Lasorda's Lair notes that "This year's Dodgers have shades of 1988 written all over them."
Many teams these days have been crushed by injuries, and the Dodgers are no exception. The Dodgers have four regular starters on the disabled list and five position players total, yet they continue to find ways to score runs and win games. How are they doing it? Good question. Nobody really knows. It’s just Magic. Blue Magic that is. No, not the book that our good friend David Krell is writing. I am talking
about real honest to goodness magic. 88’ magic. Kirk Gibson magic.
Roberto at Vin Scully is My Homeboy had the James Loney Wedding Engagement Photos, but took them down per a request from Loney's attorney's- a Cease & Desist letter. I'm pretty sure Loney has no standing to sue, but as Roberto indicates why get into a legal tussle over something like that. On a side note, as a press entity (yes we bloggers would be legally protected as press) I believe you had every legal right to put those up; especially considering what TMZ does. No worries though, the Bleacher Report has a bunch of them up, here. I also found some of the pics on FANpeeps. Heck, even a MLB site called Cut4 has the pics Roberto put up.
"We'll take a look at whatever they bring to us," Ethier said. "I don't
look at it any other way. I'm not going to sit here and play what-ifs
and what-nots."
Left Field Pavilion is celebrating their third blog birthday today. Happy Birthday!!! The Dodger-blogosphere wouldn't be the same without you.
I've gone Kings crazy! As the team arrived home after their conference championship win against Phoenix, an estimated 4,000 fans lined up at LAX (at midnight) to greet them. I wish I was there. Check out this great video featuring interviews by Bonnie Prickett.
I love getting notices from Chris Jaffe when he highlights a Dodger historical event that I had forgotten about. Over at the Hardball Times he reminds us that today is the 10th Anniversary of Shawn Green's incredible game at the plate against the Brewers. On this day he belted 4 homers to go along with a single and double. Read his story here. Then, watch old footage of Green's efforts below.
Ten years ago today, Shawn Green had quite possibly the best game any hitter has ever had, tying or setting some rather impressive records along the way.
On May 23, 2002,
Green and his Dodgers teammates were in Milwaukee to take on the
Brewers. Green came up in the top of the first with one out and a
runner on second, and promptly belted an RBI double off Milwaukee
starting pitcher Glendon Rusch. For many, an RBI double would be a highlight. For Green, it would be one of his worst at-bats on the day.
UPDATE: Eric Stephen at True Blue LA follows up with some more background and information about this game; including quotes from Green.
"The ball had been looking like a pingpong ball," Green told the Times.
"Today, it probably looked like a softball. It slowed down a lot. The
last six weeks, the ball seemed to be going fast, and I was having a
tough time, jumping at pitches. Today, I was able to sit back and wait
for it."
The Kings couldn't close it out on Sunday, so they'll get another chance tonight at 6PM to win the Western Conference Finals. The Phoenix Coyotes showed some character and grit in Game 4. They skated fast, checked hard and were more efficient with the puck. The Kings, on the other hand, were out of sorts. They looked uncertain on the ice and slower to react to the tough forechecking displayed by Phoenix. As I read on one message board, (this is to paraphrase) the Coyotes played like the Kings, and the Kings could not keep up. Our saving grace is that they had plenty of chances to score, but they couldn't slam home the biscuit.
I suspect that we will get much of the same tonight. That is, we will see both the Kings and Coyotes forechecking hard while being overall pest on the ice. And as always, special teams will likely determine who wins. Will the Kings score on the power play? Can Phoenix fight through our penalty kill to score again? Who knows? What appears likely is that this may very well be the most exciting game we see yet in these playoffs, and I strain to predict a final tally. But let's say, for argument sake, that I put something down on paper. I predict a 1 to 0 score at the end of the evening with the Kings winning it overtime on a goal by defenseman Rob Scuderi half way through the period. (BTW, Scuderi is one of only three Kings regulars yet to score in these playoffs)
Go Kings Go!!!!!
To get you in the mood enjoy the below fan-made Kings video.
Topps recently release some preview pics of a new Baseball product called Five Star. It is a high-end set ($400 to $500 per pack), and will come out on October 31st. Check out Beckett for more pics and information.
True to the Blue spent this past Saturday getting Orel Hershiser's autograph at Frank & Sons.
The 2012 MLB First-Year Player Draft is just around the corner. It will be held from June 4th to the 6th, and the Dodgers representatives on hand will be Tommy Lasorda and Ron Cey. Via Ken Gurnick MLB.com. The Dodgers have the 18th and 51st overall picks in the first round.
Jaime Jarrin T-shirt and tribute night will be on June 11th. Check out the commemorative shirt below. See more information here.
To say Dee Gordon
was overhyped this preseason would be an understatement. Everywhere you
looked someone was predicting him to steal 40+ bases. Our man Eno
Sarris even made a bold prediction that
he would steal 60 bases without hitting a single home run. He looks to
be wrong on both accounts. Gordon had an average positional draft
position of 10th on Mock Draft Central. The Rotographs consensus
rankings had him 7th. What has he done to repay those brave enough to
make such predictions? Become one of the worst everyday players in the
game.
Dodger Dugout has a rundown on a recent interview Don Mattingly gave to FoxSports' Barfly, here.
This could be a fun night. June 16th with be Baseball Prospectus Night at the Angels game in Anaheim. Go here for details. It will include a a private "meet and greet" with special guests and
Baseball Prospectus personalities 2 hours prior to game time (including Sam Miller, Geoff Young, John Perrotto, Stephani Bee, Jason Wojciechowski, former Dodgers GM Dan Evans, MLBDepthCharts.com Jason Martinez ). Having Dan Evans there makes this worthwhile for any Dodgers fan.
With all of the mistakes the local media has made recently when covering the LA Kings the organization thought it might be helpful to put together a Kings Infographic to help them out. Check it out here. It's a gas!
The New York Times writes about the life and hobby of Jefferson R. Burdick. He is considered the father of the modern card collecting hobby.
“A Card Collection is a magic carpet that takes you away from work-a-day
cares to havens of relaxing quietude where you can relive the pleasures
and adventures of a past day — brought to life in vivid picture and
prose,” Burdick wrote in the introduction to the 1960 edition of the
American Card Catalog, which he first published under a different title
in 1939.
Here is another card from my Dodgers certified autographed card collection. This is a 2001 Fleer "Greats of the Game" card of former Brooklyn Dodgers hurler Roger Craig.
Never mind that he use to coach the hated San Francisco Giants back when I was a younger man. Instead, let's remember him as the pitcher who started a couple of World Series games for the Dodgers. He won Game 5 in the 1955 Series while posting a Dodgers career record of 187 wins to 103 loses. Craig is famously known for being a master Jedi with the split-finger fastball, and spent much of his professional coaching/managerial career teaching the pitch.
