As initially reported by TMZ, the Los Angeles City Attorney has declined to pursue charges against James Loney for his DUI arrest in November, citing “insufficient evidence.”
Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com has more, writing that “the decision not to charge Loney, the spokesman said, was the result of all of Loney’s toxicology tests coming back negative.”
Anonymous
Is there an explanation for what happened?
Anonymous
He hit his head on something.
Anonymous
the logical explanation is either they messed up the tests or he fell asleep at the wheel.
Anonymous
hi
Jon Weisman
Welcome.
Anonymous
test
Anonymous
Jon,
I’ve been a daily reader of Dodger Thoughts since prior to the Toaster site. Excellent site! The articles and objective comments go hand in hand are very refreshing. Hopefully in the future I will have a little more time to comment (first time commenting). In any case just wanted to say keep up the good work.
Anonymous
Looking around the site… It feels freer already – and a place where you and the DT community can be uniquely themselves. The LAT & ESPN brought cache – which is nice – but this already has a feel to it that I think can be more satisfying in a number of ways. I’m curious, too, if there’s any thought on your part re: reaching out to KLAC – with the D’s moving there this season, it would seem a natural for there to be some sort of relationship between 570 & DT – be it formal or informal – and that’s something that being part of the EPSN juggernaut might have gotten in the way of.
Jon Weisman
I’ve reached out to a number of places, including KLAC. Some have responded, but KLAC has not.
Brent Daniel
Glad to see you back at a site with greater readability and greater ease of commenting
Anonymous
I am glad about the site too, but I also liked to know that Jon got paid for all he gives
But really great to see some names here I have not seen in so long
Look forward to enjoying the baseball season with you all
Jon Weisman
Again, I understand the reality that many didn’t like commenting at the Times or ESPN, but I still believe a lot of the problems being discussed are, well, fictional. At each place, you logged in, typed in your comment, and hit post. Readbility – yes, that differs. But ease of commenting? Still think it was plenty easy to comment at ESPN.
Putting aside the rise of other Dodger blogs, people gave up on commenting at the Times and ESPN rather than make the effort that they’re making here. Which I appreciate now, but you know, I might turn pro again at some point, so it does make me a little sad.
I don’t have a doubt in my mind that the community could have thrived at ESPN as much as it might here if people had been as willing. But there really was a mental block for a lot of people.
In fact, not that I want to make an issue of it, but I’m surprised more people don’t miss not having to refresh the comments to see new ones.
Anonymous
In the end, we were all hipsters who didn’t like corporate owned something or other
this was really the start of occupy, except we didn’t know it
Jon Weisman
Ha :)
Anonymous
I prefer to be a luddite, a reactionary! Besides, the hipster look doesn’t suit me at all.
Anonymous
I do find it annoying to have to refresh, but I will not indulge myself with a Rule 8 violation.
Anonymous
This is going to sound totally crazy, and it’s really not a good excuse, but one reason I visited your site less when it was at ESPN was that I could never remember the web address. Sorry.
Jon Weisman
http://www.dodgerthoughts.com has worked for about eight years.
Ken Arneson
Design impacts user behavior in countless unconscious ways. You can ask users why do or don’t do something, but they usually don’t really understand it themselves, and the answers you get will just be post-facto rationalizations. In the design world, you can’t really blame the customers if they don’t use your product, you just have to make a better product.
I mean, the Oakland Coliseum is just as easy to watch a ball game in 2011 as it was in 1989, but you just don’t get the same nice feeling with Mount Davis out there. And so you don’t make quite the effort to go, and attendance drops.
Derek TC
I could never figure out why people didn’t like the commenting at espn, it was easy and the automatic refresh made it so much easier to keep up, especially on a phone, where you can’t F5 so you have to scrol all the way to the top to refresh and then all the way back down to find your spot again.
Michael
it’s nice to be toast again.
Anonymous
of the town!
OF THE TOWN
Anonymous
Well, yes. Being paid is always a good thing. But sometimes progress doesn’t come in a straight line. And that can go for money too.
Jon Weisman
Shouldn’t you be working?
Howard Kulzer
Love the new site.
Jon Weisman
Chris Meloni cast as Leo Durocher in “42”
bit.ly/ySvzdy
Anonymous
Have a photo of Leo the Lip and Laraine Day with my mother-in-law in Santo Domingo, spring training 1948 (put not sure how to post it)
Jon Weisman
New Dodger Thoughts page on Facebook
http://on.fb.me/yJS4lM
Anonymous
I was the 100th like! I can use that number in my arbitration hearing.
Linkmeister
I’ve registered my opinion there. ;)
Nick Durazo
It feels like the old Toaster! And now my t-shirt finally has the correct URL ;)
While the shifts to different venues brought on unique difficulties, I’d have to say my decline in comments has more to do with a less interesting product on the field these last couple years. I’ve still been reading all the posts, but with a bleak ownership situation and a thinning farm there wasn’t as much to get excited about. Hopefully with new owners will come more money spent (wisely, one would hope) as well as some new blood at GM (sorry Ned).
Jim Hitchcock
It does feel like the toaster. I like it a lot.
And Hollywood_Joe is the winner of the give Joseph a Nickname contest. He gets to pick the diner.
Anonymous
Site works great from my mobile!
Nick Durazo
And now to test out the new avatar…
Nick Durazo
Okay, looks like people were just posting images. Well here’s one!
Anonymous
Hey Nick
That image is scary.
Nick Durazo
Crap, now it’s displaying my real name instead of my alter-ego. I’ve been outed!
And when I go to my profile, it doesn’t even show my real name. Anyone know how to fix this?
Anonymous
Just set up a Disqus account with your preferred screen name. The name you are posting as should appear in the bottom left.
Anonymous
I set up an Avatar that it doesn’t show – any ideas how to work it?
Ken Arneson
I configured the site not to show avatars.
Anonymous
I much prefer not having avatars. I really like the simplicity you’ve got going right now.
overkill94
When I go to my Disqus profile it shows overkill94 as my username but then posts as Nick Durazo
overkill94
Okay, now I just changed my “Full Name” to my screen name and it did the trick. Now y’all will never know my real name! Wait…
Eric Enders
I can’t explain it, but this just feels better somehow. It’s like the ESPN LA site was some depressing domed stadium, and this new site is clean and bright and open-air — I guess that makes it Dodger Stadium.
Jon Weisman
I totally get that, and feel it to boot. I’m just saying, the domed stadium doesn’t have to be depressing if you come with a forgiving mind.
But great to see you here :)
Linkmeister
In my case it was having to wait to have my sign-in name show up. Often it just plain wouldn’t until long after my clever riposte to somebody’s comment had gotten stale.
I really like the ability to subscribe to comments via email, in case I leave one and have to depart for a while.
Jon Weisman
Downton Abbey becomes the first PBS primetime show to make cover of TV Guide in 32 years. This will be of interest to myself and all other sophisticated people.
http://weblogs.variety.com/on_the_air/2012/02/downton.html
Linkmeister
Neither Moyers’s shows nor The News Hour has ever done so? That surprises me a little.
adamclyde
about the only show I watch these days. Fantastic…
Anonymous
I think this is the first time, other than the Simpsons, that a TV show was referenced on DT that I’ve actually seen.
Anonymous
I like the new site big thumbs up. The only thing I don’t like is that the new comments are at the clear bottom. Other than that thumbs up :)
Linkmeister
In the upper right corner of the comments page under the Disqus logo there’s a box which allows you to specify sort order. Pick newest first and you’ll see them at the top.
Anonymous
I keep forgetting that TV Guide still exists. A personal tid bit about Durocher. He was the first grown up I ever saw slug another guy in person. My dad took me to the clubhouse to try to get autographs after a game, and Durocher was coming out – had some sort of exchange with a guy that I didn’t catch – and Durocher just slugged him. Today, that’d be a headline on TMZ. Back then, I doubt it even made the papers.
Anonymous
test
Anonymous
I’m still wondering who snagged Jack_Dawkins on this site before I could. BUt be reassured, only this one will bring up Opera and cricket talk, although this weekend is reserved for Mahler talk, the symphony of a thousand at the Shrine.
Ken Arneson
The user names are not unique to the site, they’re unique to the entire Disqus user base, which is huge. Not too surprising there’d be another Jack Dawkins out there somewhere.
Anonymous
I like your cricket talk Jack!
Anonymous
Your last version had a hyphen, not a underscore, didn’t it? Jack-Dawkins, not Jack_Dawkins?
Paul Goodwin
so glad to read all the old DT commentators again. Now where is dezzertrat, or however it was spelled?
Andrew Shimmin
He’s indisposed, just now. But scheduled to quit being so, March 19th.
Paul Goodwin
and avatar check…
Paul Goodwin
how did you get your avatars to show? I see mine in the profile, but it did not appear when I posted
Ken Arneson
Avatars are disabled. You can embed an image in a post, though.
Anonymous
Ha!
Anonymous
Mexico’s Minister of Finance tossing the first pitch at WBC games in DF (he played amateur ball).
Anonymous
By the way, I’m still curious whether HSC should be the starting first baseman.
Anonymous
Meet the new Thoughts, same as the old Thoughts.
That’s a good thing. Your writing is essential regardless of where we find it, Jon.
Anonymous
Mahler talk? I can participate after Friday night.
Jack Dawkins
I will be attending Friday as well. One hopes what happened in NY early this year during Mahler 9 doesnt occur this time. With 1100 performers scheduled for Saturday I dont think anyone will notice if it happens Saturday. http://tinyurl.com/6wq723x
Anonymous
I just worry that my wife will need to go to the bathroom in the middle of Friday’s performance, which has no intermission.
Salonen did the Symphony of 1000 at the Hollywood Bowl a few years back. That was back when my wife and I were just dating. She liked that performance.
Jack Dawkins
I am a bit of a Mahler addict. Saturday will be the first time I have heard the 8th indoors. The other 2 times were at the bowl, the second time the one you mentioned. The first was with Michael Tilson Thomas, who stalked off the stage in the second movement when a police helicopter began to circle overhead every 2 minutes as it was assisting in some manhunt by Yamashiro.
With the number of singers and musicians required, the 8th is almost never done indoors. so Saturday will be a once in a lifetime experience for someone like me. I am quite looking forward to it.
Anonymous
One of the things I really enjoyed about the Toaster community was that people often discussed significant life events in the comments. For example, I seem to remember Spawn of Kavula being talked about. Also, I once asked the DT community to weigh in on my wife’s idea to give my daughter the middle name of Antoinette (the community gave it thumbs down).
In that spirit, I feel like congratulations are in order, because my recollection is that Bob was single in the Toaster days. Congrats!
Anonymous
Spawn is well. She has a sister now – Kavula’s Folly, or Folly for short.
Anonymous
Not sure if you remember me from the Toaster days. I remember one issue with the LA Times site was that registration was an issue. I remember a game where Kershaw had a not hitter through 7 innings and people were breaking rule 9 just for the sake of breaking the rule and then were posting as other people to confuse everyone as to who said what.
Later on in the season, DT at the Times had an influx of really negative posters or possibly just trolls who made it a lot less fun. Additionally I was starting grad school, so I stopped commenting Dodger Thoughts. I still read your articles on ESPN LA, although not as regularly as I had at the Toaster. But I never registered to comment.
Jon Weisman
I think in the early days at the Times that was a bigger problem, but it dissipated, and at ESPN I think that was hardly a problem at all. It’s also not as if Toaster didn’t have trolls. Ask Ken how many people he had to ban.
Andrew Shimmin
Ken, how many toasterites did you have to ban? More Bronx Banterers or DTers?
Ken Arneson
1) I don’t know, maybe a dozen? 2) Depends if you count repeat offenders, I guess. There was one DTer (he who must not be named) I probably kept out in one form or another once or twice a day.
Anonymous
Is there a way to get replies to show up at the bottom with the rest of the newest comments? For example, if I made a comment 5 hours ago, and somebody replied to it two hours ago, the reply would be buried at the beginning of the comments, and I’m not likely to see it. What I thought was so nice about the format at the Toaster was that people would often refer back to comments and conversations from much earlier (and the numbering system made that convenient).
Anonymous
Oh yeah, the numbers in brackets were awesome.
Anonymous
Just testing my image, and wondering whether Hendley or SaMo will recognize it.
Anonymous
This really does feel like the Toaster again. And nice to see so many familiar names. Now if we can just arrange a few more hours in each day so I can have time to read and post.
Jon Weisman
New post up top.
Anonymous
Hey, I got LAT’ed!
Gary Smith
I notice that some posters names are a link to email and some are not, mine included. Is this a setting ? if so where ?