If you go to the Dodgers baseball reference page, you will see photos of the top 24 Dodger players, according to WAR. Of those 24, nine played only in LA, and six played in Brooklyn and LA. The rest played exclusively in Brooklyn. Number 12 on the list with a career WAR of 47.2 is George Napoleon Rucker. Better known as Nat. For ten seasons, he was one of the…
What comes to mind when you think about Ron Cey? To me, it is his trot around the bases after he hit a homer and his solid play as one of the anchors of ” The Infield.” Cey was born on the 15th of February 1948 in Tacoma, Washington. He was a multi-sport athlete at Mount Tacoma High School. He was the first athlete to receive nine varsity letters. Upon…
I thought it would be interesting and appropriate to look at the Dodger bullpens in the seasons they won the World Series. This is simply because so much of what I have read lately on our site pertains to the makeup for the post-season of our relief staff. For the record, the 1955 team used 15 pitchers during the season. Five were primarily starters, Newcombe, Erskine, Podres, Meyer, and Loes….
Wesley Branch Rickey was born in a small Ohio town on Dec 20, 1881. His father was a farmer. He had an older brother, Orla, {B 1875} and a younger brother, Frank {B 1888}. His father, Jacob, was a very religious man, and the household was your typical pious Methodist family. Rickey finished grade school, but then labor on the farm called. He got help from a retired educator who…
What I remember of Eric Gagne is a pitcher who, when he came out of the pen to close a game, you were pretty sure he would shut the opposition down. And he was very good at it for about three years. From 2002-2004, there was not a more dominant closer in the majors. Eric Serge Gagne was born on January 7, 1976, in Montreal in the province of Quebec…
I was watching the HBO miniseries, The Pacific. In the next to last chapter, the Marines are engaged in the battle for Okinawa. It was a horrific fight, and the US suffered the highest casualties of any battle in the Pacific. It got me thinking about one of the people responsible for me loving the Dodgers and the game as much as I do. In June of 1958, about a…
Believe it or not, there was a time when singing cowboys roamed the silver screen. Most were pretty talented singers. The first, John Wayne, was not. His voice was dubbed for his part as Singing Sandy. Some did songs for movie tracks we have never forgotten, such as Tex Ritter’s “Do Not Forsake Me” in High Noon. That tune won an Oscar. One of them, Gene Autry, recorded one of…
I was watching an old movie, yeah, a baseball movie. It starred James Stewart and June Allison. True story. It was about Monty Stratton. Stratton was a RH pitcher who pitched for the White Sox for parts of five seasons. He had a 36-23 record with a 3.71 ERA and 196 K’s. He won 15 games in 1937 and again in 38. His future with the Sox looked bright. He…
It is August, and the annual let’s get crazy season has started. It never fails this time of year. Fans begin to lose their collective minds. Why? Well, I really have no clue. I just sit back and watch. What amazes me most is that fans who have followed the team and the game for years really have no idea how the roster is set up or how it is…
Mickey Owen was a very good defensive catcher. In his best season, 1941, he made four errors. Three during the regular season and one in the World Series that labeled him a GOAT for the rest of his days. Mickey Owen was born Arnold Malcolm Owen on April 4, 1916, in Nixa, Missouri. Mickey’s parents divorced when he was seven. Because of that, his mom moved to Southern California. While…