Spring Training Closing Day

Good comments in Tuesday’s thread taking the pulse of your feelings toward the Dodgers this year. Even if you don’t normally venture into the comments, I recommend you make an exception for these.

Some early pregame tidbits for the final day of Spring Training.

• Jill Painter of the Daily News has a feature on lefthanded pitcher Scott Rice, whose dream of a major-league debut has been delayed once again.
• Sam Miller of Baseball Prospectus puts the dilution of baseball’s traditional Opening Day in perspective.
• Friend of Dodger Thoughts Neal Pollack has a new book, Jewball. Here’s the description:
  

  1937. The gears of world war have begun to grind, but Inky Lautman, star point guard for the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association, America’s greatest basketball team, is dealing with his own problems.

  His coach has unwittingly incurred a massive gambling debt to the Bund, a group of American Nazis. His main basketball rival is self-righteously leading public protests against homegrown American fascism. And his girlfriend wants him to join a Jewish student organization that’s all talk and no action. It’s more than Inky can deliver. He just wants to play ball and occasionally beat people up for money.

  When the Bund comes calling for what it’s owed, Inky has to make a stand for his ragtag bunch of teammates and the coach that got them into this mess. With the Bund closing in, Inky’s game isn’t just basketball anymore. It becomes a battle that pits Jewish pride against Nazi fascism.

  The tides of history are flowing against a guy like Inky. Can he make his free throws and still make it through the season alive? Get ready. This…is Jewball.