By Jon Weisman

Links for a Thursday …

  • Ken Gurnick has a Spring Training preview for the Dodgers at MLB.com.
  • While Gurnick looks ahead to the 2014 Dodgers, Lyle Spencer of MLB.com looks back at the 1963 Dodgers. “Managed by Walter Alston, the Dodgers overcame a sluggish start to win the National League pennant and surgically sweep the vaunted New York Yankees in a stunning World Series,” Spencer writes. “They did it with a predominantly black lineup, the first time that had happened.”
  • Mark Saxon of ESPNLosAngeles.com explores the possibility of Hyun-Jin Ryu having a sophomore slump, a topic that Chad Moriyama takes up at Dodgers Digest.
  • Is the most iconic moment in Dodger history the Kirk Gibson home run? The Sporting News thinks so, and the only argument that I can really think of would involve Jackie Robinson.
  • Robinson expresses his views on why baseball is popular in this letter, available on auction and discussed by Ernest Reyes at Blue Heaven.
  • The Derrel Thomas Foundation is presenting the second annual Positive Image Awards at a dinner February 20. Roberto Baly at Vin Scully Is My Homeboy has more.
  • Remember Koyie Hill? The one-time Dodger farmhand, a decade removed from the franchise, is still kicking and signed a minor-league contract with Washington. Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors has details.
  • Joe Sheehan imagines what baseball would be like with a one-game World Series that resembles the Super Bowl and doesn’t like what he sees.
  • You shouldn’t take recovery from Tommy John surgery for granted, writes Jeff Sullivan for Fangraphs — providing several examples of why.
  • This Parks and Recreation-Dodgers mashup from @akaTheConman appeals to two of my great loves.