Game 10 Thread: April 15 vs. Padres, 1p (Jackie Robinson Day)

Today's game is much anticipated in Dodger-dom for two key reasons:

1) Vin Scully is returning to the broadcast booth after having missed the rest of the homestand due to illness. Though Vin historically has hated that people get so upset and worried about him, he's going to have to understand that this is because he means so much to Dodger fans the world over. Don't tell the Dodger ticket sales this fact, but I was going to go to the game again today until I knew Vin would be back in the booth; instead, I'm staying home so that I can hear him call the game. Welcome back, Vinny. I'll be on the sofa, as per usual.

2) It's marvelous that Vin will be back just in time to help walk us through one of our favorite days of the season: Jackie Robinson Day. 65 years ago today, Jackie broke the so-called color barrier in baseball. Today, not only the Dodgers but every team around the league pays tribute to the life and legacy of Mr. Jackie Robinson. Players all don the hallowed #42, and many wear items specially designed for the day only to auction them off for the benefit of the Jackie Robinson Foundation.

The main idea behind holding the annual Jackie Robinson Day is not only to recognize the contributions he made both on and off the field, but to learn from them and, hopefully, pass along such knowledge to future generations. Hats off to the Dodger organization for always prioritizing this charge. This week, the Dodgers visited John Muir High School in Pasadena, Robinson’s alma mater. Dodger panelists included Dee Gordon, Tommy Davis and “Sweet” Lou Johnson, who spoke about Robinson’s impact on baseball and on American society. The players and former players answered questions from students and presented them with tickets to today's game. Hat tip, too, to MLB, who always focuses much attention on the importance of this day to baseball and to our country's social fabric.

John Muir High School event

Speaking of Dee Gordon, here's a great picture he Tweeted of himself a few minutes ago:

MVP Matt Kemp:

Here is what some of our Boys in Blue are saying this morning re: Jackie Robinson Day:

@skinnyswag9: #Blessed to wear the #42 today!!! Thank God for giving #JackieRobinson the strength and courage to break the color bearer.

@TheRealMattKemp: Thank u Jackie Robinson!!!

@TommyLasorda: Thank you Jackie for your contributions to the @dodgers, to @MLB and to our country. #42

@JoshLindblom52: "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." #JackieRobinson. Honored to be able to wear #42.

And Big Papi weighs in, too:

@davidortiz: Honored and Proud to go out and play on Jackie Robinson Day #42 #ThankYouJackie

Let's get back to this one. Today's game features a re-match from the season opener, with Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw going up against Edinson Volquez for the series sweep. This time, presumably Clay won't be throwing up at warmup and between innings. Though the way the Padres have been playing, that might actually make it a fair fight. Dodgers go for win number nine, which would equal their best start in franchise history (1981, a year in which they went on to win the World Series). Should be a great day for baseball, so either get out to the Yard or catch Vinny's comeback if you can (but don't call it a comeback).

UPDATE: Dodgers will be honoring their and Jackie's Brooklyn roots by sporting Brooklyn Dodger caps for today's game. Here, manager Don Mattingly is seen wearing one in a pre-game interview:

Photos: 1-Courtesy MLB, 2-Courtesy Dodgers, 3- Skinny Swag tweet, 4- MVP tweet, 5- SoSG Dusty

GUEST POST! - Dodger Beach Clean Up Day

From friend of SoSG "Beast Mode"

A good sign your day job sucks is when calling in sick to go pick up trash is a more appealing option. This is exactly what I did on Tuesday when I came down with food poisoning and took part in the Dodgers Caravan beach clean up at Santa Monica Beach with the help from the good folks at Heal the Bay.

Overall the Dodgers did a great job with the event. It ran very smoothly and I was very surprised at how much interaction there was with the players. They were in the mix among the crowd the whole time. While there were members of the Dodger security staff floating around, they were all but invisible. After the caravan rolled out Heal the Bay gave out so many Dodger related prizes that close to half the participants came away with something. I wasn’t one of the lucky ones but that’s OK. I won enough tickets playing Skeeball on the pier afterwards that I went home with a sweet switchblade comb.

About 200 fans came out despite the soggy conditions and were split into groups. Each group got paired up with two Dodgers. I was in group # 3 which based on the reaction of the other groups was the group to be in with Matt Kemp and Steve Garvey leading the charge across the sand.

• Matt Kemp was genuinely nice and really seemed to be enjoying himself. He was very engaging and definitely wasn’t shy. He posed for countless photos and happily signed as many autographs as he could despite the Dodgers’ security guy insisting on no autographs. A great highlight was him giving a birthday shout out to a girl’s 97th year old grandmother via her Flip camera.

• Papa Steve never stopped smiling. He had kind of a Mayor Quimby vibe minus the booze and hookers.

• 35 was the over/under for Shawn Green and Matt Kemp. Ladies over 35 screamed for Green like he was the 5th Beatle. The under flocked to Kemp.

• After being up close to Rafael Furcal, I will never complain about his durability again. The guy is tiny. Furcal vs. Eckstein is a cage match that needs to happen.

• Overheard Sweet Lou Johnson tell a story about getting plunked by Don Drysdale. Said it hurt so bad he didn’t cry until the next morning.

Charlie Steiner was in good spirits and looking fit and trim. While the Dodgers were being swarmed post trash pick up, he had no one to bug him so I took the opportunity to tell him I thought for sure he’d be fending off more ladies than Kemp. He got a good chuckle out of that and my suggestion that he dive into the scrum and be Kemp’s wingman.

• Adult autograph hounds are a little strange- especially when surrounded by autograph seeking children.

• Gabe Kapler has big hands.

Regarding the actual work component of the event, Santa Monica Beach was so clean you’d think Dark Helmet and Mega Maid had been there the night before.

There wasn’t much trash to pick up and I fear Heal the Bay may have created more trash by being very liberal with handing out plastic trash bags. However, my unrelenting optimism will go ahead and assume they have an in-house bag recycling/reuse program. (Please note: this is the same optimism that has a hunch James Loney will go deep 25+ times this season.)

These were my trash collecting highlights:

• A contact lens in its unopened package.

• A condom wrapper. Thankfully its contents were nowhere to be found.

• Several drink box straws. (C’mon parents. Get your head in the game.)

• A near miss with a dead body under a lifeguard stand. Turned out someone was just having a campout.

Thanks Mr. Beast Mode (aka BM - tee hee). Sounds like Heal the Bay was a great way to earn a sick day's pay. Now if someone can Heal Jason Bay, the Mets might have a chance!

At-Game Recap: Blogger Night 2010 (July 5 vs. Marlins)

Crafty SoSG readers will be able to deduce that either Delino or myself serve as webmaster for this fine site. Because while our GameThread imploded last evening (due to either Blogger wonkiness or us not paying our bills (or both)), Delino and I enjoyed the luxuries of Suite 216 at last night's Dodgers-Marlins game, thanks to the wonderful hospitality of Dodgers VP of Communications Josh Rawitch, and his entire PR/Communications team (Jon Chapper, Amy Summers, and Yvonne Carrasco, to name a few).

That's right, while SoSG burned, Delino and I fiddled. And ate. And drank a beer or four. And had a great time, with the exception of the game's final score.

It has become a genuine pleasure to attend Blogger Night each year, not only because of the lineup of guests that Rawitch bribes to stop by the suite, but because of the great group of bloggers whom we've gotten to meet and befriend over the years. The ever-charming Christine was there from Robots Took My Medicine; the always-peppy dynamic duo of Chris and Alex (from Scottsdale!) from Dodgerfan.net; the insightful and interesting Robert (and his wife Lisa) from Dodger Dugout; the newly-canonized Eric Stephen from True Blue LA; and the ubiquitous Roberto from VSIMH, and the very tall Ken from isportsweb, among other bloggers. Mark from LA Dodger Talk even flew out from Indianapolis to make the evening with his team member Jared, which was incredibly impressive. I know I'm forgetting some people, and I apologize...it was a long evening.

We started out near the media entrance, before getting re-routed to the will-call window (but still had the thrill of entering the top deck entrance as "media"!)

And by the time we had made it to the suite, batting practice was just wrapping up. Josh Rawitch's growing influence within the Dodgers organization is obvious, but it was made more clear by his ability to secure Suite 216 for this evening--the suite adjacent to Ned Colletti's GM suite, with a spectacular view from right behind home plate:

A big crowd was on hand for post-game fireworks.

And as usual, Rawitch hooked us up with an impressive lineup of guests. First came GM Ned Colletti:

Colletti enters the suite.

Colletti opines, Rawitch reclines.

SoSG Delino hangs on every one of Colletti's words like a 13-year-old girl at a Jonas Brothers concert. Just look at his serious facial expression!

Also visiting the suite was Ron Cey, five weeks after his hip replacement surgery and looking lean and mean and thankfully ambulatory:

"I have a conundrum for you. An enigma. A puzzle."

VP and Assistant General Manager Kim Ng stopped by as well, her first visit to a Blogger Night event. She had a crowd of people around her so I couldn't get too close to the conversation, but I was struck by how disarmingly polite and cordial she was, coupled with how focused and thoughtful her comments were. She had a small circle of rabid bloggers laughing and nodding and eating out of her hand. I'm really, really glad she's on our team, and I hope she stays here.

Dodgers President Dennis Mannion also stopped by and regaled us with stories from his days with the Phillies organization; Sweet Lou Johnson stopped by to say hi; and I'm sure Delino will tell us more about the Miller High Life spokesman who dropped by to make sure we were drinking responsibly.

The only bad news was the game's outcome, since John Ely had a shaky start (Ely was likely flustered by Delino's yelling "I loved you in 'Fool's Gold!'" from the suite), and the Dodgers' clawing runs back came up one run short. But Rawitch and his team really put on quite a show for us off the field, and I can't tell you how much I for one appreciated his generosity.

Thanks, Josh, to you and your whole team, for a great evening at the Stadium!

(P.S. I will post more detail from the conversation with Ned Colletti later in the day. Stay tuned.)

Steve Garvey Meets Jackie Robinson

From "Dodgers take time to remember Jackie: Caravan takes players to place where Robinson started" at Dodgers.com:

PASADENA -- The Dodgers Community Caravan is designed to focus fan attention on the present and future, but the stop at Pasadena City College on Tuesday had historic overtones.

The campus is where the legendary Jackie Robinson launched a career that ultimately broke Major League Baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers and forever changed American society. Major League Baseball celebrates the 60th anniversary of Robinson's Major League debut this year.

On this first day of a two-day tour through the Southland, young Dodgers Russell Martin and Andre Ethier were joined by new Dodgers Luis Gonzalez and Randy Wolf and manager Grady Little. But to fully appreciate the significance of the link, it was up to former Dodgers Willie Davis, Lou Johnson and Steve Garvey.

When the Dodgers were greeted by the current PCC baseball team in uniform, Davis and Johnson made their way to the school's athletic Hall of Fame and literally kissed the stone bust of Robinson.

"If it weren't for Jackie Robinson," said Johnson, hero of the Dodgers' 1965 World Series champs, "I wouldn't be standing here today. He was my idol."

"I met Jackie Robinson in another life," said a choked-up Davis. "To me, he is baseball."

"I met Jackie Robinson in 1956 when I was a batboy in Spring Training," said Garvey, whose father drove team buses in Florida. "I remember the dignity of the man. This is where the content of his character began."

And to think that this isn't the first meeting of Steve Garvey and Jackie Robinson.