Josh Interviews Ken About the Isotopes

Home Run Derby Thread, 5p

Remember, Josh Suchon will be at Barney's Beanery in Santa Monica, from 5-8 pm, during the Home Run Derby, signing copies of Miracle Men.

Meet Miracle Men Author Josh Suchon

Josh-Sue-Shawn, get it?

Albuquerque Isotopes announcer and Orel historian Josh Suchon wrote the book on the World Champion 1988 Dodgers. It's called Miracle Men: Hershiser, Gibson, and the Improbable 1988 Dodgers and is well worth a read.

Don't have it and want a signed copy? You're in luck. Suchon will be appearing at the following book signings this week:

• TODAY Monday, July 15 -- at Barney's Beanery in Santa Monica, from 5-8 pm, during the Home Run Derby
  
• Tuesday, July 16 -- at Brent's Deli in Northridge, from 11 am to 1 pm
  
• Wednesday, July 17 -- at the Barnes & Noble in Huntington Beach, from 7-8 pm
  

So get your signed copy and tell Josh the Sons sent you!

Falsone: Kevin Scanlon/LA Weekly

Quote of the Day

I'm currently reading Miracle Men: Hershiser, Gibson, and the Improbable 1988 Dodgers by Josh Suchon. A review is forthcoming (hint: buy it), but I wanted to share this with our readers. From page 69 (natch):

"We treated Tommy [Lasorda] like one of our teammates," [Steve] Sax recalled. "We did shit to Tommy that we can't tell you about. We used to strip him naked in the clubhouse and scribble on his nuts. But you know what, did the players play like hell for him, or what? We loved him. We'd do anything for Tommy."

Bolding and embiggening mine, because whaaaaaa? "Scribble on his nuts"? Like with a ballpoint pen? Because ouch. Or with a Sharpie? Because that ain't coming out. And what's the shit you can't tell us about? I fear livestock may be involved.

Or maybe this was all part of rookie hazing. "Here, kid, take this Uniball and sign your Hancock on the manager's Johnson." See if that affects your playing time, rook.

This instance of questionable locker room nudity reminds me of one of the funniest baseball-related columns I've read, by Ken Tremendous of Fire Joe Morgan. Will the hijinks of naked men in awkward situations ever cease to be amusing? The answer is no.

Dinner with Ned?

"Is Suchon still staring at me? I can't eat when he stares at me."

Would you pay $75 to pick Ned Colletti's brain? If you're a MasterCard holder, now you can. Thanks to old friend J. Steve for sharing this incredible offer:

Dodgers fans, get the chance to hear directly from the Dodgers’ GM Ned Colletti. During a special Q&A, he’ll give a first-hand recap of the 2012 season and the hopeful 2013 outlook—and you’ll get a chance to ask him any burning questions about players and trades.

Then you’ll enjoy a special dinner with other avid Dodger fans. To round out this incredible experience, you’ll get to take a photo with the Dodgers World Series trophy, get an exclusive stadium tour and take home a commemorative baseball.

This event takes place from 6:00pm - 8:00pm on Wednesday, February 6.

All for a measly $75! Not a bad deal, actually — the stadium tour alone costs $15. Wonder if SoSG can get a plant in there.

Josh Suchon Has Written a Book About the 1988 Championship Dodgers

Former DodgerTalk co-host Josh Suchon has written a book about Barry Bonds' 73-homer season, but that sin is about to be forgiven: his newest book, Miracle Men: Hershiser, Gibson and the Improbable 1988 Dodgers is due for publication by Triumph Books in spring of 2013. Congrats, Josh — can't wait to give it a read!

• Coming in March – "Miracle Men: Gibson, Hershiser and the Improbable 1988 Dodgers" (Out of Ink)

At-Games Recap: May 14/15 vs. D'backs

Orel's still got it.

As Mrs. Orel and I raced along the I-10 to make it to Dodger Stadium in time to catch pre-game festivities on Orel Hershiser Bobblehead Night, I read Josh Suchon's excellent piece on his connection with Hershiser (hat tip: @dodgerfan_net). We parked and hustled toward the Reserve Level, passing more than a few people leaving the grounds clutching their Orel bobbleheads. One guy was even toting a whole case of them, no doubt rushing to fulfill his eBay pre-orders. A+++ WOULD BUY AGAIN

A couple things struck us as we watched Hershiser become the center of attention. He was inclusive, insisting Tommy Lasorda accompany him to the mound for the ceremonial first pitch. He was gracious, greeting first-pitch catcher Clayton Kershaw with warmth and making sure Kershaw was in the center of the trio for post-pitch pictures. He was humble, carrying the microphone stand off the field after announcing "It's time for Dodger Baseball!" And he was classy, making his way over to the visitors' dugout to shake Justin Upton's hand before leaving the field.

(Extra kudos to Nancy Bea Hefley for reviving her rendition of "Master of the House" to accompany Orel's return to the spotlight. The sentiment couldn't have been more perfect.)

So yeah, I picked a fine pitcher and a pretty good guy to borrow a name from. The game was a wash, but I met SoSG Nomo for a beer and a stroll along the Reserve concourse as we conducted an unsuccessful reconnaissance mission to locate Dusty. It was oddly peaceful for two Dodger geeks to walk and talk away from the game, discerning what was happening on the field only by the sounds of the crowd.

To the pics!

"Hey man, see you in the pantheon."

Vin Scully with his seventh-inning benediction.

More photos after the jump!

KLAC Attacks the Block, Suchon

The Dodger world is losing another Josh: Dodger Thoughts passes along word that KLAC 570 won't be bringing back Josh Suchon or Joe Block for post-game DodgerTalk in 2012. It looks like Kevin Kennedy will be the new host.

Suchon and Block will be missed — they understood fan angst while balancing management's viewpoints. Will former manager Kennedy be able to relate to Joe from Agoura Hills? Tune in to find out.

STGT: March 30 vs. Mariners, 7p

The Mariners are coming! The Mariners are coming! And if you care, you'd better get your fill tonight because they ain't coming back this year. Unless the Dodgers and Seattle make the World Series.

In other words, they ain't coming back.

The last time the Dodgers wrangled with the Seamen was 2006 2009, when Seattle took two of three at Dodger Stadium. But that was before those bah-stads stole Ken Levine from us! So consider tonight's matchup payback. But if the Mariners win, we're still keeping Josh Suchon.

STGT: Feb 26 SS @ Angels/Giants, 12n

Split Squad @ Angels, 12p
Split Squad @ Giants, 12p (on KABC radio)

2011 Dodgers Spring Training Schedule (Dodgers.com)

COMMENTS: It's tiiiiimmme for Dodger baseball! Meaningless, half-speed Dodger baseball, but Dodger baseball nonetheless!

From @truebluela:

Dodgers are playing two split squad games Saturday; Don Mattingly will manage vs Giants, Lorenzo Bundy will manage vs Angels

From @dylanohernandez:

Source: Josh Suchon of DodgerTalk on his way to AZ. Will be here for first show of the year, which will follow broadcast of [today's] game.

Random thought from SoSG Sax: They should totally broadcast live play-by-play from both games simultaneously, just for kicks.

Meet Joe Block

Via TBLA, Ken Levine will be replaced by Joe Block, currently the radio host for the New Orleans Hornets. Will a hoops background make him a good radio show partner with Josh Suchon? We'll see.

The departure of Ken Levine, however, is a bummer for those of us who liked listening to a post-game show that used sarcasm and wit to break up the drudgery of callers with extremist views or completely unfeasible trade proposals (e.g., Jonathan Broxton for Mariano Rivera and A-Rod). Levine could always find a delicate way of acknowledging the point while still winking to the crowd that he was in on the gag. He will be missed.

Is It Curtains for Jylan?

In what Dylan Hernandez is calling his last video segment, he and Josh Suchon discuss the nature of Dodger fans. Also, Jill Arrington talks Frank McCourt and the NFL:

Various Issues

I know the Cubbies are a come-from-behind team, but geez.

Just catching up on some tidbits:

• The first Maple Street Press Dodgers Annual comes out this month. Why should you care? Well, it's edited by Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts and contains contributions by Eric Stephen of True Blue LA, Mike Petriello of Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness, Josh Suchon of DodgerTalk, Chad Moriyama of Memories of Kevin Malone, Bob Timmermann of One Through Forty-Two or Forty-Three and Joshua Fisher of Dodger Divorce, among others. (Above is the Cubs' version, via Desipio. Hee hee!)
• Big League Stew is entering its terrible twos. Congrats, 'Duk!
• Do not miss Weisman's 5,000+ word interview and analysis of Frank McCourt and the current state of the Dodgers. Take the day off to read it if you have to. Your boss will understand.
• True Blue LA brings us the Dodgers' spring training broadcast schedule. You jonesin' yet?
• Not baseball-related, but Giant Robot magazine needs your help to keep publishing for the next year. The GR empire (magazine, stores in LA, SF and NY, and a restaurant in LA) is basically the repository for everything cool ever made.

UPDATE: Things We've Learned: Cubs Edition (Maple Street Press)

Dodgers Broadcast Team Collects Hardware

Ken Levine, Eric Karros, Josh Rawitch, Vin Scully, Jaime Jarrin, Fernando Valenzuela, Charley Steiner, Josh Suchon.

Josh Rawitch blogs about awards just handed out by the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association, and the Dodgers cleaned up:

Vin Scully was receiving the President's Award from the organization and Jim Hill was put into the Hall of Fame and both gave very moving speeches but the event turned into an impromptu lovefest for Vin that has rarely been equaled. It seemed that everyone who won an award talked at length about Vin's role in their career and he was clearly humbled by the whole thing. He really is as classy as any individual I've ever been around and we are all very fortunate to have him be the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Other key Dodger people who won awards were Vin for best TV and radio play by play announcer, Jaime Jarrin for Spanish-language broadcaster, Ken Levine for talk show host (he gave props to Josh Suchon, his partner) and Eric Karros for pre or postgame host. We're proud of all of them, and a personal shout out goes to Nancy Mazmanian, formerly of the Angels, who won the "High Five" award. And lots of love went out to the memory of Rory Markas, among others who we lost this year.

Congrats to all! Levine adds this award to the Emmy he won as a producer on "Cheers." You can read his reaction here.

photo by Jon SooHoo/Dodgers

Josh vs. Josh Update

"Hey Rawitch: Scoreboard!"

Josh Rawitch: $1,150 (last year's winning bid: $1,520)

Josh Suchon: $1,215 (last year's winning bid: $1,010)

Auctions close today at 5 p.m. PT.

What's this all about? The Return of Josh vs. Josh (SoSG)

UPDATE:

The final tally:

Rawitch: $1,690
Suchon: $3,505

Congrats to both Joshes for beating last year's numbers, and congrats to Josh S. for winning this year's Battle of the Joshes!

The Return of Josh vs. Josh

It's that time of year: The ThinkCure! auctions are up! Click here to see what you can bid on.

Longtime readers will remember that last year, Josh Rawitch (Vice President, Communications) and Josh Suchon (DodgerTalk co-host) had competing auctions. The winner? Josh.

But now the other Josh can have his revenge. Check out their current auctions:

Dodger Experience: Take an Insider Clubhouse Tour: This package for 2 includes an insider tour of the Dodgers Clubhouse with Josh Rawitch

Dodger Experience: Be a Cub Sports Reporter with Josh Suchon!

DodgerTalk, You Know, Transcript

I don't usually check company e-mail on weekends. But it's a good thing I did, because Josh Suchon, co-host of post-game DodgerTalk on KABC, was inviting me to appear as a guest on yesterday's show. Josh and his partner Ken Levine are planning on expanding their Sunday guest repertoire to include perspectives from bloggers and minor league affiliates. And guess who they wanted to bat leadoff? Quite an honor. (Boy, they won't make that mistake again!)

Seriously, kudos to Ken & Josh for helping to give us bloggers a bigger voice, and thanks to them for being great interviewers. Here's a transcript:

Ken Levine: ...gentlemen who is one of the blogmasters—that what we call ourselves, blogmasters?—of Sons of Steve Garvey dot com, this is Orel. Usually, it's in tribute to Orel Hershiser, but today since it's Easter, it's in tribute to Oral Roberts.

Josh Suchon: Okay.

Ken: Orel, welcome to KABC.

SoSG Orel: Hi guys, thanks for having me on.

Ken: How long have you had this blog?

Orel: We are in our third year, so in internet years I guess that makes us, you know, senior citizens.

Josh: Tell us—I love the name, by the way, "Sons of Steve Garvey"—who came up with the idea and have you ever met Steve?

Orel: Funny you should ask that. One of our bloggers, who goes under the name of Lasorda, came up with it—I think he was inspired by the Red Sox fansite Sons of Sam Horn. But it turns out that one of us has met Steve Garvey, and not only is Mr. Garvey aware of us, but it turns out also he has a pretty good sense of humor. I think he called us honorary sons, so it doesn't get any cooler than that.

Josh: Well, Mark Loretta used to have the bumper sticker that said "Steve Garvey is not my Padre."

Ken: And he is a good sport about it, because he'll show up at Dodger Stadium in the parking lot—invariably someone will yell "Dad!" So he is kind of used to it. Now how many of you are there?

Orel: There are seven of us, so we each took the name of, you know, an iconic Dodger, a beloved Dodger icon. Or in one of our cases, Delino DeShields, for some reason.

"If you took all the money that we have made from this blog, we could easily have a field day at Starbucks. Venti anything."

Josh: I would assume that this is a hobby, and it's probably none of my business to ask if you make any money off this, but I will in case anyone else is think of starting their own blog about the Dodgers, about anything. I would not think that this is a full-time job.

Orel: Well, frankly that's none of your business....

Josh: Well done.

Orel: No, I mean, if you took all the money that we have made from this blog, we could easily have a field day at Starbucks. Venti anything.

Ken: Lattes all around!

Orel: Exactly.

Ken: So how do you divvy it up? Does one person write every Tuesday? Does one person write on the weekends? How does it work?

Orel: Well, you know, our mission statement includes the phrase "random rantings and ravings." So that should pretty much give you an idea of the tone. We just kind of fire at will and if we step all over each other, so be it.

Josh: Nice, that's very nice. In terms of—some blogs are kind of dedicated to breaking down numbers, the sabermetricians, some are just about venting. Because there are seven different voices, is it almost like seven different blogs in one? Or what other types of things do you try to specialize in?

Orel: Well, we're saber-friendly. I wouldn't say we're saber-obsessed. You know, the blog has become a really good creative outlet for us, so we're not so much focused on the numbers as we are basically on mostly the on-field play and the front office. But, you know, especially during the season—we've got readers from all over, from Alaska to Venezuela to, you know, Turkey. So we just kind of want to make it like a local tavern where people can pull up a chair, have a cold one, and rant and rave about the Dodgers. Kind of like a place where, you know, everyone knows your name.

Josh: Awww, you know something about that, Ken.

Ken: Yes I do. We're talking with Orel, and that's not his name. He is one of the blogmasters of Sons of Steve Garvey dot com. So how often do you get people writing in that Josh and I are idiots?

Orel: Well, Josh, that's your e-mail, right? That you sent that under? So, a couple times a day.

Ken: Yeah, okay. Only a couple? We're not doing our job.

Josh: Yeah, we'll try harder. Orel, so I know that the Dodgers have been trying to embrace their bloggers a whole lot more lately, and they had a day last year where a lot of the bloggers came out and saw Dodger Stadium and got to talk with Ned Colletti. Were you part of that experience?

Orel: Yes. Big props to Josh Rawitch, actually your ex-nemesis, I guess.

Josh: Yes.

Orel: He's the VP of Communications for the Dodgers and he was really savvy. He invited a bunch of us to have a suite for a game early in the season, and so we got to meet a lot of our fellow bloggers, who were thankfully a really diverse and kind of a—well, you know the whole stereotype about the bloggers and we all came into the suite and we were all actually like, Wow, it's a really cool bunch of people. And then in addition to picking our jaws off the ground from being in a suite, in comes Ned Colletti to talk to us about, you know, the plans for that season. That was followed by Frank McCourt and then the topper was having Tommy coming in and tell a few of his stories. And so it was just I think a really wise move on their part.

Ken: The other Lasorda.

Josh: Now let me follow up, because the whole idea of the blogs is we're not there every day, we don't have to be chummy with the players and the coaches and the executives so we can shoot from the hip and we can rip them more. I mean, did it change your perspective in terms of maybe giving people the benefit of the doubt more?

Orel: That's a really good question because, you know, we had always—it's kind of easy to sit in your mom's basement and rip on Frank McCourt and Jamie and whole organization, so it did give us the human side of it. But we had to also be careful to, you know, not let that affect—when we do have criticisms, we use publicly available information, and we present it in a fair manner and, you know, we provide a forum for feedback and, talk to our listeners—I mean, talk to our readers. So we try to really be—I hate to use this term, but fair and balanced.

Ken: No, fair and balanced?

Josh: That's not fair.

Ken: So when Ned came and spoke to all you guys, was the first thing he asked, "Which one of you is the blogmaster of Fire Ned Colletti?"

Orel: Fire Ned Colletti I don't believe was in operation at that point, but if we get the honor of coming back, he might pop that question.

"And then Randy Wolf today who, well, what's the opposite of gas? Coal? He threw coal?"

Josh: All right Orel, we're kind of running out of time here but: One week into the season, give us your thoughts about this Dodger team.

Orel: Well, you know, it was weird going into the season thinking that we were projected to have—our bats were projected to be stronger than our pitchers. But, you know, after that kind of heroic spot-start from Stults yesterday and then Randy Wolf today who, well, what's the opposite of gas? Coal? He threw coal? So, you know, it's too early to tell, I think, what the state of—you know, if you had given me the under/over before one of our starters went on the DL, I would have taken over one week. I think it's hard to tell with the pitching staff, but I've been really pleased with the defense, and especially guys like Kemp and Loney. Kemp seems more comfortable at the plate, he seems really comfortable in center field, taking great routes and getting great jumps, and Loney, I hope one day he's going to win a Gold Glove.

Ken: Okay, again the site is Sons of Steve Garvey dot com. Orel, thanks very much. Look forward to reading you all year long. And defend us once in a while, would ya, when they say we're morons over here?

Orel: Just put the check in the mail and we'll take care of it.

Ken: You got it.

Josh: Well done.

The Return of DodgerTalk

I'll let Josh Suchon do the talking:

DodgerTalk returns to the air tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb. 25th).

Just like last year, it's Ken Levine and myself on TalkRadio 790 KABC -- and this spring, it will stream online at www.kabc.com/

Here is our spring training schedule:

Monday-thru-Friday ... 6-7 p.m. PT
Saturday ... immediately after the game for one hour
Sunday ... immediately after the game for three hours

Joe Torre is our first guest tomorrow. We'll have a different guest (player, coach, executive) at 6:30 each day.

Welcome back, Ken & Josh! Just as the swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano marks the beginning of spring, the return of DodgerTalk means Opening Day is getting closer and closer....

Josh vs. Josh: The Verdict

THE FINAL SCORECARD JOSH RAWITCH: $1,520 JOSH SUCHON: $1,010

Congratulations to everyone involved!

Earlier: There Can Be Only One Josh

Josh vs. Josh Update: T-Minus 24 Hours

THE SCORECARD JOSH RAWITCH: $611.55 $810 JOSH SUCHON: $650

Earlier: There Can Be Only One Josh