Well I have been in California a little over a week. And the game is the same, but the view is much different. Lots of Dodger Blue here. Not so much Rockies Purple. Watching the games on Sportsnet LA is a lot different than watching them on MLB.TV. I get to watch the pre and post game shows. None of that on MLB, Lots of Dodger replays on that station,…
After I went into the Army, it was hard to follow the team other than in the paper and the Sporting News. And especially when I went to Korea. Stars and Stripes was usually a couple of days or more behind in the scores. When I came home, and later got married, we would go to games whenever I came back to Cali on leave. Or we would go to the AA games in El Paso.
As I look back in the history of the Dodgers, there have been many occasions when a player was switched from his original position to a new one, and both the player and the Dodgers were better for it. I could probably go back to the early days in Brooklyn and find some guys who did this. But I thought I would stick with the history that I have witnessed…
While thinking of subjects to post about, I was watching the game and marveling at how well our two catchers are playing right now. Even though he went hitless in the opener, Will Smith directly impacted the win with two great throws to nail runners trying to steal. Austin Barnes is an equally adept defender and has also been contributing on offense to start the season. And who is in…
Kersh takes the mound for his 9th opening day assignment. Frankly, I wish he wasn’t the guy. Although he has a winning record at Coors at 11-5. His ERA there is 4.44. He has allowed 19 HR’s in 23 games. 139 hits, and 36 walks in 140 innings. Not great numbers. His WHIP at Coors is 1.250. The Rocks only hit .203 against him there, but they get the most out of their hits.
1959, start of the season – A young 11-year-old boy reads about his heroes in the daily sports page. A right of passage in those days. Games on TV were few and far between, especially Dodger games. The only televised games were those from San Francisco on KKTV channel 11. Vin Scully and Jerry Doggett did the announcing. Doggett would do the 3rd and 7th innings, Vinny the rest….
The winter of 2010 brought some more changes to the Dodgers. Joe Torre retired from managing and Don Mattingly took over. The other main point was the now very public and hostile divorce proceedings between McCourt and his wife. So things were off to a rocky start. Colletti though had to put together a team and there were a lot of players who were free agents. He re-signed Kuroda…
Then in early April in San Diego, Malone went after a fan who was verbally abusing Gary Sheffield. He resigned a few days later, and Dave Wallace, former pitching coach was named interim GM. They traded for outfielder McKay Christenson in July. In July they also traded for Mike Twombley, Terry Mullholland, and James Baldwin in separate deals Usually for minor leaguers.
Brooklyn went berserk. The players were leaping all over the field. But the man who had led them for so many years and made so many clutch plays and hits was not on the field for the final out. Jackie Robinson was on the bench, replaced in the starting lineup by Don Hoak. His days as a Dodger Icon were on borrowed time.
Gibson, Hatcher, Dempsey, Samuel, and Valenzuela all became free agents in November, but on the 8th of November, Claire signed FA outfielder Darryl Strawberry. He signed Kevin Gross and Brett Butler. Traded Vizcaino to the Cubs for Greg Smith. Then he sent Brooks to the Mets for Greg Hansell and Bob Ojeda. They also re-signed Samuel, Valenzuela and Hatcher. They traded Holmes to the Brewers for a minor leaguer and did the same with Poole.