WWSH

Mono is almost like an epidemic among college students it seems.

WWSH

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/ebv.htm

95% of adults 35-40 are infected with the virus, so obviously for most of us, it's a slow killer. :-)

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0713cruise-disappearance13-ON.html

http://baseball-reference.com/s/smithge02.shtml

Assuming he recovers (thinking positively), this young man would probably just go back into the draft.

This does raise an interesting question: Are the Dodgers now morally obligated to sign Whitehouse, even though the chances that he will make the major leagues (or even play in the minors) are significantly less than they were a few months ago?

Since he was a 23rd round pick, it's debatable whether the team was planning on signing him anyway. Last year, 24 of the 30 teams signed their 23rd round picks, including the Dodgers. This year, 12 of the 30 teams have done so. It's possible the Dodgers were only interested in Whitehouse as a draft-and-follow.

All of which is irrelevant to the larger issue, which is of course that he gets better.

Let's go BULLDOG!

Maybe Steve Sax will join the show and be our 3rd base coach, because who knows if Hoffman will ever be back.

Go Dodgers!

If you want to read a great book on Alaska, I'd recommend John McPhee's "Coming Into the Country" and Peter Jenkins' "Looking For Alaska." Both are superb.

And thanks for the recommendations...Amazon Books is truly the second best thing to come out of the internet.

The rumored Jay Payton for Chad Bradford trade is no longer rumored and it became official today.

And another top notch lefty reliever is off the market: Mike Stanton signs with Washington.

http://www.ky3.com/newsdetailed.asp?id=8392

2. 3 bad things...don't they come in 3's?

3. of course we hope the kid gets better, the other two, prospects are dim...

Dolph Camilli
Whit Wyatt
Mickey Owen
Cookie Lavagetto
Billy Herman
Leo Durocher
Pee Wee Reese

And for you trivia buffs, Mickey Owen, after his playing days, became Sheriff of Springfield County, Missouri. He wrote me a nice little note when he sent the ball back to me.

RIP

But when I looked at the boxscore for this for the 1941 RDGC, the play was scored as an error. Apparently that was the rule back then.

The NY Times had Owen portayed as one of the biggest goats in World Series history. The 1941 Dodgers were an awesome squad. But that was back in the era when the Yankees NEVER lost the World Series. They won every World Series they participated in from 1927 through 1941. That was eight series, five of them sweeps. The longest one went six games (1936).

There weren't many chances to ask Casey himself, since he shot himself in the head while talking to his wife on the phone in 1951.

In 1942, Mickey Owen hit zero home runs during the regular season.

But he hit one in the All-Star game.

Came off Al Benton of the Tigers at the Polo Grounds in a 3-1 AL win.

Looks like Beane is beginning his annual mid season trade-a-thon. Gammons has Payton going to the Yankees, and supposedly Beane is ready to trade for the Rockies Joe Kennedy (why??).

#33 Herman Franks?? Funniest commercial I saw as a kid was when Giant manager Franks comes out of the dugout to complain about spitballer Drysdale.

Luckily Big D was using Vitalis, which the ump amazingly ruled wasn't greasy enough to be a foreign substance! Bet Vitalis could cause an environmental hazard and mile long oil slick if exposed to the ocean.

There's an old saying: you're only as happy as your saddest child. Today, my son decided to try to jump up each one of the high marble block stairs that mark the entrance to the Getty. He missed on one of them, banged his shin hard and started bleeding. I wasn't there, not that it would have mattered. The lovely wife saw it at the last second... one of those things.

The terrific staff at the Getty started to patch him up but noticed the gash was a little too deep. They bandaged him up and recommended a doctors visit but nothing all that urgent. And then they noticed a little later that the cut kept bleeding right on through the bandage. It wasn't clotting.

Uh oh.

He had a blood clotting problem when he was younger and we thought he grew out of it. So did his doctors. Well, from 1pm when he fell to 4pm when he got stitched up, the leg kept bleeding. He got ten stitches and the gash isn't life threatening but what the hell? Why did he bleed for so long? So there's an appointment scheduled for a pediatric hemotologist (tough profession, that) and we'll see. He might have something permanent but again, let me emphasize, not life threatening... so long as he doesn't have to bleed all that much. 'Cause he probably won't stop.

Look, I'm sure he'll be fine. But something like this... yeah, I could probably put into words the thoughts that come up but who'd want to? This is a safe place to talk about this and I appreciate the indulgence. I've always thought baseball touches everything and everything touches baseball but I'm weird like that. I'd prefer cancer didn't touch the family Whitehouse but through baseball I'm aware of his situation, I'm made painfully aware of my own...

I'm rambling here. My prayers are with them. Lord willing, he'll be on the mound soon.

That's tough stuff to take, really tough. You don't want to see your kid even skin his knee, let alone this. So I hope the best.

- Jon

Dodger Thoughts Over/Under Challenge:

Head to Head competition guessing how many innings the Dodgers starter will pitch each game.
You will go head to head against one other Dodger Thoughts member during each Dodger series.
Whoever is closest to the actual number of innings pitched gets a win, the person who is furthest off gets a loss, and if it's a tie then each person receives a tie. You will go head to head against the same person for the duration of a Dodger series. For example, if the Dodgers are facing the Giants in a four game series, you will be predicting the numbers of innings pitched for the Dodgers starter against the same person for all four of those games. Your opponent will be determined by a schedule. There will be
flights of four people (ideally) but it depends on how many people signup. You will face each person in your flight one time. After you faced each person in your flight the winners of each flight plus a few wild-cards will advance to a single elimination tournament following the similiar head to head format. A tie-breaker
will be made prior to the tournament. The final tournament would ideally have 6 people in it, with the top two seeds receiving a bye in the first round. All Over/Under lines must be sent to me via email before the start of each game, if you don't send in a pick you will forfeit that game. Each flight will be given a unique Dodger Thoughts related name.

Example: Fearing Blue vs Bob

Giants vs Dodgers (Game #1): FB: 6 1/3, Bob: 6, Actual 7 1/3, Bob wins game 1

Giants vs Dodgers (Game #2)... let's say FB wins game 2

Giants vs Dodgers (Game #3)... let's say they tie

Giants vs Dodgers (Game #4)... let's say Bob wins game 2

In their flight, Bob would have a record of 2-1-1, and FB would have a record of 1-2-1.

Then in the next head to head matchup they'd each face someone else in their flight. After each person had faced each flight member one time, you'd see who had the best record, the top people qualifying for the championship tourney.

I would keep track of the standings and post they daily results after each game.

If interested, please email me at xeifrank@yahoo.com and I will put together the flights. As soon as I get enough people I will start it (if enough are interested). We may miss thursday nights game, just to give people enough time to signup.

Xeifrank
xeifrank@yahoo.com

Sorry to hear that. My prayers are with you and your family.

I hope and pray that everything turns out well with your son, Bruin.

All the best....

Best of luck with everything, SB. I hope it turns out to be something relatively minor and temporary.

WWSH