Well, at least now the Dodgers know what number to retire when Vin Scully hangs 'em up.

He looks like he's ready to take on e e cummings with a head-butt in the top picture.

Good stuff, Jon.

Is this post out of alignment for anyone else?

hmmm, this entry isn't formatting very well for me. vr, Xei

4 - It's going to depend on the width of your browser window, at least until I solve the problem.

How's that?

6 I'm still getting the weird formatting issues. Expanding the width of the browser fixed it for me. I'm using firefox.

Man, is it just me, or has Vin Scully had one of the best careers possible? What an amazing life, and to break in at such a young age is just remarkable. Every time I hear him, I think about how cool it would be to have that job and to do it so well.

OT: I can't believe it took me so long to get the Seinfeld reference in the title for the Lowe article.

7 - It's just an issue that if your browser window is too narrow, the pictures won't fit unless I stack them. And I'm not doing that.

It looks like they caught Vin on a bad day for that photo, he looks so serious. And check out the tidal wave he's got going on his head.

6. That's better. Thanks.
vr, Xei

Vin Scully would probably tell you that he's been very fortunate in his career, but it's come at a price. He's been away from his family a lot. His first wife passed away as well as his oldest son.

Somewhere deep down, I think he wonders what life would be like if he had a regular job and a nice quiet nuclear family life. He didn't even have that when growing up.

Rose Hill Campus Bookstore is missing an oportunity, or at least I can't find any Scully jerseys on sale. I'd love to have had his career, too.

12. I think this has the makings of another Bob Timmermann / LA Library history speech.
vr, Xei

6 Thanks Jon, looks great now, and a nice write up.

And check out the tidal wave he's got going on his head.

Perfect description, Marty

Tonight's Marlins starter, Andrew Miller, has been shelled in the first month of the season.

5 starts (none more than 5 IP)
22.2 IP
39 hits
11 BB
.394/.451/.606 against

His FIP ERA is only 4.59. Hopefully the Dodgers offense can produce against the young tall lefty.

Jason Schmidt is supposedly pitching in a simulated game today.
(SFW)
http://tinyurl.com/3fhxev

Any ideas where and when this simulated game is taking place? Do they still have extended spring training? vr, Xei

17. I was going to say Miller has been unlucky this year with a .439 BABIP against (Billingsley's is actually higher), but then I saw that he had a LD% of 26.5. Miller has been rocked.
vr, Xei

14
Nope, that's about it.

18
It could be before the game. Or perhaps at Vero Beach. Or maybe in Jason Schmidt's back yard.

I'm available to serve as a ghost runner.

12

A very good point, and it is one my father-in-law reminds me of since he spent a lot of time working from a distance.

21 "It could be before the game. Or perhaps at Vero Beach. Or maybe in Jason Schmidt's back yard."

Will an East Coaster be there to do the yard work for him, first?

19 Pitchers can't really control their line drive rate, it's a big reason why BABIP is so random.

Or it could be that pitchers that constantly give up line drives don't last too long.

There's a generation of us who don't live in LA but still have Vin Scully as the standard to judge all baseball announcers. They all come up lacking.

I like the idea of ghost runners and ghost hitters. Sounds sort of like Pac-Ball.

Wakka wakka wakka.

Florida 1B Mike Jacobs, who has put up a Kingmanesque 7 HR and a .261/.290/.580 line thus far, is expected to sit out tonight's game with a sore finger. If you're easily offended, don't ask Jacobs which finger is hurting.

Wes Helms started Sunday at 1B for Florida.

Also, old acquaintance Luis Gonzalez has only started twice in the past 15 games, but has managed to appear in the other 13 games as a pinch hitter.

Is Gonzo complaining about playing time yet?

Part of me wishes he'll play most of this series, and part of me kind of fears that - the idea of him getting "revenge" on the Dodgers or something.

Jon: Frip, the point is only...

There were many points made throughout the thread, not just yours.

28
Gonzo did hit .261/.426/.326 against the D-Backs last year. The OBP is nice, but I'm not sure if that counts as revenge.

Yet I still share the same worry. I sometimes wake up from nightmares of Paul LoDuca scoring a run following a run scoring double by Lenny Harris off Eric Gagne in late 2004.

30
And I believe Guillermo Mota got the win in that game.

24. Point taken. I guess I should've stated that Miller's BABIP fairly closely matches his LD%, whereas Billingsley's does not. Miller has given up a lot of line drives/hard hit balls and it shows in his BABIP. Billingsley has not given up a lot of line drives and yet his BABIP against is even higher than Miller's. Just one of the those strange anomalies. vr, Xei

29

I don't get it

30

Could we have Wade throw a bean ball?

Maybe 25 years from now Derek Lowe will come back to L.A. and start selling apologies for charity like Lee Elia is doing in Chicago.

33. See the previous thread (post #3), and the previous thread before it. vr, Xei

33 Frip was having a conversation with Jon in the Costas-blogger-post about the Lowe-West-Coast-post and decided to bring the discussion here into the Scully-Fordham-post.

36. Yes, and it involved yard work, horn honking and loud concerts. It touched on a wide array of subjects as related to the Lowe-West-Coast post. vr, Xei

God bless Vin Scully. I'm moved to tears when I even THINK about him passing on/retiring.

Meanwhile, I was out of town this weekend and missed the entire Rockies series. I'm treating today like Opening Day II, and hope this weekend wasn't an illusion.

Folks, let us please take care not to sully the Scully post.

It really does blow my mind to think how long Scully has been at it, it's amazing. The things he's observed and broadcast to the world, boggles the mind. I hope he can stay healthy awhile longer, but I cherish every day I get to hear him live.

Are any of the players the Marlins got in the Miggy/D-Train trade on the big club?

(that's live, as in live on the radio, of course; it's harder to hear Vin do his day-to-day living.)

39. Ok. :)
Is 60 years a long time for an FM radio station to be around? I wonder what the current record is.
vr, Xei

41 One of them is on the mound against us tonight. Then there's Cameron Maybin... And I believe one of their catchers?

44 Badenhop is one of their starters right now.

In case you wanted to sit in the baseline premium seats on May 10 or 11 against Houston, here's a deal for you:

Baseline premium seats (the ones on or near the rail between the dugout and foul pole), normally $225, for $110:

"Treat mom to a Dodger Stadium experience she will never
forget! Baseline Premium and Baseline Preferred tickets
include access to Baseline Box Clubs and complimentary buffet.

"This offer is available online only compliments of Smashbox
Cosmetics and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Simply enter "GLOSS"
underneath "Promotions and Special Offers" after clicking the
link next to the game you wish to attend."

FM had different frequencies when it was first invented in the late 1930s. Then David Sarnoff got the FCC to move FM to the 88-106 range in 1945. And then the inventor of FM, Edwin Armstrong, reacted to this business setback by killing himself.

Does anyone know if the Eric Neel article on Vin Scully in which he interviewed several DT'ers was ever put online? I've never been able to find it, so I'm guessing not, but...?

Wow, we get Melancholy Bob today.

And I love that Xeifrank, King of DodgerSims, doesn't know when/where a simulated game is.

44 Maybin is struggling at Double-A.

Best major trade of the offseason was easily Haren for 6 really good, undervalued D-Backs prospects.

i know it's a big if, but if schmidt comes back stays healthy and pitches effectively, barring injury wouldn't it be best to leave kershaw in the minors the rest of the year?

51 Isn't it a bit premature to say that? Unless you mean it was good for Arizona.

53 It was good for both sides. Eveland and Smith look like solid middle of the rotation guys. And Carlos Gonzalez has all the tools and had been playing great at AAA (he's young for that level, too). Chris Carter looks like Oakland's future DH. Brett Anderson is a very good control specialist. Aaron Cunningham is hurt, but also a good prospect.

Great trade, I say.

52. That would be my preference with perhaps a September call-up to do some relief innings or one or two starts. This way he gets to continue to refine his control and we make sure that his innings are managed primarily for the benefit of the long-term rather than the short-term.

I know Diamond Leung's sports psychologist story was already pointed out, but I thought it was funny that they used the headline "Dodgers hire sports psychologist to help with players' mental skills" accompanied by the photo of Mark Sweeney losing the game last year by forgetting how many outs there were. (They don't actually mention that incident or identify the photo, though.)

http://tinyurl.com/6ngcpu
http://tinyurl.com/6pukn8

53 -- The Haren trade looks like a fantastic heist by Oakland with Smith and Eveland already paying off. At the time of the trade, trust me, they were the fifth and sixth most important players the A's were getting.

Yeah, I agree with Silverwidow. Or at least it's been good for both sides, with more help coming to the A's from those prospects soon. Eveland's been a revelation. The A's got a bountiful haul out of that one and the Swisher trade. Haren's great but if the DBacks have any injury issues they have a lot less depth in the minors to help them out this year.

50 Wow, you're right. He did start the season with the big club, though. But obviously wasn't ready.

Thanks for the Vin picture Jon. It would be great if they had some Vin audio in their archives. Vinny played college baseball at Fordham-- he was an outfielder. From what I have heard he was a very good defensive player but not much of a hitter. I wonder if he wore #17 in college.

Stan

57 That's why I'm hesitant since Eveland and Smith are the only guys that are contributing to Oakland right now, and I'm unsure how long that will last.

57
Funny how little respect Beane gets from the non-basement-dweller crowd.

BTW: has anyone ever seen him called "Billy Beane Counter"...?

Regarding the update above... good move by the HOF. Robinson did and does deserve HOF membership based solely on his accomplishments between the lines, but the fact that there was no mention of the fact that he broke the color barrier was odd indeed... made odder by the fact that Pee Wee Reese's plaque DOES mention it:

http://tinyurl.com/3rmvxt (SFW of course)

10 Good job, and it is "fun", as Jon says. Not a factor in Vin speaking at Pepperdine last week, I would guess, even if we are the Waves.

As a fatherless boy, I guess I could say, Vin was the guy who 'read me to sleep' every night. May God richly bless him.

From the sublime to the ridiculous:

espn.com's MLB page has an interesting story about the 25th anniversary of Cub's manger Lee Elia's tirade, which resulted after he stopped a couple players from going into the stands to confront fans. One of those players was Larry Bowa.

Bowa's temper and its origins are profiled in today's L.A. Times sport section. Decent article with pics.

Oddly, neither Lasorda's opinion of Kingman's performance, nor his views on .160 hitter (sp?) Bevaqua's accusation that Tommy ordered his knockdown made the top tirades list on ESPN (associated with the Lee Elia article). If you want to listen to either of those Tommy-rades (watch out, no bleeps) search for "Lasorda audio stew" on YouTube

Dead to me:
David Sarnoff

Except he's already dead.

Updates from Tony Jax:

>>Expecting lots of rain for tonight's game. It's pretty gray right now, 3 1/2 hours before the game. Jason Schmidt just finished his sim game, everything SEEMED OK from up here, but we won't know for sure until we go down and find out. Marlins are taking BP right now. Luis Gonzalez just took some grounders at first base, and although he also did that in spring training, the Marlins beat guys tell me this was the first time they have seen him do it since then.<<

Wow! It might rain during the game in Florida! This happens like ... all the time.

66 But he didn't complain about it! That's something, at least.

I think updating Robinson's plaque is a horrible idea. The Hall of Fame plaques are supposed to be sacred. They're monuments to what the player's legacy was at the time he was inducted. They're timeless and permanent. To me it would be like like adding or changing something on the Statue of Liberty. You just don't mess with it.

The Hall has changed plaques before, but usually it happens immediately after the plaque is first unveiled. They re-did Bid McPhee's plaque because Cincinnati was spelled wrong. They re-did Ted Williams's because Ted didn't like the way the portrait looked. (Strangely, the old one, which I've seen in the Hall basement, looks much more like Williams than the new one, which barely resembles him.)

The only one that's been altered years after the fact is Roberto Clemente's, because they finally figured out they had his name wrong. (The correct name was Roberto Clemente Walker but they had Roberto Walker Clemente.)

Until now, though, the only reason a plaque was ever changed was if there was something wrong with it. This is the first time one has been changed just for the hell of it.

West Coast writers don't mind rain delays for East Coast games. They still have plenty of time to file their stories.

Weather.com has this to say about tonight's weather in Miami:

Watch for Lightning

Scattered T-Storms
Low
71° F

Precip:
40%

Scattered thunderstorms early, mainly cloudy late with a few showers. Low 71F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.

-----

Roy Hobbs would say, "Play on!"

68

My views are about the same as Eric's.

That joke will now officially be retired.

49. haha, I thought of that at the time too. I think Jason Schmidt needs to pitch 4000 simulated games as to give us a good sample size of how well he really did. :)
vr, Xei

71
That joke was visual in nature. And so it didn't work.

Never mind. I'm going off to curl up under my desk in the fetal position.

56 speaking of mental mistakes. I went to a Modesto Nuts minor league (CO) game on Saturday. With a runner on 1st, the batter hits to the 3rd base side of short, the SS makes a poor throw to 2nd and pulls the 2nd baseman off the bag, but still is close enough where I've seen the "in the vicinity" out called before. The throw to 1st was also late. The runner at 2nd wasn't paying attention and started walking off and was tagged out.

I haven't lived in LA for almost 14 years, and every time I get the chance to hear Vinny's voice, I take it.

I get all misty and afraid anytime I think of the idea that Vinny won't be around forever, kind of like a dear relative. How can that be?

Great that he's being honored.

68 There's the rule, and there's the exception. If there's one player you would make an exception for, would it not be Jackie Robinson? It may have been, at the time, politically sensitive to mention his breaking the color barrier, as if to mention it then would imply that his enshrinement was in part because of that, and not strictly on his merits as a player.

56 my teammates did that 2twice WITH THE BASES LOADE, 2 Sundays ago (they lost track of the outs) sigh

Bill Simmons, perhaps not always the most enlightened MLB voice but at the very least a huge fan, has this to say about the last two Dodger CF signees:

They are really the Lennon and McCartney of Free Agent Busts. Every sports fan in LA is going crazy about how bad they are during the 3 minutes per day when they aren't complaining about how everyone hates Kobe.

77
I guess the follow up question would be who are George & Ringo?

78 - and Pete Best.

75 - that's part of what I don't like about the Hall changing the plaque. It seems like they are diminishing what Robinson did on the field and that it's not about his merits as a player. Doesn't matter if it happens now or when he was inducted, it's not right.

And besides, they've already made him an exception to one rule - retiring 42 through out baseball?

79
Pete Best is probably Mike Davis.

Darryl Strawberry is Harrison, and Don Stanhouse is Ringo.

I am not really into "Halls Of Fame", but I am into Baseball history. I am sorry to say that I don't really care one way or the other if Robinson's plaque gets changed. If it's that big of a deal not to change the plaque, then why not just some special section of the HOF that houses the history of the Negro league and the breaking of the colour barrier in MLB. My guess is that that already exists though.
vr, Xei

Re: 78

And maybe even Billy Preston...

So is Pierre McCartney since he is left handed? Does his wife take half his $45 million a few years from now?
vr, Xei

Andruw Jones is the walrus?

85 - so does that make Kemp and Ethier the eggmen?

75 - I've grown up listening to Vin here in LA and he fueled my passion for the Dodgers when he would weave his stories into the fabric of the game. He truly is a special treasure and a pleasure to listen too. I want to savor every game we do hear from the Master, because in the words of Don Henley in New York Minute, "One day they're here, next day they're gone".
It was kind of funny Friday night though when Saito blew the save and the game went to extra innings, Scully, tongue in check and in a mocking sarcastic tone said "Great, just what we all wanted, extra innings for this game." Realizing later that he had the Pepperdine engagement the next morning to attend, I understood his frustration at knowing he was not going to get a lot of sleep tonight.

It's rather easy to picture Colletti as the caterpillar smoking atop a mushroom.

(BTW, the best word I can conjure up for Scully is "incomparable")

17 - Don't count your chickens so fast. Remember our last trip to Atlanta, three games scoring one run each to pitchers not named Smoltz or Hudson. Now that you pointed out how bad this Miller has pitched, he's now going to pitch a gem. Dodgers will probably end up scoring 1 run on 4 hits and striking out 8 times now and we'll lose like 5-1, Thanks 17!! ;-)

86 butter and egg men.

68 I understand why you feel that way. And believe me, I'm not trying to start a HOF argument with you, because that is an argument that I will lose.

But I think there's a genuine case here to be made that Robinson's plaque IS wrong -- just as wrong as misspelling Cincinnati or getting Clemente's name wrong. Isn't a plaque supposed to tell the story, briefly, of why Robinson is in the HOF? It seems to me that doing that without mentioning the color barrier is wrong. There's an argument, I guess, that the plaque should only be about on-field achievements, but the Reese plaque does away with that argument. Leaving the plaque as it is begs the question but doesn't foster discussion. It's just odd.

I guess that makes Colletti Brian Epstien.

so Yoko Ono is?

Ya know, speaking of begging the question, Eric might be in a position to answer this --

-- why in heaven's name did someone decide that Robinson's plaque should not mention his unique place in baseball and American history?

Re: 93

Awww, Yoko turned out to be true-blue.

93 Ng?

Yoko could have been Luis Gonzalez... You're breaking up the band Yoko!!

So this weird analogy makes Scott Boras = George Martin? Or is he Epstein and Colletti is Martin?

89. Yes, but now that you mentioned the jinx, you have jinxed the jinx and thusly negated it. I will tread quietly as not to jinx the jinx of the jinx and thusly re-jinx it. vr, Xei

99 too late, only if you'd kept quiet :)

99 Jinx is a great Scrabble word.

Lineup?

100. Hurry up and un-jinx it again.
vr, Xei

101

I forgot we still have to worry about about whether Kemp will make the lineup, but I think it's clear by now he'll be penciled in, or strike me with lightning!

well if JP and AJ = Lennon and McCartney then Yoko would need to be someone responsible for puting division between JP and AJ. Colletti?

I wonder if they'd consider benching 'Druw against "tough righties"?

I guess that means Joe Beimel is Rocky Raccoon.

I think a better analogy would be Ron Nasty and Dirk McQuickley, singing "All You Need is Cash."

102 The DT comment record will be broken by a never-ending wave of jinxing and un-jinxing.

Furcal, SS
Ethier, LF
Kemp, RF
Kent, 2B
Martin, C
Loney, 1B
Jones, CF
DeWitt, 3B
Lowe, RHP

Well, at least we are on the east coast so Lowe can bear down.

Nice lineup. Let's hope it stays dry enough to play.

110. haha. While technically on the "east coast", Florida and especially the Miami area seems just as laid back (or more) than California. Not sure how the judges will rule on this one. vr, Xei

No James McDonald tonight for some strange reason. Tanyon Sturtze of all people is taking his place.

113 He's probably been traded for Juan Castro.

112 - well, there's west coast laid back, and there's Caribbean laid back. Miami is Caribbean laid back.

Different, but the same.

is anyone under the opinion yet that we'd have been better off saving the $36 million and going with pierre kemp dre?

116 - I'm still under the opinion they'd have been better off saving 81 million and going with Ethier-Repko/Werth-Kemp

113
Even stranger because Sturtze was lit up on Sunday so he's starting after one days rest?

From a previous thread about signing Nomo and giving him a proper send off.

Rotowire:
Lieberthal will sign a one-day contract with Philadelphia on June 1 in order to officially retire as a member of the Phillies, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. This is not an unusual move, especially when you consider that Lieberthal spent his first 13 seasons with the Phillies before backing up Russell Martin with the Dodgers in 2007.

109
I think that is the best lineup I've seen this year from Torre.

I actually do feel sorry for Zito. All kinds of coverage on places like ESPN on his going to the bull-pen. Jone's and JP's contracts our minor compared to his.
Then again, I suppose one could trace all of these to the same incubator of philosophy.

119 I agree, but I think I'd like to swap Ethier and Martin.

I wonder if Peavy is having 2nd thoughts about his contract now that he realizes the future in San Diego is a bunch of 3rd/4th place finishes during the lifetime of his deal?

65 Gonzalez is taking grounders at 1B because he still wants to be like Ethier. He also got a dye job and started drinking Red Bull.

Great line-up. Now... produce, boys!

117 well ya, didn't think i'd have to ask if people now thought the pierre signing was a good one.

I just saw that Emmylou Harris is performing at the Fordham event, so Vin can check the Dodgers score with her.

120. And in 2 days the incubator products will be facing off in the baseball's worst GM contest. vr, Xei

121 yeah, I think that's the change I'd make as well

89
I just realized that I had the honor of being post 17 in a thread about the former Fordham #17.

127 I hope that's one we lose, since we only have the understudy. Of course I mean in losing we would win.

Fun quote in that Dodgers.com article on the Dodgers' Dominican scouting trip:

"I was over on Field 1 and I kept seeing balls flying over the trees from the main field," said {scout Ralph} Avila. "When I asked someone who was hitting, I was told that it was the player that my scouts really wanted me to see and I told them, 'Go ahead and sign him!'"

On Raul Mondesi, of course.

I was kind of taken back right now when I visited Dodgers Dot com, the all-star voting is already taking place!! we're only a few weeks into the season, wow.

one more thing, you guys don't think Torre is over using Saito? the reason I ask this is because I really feel (with his age) that Saito might be out of gas come crunch time.

NPUT

133 - Everyone's talking about how underworked Saito is.

133 No, I think Saito's problem if anything - at least if you listen to him - is that he's been _under_used so far this season, just because of circumstances (the Dodgers either blowing someone out or being blown out). The more he pitches, in short bursts, the better he seems to be. That's how he's always been in his career. I don't think he's been overused. But there is still the possibility he loses "it" this season.

120

Ken Arneson wrote an awesome awesome piece on him last year to which I almost was dumb founded on how simple yet clever it was. 3 years ago a couple of Dodger fans wanted us to sign Zito but I knew he'd stink if he lost a few miles an hour on his fastball (among other things) anyways Ken Arneson wrote down what I wish I could have articulated.

127 - care to clarify?

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/schedules?date=20080429

128 Man can you imagine a 1-2 of Furcal and Ethier or Martin all year?

The Marlin's Miller looks a lot faster than the gun says, and I bet the look is more important than the reality.

Ought--ooh- that Lowe pitch is often a strike.