Tagged: Thanksgiving

Happy Birthday, Vin!

If you’re a fan of the Dodgers, you pretty much grew up listening to Vin Scully and for many of you with summer birthdays, you’ve probably spent a birthday or two listening to him.

Well, today’s his birthday so please stop and take a moment to be thankful for all that he’s given us over the years. I hope he’s spending it with his family and enjoying a nice lazy day around the house.

And in other news, Vin will be calling games next year for a rotation now set with five solid starters, as Jon Garland spent his Thanksgiving signing with his hometown team.

Obviously lots of other rumors percolating out there and while I can’t comment on rumors or possible deals, I hope Dodger fans are starting to get excited about the team that Ned and his staff are putting together. We’re not yet at the winter meetings and they’ve already filled many of the “holes” in the team heading into 2011.

Kuo and his love of dogs…

Despite being around the team year-round, I still learn new things every day about our players. Just found out that Hong-Chih Kuo has four dogs here in LA and one back in Taiwan and that he recently took part in an SPCA event in Taiwan last week. The news release is below…seems like a natural fit for next year’s Bark in the Park!

And don’t forget, you can still vote for Kuo for Setup Man of the Year at MLB.com

Happy Thanksgiving to Dodger fans around the country…enjoy the time with your family and friends.

Taipei – Not only does Hong-Chih Kuo have the skills to be one of the few players that ultimately made it to the MLB, he’s one of the few that has a true compassion for animal welfare. Back in Taiwan for just a few weeks, he spent time on a campaign for the Taiwan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (TW SPCA), to speak up against animal cruelty. Kuo states that before moving to the states to play for the L.A. Dodgers, he saw many media reports of acts of violence towards animals and the devastating experiences of many of Taiwan’s strays. This hits close to home as he has five dogs of his own; four in L.A. and one in his native home of Tainan. Kuo contacted the TW SPCA through his manager and voiced his desire to try and help improve animal welfare in Taiwan.

The SPCA is an international animal welfare group of independent organizations based in many countries around the world, such as: England, U.S.A, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. The Taiwan SPCA was established in July of 2009 and has already applied to the Ministry of the Interior for NGO status. Taiwan SPCA’s constitution, goals, and organizational structure are already being supported by many, including famous celebrities such as: Dee Hsu (Xiao S), Mavis & 100% Band, MC Hotdog, Machi, Wang Shao Wei, singer Alex Lee, and SBL basketball players whom have all filmed supportive messages and/or campaign messages for the Taiwan SPCA.

In Kuo’s video campaign, he is portrayed as a defender of animals and is shown helping out strays. The concept came about when Kuo started asking the TW SPCA for information on cruelty cases in Taiwan. It showed his genuine interest in the matter and his aspiration to make a difference. On the day of the video shoot, Kuo also signed an endorsement letter for the Taiwan SPCA, hoping that others will join in on the fight against animal cruelty.

The Taiwan SPCA hopes that this video campaign can be shown across all media platforms to remind the public that Taiwan’s animals still need our help. It shouldn’t be a “out of sight, out of mind” kind of situation anymore. If anyone wishes to volunteer, adopt or foster an animal, or donate to TW SPCA’s cause, please contact us at: spca@spca.org.tw

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.