Cardinals Series Starts on Friday - Scheduled Autograph Sessions, Pregame Info and Other Stuff!

The next homestand starts on Friday against the St. Louis Cardinals, and several former Dodgers are scheduled for an autograph session with fans as a part of Viva Los Dodgers.  Below are the scheduled autograph opportunities and other odds and ends for this upcoming homestand.

(pic via @2EP0L on twitter)

The St. Louis Dog will be available for this homestand only against the Cardinals at the Extreme Loaded Dog concession areas located on the field, loge and reserve levels. It features a quarter-pound, all-beef hot dog topped with smoked beef brisket, tangy BBQ sauce and crispy onions.

A BBQ cheeseburger will also be available Friday and Saturday. The Angus beef BBQ cheeseburger will be offered at the Bud and Burgers food truck in the left-field pavilion. Sunday, the food truck will be located at Viva Los Dodgers at the 76 station.

Fans can help save lives by signing up May 14-17 to donate blood during the American Red Cross’s 18th Annual Angels/Dodgers Blood Drive on June 11. From the start of the game through the sixth inning, fans can sign up on the top deck, reserve and loge sections. To schedule an appointment, donors can go to www.redcrossblood.org and enter Sponsor Code:  HOMERUN or call 1-800-GIVE LIFE (800-733-2767). All presenting donors will receive a voucher, good for two tickets to a designated Dodger or Angel home game.

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Friday, May 13 at 7:10 PM
RHP Michael Wacha vs. RHP Ross Stripling
SNLA / AM 570 (Eng.), KTNQ 1020 AM (Span.)

The Anniversary of when Steve Garvey Ended the Baseball Career of Chico Escuela

Some anniversaries are heartfelt.  Others denote an important benchmark.  This anniversary is neither of those things.  Instead, the anniversary I speak of today should hopefully tug at your funny bone.

On this date 37 years ago, Bill Murray, then an newscaster on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update", revealed to the world that lovable and English-deficient All-Star second baseman Chico Escuela, played by Garrett Morris, would hang-them-up and end his quixotic comeback to the Major Leagues.  As we came to understand, a screamer off the bat of Dodgers first baseman Steve Garvey struck Escuela below the belt.  That batted ball had rendered him irreversibly infertile.

On that day, Baseball was not very (berry, berry) good to Chico.

Blog Kiosk: 5/12/2016 - Dodgers Links - Magic, Ryu and Kenta Maeda

It was a hard luck night for Kenta Maeda.  He pitched well, and if not for the extraordinary exploits of the Noah Syndergaard at the plate Maeda and the Dodgers would likely have walked away with a win.  Via Anthony DiComo and Ken Gurnick at MLB.com:

"The nine-hitter hit two home runs and drove in four runs. You don't see that every day," said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.

No kidding.  The pitcher, who had hit a home run last season, recorded his first two hits of the season, and they both left the yard against the Dodgers.  Go figure!

Kenta had this to say:

"They were definitely not good pitches, the ones that he hit for home runs," said Maeda. "It ended up being a regrettable result contributing to a total of four runs."

Dave Roberts added, via Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider:

“He was using his breaking ball a lot tonight and just didn’t have that sharpness to it, working behind hitters,” Dave Roberts said. “Didn’t have the fastball command. The homer to Syndergaard, the first one, was a misfire, and the other one was a backdoor breaking ball located down and away, and he’s a strong kid.

As has been said many times, this is the kind of game you just have to move on from.  They beat us fair and square, and all you can do is tip your hat.  Photo above via @Dodgers on twitter.  Go here to check out a bunch of pics from the game by Jon SooHoo.  Below are more links to check out:

• This Day in Dodgers History: In 1956 Carl Erskine threw his second career no-hitter against the Giants at Ebbets Field.  In 2004 Alex Cora had his famous 18 pitch at-bat (including 14 consecutive fouls balls) at Dodger Stadium against Matt Clement of the Cubs that culminated in an unbelievable two-run home run.  You can watch this at-bat here.
• Happy Birthday, Adam Liberatore!

Weekend Autograph Opportunities: DodgerFest at Frank & Sons - 10 Different Players

Here are this weekends autograph opportunities and events throughout the Southland. As always, be sure to check the Blue Heaven Calendar for other events (a link can always be found on the tab at the top of this page, just left of center), and always confirm with the establishment. Everything is subject to change.  Please email me with any tips about upcoming events in Southern California.  As the rest of the week progresses I'll update this post with other events (if there are any) as I become aware of them.  Also, I don't always list every event below, so be sure to check my Calendar.  I always try to favor free signing events over paying events.  Click on any pic to embiggen.

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There's really only one thing to pay attention to this weekend, and it's the Dodgerfest event being held at Frank & Sons on Saturday.  Go here and here for information.  Click on any flyer below to embiggen.

Ten current and former Dodger players will be in attendance.  Even a former Raider football player will be there. 

Autograph Appearance Times:

• Don Newcombe - stage time:  11:30am - 1:00pm 
• Maury Wills - stage time:  1:00pm - 2:30pm
• Wally Moon - stage time: 11:30am - 12:30pm
• Reggie Smith - stage time:  2:00pm - 3:00pm
• Ron Cey - stage time:  1:30pm - 2:30pm
• Rick Honeycutt - stage time:  10:30am - 11:30am
• Steve Yeager - stage time:  10:30am - 11:30am
• Charlie Hough - stage time:  10:00am - 11:00am
• Juan Castro - stage time:  10:00am - 11:00am
• Alex Wood - stage time:  11:00am - 12:00pm

Special Guest:

• Fred Biletnikoff - Raiders Super Bowl XI MVP - stage time:  1:30pm - 2:30pm

Frank & Son Collectible Show
19649 San Jose Ave
City of Industry, CA 91748

Trayce Thompson's Walk-Off Gets Him an 2016 Topps Now Card

Another great Dodger moment gets a 2016 Topps Now Baseball card.  Go here to check it out and order.  BTW, this is the fifth card featuring a Dodger so far this season.  You can go here to check out the others.

As you surely know by now, Thompson hit a walk-off pinch-hit home run last night to win the game for the Dodgers.  It was his fourth homer of the season and probably the most impactful bomb he's hit in his career so far.  He had said this about it, per Doug Padilla at ESPN:

Blog Kiosk: 5/11/2016 - Dodgers Links - Maeda, Puig and Trayce Thompson

Exciting!  Thrilling!  The crowd jumped out of their seats and roared.

Locked into a tie, Dodgers outfielder Trayce Thompson, the youngest son of former Laker star Mychal Thompson, came up to the plate with two out and proceeded to knock a 2-2 pitch into the left field pavilion for a walk-off home run.  (Watch it here)  Via Jack Baer and Anthony DiComo at MLB.com:

"It was a fastball," Thompson said. "Their whole entire bullpen, their whole entire pitching staff has amazing stuff. I just try to keep it simple against them. Just look for a heater, keep it simple and square it up. It was a fastball over the plate that I was able to handle."

Per Doug Padilla at ESPN:

“I don’t know how he did it,” Seager said. “He took two heaters and still battled back and ended up swinging at the first thing that doesn’t bounce. That’s awesome. It’s an awesome moment.

“He’s calm as hell. It’s unbelievable. He didn’t even have any jitters after the game. It was like as if nothing happened right there. It was special. A lot of people, their motors are going fast. His just wasn’t. No heartbeat at all.”

The Dodgers really needed this win.  Best yet, starter Alex Wood put in a great performance.  Wood went 6.1 innings in the no-decision; giving up four hits, two runs (one of which was unearned) and striking out nine.  On Wood, Mets manager Terry Collins said this:

"That's the best I've seen Alex Wood pitch," Mets manager Terry Collins said.

Photo above via Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2016.  Go here to check out more pics from Jon from yesterdays game.  Below are more links to check out:

• This Day in Dodgers History: In 1963 Sandy Koufax would throw his second no-hitter of his career against the Giants.  He had a perfect game going into the eight inning when he walked Ed Bailey on a 3-2 pitch.
• Via Eric Stephen at True Blue LA, "Jose De Leon rests with arm soreness for Oklahoma City."
• Via Brad Lefton at the Wall Street Journal, "Sixty Years Ago, the Dodgers Toured Japan and Changed Baseball Forever."

“Up until then, defensively, Japanese baseball was reactionary, not anticipatory,” (Sadaharu) Oh said. “For example, the Dodgers preached to anticipate the bunt and charge in with the pitch. That kind of thing was unheard of in Japan. They taught the infielders how to move in tandem with the pitcher and play a more team-oriented defense. It completely changed the way we defended.”