I was at a Dodgers/Brewers game in August when Eric Gagne came out to pitch...yeah, for the Brewers.
I stood up and clapped! I was thrilled to see him back on the mound where he had brought SO much JOY to the Dodgers' world all those many "game over" years!! He still pitched beautifully.
What I could NOT believe was the number of boos and negative comments being thrown out at him. Crazy!
I was also at the NLCS game where Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Bill Russell AND Davey Lopes threw out the first pitch(es). Lopes in a Phillies uniform of course...but how amazing was that to see???! Talk about a dream to witness!
Yep, I agree. And I, for one, will continue to welcome them all back...often wishing they had never departed.

And yet Smush Parker never got a montage to welcome him back.

Did Mark Madsen ever get one?

At least the Dodgers fans didn't boo Davey Lopes at the NLCS.

2 - Retired players seem to get dispensation.

Oh yeah, well you Dodger fans just wait until Pat Burrell comes back to Phila and we can finally cheer those strikeouts on sliders low and away!

And are the Phillies fans going to boo a video of Burrell's double to left in Game 5 of the 2008 World Series and subsequent winning run?

1 Gagne was quoted too many times making comments about the fans, his contract status, and basically just being an all-around jerk. The obvious PED thing does not help him either. He deserved every boo that he got in the stadium.

I was there and it was so remarkable I thought about writing it up for the magazine. Right before the game started they showed a 60-second-ish highlight reel of Ronny on the court and off it, and the crowd cheered loudly. Then they cut to a live shot of Ronny standing near the Warriors bench and everyone went bananas. I was sitting about 20 feet from him and it looked like he was bouncing around distracting himself to keep from crying.

The first time he came into the game was also amazing. The crowd was going crazy and it was during a free throw. He tried to keep a straight face but Trevor Ariza elbowed him and he cracked a smile. It was truly awesome to witness.

That's what you get for being a scrappy dappy doo.

Every time Eric Gagne blows a save, 5 dogs are rescued from the pound.

6 - I really disagree with that.

I was hurt by it.

If i was not at work, and had a little more time, I would go dig up the quotes in the Times.

LA Times, 8/16/2008
Eric Gagne admits to being nervous when he thinks of what he might hear from the Dodger Stadium crowd if he is called out of the Milwaukee Brewers' bullpen this weekend.

A lot has changed for the former Cy Young Award-winning closer in the two years since he parted ways with the Dodgers. He signed with Texas, was traded to Boston and signed with Milwaukee. How he was perceived in Los Angeles -- and everywhere else in the country, for that matter -- was altered when he was named in the Mitchell Report, which identified him as a user of human growth hormone.

"Even though you say you don't care about what people think, that's not true," he said. "I had so many good memories here. I'm expecting for the best, but I'm preparing myself for the worst."

Gagne maintained his refusal to talk about the accuracy of the passages pertaining to him in the Mitchell Report, which cited former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski as saying he mailed two shipments of HGH to Gagne, including one to Dodger Stadium.

Asked why he wouldn't address the report, Gagne replied, "I don't feel like it."

Asked what he would say to the fans of Los Angeles, he said, "I don't say anything. There's nothing I can say. It's in the past, you know? It's been settled. I don't know what else to say."

What he did know was that pitching in Dodger Stadium wouldn't be the way it was during his brilliant stretch as the Dodgers' closer.

"There were days I was really sore, but the fans really helped me," he said. "I was pumped up with adrenaline. You really had to be in the stadium to feel the energy and the electricity."

What he said he remembered most was the ovation he received after he blew a save on July 5, 2004, to end his record consecutive saves streak at 84.

"I've never seen anyone get an ovation for failing," he said.

I'm sorry, but Eric Gagne is a first rate tossbag, imo.

0 Ronny who?

I am really out of touch with Lakerdom. I read the sports pages and that's a name I've never seen.

The booing of Gagne, Green, and, back in the day, Piazza, was very disappointing. There are some guys who do something to deserve getting booed on their return, but those guys sure didn't.

Paul Lo Duca got a wild ovation when he returned. Who ever said the world makes sense?

I don't recall what the response to Beltre was in June 2006. I think I must have missed that series, which was the only time he's ever played at Dodger Stadium as a visitor.