No bobblehead giveaways on these dates

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While waiting for news on whether the Dodgers’ stretch-run bullpen will include Kenley Jansen, Chad Billingsley or neither, we learned from Bill Shaikin of the Times that the Dodgers’ 2013 home schedule is “tentatively set” to include the Red Sox and Yankees – in addition to the Dodgers’ first regular-season road games at any place named Yankee Stadium.

  • Anonymous

    So that means no less than six games with the Yanquis next year? Only in late October should the Dodgers ever play the Yanquis.

    • Anonymous

      According to the article, there will be two games in NYC and two games in LA, for a total of four, not six. Still, I didn’t think any team played two interleague series against any team other than its designated rival.  Is this something new?

      • Anonymous

         It appears to be Selig’s latest gimmick.

      • Anonymous

        I have a feeling that the Dodgers played the White Sox both home and away very recently, within the past 2 or 3 years. Is that not the case?  (And we seem to have played them almost every year for the past 5 or 6 years, for no good reason.)

        • Anonymous

          No, that is not the case.  In the sixteen years since interleague play began in 1997, they played six times: only at DS in 2003, 2008 and 2012, and only at the Cell in 2005, 2009 and 2011.

          Interleague scheduling rotates divisions, so the Sox games usually occur only in years when the Dodgers play several AL Central teams.  They added 2009 so they could celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the 1959 WS.

          • Anonymous

            Still,  08, 09, 10, 11, 12 is too often. Every year for 5 years. White Sox are not any sort of traditional rival. Dodgers never even played them in the WS. Camelback hardly counts. And thatevery-year  pattern is not “AL Central years plus ’09″. We didn’t play AL Central 4 years out of 5, nor should we. It just fit someone’s convenience. This year, for example, we played AL West teams, except instead of playing the Rangers we played the White Sox yet again – boo.

          • Anonymous

            Better check who played in 1959 World Series…

          • Anonymous

            Wow, you seem to have trouble with numbers and facts.  They did NOT play in 2010.  And six times in sixteen years is about average.  If you want to complain about playing too many times in 2008-2012, then you should also complain about playing only twice in 1997-2007.

            Sheesh, the meaningless things that people here dream up to complain about!  :rolleyes:

          • foul tip

             Forgetting the ’59 World Series is just not cricket!   ;-]

          • Anonymous

            Right, and the ’09 appearance was commemorating the ’59 WS. Almost surprising they didn’t have a home-and-away that year, in fact.) And sorry about inventing 2010. Still, come on, given that 2 of the 5-6 interleague series every year are with the Angels, surely you want more variety than seeing the White Sox 4 years out of 5. I do – that’s supposed to be the point of interleague games – playing teams you otherwise never get to see.

            I apologize for getting a couple of details wrong here and thus overstating the case, but the case still stands that we repeatedly had series with the White Sox when we could have had more variety. I like the idea of playing an AL division (and I’m sure it’s easier to schedule that way) so it was disappointing this year to get the White Sox yet again instead of the Rangers. I’m very surprised you find this controversial and disagree, but fine. Let’s play the White Sox every year until kingdom come.

          • Anonymous

            I believe we suffered a crushing loss in the 2005 series. It was the Saturday game in Chicago. I can’t remember the rest of the series.

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

      I think one of the series against the Yankees is two games. 

      • Anonymous

         Thanks for the clarification, but I still prefer to see the two teams play in October only.

      • Anonymous

        The article says BOTH series against the Yankees are two games.

  • Anonymous

    LAT’ed…

    Quite a catch by old friend Jason Repko of a potential grand slam by Kosuke Fukudome, both playing at AAA: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/jason-repko-flips-over-wall-rob-kosuke-fukudome-233644163–mlb.html

  • Anonymous

    The first few years of interleague play had a lot of two-game series, which players don’t like. They say it’s hard to get settled in to a new city in that short of a time. But I assume the players already signed off on this deal.

    Still no word if the Rays are going to play at Dodger Stadium. Tampa Bay is the only team in the major never to play at Dodger Stadium.

    • Anonymous

      When did the Blue Jays play here, Bob? (I’ve only been watching since mid-2006.) Whenever it was, it doesn’t seem to have made much of an impression…

      • Anonymous

        They played only at DS in 2002, and only in Toronto in 2004. They played two series, home and away, in 2007, so I guess there was already a precedent for that against an interleague non-rival.

      • Anonymous

        I forget the year, but I went to a Dodgers-Blue Jays game at Dodger Stadium. Roy Halladay pitched for Toronto.

        The Dodgers… did not win.

  • Anonymous

    Even if Vinny travels to Yankee Stadium will he do any of the broadcasts? Fingers crossed :)

    • Anonymous

       How could he not?

      • Anonymous

        If there are only two games then both might end up on the mega channels with their own announcers, leaving Vinny out. I hope that isn’t the case and we get to hear Vinny tell stories about the borough of Brooklyn.

        • Anonymous

          If both Dodgers-Yankees games at Yankee Stadium ended up on a big channel, I have a feeling that Vin would just do the game on radio. He does that on very rare occasions now. When he does, he usually takes off innings 3 and 7.

          • Anonymous

             If the TV broadcast is ahead of the radio, you could delay it the requisite few seconds. Harder to do it the other way – certainly my radio can’t do time delay. Maybe via MLB At Bat audio?

        • Anonymous

           Even so, they might invite Vin to share the broadcast.

          • Anonymous

            The time they (I can’t recall if it was ESPN or FOX) did that with Ernie Harwell a few years ago, they gave him half an inning. That’s probably all it would be.

          • Anonymous

            That is a shame.

  • Anonymous

    How about the Royals or Rangers? I will assume they have played here I just don’t remember.

    • Anonymous

      You can look up the Dodgers schedule and results for any year by changing 2012 to the year you’re interested in, using this website address (you’ll need to remove the spaces before and after the dots)

      www . baseball-reference . com/teams/LAD/2012-schedule-scores.shtml

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

    Live blog: Vince Gilligan talks #breakingbad 2012 bit.ly/QiVCYk

    • Anonymous

       Gilligan got off the island?

      • Anonymous

        When he turned 50 AARP junk mail found him.

        • http://twitter.com/Greekgeek Greekgeek

          You just won an internet.

    • Anonymous

      There will also be a long interview with Alan Sepinwall up on Thursday.

  • Anonymous

    What was more surprising about last night’s game?
    -The fact that Andrew Werner threw first pitch strikes to 14 of the first 15 batters he faced? or-That none of the Dodgers swung at that first pitch strike until Hanley’s homer?

    It was obvious to Vin and to anyone else watching the game with any care that the first pitch from Werner was going to be the best one any hitter saw.  Yet despite the fact that 7 of the first 9 hitters struck out, nobody seemed to go to the plate with a different approach.    If a guy on his couch can figure out what’s going on, how come Trey Hillman or any of the guys who are paid to notice this don’t tell the hitters? 

    • Anonymous

       Or that Bud Black pitched to AJ despite the Dodgers’ lame pinch-hitting options for the pitcher?

      • Anonymous

        I was thinking the same thing.  Especially after Cruz took second.

        If Black hadn’t had Ellis 0-2, he might have walked him to get to hard-hittin’ Adam Kennedy!

        • Anonymous

          Alternatively, some managers don’t like to have their pitchers throw four intentional balls and then have pressure to throw strikes when a non-intentional walk will beat you.

        • Anonymous

          Had to have been the count.  Still, the next pitch shouldn’t be hittable.

    • Anonymous

      Because that would be contrary to Mattingly’s philosophy of making the pitcher work more. Matt Kemp is a much better hitter when he hits the first pitch. Teams win games in spite of managers, not because of them.

    • Anonymous

      I recall seeing Mellis swing at the first pitch, and foul it off.  Perhaps some others did as well.

      • Anonymous

        I recall that being the second pitch of his first AB.  He then did a George Washington imitation for strike three.

  • Anonymous

    Interleague combinations not played yet in regular season:
    Atlanta at Kansas City
    Minnesota at Atlanta
    Cubs at Oakland
    White Sox at Mets
    St. Louis at Anaheim
    San Diego at Toronto
    Texas at St. Louis
    Dodgers at Yankees
    Tampa Bay at Dodgers

    • Anonymous

      So every team has played every other team, but not every other team at home AND away.

      • Anonymous

        In the NFL, where teams regularly rotated to play teams in the other conference, still never saw Tampa Bay play at Buffalo until 2009.

  • Anonymous

    Was there to be word on Kenley today?

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Terry-Pruett/1707390003 Terry Pruett

      Tomorrow I believe

      • Anonymous

        It was supposed to be today according to several sources including dodgers.com

        We’re expecting word on Bills also…

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Terry-Pruett/1707390003 Terry Pruett

          i stand corrected

  • http://twitter.com/nrmnbates Eric Enders

    Patrick O’Neal of MLB Network spoke with Jansen and is reporting that Kenley WILL return this season. He will continue to take blood thinners for the next 10-12 days and has targeted the September 18 game at Washington for his return. He will then pitch through the end of the season, and will get a heart ablation procedure done during the offseason to treat the irregular heartbeat.

    • Anonymous

      Not the worst-case scenario, but not so good as the best-case scenario that he’d be back for the weekend at The Phone Booth To Be Named Later.

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

    More bullpen woes: Javy Guerra goes on DL with left oblique strain. Josh Wall brought up from playoff-bound Albuquerque.

    • Anonymous

      What’s the point of putting him on the DL, when it’s expanded roster time? – unless they think it’s a 60-day issue.

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

         I don’t know.  Guessing he’s out for a while …

        • Anonymous

          It just seems like an unnecessary transaction, unless they want add somebody else to the 40-man in the short term and call him up.

          • http://twitter.com/nrmnbates Eric Enders

            Like Paco Rodriguez for instance, who is just about the last LOOGY left standing.

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

             Well, let’s wait and see what happens.

        • Anonymous

           Can we presume Choate is OK, since we’ve not heard anything about him?

    • Anonymous

      Left side wow! Isn’t it normally the right side for a RH Pitcher?

  • Anonymous

    Can we get Loney back to pitch out of the bullpen?  What’s the word on Choate after last night?

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

    NPUT

  • Anonymous

    Does the loss of Lindblom get bigger and bigger? Probably not…but he did pitch well for us.

  • Jibin Park

    That would be crazy if there was a bobblehead given on Yankee day… a retro Don Mattingly!