The Trolley Dodger

And here I was commiserating with Vladimir Radmonovic about having a separated shoulder. Turns out old Vlad pulled a Beimel and lied about how he got the injury.

You’d think Vlad wouldn’t be so stupid, especially after Joe’s well-publicized truthiness meltdown last year, but:

“Being young and sometimes immature, I initially panicked and made up a false story about how I hurt myself,” the 26-year-old forward said. “However, over the past few days my conscience has been bothering me terribly. I am not a dishonest person and could no longer live with this deception.”

Seems like an honest person wouldn’t have lied in the first place, but never mind that now.

And just for the record, I owned up to my stupidity from the get-go. ;D

Tony Jackson over at the Inside MLB blog has a “First Impressions” post up with a great quote from Dave Collins, the new skipper of the 66ers.

Collins has been here a week working with those early arrivals, and already has formed a strong opinion about the state of the Dodgers farm system. “The most talent I have ever seen anywhere,” he said.

Can’t wait to see some of that talent at Arrowhead Park this spring!

Lakers forward Vladimir Radmanovic and I share a few things in common.

1. Both of us are over 6 feet tall.
2. Neither of us have posted to this blog for a week and a half.
3. Neither of us will be playing for the Lakers the next few weeks.
4. We both have separated shoulders. Vlad did his in by falling on a patch of ice, while mine was on the bicycle. Or rather, off the bicycle.

Considering how my shoulder and ribs are feeling still, I can’t imagine trying to shoot baskets, much less type much more than what you see here. I feel better than I did two weeks ago, but I have to make myself take it easy. Overdoing = hurting.

However, everything pales in comparison to the wonderful news that spring training has sprung, a fact that will warm the coldest winter nights in Southern California. Not to mention raising the excitement levels another notch, anticipating the sights and sounds to come.

If you listen close, you can hear the flight of a bag of peanuts, feel the solid weight as it hits your hand. Sunlight soaking into every last part of you as your favorite team takes the field. The umpire yelling “Play ball!” and suddenly all is right with the world.

Since I’m still limited to one handed typing, I’ll just point to this post on my outdoors site End Pavement for a few more details of the accident. Thanks for the good wishes, especially “Trolley Dodger Fails to Dodge Asphalt” on Sons of Steve Garvey, which made me laugh and hurt my ribs. ;D

Came across this press release on oursportscentral.com,

The Inland Empire 66ers announced today that Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda will speak at the team’s annual “Meet the Team Dinner” which will be held at the Hilton Hotel in San Bernardino on April 4. The festivities will start at 6:00 p.m. with a great Italian buffet served followed by an introduction of the 2007 Inland Empire 66ers team and coaches. Lasorda will deliver the keynote speech welcoming the 66ers back to the Dodgers family and promoting the upcoming season.

Hasn’t shown up on Dodgers.com nor ie66ers.com, but probably will soon. We went to the event last year, though of course they were still the Mariners affiliate then.

Another new thing is an Arrowhead Credit Union Park digital screen next to the 215 freeway, under construction last week.

Looks like any dreams I might have had of walking on to the Dodgers roster for spring training are officially dashed. I did this on my bicycle yesterday:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separated_shoulder

Well technically off the bike. Well technically on the street, hard. Ouch.

Update

The hospital called me — I’ve got a type 3 separated shoulder, and I also have a couple of broken ribs. Seeing my main doc in next day or so.

The official Inside the Dodgers blog posted just now, announcing a couple of moves.

Just a quick update before the weekend. Earlier today, we sold the contract of Oscar Robles to the Mexico City Reds and we signed outfielder Larry Bigbie to a minor league contract with an invite to big league Spring Training.

At the end of the day, this is probably a good thing Oscar, as his opportunities here would probably be limited with Ramon Martinez, Wilson Valdez, Chin-lung Hu and others competing for a spot on the big league club.

OF Larry Bigbie was most recently with the Cardinals.

Take care, Oscar, and thanks for the help!

If you, like me, were wondering what was up with Dodger lefty reliever Kelly Wunsch — he of the injuring himself walking out of the bullpen a couple of years back — apparently he isn’t a Dodger lefty reliever any more. According to MLB.com,

Continuing their quest to build depth in their pitching department, the Astros invited two Texas natives, right-hander Ben Weber and left-hander Kelly Wunsch, to work out at Minute Maid Park on Thursday afternoon.

The article mentioned that Wunschy is still recovering from shoulder surgery last August. His recovery is going well, according to team doctors, and he is staying positive.

“I’m pretty happy with how I threw. I had good movement, good command. I didn’t see any radar guns out there and that’s probably a good thing. At this going in my career, I’m not going to light up radar guns. I’m just here to make people uncomfortable in the left-handed batter’s box and try to minimize damage.”

Especially the accidental kind. However, I don’t really blame Kelly — he was just another victim of the bad 2005 karma.

Update

Hey, it’s old home week. Former Dodger OF Ricky Ledee signed a minor league contract with the Athletics, according to Rotoworld.

Update 2

And to continue the theme, reliever (and brief Dodger) Paul Shuey — who hasn’t pitched in the bigs since 2003 — has signed a minor league deal with a non-roster invite with the Orioles.