Dazzy Vance: Late Bloomer

March 2, 2023

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…

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Come on, Man!

March 1, 2023

Disclaimer: What follows only applies to those that say this really silly stupid stuff. Do you really believe that the Dodgers will have a poor offensive lineup? With Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, Mookie Betts, Will Smith, and JD Martinez? That also means that you don’t think anyone else will step up, right? No rookies. No non-roster invitees. Not Miguel Rojas. Nobody… because everybody sucks! Here is what we have heard…

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The Sky is Falling – The End is Near!

February 28, 2023

Dear Poor Dodger Fans, Your season is over! You are so screwed! The end is here! The Dodgers will finish last in the NL West. Forget about the season. It’s all over now. This is too horrible to contemplate! Signed, A World Class Moron! Yes, that is what some people think, but they are sooo wrong if you think Miguel Rojas cannot be the SS of a Championship team. I…

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Harry Arthur Lavagetto: The Dodgers Cookie

February 26, 2023

Harry ” Cookie” Lavagetto was the son of Italian immigrants Luigi and Adelaide Lavagetto. Luigi came to the United States in 1901. Adelaide arrived in 1906. Harry was the youngest of four sons born on December 1, 1912, in Oakland, California. He was christened, Enrico Attillo Lavagetto. He would have his name changed twice. After his confirmation in the Catholic church, Attillo was changed to Arturo. In school, a teacher…

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Dissecting the First Game

February 25, 2023

The first (5th, 16th, etc.) Game of Spring Training means nothing, but there were things that you should write down and remember for future meaning: James Outman had a good game – He will benefit greatly (as he did yesterday) from the ban of the shift. He did nothing to hurt his stock, and while these early games don’t mean a lot, he actually earned points toward promotion to the…

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Spring Training Can Mean Nothing… or Everything!

February 25, 2023

How can that be? Does Spring Training mean everything, or does Spring Training means nothing? Well, it depends… and if you are a person who sees everything as black or white, you may never understand how those two opposing statements can embody what Spring Training is all about. It seems like every year, some player comes out of “nowhere” and hits .350 or .400 in Spring Training and yet is…

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Pitchers We Sometimes Forget.

February 24, 2023

You go back to 1958 when the Dodgers moved west, and I would bet without going to the Dodgers baseball reference page, few here could name their starting rotation, let alone the guys in the bullpen. And the same would be true of most of the pitching staffs going back, say, 15-25 years or more. For the record, they finished 7th that year, 21 games behind the pennant winners, the…

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2017 Still In The News

February 23, 2023

I have been away for a little while, and during that period, a lot of baseball news trickled in.  One item I wanted to address was the Evan Drelich book on the Houston Astros 2017 scandal titled Winning Fixes Everything.  First off, the title of the book. It says it all.  This was/is a corrupt baseball organization that got away with cheating their way to a title. As much as…

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2023 Player Predictions

February 22, 2023

Yesterday, Dave wrote this: “Last year you posted your stats predictions for the season. As it turned out they were pretty accurate. So looking forward to that again. But I think we need to wait until end of Spring training for that.” So, I am going to do it a little differently this year. I am going to it now, and I might revise my predictions at the end of…

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Big Dodger News!

February 20, 2023

Pinkie Problems The first casualty of Spring Training occurred a few days ago when Miguel Vargas took a bad hop to his right pinky finger, which caused a hairline fracture. Since he is a RH hitter, his right hand is not his bottom hand, and he would likely play if it were the playoffs or an important game, but he will likely miss a couple of weeks. He thinks he…

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