Announcements, Announcements…

A busy day back here at Dodger Stadium, in Glendale and in Tucson.

This afternoon, we welcomed a new Spanish-language broadcast partner to the Dodger family. KTNQ 1020 AM, part of the Univision radio group, will carry our games in 2011-12. They also carried the Dodgers from 1979-86 and will be a huge benefit to Spanish-speaking Dodger fans.

We also announced the return of the Dodger Stadium Express Bus Service from Union Station. We have been getting a lot of questions about whether or not that will continue and last year, it transported over 120,000 fans to and from the ballpark. It’s free to fans with a game ticket, so be sure to take advantage of this great service and save money on parking and gas.

Earlier this morning, we announced officially that we’ll be playing the Diamondbacks on March 25 in a game to benefit the families of the Tucson shooting tragedy, including Christina Taylor Green. For those in the area, you can get tickets here.

And finally, starting tonight at Camelback Ranch, fans will be able to purchase a pin with Christina’s initials, CTG, to benefit the memorial fund created in her name. Back when this tragedy took place, many of you asked how you can help and this is certainly one small way.

ctgpin.jpg

Driving from LA to Camelback

Writing this post from the road on the 10 West as I head back to Dodger Stadium for a week or work in Los Angeles following two weeks at Camelback Ranch. Don’t worry, I’m in the passenger seat…

Pretty amazing that as we head home, we’re in the middle of the desert and yet, there are snow capped mountains literally just off the freeway to the South.

Making this drive made me think of just how easy it is to get to Dodgers’ Spring Training and how cool it is that we’re now so close to home. There’s definitely things that I miss about Dodgertown but overall, it’s really been an extremely wise decision to move to Arizona.

As games start to ramp up, hopefully you are all making your plans to come out to see the team before it heads back to Los Angeles. Great seats are available almost every game and the access to the team is unparalleled. And if you haven’t seen the campus, you’re bound to be impressed by it. 

I’ll continue to post from Los Angeles as we prepare for Opening Day, the first weekend against the Giants and all the other things going on back on the West Coast.

How lucky are we?

There’s so much coverage out there right now about Duke Snider’s passing, it’s hard to fathom. Rightfully so, of course. He’s arguably the greatest offensive player in franchise history and holds so many team records it’s almost impossible to list them all.

But what’s also somewhat unique is just how long it’s been since we lost one of our legendary Dodgers. There are 10 uniforms retired and prior to yesterday, the Dodgers had not lost any of these great figures since Pee Wee Reese back in August of 1999.

Fortunately, we still have a trio of Hall of Fame legends who are with us today – Tommy Lasorda, Sandy Koufax and Don Sutton, along with legendary broadcasters Vin Scully and Jaime Jarrin. Not to mention legends like Don Newcombe, Tommy Davis, Maury Wills, “Sweet” Lou Johnson, Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, Bill Russell, Davey Lopes, Rick Monday, Fernando Valenzuela, Wes Parker, Dr. Frank Jobe, Billy DeLury and of course, all those who played the majority of their careers in the 80s, 90s and 00s. The list of these legends could go on for pages.

A day like yesterday is the ultimate reminder that we need to learn all we can from these gentlemen while they are here with us. We are so lucky to have all these people at the Stadium on a regular basis and they helped create the franchise we’ve all come to know and love.

If you see them out and about, be sure to tell them how much they mean to you and the Dodgers.

You asked for it, you got it

We announced this morning the winning uniform for the six half-price food and beverage throwback days in 2011. The 1940s blue uniform won by just a few percentage points among nearly 50,000 votes and it really is cool to say that you were the ones to decide which uniform the Dodgers will wear.

We had a few players wear the jerseys today and it really should be a unique environment at Dodger Stadium for those six midweek day games. We even created a special ticket package where the tickets for those six games are half price, too. Hopefully you’ll find a way to skip work, school, or just find your way to the stadium on these games.

Individual tickets for these games, Opening Day and all the other cool promotional nights (and all 81 games) are available starting tomorrow at 10 a.m.

jersey back.jpg

Busy days…

These few days between the full squad reporting date and the first games are easily the busiest for those of us in the front office.

Today alone, we had more than 2,500 items signed by Dodger players for various charitable and civic purposes…

We had a number of guys do their green screen shoots for DodgerVision…

KCAL and Prime Ticket were on site for various interviews and features…

Juan Uribe shot a TV commercial that you’ll see during preseason…

And the regular media corps was on hand for the daily news that comes from Camelback…

To top it all of, the Dodgers are facing the White Sox tonight in softball on the “replica” field here, with the Camelback employees taking part.

Tomorrow morning, we’ll be at Cracker Barrel for our annual PR department breakfast before photo day at 7 a.m…

But the best part of it all is that there’s still just a very good vibe here. It’s really hard to explain, but I keep hearing all the media that comes through here talking about it and you can just feel it. The players are loose but focused on getting ready for the season and games start on Saturday (as does DodgerTalk on KABC 790).

Busy days at Spring Training…

These few days between the full squad reporting date and the first games are easily the busiest for those of us in the front office.

Today alone, we had more than 2,500 items signed by Dodger players for various charitable and civic purposes…

We had a number of guys do their green screen shoots for DodgerVision…

KCAL and Prime Ticket were on site for various interviews and features…

Juan Uribe shot a TV commercial that you’ll see during preseason…

And the regular media corps was on hand for the daily news that comes from Camelback…

To top it all of, the Dodgers are facing the White Sox tonight in softball on the “replica” field here, with the Camelback employees taking part.

Tomorrow morning, we’ll be at Cracker Barrel for our annual PR department breakfast before photo day at 7 a.m…

But the best part of it all is that there’s still just a very good vibe here. It’s really hard to explain, but I keep hearing all the media that comes through here talking about it and you can just feel it. The players are loose but focused on getting ready for the season and games start on Saturday (as does DodgerTalk on KABC 790).

Donnie nailed it…

Many of you have read in recent news reports that Don Mattingly has given a lot of thought over the winter about his first address to the team…well, in my clearly biased opinion, he nailed it this morning. There’s a lot of buzz around camp today about just how smoothly things are running and there’s definitely a tone that Donnie has set that has everyone feeling optimistic about 2011.

mattingly speech.jpg

Don Mattingly, John Wooden and Bob Knight

For an IU grad like myself, it’s been a cool week at Spring Training. On the first day of camp, Don Mattingly got asked about Bob Knight and spent a bunch of time talking about his respect for the Hoosiers’ former coach.

Then today, the late John Wooden’s name came up in the media session, as Donnie has read a lot of his books. Coach Wooden hailed from Martinsville, Indiana, which is near Bloomington.

Clearly those two are legends of the game, so it will be decades before Don could even potentially accomplish what they did as a manager/coach, but it’s still pretty neat to hear so much talk about Indiana.

Tack on Evansville’s Jamey Carroll and there’s no shortage of ties to the Hoosier state around here. Among the most well known Dodgers born there are Gil Hodges, Carl Erskine and Tommy John in addition to more recent Dodgers Eric Stults and Cory Wade.

Why is this relevant? Well, it’s not really. But hearing Donnie talk so much today about Wooden and Indiana made it somewhat noteworthy.

As for the only U.S. President from Indiana…well, that would be Benjamin Harrison, who was actually born in Ohio but spent most of his time in Indiana.

And with that, Happy President’s Day…

Time Warner Dodgers on Demand…

Those who have been following the Dodgers during the past decade have probably seen Tony Kinkela and his crew all over Dodgers on Demand…they do a great job covering the team on a daily basis from a visual standpoint and they’re up for a 2011 Telly Award.

It’s a YouTube competition where you all can vote for your favorite video so check it out and hopefully you’ll give it a thumbs up.

Otherwise, a relatively quiet day at camp. Lots of position players have reported early. Billingsley and Broxton were among those who threw bullpen sessions today and Manny Mota and Jamey Carroll both celebrated birthdays. No sign of a cake anywhere.

 

What you missed today at Camelback…

If you’re a Dodger fan, now is an incredible time to get down here to Camelback Ranch. I think I saw about 30 fans, at most, watching batting practice, bullpen sessions and close-up drills with the team a mere dozen feet away. And tons of the players sign autographs…it’s some of the best access you can ever imagine.

I get the feeling that it still hasn’t sunk in to many that Spring is here…and, of course, I know a lot of people have to be at work or school. But it’s completely free and those who take advantage of it will probably get to meet some of their favorite players and see big league action closer than they’re used to seeing it. It’s especially great for kids.

For those who did come, they got to see our newly announced Opening Day starter, Clayton Kershaw, throw his first ‘pen of the spring, in addition to Kuroda, Lilly and Garland. Lots of conditioning drills to start the day, and the first injury of the spring, as lefty non-roster candidate Dana Eveland strained his hamstring.

One thing you can’t see, if you come out, is the private clubhouse meetings but I can tell you, Don Mattingly was impressive this morning. His first time addressing the team as their manager and he really seems to have made an impression. I wish I was allowed to tell you all that he said but you’ll just have to trust me. This guy is really going to make Dodger fans proud.

And finally, if you haven’t yet voted for which uniform the Dodgers will wear on the six half-price food/drink throwback games this year, today is the last time to do it. We’ll announce the winner one week from tomorrow.

 
mattingly.jpg