Digital Ink Los Angeles

Back in the day, before Brooklyn became a borough of its own, New Yorkers called anyone from Brooklyn a “trolley dodger,” because of the myriad street cars running through the borough, with kids and adults dodging them to play on the city’s streets.

The team was originally called the “Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers.”

That was soon shortened to Dodgers.

On April 15, 1947, after much trial and tribulation, Branch Rickey‘s courageous endeavor came to fruition when Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play for a Major League Baseball team, playing his first game as a member of the Brooklyn team.

The team moved to Los Angeles in 1958, settling into their Chavez Ravine digs at the beginning of 1962. Dodger Stadium became the home of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Maury Wills, Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, Rick Monday, and many others. Not to mention, Vin Scully, the voice of Dodgers baseball.

This season’s Dodgers are the National League West Division Champions, with a National League-leading 95-67 record. Players like Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Juan Pierre, Rafael Furcal, Orlando Hudson, and Clayton Kershaw have made the Dodgers pennant contenders.

Check out the 2009 Postseason Schedule here.

THINK BLUE!

Steroids have been a part of professional sports longer than anyone would care to admit. Ask Governor Schwarzenegger, he’ll give you some details about his experience with “Pumping Iron.”

Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Jason Giambi, Manny Ramirez, Jose Canseco, and on and on…

The question remains, do these guys get into the National Baseball Hall of Fame? Do they merit the same accolades and awards of players like Willie Mays, Lou Gehrig, Bob Gibson, Roberto Clemente, or Ted Williams?

What is in question is not the issue of whether they used supplements or performance-enhancing drugs to increase their stats and achievements, but whether they’ll ever admit to it.

It’s a classic catch-22 conundrum — admit to it, and face a ban from Cooperstown, or lie and take their chances. Barry Bonds will be the first put to this test when a Federal prosecutor brings his perjury case to trial.

The Los Angeles Times‘ sportswriter Bill Shaikin wrote an article recently that discusses in detail the subject of steroids as it currently rests, and the policy of partial-disclosure that Major League Baseball is wrestling with.

View the August 22, 2009, piece: “Book Still Open on Steroid Era.”

“I would come home to listen to a football game — there weren’t other sports on — and I would get a pillow and I would crawl under the radio, so that the loudspeaker and the roar of the crowd would wash all over me, and I would just get goose bumps like you can’t believe. And I knew that of all the things in this world that I wanted, I wanted to be that fella saying, whatever, home run, or touchdown. It just really got to me.“

If Vin Scully were an inanimate object, he would probably be a nighttime freight train that has run the same country tracks, at the same times, bringing the same vital cargo to small-town America for each of the last 60 years — the lone whistle comes drifting in, loud and true, a soothing presence in the midst of darkness and uncertainty, allowing the dreamer to rest and relax, as all is well in an uncertain world.

“Hi everybody, and a very pleasant evening to you, wherever you may be. It’s time for Dodgers baseball!” The words spoken from a wise sage of baseball, indeed, of life, who has seized upon the hearts and minds of baseball fans for 60 years. Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Steve Garvey, Maury Wills, Ron Cey, Kirk Gibson, Darryl Strawberry, Orel Hershiser, Manny Ramirez, and the rest of Dodgers immortality.

Born in the Bronx on November 29, 1927, Vin Scully turns 82 years-young this year. For 60 years, he’s showed up to work EVERY DAY, having missed only five scheduled broadcasts in that time. Repeat, in over 60 years of broadcasting Vin Scully has missed only five scheduled broadcasts in that time frame. This includes the untimely, heartbreaking death of his first wife, Joan Crawford, in 1972.

He’s an emblem of all things right about man, and of the nature of kindness, simplicity, and blessed character. He has spoken to race riots, war, famine, presidential assassinations, catastrophes, and everything in between. Somehow, Vin Scully always has something good and proper to say. Somehow, Vin knows just what the listener needs to hear.

Case and point:

In 1974, Hank Aaron was facing death threats as he approached the all-time home-run record. Vin Scully’s words on that fateful evening: What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol. And it is a great moment for all of us, and particularly Hank Aaron.

On June 29, 1990, one of Vin’s favorite Dodgers, Mexican-born Fernando Valenzuela, hurled a no-hitter near the end of his career with the team. Vin’s call of the final out: If you have a sombrero, throw it to the sky!

Vin Scully recently announced he would be retiring after his next season with the Dodgers — in his characteristically self-deprecating manner, he stated, “If they’ll have me back again.”

For his service to the Dodgers, Major League Baseball, and the entire world of sportsmanship and athletic competition, Vin Scully is a hero to me.

“As long as you live keep smiling because it brightens everybody’s day.” O.K., Vin, we’ll try, but it seems so easy for you.

The abysmal Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball are at it again. With a record of 46-66, they are 20 games below .500.

That’s just 2009, so far. The Pirates are the worst franchise in all of professional sports, with even a close-second Los Angeles Clippers having had winning seasons in 2005-2006.

After the 1992 season, manager Jim Leyland was hoping to rebuild the team with younger, more hungry players. In a flummox to Pirates fans, their team has been unable to come up with a winning season since, accumulating a 16-year losing streak.

This current losing season streak has tied the Philadelphia Phillies, who had losing seasons from 1933–48, the longest in any of the country’s four major professional sports leagues.

Bring back Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, Kent Tekulve, Phil Garner, Bill Madlock, and Omar Moreno. And Three Rivers Stadium.

Thirty Years since the “We Are Fam-i-ly” cheers, and the funny box hats.

Miss some Big Willie. And Three Rivers, of course.

When Tim Lincecum showed up at AT&T Park in San Francisco for his 2007 Major League Baseball debut, the grounds crew and security staff thought he was the new bat boy. He went 7-5 with a 4.00 ERA in his rookie campaign, and he was no longer mistaken for the bat boy.

In his 2008 sophomore campaign with the SF Giants, Lincecum snake-charmed hitters into going 18-5 with a 2.62 ERA, giving him his first CY Young Award.

So far, in 2009, he is 10-2 with a 2.33 ERA, and he’s getting stronger with every start.

Lincecum is a throwback to the days of Jim “Catfish” Hunter, Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, and Gaylord Perry, with his child-like approach to the game and thunderous stuff in his arm combining to destroy Major League Baseball hitter’s dreams.

#55 Tim Lincecum is a kid playing a man’s game, but he wins — alot.