Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Juan Pierre Not Protected In The Lineup

At least, that's what I can glean from reading this New York Times piece, the eleven-thousandth article on the Dodgers' exhibition game vs. the Red Sox in the Coliseum. (That's right, the Red Sox. The RED SOX. The more we say it, the more great Charlie Chowda ads we get!!!)

But back to Pierre. Shades of Adrian Beltre, Juan is playing without a cup:

The Dodgers are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their move to Los Angeles by crashing for a night at the Ping-Pong parlor that put them up for their first four seasons. Some 92,000 fans will fill the gargantuan seating bowl; another 20,000 or more will pay simply to stand and mill and gawk. The players will enter majestically in uniform through the fabled stone arches beyond right-center field, see the Little League left-field line and be overcome with ... um, emotion?

“This is what they’re going to see,” Charles Steinberg, the Dodgers’ executive vice president for marketing and public relations, said last weekend as he surveyed the ridiculously tall net in left and the misshapen field’s other goofiness. “They’re going to walk in and be like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ”

Juan Pierre thought someone was. Pierre, the Dodgers’ probable left fielder (rather, deep shortstop), said he did not believe the dimensions when he was told of them a few weeks ago. He gradually feared for his safety.

“I’ll be like 180 feet from the hitters, and those Boston guys hit the ball pretty hard,” Pierre said. “I might have to wear a cup.”

Maybe Boston will field an all-right-handed lineup?

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