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.

                          

The 63rd meeting of college baseball teams at Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium for the College World Series is indicative of the beginning of summertime.

The 2009 championship round begins today, Monday, June 22nd, and the match-up is stellar, with the LSU Tigers battling the Texas Longhorns. Both teams feature several future Major League Baseball players, and the level of skill and talent rivals many professional teams, but within an amateur realm. A player to watch would be First-Team All-American and LSU senior pitcher Louis Coleman, who is one of the best pitchers in college baseball.

The long days of summer are here, as the summer solstice has reached its apex, with sunsets happening well into the evening. Nothing like getting some friends together to enjoy some fun in the sun. A little baseball, a little BBQ, a little more baseball, a little more BBQ. Go Dodgers!

                          

Born: June 19, 1903 Died: June 2 1941

Lou Gehrig played on one of the best professional baseball teams of all time — the early 20th Century New York Yankees. He banged in 1,995 RBIs in 17 seasons, with a lifetime batting average of .340, and respectable .632 slugging percentage. Three of the top six RBI seasons in baseball history belong to Gehrig. He was selected to each of the first seven All-Star games and won the American League’s Most Valuable Player award in 1927 and 1936. He was also a Triple Crown winner in 1934, leading the American League in batting average, home runs, and RBIs.

Lou Gehrig was considered the perfect teammate, described by many as unselfish. He was also one of the greatest fielding first-basemen of all-time, with a career .991 fielding percentage. As a young Yankee slugger, he followed the legendary Babe Ruth in the lineup. Gehrig described this fittingly:

“Lets face it. I’m not a headline guy. I always knew that as long as I was following Babe to the plate I could have gone up there and stood on my head. No one would have noticed the difference. When the Babe was through swinging, whether he hit one or fanned, nobody paid any attention to the next hitter. They all were talking about what the Babe had done.”

Lou Gehrig played in more than 2000 consecutive games. He was the guy who showed up every day, put on the uniform, grinned at the media circus, and persisted in the folly of baseball — a sport meant for kids, but played by men.

Lou Gehrig’s extraordinary streak of consecutive games came to an end on the May 2, 1939, in Detroit, when Lou took himself out of the lineup because he thought his puzzling physical weakness was a detriment to the team and he needed time to “get in better shape.” Gehrig actually took the lineup card out to a crew of shocked umpires before the game, ending a 14-year streak. Before the game began, the stadium announcer told fans, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first time Lou Gehrig’s name will not appear on the Yankee lineup in 2,130 consecutive games.”

The Detroit Tigers fans gave Gehrig a standing ovation while he sat on the bench with tears in his eyes. According to Wikipedia, “A wire service photograph of Gehrig reclining against the dugout steps with a stoic expression appeared the next day in the nation’s newspapers. Other than his retirement ceremony, it is the most-reproduced and best-remembered visual image of Gehrig.”

At the Mayo Clinic, after six days of extensive testing, the diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) was confirmed on June 19, Gehrig’s 36th birthday. The prognosis was grim: rapidly increasing paralysis, difficulty in swallowing and speaking, and a life expectancy of fewer than three years, although there would be no impairment of mental functions. Eleanor Gehrig was told that the cause of ALS was unknown but it was painless, non-contagious and cruel — the motor function of the central nervous system is destroyed, but the mind remains fully aware to the end.

On July 4th, 1939, Gehrig’s retirement ceremony reduced all of Yankee Stadium to tears, including the Iron Horse himself. He remained a stoic figure of human strength to the end, dying from his illness on June 2, 1941, at the age of 37. Today, on his 106th birthday, Lou Gehrig remains a hero.