Dodger Thoughts

Jon Weisman's outlet for dealing psychologically with the Los Angeles Dodgers, baseball and life

Smiles, everyone, smiles

© Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers

Dodgers 6, Rockies 4 – and a picture that’s worth 1,000 runs. 

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When Mike Trout surpassed Matt Kemp

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Uribe is home free

63 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    Beautiful photo

  2. Anonymous

    Great photo.  What a pair of wonderful gentlemen.  Do you know when that was shot?

    • Anonymous

      I believe that was shot today.

    • Before tonight’s game. 

      • BB

        If that’s the case, I gotta say I’m a bit sad.  I love Vin; I love Sandy.  I was at Tuesday night’s bobblehead night.  If Sandy was there (or in town), had he so much as stuck his head out of the dugout and waved, it would have meant the world to me and to all the fans who love him. I understand and respect his desire for privacy, but it was a moment lost.

  3. Anonymous

    If I may ask a hypothetical question regarding the inside the park home run (I didn’t see it):  does Victorino catch that ball?

    • Anonymous

       It seemed to light a fire under the boys.  Glad it woke up Kemp.  We’re nothing without him.

    • Anonymous

      The 1954 Willie Mays would have caught it. 

      • It was a clean double that was played into a home run.  

        • Anonymous

          Misplayed into a HR by a CF that didn’t realize it was better to play the bounce off the wall and keep EY to a double. Instead he does not quit on a clean double (i.e. he was never going to catch it) and makes the play worse.

      • Anonymous

         1954 Mays might have caught it. Jim Edmonds might have caught it.

        • Anonymous

          No way Edmonds sniffs that ball. Always cracked me up about him and his diving catches, because he was slower than anybody else. For any Edmonds  dive, Mays, Andruw, etc would have been standing there waiting for the ball to come down.

  4. Anonymous

    The only thing for sure is that I won’t have that kind of class, aura and all-time charisma when I’m that old. 

     

  5. Thank God, they really needed that one. Wasn’t always pretty but it worked.  Bills overall pitched pretty well after the 1st, and Kenley was nails. Finally some clutch hits.  

    Eric Young Jr is a pain in the butt — I only hope that continues this weekend and then I’ll be more forgiving. 

    • Anonymous

      Bills is our #6 pitcher and our #6 batter.

      Strange.

      • Anonymous

        #6 pitcher? Are you interfiling relievers with starters? Or do you think Stephen Fife would pitch better than Billingsley?

        • Anonymous

          Just going for the big picture.

          In my universe, we have two and a half pitchers, Kershaw, Jansen, and a sober Belli.

          The rest are garbage, barring a healthy Lilly.

          • Anonymous

            This makes no sense. Those “garbage” pitchers have put together a staff ERA of 3.34 coming into tonight’s game, which was 2nd best in the league.

          • Anonymous

            Watch out for VODF

          • Bills is garbage? Ooookay, well, you have a right to your universe. I’ve heard the Restaurant at the End of it is pretty cool. ;)

          • Anonymous

            You really consider Bills our #2 at the moment?

            Heal up, TRL, fast.

      • Yeah, I don’t get the # 6 pitcher comment at all. He’s won 5 games in a row. That’s better than Kershaw lately. 

        • Anonymous

          Yes, he’s our #2 at the moment.  Although Capuano is a close third; he’s had some clunkers but some good outings since his great start.  And Harang has been consistently pretty good, flying under the radar.  Blanton, too soon to tell.

          With the exception of Blanton, all of these plus Lilly and Rubby (and Kershaw) are under contract for next year.

    • Anonymous

      Yes we needed it. After being swept I was confident we could handle the Rocks so, sometime in these last two  losses I realized I was getting too emotionally involved like in years past.  I’d already decided to back off for a while, and this game was welcome.

  6. Anonymous

    Likely the two classiest Dodgers of all time.

  7. Btw, numerous sources on Twitter reporting that Tony Gwynn Jr. accepted assignment to Albuquerque. Which makes me happy, and sad for him, at the same time. But I’m glad. Maybe they’ll find a way to put him back on the roster in September? (Would be tricky though.)

  8. Anonymous

    Where oh where have all the Billingsley bashers gone? 4 W’s in a row have shut them up but good.

    • Anonymous

      I like Bills, but he gave up more runs than our recent starters.

      It wasn’t a quality start.

      • Anonymous

        If he had a quality start, you likely would have said that the quality start stat was bogus.

        • Anonymous

          No, and that’s a cheap shot.

          My vitriol is reserved for those that disgrace the blue.  I like Bills.  He’s mentally a little fragile, but I like the way he leverages those ginormous thighs and ass.  Chad is a good kid.

          • Anonymous

            I would apologize, but I am too mentally fragile to do such things.

        • Anonymous

          It is a bogus stat, but Bills pitched well after the shaky start despite the lapse to LeMahieu.

      • It could have been a quality start if Ethier hadn’t messed up the picking up of the ball on that hit after Belli came in; runner wasn’t going until then. 

        • Anonymous

          That’s all spilt milk.

          Dre has a strange relationship with high temps for an AZ resident, though.

  9. So Tony Gwynn Jr. accepts his assignment to AAA, and now Dylan Hernandez is reporting Sands will be optioned to make room for Kennedy. This doesn’t make much sense at all. Sands starts one game then gets sent down with TGJ being a bystander of the whole move, and now we get both Kennedy and Uribe on the roster. Why?

    • Anonymous

       Uribe makes no sense.

      Mike T is right about Kennedy.  He may look 45 years old, but he has been good lately, and deserves a spot.  Sands needs to bring a little more mojo to the show.

      I just worry that Donnie’s endless monkeying with the infield costs us errors when they matter.

      • Sands hardly got a shot this time around. And why call him up and send Tony down for just a few days? Sure Kennedy can have a spot, but why Uribe? He still has yet to even make a plate appearance in the last week.

        • Anonymous

          Sadly, there was only room for one guy in my handle.

          Uribe, on the whole, is much worse than James, and that is saying something.

          Tony is made redundant by Shane.  Even for doubters/haters, Shane is clearly a better TG Jr.

          • I guess what I’m getting at is, even if we don’t bring Uribe into the discussion, why not just let Tony stay up for the week and designate him when Kennedy is ready? Did they think maybe Sands will tear it up in the one game (3 at bats) they start him and justify cutting somebody else? It honestly makes no sense.

          • Anonymous

            Don’t ask me.

            I don’t know why we didn’t see Josh Fields two months ago.

            I really hope Magic is watching, and throws his weight around.

          • Anonymous

            Josh Fields has been a total bust away from the thin air of Albuquerque.  And we don’t need another infielder.

  10. Anonymous

    could someone explain how Colvin (I think it was)  got an outfield assist of Kemp at first base?

    • Anonymous

      When Kemp singled to right, Ellis tried to go from 1st to 3rd, but got caught in a rundown halfway. Ellis managed to get back to 2nd, but Kemp was too far off of 1st and he got thrown out trying to get back. So Colvin got the first assist on the play.

      • Anonymous

        thanks btimmer

      • KT

        Actually he was tagged out trying to get back….there was no throw from the guy who caught the ball and tried to tag out Ellis and missed

  11. Anonymous

    Seriously – does Vin bottle it?

    Vin, Jerry Goldsmith, and maybe Jack N.  And maybe Sandy, judging by the pic.  He looks great.

    Those are the only LA cats I know that keep on rocking into the big 70 and still bring it all.

    An inspiration to all of us mortals.

     

    • Anonymous

      Since Jerry Goldsmith has been dead for eight years, I’m not finding him much inspiration for the living right now.

      • Anonymous

        Jerry had Hollywood credits stretching from Rod-Serling-before-the-booze-caught-up to “Mummy”.

        6 decades.

        Hence my reference for long-term longevity.

  12. Anonymous

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/MackInStands1916.jpg

    Note the way his intelligence looks right at you, a century later.

    Mack wasn’t a smallball fan.  Billy Beane was dusting off old tomes.  And may again this year.

  13. Anonymous

    Thanks for the photo.  Vin is terrific working alone, but one day I’d like to hear him team up with Sandy for a broadcast.  On national broadcasts I’ve heard Vin with assorted former players and Vinny has been really good at bringing out good comments from the players he’s worked with.  I remember Sandy with NBC and he didn’t talk all that much.  The best interviews I’ve heard from Sandy were with Vin after the 63 and 65 World Series.  I like to think Sandy’s broadcast career would have been more successful had he worked with Vin rather than Curt Gowdy and Jim Simpson.

  14. Anonymous

    So I think there was some Rule 11 violations earlier in this thread.

  15. Anonymous

    Program note for those outside of the L.A. area who get the MLB Network but not the Extra Innings subscription: Tomorrow night, the primary game on MLB Network is the Braves-Mets, and the backup game is the Dodgers-Marlin.  And there’s a forecast for heavy rain in New York.  So there’s a chance…  :)

  16. Anonymous

    Good tip

  17. Anonymous

    Last night John Ely pitched a 7-inning shutout (6 H 1 BB) in the second game of a double-bill at Albuquerque.  Yes, at Albuquerque.

    He really deserves another shot at the majors – either with the Dodgers, or with another MLB team.

  18. Anonymous

    I know most here (including me) have no love lost for T.J. Simers’ writting, but this from his column this morning :
    *Mattingly likes to joke that truebluela.com’s Eric Stephen knows more about the Dodgers than anyone else in the media.
    “Go ahead, Eric,” I tell him after Mattingly speaks highly of Stephen again, “ask him about some minor leaguer.”
    “All right, I’ll ask about Juan Rivera,” says Stephen, while asking Mattingly how he can stay with someone playing so poorly.*

  19. Anonymous

    What the heck was the Jerry Sands callup all about?  Why do you bring up a guy from AAA to play one game in four days, then send him back just so you can keep Juan Uribe’s posterior on the bench?  

    You can read the entire rant at http://www.dodgersdiaries.com. 

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