It’s been quite a day, starting with the early morning taping of Chef Jeff, which was attended by Andre Ethier, Sweet Lou Johnson and Tommy Davis. Once we know details of when it will air, we’ll pass them along.

By 10:30, we were on the road to the Union Rescue Mission, where Andre wanted to spend some time volunteering to help feed the homeless. They had a rooftop barbecue with a view of the downtown skyline that rivals that of the Standard Hotel. Of course, served at the BBQ was Dodger Dogs, many of which were grilled up by Mr. Ethier himself.  A photo gallery should be on the front of the site relatively soon.

This was all part of his personal community initiative that kicked off today, as did the launch of his new blog, Dining with ‘Dre. I know he had intended to post his first real entry today, but some technical difficulties have us backlogged by a day or so. Let’s just say that he’s been typing the whole thing out on his phone, so we’re getting there. Still, you can check out the site and see what will be coming – a review of Shabu Hachi in Los Angeles.  

Back at the ballpark, we’ve made a trade for former AL ROY Angel Berroa for minor leaguer Juan Rivera. Berroa is not currently on the 25-man roster or 40-man roster, but seems like a nice reinforcement up the middle until Raffy gets healthy, provided he does make it to the big leagues with us.

Speaking of Raffy, Joe Torre said he feels better in general and will come with the team to SD, then likely go on rehab after that series for three or four games. Jason Schmidt will be pitching for Vegas this Sunday.

Meanwhile, when we were at the shelter earlier today, we ran into a choir of kids who are in town from Georgia, if I remember correctly, and I told them they could come see Andre play tonight. Turns out, I was wrong, as he’s not in the lineup in favor of DY against the southpaw. My bad. Russell is out, too, as Joe would prefer not to have both him and Jeff out of the lineup on the same day and Jeff will be out tomorrow in the day game after tonight’s night game.

Here’s the lineup:

Pierre, LF

Young, RF

Kent, 2B

Loney, 1B

Kemp, CF

DeWitt, 3B

Ardoin, C

Hu, SS

Kuroda, P

P.S. There is an insane amount of media here right now because we have about seven sumo wrestlers taking part in pregame ceremonies, including one who will throw out the first pitch. Combine that with Saito, Kuroda pitching and Fukudome and we’ve got quite the contingent of Japanese media on site.