pics?

It's fun to watch Tracy in Wonderland, rather than be a character in it.

I thought I heard the Bison chants. It appears that virtually all pitches thrown to Matt Kemp are strikes regardless of where they are in relation to the plate.

I agree with the right and honorable gentleman in 1. I propose a brisk September eve as we fight for the pennant. Somewhere in mid-September...a nice round number. The 20th perhaps?

Rob McMillin will have the pics.

6 - Somehow I figured that out even with no Dodgers sched nearby...

Bye bye, baseball, I'd imagine.

Tracy really does love scrappy dog, so this makes my trade look a lot more realistic.

"It's just an opportunity for me to reflect on five fabulous years here," Tracy said. "The relationships I built here and the memories I have here, they're all going to be here and they're never, ever going to go away."
Unfortunately I feel the same way

Some highlights:

1) Meeting our fearless leader in the flesh and watching him flattered and not a little confused on how to inscribe a book. Get used to it, Jon.

2) No matter who's in the lineup, the Dodgers can hit the baseball. Cesar Izturis right now is almost impossible to get out.

3) I don't mean to sound repetitive but I did say Jim Tracy would cost the Pirates five games. I think I was conservative.

4) I can't get over how nice all the DodgerThoughts fans are. Just a great group of people to watch a game with.

5) Watching my 9-year old son cheering his heart out. For the first time--and I hope you don't mind if I get personal here, folks--he was totally into the game. The kid has--or perhaps had--a learning challenge that affected his attention. But there he was last night, telling me the count, asking me about the scoreboard, reminding me that a foul ball is a strike but you can't strike out on a foul ball and how it occured to him that you can't see Shawn Green because he plays for Arizona. In other words, he couldn't stop talking about baseball.

I was pretty quiet the last few innings (which is saying something!) to try keep from crying. My best friend leaned in and told me, "Play catch with him tomorrow."

Hey, I get excited at games, too. But nothing beats kids cheering their hearts out.

A great night. As the other posters said, let's do it again.

Awesome. Just awesome. There are misty eyes at the Brock residence as well.

Overkill brought a couple of girls who could have been part of yesterday's conversation thus leaving those who couldn't attend even unhappier. In addition, they very graciously decided to come and go around 20 times.

The biggest news of the night is that since the Dodgers scored 10 runs we all get 20 free chicken wings at any HOOTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!My wife of course put the kibosh on any plan of mine on collecting those chicken wings unless it is takeout.

Bluebleeder and his girlfriend were alot of fun and Bluebleeder himself gave us some added excitement at the end. I'm sure he's okay and he looked in very good hands as he left shaken but not broken.

Jon does have a "shifty" look to him and I was relieved that I was able to bank 300$ from the DT people and that it was still in my pocket as I headed out of the stadium. He probably doesn't realize that if he changed his paypal email account he'd be able to live off of the DT donations by now.

Kudos to Suffering Bruin for trying to get the HSC chant going.

Izzy rocks at 3b. I liked the thirdstop that you guys came up with tonight.

Special thanks to Suffering Bruin for taking the last 8 tickets off my hands and to CoachPark for giving me back the last ticket so I could actually attend the game.

Also, thanks to everyone that attended tonight; I had a great time with some great fans.

By the way, I don't know if anyone has taken note, but the Dodger infield the last two days may be unique in the last seventy years: three All Star shortstops on the field simultaneously. All Star shortstops normally stay put, but to have three may be unprecedented.

Nice reminscensces all around; considered my heartstrings tugged SB.

"But there is a completely different feeling in the clubhouse. A big reason is that the young players replacing injured veterans are top prospects making a profound impact.

Tracy knew most of them when he was here. They were coming through the farm system and weren't ready for prime time.

"I saw players like Russell Martin, Matt Kemp, Jonathan Broxton and Chad Billingsley, and we knew what we had," Tracy said. "I see a lot of similarities with [the Pirates]."

Uncalled for.

I will definitely join the DT crowd if this is arranged again.

It was for me a "Say it ain't so, Joe" moment. I'm still recovering so let's not talk about it... (sigh).

Seriously, what a pleasure to meet all of you last night.

25 is exactly right, by the way.

26 comes up with the right analogy. I don't know if the Pirates are my least favorite team but I do know it's very hard to wish them well with Tracy at the helm.

Suns(AA)
They win again 5-3 with Alexander picking up his 18th save and lowering his ERA to 0.82. Nothing else of note.

VB(High A)
Win 6-5 with Jose Diaz pitching 2 innings inning in his 1st work since being demoted from the Suns. He did a nice job with 2 k's and no runs. DeWitt had 2 hits and Xavier Paul had 2 as he continues his efforts to crack the Dodgers prospect list again after being MIA for a while. He's putting together a solid season at VB. My man Santana had a hit and 2 walks keeping his OBP at a respectable 351 for the youngest position player on the team.

Columbus(Low A)
Win 7-2, with Pedroza hitting his 16th HR. Denker actually got 2 hits to raise his average to 192. No one has dropped more in their prospect status then Denker who struggled mightily at VB and continues to struggle in Columbus after his demotion. Meloan K'd 5 in 2 innings of relief work and has now K'd 26 in 13 innings giving up only one run.

"At 5:15 p.m., the 48th annual Hollywood Stars Game will be played. Among the celebrities scheduled to participate are Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Jimmy Kimmel, James Van Der Beek, Mia Hamm, Lou Gossett Jr., Carlos Mencia, Michael Clarke Duncan and Corbin Bernsen."

Meanwhile, the best I could do was go to the A's-Giants game up here in SF, with a bunch of people from my workplace. It was fun, and several coworkers got drunk, and the seats were terrible (nosebleed), so I worried about people stumbling down the steep stairs and off the railing and landing on Barry Bonds. But the best part was the result: A's won in the 9th against Blownitez.

Anyway, hope Sele can pick it up this weekend .

And this would be a bad thing because...

I got to like Iz during his best run in 2004. I think the confusion came from him playing w/injury ruining both his D and offense.

http://tinyurl.com/kxj73

Heh.

Who else does? C'mon, people, my blogroll needs refreshing! I know Rob does, and Bob's taking to it like a duck to water (or a Brazilian to soccer), but I wasn't aware of others.

Boy, that Germany-Sweden game wasn't even as Klose as the score reflected.
(sorry)

P.S. I've never wanted to love a movie more than I wanted to love Primer. After four viewings, I like it a lot, but that's the extent of it.

Next?

http://tinyurl.com/fjply

50 Nice shot. I don't think mine came out as well, though it's similar.

I continue to be irritated by Giants fans who become irritated anytime a pitcher dares through Barry a ball (even if they're not actually trying to throw him a ball!) All those intentional walks have now resulted in pent-up frustration and righteousness. How dare those pitchers not serve him up an underhanded softtossed ball that he can crush?

Arena Football League? American Football League?

(Ok, I figured it out: Arizona Fall League, right?)

most I go is 2 yr deal that automatically becomes 3 yrs if he reaches certain number of PAs.

total amount could be something like 30-35.

Next year at spring training will be the a nice competition for the outfield. You will see a contest between Jason Repko, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Joel Guzman, Willy Aybar, and other prospects for the starting left, starting center, and #4 outfield jobs, with a veteran (non-roster invite?) to be the 5th outfielder and pinch-hitter. It might not be a bad idea to extend Nomar and trade a prospect for pitching (Navarro anyone?). Besides, Cesar might need to play a full season at third to get a gold glove there.

Lineup for next year (inter/changeable) if I'm calling the shots:

Izzy/Furcal
Izzy/Furcal
Nomar
Kent/Drew
Kent/Drew
Kemp
left fielder
Martin
pitcher

Excellent pix, Cannon. Thanks for sharing them, but you didn't include any of yourself.

http://www.doubledogmusic.com/baseball/2006-06-23_Pirates@Dodgers/index.html

Like trying to get more photos of Baby Shiloh!

Bluebleeder had left by then.

The rest were an assorment of Clayton's family and friends and I'll let him call those out.

He's not worthy!

Unless he had a really good excuse like a wife giving birth, a five alarm fire to fight, or Colletti needing his help deciding which trade to make.

Is bluebleeder alright? There was some mention of his having an exciting sort of trouble--is it classified?

Just above Mr. Kim is Ms. Suffering Bruin. The common reaction of DT readers who met my wife was, "And she said yes? To you??" You're a great bunch of guys! :)

Hiding in his orange sweatjacket is my son who is sitting in the same row as his best friend and his best friend's family.

Josh looks young, in-shape, energetic, industrious and happy to be doing what he is doing. It was a pleasure meeting him.

DJ is not in the starting lineup.

It is indicative of the tone of this blog--and blogs like it (check the sidebar)--that I could go to the ballpark and have absolutely no concern about the people around me. That's not always true on a visit to Dodger Stadium or, to be fair, any stadium. There are times when, because of traffic or some less than polite neighbors just a few seats away where I would think that watching the game on television would be preferable to going to the park.

Last night was not one of those times. I wouldn't have missed last night no matter how tired I was and I was exhausted after finally finishing my first year of teaching. But I came home energized--that's how much fun it was. A more diverse group of people would be difficult to imagine and yet there we were, drawn by the common hope that the Dodgers would win (they did) and Jim Tracy would do something to help them win (he did).

Let me know when the next one is, guys. I'm ready for more.

I don't see the point in having Drew hit fifth...with his ability to get on base, he should be hitting higher. Honestly, I'd hit him behind Furcal and ahead of Nomar....Furcal/Drew/Nomar/Kent etc.

I can remember many moons ago Art Shamsky of the Mets doing the same thing to the Dodgers in a very long extra inning game that took place before many of you were born.

Btw, Scareduck, as much as I wish I was with all of you at the game, that wasn't me there in the pic. I'm guessing Nick is "under(somethingelse)" so it's an understandable bit of confusion. But I'm glad to have met all of you - hope I enjoyed it! (heh)