Tagged: China

MLB Industry Meetings

Those who have followed Inside the Dodgers for a long time probably recall that every couple years, our industry heads to one spot to share best practices and talk about the future of the game on the business side of things. No different than what most of you do in your own jobs at various conferences around the country.

So, we find ourselves in Orlando, having talked about the international future of baseball (the Dogders’ trips to China and Taiwan came up several times), the changing landscape of media (lots of talk about blogs, Twitter, Facebook, flip cam videos, etc), the World Baseball Classic and even those who cover the business of sports.

It’s always a great way to network and pick up some ideas from others in the industry and tonight, there’s a team building event in which we’ll all be building 100 bikes for young kids from the local Boys & Girls Club. Pretty cool way to tie into their theme of “Going Beyond” which you’ve seen throughout the postseason.

 

Need a feel good story?

After 1,570 games at the minor league level, John Lindsey has reached the big leagues. He’s among the five callups that Joe Torre just announced and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

He started his minor league career in 1995 with the Arizona League Rockies and has since been at Portland, Asheville, Salem, San Bernardino, San Antonio, New Jersey, Jupiter, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, New Orleans, the Arizona League Dodgers and Albuquerque…not to mention the Dodgers’ trips to China and Taiwan, which is how I’ve had the chance to interact with him.

I’m happy for all of our callups – John Ely, Jon Link, Chin-lung Hu and Russ Mitchell, who will be making his big league debut. They all deserve it but imagine giving 15 years of your life to something and wondering if you’ll ever make it to the big leagues. I would have loved to have witnessed the conversation between John and Tim Wallach.

And the best part is, no one can accuse this guy of not legitimately earning it – he hit .356 with 25 homers and 97 RBI after going .316-26-100 for Triple-A Las Vegas in 2008.

There aren’t many people with whom I’ve visited the Great Wall of China (Beijing) and the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial (Taipei) but I’m proud to have done so with Mr. Lindsey.

 

Dusty, Sutton, Lefebvre…it's like a reunion at the yard

All sorts of former Dodgers here, between the Reds’ manager Dusty Baker, Nationals broadcaster Don Sutton (who is here promoting awareness for his cancer foundation), Jim Lefebvre (who is here with the Chinese National Baseball Team)…throw in Ron Cey, who walked by my office a few minutes ago and it’s quite an impressive lot. I think it’s something we take for granted, sometimes, just how many former players are involved in the organization in one way or another, so it’s cool to see so many here at one time.

In fact, there will be a lot more this weekend as we celebrate the 60s, with a luncheon at the stadium that fans can purchase tickets to (email fanfeeback@ladodgers.com for info), the photo day on Sunday which will inclue 60s guys and even a 60s themed fireworks show on Friday…break out the tie-dye shirts and come on down to the yard.

Meanwhile, Andruw Jones is out of the lineup with a “crank right knee” as Joe Torre put it, though he said he could play if he had to. Furcal is eligible to come off on Wednesday but Joe thinks it’s more likely to be on Friday.  Here’s the group taking the field tonight against the Reds…

Pierre, LF

Ethier, RF

Martin, C

Kent, 2B

Loney, 1B

Kemp, CF

DeWitt, 3B

Hu, SS

Penny, P