Guest Writer: Dave Roberts is a Man of the People

Thanks to guest writer Sunha Kim for this report from Camelback Ranch:

You might not get an autograph, but you will get really close to the stars!

Part of the thrill of going to spring training at Camelback Ranch is getting up close and personal with the players and coaches, and hopefully getting a few pictures or autographs. If you are solely going to Camelback Ranch to snap a pic or get a signature with the big stars, however, there is a chance that you will come away disappointed. It’s not that stars are mean-spirited, but it is important to keep in mind that these players are getting ready to deliver us, the fans, our first championship in nearly 30 years. Most of the time, the players are in their zone and ready to perform at the highest level possible. That's really cool to see!

If you come to Camelback Ranch on a weekend, there will be large crowds as our team is lucky enough to have a strong and loyal fan base. Dodger fans come to Camelback Ranch not only from Los Angeles, but from all over the world. During my time at Camelback, I met a ton of fans living in Arizona. One fan I met came from New York City, and some other fans I met came from as far as Japan.

At this point, you might be getting the sense of why it might be so hard to snag a personal moment with your favorite star. If you are adamant about meeting one specific player, the best thing to do is to come during a weekday, as Camelback will be less crowded. That is what Pat and Melissa Hughes did, and they got autographs from most of the stars!

Pat and Melissa Hughes.

While it may prove hard to get personal with most the Dodger stars, there is one exception. I was at Dodger camp this past Friday, and I was lucky enough to snag an autograph and share a story with new Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts and Dodger legend Shawn Green. As almost every player walked straight from the field to the clubhouse after morning workouts on Friday, Dave and Shawn were kind enough to engage the large crowd that was waiting in the designated autograph area after morning practice.

The skipper with the fans.

Both Skip and Shawn spent a good 15 minutes with the fans who were eager to share stories, take pictures, and get their stuff signed. If anything, it is good to know that Dave Roberts is a man of the people. But given the strong start to the spring, who knows? Maybe Dave is the chosen one to shepherd us to the promised land for the first time since 1988.

Sunha Kim is a lifelong Dodger fan and boxing journalist. His favorite player growing up was pinch-hitting master Dave Hansen. Sunha's writing has appeared in Yahoo!, the business news site Quartz, and now Sons of Steve Garvey! Sunha currently hosts a boxing podcast called Kim On Boxing, and he is developing a baseball-centric podcast with another Dodger fan called Bro Club Sports. Stay tuned and follow him @SunhaPKim!

photos by Sunha Kim

Spring Training 2014 Trip

Hey there, two days in the middle of the week.  What's that?  You have nothing to do?  Not working?  I know.  Lets drive 6 hours to Arizona to watch the Dodgers!  How about we wake up at 4 am in order to make the opening day of Spring Training.  ROAD TRIP!

At an Arizona rest stop.  Be careful where you pee.

So this probably wasn't the best for my sleep wake cycle, but what the heck.  Mrs. Cora was on board, so there is no turning back.  We packed up the car and headed out to Glendale Arizona.  Since I was so late to make plans, all of the good hotels around Glendale were booked, so we stayed in Peoria, which actually wasn't that bad and only a 10 min drive from Glendale.

We made it to Salt River Field in Talking Stick Arizona (home of the Dbacks and Rockies) right before game time.  The traffic into the stadium reminded me of Dodger Stadium. It was really crowded and not well organized.  Plus parking was 5 bucks (free at Camelback).  But we made it to the gate and bought some lawn tickets.

It was kind of overcast, which was good, because it is damn hot in Arizona.  I have never sat in the lawn section (the only tickets available), but it was great.  Especially after that long drive, it was nice to lay back and stretch out the legs.  The stadium is nice and apparently configured by the same architectural firm as Camelback Ranch.  However the hot dog and fries were DISGUSTING.  Nonetheless, I had a great time watching the first game of the season, despite the loss.  After the game, Steve Yeager was down in the bullpen and he kindly autographed a baseball for me.

Disgusting food. Fries where horrible.

Man Child

Warming up

Free Sunscreen!

Is this where he got hurt?

The next day, we woke up bright and early to get to Camelback Ranch just after it opened.  Of course there were a whole bunch of people there already, especially autograph seekers.  It was nice to be surrounded by a bunch of loyal Dodger fans.  In fact, SOSG reader "Chad Beardingsly" recognized my SOSG shirt and kindly stopped to say hello.  The players and coaches hit the practice fields early.  My impressions on watching the players was that Josh Beckett had some real zip on the ball during the bullpen sessions.  Paul Maholm on the other had didn't, but could have been working on off speed stuff.  I actually thought Alex Guerrero looked pretty strong at second base.  Like everyone else, I am excited to see what comes out of the competition during spring training and the rest of the year.  The second game of the season against the DBacks at Camelback Ranch was a little slow, but at least we won.  It also might have been more palatable because we bought seats in the shade behind home plate.  I didn't think that Juan Uribe's home run was going to go over the fence.  I was only imagining Charley Steiner's crazy call in my head.  It was also neat to see Guerrero go 2 for 4 and see him collect his first major league hit and RBI.  The other highlight was seeing Team Killeen in the house, BJ armed with pen and paper and Scott armed with a humongous camera lens.

Justin Turner

Tim Wallach

Andre and Matt

Hanley

Because of the impending rain and the fact that I had to work really early on Saturday, we decided to stop by Camelback Ranch for only a couple of hours before heading home.  There seemed to be less people in the morning, but started to get crowded by the time we left at 10 am.  We did sneak over to the White Sox fields where there were far less fans there.  We seemed to get closer to the field and actually sat down and watched them train.  Also, you can snag a foul or home run ball when they take batting practice.  Alas, we had to leave Blue Heaven in Arizona, and jumped in the car for the long drive back.  The drive back was pretty bad too since there were so many accidents due to the rain.  It took us about 8 hours to get back because of all of the detours we had to make.  But we made it and it was a fun trip to cram into the week.  Below are some more pictures I took.  Enjoy!  GO BLUE!

Donnie mobbed by reporters.  Where are you BJ?

Bills and Elbert

Elbert and Bills

Go get 'em boys.

Davey and Wally

Big Mac Attack!

Steve Yeager

Shawn Green

Donnie with the high fives down the line

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

At-Game Recap: Shawn Green Sighting (June 24, 2013)

Holy Toledo we won. And we beat the Giants.  

Here are some random pictures that I took. 

This dude had a sweet ass Korean team jersey. 

An Ellis up to bat and an Ellis in the hole. 

Shawn "I hit 4 home runs in one game and you didn't" Green was in the house and signed a lot of autographs. He's totally cool and super nice.  He signed this one guy's stadium seat which had we wondered how they let that into the stadium.  

Luis Gonzalez was also sitting in the Dugout Club enjoying the game. 

Finally, One for the Fans

• Matt Kemp, Dodgers agree on $160-million, eight-year deal (Dylan Hernandez, LA Times)
• Dodgers near eight-year deal with Kemp (Ken Gurnick, Dodgers.com)
• Matt Kemp: Close to deal with Dodgers (ESPNLA.com)

The last homegrown Dodger player to enter the Hall of Fame was Don Sutton — he was inducted thirteen years ago. The next homegrown Dodger players to enter the Hall of Fame will be Mike Piazza and Pedro Martinez (and possibly Adrian Beltre, if he keeps mashing). None will be wearing a Dodgers hat.

(The consolation prizes for losing those players? Gary Sheffield & Kevin Brown, Delino DeShields and...Wilson Betemit? Semi-stars Eric Karros, Raul Mondesi and Shawn Green helped tide us over into the new millennium.)

All of a sudden, the current Dodger roster boasts two players with Hall of Fame potential: Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw. And it looks like we're going to get to enjoy Kemp in his prime.

What an odd feeling for Dodger fans: to watch the farm system develop an elite five-tool* prospect, to watch him blossom into a superstar, and to watch the team lock him up. In fact, it's not just odd; it's unprecedented.

If this is Frank McCourt trying to make things right, I say thanks...and it's a good start. Kershaw awaits.

*(1) hits for average, (2) hits for power, (3) great defense, (4) dazzling smile, (5) dates starlets

AP photo

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!

The Dodgers Through the Lens of Sports Illustrated

Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, 1962.

Mike Piazza at a commercial shoot, 1996.

Shawn Green at Canter's Deli, 1996.

Check out this excellent gallery of 24 classic Dodger photos: Iconic Dodgers Photos (SI.com)

Drysdale/Koufax photo by John G. Zimmerman/SI; Piazza and Green photos by V.J. Lovero/SI

Nine of You Miss J.D. Drew

A Call for More Karma: Off-Day Puzzle Prize #1 Revealed

So we've talked before about how the Dodgers have been in need of some karma before, and you know what, it worked; following The Great SoSG Dodger Ticket Giveaway (TM), the Dodgers pulled off four wins in a row (completing a five-game win streak). It seems that when we give stuff away here at SoSG, good things happen for the Dodgers. So it's time to get the Dodgers karma going again, on the heels of a crushing four-game sweep in Philadelphia...

The winner of the Puzzle Participation Lottery, having participated in the Nostradamus puzzle, was none other than neeebs. And neeebs, here is your prize:

That's right, it's a pair of Shawn Green Dodger batting gloves (child size)! These gloves are already en route to you, as we speak. Congratulations and thank you for participating, and let's all hope that this pays off for the boys in blue (who are playing Washington tonight, so at least we've got that going).

(By the way, for those of you who won tickets in The Great SoSG Dodger Ticket Giveaway, we'd love to get your notes and/or pictures so we can recap your day at Dodger Stadium... except you, LoneyFan; don't jeopardize your finals!)

Next puzzle, Thursday September 4!

SoSG not responsible for items lost in the mail.

Former Dodger Finds His Mojo

"I had hitting all figured out five or six years ago. Now I'm learning how to hit." -- Shawn Green.

Isn't that special? I bet the Dodgers and Diamondbacks brass are thrilled to know that Green's finally turned that corner. According to MLB.com, Green Rediscover(ed) His Lost Swing.

Green called his altered stance "a better hitting position" and said it enabled him to be "more powerful and more aggressive. It's a pretty big difference. It's kind of bold doing this now. It's kind of scary to make changes. But it's the right thing."

Green, 34, thought he had detected and corrected a four-year-old flaw in his swing during the offseason. Concerned about a significant decline in power -- from 157 home runs in a four-year stretch ending in 2002 to 84 over the past four years -- he watched video during the offseason and compared it to tapes of himself in his third season with the Dodgers, 2002. That was when he hit .285 with 42 home runs and 114 RBIs.

A FOUR YEAR OLD FLAW? Even when I played in little league (where the Mendoza Line was my unattainable holy grail), it only took me ten games to figure out how to hit the ball with something besides my lower back. Now if Shawn can only figure out how to correct his three-decade-old fielding suckiness.

Going, Going, SHALOM!

What do Mike Lieberthal, Hank Greenberg, Brian Bark, and my fourth grade teacher Rabbi Portal have in common? That’s right, they all play baseball! And they’re also part of that slim percentage of America that greenlights Big Momma’s House 2, makes early withdrawl from BofA punishable by lashing, and defends O.J. In fact, these Semitic warriors could be considered the cornerstones of America’s pastime. Where would the 1995 Braves have been without Brian “Kosher” Kowitz’s 10 games of .167 ball? Jason “Chaim Potok” Hirsh’s 6.04 ERA kept last year’s Rockies in the running right until the final gun. And Cincinnati’s still talking about the magic that Keith “Goychaser” Glauber’s gefilte fish (and 15 career relief innings) brought to the clubhouse. So what is the source of this remarkable Jewish talent, that dwarves sub-par athletes from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico? Is it the math skills? Overbearing mothers? Rejection of pork as an entrée?

To find the answer, one only has to look at the Dodgers one-time favorite Hebrew Hammerh Shawn Green. Mr. Green’s refusal to play on the opening night of Rosh Hashanah sent shockwaves through Chavez Ravine. Just as his decision to play on the second night of Rosh Hashanah sent shockwaves through Nate N’ Al’s Deli.

And if you look at his time with the Dodgers, his best and worst games seem to be taken straight out of the Torah:

Sept 30 – Oct 1, 2000 - While I, Delino Deshields, languished in synagogue, Shawn Green rings in the Jew new year (Rosh Hashanah) with a 1 for 9 performance over two games. As my Uncle DeIrving would say, “serves that bum right (swearing in Yiddish for next two minutes follows).” May 28, 2001 - Shavuot, aka Jewachella, celebrates both the harvest season and commemorates Moses getting the Fifteen (crash)… TEN Commandments. Shawn Green brings his own four commandments down from Mount Rockie, spanking Colorado with four hits, three RBIs, and a vegetarian latka. April 9, 2002 In honor of Yom Hashoah (the not-particularly-funny-to-write-about Holocuast Rememberance Day), Greenie single-handedly smites the S.F. Goliaths with 2 RBIs. 2004 At the beginning of his final season in Blue, Green eats his matzah and PASSES OVER many a pitch, going 4 for 23 during his exodus from a hitting. But on Yom Kippur, he atones for his sins (and a mediocre year) with a two run dinger.

So what does this all mean? Does G - D have a hand in the success and failures of all hischosen athletes? Maybe piano and bar mitzvah lessons interfered with little league time? Unti l we figure it out, this intrepid blogger will feel a little bit of pride every time Mike Lieberthal comes to bat, and will always be looking for another Sandy Koufax chachkee to give my father-in-law.