The Trolley Dodger

Earlier today, I happened upon the website for the South Bend Silver Hawks, rivals of the Dodgers-affiliated Great Lakes Loons. In fact, they are opening the season against each other on April 5th.

The Silver Hawk site has a Flash intro animation. Now, Flash intros as a general rule…what’s the word I’m looking for…ah yes: suck. This one, however, is even more pernicious. Below is a screenshot, but it does not begin to cover the malevolence of the original.

It’s impossible to do it justice with words — go check it out. I feel compelled to support the Loons now, if they’re fighting off menacing demons from Indiana.

Our thoughts go out to Charley Steiner, who lost his mother Gertrude yesterday. According to the Dodgers game day notes today, the family would appreciate donations to the Dodgers Dream Foundation in lieu of flowers. Gertrude was 95 years old.

A new Ken Gurnick article on MLB.com, Addition by subtraction works in LA, gives not much new if you’ve been following along this off-season, but is the usual sort of Opening Weekend piece. A couple of paragraphs are impressive, however, as they show, first, who is no longer on the team since Colletti took over, then who he’s added. A lot of names.

Subtracted from the roster since Colletti arrived: Milton Bradley, Antonio Perez, Jason Phillips, Duaner Sanchez, Steve Schmoll, Jose Valentin, Derek Thompson, Jeff Weaver, Paul Bako, Hee-Seop Choi, Cody Ross, Jae Seo, Edwin Jackson, Dioner Navarro, Sandy Alomar Jr., Odalis Perez, Danny Baez, Willy Aybar, Cesar Izturis, Joel Guzman, Jose Cruz Jr., Ricky Ledee, Kenny Lofton, Greg Maddux, Julio Lugo, Aaron Sele, J.D. Drew, Jason Werth, Oscar Robles, Lance Carter, Giovanni Carrara, Elmer Dessens (twice), Mike Edwards, Jason Grabowski, Eric Gagne, Franquelis Osoria and Kelly Wunsch. [...]

Here are the players Colletti’s added, in all caps if still on the roster: RAFAEL FURCAL, Sandy Alomar Jr., Kenny Lofton, Bill Mueller, ANDRE ETHIER, NOMAR GARCIAPARRA, BRETT TOMKO, RAMON MARTINEZ, JOE BEIMEL, Aaron Sele, Jae Seo, TIM HAMULACK, Danny Baez, TAKASHI SAITO, WILSON VALDEZ, MARK HENDRICKSON, Toby Hall, Elmer Dessens, WILSON BETEMIT, Greg Maddux, Julio Lugo, MARLON ANDERSON, Einar Diaz, RANDY WOLF, JUAN PIERRE, MIKE LIEBERTHAL, JASON SCHMIDT, LUIS GONZALEZ, CHIN-HUI TSAO and BRADY CLARK.

Congratulations to Nomar and Mia, who are now the proud parents of newborn twin girls! We can expect to see them on the women’s national soccer team in, say, 2025. ;D

Also available for PC. I’m downloading it now, but if it’s along the lines of 2006 it’ll be a lot of fun for wannabe GMs and statheads. The MLB teams and players aren’t licensed, but it’s pretty easy following some forum pointers to get real life data in.

Out of the Park Baseball 2007 1.0

About Out of the Park Baseball 2007 Lets you do almost anything a real life general manager can do to guide a team to glory. Create your own fictional baseball universe. Use real-world historical teams and players. Replay the entire history of baseball. Compete with other human players in an online league. Import leagues from OOTP 2006, 6.5, or 6.12. Set your line-ups. Replace that aging veteran with a rookie from your minor leagues. Put your injured starter on the disabled list and scour the waiver wire for someone to fill that roster spot. Put that disgruntled star heading for free agency on the trade block, and see what shakes out. Send your scouts to comb the upcoming amateur draft pool, or get a closer look at that free agent pitcher from Japan.

(Via Mac OS X Downloads – Home.)