Blog Kiosk: 2/15/2017 - Dodger Links - Pitchers and Catchers Report Day!

With today being the official start of Dodger Spring Baseball I figured the above Associated Press photo, dated February 27, 1949, would be appropriate to share.  Featured are a group of Brooklyn Dodgers at Penn Station in New York as they head on their way towards Vero Beach, Florida.  (eBay Auction Link) Per the descriptor on the reverse:

Members of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Manager of the bluc's farm system, Branch Rickey, Jr. (at right, front row), leave Pennsylvania Station, New York, Deb. 27, enroute to Vero Beach, Fla., to open spring training on March 1.  From left (front) are: Coach Jake Pitler, Roy Campanella, Buddy Hicks, Rex Barney, and Rickey, Jr.  In back (left to right) are: Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges and Gene Hermanski.

Below are more links to check out:

• Happy Birthday, Charlie Irwin, George Earnshaw, Joe Moeller, Ron Cey, Rick Auerbach, Russell Martin & Russ Mitchell!
  
• Awesome!  Per Sean Myers at NBC Los Angeles; "Rite of Spring: Dodgers Spring Training Through the Years."  There are 60 photos going back to the Vero Beach days.
• Via Bill Plunkett at the OC Register; "Dodgers spring training preview: Familiar faces, same lofty goals."

“The whole narrative for me is going to be – and Andrew (Friedman) and I have talked a ton, and Farhan (Zaidi) and all the guys in the front office – we have to get to a place where people that are here are choosing to be here and they want to be nowhere else but here, playing with the Dodgers. And if they’re not the right person or the right player, then we turn them away. From Rich to Kenley to JT to Chase to Sergio Romo, all these guys are leaving money on the table and that means a lot.

“So, suffice it to say, I’m excited.”

So am I, Dave.  So am I.

• Here is just another great post by Night Owl Cards; "My Continuity Program."
• Check out these group of pictures I ran into on Reddit.  It features a Baseball fan named Chris McCurdy who is in Zambia.  He shares a whole bunch of photos from a friendly game of ball between kids from Zambia and the Japanese Embassy.  Check out the pics here.  The original Reddit thread is here.
• Clayton Kershaw is in tip top shape, via his twitter:

Another offseason down... have to thank my trainer once again for her incredible work! pic.twitter.com/LgCfWvBx10

— Clayton Kershaw (@ClaytonKersh22) February 14, 2017

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