Lorenzo Bundy congratulates homer-hitting Clint Robinson in the eighth inning today.
By Jon Weisman
For those of you caught in today’s rain in Los Angeles, it won’t surprise you to find that weather could be a factor for Saturday’s Spring Training game for the Dodgers against the Brewers.
In the meantime …
- Juan Castro, now a Dodger special assistant for player personnel, talked to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com about the challenge faced by Dee Gordon and Alex Guerrero in trying to master second base.
“The double play is harder, because the shortstop has everything in front of him. He can see the runner. The second baseman has his back to the runner and doesn’t know where he’s at, where he’s sliding, if he’s going to get hit.”
Castro said players are instructed on their positioning to take a throw, turn the pivot and get out of the way of the runner. But it’s too dangerous to practice getting taken out by an opponent trying to break you in half from behind. That only happens in the games, and there’s no way to know how a player reacts until it does.
- With 22 days to go until a potential March 22 start for No. 22, it’s Clayton Kershaw in the spotlight at Opening Day Countdown, whose Mark Newman wonders if Kershaw could someday become the greatest Opening Day pitcher of all time.
- Adrian Gonzalez on the Dodger Stadium crowds last year, as told to Richard Justice of MLB.com:
“The crowds were there when we were losing,” he said, “and that made it more special to go out there and win some games for them and get in the playoffs. You know, you always hear about the crowds when they’re winning, but when they’re out there when we’re losing, that shows a lot about what kind of fan base we have.”
- Monica Barlow, public relations director for the Baltimore Orioles, passed away from cancer at age 36. There are several tributes to her online, such as this from Peter Schmuck of the Baltimore Sun.
