Every year just before spring training starts, MLB.TV comes out with its power rankings for the year. Naturally, the rankings will change during the season depending on how the teams are playing at any given time. For our purposes, I will just stick with the top 10, Everyone else has no shot. The Dodgers over the last several years have usually started off at either number one or close to…
Robert James “Rick” Monday was born in Batesville Arkansas on November 20th, 1945. Sometime during his youth, his family relocated to Santa Monica, California. Rick then attended Santa Monica High School. He earned All-League honors and after graduation had to decide whether to play pro-ball, or accept a baseball scholarship. He was offered a 20,000-dollar signing bonus from Tommy Lasorda, who at that time was a scout for the Dodgers….
You have to love fans. They are the original naysayers of doom. To read some of the posts and remarks by Dodger fans beginning when free agency started, you would think the Dodgers are doomed to finish 40 games out. As spring rolled on, and they lost Lux to injury, the moans grew louder that they should have signed one of the premier free agent shortstops in the winter. We…
Chapter 2 The Big Leagues and Beyond Jackie Robinson broke into the majors with Brooklyn in 1947. His trials and tribulations have been well documented. But despite his breaking the color barrier, there was no real rush by any major league team to follow the Dodgers lead. Larry Doby was signed by the Indians, 3 months after Jackie made his debut and went straight to the majors from the Negro…
Part One The Beginning Leroy “Satchel” Paige. He threw his first professional pitch in 1926. He threw his last in 1966, forty years later. In between those years, he threw more pitches in more games and ballparks than any other pitcher in baseball history. He was, in fact, a living legend. He was also a great promoter, of himself. But beyond that, he was probably one of the most talented…
Dan Bankhead was the first Afro-American pitcher to make it to the majors. But his career was short and by most standards, very unsatisfying. He was born in Empire, Alabama, on May 3rd, 1920. His parents, Garnett and Arie, had seven children who lived to adulthood. Dan was born Daniel, but it is believed his father shortened it at some point. Empire is a small town about 30 miles northwest…
Jim Lefevbre, Dodgers second baseman and Rookie of the Year in 1965. I remember him well. James Kenneth Lefevbre was born on January 7th, 1942, in Inglewood, California. He was the second child of Ben and Virginia Lefevbre. He had an older sister and two younger brothers. Ben was a hitting coach of some renown as a coach for the American Legion and college (Pepperdine) baseball. Some of the major…
What do you think of when you hear his name? My first thoughts are of a guy who finished what he started. A player who lost two full seasons to military service while in his prime. And later a player who turned his life around when he was headed down a path of self-destruction. Donald Newcombe was born on the 14th of June 1926 in Madison New Jersey. His parents…
How many of these guys do you remember? John Wyatt, Larry Hutton, Don Denbow, Terry McDermott, Jim Haller. Don’t ring a bell? How about Bobby Valentine? Oh, him, you know. Well, all those guys were the Dodgers’ first-round picks – their first six, as a matter of fact. None of them was drafted #1 because the Dodgers were not picking that high. Valentine was the highest pick at #5 in…
Charles Arthur Vance was born March 4, 1891, in Orient, Iowa. His father was Albert Theophilus Vance, a farmer, and his mother, Sara Elizabeth; He was their fifth child. When he was young, they moved to a farm in Pleasant Hill Township. Located in Webster County, Nebraska. Webster County is very near the Kansas state line. Vance attended high school but made his baseball reputation pitching for a semi-pro team…