Eddie Mathews was born on October 13th, 1931, in Texarkana, Texas. His family moved to Santa Barbara, California, four years later. Eddie got his love of baseball from his father. His dad was a Western Union telegraph operator and former semi-pro ballplayer. His mother got in on the action too. She would pitch to him, and his dad would shag balls. If he hit one up the middle close to…
Last week baseball lost another legend. Henry Aaron. Though he never played for the Dodgers, I had a deep respect for him as a man, and a ballplayer. I cannot imagine how it was for him growing up a black kid in the south. Nor can I imagine the hate directed at him when he was closing in on breaking the all-time HR mark set by Babe Ruth. He had…
This season, our long drought ended, and the Dodgers brought home the trophy. What a great feeling. And over the last few years we have come close, and just fell short. But in the days before the present system was set up and league expansion, there were only 2 winners. No second chance at a title. Just two teams battling it out for MLB supremacy. Four times in their history,…
One thing I have learned is that AF is tight lipped more than anyone in MLB, and so are his co-working baseball personnel. So for someone like Jim Bowden to intimate that he has spoken with Dodgers personnel who have advised him that AF has been engaged in talks with Rockies GM, Jeff Bridich, about Nolan Arenado, I have my doubts. He did not stop there. He said that Nolan…
With the passing in the last week or so of Bob Gibson, Whitey Ford, and now Joe Morgan, I got to thinking about players who always seem to be at their best against the Dodgers. It has always seemed to me like some players just have another team’s number. Take for example, Willie McCovey. His BA against the Dodgers in 297 games was .241. He hit 45 HR’s and had…
This is for Bear although he most likely has all of this in his data bank and more. It is a rerun of an article I posted on Think Blue LA back in December of 2012. At that time I wrote: Yesterday I spent some quality time with myself organizing and cataloging my latest Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp baseball cards. Today, I will take my Duke Snider cards out…
I’m going to come right out and say that I believe that Gil Hodges should be in the Hall of Fame. Much has been written about the subject and nothing that I offer here is unique or original to me. I will just say this, if a player can be voted in for being a tremendous person, then Gill Hodges would be a unanimous first ballot selection. I was too…