s funeral in 2002. The play runs through December 20 and Smith hopes to bring the production to the Los Angeles area in 2010. Here is a recent interview with Smith and Playbill Magazine.

http://www.playbill.com/celebritybuzz/article/print/134869.html

— Mark Langill

 

Back at it…

First and foremost, a belated happy birthday to Vin Scully, who celebrated his 82nd yesterday. There’s never been anyone better and there never will be, at least not in my lifetime. It dawned on me that he’s almost been in the Hall of Fame for half of his career. Think about how absurd that is!!

Anyway, we hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving and that you’re gearing up for the December holidays. I hope to update the blog more regularly now that we’re all back in the office up until Spring Training (and then some).

Thanks for your spirited comments in the last thread. There’s really no good way to raise ticket prices and we all wish we didn’t have to do it, but we felt very, very fortunate to be able to do it last season on every ticket in the house. And I’m guessing that many of you are season ticket holders and for the second consecutive year, we did not raise prices for you and in fact, lowered them in some cases. Keeping every ticket in the house at the same price two years in a row is very tough and that’s not to suggest that it’s not tough on all of you.

Please know that I sit in the meetings here where these sorts of things are discussed and decided and there is very, very serious thought given to how to minimize the impact on all of you. There really, truly is. Your voices are heard inside the offices, which is the point of this forum. Beyond that, we certainly don’t expect fans to agree with every decision we make – though that won’t stop us from trying. We just hope that going to the playoffs four out of the last six years and reaching the NLCS two years in a row with a commitment to building a team from within is something our fans can get behind and support — and you all do that tremendously.

 

Happy Thanksgiving…

it’s a relatively slow news week around here and I’ll be heading out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday, so I figured we’d start a new thread that will probably carry us through next week.

Yesterday we added Ivan DeJesus, Kenley Jansen (now a pitcher) and Trayvon Robinson to our 40-man roster…

Otherwise, not much to report as you’ve probably noticed that the baseball world is relatively quiet right now. The calm before the free agent storm, I suppose.

Later today we have our annual event where we will be giving turkeys to a number of families in need, so it’s a great opportunity to wish you all a safe and healthy holiday on behalf of the entire Dodger organization.

Some serious holiday shopping…

You guys are gonna love this…

As is customary around this time of year, we’re having a merchandise sale right now at the Left Field Team store and everything is 50 percent off. That’s not a typo.

From now until Nov. 27, Monday through Friday 10-5, Saturday 11-5 and Sunday 11-4, you can load up on Dodger postseason merchandise, jerseys, hats, t-shirts…literally everything in the store.

In one day you’ll be done with your holiday shopping for the year. Just throwin’ it out there…

UPDATE:

For you minor league followers, Phil Gurnee caught up with De Jon Watson over at True Blue LA about some of our prospects.

Camel-back in Arizona….

Scott Akasaki and myself traveled to Camelback Ranch for the day today along with a couple of the key operations people at the Dodgers to look at various minor tweaks that can be made to the experience at Spring Training and the complex and just being there got me excited for 2010.

I’m guessing that many if not most of you, our biggest fans, got the chance to visit last spring but if not, I really hope you’ll make it out there. And for those who were there last year, please provide your feedback about the experience.

We’ll be formally announcing our Spring Training schedule tomorrow so be on the lookout at dodgers.com.

Tomorrow is also the day that NL Gold Gloves get announced so as soon as we’re given the official word, we’ll tweet it and post it online. As you know, we’ve got a couple guys who are more than worthy of the honor.

Maury Wills…one of my all-time favorites

You wouldn’t think that a kid growing up in the 70s, 80s and 90s would come to be such a huge fan of Maury Wills, who did most of his damage in the 60s, but it’s true. It certainly helps that my father, also a native Angeleno, counts Maury among his favorite players, but I can probably only think of a couple Dodgers who I have liked as much as Maury and I guess that’s because he’s such an incredible person.

I’d imagine that any of you who have met him over the years at Dodger functions feel the same way. There’s no doubt in my mind he belongs in the Hall of Fame and his hometown paper, the Washington Post, ran an incredible article on him last weekend. If you haven’t read it, please take the time to do so. You’ll love him even more than you did before.

As for the upcoming weekend, usually during the winter we aren’t at the stadium much but we’ll be hosting the annual 5k walk for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). This is an incredible organization (full disclosure, I’m on the board of directors) and the current president of the local chapter is Todd Zeile, whose daughter suffers from Type 1 diabetes.

Todd got me involved a few years ago and I know that last year when I posted a link here, several of you wanted to donate so feel free to do so again if you’d like. I know a few ITDers will be at the walk this weekend so we look forward to seeing you here.