Since my wife and I started US Systems in our garage 18 years ago, we have never both been able to be gone for more than 4 or 5 days due to the demands of it. However, in the past two years, we have hired 5 vice-presidents in Sales, Finance, Marketing, Engineering, and Operations from the corporate world. This is the first time we have been able to be gone…
Nick Robertson – Looking to Move on Up
The Dodgers 2019 draft was perhaps an unusual one in that they targeted college relief pitchers. I don’t think the plan is to transform them into starters but more so to continue their present path. Relief pitching is the fastest way to MLB unless one is a budding superstar and relief pitchers most certainly are in demand. Why not develop your own and in due course have a stable of…
Remembering Dodger Blues
NOTE FROM MARK TIMMONS: Evan Bladh wrote this several days ago, but asked that I hold it out of respect to Kobe Bryant and his family. Now, life goes on, even though we are all deeply saddened. Maybe LeBron and the Lakers will use his memory to fuel another title run. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Does anyone remember DodgerBlues.com? It was a website, now defunct, that poked…
Remembering Kobe Bryant aka/Black Mamba – LA Icon
We don’t talk politics or religion at LA Dodger Talk and it is extremely rare that we talk about… much less even feature, something other than Dodger Baseball, but today is one of those days (sadly). For those of us who are old enough, we will always remember where we were when people like JFK, Princess Diana, and Kobe Bryant died. I was in Waikiki heading to the Airport when…
What’s Baseball Arbitration all About?
It’s not a subject that fans often pay any particular time or attention to, but starting next Monday (Feb. 3) arbitration hearings will begin for those arbitration-eligible players, who were unable to negotiate a contract with their team prior to the date to exchange salary figures. The last time the Dodgers went to arbitration was in 2007 with Joe Beimel. The last time the Dodgers went to arbitration with a…
Maybe It Is Time For MLB Contraction
I was going to respond to the MiLB contraction topic, but I was not going to add anything meaningful to what was already discussed. Suffice to say that I do not believe that the contraction plan has much of anything to do with enhancing player development. I think it has more to do with once again bending to the whims of the financially challenged organizations, in yet another cost saving…
‘Handy’ Andy Pafko – A Forgotten Dodger
Now that the Bobby Thompson home run has surfaced again, perhaps I can tease you one more time with a reference to that fateful hit in an article I wrote four years ago. I trace my birth as a Dodger fan back to the 1952 season. Vin Scully and Duke Snider were the midwives in bringing me into the world of “Dodger Blue.” Vin’s voice captivated me one evening in…
An Iconoclast Looks at MiLB Contraction
One of the many definitions of an “iconoclast” is someone who strongly opposes generally accepted beliefs and traditions. Some people think inside the box. Others think outside the box. I prefer to think there is no box. I am an iconoclast. I readily admit it and even embrace it. While the entire Dodger Fandom was attacking Andrew Freidman (pick a day… any day), I was embracing his tactics. I still…
George “Shotgun” Shuba – His Greatest Moment
Yesterday Evan gave us a great read on Ralph Branca – the man – not the unfairly maligned baseball player. With his reference to Jackie Robinson and “shot” it brought me back to another historic moment in time and an article I had written eight years ago about one more little known Dodger who too was a better man. George Shuba – now there’s a name that I suspect doesn’t…
A Better Man Than Most
We, as Dodger fans, are all going through different levels of anger as we cope with the sign-stealing scandals of which the Dodgers were victims. It is a travesty of justice that we lost that window of opportunity to see our team win the World Series after so many years of falling short. Frankly, I’m pretty angry about it, but there isn’t much we can do except hope that this…