Blog Kiosk: 5/13/2019 - Dodgers Links - Some Odds and Ends

Ryu is an 'Ace' right now. Per Rowan Kavner at Dodger Insider:

“I can’t say enough about Hyun-Jin and what he’s done for us,” Roberts said. “He’s off to obviously a tremendous start. To watch him work as a technician, it was masterful. It really was.”

Hyun-Jin came so close to throwing a no-hitter last night. He went 8.1 scoreless innings before giving up a double to first baseman Gerardo Parra, and now has a scoreless innings streak of 24 innings.

Photo above via Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Insider. Go here to check out more pics from yesterdays game. Below are more links to check out:

• This Day in Dodgers History: In 1947 the famous 'embrace that shook the baseball world' occurred at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Dodgers, facing the Reds for the first time this season at their home stadium, witness a barrage of racial slurs directed at Jackie Robinson. Team captain Pee Wee Reese, seeing this, engages with Jackie on the field and then put his arm around his shoulder, a gesture that stuns and silences the crowd (or so the story goes). In 1952 Vin Scully experienced something incredible. As a youth he dreamed of being a broadcaster. A classmate named Larry Miggins shared a similar dream with him. He wanted to play Major League Baseball. So on this day Miggins, now a outfielder with the Cardinals, was at-bat with Vin Scully calling the game for the Dodgers in Brooklyn, and proceeded to hit his first career home run in front of his close friend. Per an SI story (2016):

“I remember I said, ‘Larry, when we get out of here, what do you want to do?’ And he said, ‘I’d love to be a big league ballplayer.’ “And I said, ‘I wonder what those odds are.’ And then I said, ‘Well, you know, I’d like to be big league broadcaster. I wonder what those odds are.’ “And then I said, ‘How about this one for a long shot: How about you play, I broadcast, you hit a home run?’ And we said, ‘The odds, no one would be able to calculate that!’”

• Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Jimmy Archer, Carden Gillenwater, Don LeJohn, Bobby Valentine, Johnny Roseboro and John Ely!

Blog Kiosk: 5/6/2019 - Dodgers Links - Some Odds and Ends

Patience has always been a virtue in Baseball, so it should come as no surprise that Chris Taylor's early season slump appears to have reversed. Over the past five games he is slashing .381/.381/.762/1.143 with eight hits (two of which were homers) and six RBI's in 21 at-bats. Per Jorge Castillo at the LA Times:

“I think he’s just getting opportunities to go out there and play,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 8-5 loss Sunday. “I think he’s taking better swings. When he does get a ball in the strike zone, he’s getting it going forward and not fouling it off or swinging through it. And when you start to get some hits, it breeds confidence.”
...
“It hasn’t really shown much, but I’ve actually felt pretty good the last week or two,” Taylor said. “And I’m just trying to go up there and I’ve been working on things in the cage and I felt like I’ve been really close.”

Photo above via Raymond Gorospe/MLB.com at Dodger Insider. Go here to check out more pics from yesterdays game. Below are more links to check out:

• This Day in Dodgers History: In 1937 Baseball fans at both the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field see the Hindenberg zeppelin fly overhead - just a few hours before it infamously exploded into a fireball in Lakehurst, New Jersey. In 1947 NL President Ford Frick threatens seven Cardinals players at Ebbets Field with banishment from the league should they follow through with their planned boycott to protest Jackie Robinson. In 1978 Dodger super-utilityman Lee Lacy becomes the first Major Leaguer to hit pinch-hit home runs in consecutive at-bats. On May 17th he would make it three-in-a-row.
• Happy Birthday, Les Webber, Mike McCormick & Mike Kincade!