The Trolley Dodger

Thanks to the Daily Dish for reminding me that Philippe’s is celebrating its 100th anniversary on October 6th. Unfortunately, the Philippe’s website consists of a monolithic Flash application, so I can’t link to the anniversary page. But here’s the info:

100th Anniversary Celebration

October 6th, 2008

Opens 4pm (Closed from 2pm to 4pm)

Coffee $.05
Sandwiches $.10
(One Sandwich Per Person)

Special Guests:

• Roger the Peanut Man
• Harpo the Clown
• Huell Howser
• The Perfect Gentlemen A Cappella Group
• Comedian
• Caricature Artist

Now I’m craving a French Dip really bad. :)

The Dodgers and Cubs played seven games versus each other this season, three at Wrigley Field. All seven took place within the span of two weeks, May 26-28 and June 5-8. Here’s the breakdown (links to boxscores):

1. May 26 @CHC L 1-3 Billingsley vs Dempster
2. May 27 @CHC L 1-3 Kuroda vs Gallagher
3. May 28 @CHC L 1-2 Lowe vs Zambrano
4. Jun 05 @LAD L 4-5 Dempster vs Billingsley
5. Jun 06 @LAD W 3-0 Gallagher vs Kuroda
6. Jun 07 @LAD W 7-3 Zambrano vs Lowe
7. Jun 08 @LAD L 1-3 Marquis vs Penny

This NLDS is a best-of-five series. So far, the announced pitching matchups are:

1. Game 1 @CHC: Lowe vs Dempster
2. Game 2 @CHC: Billingsley vs Zambrano
3. Game 3 @LAD: Harden vs Kuroda

It goes without saying that the Dodger team of late May early June is not the same one going into the playoffs. Juan Pierre led off all seven games. A mix of Hu and Maza played SS. Blake DeWitt was playing 3rd, but the league had adjusted to him by then (although he would stay up in the bigs until the end of July).

All of the pitchers back then either won or kept it close — even Brad Penny, who went 6 IP and only gave up 3 ER. June 6th was a complete game shutout for Kuroda, with 11 Ks.

Chan Ho Park and Clayton Kershaw coming out of the pen? Takashi Saito back?

Our starting pitching, backed by one of the best bullpens in baseball, can beat the Cubs.

And look at a possible NLDS starting lineup for the Dodgers:

SS Rafael Furcal
CF Matt Kemp
LF Manny Ramirez
RF Andre Ethier
1B James Loney
3B Casey Blake
C Russell Martin
2B Blake DeWitt
P

We can take them.

The Library of Congress has been posting some awesome historical pictures on Flickr, inviting users to tag and comment on them as a means of both sharing and helping to categorize various collections. A goodly number of them have been old-school baseball photos, including some from Brooklyn. Here’s a few posted today:

George Cutshaw

George Cutshaw at:

• baseball-reference.com
• Wikipedia

Frank Allen

Frank Allen at:

• baseball-reference.com
• Wikipedia

Hub Northen

Hub Northen at:

• baseball-reference.com

Red Smith

Red Smith at:

• baseball-reference.com
• Wikipedia

Pat Ragan

Pat Ragan at:

• baseball-reference.com
• Wikipedia

I’m too busy melting in 100°F heat (is my calendar off? this is September 25th, right?), but if I weren’t, suffice to say I would be jumping up and down in great happiness.

Congratulations to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2008 NL West Champs!

Now we just have to see who we’ll be playing in the first round. According to this story it’ll be the Mets, Phillies, or Cubs.

You don’t want to get your hopes up, but you refuse to wallow in pessimism. You feel your heart leap with every bit of good news, and your stomach fall with every thing bad. You suffer from uncontrolled smiling and from random shivering. You declare you can’t watch the games, then wind up doing it anyway.

Yep, must be September.

It’s the 23rd today. The Autumnal Equinox has just passed, and we’re standing at the precipice of not only the playoffs but within hailing distance of winter. Being a baseball fan is like having some form of seasonal affective disorder, with irrational glee every spring, then (most years) glum resignation as the 162-game countdown finally runs out.

If your team is lucky, you get to play more games after that.

If your team is really lucky, you play in the last game of the playoffs.

If your team is astoundingly lucky, you win that last game.

See, there goes that shivering again.

The Dodgers have six more games to determine if they get to play more. They must cobble together some combination of five wins or Diamondback losses between tonight and Sunday to keep playing in October. They play three games against the Padres and three against the Giants, both of whom would simply adore destroying Dodger hopes and dreams this year.

There are wars and rumors of wars. The American economy is doing its best impression of a beached whale. Plagues of locusts and frogs are raining down across the land, and there’s probably some giant meteoroid headed our way.

Never mind all that. This is important.

You don’t want to watch.

But you will.

Via bobster1985 on Flickr comes this video of the 1960 Ebbets Field demolition — be sure to check out his photos as there are some cool, classic shots from around the league.

I always love it when two of my passions collide, like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

But instead of peanut butter and chocolate, it’s baseball and bicycles. “Biker chic: O’s players using two wheels”. Several Baltimore Orioles are commuting to the ballpark on bikes.

On a balmy summer day, Orioles left fielder Luke Scott burst through the Camden Yards clubhouse door from the garage. Shirtless, with his backpack securely strapped around him, Scott wheeled his black bicycle in front of him, parking his method of transportation out in front of his locker.

Orioles pitcher Jeremy Guthrie — a fanatical bike rider since he started playing professional baseball — sports a sticker on his locker that reads “one less car.”

And of course they wouldn’t be professional athletes without a little competition:

It has gotten to a point in the Orioles’ clubhouse where it’s so common that players are now vulnerable to be teased as much for their brand of bike as they are for anything else.

“My first bike I had was [a Schwinn and] I bought it at Target for like $170,” Scott said. “And I come riding in here and Jeremy starts hounding me and the rest of the guys, they’re like, ‘Man, you’re in The Show, you’ve got to have a Show bike.’”

There are a few more bike commuters scattered through the MLB, though it’s tough for folks in some areas with where the parks are. Still, they’re setting a good example for their fans.

Manny translates Dodgers win

Update: It looks like MSN decided to drop that video. :P

Here’s a lower quality copy from YouTube. If anyone knows of a higher quality one, let me know in comments:

Let me give you another example of the Red Sox propaganda machine hard at work. Peter Gammons (I know, big surprise) posted an ESPN Insider article on Friday in which he discusses the Pedro Alvarez situation and includes some more shots at Manny. Check this out:

Management people point out that Boras proudly orchestrated the Manny Ramirez shutdown in Boston and, as Boras has told GMs, got Ramirez where he wanted him in Los Angeles. Getting a player to opt out in the middle of his contract and essentially refuse to honor what he’d signed isn’t easy, but the Red Sox are 16-8 since the trade, and, when they scroll down the ESPN.com sortable stats, find that Jason Bay has more runs created than Ramirez.

Unlike Gammons, I actually went to ESPN’s sortable stats and did some sorting.

As I mentioned in “Who wrote Bill Shaikin’s column?”, Manny hit .347/.473/.587/1.060 for the Red Sox in July. How is that not honoring his contract, especially with Big Papi out of the lineup?

Here’s August 1st-31st for Manny and Jason Bay:

Player  AB  R   H   2B  3B  HR  RBI BB  SO  BA  OBP SLG OPS
Ramirez 106 21  44  7   0   9   25  18  18  415 508 736 1.244
Bay     111 22  35  6   2   4   29  8   26  315 358 514 871

Not to take anything away from Jason Bay — he had a fine August — but to suggest that his fine August was significantly better than Manny’s in any way is just Red Sox propaganda of the worst kind.

I like Peter Gammons and his writing; he seems like a personable guy. But this is just blatant and willfully wrong.