The Trolley Dodger

At Dodger Stadium today, 200 kids will hear the story of Jackie Robinson, in honor of his 89th birthday.

School children from Mayberry Elementary, Atwater Avenue Elementary, 42nd Street Elementary School, Jackie Robinson Academy, and Roynon Elementary School along with Jackie Robinson Foundation scholars, will learn first-hand about Robinson’s remarkable contributions not only to professional baseball, but also to the civil rights movement. The civil rights pioneer paved the way for equal rights and opportunities regardless of race. Robinson’s story and legacy will be told by relatives, teammates, and others tied to the Dodgers’ diverse history and culture.

If you happen to be up really late tonight, and you have the Turner Classic Movies cable channel, you might like to catch The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), starring Jackie as himself, along with Ruby Dee as Rae Robinson, Minor Watson as Branch Rickey, Louise Beavers as Jackie’s mother, and Richard Lane as Clay Hopper.

It’s on at 3 AM Pacific, 6 AM Eastern.

The Library of Congress has had a blog for a while now, which is cool in and of itself, but they’ve now announced a partnership with photo service Flickr to publish LoC photographs online — “My Friend Flickr: A Match Made in Photo Heaven”. This isn’t just a geek-chic thing to do; they have some very specific goals:

If all goes according to plan, the project will help address at least two major challenges: how to ensure better and better access to our collections, and how to ensure that we have the best possible information about those collections for the benefit of researchers and posterity. In many senses, we are looking to enhance our metadata (one of those Web 2.0 buzzwords that 90 percent of our readers could probably explain better than me).

The project is beginning somewhat modestly, but we hope to learn a lot from it. Out of some 14 million prints, photographs and other visual materials at the Library of Congress, more than 3,000 photos from two of our most popular collections are being made available on our new Flickr page, to include only images for which no copyright restrictions are known to exist.

Amongst the initial uploads are a bunch of baseball photos, including at least one Brooklyn Dodger — or rather, Superba. This is Elmer Stricklett, starting pitcher from 1904-1907, first with the White Sox, then the last three seasons with Brooklyn. He was apparently known as one of the first to use the spitball.

Elmer at:

• baseball-reference.com
• Wikipedia

The LA Times is reporting that Johnny Podres has passed away at the age of 75.

The left-hander was a four-time All-Star and the first most valuable player in World Series history. He became a hero to every baseball fan in Brooklyn when the Dodgers ended decades of frustration by beating the Yankees to win the World Series.

• Johnny Podres at Baseball-Reference.com
• Johnny Podres at Wikipedia

From the official Dodger statement on Podres:

Former Dodger General Manager Buzzie Bavasi:
“He was one in a million. I have said this many times: I’ve had many good pitchers on my teams during my career, including the best in the business in Sandy Koufax and I am sure that all these pitchers will agree that if a club had to win one game, it would be Podres that would get the call. He did it many times for me during his career. I am going to miss him. I know the first thing he will do when he gets upstairs is to look for Walter Alston and Leo Durocher.”

Former teammate Don Newcombe:
“When I heard of Johnny’s passing, my mind went back to Yankee Stadium, 1955, the seventh game of the World Series. I thank God for Johnny Podres, as I do all the time. I remember how confident he was in the clubhouse before Game 7. Walter Alston called a meeting and Johnny said, ‘Just give me one run.’ Well they gave him two and we were champs. He was a man of his word, he lived up to his word, and I appreciate it.”

One of my favorite sites, Shorpy (“The 100-Year-Old Photo Blog”), posted a photograph today entitled “Crowd at Ebbets Field. Oct. 5, 1920″. If I read the “Boston Garter” clock correctly, it’s a little past 10 AM.

In the first game of the 1920 World Series between the Indians and Dodgers, the final score was Cleveland 3, Brooklyn 1.

Here’s the Retrosheet page on that game. Unfortunately, the Indians took the Series 5 games to 2.

Be sure to check out the full size photo.