By Jon Weisman
Moving past their big preseason scare regarding Sandy Koufax’s elbow, the Dodgers’ found some rhythm in April. Los Angeles spent most of the month in first place, going 10-5.
Here are some tidbits of the times — a really fun time capsule, if you ask me.
For more photos from Friday, visit LA Photog Blog.
By Jon Weisman
A quick stack of news and notes …
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"We'll all wear 42. That way they won't be able to tell us apart." #Jackie42 pic.twitter.com/93Io58DRSz
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 15, 2015
By Jon Weisman
Beginning at 2 p.m., MLB.com is live-streaming today’s Civil Rights Roundtable, featuring Frank Robinson, Sharon Robinson, Billy Bean, Magic Johnson, labor leader and civil-rights activist Dolores Huerta, and UCLA Department of Urban Schooling doctoral student Brian Woodward.
Now, in addition to what was posted this morning on Dodger Insider, here are more links to Jackie Robinson Day coverage around the Internet:
By Jon Weisman
In 2007, I wrote the following piece for SI.com on what it was like for Jackie Robinson on April 15, 1947.
* * *
For most of us who didn’t live through Jackie Robinson’s first day in the major leagues, black and white images have embedded it in our memories. A stark snapshot of Robinson in his Brooklyn Dodgers cap, or frames of newsreel footage showing him running the bases.
According to Jonathan Eig’s new book, Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season, when Robinson awoke early that day at Manhattan’s McAlpin Hotel, the sight before him, his wife, Rachel, and five-month-old son, Jack, Jr., was vivid and suggested anything but the historic day that was upon him.
John Wright with the Montreal Royals in March 1946 (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)
By Cary Osborne
Though John Wright, the second black player ever signed to a baseball contract, never made the Major Leagues, his signing further represented the vision of Branch Rickey and the progressive thinking of the Dodgers. And it was another step in the integration of baseball.
A right-handed pitcher with the Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues, Wright signed with the Dodgers’ farm team, the Montreal Royals, almost three months to the day after Jackie Robinson on October 23, 1945.
The headline in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on January 29, 1946 (click image above right to enlarge) read: “Dodger Farm Signs 2d Negro Player.”
Wright, a native of New Orleans, played 10 seasons in the Negro Leagues. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle noted that Wright had faced big-league competition, including the Dodgers, while pitching for a Navy team prior to 1945.
Despite his experience and accomplishments, including a 2.55 ERA in 141 1/3 innings for Homestead in 1943 (according to Baseball Reference), Wright was seen by some as a player whose role was to keep Robinson company.
“John Wright, the pitcher who is to keep Jackie from growing homesick for his own race …” started a sentence in a March 2, 1946 Brooklyn Eagle article.
Wright was Robinson’s teammate in Montreal at the beginning of the 1946 season and faced the same discrimination as the legendary figure. Another article mentioned that some Montreal exhibition games had to be cancelled in April 1946 because some cities had regulations against “mixed athletic competition.”
Wright was in the Dodger organization just one year. In 1947, he was back in the Negro League pitching for the Grays.
Wright died in 1990, reportedly at the age of 73. Though he didn’t make the impact that his former teammate did, Wright has a place in baseball history.
By Mark Langill
Today is a special day for Jalal Hazzard, manager of the Dodgers RBI youth program. His father, former UCLA basketball star Walt Hazzard, was born on April 15, 1942. The elder Hazzard passed away in 2011, but left a legacy which coincides with all Major League ballplayers wearing No. 42 on the anniversary of his Brooklyn Dodger debut at Ebbets Field in 1947.
“My dad idolized Jackie Robinson, they both went to UCLA,” Jalal said. “With the Bruins, he wore jersey 42 because of Jackie, and he continued wearing the number throughout most of his NBA career. The only time he didn’t wear 42 was when he played for the Golden State Warriors and Nate Thurmond had 42.”
Also: Over at MLB.com, Lyle Spencer has a story about Robinson’s relationship and impact on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
In honor of the game taking place in the Bronx tonight — 19 innings and counting as I write this — here’s a rare snapshot from the Fernando Valenzuela special section within the 2015 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook, showing Valenzuela playing in the outfield during the Dodgers’ 21-inning victory over the Cubs at Wrigley Field on August 17-18, 1982.
The photo isn’t blurry — it’s just reflective of how much one’s eyesight deteriorates during a game of that length.
Get the 2015 Los Angeles Dodgers Yearbook and all its goodness at Dodger Stadium stores or at dodgers.com/yearbook.
— Jon Weisman
By Jon Weisman
Today, the Dodgers acquired a Rule 4 competitive balance round B draft pick (No. 74 overall this June), right-handed reliever Ryan Webb and minor league catcher Brian Ward from the Orioles in exchange for catcher Chris O’Brien and pitcher Ben Rowen.
Ken Gurnick of MLB.com has more on the deal. The 29-year-old Webb had a 2.95 FIP with Baltimore last year and 37 strikeouts in 49 1/3 innings against 63 baserunners. Ward had a .641 OPS in a season spent mostly at Triple-A Norfolk.
And now, to fill the rest of your off day, more notes …
For more photos from Wednesday, visit LA Photog Blog.
By Jon Weisman
Adrian Gonzalez set a Major League record by hitting five home runs in his first three games, but you can this to his feats: Gonzalez became the 23rd player to homer in four consecutive at-bats. The most recent was another Gonzalez, Carlos of the Rockies, in 2012.
The Dodger first baseman’s streak began with his eighth-inning homer Tuesday and continued through his blasts in the first, third and fifth innings Wednesday — all to right-center field.
The funny thing about Gonzalez’s streak is that it is bracketed by hits — his sixth-inning double Tuesday and his sixth-inning single Wednesday. Heading into today’s off day for the Dodgers, Gonzalez has hits in seven consecutive at-bats.
For the season, Gonzalez is 10 for 13 with three singles, two doubles and five homers, for a .769 batting average and on-base percentage and a brain-shattering 2.077 slugging percentage — he is averaging more than two bases per at-bat. He has yet to ground out or fly out. In his first at-bat of the season, he lined the opposite way to third base, then struck out once in each of his first two games.
Shawn Green is the last Dodger to hit four homers in a game, on May 23, 2002, but they were preceded by a first-inning double and interrupted by an eighth-inning single. Starting that day, Green homered seven times in three games, and in the next month also hit five homers in a three-game stretch.
By Jon Weisman
MLB.com is asking fans to vote for the top four players in the history of every franchise — not unlike the “Who goes on your team’s Mt. Rushmore?” conversations you’ve probably been a part of. Also being voted on are the greatest from the Negro Leagues, MLB pioneers and greatest living players.
Selecting the eight for each team were panelists including official MLB historian John Thorn, representatives the Elias Sports Bureau (official MLB’s statistician), MLB.com, MLB Network and the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Click here to vote for your top Dodgers’ candidates (a write-in vote is permitted).
Of note: Steve Garvey is also among the Padres’ finalists. For that matter, so is Adrian Gonzalez.
By Jon Weisman
Imagine a world without the Internet, without social media, without wall-to-wall sports coverage, and you pick up your morning paper from the driveway to find this:
“VERO BEACH — Sandy Koufax, greatest left hander in the game, flew back to Los Angeles Thursday for examination of his stiff and swollen elbow — the one on his million dollar pitching arm which he injured last season,” wrote Frank Finch of the Times.
This April 2, 1965 story showed that things were different 50 years ago in more ways than one. As we noted last week, Koufax’s 1964 season ended in mid-August. Nevertheless, on March 30, in the middle of Spring Training — nearly two weeks before Opening Day — Koufax pitched his second straight complete game for the Dodgers, striking out 10 in a 2-0 loss.
Two days later, the 29-year-old was on a plane to see Dr. Robert Kerlan.
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What an incredible day that was.
— Jon Weisman
Jill Weisleder/Los Angeles Dodgers
Matt Kemp first faced the Dodgers in a March 12 exhibition game. A week from today, it counts. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
For photos from Sunday, visit LA Photog Blog.
By Jon Weisman
If you’re like Vin Scully, and you think it’s going to be weird to see Matt Kemp suit up for the Padres against the Dodgers on Opening Day in his first official career game for another team, you’re right.
Nothing like it has ever happened.
In the history of Dodger Stadium Opening Days, no other former Dodger — let alone one of Kemp’s current magnitude — has made his debut for an opponent before Scully and friends.
There have been a few former Dodgers to play for the opposition at Dodger Stadium on Opening Day, most recently Dave Roberts for the Giants in 2008 and Ismael Valdez for the Padres in 2004, but not very many, and they were always years removed from their last appearance in Dodger blue. (If you want to include road openers, former Dodger knuckleballer Charlie Hough pitched the Marlins’ first MLB game ever, against the Dodgers in 1993.)
Steve Garvey — the biggest name to go directly from Los Angeles to San Diego before Kemp — was at first base for the Padres at Dodger Stadium on Opening Day 1986, but Garvey was already in his fourth season with San Diego.
The highest-profile Dodger ever to play his next game for an opponent on Opening Day at Dodger Stadium was Reggie Smith, who started at first base for the Giants on April 6, 1982 — Los Angeles’ first official game since winning the World Series. Even this couldn’t be considered a big a deal as Kemp. Though revered by this author, Smith was not a career Dodger, and he had already ceased to be an integral part of the team by 1981, collecting seven hits and seven walks the entire year.
To find a Dodger regular who played an Opening Day for an opponent in Los Angeles the very next year, you have to go all the way back to a different venue and the very first Game No. 1 played in Los Angeles: April 12, 1960. (The Dodgers opened on the road for their first two seasons after moving from Brooklyn.) That player was Don Zimmer, who had been pushed to the bench by shortstop Maury Wills midway through the 1959 season.
That’s not to say there wasn’t some shock for local fans: Zimmer was traded to the Cubs on April 8, only four days before the start of the season, which found him at third base for Chicago at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Still, Don Zimmer playing for the Cubs at a Dodger home opener is nothing compared with what it’s going to be like to see Matt Kemp playing right field for the Padres a week from today. Surreal is a word that comes to mind. As Scully put it, the idea of Clayton Kershaw facing Kemp with the game on the line is, for now at least, mind-blowing.
That being said, time marches on, and so eventually will our sensibilities. If we could get used to Garvey in a Padre uniform, anything’s possible. (Well, almost anything.)
For more photos from Saturday, visit LA Photog Blog.
By Jon Weisman
Alex Guerrero homered to left in his second at-bat of Saturday’s 5-4 Dodger victory over the Angels, but it was the out he made in the first inning that might be the Dodgers’ most memorable blast of the spring.
Guerrero, who finished 2 for 4, launched one to the 420-foot mark in center field, only for Angels center fielder Mike Trout to rise above the wall to grab it.
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What else have we got?
By Jon Weisman
Periodically this year at Dodger Insider, we’ll flash back to 1965 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that World Series title for the Dodgers. You all know how it ended, but do you remember how we got there?
Today, we’ll check in on how things were sounding from Dodgertown in Vero Beach. Opening Day 1965 on April 12 was still about two weeks away, so while the Dodgers were coming off an 80-82, sixth-place finish in 1964, Spring Training’s power of positive thinking was in full swing. This was particularly the case with the pitching staff, as evidenced by two pieces that ran in the Times’ editions on March 28, 1965.
John Roseboro
Dodger catcher John Roseboro, entering his ninth season, told beat writer Frank Finch of the Times that the 1965 pitching staff was the best he’s handled.
“We have an overabundance of left-handers,” Roseboro said, implicitly acknowledging the offseason trade of Frank Howard for Claude Osteen, who joined Sandy Koufax and Johnny Podres in the four-man rotation, “but we have more depth now and won’t have to depend on two starters (Don Drysdale and Koufax) like we did most of last year.”
Drysdale threw 321 1/3 innings across 40 starts in 1964. Koufax averaged 7.9 innings per start with a 1.76 ERA, but his 1964 season after a 13-strikeout shutout August 16.
Assessing those top two pitchers in the midst of exhibition play, Roseboro was upbeat even if his glasses weren’t entirely rose-colored.
“Sandy’s just about ready to go nine strong innings. He’s throwing well, but his control is off a bit,” Roseboro said. “The last time I caught Don he looked ready for nine. Then he hit the ‘dead arm’ stage against the A’s. His control is good.”
Times columnist Sid Ziff reported even more positivity about the pitching, with a Dodger spokesman telling him it was “by far” the best it had ever been in Los Angeles. Of bigger concern was addressing 1964’s defensive shortcomings. The spokesman didn’t mince words.
Jim Lefebvre
“Our defense was horrible last year, but John Kennedy and Jim Lefebvre will help to correct that situation,” he said. “If Lefebvre doesn’t stay with the club, shame on us. There was a rumor he might be farmed out for another year of experience.”
Lefebvre made his Major League debut on Opening Day and went on to play 157 games and win the National League Rookie of the Year award. (Coincidentally, 50 years ago today, it was reported Lefebvre had escaped injury after being beaned in the helmet during an exhibition game against Detroit by former Dodger pitcher Larry Sherry.)
“We aren’t set in right field yet,” the spokesman continued, “but no matter who plays there, he’ll be a defensive improvement over Frank Howard. The way it looks now, Wes Parker has the best shot at it. He looks like a real hitter.”
Parker ended up settled at first base, with Ron Fairly taking the bulk of right-field action.
Also of concern was the clubhouse atmosphere and perceived undermining of manager Walter Alston. Leo Durocher, in particular, was famous for challenging Alston’s authority.
“Alston is finally on his own as a manager,” said the spokesman (who Ziff said wanted “to remain unidentified because it wouldn’t do for him to show so much confidence.”) “Now he doesn’t have to defer, subconsciously or otherwise, to any of his coaches. … The Bragans, Dressens and Durochers are all gone. There’ll be no other ‘managers’ in the dugout this season. We think it has taken a load off Alston’s shoulders. He has already assumed more authority.”
The idea that Alston, only one season removed from his third World Series title, was so under the gun shows you that it never really gets easy for a manager. But 1965 would indeed prove rewarding for Smokey.
What happens when three old friends in crisis fall into an unexpected love triangle? In The Catch, Maya, Henry and Daniel embark upon an emotional journey that forces them to confront unresolved pain, present-day traumas and powerful desires, leading them to question the very meaning of love and fulfillment. The Catch tells a tale of ordinary people seeking the extraordinary – or, if that’s asking too much, some damn peace of mind.
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