LOS ANGELES DODGERS CLIPS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2012
LA TIMES
Dodgers finish sweep of Pirates with 3-2 win
They finish sweep of Pirates and are a major league-best 6-1 by taking advantage of a struggling set of opponents.
By Dylan Hernandez
April 12, 2012, 11:17 p.m.
How the Dodgers will fare against the National League's top teams remains a mystery.
But one week into the regular season, this much is already clear: They can dominate teams short on talent, experience and money.
The Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the severely underfunded Pittsburgh Pirates with a 3-2 victory on Thursday night,
improving their major league-leading record to 6-1.
Next to visit Dodger Stadium will be the even worse San Diego Padres, from whom the Dodgers took three of four games in their
season-opening series at Petco Park.
"I'm happy we've been able to get these games," Manager Don Mattingly said. "It doesn't matter who they're coming against."
The last time the Dodgers won six of their first seven games was in 1981, when they went on to win the World Series.
By the end of this month, the Dodgers will have played 23 games. Of them, only six will have been against teams that finished better
than .500 last season: three on the road against the Milwaukee Brewers, who lost Prince Fielder over the winter, and three at home
against the Atlanta Braves, who blew an 81/2-game lead in the wild-card race last September.
"We have to treat every team the same," outfielder Matt Kemp said. Of the Pirates and Padres, Kemp said, "Yeah, they are young. But
they're not in the big leagues for no reason. They can play baseball."
Mattingly also discounted the notion that their record was a reflection of their soft schedule.
"Early in the year, it's tough to win games because it doesn't matter what people think you're supposed to be," Mattingly said. "You can
put things on paper all you want but you've got to go out and play."
He pointed to how the Pirates were in first place in the NL Central as late as July last season. Or how the Arizona Diamondbacks went
from last in the NL West in 2010 to first in 2011.
Baseball's unpredictability was perhaps best illustrated in the Dodgers' three-run first inning.
After Juan Rivera drove in the first run of the game with a sacrifice fly, James Loney and Juan Uribe hit back-to-back run-scoring singles.
For Loney, the hit was his first of the season. For Uribe, the run batted in was his first.
As was the case in his previous start, newcomer Chris Capuano was brilliant in the early innings only to falter in the middle.
Capuano gave up a solo home run to Michael McKenry in the fifth inning. The left-hander gave up back-to-back singles and a sacrifice fly
in the sixth inning that closed the gap to 3-2 and ended his night.
"I probably tightened up a little bit," Capuano said.
Capuano was charged with two runs and six hits in 51/3 innings, which was enough for him to earn his first victory with his new team.
But, he conceded, "That's a win the bullpen deserved credit for there."
Scott Elbert forced Matt Hague to line out in the sixth inning with two outs and the bases loaded.
Josh Lindblom pitched a scoreless seventh and Matt Guerrier a scoreless eighth.
That led to closer Javy Guerra, who once again came out to mariachi music that galvanized the modestly-sized crowd.
Guerra pitched a perfect inning to record his third save in as many days. The save was his fifth, most in the majors.
New Dodgers owners to confirm Time Warner Cable not involved
In a court filing Thursday, the team says Fox Sports will be assured that the rival cable company will be in no way involved in the
purchase of the team. The sale is expected to be approved Friday.
By Bill Shaikin
April 12, 2012, 6:45 p.m.
On the eve of the anticipated approval of the Dodgers' sale, the team appeared to resolve a potentially significant hurdle.
In a court filing Thursday, the Dodgers said Fox Sports would get confirmation from the new owners that Time Warner Cable would not
be directly or indirectly involved in the purchase of the team.
The court is expected to approve the sale in a hearing Friday. A Fox spokesman declined to comment.
Under its settlement with the Dodgers, Fox had the right to challenge any sale in which rival Time Warner Cable was involved. The
Dodgers already had told the court that TWC was not involved, but Fox asked for assurances from the new owners.
According to Thursday's filing, the new owners would state for the court record that TWC is not directly or indirectly funding the
purchase of the Dodgers and that no "formal or informal agreements have been reached with TWC to telecast [Dodgers] games for the
2014 MLB season or beyond." U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross would then include that language in his order approving the sale.
The Dodgers' current contract with Fox Sports expires after the 2013 season, and a Fox executive has testified that the loss of the
Dodgers could jeopardize the viability of Prime Ticket.
Fox, TWC and perhaps CBS are expected to bid for a contract that could be worth up to $5 billion — if, that is, the new owners opt not
to launch a team-owned regional sports network.
In their filing Thursday, the Dodgers said they had not resolved a dispute with Major League Baseball over who should pay about $8
million that the league says the team owes.
MLB wants outgoing owner Frank McCourt to pay, since almost all of that money covers the league's legal fees for the bankruptcy case.
Under the MLB constitution, teams are forbidden from suing the league and, if they do sue, they must cover the league's legal bills.
McCourt's attorneys say any bills should be assumed by the new owners.
MLB officials met Wednesday with incoming Dodgers president Stan Kasten and other representatives of Guggenheim Baseball
Management, the new owners. The meeting, held under the auspices of the court-appointed mediator, was intended to ease the
league's concern that the Dodgers had not provided enough information about the new owners.
Friday's hearing is divided into two parts, one starting at 7 a.m. PDT and the other at 1 p.m.
Dodgers closer Javy Guerra finds a theme for his work
He enters a game to the sounds of Mariachi Vargas and, pitching well, decides to stick with its song 'La Negra.'
By Dylan Hernandez
April 12, 2012, 9:40 p.m.
Javy Guerra knows he's onto something.
For the latest of his major league-leading four saves, the Dodgers' second-year closer entered the game Wednesday night with Mariachi
Vargas' "La Negra" playing on the Dodger Stadium public-address system.
Hearing the Mexican mariachi song, what remained of the modestly sized crowd went crazy.
"I'm sure they had a good time with it," Guerra said of the fans, many of them presumably Latino.
The bilingual Guerra grew up in suburban Dallas. The 26-year-old listens to hip-hop and counts rapper Wiz Khalifa among his favorite
musicians.
But Guerra, the son of Mexican immigrants, wanted his entrance song to recognize his, and many of his team's fans', heritage. So he
enlisted the help of Spanish-language broadcaster Pepe Yniguez to select a song for him.
Because of the way the fans reacted to the song and the way he pitched that night, Guerra said the song will stay.
"Of course," he said.
Guerra wasn't ready Thursday to celebrate his place atop the saves leaderboard.
"The end of the year, that's what matters," said Guerra, who converted 21 of 23 save opportunities last season.
He figures to get plenty of chances.
Guerra has yet to spend an entire season in the majors — he was called up from double A in mid-May last year — but Manager Don
Mattingly said he won't be overly conservative with his workload.
"He's not like a 21-year-old puppy out of high school or college," Mattingly said.
In his first four appearances of the season, Guerra gave up only one hit and struck out four in four innings.
Scully improving
Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully won't call the Dodgers' series opener against the San Diego Padres on Friday night, marking the
fourth consecutive game he'll have missed because of a cold.
But the 84-year-old Scully's condition is improving and he could return to the booth as early as this weekend, according to a team
spokesman.
In Scully's absence, Charley Steiner and Steve Lyons will continue to call the games on Prime Ticket. Rick Monday and Kevin Kennedy will
work the radio broadcasts on AM 570.
Short hops
Top pitching prospect Zach Lee is excelling with Class-A Rancho Cucamonga. The Dodgers' No. 1 draft pick in 2010, Lee has a 1.80
earned-run average through two starts. He has nine strikeouts and two walks in 10 innings.… Dee Gordon and Tony Gwynn Jr. will be
part of a group of Dodgers representatives who will visit John Muir High in Pasadena to take part in a round-table discussion about
Jackie Robinson with about 100 students. Robinson graduated from Muir. He will be honored throughout the major leagues Sunday.
Dodgers continue their bully routine, sweep Pirates with 3-2 win
The Dodgers continue their winning ways against struggling teams, improving to 6-1 following games against San Diego and Pittsburgh.
By Steve Dilbeck
April 12, 2012, 10:04 p.m.
No bonus points awarded for beating up on the puny, but if you desire to be a good team, it is sort of required.
The Dodgers remain an enormous unknown, but early indications are they can at least beat up on the downtrodden.
As further evidence, the Dodgers edged the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2, on a cool Thursday night before an announced crowd of 28,328,
completing a three-game sweep to improve their early record to 6-1.
It’s the first time the Dodgers have started 6-1 since 1981, when they went on to – dare it be said? – win the World Series.
That these six victories came equally against the lowly Pirates and Padres, who could probably combine rosters and not be a .500 team,
doesn’t detract that the Dodgers won them.
The Dodgers will have to wait until next week when they head to Milwaukee to finally meet a playoff-caliber team, because now coming
to Dodger Stadium for a three-game series are the … Padres.
It’s not like the Dodgers are annihilating these lesser clubs; it’s more like they’re just good enough.
Thursday they got a good enough starting performance from Chris Capuano, timely hitting and solid bullpen work to with their third
game by a single run.
Capuano went 5 1/3 innings, giving up a solo homer to Michael McKenry in the fifth and one run in the sixth on a couple of singles and a
sacrifice fly to Yamaico Navarro. He gave up six hits, struck out seven and did not walk a batter.
The Dodgers scored all their runs in the first inning off Jeff Karstens. Base hits by Mark Ellis and Matt Kemp, and Andre Ethier getting hit
by a pitch, loaded the bases for Juan Rivera, who singled in the first run.
The Dodgers then got a couple of needed RBI singles from struggling James Loney and Juan Uribe. It was the first hit of the year for
Loney and first run batted in for Uribe.
Mike MacDougal, Scott Elbert, Josh Lindblom, Matt Guerrier and Javy Guerra continued the bullpen’s strong start, not giving up another
Pittsburgh run. Guerra earned his fifth save.
Vin Scully could return as early as Saturday
By Dylan Hernandez
April 12, 2012, 8:54 p.m.
Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully won’t call the Dodgers’ series opener against the San Diego Padres on Friday night, marking the
fourth consecutive game he’ll miss because of a cold.
But the 84-year-old Scully’s condition is improving and he could return to the booth as early as this weekend, according to a team
spokesman.
In Scully’s absence, Charley Steiner and Steve Lyons will continue to call the games on Prime Ticket. Rick Monday and Kevin Kennedy will
work the radio broadcasts on AM 570.
Fox objection to Dodgers sale appears resolved
The Dodgers claim in a court filing that Fox Sports will receive confirmation from the new owners that Time Warner Cable will not be
involved with the purchase of the team.
By Bill Shaikin
April 12, 2012, 5:28 p.m.
On the eve of the anticipated approval of the Dodgers' sale, the team appeared to resolve a potentially significant hurdle.
In a court filing Thursday, the Dodgers said Fox Sports would get confirmation from the new owners that Time Warner Cable would not
be directly or indirectly involved in the purchase of the team.
The court is expected to approve the sale in a hearing Friday.
Under its settlement with the Dodgers, Fox had the right to challenge any sale in which rival Time Warner Cable was involved. The
Dodgers already had told the court that TWC was not involved, but Fox asked for assurances from the new owners.
In Friday's hearing, the new owners will state under oath that TWC is not directly or indirectly funding the purchase of the Dodgers and
that no “formal or informal agreements have been reached with TWC to telecast [Dodgers] games for the 2014 MLB season or beyond.”
The Dodgers' current contract with Fox Sports expires after the 2013 season, and a Fox executive has testified that the loss of the
Dodgers could jeopardize the viability of Prime Ticket.
Fox, TWC and perhaps CBS are expected to bid for a contract that could be worth up to $5 billion — if, that is, the new owners opt not
to launch a team-owned regional sports network.
In their filing Thursday, the Dodgers said they had not resolved a dispute with Major League Baseball over who should pay about $8
million that the league says the team owes.
MLB wants outgoing owner Frank McCourt to pay, since almost all of that money covers the league's legal fees for the bankruptcy case.
Under the MLB constitution, teams are forbidden from suing the league and, if they do sue, they must cover the league's legal bills.
McCourt's attorneys say any bills should be assumed by the new owners.
MLB officials met Wednesday with incoming Dodgers President Stan Kasten and other representatives of Guggenheim Baseball
Management, the new owners. The meeting, held under the auspices of the court-appointed mediator, was intended to ease the
league's concern that the Dodgers had not provided enough information about the new owners.
Friday's hearing is divided into two parts, one starting at 7 a.m. PDT and the other at 1 p.m.
ESPN.COM
Chris Capuano K's 7 as Dodgers complete sweep of Pirates
LOS ANGELES -- Chris Capuano likes what he sees so far from his new team and wants to do everything he can to keep it going.
Capuano struck out seven in his first home game with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who scored all of their runs in the first inning against Jeff
Karstens and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2 on Thursday night to complete a three-game sweep.
The Dodgers are off to a 6-1 start -- their best since 1981, when they won the World Series in Fernando Valenzuela's rookie year.
"I think it's a little early for comparisons, but it's a great way to start the season," Capuano said.
Capuano allowed two runs and six hits in 5 1/3 innings with no walks. The 33-year-old left-hander struck out five of his first eight
batters, four of them on called third strikes with umpire Wally Bell working the plate.
"I'm really happy with my stuff," Capuano said. "I feel like I've got great movement on the ball and pretty good command of my pitches,
for the most part. But in the last game and this one, my location really started to suffer in the fifth and sixth innings. So that's something
I'm going to have to look at so I can make quality pitches the whole game like I did the first four innings."
Los Angeles' pitchers had a 25-0 strikeout-to-walk ratio in this series before Mike MacDougal's walk to Mike McKenry in the sixth. The
last time the Dodgers' staff went an entire three-game series without issuing a base on balls was in July 1940 against the New York
Giants at the Polo Grounds.
"After the San Diego series, that was something we focused on in our pitchers' meeting leading into this series -- to cut down on the
walks, attack the strike zone, challenge the hitters and make them beat us," Capuano said. "That was foremost on our minds."
Javy Guerra, the sixth Dodgers pitcher, pitched a perfect ninth for his fifth save in five attempts -- all in a span of eight days.
Karstens (0-1) gave up seven hits, struck out three and walked one over five innings. Last season, the right-hander had a streak of 18
consecutive starts in which he was charged with no more than three earned runs and was only 7-5 during that stretch -- which began
with his second start after being inserted into the rotation.
"If you don't like coming out early, then don't give up runs early," Karstens said. "In the Philly game I gave up a run early, and here, I
gave up three runs early. Then I was able to settle down both times and felt more comfortable as the game went on. It's just something
I'm going through right now, so we'll address it and see where it takes us and what we need to do to fix it."
Andrew McCutchen, who had three hits for the Pirates, was stranded at third base in the first and fourth innings. The Pirates finally got
him home in the sixth with a sacrifice fly by Yamaico Navarro, after McCutchen led off with a single and took third on Casey McGehee's
base hit.
Capuano (1-0) was lifted after the sac fly. The walk to McKenry loaded the bases, but lefty Scott Elbert came out of the bullpen and
retired pinch hitter Matt Hague on a line drive to center fielder Matt Kemp.
Andre Ethier, who drove in the deciding run in each of the first two games of the series with a home run and RBI single, was hit in the
back by the first pitch he saw from Karstens in the first inning after the Dodgers got a one-out single by Mark Ellis and a double by
Kemp.
Juan Rivera drove in Ellis with a sacrifice fly, and the Dodgers made it 3-0 on RBI singles from James Loney and Juan Uribe. Loney's hit
ended an 0-for-16 drought, his longest to start a season in his seven-year career.
McKenry, Pittsburgh's No. 8 hitter, hit a drive to center in the fifth for the Pirates' third homer in their first six games.
Game notes
The Dodgers are 60-23 against Pittsburgh since the 2002 season, which was the last time the Pirates won a season series from them. ...
Dodgers LHP Ted Lilly is expected to come off the disabled list Saturday and make his season debut against San Diego after being
sidelined with a neck problem. ... Dodgers leadoff hitter Dee Gordon, whose job is to hit the ball on the ground and use his speed, flied
out his first three times up. In the second inning, he sent CF McCutchen to the warning track.
Copyright by STATS LLC and The Associated Press
Vin Scully could return Saturday
Updated: April 12, 2012, 11:49 PM ET
By Tony Jackson | ESPNLosAngeles.com
LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Dodgers' Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully is improving and could return to the booth as early as
Saturday, a team official said during Thursday night's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Scully has missed the current homestand because he is home recuperating from a cold.
Despite his improvement, Scully won't work Friday night's series opener against the San Diego Padres because rain and cold weather are
in the forecast.
Scully, 84, who was inducted into the broadcasting wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, is in his 63rd season calling Dodgers
games. Earlier this week, he missed calling the team's home opener for the first time in 35 years and just the second time in his career.
Dodgers should enjoy their fast start
Team is 6-1 and playing carefree baseball as it tries to prove it has staying power
Updated: April 13, 2012, 3:09 AM ET
By Tony Jackson | ESPNLosAngeles.com
LOS ANGELES -- We are watching this play out, right before our eyes. There is no need for verification or confirmation. It isn't subjective,
it doesn't depend on what angle it is viewed from and it isn't in the eye of any beholder. It is right there in front of us, whether on
television, on the radio or in person, and it is right there in the standings, where these Los Angeles Dodgers lay claim to baseball's best
record.
So why, then, shouldn't we trust it?
Why, after watching the Dodgers complete their three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates with a 3-2 victory before 28,328 on
Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, are we still so skeptical about this team, which is off to its best start since 1981, having won six of its
first seven games?
And, more important, is that skepticism shared by the very people who have actually gone out and done it?
Well, if it is, they aren't about to admit that to us.
"We don't care what other people think about us," Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp said. "We're all just going to go out and play the
game the way we know we can play it. We had a great second half last year. We were hard to beat. And we know we're going to be hard
to beat all year this year. We're going to play as hard as we can every night, go out there with confidence and try to get as many wins as
we can."
We can reasonably expect this to continue a little longer. We know this because the schedule tells us so. The San Diego Padres, from
whom the Dodgers took three of four last weekend, are coming to town now for three more. All indications are that they aren't very
good. The Pirates, who haven't had a winning season since 1992, just left. Based on the three games here, they don't appear to be much
of a threat, either.
The road gets a little tougher after that, a three-game series in Milwaukee, and the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals coming to
town in a couple of weeks. But looking down the road, the landscape doesn't really seem threatening until the second week of May or
so.
And it isn't as if the Dodgers are pounding the allegedly overmatched Padres and Pirates into submission. The fact that the Dodgers
have six wins and closer Javy Guerra has five saves tells you these are close games, as does the fact that exactly half the Dodgers'
victories this season have been by one run.
So is that a reason we shouldn't fall for this charade?
"Early in the year, it's tough to win games," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "It doesn't matter what people think you're supposed
to be. The Diamondbacks [finished] in last place [in 2010], and they won the division last year. The Padres [in 2010], nobody expected
them to compete, and they were in it until the last day. Last year, the Pirates were in first place until a little bit after the break, and then
they had a rough finish to their season. They have some talent over there.
"You can put things on paper all you want, but you have to go out and play. I am just happy to go out there and get these wins, and it
doesn't matter who they're coming against."
On paper, no, it doesn't matter whom they're coming against. Every win counts the same, and these six wins will mean just as much to
the Dodgers in the final weeks of September as they mean now. But perhaps what we really should be looking at, moreso than wins and
losses, is what the Dodgers are showing us.
There is no particular facet to this team that is wowing anyone right now. The starting rotation is decent, a 3-1 record and a collective
2.56 ERA, which is solid. The bullpen is almost as good, 3-0 with a 2.88 ERA, with just four of 13 inherited runners having scored. The
lineup is OK, but the Dodgers have scored 30 runs through seven games, and they haven't scored more than four since Saturday.
They're a middle-of-the-pack team in batting average and on-base percentage.
The one area in which they have truly shined, perhaps surprisingly, is team defense. They entered Thursday's game leading the National
League with a .992 fielding percentage, and they have committed just two errors through these seven games. There have been
instances when that defense has saved runs, such as that point in the sixth inning when a diving play by second baseman Mark Ellis kept
the tying run from scoring and a heads-up force at second after Ellis scrambled to his feet and kept the go-ahead run from getting into
scoring position.
That tying run never did score for the Pirates, and the Dodgers wound up with another one-run win. And that, ultimately, is what is
defining this team right now, the ability to score just enough runs while keeping the opposing team just enough in check to win. This
isn't a great team. Great teams aren't made up of a couple of power hitters, a bunch of versatile utility guys, and a savvy-beyond-hisyears manager with a deft touch for mixing and matching. But that can be the recipe for a good team, and this is a good team.
Is it the best team in baseball? Friday morning's standings will say yes, but our gut says no, not even close.
However, is it a good team with the potential to achieve great things? That is what our eyes are telling us right now. Whether it is real or
just some mirage, well, we aren't going to know that for a while. So why don't we all just stop worrying about it and enjoy the ride,
however long it lasts.
After all, that's what the Dodgers are doing already.
Reconstructing the Dodgers
Don't expect new owners to start throwing big money at top free agents
Updated: April 13, 2012, 10:11 AM ET
By Jayson Stark | ESPN.com
This is for all the amateur psychics out there who think they can predict the future of the soon-to-be back-from-the-dead Los Angeles
Dodgers.
This is for all the free agents who think they can just drive past Chavez Ravine on the Pasadena Freeway next winter and find quarterbillion-dollar contracts floating in the breeze.
Don't be so sure you know where this is leading. That's our advice.
Don't be so quick to assume the new, improved Dodgers of Stan Kasten and Magic Johnson can't wait to start handing out the largest
contracts in the history of the solar system. We're cautioning you now. That just might be a dangerous assumption.
To predict the future, you should always study the past. That's what our history teachers always told us in the seventh grade, anyway.
And some of us in that class were actually awake at the time, amazingly enough.
Well, what do you find if you study Kasten's past, back in the day when he was the president of the Atlanta Braves (1986-2003) and
Washington Nationals (2006-10)? You don't find a single contract that will remind you of, say, the Prince Fielder deal. We'll tell you that.
In all that time, Kasten's teams never handed out a contract longer than five years to any free agent from outside their organization.
And the only six-year deal, even to one of their own players, went to Andruw Jones in 2001 -- at a time when he was 24 years old.
So do people within the industry see this man suddenly turning into a spend-a-holic who starts firing nine- and 10-year deals at whoever
wants to take them? Heck, no.
"That's not Stan Kasten's M.O," said one veteran agent. "I'm sure they'll be a franchise that makes moves. But I'm also sure that when
Stan makes decisions, it won't be like the kind of decisions Mike Illitch makes."
"When it looks like a sure thing, it ain't," said another prominent agent. "Look at the Nationals. Ted Lerner has more money than God,
and look how long it took him to start handing out big contracts. And did he hand them out while Stan was there? No. It happened after
he left. So I know everyone anticipates him spending wildly now. But I'm not so sure."
Is it coincidence that the Nationals stuffed $126 million in Jayson Werth's pockets a couple of months after Kasten departed? We don't
know anyone in baseball who thinks Kasten would have signed off on that deal.
And maybe Ryan Zimmerman would have gotten his six-year, $100 million extension (an eight-year, $126 million commitment when you
add in his current contract) even if Kasten were still in D.C. But we'll never know that. Will we?
All we know for sure is how Kasten's teams have operated in the past. And while it's true that history shows us his teams in Atlanta were
at or near the top of the National League in payroll for years, it also shows us this was a man who never appeared to be working from
the "You Too Can Be a Steinbrenner" playbook.
So what can we learn from that history? Nobody in baseball has a better feel for that than Kasten's longtime general manager in
Atlanta, John Schuerholz.
"It's fair to say this group is out to re-establish the great Dodger brand," Schuerholz told Rumblings. "But how that translates into
making decisions to spend big money on big-name free agents, I don't think that's automatic."
Now would Schuerholz be surprised to see the Kasten/Magic Dodgers chasing the most ballyhooed free agents in the game? No, he
"wouldn't be surprised to see them do that," he said.
"But I don't think they'll do it every day," Schuerholz said. "I don't think they'll do it all the time. What I'm sure they'll do is what Stan has
always tried to do -- build a rock-solid organization and build it largely around homegrown talent. And at the same time, I'm sure he
won't shy away from the right free agent. But I underline the word, 'right.'"
TRIVIALITY
Matt Cain is one of four right-handed starters who have thrown 200-plus innings, reached double-figure wins and had a winning record
in each of the past three seasons. Can you name the other three? (Answer later.)
In all those years in Atlanta, the "right" free agent didn't come along very often. But there were times, Schuerholz conceded, when he
and Kasten did opt to stretch beyond their normal budget parameters for "the right player at the right time."
And by that, of course, he was referring to -- who else? -- Greg Maddux. Heck, you were expecting maybe Charlie Puleo?
"When we signed Greg [in December, 1992], both the length and the dollars went outside our guidelines," Schuerholz said. "But Stan
and I both felt it was the right thing to do."
When the Braves shocked the world (and the Yankees) by signing Maddux, they were willing to make him the second-highest paid
pitcher in baseball, behind David Cone. They were also willing to give him their first-ever five-year deal.
On the other hand, that was 20 years ago, remember. So that blockbuster was for (ready for this?) a whopping $28 million over those
five years. Nowadays, Kasten might find himself talking to pitchers who think they should be making nearly that much per year. For six
or seven years. So even if you adjust for inflation, it's a different world.
But when Schuerholz was asked if he could see Kasten's Dodgers rolling the dice on any pitcher for $20-25 million a year, the reply was
very telling.
"I don't think Stan rolls the dice at anything," Schuerholz said. "I don't think he's ever rolled the dice. Stan analyzes. He relies on his
experience and his instincts … and he makes an analytical decision about what's the right thing to do for the franchise."
Obviously, the right thing to do for the Dodgers, at this critical point in their history, won't have much to do with what was right for the
Braves in 1997 or what was right for the Nationals in 2009. And everyone understands that.
So Kasten has told his friends in the business he knows that he and Johnson have to operate the Dodgers as a big-market club. It's what
their public demands. It's what the entire sport needs.
But there are also questions. First question: After spending $2 billion dollars for the franchise, how much further in the hole can the new
owners go?
"The problem is, they'll be losing money at this price for a long time," said an official of one club. "But they also know they've got to get
their fans back."
Second question: How much money can this group really afford to lay out before the dollars from its new TV deal start flowing in 2014?
"Remember," said one of the agents quoted above, "they can't see daylight until they make a TV deal. And you also have to remember,
you don't know what the financial structure of that deal is going to be."
If the Dodgers make a deal with a huge up-front rights fee, that's one thing. But if they start up their own regional sports net, as an
independent entity, that's a totally different animal.
But either way, and no matter which world-famous free agent they may be flirting with, said John Schuerholz, "Stan's not going to say,
'Let's give this guy $100 million because he wants it.' Stan's going to say, 'Why?'"
Oh, the answer may very well be: "Because it's the right thing to do for the future of the Dodgers." But it had better be -- because if
anyone is still assuming this team will be serving up as many nine-figure deals as Dodger Dogs any time soon, we repeat:
That could be a very dangerous assumption.
Ready to Rumble
• By Opening Day, you labor fans will recall, baseball was supposed to have expanded instant replay to include fair/foul and trap/catch
calls. Well, whaddaya know. That hasn't happened. Has it?
So what's the deal? Sources indicate the real story here is that there's a push behind the scenes for a major overhaul to the entire replay
system. (Excellent idea.) So instead of having umpires jog off the field to go look at disputed calls, there would be a replay ump, or
umps, in New York who could make decisions within seconds and keep games moving.
The only hang-up there is: All sides (players, owners, umpires) have to agree to that. And everyone ran out of time to implement it for
this year. But it would now be a surprise if that change doesn't happen by next season.
• A look at baseball's Opening Day payrolls reveals all you need to know about how this sport's salary structure is changing. For
instance:
Three teams not named the Yankees (Phillies, Red Sox, Angels) have payrolls of $150 million or more this season. There had been three
in history before this year.
Two clubs (Phillies and Red Sox) had a payroll within $40 million of the Yankees' payroll. You know how long it had been since more than
one team fit that description? How about 11 years -- dating back to 2001.
Fourteen of the 30 teams now have payrolls of more than $90 million -- tied for the most in any season in history.
And the biggest change is at the bottom, a reflection of new rules in the labor deal. This will be the first season ever in which no teams
have a payroll of less than $50 million. As recently as last year, there were five.
TRIVIA ANSWER
Roy Halladay, Justin Verlander and Jered Weaver. (For everyone who answered Felix Hernandez, 14-14 last year is considered by our
judges to be a .500 record, not a "winning" record. Feel free to appeal to the Trivia Supreme Court.)
• Bud Selig said on Opening Day that the DH isn't coming to both leagues any time soon. Union head Michael Weiner told the National
Press Club the same thing this week. But that doesn't mean there aren't signs the landscape is beginning to shift on this issue.
One National League GM who is concerned about the long-term ramifications of having two leagues with different rules is the Brewers'
Doug Melvin. And you can't blame him. The DH rule has a lot to do with why Prince Fielder no longer hits cleanup for him, Ron Roenicke
and Bernie Brewer.
Asked about the exit of Fielder and Albert Pujols from the NL Central, Melvin replied: "What's happening is that National League teams
just can't compete on the length of contracts for guys like that. The Cardinals and our team were both willing to give those guys six
years. But when the length of those deals got to nine and 10 years, we just couldn't compete" -- not when AL clubs have the DH to
protect themselves on the back end of contracts that long.
That problem may not have stopped the Reds from taking their chances on locking up Joey Votto through 2023. But if NL teams
continue to watch their stars head for the other league, that's the kind of "catalytic event" Selig says it would take for the National
League to finally cave and adopt the DH.
• We keep hearing from folks who find it hard to believe the Rays headed into this season with Jose Molina and Jose Lobaton as their
catchers, when they had arms to deal for a front-line catcher at any point this winter. The reason, says an executive of one club that's
spoken with them, is that they've never been looking for a short-term answer.
"They want to add an every-day guy who will be there for their future," the exec said. "There's no point in trading pitching for a shortterm catcher."
Scouts who cover the Atlanta system say the Rays have followed highly regarded 21-year-old Braves prospect Christian Bethancourt
"diligently." But the Braves are in no rush to move Bethancourt, especially with Brian McCann's free-agent clock ticking.
• Speaking of McCann, here's Schuerholz on how the Yadier Molina deal affects the Braves' ability to keep their All-Star catcher:
"Sure, it affects it. Absolutely. Does the Votto contract make it more difficult for teams to sign other first basemen? Does the Brandon
Phillips contract make it more difficult for teams to sign other second basemen? Of course. They all do. They impact all of us. … Of
course, it makes it more challenging.
"Our organization has always been able to keep our players whom we wanted to keep. And our hope is that we're going to keep Mac.
We hope he's here for a long time. But I'm pretty sure he and his agent read the papers and watch television. And they may even log
onto the Internet now and then. So there are no guarantees."
• Finally, you could understand why the Giants would have told Buster Posey to stop blocking the plate. But they didn't tell him to set
up halfway to San Jose when he's about to take throws from the outfield. Posey allowed a run to score last weekend because he
couldn't reach a baserunner with a swipe tag. And it was much the same in spring training.
"He's giving runners the entire H.O.V. lane to cross home plate," said one scout. "I can understand being cautious after what happened
to him, but that's a little too cautious."
Five Astounding Facts of the Week
1. The Phillies, believe it or not, started four different first basemen in the first four games of the season. Many of you just had to know
how rare that was. So we asked the Elias Sports Bureau. And the answer is: They're the first team in modern history (i.e., since 1900) to
do that. That's almost enough to make Keith Law miss Ryan Howard.
2. Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun played five years together, and never once in all that time did they hit two homers (or more) apiece in
the same game. So how long did it take Prince and Miguel Cabrera to go multi-homering in the same game? Exactly two games -- of
course. They both went deep twice on Saturday.
3. When Jordan Schafer and J.D. Martinez homered off Jamie Moyer last weekend, they did something no other hitters had done in 40
years -- hit a home run off a guy who was 49 years old. The only two other men in history who had ever homered against a 49-year-old
pitcher: Mike Lum (versus Hoyt Wilhelm) on Sept. 17, 1971, and Harvey Hendrick (versus Jack Quinn) on Sept. 17, 1932.
4. When the Astros won two out of three against Colorado in the first series of the year, they ended one of the most embarrassing
streaks in franchise history -- because it was the first time they'd been over .500 at any point in any season in 378 games. Last time
before that: July 29, 2009, when they were 51-50. So what team has the longest streak now? Would you believe the Twins? They're up
to 168 in a row, since the end of the 2010 season.
5. Finally, as loyal reader Steve Vecchione reports, we had an all-time box-score-line rarity on Saturday. It was crazy enough that Ubaldo
Jimenez and Brandon Morrow compiled virtually identical box-score lines (7 IP, 1 hit, 2 runs, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts). But this was also the
first game in the live-ball era in which two different pitchers went at least seven innings in the same game, gave up no more than one
hit and still found a way to allow two runs. Hey, of course it was!
Tweets of the Week
• From one of our favorite baseball-loving comedians, @Matt Goldich:
The Mets are 4-0, but remember, 2 of those wins go to the victims of Bernie Madoff.
— Matt Goldich (@MattGoldich) April 10, 2012
• And this show-biz note from one of the most entertaining Tweeters on earth, the Batting Stance Guy, Gar Ryness (@BattingStanceG):
Beach Boys at DodgerStadium 50th anniv. Carlos Santana multi-year deal for Tribe. Huge day in music.
— Batting Stance Guy (@BattingStanceG) April 10, 2012
3 up, 3 down: Dodgers 3, Pirates 2
April, 12, 2012
By Tony Jackson | ESPNLosAngeles.com
LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers scored three runs in the first inning, then held on for a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates
before 28,328 on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, giving them a three-game sweep of the Pirates and their first 6-1 start to a season
since 1981, a year that ended with a World Series title.
The Dodgers' bullpen came up huge after starter Chris Capuano was lifted with one out in the sixth, Mike MacDougal, Scott Elbert, Josh
Lindblom, Matt Guerrier and Javy Guerra combining to blank the Pirates on two hits over the final 3 2/3. Guerra picked up his fifth save
with a perfect ninth inning.
The Good
Goose egg cracked. James Loney won't go the whole season without a hit. That became official with two outs in the bottom of the first
inning, when the slumping first baseman broke out of his 0-for-16 skid with a hard, opposite-field single through the left side, bringing
home Matt Kemp from second to give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. Alas, Loney went hitless the rest of the night and now is 1-for-20, an
average of .050.
Getting it done. Elbert, the lone lefty in the Dodgers' bullpen and a guy who struggled with his command in his first two appearances,
came on to face left-handed pinch hitter Garrett Jones with the bases loaded, two outs and the Dodgers nursing a one-run lead in the
sixth. The Pirates countered with righty-hitting Matt Hague, but Elbert needed just two pitches to get Hague to fly out to center and end
the threat. Elbert had allowed two of his three previous inherited runners this season to score.
Well-timed cutdown. For the first time this season, a Dodgers catcher threw out a runner attempting to steal, and it came at a critical
point in the game. With Pirates speedster Andrew McCutchen trying to get into scoring position with two outs in the seventh, Dodgers
catcher A.J. Ellis fired a bullet to second baseman Mark Ellis to nail McCutchen and end the inning, preserving the one-run lead. A.J. Ellis
has now cut down one of two runners who have tried to steal on him this season.
The Bad
Too much air. Dee Gordon, whose game relies heavily on speed and thus relies heavily on hitting the ball on the ground, made fly ball
outs in each of his first three plate appearances, including with two on and two out in the fourth immediately after Capuano worked
Pirates starter Jeff Karstens for a walk. Gordon, who is hitting a disappointing .200 with an even-more-disappointing .273 on-base
percentage, has to be able to take advantage of his speed at the top of the order, but he has no chance of doing that when he hits high,
catchable fly balls.
Running on empty. For the second start in a row, lefty Capuano was dominating through the early innings, then ran out of gas well
before he reached 100 pitches. This time, he began to run into trouble in the fifth, when he gave up a solo homer to Michael McKenry
and then hit a batter. Once he gave up back-to-back hits to start the sixth and a sac fly that shaved the Dodgers' lead to one run,
manager Don Mattingly had seen enough. Capuano was gone after 81 pitches, five fewer than he threw in 4 2/3 innings Saturday night
in San Diego. On a positive note, Capuano's ERA went from a ghastly 7.71 to a just-sort-of-not-very-good 5.40.
No-shows (again). For the second night in a row, the Dodgers played in front of a bunch of empty seats, with an official attendance of
28,328. Total paid attendance for the past two nights has been 58,057. Total paid attendance for Tuesday's home opener was 56,000.
Dodgers set to visit Muir on Friday
April, 12, 2012
By Blair Angulo | ESPNLosAngeles.com
The Los Angeles Dodgers are set to visit Muir High School in Pasadena on Friday morning in advance of Jackie Robinson Day this
weekend. Current players Dee Gordon and Tony Gwynn Jr., as well as former players Tommy Davis, "Sweet" Lou Johnson, Kenny
Landreaux and Derrel Thomas are scheduled to speak to students about Robinson's legacy and his impact on baseball and society as a
whole.
Before playing at UCLA, Robinson was a four-sport star at Muir, excelling in basketball, football, track and baseball. Sunday will mark the
65th anniversary of Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier.
Students will have the opportunity to ask questions in a panel discussion, and will be presented with tickets to Sunday's Jackie Robinson
Day game at Dodger Stadium.
Matt Kemp talks PlayStation, Dodgers
April, 12, 2012
By Jon Robinson
Matt Kemp sees himself in Sony's "MLB 12: The Show" and all he can do is grin.
"They have my batting stance down perfect. They have my swing. It's me in that game," Kemp tells me with a laugh. "And he's a pretty
good looking dude ... at least I would say so."
And when Sony found out that Kemp and his Los Angeles crew of gamers have been playing "The Show" since the game hit last month,
the company presented Kemp with his very own customized PlayStation 3 that looks like it was made out of the slugger's wood bat,
complete with baseball-themed controller, a new Vita, and a sweet PlayStation case that even features it's own foul line.
"This thing is so pretty, I don't even want to take it out of the box," Kemp says, still in awe by the lavish gift. "It's wood grain with my
signature on it. It's one of the coolest systems I've ever seen. This thing even has grass and fake dirt surrounding it. It's unbelievable."
Jon Robinson: Are you a big video game player?
Matt Kemp: I used to be bigger into playing, but I still play a little bit. It's tough during the season to find as much time as I want to play
video games, and when I do get some free time, I like to sleep. But there are a lot of Dodgers who are into that new Vita system. They're
playing "MLB 12: The Show" all the time. They're always playing against each other.
First time I went on "The Show," I couldn't believe how accurate they have everything. From the stadiums to all of the batting stances, it
feels like you're actually watching a game.
Jon Robinson: Did you play a lot of the baseball video games as a kid?
Matt Kemp: I did, but my mom and my grandma used to make me go outside and play a lot. So I'd have to go over to my friend's house
to play video games. If I was at my house, my parents and my grandparents made me go out and play, and I'm glad they did that
because it helped make me who I am today, playing big league baseball, so I'm good for that.
But I remember how much I loved the Sega Genesis and "Sonic The Hedgehog" and Nintendo with "Super Mario Bros." Those were my
games. My favorite game that I used to love was "NBA Jam." That was the Sega Genesis game I couldn't get enough of. With all the
players jumping so high and doing flips and dunking, that was my game. "NBA Jam" was so dope. He's on fire! [laughs]
Jon Robinson: Speaking of "NBA Jam," Magic Johnson is now one of the owners of your Dodgers. How cool is that having someone you
used to watch and even played as in various video games, now owning your team?
Matt Kemp: I can't believe it. He's someone who is so well-known in L.A., everybody loves him out here, so for him to be part-owner of
our team is unbelievable. To have him around the clubhouse makes it exciting.
Jon Robinson: Do you have a favorite Magic Johnson moment from when he was playing?
Matt Kemp: He was such an unbelievable player, he could do it all out there. I remember how he was this 6-9 point guard who could go
out and do so many exciting things. He was an original. Magic's the man.
Jon Robinson: I'm actually from San Francisco, so I don't know if I should even be talking to you right now because of the rivalry.
Matt Kemp: It's all good, man. It's all love. We're going to beat ya'll this year, though. [laughs]
Jon Robinson: When it comes to Giants/Dodgers, is it still a big rivalry to the players?
Matt Kemp: Oh, definitely. It's always exciting to go to San Fran or for them to come to us and play. The fans love it. It's been a rivalry
for years, so it's always exciting to play.
Jon Robinson: So if I pop in "MLB 12: The Show" right now and play as the Dodgers, what advice do you have for me in order to hit as
you in the game?
Matt Kemp: Wait for the ball to get deep and drive the ball to right center. It's hard to hit on that game, but it's fun.
Jon Robinson: Is there a pitcher who you can't wait to hit against in "The Show" because he owns you in real life?
Matt Kemp: I'm not even going to tell you who gives me trouble pitching, because as soon as you write it down and they read it, that
will give them the edge next time I play against them. That's going to be my little secret.
Jon Robinson: How about the secret to the Dodgers success this season. What's the key for you guys to win the West?
Matt Kemp: I think the key is scoring runs. We need to score runs for our pitching. We didn't really do a good job of that last year, so this
year we definitely need to get some more run support for our starting pitchers and our bullpen and just go out there and ball-out, baby.
Jon Robinson: How about you? You had such a sensational season last year, do you feel pressure to try and top it? Do you set goals for
yourself before the season?
Matt Kemp: I definitely set goals for myself. I just want to be a complete player and help my team win in any way I can. For me, that's
being a leader on this team and drive in runs and do whatever it takes for my team to win.
Jon Robinson: What does it mean to you to be the face of the Dodgers, one of the most storied teams in the league?
Matt Kemp: Everything happened so fast. I just remember being a kid back in Oklahoma playing tee ball and thinking about being a
professional baseball player, but never knowing if that dream was going to come true. For my dream to actually come true is just such a
blessing.
Jon Robinson: Did you have a favorite player as a kid?
Matt Kemp: My favorite player was Frank Thomas. I was a bigger kid growing up, and they used to call me "The Little Big Hurt." I had to
represent for him. He even had his own video game back then, "Big Hurt Baseball." I remember how cool I used to think that game was
and how I could play the game as him. Now to think kids are playing "MLB 12: The Show," and they're playing as me, like I said, it's just a
dream come true.
DODGERS.COM
Dodgers sweep Bucs for best start since 1981
Capuano's solid start, Loney's first hit help lift LA to 6-1 on season
By Ken Gurnick / MLB.com | 4/13/2012 2:14 AM ET
LOS ANGELES -- Chris Capuano got his first victory, James Loney his first hit and the Dodgers their first series sweep of the season
Thursday night with a 3-2 win over the Pirates.
The 6-1 start is the Dodgers' best since 1981, and the title banner under the Stadium Club is lasting proof of how good that year turned
out.
"It's really early," manager Don Mattingly said when asked if parallels could be drawn. "I'd like to say it means a ton. It means enough
that we've gotten out of the box and we're confident we can win a lot of different ways. It's good for our confidence."
A pretty good start, especially considering the lukewarm preseason support the first-place Dodgers received from the experts.
"We don't care what expectations other people have," Matt Kemp said. "We know how good we can be. In the second half last year we
were hard to beat. This whole year we're going to be hard to beat."
While Capuano held it together for five more outs than his fifth-inning implosion in San Diego, and Loney put to rest his 0-for-16 start,
this win was built around the bullpen, which pitched 8 2/3 scoreless innings in the series.
With a 1-2-3 ninth inning, Javy Guerra notched save No. 5, which leads the Major Leagues, and has allowed one hit in five innings. He
saved each of this series' three games and he's appeared in five of the Dodgers' seven games, putting him on pace for 116 appearances.
Who does he think he is, Mike Marshall?
"Who's that?" Guerra asked, unaware that the Dodgers had a Cy Young-winning reliever who appeared in 106 games in 1974.
Like Marshall, though, Guerra wants the ball.
"The way we're playing, I'd throw every day if I could," he said. "I could throw tomorrow. I'm still young, I'll be all right."
Kenley Jansen needed a night off after pitching Tuesday and Wednesday, so Matt Guerrier pitched the eighth, going back-to-back for
the first time. Guerrier, who admitted that he tried too hard to prove himself in his first season in Los Angeles last year, has thrown five
scoreless innings so far.
"A lot of people talked about switching with Kenley, that one guy profiles better than another guy, but when a guy goes out there like
Javy did last year and performs," Mattingly said, "it's hard not to stick with him. And he doesn't have a lot of top-step [nervous] saves.
He gets the job done."
Josh Lindblom held the Pirates at bay in the seventh and now has five scoreless innings, even though he knows he could be sent back to
the Minor Leagues Saturday when Ted Lilly is activated.
"It's something I can't control," said Lindblom, who had a large welt on his right calf from a Jose Tabata comebacker.
"I've learned from veterans like [Todd] Coffey, Matt [Guerrier] and Jamey [Wright] that this is a career-long thing. I'm fortunate to have
their leadership. If I have to go down and they keep a veteran, I'll work very hard to get back here. It's not a question of can I pitch in the
big leagues? I know I can do that."
It took Scott Elbert and Mike MacDougal to extinguish the rally inherited from Capuano, who struck out seven without a walk in 5 1/3
innings, charged with two runs.
"Overall, I'm happy," Capuano said. "The first win can be tough coming to a new team. That win, the bullpen deserves credit."
Capuano said he took responsibility for forcing the bullpen into early action in the season's third game, when he filled in for Lilly with
five of his club's 10 walks.
"In the pitchers' meeting leading into this series, we knew we couldn't give up walks, we had to challenge hitters," he said. "That was
foremost in our minds coming into the series."
Dodgers pitchers didn't issue a walk in this series until MacDougal walked Michael McKenry in the sixth inning.
Capuano was given a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Mark Ellis singled, Kemp doubled and Andre Ethier was hit in the back by a Jeff Karstens
pitch to load the bases. They all scored as Juan Rivera hit a sacrifice fly, Loney singled in the second run and Juan Uribe singled in the
third run.
McKenry put the Pirates on the board with one out in the fifth inning on a long solo home run to center field.
Andrew McCutchen led off the top of the sixth with his third hit of the game (he's 9-for-11 lifetime off Capuano), was singled to third by
Casey McGehee and scored on Yamaico Navarro's sacrifice fly.
"He pitched backwards: Soft early, hard late" Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said of Capuano. "Nothing we weren't aware of, we
talked about it. But once you're in the batter's box, you have to take ownership of the at-bat, and we aren't doing a good job of that
collectively."
Ethier getting his share of hits vs. lefties
By Ken Gurnick / MLB.com
LOS ANGELES -- While James Loney has relapsed into first-half mode from last year with an 0-for-16 start, Andre Ethier is so on fire he's
even hitting left-handed pitching.
Ethier is 3-for-9 with a double, triple and five RBIs against left-handers. Coming into Spring Training, manager Don Mattingly was talking
about sitting Ethier against left-handed pitching if he didn't show improvement from the previous two seasons, although Mattingly
always tempered that by insisting there was no reason why Ethier shouldn't hit lefties.
"He's battling now and that's what I like," Mattingly said. "He said he finally got one [Wednesday, a tie-breaking RBI single off lefty Erik
Bedard]. I said, 'You're going to get your share.' His swing is too good not to get them. He'll make some outs, but he'll get his share of
hits."
Mattingly said the only thing keeping Ethier from being great is Ethier and his tendency to lose focus and give away at-bats.
"If he doesn't get frustrated, he's going to be great," he said. "Nothing can hold him back if he's healthy. He knows his swing and
understands hitting. He can fix himself. He doesn't need a coach."
Guerra racks up saves in three straight days
LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he wouldn't hesitate using closer Javy Guerra for a third consecutive night if he
was in position to save Thursday night's series finale with the Pirates.
And with a 1-2-3 ninth inning in the Dodgers' 3-2 win, Guerra notched save No. 5, which leads the Major Leagues.
"Sometimes they need a day off after one," Mattingly said before Thursday's game about Guerra and reliever Kenley Jansen.
"Sometimes they throw a couple days in a row and feel all right."
Guerra saved each of the three games against the Pirates, and he's appeared in five of the Dodgers' seven games. Mattingly said he
wouldn't necessarily be more cautious because the season just started.
"I play it safe all the time," he said. "I look at long range all the time. If we have a chance to get a save and Javy feels good, I'll use Javy. If
Javy doesn't feel good and Kenley's good, I'll use Kenley."
Guerra has allowed one hit and struck out five in five scoreless innings.
Dodgers to speak at Robinson's high school
LOS ANGELES -- A contingent of Dodgers present and past will visit Jackie Robinson's high school to talk about the trailblazer's legacy in
advance of Jackie Robinson Day.
Current Dodgers players Dee Gordon and Tony Gwynn and Dodgers alumni Tommy Davis, Lou Johnson, Ken Landreaux and Derrel
Thomas will speak about Robinson's impact on baseball and society at John Muir High School in Pasadena.
On Sunday, the Dodgers will celebrate the 65th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball as a Dodger. All
uniformed personnel will wear No. 42, which has been retired by baseball in honor of Robinson.
Pregame ceremonies will include the First African Methodist Episcopal Church Unity Choir performing the national anthem and the
American Legion Jackie Robinson Post from South L.A. presenting the colors. Seven of the Dodgers' Team 42 scholars, who receive
college scholarships through the Dodgers Dream Foundation and the Jackie Robinson Foundation, will be recognized on the field before
the game and Dodgers alumni Don Newcombe and Davis will throw out ceremonial first pitches.
Scully misses third game behind mic
LOS ANGELES -- Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully missed his third consecutive game Thursday night with a bad cold.
The Dodgers said Scully is improving and a weekend return is possible.
Charley Steiner and Steve Lyons called the game on PRIME TICKET, while Rick Monday and Kevin Kennedy will be behind the
microphone on AM 570 Fox Sports Los Angeles.
Dodgers put fast start on line in opener vs. Padres
By Quinn Roberts / MLB.com | 4/13/2012 2:07 AM ET
There was a lot to like for Clayton Richard in his first start of the season on Sunday against the Dodgers.
The left-hander held Los Angeles to only two runs on two hits in seven innings, with three strikeouts and no walks in the win.
He'll get the chance to match that for the second time in a week when the Padres face the Dodgers and Aaron Harang in the series
opener at Dodger Stadium on Friday.
Richard worked ahead in the count for much of that start, allowing only a two-run home run to Matt Kemp, with both runs unearned.
The left-hander will try to get ahead of hitters again on Friday, understanding just how potent a lineup the Dodgers have.
"You know the middle of their order is extremely talented, so you don't want to fall behind those guys," said Richard.
That not only includes Kemp and Andre Ethier, who is 3-for-9 with five RBIs against lefties, but Juan Riviera, who already has eight hits
and four RBIs this season.
"He's always been close to .300 and drives in runs for me," said manager Don Mattingly, whose Dodgers are 6-1 and off to their best
start in 31 years. "And that's just what he's doing for us. He's never looked like a guy who would hit 30 homers. He drives in runs with
singles. Juan doesn't change his approach with a guy on second base. He stays with the plan."
Harang will hope for that type of production out of the lineup after struggling in his debut against Richard. The right-hander surrendered
four runs (three earned) on seven hits in 4 1/3 innings and took the loss against his former team.
"I felt I was pitching kind of tight," Harang said after the start. "I was tense or something. I put a lot of pressure on myself and just
wasn't able to locate. You fall behind and got to throw strikes and that's when they get hits. I wasn't making the pitches, that's what it
comes down to."
Padres: Quentin ready for live BP
In another positive step in the rehabilitation of his right knee, outfielder Carlos Quentin will take live batting practice this weekend.
Manager Bud Black said Thursday that Quentin will remain in San Diego for rehabilitation purposes while the team travels to Los
Angeles.
Quentin had surgery on March 19 with the hope that he could play in four to six weeks, and so far, he's had no setbacks.
Dodgers: Team to speak at Robinson's high school
Dodgers past and present will visit Jackie Robinson's high school to talk about his legacy in advance of Jackie Robinson Day.
Current Dodgers players Dee Gordon and Tony Gwynn, along with Dodgers alumni Tommy Davis, Lou Johnson, Ken Landreaux and
Derrel Thomas will speak about Robinson's impact on baseball and society at John Muir High School in Pasadena.
On Sunday, the Dodgers will celebrate the 65th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier, when all uniformed personnel wear
No. 42, which has been retired by baseball in honor of Robinson.
Pregame ceremonies will include the First African Methodist Episcopal Church Unity Choir performing the national anthem and the
American Legion Jackie Robinson Post from South L.A. presenting the colors. Seven of the Dodgers' Team 42 scholars, who receive
college scholarships through the Dodgers Dream Foundation and the Jackie Robinson Foundation, will be recognized on the field before
the game and Dodgers alumni Don Newcombe and Davis will throw out ceremonial first pitches.
Worth noting
• Padres right-hander Joe Wieland, who is considered one of the Padres' top pitching prospects, is set to make his Major League debut
on Saturday at Dodger Stadium, Black confirmed before Thursday's game.
• Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully missed his third consecutive game Thursday night at Dodger Stadium with a bad cold. Charley
Steiner and Steve Lyons called the game on PRIME TICKET, while Rick Monday and Kevin Kennedy were behind the microphone on AM
570 Fox Sports Los Angeles.
Some young talent forced to wait in wings
Promising prospects back in Minors, blocked by teams' depth
By Doug Miller / MLB.com | 04/12/12 10:00 AM ET
Nathan Eovaldi, Dodgers: Eovaldi, who turned 22 in February, appeared in 10 games with the Dodgers last year, starting six and putting
up a respectable 3.63 ERA, and pitched well this spring. So why is he in Double-A?
Well, this is why: The Dodgers signed veterans Aaron Harang and Chris Capuano to fill out a rotation fronted by last year's National
League Cy Young Award winner, Clayton Kershaw, plus valuable veterans Chad Billingsley and Ted Lilly, who should return from the
disabled list in short order. Eovaldi is surely in the mix for a promotion if one of the horses suffers an injury, so for now he's in a regular
routine as he bides his time, and, like all of these blocked prospects, tries to keep it all in perspective.
"I just try to keep getting better," Eovaldi said. "I'm glad they're giving me starts. Just the fact they've gotten me in as much as they have
is good."
DAILY NEWS
Dodgers make early lead hold up in win
By J.P. Hoornstra Staff Writer
Posted: 04/12/2012 11:16:21 PM PDT
The day before his scheduled start, Chris Capuano throws a bullpen session. It can be painful to watch.
The Dodgers left-hander begins his wind-up only to stop mid-delivery, leaving each incomplete throw like an unresolved melody
lingering in the air. Maybe he'll stop twice, repeating his mechanics for the sake of precision - a mental rehearsal, Capuano says.
The endearing quality of this exercise is that there is no ball in his hand, no catcher behind the plate, and no coach monitoring
Capuano's motion. It's an imaginary game of catch that goes exactly as well as the pitcher believes it does.
In reality, maybe the pre-pregame ritual has its merits. Capuano has enjoyed stellar results early in his first two starts in a Dodger
uniform.
On Thursday, pitching for the first time at home against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Capuano got the victory as the Dodgers won 3-2.
Despite pitching on a chilly night that was at 57 degrees when the game started, Capuano got off to a hot start. He retired five of the
first six batters he faced via strikeout, using a 91-mph fastball in addition to his typical heavy dose of sinkers, sliders and changeups.
Also like his debut last Saturday in San Diego, Capuano eventually hit a snag in the fifth inning.
Michael McKenry, a career .214 hitter making his sixth plate appearance of the season, launched a 2-1 pitch over the center-field fence
for the Pirates' first run.
But as has become the Dodgers' custom, they had built enough of a cushion that one run didn't matter. A three-run first inning against
Pittsburgh starter Jeff Karstens had the making of a big start for the Dodgers, and while that didn't materialize, it was enough to leave
Capuano as the pitcher of record for the first time this season.
With one out, Mark Ellis singled and Matt Kemp doubled, advancing Ellis to third base. Andre Ethier - hitting cleanup against the righthanded Karstens after batting fifth Wednesday against lefty Erik Bedard - was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
That brought up Juan Rivera, the Dodgers' third-leading RBI man, who launched a sacrifice fly to left field, deep enough to score Ellis.
Recent history suggested the inning might have ended there, with the Dodgers leading 1-0. The next two batters, James Loney and Juan
Uribe, carried .000 and .222 batting averages into the game; Loney was hitless in 16 at-bats to start the season.
Loney ended his drought by lacing an opposite-field single to left, scoring Kemp with the Dodgers' second run. A single to center field by
Uribe drove in Ethier to make the score 3-0.
The Dodgers touched Karstens for three more hits in the next four innings but couldn't add to their lead.
HOFFARTH on the MEDIA: Dodgers in a no-Vin situation -- what's the plan?
By Tom Hoffarth, Staff Columnist
Posted: 04/13/2012 02:48:32 AM PDT
There's a famous piece of "new journalism" that appeared in Esquire magazine in 1966, when Gay Talese was sent to Los Angeles to
track down Frank Sinatra.
Talese's story, entitled "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold," included the paragraph:
"Sinatra with a cold is Picasso without paint, Ferrari without fuel - only worse. For the common cold robs Sinatra of that uninsurable
jewel, his voice ... A Sinatra with a cold can, in a small way, send vibrations through the entertainment industry and beyond as surely as
a President of the United States, suddenly sick, can shake the national economy."
Vin Scully with a cold apparently is worse.
It causes a major metropolitican city that otherwise bllistfully acts as if there's not a care in the world to suddenly become antsy, even
more neurotic than usual.
Just like last spring, after Scully slipped and fell, hitting his head on his bathroom floor at home. Or a couple of Augusts ago when he said
he'd make an announcement about his future - it was that he'd be returning for the 2011 season. But the suspense killed enough
Chicken Little-writers to assume he was going to retire, so in trying to convince everyone they had a scoop, they instead set everyone
into panic mode.
Scully, at 84, with a cold, sends a chill down everyone else's spine. Enough to where you'd think by now the Dodgers, as they are
currently constituted amid an ownership change, would have a security blanket ready to wrap everyone in, either for the short or long
term.
They really don't, according to a variety of sources who spoke off the record about it. That by itself should be unsettling.
While Scully has stayed in bed at his Hidden Hills home the past three Dodgers games, the hope is that he'll be back sometime this
weekend for a Prime Ticket telecast at Dodger Stadium between the San Diego Padres and Dodgers, and we can all breathe easier.
But there are no guarantees. He's day-to-day, the team says. "Aren't we all?" Scully once said in what has become a famous line
attributed to him.
He also is fond of saying that if you want to make God smile, you tell Him your plans. But that shouldn't preclude the team to begin
accounting for the time when (gasp) Scully disappears like Cheshire Cat, as he said recently, and all that will be left is his smile.
They can keep using a combination of Charley Steiner, Steve Lyons, Eric Collins or Rick Monday, but all that seems to be is a scripted fire
drill.
Paul Haddad just produced a new book called "High Fives, Pennant Drives and Fermandomania: A Fan's History of the Los Angeles
Dodgers' Glory Years 1977-1981" (Santa Monica Press, 336 pages, $16.95), much of which is based on the hours of audio tapes that he
made of Scully's calls of games over the years.
Haddad, a documentary executive producer living in Los Feliz, had the audacity to suggest even before Scully missed the home opener
that the team should put a game plan together for the time when everyone comes to grips that it's in a no-Vin situation.
"Vin needs a successor," Haddad wrote in a guest piece for the EchoParkPatch.com site. "No offense to Charley Steiner or Rick Monday,
but neither can carry Vin's mouthpiece - and they'd be the first to tell you that. The problem is, nobody can."
When the Dodgers discussed the hiring of Collins off his ESPN resume a few years ago to fill in for Scully on TV road games east of
Denver, word is from those close to the process that there was no candidate that stood out. Collins, part African-American, appealed to
owner Frank McCourt as the fine choice for a franchise known as being progressive.
That the 42-year-old Collins really hasn't made any great strides in capturing the audience for the past three seasons - he makes his
regular-season TV debut next week in Milwaukee - speaks to the need to revisit the choices out there.
Matt Vasgersian, the former Padres' broadcaster now with the MLB Network, must remain on the radar. Dan Shulman, the current ESPN
"Sunday Night Baseball" voice who recently replaced Hall of Famer Jon Miller on the package, has been mentioned.
Go young? Go established? Go with Steiner?
Haddad added to his thoughts in an email Thursday: "The Dodgers used to be a franchise that was on the cutting-edge - in integration,
player development, West Coast baseball, even in the broadcast booth. Pioneers, not band-wagoners. I'm not out and out saying the
team shouldn't consider any 'pre-owned' announcers. I just think it would be a great symbolic gesture by the new owners to break in a
new and shiny model, restoring the team's reputation as leaders, not followers."
This isn't something like planting a new bunch of palm trees beyond the Dodgers' bullpen. It's someone taking root beyond, as Steiner
said earlier this week, finding someone to "pinch hit for Babe Ruth."
Just look at how the Lakers are still, 10 years later, trying to establish a regular play-by-play man in the wake of Chick Hearn's passing at
age 85.
Magic Johnson should be up to speed on that fact.
Fans wear out their remote controls trying to find Kings
As simplified as NBC tries to make it sound - every NHL playoff game will be covered by its Comcast-related umbrella network - it
doesn't necessarily present itself as a very viewer-friendly navigation for L.A. hockey fans.
The Kings-Canucks Western Conference quarterfinal series has been slotted to be shown nationally on NBC Sports Channel (formerly
Versus). Other series have games also on CNBC, the NHL Network and, on weekends, via NBC.
But to capture the Southern California audience with more familiar destination spots, the Kings arranged again for tonight's Game 2 to
be awkwardly relegated to KCOP-Channel 13.
That's because the Lakers and Dodgers occupy FSW and Prime, just as the Angels, Clippers and Dodgers had those channels locked up in
conflict with Wednesday's Game 1.
Sunday's Game 3 from Staples Center settles into a comfort zone on FSW. But the Kings ran out of options in having to allow Game 4 on
Wednesday to stay on the NBC Sports Network, asking that the national blackout be lifted for Southern California. That's because the
Dodgers, Angels and Clippers have games on Prime, FSW and Channel 13, respectively, that night.
The danger is that if the Flyers-Penguins' 4:30 p.m. game on that date runs long, NBC Sports Channel is required to start the KingsCanucks game at the opening faceoff in Southern California. That doesn't help anyone in L.A. who wants to see the Flyers and Penguins
slug it out to the finish.
If necessary, Kings-Canucks Games 5 (April 22) and 7 (April 26) have been secured by FSW, and Game 6 (April 24) will go to Prime Ticket.
Asking the regular-season Kings fans to guess which among four channels their playoff game could be on might not seem like asking a
lot. But for the more casual fan who gets caught up in the playoffs with the team's success after Game 1, can things get any more
complicated?
WHAT SMOKES
==Al Michaels says "there's nothing better than receiving an honor with Vin Scully's name attached to it" after the NBC "Sunday Night
Football" play-by-play man and longtime network broadcaster was told he'd be honored with Fordham University's Lifetime
Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting, named for the Dodgers' Hall of Fame broadcaster and launched in 2008. The ceremony to
benefit WFUV-FM takes place May 10 in New York. Dick Enberg, Ernie Harwell and Pat Summerall are past recipients. "I've been
listening to Vin since I was 6 or 7 years old (growing up in Brooklyn) and he's been a tremendous inspiration," Michaels said. "Even with
laryngitis (brought on by recent bad cold), he's the best."
==An HBO piece on the Lakers' Pau Gasol that appears in the next edition of "Real Sports" (10 p.m. Tuesday) will delve more into his offthe-court interests - growing up in Spain, playing Tchaikovsky on the piano, and his desire to become a doctor inspired to find AIDSrelated treatments in the wake of Magic Johnson's HIV contraction 20 years ago. "You can't have it all," Gasol says. "I'm very happy and
fortunate that I have the (NBA) career and made the choices that I made at the time." Reporter Jon Frankel follows the storyline of
Gasol befriending 13-year-old Isabelle Shattuck at Children's Hospital in L.A. After being present for her spinal surgery to treat severe
scoliosis, Gasol arranged for her to be a Lakers ball girl at a Staples Center game.
WHAT CHOKES
== Some reviews coming in for the "Magic/Bird" stage play that opened Wednesday in New York, based on the lives of Magic Johnson
and Larry Bird: An "efficiently informative but uninspired trek" and "another workmanlike attempt to colonize a small patch of
Broadway for the underserved straight male constituency," according to New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood; "an airball or, at best, a jumper that clangs off the rim," says the Boston Globe's Don Aucoin; it's "by the numbers and stiffly acted," wrote the New
York Daily News' Joe Dziemianowicz. "Spamalot,"anyone?
DODGERS NOTEBOOK: Jansen benefitting from adjustment to his delivery
By J.P. Hoornstra, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/12/2012 10:22:46 PM PDT
When a pitcher stands 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds, there might be no such thing as a "minor mechanical adjustment."
That proved true for Kenley Jansen recently, as Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt noticed the stout set-up man was standing too
stiff in his delivery during his first outing of the season.
The result: Jansen allowed a single and a home run, respectively, to the first two San Diego Padres he faced. Jansen retired three
straight hitters to end the inning, but was stuck with an 18.00 earned-run average to begin the regular season.
"They called me in right away, told me what's wrong," Jansen said. "I got on the mound the next day and just worked on it."
In his next three appearances after Opening Day, Jansen has retired 12 of the 13 batters he has faced - seven via strikeout.
It was the same problem Jansen faced in 2011. Eight batters into the regular season, he had allowed four runs - all in one inning against
the San Francisco Giants in an eventual 10-0 Dodger loss. The right-hander eventually worked out the kinks, but confessed that he fell
into the same trap again this year.
"Honestly, yeah, you can easily get away from it," he said. "Originally I didn't feel it at all. I thought it was good."
Although Jansen relies on a mid-to-upper 90-mph fastball, his velocity isn't the main victim of his poor mechanics.
"His fastball does have a lot of natural movement," Honeycutt said. "When he doesn't use his leg, he doesn't get that late life. Even
though it's fairly firm it's not doing much at the end."
More importantly for the long haul, by shifting weight to his back leg Jansen reduces the strain on his arm. For a pitcher who might be
called on to pitch in 70 to 80 games this season, durability is essential.
"Your big muscles are going to bounce back much quicker than your smaller muscles, which are around the rotator cuff in the arm,"
Honeycutt said. "It's more of a mental thing - you have to use the body more efficiently."
Robinson roundtable
Outfielder Tony Gwynn Jr., shortstop Dee Gordon and four former Dodgers - Tommy Davis, Derrel Thomas, Ken Landreaux and Lou
Johnson - will participate in a Jackie Robinson Day roundtable discussion at 10 a.m. today with students at John Muir High School in
Pasadena, Robinson's alma mater.
On Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council declared April 11 "Jackie Robinson Day" in the city, commemorating the 65 th anniversary
of Robinson signing his first major-league contract.
The Dodgers will celebrate their own Jackie Robinson day Sunday, the 65 th anniversary of his first game with the Dodgers. In what has
become an annual tradition, every player on every MLB team will have Robinson's number 42 on his jersey that day.
Also ...
Vin Scully will miss his fourth straight game behind the microphone today. The 84-year-old broadcaster is improving from what the
team has termed a "bad cold" and is a possibility to return this weekend. Charley Steiner and Steve Lyons split TV duties Thursday, while
Rick Monday and Kevin Kennedy anchored the radio broadcast. ... Left-hander Ted Lilly is still on track to make his season debut
Saturday against the Padres, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. Now healthy, Lilly missed his first start because of a stiff neck he
suffered late in spring training. He must be removed from the disabled list before he can start and the Dodgers are expected to send a
reliever - likely Josh Lindblom - to the minors to make room on the roster. ... Lilly will be opposed by Joe Wieland, a 22-year-old righthander making his major-league debut. Wieland began the season in Triple-A because Saturday is the first time the Padres will need a
fifth starter. - Today's starter, Aaron Harang, has pitched four games in his career at Dodger Stadium. He's 1-2 with a 3.65 ERA and has
limited opposing batters to a .247 average.
EXAMINER
Dodgers past and present to visit Jackie Robinson’s high school
Jim Smiley
With Jackie Robinson Day this weekend, current and retired Dodger players will visit Robinson’s alma mater John Muir High School in
Pasadena.
Shortstop Dee Gordon and outfielder Tony Gwynn Jr.will represent the current roster in the team’s visit. They’ll be joined by former
Dodger players Tommy Davis, Sweet Lou Johnson, Kenny Landreaux, and Derrel Thomas.
The Dodger contingent will speak to Muir students about Robinson’s legacy and impact on baseball and society. Students will receive
tickets to Sunday’s Jackie Robinson Day at Dodger Stadium.
At Muir, Robinson was an all-around athlete, playing shortstop, catcher, quarterback, and point guard. When track season came, he
competed in the broad jump.
Sunday marks the 65th anniversary of Robinson’s 1947 debut that broke baseball's color barrier. All of the Dodger uniformed personnel
will wear Robinson’s #42 as part of the celebration. The number was retired by all of baseball in 1997. Twelve players who were
wearing the number at that time were allowed to continue wearing it until retirement, with Mariano Rivera the only active Major
Leaguer still wearing #42.
Don Newcombe – Robinson’s teammate for six years -- will team with Tommy Davis Sunday in throwing out ceremonial first pitches.
FOX SPORTS WEST
Guerrier feels more comfortable in second Dodgers season
April 12, 2012
Dodgers reliever Matt Guerrier is fully healthy after missing some time during spring training with back stiffness, and he's also more
relaxed in his second season in Los Angeles.
It's evident in his early-season work.
Guerrier has pitched in three games so far, and he's retired nine of the 10 batters he's faced. The 33-year-old veteran signed a threeyear, $12 million contract with the Dodgers in December 2010, and he had an inconsistent 2011 season. Guerrier went 4-3 with one
save and a 4.07 ERA in 70 appearances.
"I think last year was an adjustment year for him," manager Don Mattingly said. "It's one of the things I talked to him about right away
in spring training, to not try and come over here and show us what he can do. He's already proven he can pitch in the big leagues and
established himself."
Guerrier spent the first seven years of his big-league career with the Twins, proving to be one of the more durable relievers in the game.
He is the only man in baseball to have pitched at least 70 games in each of the last five seasons.
"If I'm your new teammate, I want to prove to you I can play," Mattingly said. "I think last year he basically was trying to show everyone
he could play. At the end of the year, he said he never felt like himself all year."
Guerrier's role on the Dodgers is ideally to pitch the seventh inning, something he did in Wednesday's 4-1 win over the Pirates, retiring
all three batters he faced in what was still a one-run game.
Perhaps a healthy and more at ease Guerrier will serve as a stable bridge to Kenley Jansen and Javy Guerra at the end of games for the
Dodgers. The team is counting on it.
NOTES
Dodgers Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully missed his second consecutive game Wednesday with a bad cold, and he will miss a third
straight game Thursday as he rests and recovers at home. Tuesday was just the second home opener Scully has missed in 63 seasons
broadcasting the Dodgers...RHP Chad Billingsley has won each of his first two starts, striking out 15 and walking two in 14 1/3 innings.
He allowed one run on five hits in six innings Wednesday against Pittsburgh, improving to 6-1 in 11 career starts against the
Pirates."Some of the things that Rick (Honeycutt, pitching coach) talked about last year, him working on through the winter, it looks like
it's paying off," Mattingly said...RHP Kenley Jansen has retired 12 of the last 13 batters he's faced after working on correcting a
mechanical flaw in his delivery while the Dodgers were in San Diego. The work with pitching coach Rick Honeycutt and bullpen coach
Ken Howell has paid off, as Jansen struck out three in a scoreless inning Wednesday. "Ever since Rick got in the film room on him, and
he and Kenny went to work, he's been pretty solid," Mattingly said. "He looked a lot like he did in San Diego, really attacking the strike
zone...LHP Clayton Kershaw was presented with his 2011 National League Cy Young Award on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium before the
game against the Pirates. Mattingly said he keeps his own 1985 American League Most Valuable Player Award in a storage locker, and
he joked, "I just hope the auto-payment keeps getting made so I don't see it on Storage Wars one day." With wins in the first two games
of the series, the Dodgers continued their mastery of the Pirates. The Dodgers have not lost a season series against Pittsburgh since
2000. Since the beginning of the 2001 campaign, the Dodgers are 59-23 against the Pirates, including 31-10 at Dodger
Stadium...Tuesday's win over the Pirates improved the Dodgers' record in one-run games to 2-0 this season. Los Angeles went 23-21 in
one-run games in 2011. "I would like to score a few more runs, but it seems like this is our formula," Mattingly said. "We're going to play
a lot of close games. It's going to be, who's going to get that big hit or make the big pitch to get the outs we need."
ESPN DEPORTES
Como en 1981, pero sin 'El Toro'
Por Rigo Cervantez
ESPNDeportesLosAngeles.com
LOS ÁNGELES -- Los Dodgers de Los Ángeles hacen recordar épocas gloriosas, como aquella temporada de 1981 en que ganaron su
quinta Serie Mundial, ni más ni menos que a los Yankees de Nueva York, con un Fernando Valenzuela que se dobleteaba con el premio
Cy Young y la presea al Novato del Año.
En ese año, también se había dado un inicio de campaña similar al de la actual temporada 2012: seis triunfos y un sola derrota.
Algo que la novena angelina logró la noche del jueves, ante poco más de 28 mil espectadores en Dodgers Stadium, al ganar el tercer y
último juego de la serie frente a Piratas de Pittsburgh, con pizarra final de 3-2, para completar su primera barrida de la temporada.
Pero el mánager azul, Don Mattingly no echa las campanas al vuelo.
"Prefiero no pronosticar, la temporada es aún muy larga," dijo, cauteloso, ante la insistencia de los reporteros, luego de la victoria sobre
los Piratas.
"¿Se necesitaría nuevamente a Valenzuela?" Insistió ESPNDeportesLosAngeles.com.
"Yo, encantado lo aceptaría, pero, insisto, no quiero pronosticar", replicó el timonel, complacido porque su lanzador abridor, Chris
Capuano, con una sólida actuación, se agenciaba su primera victoria y que James Loney lograba su primer imparable de la temporada,
un hit impulsador de carrera, también, la primera del año para el primera base.
ATAQUE TEMPRANO
El triunfo azul se cimentó en un ramillete de tres carreras en la misma primera entrada, cuando Mark Ellis, Matt Kemp y Andre Ethier,
anotaron por un elevado al jardín izquierdo de Juan Rivera, y los imparables consecutivos de James Loney y Juán Uribe.
"Se siente bien, salir de esta presión, ya que nunca había tenido un inicio de temporada como este," confesó Loney, respirando
profundo, luego de lograr su primer hit y su primera carrera empujada en el 2012.
EL GANADOR
El triunfo fue a parar a las alforjas del abridor Chris Capuano (1-0), quien lanzó pelota de 6 hits, en 5 y un tercio de entradas.
"Estoy muy feliz. La primera victoria es siempre la más difícil de lograr, cuando llegas a un nuevo equipo. Pero debo ser honesto y
reconocer que el bullpen merece crédito por este triunfo", declaró el serpentinero, quien también reveló que uno de los aspectos
importantes en la buena actuación de los lanzadores azules, fue su cometido de no otorgar pasaportes gratuitos a los bates rivales.
Capuano ponchó a siete y permitió una carrera limpia, por la vía larga, en el quinto episodio, cuando Michael McKenry, con la cuenta de
2-1, la botó por la parte más profunda del parque.
Luego, los Piratas agregaron la segunda rayita en el sexto episodio, en los bombachos de Andrew McCutchen, que se desprendió desde
la antesala, gracias a un elevado a la pradera izquierda de Yamaico Navarro, lo que provocó la salida de Capuano.
Sin embargo, la rebelión de la novena visitante fue conjurada por el sólido trabajo del bullpen angelino, con los brazos de Mike
MacDougal, Scott Elbert, Josh Lindblom, Matt Guerrier y el taponero Javy Guerra, quien se encargó de retirar en orden a los últimos tres
bateadores, recetando, incluso, dos chocolates.
De esa forma, Guerra, quien cerró la puerta en las narices de los toleteros de Pittsburgh, en los tres duelos, se acreditó su quinto juego
salvado, una marca en las grandes ligas.
El abridor de los Piratas, Jeff Karstens (0-1), se llevó la derrota.
LLEGAN LOS PADRES
A partir de este viernes, la novena azul vuelve a verse las caras con los vecinos del sur, los Padres de San Diego, que llegan a Chávez
Ravine para otra serie de tres desafíos.
Para el primer duelo, los Dodgers tienen programado, para abrir desde el centro del diamante, al derecho Aaron Harang (0-1).
Por su parte, los Padres anuncian al serpentinero zurdo Clayton Richard (1-0).
Dodgers barren a los Piratas
jueves, 12 de abril de 2012
por Rigo Cervantez
LOS ÁNGELES -- Los Dodgers de Los Ángeles viven su mejor inicio de temporada en más de tres décadas, y al ganar el tercer y último
juego de la serie frente a los Piratas de Pittsburgh, con pizarra final de 3-2, para completar la barrida, y poner su marca en 6 ganados y
tan sólo uno perdido, una cosecha similar a la de la temporada de 1981.
El triunfo azul se cimentó en un ramillete de tres carreras en la misma primera entrada, cuando Mark Ellis, Matt Kemp y Andre Ethier,
anotaron por un elevado al jardín izquierdo de Juan Rivera y los imparables consecutivos de James Loney y Juan Uribe.
El triunfo fue a las alforjas del abridor Chris Capuano (1-0), quien lanzó pelota de 6 hits, en 5 y un tercio de entradas.
Capuano ponchó a siete y permitió una carrera limpia, por la vía larga, en el quinto episodio, cuando Michael McKenry, con la cuenta de
2-1, la botó por la parte más profunda del parque.
Luego, los Piratas agregaron la segunda rayita en el sexto episodio, en los bombachos de Andrew McCutchen, desde la antesala, gracias
a un elevado a la pradera izquierda de Yamaico Navarro, lo que provocó la salida del abridor Chris Capuano.
Sin embargo, la rebelión de la novena visitante fue conjurada por el trabajo del bullpen anagelino, con los brazos de Mike MacDougal,
Scott Elbert, Josh Lindblom, Matt Guerrier y el taponero Javy Guerra, quien hizo los últimos tres outs y se acreditó su quinto juego
salvado, una marca de grandes ligas.
El abridor de los Piratas, Jeff Karstens (0-1), se llevó la derrota.
LLEGAN LOS PADRES
A partir de este viernes, la novena azul vuelve a verse las caras con los vecinos del sur, los Padres de San Diego, que llegan a Chávez
Ravine para otra serie de tres desafíos.
Para el primer duelo, los Dodgers tienen programado, para abrir desde el centro del diamante, al derecho Aaron Harang (0-1).
Por su parte, los Padres anuncian al serpentinero zurdo Clayton Richard (1-0).
DAILY BREEZE
WALDNER: Dodger blues have yet to leave building
By Mike Waldner, Columnist
Posted: 04/13/2012 01:46:55 AM PDT
Frank McCourt is laughing all the way to the bank as he sells the Dodgers. So they say. Don't believe everything you hear.
What about the $1 billion or more said to be his profit in the forced sale of the Dodgers?
Don't believe everything you hear.
Longtime Dodgers season-ticket holder Ronnie Crosby Brown provides a picture of McCourt without a smile.
"We had a suite for a game last season," she said. "It was next to a suite Frank had. He was there by himself. What a lonely man he must
be."
This snapshot will warm the hearts of those who shuddered at the manner in which McCourt ran the Dodgers, feeling he ran a proud
franchise into the ground.
Mark Walter is the soon-to-be controlling owner of the Dodgers. He and his group of partners, which includes Magic Johnson, have
agreed to pay $2.15 billion to buy the team.
Walter is a smart, successful businessman, evidence of which is provided by statements listing his company, Guggenheim Partners,
having assets of $126 billion.
His team in this venture includes Stan Kasten, president of the Atlanta Braves from 1986 to 2003 when they replaced the Dodgers as
baseball's model franchise.
Walter's apparent deep pockets and Kasten's resume are not why the new ownership group captivates reporters, columnists and
commentators as well as fans.
The key player is Johnson. The former star of the Lakers is the polar opposite of McCourt in the image department. Recruiting him to be
the face of the team is the best demonstration of Walter's savvy.
"I'm very happy Magic Johnson bought the team," Brown said. "I'm hoping to meet him."
The Dodgers will make it happen. They value the Manhattan Beach resident's business. She is the only season-ticket holder on the
books from 1958, the year the team moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.
Brown will enjoy meeting Johnson. However, along with being the poster boy for the "new" Dodgers, he provides a perfect example of
how what you hear is not always true. Johnson has been identified repeatedly as leader of the group buying the Dodgers. Wrong. Make
no mistake, it is Walter's group.
Johnson is in for perhaps 4 percent. His people say he has invested between $60 million and $100 million, a very thin slice in a $2.15
billion deal.
Walter reportedly was the leading bidder at $1.6 billion. Then he reportedly upped the ante to $2.15 billion, prompting McCourt to take
the money and run.
Bidding against himself in this manner should be reason for fans to pause no matter how strong his business reputation.
We are told a development project of restaurants, stores and residences on the outer edges of the property, possibly a football stadium
and future cable television revenue will cover all costs and return a handsome profit.
A development project could be a fantasy. The property is not close enough to downtown for restaurants and shops to draw a
lunchtime crowd. Would you want to fight traffic to get in and out of your condo or townhouse on game day?
Building parking structures to make up for lost parking spots would mean the already lengthy time it now takes to get home after a
game would be extended.
A football stadium? Have you watched this dance since the Raiders and Rams left town? If so, you know better than to hold your breath.
Then there is the involvement of McCourt as an equal partner in a development project. Walter no doubt figured this was icing needed
to close the deal.
However, McCourt comes with well-documented baggage. The public is turned off to him. The same is true of public officials who will
have to sign off on any development.
Also, history tells us, and should tell Walter, you will end up in court if you partner with McCourt. Just ask Jamie McCourt, his former
wife. About the only person he has not taken to court is Tommy Lasorda.
The next TV deal should be impressive. Educated estimates are it will be worth $4 billion to $5 billion for the Dodgers. It will be for
somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 years.
When you consider the fortunes it will cost to renovate the stadium, pay for free agents, pay off the loan or loans that finance the
purchase, the salaries the partners probably will pay themselves and other expenses, the new TV deal will not look so impressive 10
years down the road.
So it is that what we are told about how everything is dandy at Dodger Stadium because the team has new owners should be viewed
with caution.
We were told McCourt would be fortunate to walk away with a slight profit. Now the story has him with that $1 billion profit. A good
guess is that after taxes, commissions and fees associated with the sale, lawyers, accountants, publicists, crisis managers and other
expenses or debts, his profit while considerable will be well below current expectations.
Whatever, it is time to move on.
That's Ronnie Crosby Brown's plan.
Speaking of McCourt, Brown said, "He was ruining the Dodgers." She almost canceled her six season tickets.
Her loyalty did have a limit.
"They wanted me to sign a contract for two or three years," she said. "I said, `No, I'll do it for a year."'
A wise lady, she wants to see what happens with the Dodgers going forward. You should have the same attitude.
LAIST
Dodgers Sweep Pirates, Riding on Easy Street?
I wonder if along with the $2.15 billion spent on the Dodgers, the Guggenheim Group also greased the palms of MLB to get such a
favorable schedule to start the season. With the 3-2 victory and the series sweep over the Pittsburgh Pirates and taking two of three in
San Diego to start the season, the Dodgers now have a 6-1 record and welcome the San Diego Padres for a weekend series.
Hell, the Dodgers might even think they are a good team especially since the last time the Dodgers were 6-1 to start the season they
won the 1981 World Series.
"This whole year we're going to be hard to beat," Matt Kemp said after the game.
"Early in the year it's tough to win games because it doesn't matter what people think you're supposed to be," Manager Don Mattingly
said with a hint of exasperation in his voice. "Last year the Diamondbacks, who were in last place the year before, win the division. The
Padres the year before that no one counted on them, they were in it until the last day.
"You can put things on paper all you want. You've got to go out and play."
There's a hint of an us-against-the-world attitude seeping into the clubhouse.
"We definitely don't care what expectations people have on us," Kemp declared. "We know how good we are, what we are capable of
doing."
The Dodgers kept showing what they can do using a hit parade in the first inning to bag three runs. After Pirates' starter Jeff Karstens hit
Andre Ethier with a pitch to load the bases, a sacrifice fly by whom Mattingly dubbed "RBI Guy" Juan Rivera and RBI singles by James
Loney and Juan Uribe gave all the offense the Dodgers needed.
And with Loney's single, Eugenio Velez sitting in the St. Louis Cardinals' organization could pop the celebratory cork. Velez's Major
League record 37 at-bats without a hit last season was preserved as Loney broke his 0-for-16 hitless streak.
"It's a big hit for us in the first," Mattingly said. "It's good for him to get out of the blocks a little bit."
Dodgers' starter Chris Capuano, despite a career 5.99 ERA against the Pirates, acted like the replica Cy Young award plaques handed out
to fans Wednesday night was actually all for him. He started the game striking out five in the first two innings.
But of course Capuano isn't a Cy Young winner, and the Pirates eventually caught up with him. Michael McHenry got all of a Capuano
sinker that hung up in the zone and sent it to straight away centerfield.
Capuano's night was done after giving up a sacrifice fly to Yamaico Navarro in the sixth inning which scored Andrew McCutchen who led
off the inning with a single.
"I'm trying to remind myself to attack the zone," Capuano said. "Certainly in the last inning there I wasn't making the same quality
pitches I was making earlier. I just want to sharpen up the focus at that crucial time in the ballgame."
Things got a little dicey with Mike MacDougal giving up a single to Clint Barmes and a walk to McHenry &em; the first walk by the
Pirates in the series. But Scott Elbert bailed out the Dodgers getting pinch hitter Matt Hague to line out to Matt Kemp in centerfield, and
from that point on the bullpen took control of the game. Josh Lindblom and Matt Guerrier pitched scoreless seventh and eighth innings
while Javy Guerra got his third save in as many days, his fifth of the season.
"That was really a win the bullpen deserved the credit for," Capuano admitted.
Some perspective on Dodger pitching in this game: had MacDougal and Lindblom not issued walks in this game, the Dodgers would have
issued no walks in a three-game series for the first time since 1940.
Easy schedule or no, the Dodgers are taking care of the business at hand.
CBS SPORTS
Kemp's 50-50 prediction not so ridiculous as it first seemed
By Gregg Doyel | CBSSports.com National Columnist
LOS ANGELES -- Today could be the day. That was my thought as I walked up to Matt Kemp's locker before the Dodgers game Thursday
night against Pittsburgh: Today could be the day he snaps. It has to happen, right? Yeah, it's early in the season -- calendar says it's April
12 -- but how many times, before he snaps, can a guy be asked a question as loaded as the one I was going to ask him?
You know the question, or you should. It would be the same question you'd ask Matt Kemp if you found yourself in Los Angeles, at
Dodger Stadium, in the Dodgers' clubhouse, and you had just five minutes alone with him. Not a lot you can ask in five minutes, so you
better go ahead and ask the question you came to ask.
Again, you know the question:
Matt, about your prediction of 50 homers and 50 steals this season ... huh?
Something like that. Maybe that wasn't word-for-word what I asked Kemp, but it was close. It could have been exactly that. Don't know,
because I don't write down what I say. I just write down what they say. And here's what Kemp said when I asked him about his 50-50
prediction for the 2012 season:
"Sometimes," Kemp said, "you just have to think outside the box."
Huh.
That's one way of looking at it. Kemp was thinking outside the box when he thought out loud during a conference call with Los Angeles
media in November, a conference call in response to Kemp's second-place finish for the 2011 MVP to Ryan Braun. It had been just two
hours since Braun had been named MVP. Emotions were running high. Kemp was barely a week into an eight-year, $160 million
contract extension. He was coming off a season in which he nearly won the Triple Crown, leading the National League in home runs (39)
and RBI (126) and finishing third in batting average (.324), 13 points behind NL leader Jose Reyes.
And he was asked about not winning MVP just two hours earlier.
"I'm going to go 50-50 next year," Kemp said on Nov. 22.
I asked him about that prediction on Thursday: Where did it come from? Why would you say that? How? What?
Huh?
"Here's what happened," Kemp said. "When I said that, it might've been the first time I even thought about [50-50]. But we were talking
about how I didn't win the MVP, and I said, 'I guess I've got to put up 50-50 to win MVP."
And then, I asked Kemp? And then? After you said it, were you like the rest of us who heard your prediction and just kind of thought ...
huh?
"No, you know what? After I said it, I thought about it," Kemp said. "And I thought, 'I'm glad I said it. It's good to be positive.'"
That's where Dodgers manager Don Mattingly sits on this whole thing, or at least, that's where Mattingly says he sits on this whole
thing. In some ways it's hard to believe, that a longtime big-leaguer like Mattingly, raised on the "respect the game" code, would find
anything good about one of his players predicting one of the greatest offensive seasons in baseball history. But Mattingly has been a
huge Kemp supporter since becoming manager last season, saying Kemp should have won MVP with or without Braun's link to PED's,
and Mattingly continued with the public support on Thursday.
"It's good, really, that he sets his sights so high," Mattingly said. "I'd much rather him talk about 50-50 than 20-20."
Here's the thing about all this 50-50 talk, something that Mattingly would probably agree with even if he'd never say it:
Kemp might just do it.
I mean, really. He could do it. He's 27 years old, which means he's just now entering his prime. His best years? They should be ahead of
him, not behind him. And the years behind him have been pretty damn good. Since becoming an everyday player in the big leagues at
age 23 in 2008, Kemp's home-run total has gone from 18 to 26 to 28 to 39. Last year he increased his career high by 11 home runs. If he
does it again this season, he's at 50. Unlikely? Sure. But not impossible.
And 50 steals should be easier than 50 home runs.
"Absolutely," Kemp said when I said that last sentence to him. "More opportunities to steal a base."
Kemp has topped 30 steals three times, with a high last season of 40, but he's getting more opportunities than ever. Last season his .324
batting average was 39 points above his career average. Last season he also increased his career high in walks from 53 to 74. Add it up,
and his on-base percentage last season was a career-best .399.
This season Mattingly has moved Kemp to third in the order for two reasons. One, that could translate to another 20 or so at-bats over
the course of the season. Two, it gives Kemp more protection than last season, when he hit cleanup and would have games where the
No. 5 hitter was Juan Uribe (.204, 4 home runs, 28 RBI in 2011) or Casey Blake (.252, 4, 26).
Batting third, Kemp is protected now by two-time All-Star Andre Ethier. He'll still be pitched around, but again, he'll have more
opportunities than he had last season. And last season he had 39 home runs and 40 stolen bases, good enough to finish second in the
MVP, which was good enough to get him a conference call where he set his sights on 50-50 and then told the media -- who voted Braun
for MVP -- it was our fault.
"I'm telling you," Kemp said in November, "y'all created a monster."
As of Thursday night Kemp had two home runs and one steal, but it's early. Plenty of time to pad those stats -- and he'll do that. Plenty
of time to decide he's sick of the 50-50 topic, too. My guess? He'll do that, too. And when it happens, it will be spectacular.
I'm telling y'all, he created a monster.
Report: Dodgers sale expected to be approved Friday
By C. Trent Rosecrans | Baseball Blogger
The sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers is expected to be approved on Friday after the new owners give confirmation to Fox Sports that
Time Warner Cable would not be involved in the purchase of the team, the Los Angeles Times reports.
In Friday's hearing, the new owners will have to state under oath that Time Warner Cable isn't involved in the new ownership group.
Fox Sports had the right to challenge any sale in which Time Warner Cable was involved.
The Dodgers' current television contract expires after the 2013 season and several entities including Fox Sports and Time Warner Cable
are expected to bid for the rights to show the Dodgers and the new contract could be worth as much as $5 million. Or the new group
could launch its own team-owned regional sports network, much like the Yankees' YES Network.
YAHOO SPORTS
Dodgers' Andre Ethier is having fun for a change
By Tim Brown
LOS ANGELES – Andre Ethier turned 30 this week, the eldest of his two sons is nearly 4 already, and he's been around long enough now
to be on the doorstep of free agency.
It all passes so fast if you let it, too, if the last at-bat runs into the next one and the one after that, and then the last at-bat ruins your
whole day, you know, if you happen to be wound that tight.
For a few years there's been a lot of that going around at Dodger Stadium, where the teams weren't very good, and the fans and the
league were turning on the owner, and Ethier was gnawing off bat handles between base hits.
He's been great and he's been good and he's been something less than his expectations for himself, which sounds like a pretty typical
big-league career, better than typical even. Except Ethier couldn't ever let the disappointing stuff die in the arms of the hopeful stuff, a
stubbornness that might have served him well in the batting cage but could be hell on his general demeanor.
"Too much of that angst, that white-knuckle mentality, it can wear you out," he said Thursday afternoon while sitting on another whitehot start, through six games batting .348 and having driven in 10 runs.
The Dodgers were gliding right along with him and Matt Kemp, too. They'd won five of those six games, and while a broad and grateful
perspective goes down easy when you're punishing every pitcher that comes along, Ethier is trying to remember that this doesn't have
to be all bad luck and persecution, either.
There's enough of that in baseball even on the good days, if you go looking for it.
Some who know Ethier well say he's lightened up considerably, both on himself and that spiteful last at-bat. He'd dragged a sore knee
through enough of last season, which ended in surgery but helped spawn a great appreciation for health and youth and the delights of
the game. He'd arrived in spring training still without a contract for 2013 and beyond, but with a heart and mind open to the
possibilities.
In the meantime, his younger son, now 2, followed the basics "Mommy" and "Daddy" with a love for the exclamation, "Foul ball!" It's
the sort of random, goofy, beautiful life development that turns the nastiest of two-strike, backdoor sliders into simply a day job, if still a
reasonable obsession.
Who doesn't need a 2½-foot tall person running around the house screaming, "Foul ball!"?
Ethier, admittedly, had gone through the baseball part of his life assuming very few believed in him, in spite of all evidence otherwise.
He had an everyday big-league job at 24. He was sixth in the National League MVP voting at 27, an All-Star at 28, and a Gold Glove
winner at 29. This, despite a .243 career average against left-handed pitching (.220 in 2011), but maybe that was excusable in that it so
tortured him.
But, then the boys came along, and then he learned that dragging a leg through the summer was a lot more miserable than popping up
a hanging curveball, and then – wouldn't you know – another season came along, and with it a chance to do it all again, this time maybe
better.
From a long way back, he was always the serious one, the responsible one, the earnest one. Now, maybe, he could be all those things
and have a decent time doing it, too.
Maybe.
He was hitless in three at-bats Thursday night and took a very suspicious first-pitch fastball in the back in his other plate appearance. In
the first inning, the Dodgers had runners at second and third with one out. Right-handed hitter Juan Rivera was on deck, and Pittsburgh
Pirates right-hander Jeff Karstens had the option of pitching around Ethier or conserving his energy with a single pitch. That pitch struck
Ethier on the "6" of his "16."
Ethier deliberately flipped his bat aside and coasted to first base on the boos that poured from the grandstands.
He was the last Dodger to score in a 3-2 win, pushing their record to 6-1 – all against the San Diego Padres and Pirates. It's their best
record after seven games since 1981.
"You know what, it's the winning run," Ethier said later. "I guess that's the best revenge."
Fifteen minutes earlier he had met Kemp and Tony Gwynn Jr. in shallow center field, where they leapt and crashed into each other,
celebrating again.
Ethier was hitless for the first time in six games, but this will pass.
"You learn," he said. "I look back, it's been seven years here, and I'm proud of what I've done. Sometimes, you pick your head up and
find things along the way. You understand how precious the experience is."
The angst?
"Not as much," he said. "I still have some."
He'll still stew over stuff, for sure. It's his nature. He'll still drive home thinking about the middle-in fastball he should have hit into the
bleachers, the one he just missed. He'll rue the mechanics of his swing, or wonder how he wasn't thinking fastball, or wish he'd get one
more shot to keep that sucker fair.
Then he'll walk in the front door and hear the most random, goofiest, most beautiful words ever.
"Foul ball!"
Bear Grylls lights his first pitch on fire before throwing it at Dodger Stadium
By Kevin Kaduk
Goodness, gracious, first pitch of fire?
Yup. Showing that he can rely on the elements in any situation, television survivalist Bear Grylls lit a baseball on fire before throwing it
for the Los Angeles Dodgers' first pitch on Thursday night. Why the "Man Vs. Wild" star did this is anybody's guess, but it was worth it
just to see Dodgers catcher Matt Treanor squirm behind the plate.
Seriously, you can actually see the sheepish reluctance from Treanor just before Grylls literally brings the high heat in the video clip
below.
I suppose this is the point where I'm supposed to warn everyone not to try this at home, but who am I kidding? Imitating this feat just
jumped to the top of my weekend to-do list.
Soon as I find some lighter fluid, anyway.
A catcher, too.
NBC SPORTS
Vin Scully not ready to resume announcing, but feels better
Aaron Gleeman
Apr 13, 2012, 10:47 AM EDT
Vin Scully isn’t ready to return to the Dodgers’ broadcast booth yet because of a cold, but the 84-year-old announcing legend is feeling
better.
Tony Jackson of ESPN Los Angeles reports that Scully could be back on the air as soon as Saturday and returning tonight may have been
an option if the weather wasn’t expected to be bad.
Scully missed the Dodgers’ home opener earlier this week for the first time in 35 years, with Charley Steiner and Steve Lyons filling in.
And as Andre Ethier put it: “It’s not a fun day when Vin doesn’t announce. It’s really not a fun day when he doesn’t announce on
Opening Day. Hopefully, he has a speedy recovery.”
FORBES
Could Dodgers Sale Be Blocked At Home Plate?
Tom Van Riper
Guggenheim Partners CEO Mark Walter, whose company is the money behind the $2.15 billion purchase of the Los Angeles Dodgers,
recently summed up his interest in the team this way: “It’s a multigenerational thing that my daughters’ granddaughters will own.”
Walter may well be sincere in that view. But it’s also something he needed to say publicly to appease Commissioner Bud Selig and Major
League Baseball’s other 29 owners. While Walter and Guggenheim secured the proper window dressing to appeal to the baseball
establishment – local sports legend Magic Johnson, respected baseball executive Stan Kasten and Southern California entertainment
maven Peter Guber, a part-owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, one thing baseball’s ownership club frowns upon are transactionoriented owners – those looking to buy and flip. In sports, stability is the name of the game.
That’s why some sports business veterans don’t necessarily see final approval of the sale as a sure thing. “Guggenheim is not about buy
and hold. They buy, create value and sell,” says Joseph Bailey, former CEO of the Miami Dolphins and Vice President with the Dallas
Cowboys who is now a sports industry recruiter with RSR Partners in New York. He figures the owners around the league will scrutinize
the motivation behind the purchase. The record price may actually play in Guggenheim’s favor in that regard. Most view the $2.15
billion for the Dodgers as being above market value. If that’s true, then it’s tough to see how the new owners can sell at a profit without
waiting a number of years.
But the price tag could also raise red flags. Do the new owners have ideas to leverage the team into other businesses? And if so, what
would those be? That’s a topic that baseball’s ownership brotherhood would look at hard. “There is going to be a lot of due diligence on
this sale,” says Bailey, though he still believes that final approval is more likely than not.
Approval by the bankruptcy judge, the first hurdle before the owners give their final nod, is likely, since his role is to get the best price
for the asset.
Then there’s the matter of the Johnson-Guggenheim group jacking up its bid by more than half a billion dollars at the last minute,
essentially rendering the auction a mute exercise. The group never said where the extra money came from – was it raised through
outside investors or did members of the partnership kick in more? Either way can be fine, but MLB and some others are going to want
to know. Fox has already filed an objection with the bankruptcy court, citing a lack of disclosure on whether Time Warner Cable has
kicked in funds for the sale.
“They seem to be taking the approach that, hey, it’s all cash, no debt, so we should be good,” says David Carter, a Los Angeles-based
industry consultant who also teaches sports business at USC. Located right in the middle of the storm in L.A., Carter says rumblings like
this appear troubling to MLB, which doesn’t need bad PR theatening the sale. Another issue: the secretive approach that the
Guggenheim group has taken toward its Dodger Stadium parking lot deal with seller Frank McCourt. It’s known to be a joint venture, but
details are sketchy. How much parking money will be flowing into McCourt’s pocket? And how will Dodger fans, to whom McCourt’s
name is mud, react to his hand remaining firmly placed in the parking revenue till? The Los Angeles Times, which holds a lot of sway in
town, has filed a request with the bankruptcy court to obtain detailed information on the parking lot venture.
Like Bailey, Carter sees the potential problems likely getting worked out in time to complete the sale. But don’t call it a slam dunk. “If
everything is ok, you’d think they (the buyers) would just let everything get vetted and move on,” he says.
KPCC
Who is new Dodger president Stan Kasten?
April 12, 2012 | By Kitty Felde
In the Dodgers’ new three-man ownership group, Magic Johnson is the face, Mark Walter is the money — and Stan Kasten is the brains.
Kasten, who turned 60 in February, has been in professional sports management since his late 20s.
In 12 years as the Atlanta Braves president, he turned in 12 winning seasons. Kasten may be new to Los Angeles, but not to fans of the
Washington Nationals, his most recent stop.
Here’s a familiar scenario: half a dozen investors want to buy a major league baseball team. One group includes Stan Kasten. But the
team for sale wasn't the Dodgers. It was the Washington Nationals.
Which group won the bid? Stan Kasten's, of course.
Phil Wood, TV commentator for the Washington Nationals, says Bud Selig, the commissioner of baseball, let it be known that Major
League Baseball would look kindly upon Stan Kasten. And so Kasten ran the Nationals for four years.
"He was always out there," Wood said. "Stan’s accessibility was remarkable. I don’t think there’s another team president in Major
League Baseball who got out amongst the fans. This was a guy you would see walk around the stadium and straighten napkin holders."
Everyone in Washington, it seems, has a Stan Kasten story. Outside the stadium, before an exhibition game, Nats fan John Ramsey
vouched for the Kasten personal touch. He recalled waiting around at the ballpark for three hours for what turned out to be a rainout. "I
sent an email to him, and he wrote back and gave me five tickets for the rest of my family to go to a future game."
But Kasten has his critics as well. He's called "tough," "the kind of the guy who’s very willing to spend, but not necessarily spend in the
right kinds of ways" and "a mixed bag."
Longtime fan Matt Penrod questioned Kasten’s loyalty to the Nats and cites one example that had much of the city up in arms. "When
the team was really struggling," Penrod said, "he thought it would be a great idea to invite all the Philadelphia fans that he could down
here to come to games here."
The Nationals front office offered package deals to Phillies fans. Thousands made the 90-minute trip — and they sold out the ballpark.
But that made it tough for Nationals fans to find a ticket.
"And over the past three years, we have been so inundated Phillie fans," said Penrod, "and they’re horrible! They’re rude. They’re
obnoxious." Penrod warns Dodger fans that with Kasten manning the ticket booths, Dodger Stadium might fill up with Giants fans when
San Francisco is in town.
Elise Frankle calls herself a third-generation Washington fan; her father and grandfather rooted for the long-departed Senators. She said
Kasten wouldn’t spend to bring high-priced talent to D.C. She said Kasten did "a lot of interesting things with the ballpark itself, but
often focusing more on the architecture than on the players."
Phil Wood agreed that Kasten’s gift isn’t picking future Hall of Famers. "Stan I don’t think would ever identify himself as an evaluator of
baseball talent, as far as on-the-field talent. But certainly, Stan knows how to hire GMs. He knows how to hire administrators."
And he knows how to negotiate. Ask D.C. City Councilman Tommy Wells, whose district includes the ballpark. Wells said he likes and
respects Stan Kasten, a man he calls honest and straightforward.
Wells went mano-a-mano with Kasten over who should pay for a bike valet at the new ballpark. Wells says Nationals Stadium was part
of more than $9 billion of new development in his council district.
"So I deal with some of the most sophisticated folks in the country," Wells said. "Stan has been the toughest person I have ever
negotiated with."
Wells won the bike valet battle. The D.C. councilman has advice for L.A. city leaders who might have their own issues with the new
Dodger president: "Don’t let him wear you down. Hang in there."
Nats TV commentator Phil Wood said L.A. won’t likely be the last stop for Stan Kasten. He thinks the new Dodger boss has his eye on
Bud Selig’s job when Selig retires as baseball commissioner.
REPORTER NEWS
Spiritual Life: More to life than baseball for thoughtful Kershaw
Loretta Fulton
April 12, 2012
Clayton Kershaw seems to have it all — a golden arm, a Gold Glove, and a heart of gold.
All those parts of Kershaw's life — and more — are covered in a book released in January titled, "Arise: Live Out Your Faith and Dreams
on Whatever Field You Find Yourself."
Kershaw found himself on the field for the Los Angeles Dodgers after he was selected in the first round of Major League Baseball's 2006
amateur draft. Five years later, he was winner of the National League's Cy Young Award as the league's best pitcher.
The book was co-authored by Kershaw's wife, Ellen Kershaw, and her sister, Ann Higginbottom. Both women will be at First Central
Presbyterian Church for a Wednesday evening presentation. They are the granddaughters of Abilenian Ed Melson, who is a member of
First Central Presbyterian.
"The book is their story (Ellen and Clayton) starting when they met in middle school all the way up to where they are now,"
Higginbottom said in a telephone interview from her home in Dallas.
Not only does Clayton Kershaw have a golden arm on the pitching mound for the Dodgers, he also holds a Gold Glove award for his
fielding skills.
And, to hear Higginbottom — his sister-in-law — tell it, he has a heart of gold to go with his other attributes. His baseball skills allowed
him to zoom to the top of his profession, and in return he is giving considerable financial help to an orphanage in Zambia that was the
inspiration of his wife.
Last season, Kershaw pledged $100 to the orphanage for every strikeout he recorded, earning $24,800 for the project.
"The walls are going up as we speak," Higginbottom said.
Kershaw is making the same pledge this year, with the proceeds going toward furnishings for the children's home, Higginbottom said.
Kershaw's story is the stuff that every Little Leaguer dreams about. He grew up playing baseball and was good enough to pass up a
scholarship offer to Texas A&M University in favor of going straight to the big leagues.
Clayton met Ellen Melson when the two were in middle school in Dallas. They dated as students at Highland Park High School and were
married in December 2010.
A story in the Reporter-News last November said Ellen Kershaw's Abilene grandfather, Ed Melson, first saw Clayton pitch as a 14-yearold. Melson and his late wife often watched Kershaw pitch for Highland Park and knew he was going to be something special.
"They knew him well before things took off for him," Higginbottom said.
Now, her grandfather watches Kershaw pitch for the Dodgers, thanks to his computer.
"I don't think my granddad misses a single game," Higginbottom said.
But the book on Kershaw is about much more than his baseball prowess. It is more about the family's work with the children's home in
Zambia. Higginbottom said her sister, Ellen, got interested in Africa as an eighth-grader watching the Oprah Winfrey Show on television.
When the show was shot in Africa, Ellen was hooked, her sister said. Ellen eventually went to Zambia herself and was moved by what
she saw. Since that first trip, Ellen has returned with her sister and husband.
"It really has been a family ministry to us," Higginbottom said.
Higginbottom said the presentation on Wednesday will focus on the pursuit of passion. But she knows that a lot of baseball fans —
whether they're Dodgers fans or not — will be interested in learning more about the man with the golden arm.
"It will certainly be appealing to the baseball fans," Higginbottom promised.