The Trolley Dodger

Congratulations to the Inland Empire 66ers, who last night clinched a California League playoff birth:

The Inland Empire 66ers took an important step toward their sixth California League title, clinching a spot in next week’s playoffs with a 2-1 win over the Stockton Ports. The Sixers, who entered the night with a magic number of two, also benefitted from the High Desert Mavericks’ 2-1 win over the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, a loss that officially eliminated the Quakes from playoff contention. Inland Empire currently sits one game behind the Lake Elsinore Storm in the battle for the #2 seed in the South Division playoffs.

According to the Inland Empire 66ers radio broadcast earlier this evening, 2B Travis Denker has been sent to the San Francisco Giants organization as the Player To Be Named Later in the Mark Sweeney deal.

According to the official Dodgers blog, Brett Tomko has been Designated for Assignment.

This is, to put it in the form of an ironic pun, a relief.

Despite his struggles, I expect him to be picked up by some team desperate enough for pitching that they’ll hope the Change of Scenery strategy actually works.

You know, kind of like us.

Want to lay odds on the Padres or Mets picking up Brett?

ESPN and FOXSports are both reporting that the Dodgers have reached a tentative agreement with David Wells, the (in)famous lefty pitcher who holds the distinction of weighing the same number of stones as he is years old.

The preparations for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games are continuing apace, and while there are pollution worries, China is definitely in a celebratory mood.

Murray Cook, blogger and groundskeeping consultant/expert, has been overseeing some of the preparations at the Olympic baseball complex, including a “test” tournament that started yesterday:

Teams from China, France, Czech and Japan will be playing in the 5 day tournament which is being staged for training volunteers on all of the logistics in operating the venue, transportation hotels etc…

Despite language difficulties and other wrinkles, everything came together at the last minute.

Tournament wise China has started off with 2 wins …and shares the lead with Japan. This sets up a game tonight where china plays japan for the first time in the tournament. Jim Lefebre (Coach of the Nationals Chinese Team) told me that China has never beat Japan in baseball. Not knowing the culture very well I was unaware of china’s dis like of the Japanese. Kind of a Yankee /Red Sox thing…

Well, that’s one way of putting it. ;)

Here’s the official Wukesong Baseball Field webpage, with accompanying news items and photos. One particular story — “Olympic Baseball Field delivered” — from earlier this week has more details on the stadium:

Located in west Beijing and adjacent to the Olympic Basketball Field, the venue has three fields – a practice field in the north, and two competition field in the center and south with 3,000 seats and 12,000 seats respectively.

[...] Major League Ballpark infield and stadium designer assigned to this project by the IBAF, Murray Cook has been working closely with BOCOG on the layout of the new Olympic stadium and is very pleased with the new facility.

[...] Cook and his crew adopted Bermuda grass, commonly used in other competition fields. The grass can be easily planted and needs only a moderate amount of lawn grass care, maintenance and mowing. The workers took the stems of the plant directly from a farm in Shanghai, saving money and time to sow and maintain.

The red soil laid on the skirts of the grass and on the infield is blended with additives that are permeable and do not raise dust.