Blog Kiosk: 2/3/2014 - Dodgers Links - Kershaw's School, Kemp Being Cautious and Coming to Terms with AJ

"I don't know about you, but I am starving for baseball!" -Vin Scully.  Pic via @Dodgers on twitter.

• Via Kershaw's Challenge, "Destiny Community School is going up!"  They are building a 5 room school house in Zambia.
• Ron Cervenka at Think Blue LA declares "The honeymoon is over between Dodger fans and new ownership". 
• Via JP Hoornstra at Inside the Dodgers, "Dodger Stadium wi-fi installation is in progress."
• Via Dylan Hernandez via the LA Times, we learn that Matt Kemp may not be ready for Opening Day.

Matt Kemp said Saturday he might not be ready to play on opening day, insisting he didn’t want to repeat the mistake he made last year of rushing back from injuries.

• But, Kemp's ankle is healthy, via Cary Osborne at Dodger Insider.  He's just being cautious.

“I would love to play in those games. If I’m ready to play, I’ll play,” Kemp said. “If I’m not ready to play, I’m not going to play in those games. I don’t want to get hurt. I don’t want come back at 80 percent and get hurt again. I don’t want to come back at 90 percent. I want to be 100 percent the whole year and give everybody what I can. Give them a full year of me being healthy.”

• Paul Beck at the Baseball Professor writes a player profile on Kenley Jansen.
• ICYMI, AJ Ellis and the Dodgers came to terms on a new contract on Saturday, via Dustin Nosler at Dodgers Digest.
• Listen to Saturday's special editin of DodgerTalk from the FanFest here.
• Mark McGwire says Matt Kemp looks like the Matt Kemp of old on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM.  Listen to it here. 
• Puig also visited the MLB Youth Academy for Compton's Community Day on Saturday, via Earl Bloom at MLB.com.

"The academy invited me to be here, and I came because I love kids," Puig said in a brief interview session, before going to Dodger Stadium for the Dodgers FanFest.

"I'm happy to be here with the kids, because I was a kid myself," he said. "I like to see their smiles."

• BTW, ticket prices are going by as much as 140% in some instances, via Bill Shaikin at the LA Times.
• Via Eric Stephen at True Blue LA, "Dodgers plan to add infielders in coming days".

"We're working on one more infielder that hopefully we're going to sign in the next five days, a utility type that has some versatility to him," Colletti said. "We're also working on signing someone internationally. He'll be in that mix."

• ICYMI, check out the Cheers Super Bowl commercial from 1983, via Ken Levine.

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Sunday Dodger Videos: Vin Scully, Clayton Kershaw and Jackie Robinson

Here are this Sunday's Dodgers Videos.

Watch Vin Scully speak with CBC.  He retells the famous story about skating with Jackie Robinson.

Video Link:

ICYMI, here is the scene from the TV show 'New Girl' featuring Clayton Kershaw.  The full episode airs later tonight immediately after the Super Bowl on FOX.

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Holy Moly!  Apparently, Jackie Robinson used to host a radio inteview show.  It was called 'Jackie Robinson's Radio Shots'.  Here, he speaks with 'The Clown Prince of Baseball' Al Schacht.  They speak about the importance of managers. 

Video Link:

Dodgers community caravan pays a visit to Operation Gratitude on Day 4.

Video Link:

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My Goodies from the Stadium Series Game

Since I'm currently roaming around Dodger Stadium at FanFest, I though I would schedule this post to come up.  After all, I had forgotten to share these items over the past week, and I figured there was no better time than now to do that.  So, check out some of the goodies and freebies I gathered at last weekends Stadium Series game at Dodger Stadium. 

At the very top, is the Stadium Series ticket, and it is absolutely glorious looking.  I know you can't tell from the photo, but it shines something wonderful.  And it should, considering the astronomical price I paid to sit on the Top Deck.  Jeez!

I also had a chance to roam around the pregame festival in the parking lot, and grabbed a couple of promotional cards created by Panini America.  Check them out below.

The top card is of star Kings centerman and Slovenian Olympian Anze Kopitar.  Below is future Hall of Famer Teemu Selanne.  As you can see, the Stadium Series logo is situated at the top left of each card.

Panini America also gave away a sticker sheet featuring Kings and Ducks players, and a 2013-14 NHL Sticker Album.

Unfortunately, I didn't pick anything else up except my very first two Dodger Dogs of the year, a Dodger plastic helmet filled with fries at the game, and a healthy load of beer before they sold out.  Don't worry.  It was light beer and my tears, as a result of the Kings play, quickly sobered me up.

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Blog Kiosk: 2/1/2014 - Dodgers Links - Guerrero's in Town, the Bromance Continues and Yesterday's Community Caravan

Say hello to Alexander Guerrero.  He was a part of the Dodgers Community Caravan yesterday.  Pic via @Dodgers on twitter.As you can see, Guerrero will be wearing #7.  Other Dodgers to wear this number include Steve Yeager, James Loney, Alfredo Griffin and Hall of Famer Joe Medwick.

• Via Ken Gurnick at MLB.com, "Guerrero brings even keel, dedication to Dodgers".   On switching to 2nd base:

"The positioning, the ball off the bat, the movement -- it's all reversed," Guerrero said Friday while participating in the club's annual community caravan with Puig and 16 other Dodgers. "But anybody that plays shortstop can play any position in the infield."

• Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider has a huge collection of tweets from Fridays Dodger Community Caravan.  BTW, you can view a whole bunch of pics from Dodgers photographer Juan Ocampo here.

No. 66 and No. 99. Strike that, reverse it: pic.twitter.com/WVvh4NecxM
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) January 31, 2014

• Chad Moriyama a Dodgers Digest writes, "Clutchitude: The Least Clutch Plays Of The 2013 Dodgers Season".
• Via Andrew Grant at True Blue LA writes, "Hanley Ramirez's almost historic season".
• Jakemintz at Cespedes Family Barbecue shares, "Los Angeles Dodgers Top 10 Shirseys".  Awesome!
• Mike Oz at Big League Stew writes about the growing bromance of Hyun-Jin Ryu and Yasiel Puig.
• Very Nice!  Kings Captain Dustin Brown has just been named the Team USA Alternate Captain for the upcoming Olympics.  Congrats, Dustin!  Via LA Kings website.  BTW, I absolutely love Olympic hockey.  There's nothing like it.
• Eno Sarris at at Hardball Times writes a great piece called, "So you want to be a beat writer..."  It's a great story on the trials and tribulations of sports beat writing.

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The Dodgers New 2014 Slogan: Live. Breathe. Blue.

Considering the record season ticket renewals and the continued stellar attendance numbers, does having a new marketing slogan for the Dodgers really matter?

I guess it does since they just unveiled the teams 2014 slogan.

Live. Breathe. Blue.

The best response I've read so far about it comes from Craig Calcaterra at Hardball Talk:

In my experience, if you breathe, you don’t turn blue. But maybe I’m missing the nuances.

The Dodgers Chief Marketing Officer Lon Rosen had this to say:

“Our new tagline encapsulates how each of our fans feel about the Dodgers organization. We feel it is a natural evolution of last year's slogan ‘A Whole New Blue'.  The Dodgers have given and will continue to give our fans reasons to believe in the team during the 2014 season.”

All right then.  The Dodgers will not suffocate and die on us, and that's a good thing.

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2014 Topps Baseball Series 1 - The Dodgers' Base Cards

There are now Baseball cards available to usher in the new year, and I've got pics of all the Dodgers' base cards to prove it.  

There are 13 Dodger cards in the 331 card base set; two of which are League Leaders cards featuring Clayton Kershaw.  Also of note are the Topps All-Star Rookie Cups emblazoned on the Ryu and Puig cards.

As you may already know, there are a whole bunch of short-printed variations in the set.  In fact, I count at least 11 different Dodger variations, and there may be more yet to be uncovered.  I'll have pics of all known available Dodger variations up soon.

In the meantime, check out the base set below.

#6 Josh Beckett                                  #40 Hyun-Jin Ryu

#72 Michael Young                                 #111 Mark Ellis

#113 League Leaders (Kershaw, Fernandez, Harvey)   

#142 Zack Greinke                              #173 Brandon League

#193 Ricky Nolasco

#197 Onelki Garcia                           #204 Adrian Gonzalez

#294 League Leaders (Wainwright, Zimmerman, Kershaw)

#314 Hanley Ramirez                                  #331 Yasiel Puig

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