Random Dodger game callback

June 4, 1992

In a year that was one of the most dismal in the history of not just the Los Angeles Dodgers, but of the city of Los Angeles overall, the Dodgers managed to look respectable on this day with a 7-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds at Dodger Stadium. Orel Hershiser and three relievers combined for the win with Roger McDowell picking up the save.

The win brought the Dodgers to 24-25 on the season and in fourth place in the NL West, 3 ½ games behind first place Cincinnati. The big hit for the Dodgers came in the fourth when Mike Scioscia hit his 10th career triple to cap off a 3-run inning. Scioscia would actually hit two more triples in 1992 to finish his career with 12.

But June 4 was the closest the Dodgers would ever get to .500 for the rest of the year. A team decimated by injuries, especially to outfielders Darryl Strawberry and Eric Davis, led to a 10-game losing streak from June 10-21, dropping the Dodgers into last place and that is where they stayed for the rest of the season, finishing with their worst record in Los Angeles history, 63-99, and 35 games behind division winner Atlanta.

With Strawberry and Davis out for most of the year, the Dodger offense disappeared. The team hit only 72 home runs for the season, with Rookie of the Year Eric Karros leading the team with 20. No other Dodger had more than 6. Brett Butler hit .309 and had a .413 OBP, but it was of little use as there was no else contributing to the attack. Butler also led the league in sacrifices despite batting leadoff. The Dodgers lone All Star was utility man Mike Sharperson. Jose Offerman took over the shortstop role fulltime and commited 42 errors.

The pitching staff was not the problem. The team had a 3.41 ERA. Tom Candiotti went 11-15 with a 3.00 ERA and Hershiser went 10-15 with a 3.67 ERA. Kevin Gross threw a no-hitter against the Giants on August 17.

But 1992 in Los Angeles was probably remembered more for the wide scale civil unrest that rocked the city at the end of April and beginning of May. There were hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to property. Even worse, between 50 and 60 people died (official counts vary).

It was not much of a bright spot in a bad year, but the Dodgers did bring up a rookie catcher named Mike Piazza in September of 1992. Piazza was expected to take over for Scioscia, who left the Dodgers as a free agent in the offseaon, although injuries effectively ended his career.

Thanks to the Orange County Register, BaseballReference.com and Retrosheet

Us:
Izturis
Perez
Drew
Kent
Ledee
Werth
Choi
Phillips
Houlton

I love it when I get phone calls telling me that I was selected to get a special refinancing offer. Mainly because I'm a renter.

When I doubt, I would just tell people that their ancestors were all semi-literate hillbillies.

It's right a lot of the time!

"No they didn't make any for L.A. after World War II."

"Yes, I know they have city directories for smaller towns today."

"No, you're great uncle's obit didn't run in the LA Times in 1927."

"No, the LA Times doesn't run free obits."

"No, they don't run birth annoucnements in LA papers anymore."

"Do you realize how many people live in the LA area?"

"Soundex. It's a code. It's how you look things up in the Census."

"No you can't look up your grandfather in the 1940 Census, it's still confidential."

The vast majority of genealogists are nice people who are eager to work (Rachel Robinson really knew her stuff.) But when you get someone who just walks in and assumes that there is a computer where they can type in their name and have their entire family history displayed in front of them can be hard to deal with.

There is a bit of overlap.

See you folks later!

"The economics part of it was not an issue," Weaver insisted. "We could have made more, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity of playing at home."

Too many responses, so I'll leave it at that.

Signed,

X

http://tinyurl.com/dzjlh

Type in your last name; get a map of the US geographic distribution of your last name for that period.

Steve Sax
Mike Scioscia
The Straw
Jose Canseco ???(spring training in 03 or 04)?

And Boo! Hiss! to taking him out. Not so much an FJT moment as just a "Who You Gonna Bring In That's Gonna Do Better Than That" Moment.

Now we hold on for dear life.

Eek. The Dodgers sure love making me reach for my antacids...

Blah. No comment.

...I wanted to see whether Tracy was going to be thrown out!

Drew's on first and Kent's at bat. No outs.

What was Repko doing in there anyway?

He is still same old Dave: Base hit 3 runs in. Good for him. I always liked him.

Game not-so-over.

DJ gets the win! The Kid Stays In The Picture!

This season definitely isn't over by a long shot, and I remain optimistic. Especially now that the Padres are cooling down just as we did after our 12-2 start.

That Kool-Aid is grape by the way.

Jon, the only downside to DJ was letting the leadoff get on board 4 innings in a row. A ton of ground balls, and he never once got rattled.
I personally felt a lot more confidence in him than I have with Weaver and Perez.

In short, he done good. And glad you're feeling better.

SCSR just gave teaser: Dodgers are shopping for a starter and we'll tell you why it could be this guy: cue picture of Zito

The guy I'm looking at as a sleeper is Eric Stults with Jacksonville. He pitched well again last night (5 IP, 2 R/0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K). His overall K / BB ratio is sitting at a very pretty 4.33 (52 Ks, 12 BB in 56.2 IP).

Having Zito and Weaver will give Antonio Perez whiplash by the end of the year.

Instead, why don't you listen to the guy, a Mr. Fearing Blue by appellation, who was the only guy around here saying we should give DJ Houlton a chance to start even though he had an ERA of 10, risking the mocking sneers of people like me who have perfected the mocking sneer. Stop IMing Billy Beane, who is dreaming at night of all the ways he can unload his crap on you, place a long distance call to Florida, and get on Priceline to arrange a coach class flight for one Mr. Eric Stults posthaste.

Then, please arrange for the same "fixer" who handled the Grabowski situation to pay a visit to Jeff Weaver.

Thank you,

Steve

That said, I agree that the DePo-Beane connection doesn't make a Dodgers-A's trade any likelier. Not that I would be surprised to see Zito in Dodger blue this season, but it won't be because of the DePo-Beane connection.

http://dodgers.scout.com/2/374453.html

Evidently,he's a soft-tossing 'control guy' - his fastball (like the similarly-named actor Eric Stoltz's film career) ranged from 84-89. His stuff is described as "less than overwhelming." He's also 25 years old, so judge for yourselves how much room you think he has to improve on either velocity or 'stuff.'

A hunch tells me that a guy who throws a lot of strikes at 88 mph without getting a lot of swing-and-misses would be like Scott Erickson without the walks. Which is still bad.

So far, we've struck gold with one AA callup this season - perhaps we should avoid going to the well once to often?