The Trolley Dodger

From today’s Dodger Gameday Press Pass, a nifty bit of historical info with a spiffy connection to this site.

On this date in 1891, the Dodgers played their first home game at Eastern Park, the second of seven ballparks they would call home in franchise history. It was here that the team earned the nickname “Trolley Dodgers,” which eventually stuck.

And rightly so. ;)

The club has played in Washington Park (1890), Eastern Park (1891-97), Washington Park (across the street from the original) (1898-1912), Ebbets Field (1913-1957), Roosevelt Stadium (1956-57), Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (1958-61) and Dodger Stadium (1962-present).

Here’s Project Ballpark’s Eastern Park page, and here it is at Wikipedia.

Check out today’s stat line from Baseball America for Lucas May, currently catching for the 66ers:

ORG LVL PLAYER             AB  R  H  BI
LAD HiA May, Lucas C  .... 4   1  1  1  .378 - HR (7);
22-year-old former SS now C tied for minors HR lead

Nice! And here’s Jonathan Meloan, pitching for the Suns:

ORG LVL PITCHER                IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO  ERA  
LAD AA  Meloan, Jonathan  .... 2.0  1  0   0   0   4  0.79 - W (3-1)

Looking forward to seeing these guys working their way onward and upward.

Yeah, I wouldn’t lay bets on this particular device being precisely environmentally friendly, but there is a certain coolness factor to a bicycle-powered “Manually Calibrated Pesticide Application System”.

After touring some of the local athletic venues choosing products and equipment to build the new baseball fields for the Olympics, we stopped by the Fentai Softball complex because our Chinese contractor Chai Yong, told me they had a boom spray rig for applying fungicides and liquid products. Lets just say I was not ready for this beauty when they literally rolled it out for our inspection!

The post linked above is actually from the first of March, but it’s one of several covering baseball field preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The blog is Murray Cook’s Field Blog, the latest being from a couple of days ago:

“Slow Road to China’s Baseball Fields”

To the trained eye, the Baseball Fields are beginning to take shape in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. Slowly but surely wheel barrow by wheel barrow material is being placed on the fields. Proving to many that moving 1500 tons of pea gravel over the sub base of the field without a bulldozer or grader can be done.

Here’s more about Murray, who has a very cool job.

I came across a great story earlier at the Chattanoogan.com website — “Chattanooga’s source for breaking local news” — about Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers playing an exhibition game there in 1952.

“Jackie Robinson Starred At Chattanooga’s Engel Stadium”

Jackie Robinson, who 60 years ago last Sunday became the first African-American to play major league baseball, was also involved in the first baseball game in Chattanooga in which blacks and whites competed against each other.

On Sunday, April 6, 1952, his Brooklyn Dodgers played an exhibition at Engel Stadium against the Boston Braves while both teams were heading back home following spring training in Florida.

What a difference 55 years — and people like Jackie — make, as evidenced by the seating arrangements.

For whites, the tickets were $2 for a box seat and $1.50 for general admission in the grandstand. For the African-American fans, the cost was $1.75 for reserved seats in the black section of the grandstand and $1.50 for the bleachers and overflow.

Robinson was actually one of several Africian-Americans playing in the game. Dodger catcher Roy Campanella – who would tragically be paralyzed in an automobile accident after the 1957 season – was playing, as were Sam Jethroe, George Crow and Bill Bruton for the Braves.

There’s much more to the article by John Shearer, including appearances from the same period by Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, and lots of other Dodgers.

Congrats to Jason and Bethany Schmidt on the birth of son Maddon!

“According to Jason, they have the same hair.”

Everybody’s a comedian. ;)