The Trolley Dodger

Saw the headline “Dodgers need to play the Angels’ brand of ball” linked in one of the RSS feeds for latimes.com. My brows knitted into a frown as I clicked.

I should have known. Now that the Lakers are done, and not counting occasional distractions like Candace Parker dunks and Baron Davis sightings, the Dodgers will become the main target of the LA Times one-two punch: Plaschke and Simers.

So my question is: when Plaschke inevitably breaks yet another Return key, does he have it repaired, or does he just buy a whole new keyboard?

ESPN.com has a cool video feature with Mariners pitcher R.A. Dickey explaining the knuckleball.

“Jim Caple Catches Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey”

And check out the followup article: “Why didn’t Mama teach me the knuckleball?”

By the eighth or ninth time — or perhaps the 12th or 13th — I ran to the backstop to chase after a pitch from Seattle’s R.A. Dickey, I should have asked myself, “Why don’t more pitchers learn to throw the knuckleball? And why don’t more teams teach it to their borderline pitchers?

“And most importantly, given how much money Tim Wakefield has made throwing it, why didn’t someone ever teach me how to throw the knuckleball?”

It’s been a weird few days in Dodger land. First off, of course, Joe Torre is still our manager — I keep forgetting, then I remember and utter a Keanu-like “Whoa.” But even stranger were the MLB headlines the past couple of days, where you could see simultaneously:

• Eric Gagne signs with Brewers.
• Milton Bradley signs with Rangers.
• Paul Lo Duca signs with Nationals.
• Randy Wolf signs with Padres.
• Andruw Jones signs with Dodgers.

Surreal.

The latest news is Jeff Kent finally got around to telling the Dodgers he was coming back. Oh, and we might have won the Hiroki Kuroda sweepstakes, according to various media reports. My favorite is Tony Jackson’s “Kuroda update: He’s leaving on a jet plane”,

A non-stop flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles, to be exact, and due to land at LAX at 9:30 tomorrow morning, from what I understand. That could mean one of two things. One, that he changed his mind yet again and decided to go ahead with his recruiting trip to Seattle and Los Angeles. Or, more likely, that he has decided to sign with the Dodgers. Sounds like this is really close to happening.

Thanks to Scott Lauber for linking to this YouTube entry with some of the funniest baseball movie moments ever — Naked Gun (1988), featuring the Angels and Mariners playing at Dodger Stadium. :)

I love Leslie Nielsen. And how can you resist a robotic Reggie Jackson? And the best dialog ever!

Frank: It’s the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girls dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day.

Jane: Goodyear?

Frank: No, the worst.

This is one of those travel ideas that always sounds idyllic to me, but is probably a nightmare to plan and execute. :)

The blog Baseball Cities Tour is in the middle of a “30 stadiums in a single summer” road trip, and their 10th was at Dodger Stadium. For each game, there’s a brief blurb in the main blog, and then a fuller description on a game page.

• “Game 10 - Dodgers Stadium” blog post
• “May 15, 2007 — Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA” game description

This was last Tuesday’s victory over the Cardinals. Game 9 was with the Padres at PetCo, while Game 11 will be tonight at Los Angeles Stadium of Anaheim.

Definitely worth a subscription in your RSS reader.

Looks like my pondering about the Dodgers picking up Nomar’s brother Michael was merely that, as Diamond Leung at the Press-Enterprise points out in the latest Dodgers Notebook:

Michael Garciaparra, Nomar’s younger brother, attended the game. The former Inland Empire 66er was claimed off waivers by the Phillies after being designated for assignment by Seattle. He was assigned to Class AA.

That means the Reading Phillies, and he has shown up on their roster.