From NBC Los Angeles (via VSIMH):
Famed L.A. Dodger Announcer Vin Scully was hospitalized Thursday night due to an undisclosed ailment, a family representative has said.He was transported from his home in Hidden Hills to West Hills Hospital and Medical Center.
The family spokeswoman said "he’s going to be okay." No other details were given.
From what we know of Vin, he's probably not thrilled this is in the news. But that won't stop us from wishing him the best. Get well soon, Vin!
This is just an update, not a comment-time post, so you can relax*. Here're the halftime scores from yesterday as I have them, please let me know if I got something wrong as I went through it really quickly:
Muno Regional:
*well don't relax too much, as the next comment-time post might be in 2 minutes...or not...
**if one competitor defaults one half and the other competitor defaults the other half, whichever competitor commented soonest after the comment-time thread posted in the half they won wins.
I don't know how many of you still get Sports Illustrated, but I find it good workout / bathroom reading. Catching up on one issue (March 8, 2010), I noticed that the Dodgers were mentioned 3 times on one page. The "Scorecard Go Figure" section has:
0: Dollars in federal and state income taxes paid on $108 million in earnings by divorcing Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt from 2004 to '09, according to documents unsealed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
2: Pounds that Dodgers second baseman Ronnie Belliard must lose in spring training to get his weight down to 209 and activate his $825,000, one-year contract with Los Angeles.
Then in the "They Said It" section:
Ned Colletti, Dodgers general manager, on having seen free-agent Chien-Ming Wang throw only in a parking lot before the righthander signed with the Nationals: "He had good command, though. He didn't hit any cars or anything."
I hope these little tidbits aren't the only ways the Dodgers are going to make headlines this year.
From Dodgers.com:
Chad Billingsley starts against the Cubs on Thursday, but two of the relievers that follow him -- Jeff Weaver and knuckleballer Charlie Haeger -- appear to be in a battle for the swingman job Weaver filled last year. Haeger's ability to pitch on consecutive days could allow the Dodgers to keep an 11-man pitching staff and an extra bench player. Manager Joe Torre said Manny Ramirez will make his defensive debut this week, and it could come in this game. Ramirez has been exclusively a designated hitter in games so far.
photos by Tony Dejak/AP
Got a lead on an old but still good article by the SF Comical's Bruce Jenkins, eulogizing Willie Davis as "the coolest ballplayer [he] ever saw".
Davis was found dead Tuesday at the age of 69 (authorities believe there was no foul play), leaving behind a legacy of unique, unforgettable talent. He made two All-Star teams, racked up 2,561 hits, had a 31-game hitting streak, won three consecutive Gold Glove awards, but he wasn't an elite outfielder in the National League. With the likes of Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Frank Robinson and Roberto Clemente in the mix, that just wasn't possible.
What none of those players had - few that I can recall in any era - was Davis' combination of urban cool and blazing speed. He addressed the world at a slow, measured pace, never in a rush. He basically let life come to him. Even as he approached home plate with a bat in his hands, he struck the impression of a man wearing shades at the far corner table of a jazz club.
There was lightning inside him. He turned it loose at the crack of the bat. Like so many good left-handed hitters, he crushed the low fastball, drilling it up the alleys on a laser path. That's when Willie Davis struck fear in the hearts of every opponent, because that would be a triple.Willie Davis might have been the coolest ballplayer I ever saw. He exuded style, a sense of the pure aesthetic, and he could have excelled at any sport. His choice of baseball was a blessing to the game, and among those of us who watched him up close at Dodger Stadium in the early 1960s, there was no question he was the fastest man alive. In a race from first to third with a running start, I'm not sure even Bob Hayes could have caught him.
Pretty nice to see this piece from a San Francisco newspaper columnist. RIP, Willie Davis.
Just ask Cliff Lee, whose Spring Training chin music will suspend him for the first five games of the regular season:
Lee also was fined by Major League Baseball vice president of discipline Bob Watson.
The former AL Cy Young winner was ejected from Monday's exhibition game against Arizona after throwing inside to Chris Snyder, then zipping a fastball over his helmet. [...]
Suspensions that result from incidents in spring training have occurred in the past, although they are rare. In 2008, three players were suspended after the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay brawled.
"Yeah, a little bit surprised," Zduriencik said. "In the end I don't think we have a whole lot of comment about it. ... There is an appeal process and an opportunity for Cliff to state his case. He will do that and we'll see what happens."
The trouble between Lee and Snyder may've started in the first inning when they collided as the pitcher was backing up a play at home plate. In the third inning, Lee was tossed after his two pitches to Snyder.
Snyder walked toward the mound and the dugouts and bullpens emptied, but no punches were thrown. Lee denied he was trying to retaliate.NEW YORK -- Seattle pitcher Cliff Lee was suspended Wednesday for the first five games of the regular season for throwing over the head of a hitter, possibly delaying his highly anticipated debut with the Mariners.
Having Lee miss a regular season start, and Opening Day, is pretty ridiculous just for a couple of inside pitches in a meaningless game. I thought Spring Training was supposed to be fun.
With the news yesterday that James McDonald has been removed from starting rotation consideration, the implications on the remaining prospective candidate base are huge. First, on McDonald:
Torre cited the performances of veterans Ramon Ortiz and Russ Ortiz -- who are in camp as non-roster invitees and neither of whom has given up a run in the Cactus League thus far -- and Eric Stults and Charlie Haeger, both of whom are on the 40-man roster and out of minor league options, as reasons why McDonald is out of the running.
McDonald has struggled in both of his Cactus League appearances, giving up six earned run on eight hits in four innings."I'm probably leaning at this point to keeping him in the bullpen,'' Torre said.
It's disappointing for McDonald, whom I think hasn't hit his stride yet and still has great potential. But it's more disappointing for Dodger fans who see a huge Titanic-style disaster (the boat, not the movie) on the horizon: Russ Ortiz. Yes, SoSG Delino's nemesis and fantasy draft nightmare is still, illogically, a viable candidate to be the Dodgers' fifth starter, as part of Ned Colletti's spaghetti strategy to spring signings. This, despite the fact that Ortiz's spring performances (including yesterday vs. the White Sox) are shaky:
Rule 5 right-hander Carlos Monasterios, meanwhile, entered to start the sixth and pitched three shutout innings without giving up a hit.Veteran Russ Ortiz, in camp on a minor league contract and trying to resurrect a career that appeared last season to be on life support, started and went four shaky innings on a day when he had been slated for five. He gave up two earned runs and six hits over four innings and was in constant trouble, the White Sox putting runners into scoring position in each of the first three innings.
Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness has a great piece placing odds on who might be the fifth starter, and Russ Ortiz is waaaaaay at the bottom, at 0.0000001%. But to be fair, these odds also reflect a deep-seeded hatred of Russ Ortiz:
If you’re wondering why I’m giving slightly more hope to one busted R.Ortiz over another, it’s because Ramon has thrown nearly twice the innings Russ has in camp – and because I’ll be the first to admit I have an irrational hatred of Russ Ortiz. The Giants and D-Backs connections, the huge contract, the total flameout, the age – I don’t want any part of it.
We're totally aligned with MSTI on this. We Sons (and I'm also including Orel as well as myself) don't like the idea of Russ Ortiz hanging around, either, and it's time for this tomato can to get off the depth chart altogether. If management's obsession is with Ortizes, we still have Ramon in camp, and we can always give Tito a call.
Enough with the comedy, Ned and Joe. Cut him off.
Though I still prefer an edgier design to get the young kids in the seats.
And I could not be happier.
Though I'm kicking myself for not picking up one of these...
Jim Peltz pinch reports for Dylan Hernandez this week. In this first segment, Jill Arrington and Peltz take on Cory Wade and Don Mattingly:
Reports on Gagne & Sherrill:
And thus begins the madness...
Here again are the rules, and here's the bracket:
Git commenting!
From Dodgers.com:
The Dodgers are off on Tuesday -- their first of only two off-days of Spring Training -- before returning to action by hosting their Camelback Ranch neighbor White Sox on Wednesday. The "A" team will reunite, as the players who'd traveled to Taiwan return to the lineup, including Manny Ramirez, James Loney and Ronnie Belliard. The other Ortiz, Russ, is scheduled to start on the mound.
Great article in the NYT about the Minneapolis Metrodome is still renting out to colleges and high schools for around $2K/game:
And no more so than this winter. In February, Petrich said, he was receiving five or six calls a day from coaches with snow-covered fields as far away as Kansas and Illinois. That made for some creative scheduling. [...]
The Metrodome had more available dates than usual this year because two trade shows canceled and it will not host an N.C.A.A. men’s basketball regional. Even with the University of Minnesota playing 28 baseball games and 16 softball games at the dome, Petrich said he had enough slots to accommodate a record 240 college games and 420 over all without booking any between 2:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. That, he said, was a first.
“This year, everything broke right,” he said. [...]
Petrich books time in four-and-a-half-hour blocks, so teams usually play doubleheaders with seven-inning games. Rent ranges from $300 to $500 an hour for high schools and small colleges to $2,000 for a single University of Minnesota game. Admission for small-college games is $5 for adults and $3 for students. Concession stands are closed, so some fans bring coolers.
With so many teams wanting the field — 55 colleges used it last year, according to sports facilities commission records — not all the start times are prime. Olean said St. Thomas played a game last year at 5 a.m., and Augsburg Coach Keith Bateman remembers a 4 a.m. doubleheader.
“That was the only time slot we were able to get in,” Bateman said. “At times, you kind of take what you can get. We’ve gotten done at 2:30 in the morning before and had two teams waiting to go play.” Ron Petrich, now an assistant professor of education at Augsburg, a small Minneapolis college, doubles as the scheduler and matchmaker for college baseball games at the Metrodome. Since 1984, he has kept the Dome humming with games, practices and scrimmages almost around the clock from February through April, when winter finally eases. The Metrodome may have said goodbye to major league baseball, but for now, it remains a Teflon-roofed lifesaver for more than 100 college, high school and other amateur teams throughout the upper Midwest.
I think it's cool that they will rent the Triple H Dome out to other schools; it would be even cooler if they allowed groups to just rent it out and goof around and play softball, too. I'd pay $2K for that opportunity.
photo: T. C. Worley for The New York Times
Got these shots from a SoSG stringer in Taiwan who prefers to remain anonymous. Not exactly shots from the Dodgers' press conference or games, but still shots from Taiwan (Taiwan television, to be precise) which illustrate the Dodgers' widespread television coverage this past week:
Thanks again, anonymous SoSG stringer!
photo by Reed Saxon/AP
(And for the record, I kinda like American Idol.) I've gone on a one-man-war against what passes for news in this city. This time, however, I' m just ecstatic. For with every passing day, www.sonsofstevegarvey.com climbs up the list of legitimate media outlets. Our next hurdle: the Huffington Post.
Posts
All Comments
