The Trolley Dodger

Carlin grew up a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and he talks baseball memories on Kiner’s Korner in 1989.

Via Bronx Banter

Baseball and Football:

RIP George

From one of my favorite photo blogs* yesterday came this cool shot of Sandy Koufax icing his arm after a game in 1965 (click to view larger):

* The awesomely titled “If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats”

The Daily Mirror blog has yet another cool historical Dodgers moment, today from June 1st, 1968 (a mere 40 years ago). Don Drysdale was going for an NL record five shutouts in a row, and to add to the fun it was against the Giants:

The Giants loaded the bases with no outs. Drysdale hit Dick Dietz with a 2-2 fastball, seemingly the end of the shutout streak. But umpire Harry Wendlestedt said Dietz didn’t try to get out of the way and called the pitch a ball. After Manager Herman Franks was thrown out in the ensuing and inevitable argument, Dietz hit a shot fly to left and the runners held….

As usual, Keith Thursby included a shot of the original Times sports page with the whole story. I love that headline at the top: “Franks Disputes Record, Calls Umpire Gutless”.

The AP is reporting that Mike Piazza has decided to retire.

“After discussing my options with my wife, family and agent, I felt it is time to start a new chapter in my life,” he said in a statement released by his agent, Dan Lozano. “It has been an amazing journey.”

The Sports Illustrated Vault has a gallery feature up right now: Aces High: Best Pitching Seasons with some cool pictures. As you might imagine, the Dodgers have a couple of guys in the spotlighted 15 pitchers.

Sandy Koufax, 1965:

Perhaps no pitcher has been better over a four-year stretch than Sandy Koufax from 1963 until his premature retirement due to arm trouble at age 30 in 1966. Over that span, Koufax won three Cy Young awards, but his best season came in 1965, when he went 26-8 with a 2.04 ERA, pitched a perfect game and struck out an NL-record 382 batters.

Orel Hershiser, 1988:

For most of the 1988 season, Orel Hershiser was merely very good. When he took the mound on Aug. 30, he was 17-8 with a 2.88 ERA. But beginning with a shutout of the Expos that day, Hershiser’s season went from very good to historic. By the time it was over, he had pitched a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings, including five straight shutouts. He finished 23-8 and steamrolled through the playoffs by winning all five of his starts and even notching a key save, leading the Dodgers to the World Series title.

Oh, and there’s this guy who shall remain nameless, for this post anyhow. ;)

“These are the times,” as Vin Scully might quote, “that try men’s souls.” It’s the first line of Thomas Paine’s essay “The Crisis.” An appropriate title for Dodger fans at the moment.

Here’s most of the famous first paragraph:

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.[...]

Now, I’m not going to go too far drawing parallels; after all, Paine was writing about important topics like tyranny, freedom, and American independence. Baseball, while of vast importance, has its limits. Yet even still, there is something to be said for standing by one’s team, to be not a sunshine patriot (or fair-weather fan), but rather keep on rooting for the team no matter the score.

Which is not to say the score doesn’t matter. And here we come to the soul-trying part of the evening.

Baseball is all about patience. “It’s a long season,” you know. “It’s still early.” Whatever the hand-wringing, wincing, and neck pain being generated by our starting pitching and what I hesitate to call our “hitters,” it is only May, and we are only 3.5 games back from the Diamondbacks. We had a nice winning streak going there for a while, and we will get to play the Rockies again at some point.

But it’s depressing to watch the Dodgers right now.

It feels like it did before that win streak. Like you don’t want to watch because you just know what’s going to happen. There really isn’t any point in watching sports (or any entertainment for that matter) if you know what’s going to happen beforehand. You might as well just read the box score.

Ooof, never mind.

If it weren’t for the dulcet tones of Mr. Scully, I don’t think I’d watch at all. The way things are going at the moment, I feel sorry that he has to watch every game.

Another old baseball saying is that you have to have a short memory. Put the bad games out of your mind and get on to the next one.

That’s one I’d like to challenge. If you remember how bad it feels to nearly get shutout by Brian Moehler, maybe you’ll work harder to keep that from happening again.

The last month or so last season, I had to take a break from baseball. It was too depressing. Sports are supposed to take you away from your troubles for a few hours, not add to them with a lot of bad news every day. (Unless your Cubs fans, but that’s another post. ;)

I do, however, believe the Dodgers can turn things around again. It’s a long season.

It’s still early.

Maybe 1958 wasn’t the best 50-year anniversary to be celebrating. Maybe we should have waited until 2009 and celebrated the golden anniversary of the first world series win in Los Angeles.

Yeah, that sounds familiar. Wait ’til next year.

Larry Harnisch at The Daily Mirror posted a clipping from the May 6, 1958, LA Times this morning, “Alston Isn’t Giving Up on Don Drysdale”. Fifty years ago to the day.

“Walt Alston isn’t giving up even a little bit on Don Drysdale, the 17-game winner of 1957 who became 0-5 last night as the Phillies drubbed the Dodgers 8-3 on the Coliseum greensward. [...]

“Working only two and a third innings, the 21-year-old right hander yielded five runs. He allowed three hits, walked three, wild-pitched twice, hit a batter and was guilty of a balk.”

First off, the word “greensward” needs more play nowadays. Secondly, that was quite a two and a third innings.

Drysdale finished 1958 with a record of 12-13 and an ERA of 4.17 — the worst of his career apart from the shortened 1969 season — and a WHIP of 1.351, also his worst. This was the first year in Los Angeles for the Dodgers, and they struggled, finishing 1958 in 7th place.

One year later, things were looking up.

Head on over to MLBTradeRumors.com to submit your questions for Fred Claire.

Former Dodgers GM Fred Claire has agreed to answer some questions from MLBTR readers. I’ll choose the best ones from the comments. Fred was the team’s GM for about a decade, and also served in other capacities in the front office before that.

Highlights from the 1955 series.