Awesome, I've never bought a copy of Variety but I'll make sure to pick up this Friday's edition.

1 My Thoughts exactly.

fellow DT'ers. i work for mlb productions, more specifically the show, this week in baseball. next week's show is dodgers-themed, which i'm obviously excited about, especially the feature we are doing on vin scully. i have spent all day going through awesome footage we have gathered on vin broadcasting games during the past home series against the reds. my editor gave me the ok to solicit any memories any of you have about vin, any calls you remember, any great sayings he has had, etc. obviously i want to do whatever i can to make the show as good as it can be, so any specific games or even approximate ones that any of you remember would be greatly appreciated. please respond in this forum or email me at charlie.widdoes@mlb.com. and of course, i recommend everyone tune in on fox at 3 next saturday. go dodgers.

3 Very cool! I can remember some of the obvious ones, like the Gibson home run, and some of the no-hitters. But my love of Vin is what it is in part because of how he is every game, even, or especially, during the more routine ones. I'll think on it though.

Is that this coming Saturday, or the one after?

a week from this coming saturday. one of the cool things about this company is the vast amount of knowledge and footage we have, so im sure most of that big stuff will be covered, but im sure some people here can help with some "insider" info that will make the piece all the more special for such a special guy.

3 If you don't have a copy of Jon's book, The Best of Dodger Thoughts, well you should, I'll look up later the thread on Vin Scully that is probably in the archives though I don't know if the comments were saved.

Jon, I would love to get an autographed edition.

as would i, but i will definitely be ordering one

Many congratulations on shepherding through what must have been a challenging but very rewarding project. I hope you're treating yourself to something, because no doubt you deserve it.

6 ,8 If you need the comments for a old pre-Toaster thread, let me know, and I can dig it up for you. support2008 atsign baseballtoaster.com.

Finally, a show with a shot to usurp Becker's spot in Jon's heart.

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5197674

These Tampa Bay Rays are REALLY fun to watch. They have exploded in the 7th on Marmol and Eyre to score six runs before one out has been recorded. The big blast was a grand slam by Crawford off Eyre.

Marmol completely imploded and read for yourself what has happened so far in the seventh:

- C. Marmol relieved S. Gallagher
- W. Aybar walked
- D. Navarro walked, W. Aybar to second
- G. Gross hit by pitch, W. Aybar to third, D. Navarro to second
- A. Iwamura hit by pitch, W. Aybar scored, D. Navarro to third, G. Gross to second
- S. Eyre relieved C. Marmol
- C. Crawford homered to deep right, G. Gross, D. Navarro and A. Iwamura scored
- B.J. Upton tripled to deep center
- E. Hinske doubled to deep right, B.J. Upton scored
- E. Hinske stole third
- E. Longoria hit sacrifice fly to left, E. Hinske scored
- C. Floyd doubled to deep left

The Rays could win the AL East. The Sox are a better team, but their veterans might wear down if the Rays can keep it close til August.

Jumping the gun further, I'd love to see a Rays-Cubs World Series. Not only are they two cool teams as currently composed, but you've got a great contrast in managers, a huge contrast in ballparks, every game would be a Cubs home game, and if the Rays won, the Cubs fans would be even more depressed, on the order of when the Mets passed them in '69.

Jon, is this edition of Variety going to be available on the east coast? I'd love to own a copy.

I assume I can get this at my local Borders in Hawai'i?

Reading Alex's piece on the game as plot device, it occurred to me that it was a shame that "The Fortune Cookie" used football that way. Hmm. Underdog, can you do a script rewrite which we could pitch for a few million?

14
Not to mention the Lou Piniella factor.

Comments on Alex's baseball movie list.

1. Bad News Bears: I agree with Alex, it features all the things that bring back being that 8 year old kid standing in right field when all of sudden, the batter hits the ball to you.

2. Pride of the Yankees: Once of the first films I recall seeing. Two things, an often repeated comment that I want a gal just like Teresa Wright and two, it does capture even if just maybe 20% of what Babe Ruth was really like.

3. Major League, another phrase now heard at ballparks, maybe before and certainly after, "too high." If I go to that '70s luncheon, and if Steve Yeager is there, I am going ask him if he has seen a play like the last one in that film.

4. League of Their Own: a really good movie that I will watch if I catch it on TV.

5. Bang the Drum Slowly, a great movie if only for the manager's explanation of why he ends up playing a particular catcher.

Its unfortunate that there has not been a movie biography of Ruth, Cobb, Jackie Robinson or Christy Mathewson that has captured their personality and achievements.

Jon and Eric, ya done great. So did everybody else, but wonderful pieces on Vin and Jaime.

16 Hmm. Fortune Cookie remake with baseball, you mean? I'm already half way through my original spec baseball script, but the idea has merit. You buy the rights and I'm in! ;-)

--
Alex's baseball movie list reminded me that "Long Gone" is one of my top MIA DVDs. Why is that still not on disc, darnit!
--

And yes, I will be buying Variety tomorrow. That sounds like a keeper.

18 You didn't like John Goodman as the Babe? (No, I agree with you, even though there is a film per se, like the other people you mention no one has yet really captured him.)

The movie "Cobb" with Tommy Lee Jones was pretty good.

21 I think the thing about Ruth is that his life story so much truth wrapped in fiction but even the truth is fascinating.

I should have added Eight Men Out to my list, maybe if Buck Weaver could have acted like John Cusack, he could have won his reinstatement. And John Sayles and Studs Terkel did steal that movie.

So tonight my stepdaughter's daycare had an outing at the Dayton Dragon's game, which we attended of course. To my surprise, the Dragons were playing the Great Lake Loons. I was totally unaware that I was going to get to see some of our young players. I was pretty impressed by Andrew Lambo, he had a walk, a hard line single to right, and a deep opposite field double into the corner. Jamie Ortiz hit a three run shot in the first, but Mattingly was 0-3 with sac fly. Hopefully Lambo will continue to make some strides as he seemed like a really solid hitter.

If the Natural had made the list I would have bought up every copy and burned it.

25 - I'll alert the fire department.

14 - plus you have the historical fun of ex-Rays manager Sweet Lou Piniella going against his old club. What could be better?

<thinks>

Dodgers/Yankees?

15 - Definitely available in NY. Don't know about elsewhere.

Ack, it's on there. I should have read the article before making the boast. That is such a horrible movie.

18
At almost every game I attend, I hope against hope that I see the final play of Major League reenacted on an MLB diamond.

25 I loved the Natural. Robert Redford is my favorite actor of all time.

All I'll say is its one of my favorite books.

I wonder if anyone could/should ever adapt Jim Bouton's "Ball Four"? (Maybe with some of the context around the uproar about the book's publication added.) Maybe not... I just recently read that one after all these years.

32 -- Has anybody ever been happy with a movie based on their "favorite book?" I say no, and that is not the filmmakers' fault.

Looking over the GCL roster, there are some really young arms on that pitching staff and I have no clue about any of them.

And Lambo is absolutely raking, maybe a callup is in order. It would be a big boost to the system if Lambo and Gallagher continue to progress well.

27 I like Joe Maddon. If the thorny path of life brought him to the Dodgers as their manager some day in the future, I would cheer.

If this fantasy were to occur, would it be the first time a team went the World Series the same year it had the #1 draft pick?

PS I'm not looking at the articles unless I just can't find Variety. I want to savor it.

I'm ok with many adaptions of books I like even if they take liberties. L.A. Confidential is an example. But when they do a complete 180 degree turn on the ending, I have problems.

But I'm a bit of a broken record on this.

Is Stults going to be around long enough for it to be worth giving him a DT nickname? Doubt it, but there is a nick-name for him if people want one. Stults was drafted six years ago, and I read a story nearly that long ago on how it came about. Logan White remembered the Dodger scout who scouted the area where Stults played college ball telling him that Stults was a "real fun guy." Then on draft day, when it came time for the Dodgers to make their 15th round pick, White looked around the Dodgers' war room and said "Hey, let's draft 'the fun guy' here." I remembered all this reading Stults quoted today TWICE using the word "fun" to describe his experience today against the Reds. So, for me at least, Stults is The Fun Guy.

34 Atonement was very faithful to the book, which I loved. And yet, it managed to diminish it.

I liked "LA Confidential" even though it carved out much of the book.

39 I think "that guy from Pulp Fiction" is more like to stick.

And actually, LA Confidential pretty much does a complete 180 on the ending, so there goes that argument. I'm so conflicted.

39 That sort of reminds me of that joke about the crazy mushroom at the bar, who is a "real fungi to be around."

I guess calling him "Mr Jealousy" or "Danny Boy" or "Rocky" (er, referencing Eric Stoltz movies) is out.

41 Or that.

39
I like the nickname, but it could be misheard as "fungi".

45 -- "Fungi" could be good too, to give it a DT twist. Much like Don Sutton calling Kemp a "buffalo" and then buffalo turned into "Bison."

39 With apologies to David Letterman's writers . . .

The strong guy, the fun guy, the genius
God gave them each a special gift at birth
One is strong and one is fun and one's a genius
That's the reason they were put upon this earth

What is the nickname count at? Roll call:

Iron Clad Nicknames
C - Golden God
3B - The Solution
CF - The Bison (is this just "Bison"?)
RF - Three Point Five
SP - The Minotaur
RP - The Bull (I almost abbreviated "closer in training" for his position until I realized what it spelled)
SS - Lucille II

Still Up For Debate
1B - Crazy Eyes
3B/1B/2B? - The Catalyst
SP - Fungi
SS - Snipes, Sr.
LF - The Player, Slappy McPopup, Juan For Five
CF - Smiley McManboobs (I can't remember if this is correct or if it's "McWiff")

48 You missed one:

2B - The Rose Bush

Although I would like to put forth these totally unauthorized nicknames:

2B - Buck (as in Buck Naked, due to the porn stache)
CL - Cocoon (dude does not look 38)
PVL PH - Enron Stock (since he's worthless)

The switch pitcher came in to face a switch hitter tonight in the minors, and hilarity ensued. It was shown on Baseball Tonight. Both sides switched sides a couple of times before figuring it out.

48.

I've been reading dodgerthoughts for a while now, the one nickname that i dont know the origin to is "robot made of nails." where did that one come from? i know it refers to matt kemp, i've even seen kemp refered to RMON on a giants blog!

I think it can be both "Bison" or "The Bison." I called him "M. Bison" once, but I guess nobody here played Street Fighter II.

51
You, sir, are in for a treat!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kH4KP6uqtMg

48 I thought James Loney was pretty much cemented as Crazy Eyes. It's so old-timey and awesome.

53.
Wow! LOL!!!

thank you.

I'm still trying to pin "The Monsignor" on someone, but I'm not sure whom. Maybe Chad.

54 I call him "James The Terrible"

56 I'm going to start calling him "Chadwick Billingsby"

58 lol! His Thighness Chadwick Billingsby.

48
I egregiously left off Pee Wee. My bad.

Billingsley is the "Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio"

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with Mr. Belth on this one. For Love of the Game should've been in the top 3, but to not even crack the top ten??? I haven't been around so long, but Vin made that movie something special. Vintage Scully should crack a top 10 list! Major League should have placed higher in my book, along with Bull Durham. Overall, not a bad list, but if it were me deciding the list, I would've included Summer Game over some of his selections.

62 My old CEO loved For Love of the Game. Once he rented the local movie theater under the auspices of holding a company meeting, and then just said forget the meeting, let's just watch this movie.

So I got paid to watch that movie, and I'd give it a thumbs up, but just barely. I don't think it would make my Top 10, either. I'd have liked it more if the ending wasn't a fully happy one.

63. I agreed with most of his list, however, if he has Bang the Drum Slowly and A League of their Own on the list, For Love of the Game should be on there, if for no other reason than the absolutely brilliant commentary by Vin. Not to mention the fact that it was a good watch, much more enjoyable the the other 2 mentioned.

No love for Bad News Bears in Breaking Training? Or Ed? (Matt LeBlanc and a monkey and no one can tell them apart) or Hardball? (Keanu!)

59 "His Thighness" that's perfect. We could also call Chad "The Dumptruck" or "Thickness".

Another honorable mention that I think belongs on the list as well is The Rookie starring Dennis Quaid, another very enjoyable watch as well.

Crawford swings...high fly ball...deep right...gone...grand slam homerun!

And, JoeyP, you here? Sorry, friend, but you are simply mistaken as "old school" OBP and SLG are good enough to put the "nay" on one Juan Pierre.

Lastly, as always, Go Rays!

Does Beimel have a nickname?....He should.

69. How about "scruffy"?

59 His Thighness is great.

Congrats Jon, a great and deserving accomplishment.

My wife's boss gave her two very good seats to the Dodgers game friday night. My dad and I will be in attendance. I was happy to see that Kershaw and not Park was starting.
vr, Xei

24 I remember Lambo in high school. He was easilly the best hitter and was also the second best pitcher (to Agoura's Stoffel) in the Marmonte League. The guy's slugging percentage would drop on singles!

69 Comebacker Kid after the dispropotionatley large number of comebackers he induces? Or how about Blackout describing why he missed the 2006 playoffs.

Dylan Hernandez confirms the Troncoso call-up.

I told ya so. :)

On second thought, Chad should be upgraded to His Royal Thighness.

More from Dylan Hernandez:

>>Because of the lack of pop in the lineup, Torre said that he was seriously considering playing corner infielder Andy LaRoche at second base over the more defensively capable Luis Maza on days Jeff Kent rests.

"You don't want to drop off the offense," Torre said.<<

Seriously considering...?

34 "Has anybody ever been happy with a movie based on their "favorite book?" I say no, and that is not the filmmakers' fault."

"Into the Wild" is one of the books I most treasure, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was happy with the movie. They followed the book faithfully, but more importantly, they got the tone pitch-perfect, which with that book is a very hard thing to do.

But generally, I tend to hate movies based on books I love. As was mentioned above, L.A. Confidential is a tremendous film, but I saw the movie before I read the book. Had it been vice versa, I may well have disliked the film for chucking half the book out the window.

For the Love of the Game would be awesome if it were 35 minutes long and concerned only baseball.

78 I said this in the other thread but I think Torre is sick and tired of losing all of our getaway day games. We have been atrocious in almost all of them for the past couple seasons.

My favorite nickname is easily "Juan for Five"

Is Variety sold at my local supermarket?

78 Ummmm Joe?.....you know you've had a guy who is a marginal defensive plyer, and an above average hitter from noth sides of the plate. He could have played a game or two at second.

81 He makes it sound like a grand revelation.

It's very likely that I'm reading too much into it, though.

83- "both" sides of the plate. Not Noth.

Well done, Jon, Bob, and Alex. I haven't read the rest of the pieces yet, but you three done good. And I never knew Sgt Bilko was named after Steve Bilko.

I found Alex's sidebar more fascinating than his main bar, actually. It's great stumbling upon those moments in non-baseball movies where baseball is used as a plot device. That's my favorite scene in Cuckoo's Nest, and Buster's baseball scene in The Cameraman is one of my favorite movie scenes ever, period. And I loved the way baseball was used constantly, and subtlely, throughout "In the Bedroom" to set the mood. (And I may just be remembering this wrong, but isn't the Sox game heard in the background being pitched by Ramon Martinez?)

Anyway, another tremendous baseball scene in a non-baseball movie comes in Kurosawa's "Stray Dog." The cops are chasing a murderer and they attempt to corner him in the stands at a Yomiuri Giants game. It's a long 20- or 30-minute sequence, tension-filled. Kurosawa filmed the whole thing during an actual Giants game, and sent his actors amongst the real crowd to be filmed, Medium Cool-style.

For some reason this comes to mind... in one of the Raymond Chandler novels, "The High Window," Philip Marlowe is listening to a Dodger game on the radio to pass the time. The catch is, he's in L.A. listening to the Dodger game several years BEFORE the Dodgers left Brooklyn. (The book was published in 1942.) I always wondered whether the Dodgers were actually on the radio in L.A. before they moved, or whether Chandler was just taking some poetic license. But it's a weird coincidence.

70 He's busy being the janitor for Planet Express.

Torre signals Kemp for a return to power approach on the Dodgers site.

I wonder if people will still have these conversations in the future, when all movies are adapted from Powerpoint presentations.

Happy 100th birthday to Billy Werber! The last surviving teammate of former Dodger 1st base coach Babe Ruth. Werber was also a all-american basketball player at Duke at about the same time as John Wooden was an all-american at Purdue.

78
Torre said that he was seriously considering playing corner infielder Andy LaRoche at second base over the more defensively capable Luis Maza on days Jeff Kent rests

I will believe that when I see it (hopefully tomorrow), but that's great news.

69 I thought Beimel was known as "Caveman". That's how I always think of him.

Alex's list is in alphabetical order. And without the overbearing influence of myself and my boss, he would have made a couple different and probaboy more interesting picks.

My Vin story isn't what I would have written for a DT audience, but I hope it's okay. I do cherish my piece on Vin for SI.com last year.

80. Exactly. The subplot with the woman (was it Kelly Preston?) took that movie from pretty good to mediocre.

Fun reading this morning, thanks to all. In 1940s war movies, there often was the stereotypical kid from Brooklyn pining for the Dodgers. I remember one even had a cap--Wake Island maybe? Can't remember.

Rosenthal has decided that the Dodger offense misses...Jones. Plus CC speculation.

http://tinyurl.com/3refkt

0 Kudos to Jon & Co. for their exemplary work.

39 Eric "Some Kind of Wonderful" Stults?

96 I refuse to discuss Rosenthal's nonsense anymore, but I will suggest what it might cost to aquire Sabathia:

1. James McDonald
2. Andy LaRoche
3. HCKuo
4. DeJesus
5. May

Our untouchables remain exactly that, but I could see some combin