
the first basemen: anchors of the dodger's infield
We Have Had Some Good Ones

Canon City, CO · 369 posts
Site historian. Born June 14, 1948, in Los Angeles. US Army veteran, professional country music performer, who was very honored to sing the National Anthem at Dodger Stadium on September 9th, 1981. Awaiting the arrival of his second great-granddaughter. Takes Dodger fans on walks down memory lane.

We Have Had Some Good Ones



How Does the 26 Staff Match Up?

Career and Seasonal Records Players Would Rather Not Hold.

Top This!

Records that have no chance of being surpassed


A Starting Lineup of the Best to Play in LA Since 1958 by Position

A tale of the seasons that could have been


Barnsie Was a Perfect Backup

After my post about the top 24 players in Dodger history, Phil suggested that I break them down by the era in which they played. He opined that it would be…

An overview of the best Dodger players... ever!

I was going to do this post when Chris announced he was retiring, then he changed his mind, but since the chances of him ever playing for the Dodgers again are slim and non-existent, I will go ahead with this post. He unretired, went on the IL, then decided to call it quits on May 24th. Taylor was born in Virginia Beach VA on August 29th, 1990. He attended Great…

I watched the video Jeff posted of Zack Erhard hitting an inside the park homer yesterday. And I was thinking that although many say the triple is the most exciting play in baseball, I tend to think hitting an inside the park homer is a little more exciting. I would bet many of us have no clue who hit the first one at Dodger Stadium. We know who hit the…

The image of a prototypical lead-off hitter has changed dramatically over the last several years. When I first started watching baseball in the 50’s, most lead of hitters were players with high OBP’s and some speed. Of course, players in the 50’s were evaluated a lot differently than players are today. Pee Wee Reese was actually hit second more than he led off. As a leadoff man, Pee Wee hit…

Since he took over as President of Baseball Operations in November of 2014, one thing that Andrew Freidman has valued in his players is versatility. Players capable of playing multiple positions have made this team very versatile and to have the ability to replace stars who are injured with players who can capably play well until the star returns. This was shown over the last couple of years especially when…

In 2004, Frank McCourt became the owner of the Dodgers. He hired Paul DePodesta as his GM in February of 2004. One of his first trades sent Jason Frasor to the Jays for Jason Werth. In April, DePodesta traded Franklin Gutierrez to the Indians for Milton Bradley. At the deadline, he traded Paul lo Duca, Juan Encarnacion and Guillermo Mota to the Marlins for Brad Penny, Bill Murphy and He…

The Dodgers throughout their long history, have been involved in many historic baseball moments. Not only their own history, but major league baseballs as well. Their first was winning the pennant in the first year of the National Leagues existence. There was no World Series as we know it now back then. Manager Bill McGunnigle had some pretty good players on his team. Some really great baseball names too. Back…

The National League as we know it, began in 1890. The Brooklyn team had been part of the American Association from 1884-89. The new rules for the new league stipulated that in order to have a team in the National League, a city must have 75,000 in population. The eight original NL teams were the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, Chicago Colts, Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds, Boston, (no nickname yet), New York Giants,…

Two things really irk me in baseball. Strikeouts and walks. So far this season, Dodger pitchers have allowed 198 free passes. They and the Seattle Mariners are the only teams below 200. I am not sure how many of those walks ended up scoring, there are no stats on-line for that. Free runners cannot be a good thing for a pitcher. Sasaki leads the Dodgers with 24 free passes in…

What do I mean by true blue? Well, over the years I have seen my share of bandwagon and fair-weather fans. True blue fans stick with the team no matter what. Their allegiance to the team never waivers. Not when a favorite is traded or lost to free agency, not when the team…

In 1957, Brooklyn Dodgers owner, Walter O’Malley, finally gave up on his dream of building a state-of-the-art ballpark in Brooklyn. He had been fighting with Robert Moses, who was in charge of all new construction for the City of New York for several years. Walter had purchased…

Over the last couple of years, the Dodgers have primarily used a closer by committee mindset. Since Kenley Jansen left via free agency, LA has not found a lock down guy. Jansen left in 2022 and took his 350 career saves to that point with him. They traded for Kimbrel in 22. Had…

Not long ago during an interview, Dodger first baseman Freddie Freeman said he wanted to play four more years which would give him 20 in the majors and take him to his age 40 season. His reasons for this are his goal of reaching 3,000 hits and finishing with a .300 batting…

Last season when Scott came into a game, Dodger fans held their breath. Their supposed closer had a disastrous season. Signed to a four-year contract, he was not performing like a star reliever. He did manage to log 23 saves on the year. But it was the 10 blown saves that the…

You look at the players who play in the majors now, and some of them a huge physical specimens. Arron Judge, Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, James Wood. All are 6’4″ or taller. Large does not always mean better, but you are more likely to be a power hitter with some size to you. But…

Carl Reginald Smith was born on April 2nd, 1945, in Shreveport Louisiana. His father played in the Negro Leagues; his mother was a gifted musician.

Since the Guggenheim Group took over in 2012, the fortunes of the Los Angeles Dodgers have been on a 13-year ride that any fan who lived through the McCourt years should never take for granted.