Dodger Thoughts

Ernie Harwell, whose departure from the Brooklyn Dodgers broadcast team paved the way for Vin Scully’s arrival, will be honored with the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting.

Harwell, acquired by Dodger chief Branch Rickey in an actual trade for catcher Cliff Dapper in 1948, is 92 and suffering from inoperable cancer. He then joined the Giants in 1950 and was replaced by Scully. He gave a memorable farewell speech to his Detroit Tigers fans last September.

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• The career of former Dodger draft pick Luke Hochevar gets a lengthy stats-and-observation-based analysis from John Sickels of Minor League Ball. Sickels also has a comparison of the Dodgers’ Scott Elbert with Colorado’s Franklin Morales.
• Steve Dilbeck of Dodgers Blog catches up with Tommy Davis, who remains disappointed that he ended up playing with 11 teams over a 10-year period.
• Rob Neyer of ESPN.com and Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk discuss how Major League Baseball itself appears to be taking over the Giants’ position against Tim Lincecum in their salary arbitration hearing.
• Tom Glavine has officially retired and taken a front office job of the special assistant variety with Atlanta.
• My Variety colleagues and I wrapped up the fourth season of Friday Night Lights in an online chat at Variety’s On the Air blog. For those who don’t have DirecTV, the fourth season premieres on NBC on April 30.
• Finally, I’m loving this: Hannah Mitchell, the 8-year-old daughter of Times staffer Houston Mitchell, is blogging the Olympics from Vancouver for the Times.




Hi! My name is Hannah Mitchell and I am 8 years old. My dad works for The Times, and he asked me to write a blog sometimes on the fun I am having in Vancouver for my first Olympics. If this is boring to you, blame him. And I want to say hi to all my classmates at Sonrise Christian in Mrs. Doolittle’s class. Yes, Mrs. Doolittle, I am doing my homework. And hi to Mrs. K, Mrs. Free and Mrs. Ambrose.

On my first day in Vancouver, I already have had two really fun things happen: I was interviewed by a TV station and I saw the prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper. …