Keeping busy in their spare time

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We often joke about the Dodgers and their community efforts, ever since Jamie McCourt made her ill-fated “Dreamfields” comment a few years ago, but the scope of what the organization does for the community is pretty massive.

To get a grasp of it, check out their 2011 Community Report.

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  • Josh Wilker, again. Tragic news regarding one of his inspirations.
  • Cincinnati slugger Joey Votto will become a free agent after the 2013 season. David Schoenfield of ESPN.com’s Sweet Spot speculates that the Dodgers will be one of six teams in most dogged pursuit of Votto at that time — if they can wait that long.
  • Scott Andes of Lasorda’s Lair chronicles the long list of injuries the Dodgers suffered in 2011.
  • Casting has more or less just gotten underway for pilots under consideration for the 2012-13 TV season. For Variety, I wrote a story about how familiar female names are dominating the early going: Kirstie Alley, Roseanne Barr, Jami Gertz, Judy Greer, Marcia Gay Harden, Anne Heche, Reba McEntire, Rhea Perlman and Sarah Silverman. Some might call it “proven veteran leadership.”
  • http://twitter.com/elric31 Richard Libott

    Re those familiar female names for projected new series:  except for the cases of two–maybe three–familarity has bred contempt

    • http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

      Yeah, there’s a lot of PVL in that group, some would say. In fact, I’ll say that.

      • http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

        And now Portia de Rossi joins the party.  Since I loved Arrested Development and Better Off Ted, I endorse this.
        http://bit.ly/yKYy5G

        • Anonymous

          That’s a multi-camera sitcom for de Rossi, so that pretty much kills any interest I might have had.

          News of the day for me: Awake finally has a debut date on NBC. If it goes the way of Lone Star (cancelled after about five seconds), I just might start killing people.

          Oh, and since Dodger Thoughts is now using the Disqus system, I guess I am going to be known as “moretears” here. People here will be more familiar with me as “CanuckDodger,” just to clear up any confusion.

          • http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

             Interesting name change – this will be a hard one to adjust to!  But glad to have you here.

            I’m hoping Awake lasts longer if only because the bar is so low at NBC right now.  But The Firm and Prime Suspect have both managed to come under that bar.

            Big Bang Theory is multicam, so it’s not impossible for that format to succeed creatively these days.  But I’ll admit my taste is definitely for single-cam. Big Bang is really on a roll lately, though. 

          • Anonymous

            Yeah, about the “moretears” name (in case you are curious). “CanuckDodger” was a user-name I created when I first started commenting in baseball forums. When I later started commenting in TV forums, I wanted a user-name that would be a homage to something I like that is TV related. More Tears is the title of the TV series Ken Finkleman did after he did The Newsroom, and since “TheNewsroom” would have been an awful internet user-name, I opted for “MoreTears” (and the Disqus system somehow eliminated the capital letters when I registered the name).

          • Andrew Shimmin

            You’ll always be Repent or Burn to me.

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Hitchcock/1676059435 Jim Hitchcock

            There’s no crying in Canada.

          • Anonymous

            See my post above for an explanation of the user-name.:)

  • http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

    This post has been updated to add a link to a story Josh Wilker posted at Cardboard Gods.

  • Anonymous

    That must have been heart wrenching for Josh to write.  Great piece that can remind us all to say thanks to those that inspire us.

  • Anonymous

    I’ve been reading about other teams putting on a “fan-fest” during the off season.  There was Minnesota, Oakland, even Toronto.  I don’t ever recall the Dodgers staging some sort of off season gathering for the fans.

    • http://underdog.typepad.com/ underdog

      Yeah, they do one up here in SF for the damned Giants, too. My assumption — or at least my hope — is that once new ownership comes in and things stabilize under them, they might start doing a Dodger FanFest, too. 

      • Anonymous

        I’m guessing you meant “those darn Gnats.” It’s very irritating when little bugs fly into your mouth.

  • Anonymous

    The Dodgers winter caravan used to make stops all the way up to Santa Maria. My brother and I went to 1 back in the 80′s and saw Sax and Scioscia. An idea they should resume.

  • http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

    Moretears, I’m not familiar with “More Tears.” I take it from you it was another great one from Ken. 

    • Anonymous

      Darker and more “artsy” than The Newsroom, More Tears is great indeed.

      Employed by Variety as you are, Jon, have you ever had any dealings with Tony Krantz? I understand that years ago Krantz tried to get Finkleman set up in American television. A pilot by Finkleman was made for Fox through Krantz’s Imagine Television. I often wonder what that pilot was like.

      • http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

         Nope, I haven’t.

  • http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

    The Dodgers have done some sort of offseason caravan in recent years, though I don’t know if that qualifies as a fanfest. 

  • http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

    Emotional night for Gary Carter bit.ly/zd6qjZ bit.ly/y5RVRD

  • http://www.twitter.com/ElJefedor Jeffrey Thomas III
    • Anonymous

      Someone who can fill Broxton’s role in the Dodgers bullpen as the brunt of fat “jokes.”

    • http://underdog.typepad.com/ underdog

      Actually a pretty decent move, believe it or not. Would rather have him than MacDougal, frankly, but now we have both. Still expect a rookie call-up to have an impact this year, too, whether it be Tolleson or someone else. 

      • http://www.twitter.com/ElJefedor Jeffrey Thomas III

        I guess I expected the next arm to be signed would be a lefty, but I suppose we may get help in that category from one of our youngsters. St. Clair perhaps.

  • Anonymous

    According to MLBTR, the Dodgers have signed Todd Coffey, pending a physical.

  • http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

    New post up top, but not a baseball post.