Today is the 40th anniversary of the death of Roberto Clemente. He was killed in a plane crash in the midst of transporting aid packages to those affected by a deadly earthquake in Managua, Nicaragua. His body was never recovered. Roberto also started out his professional Baseball career with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
- Mike Petriello at Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness reminds us that the Dodgers offseason is far from over.
- Eric Stephen at True Blue LA analyzes Bill James 2013 projections for Dodger pitchers.
- Ron Cervenka at Think Blue LA writes of his autograph obsession and Baseball's Greatest moment.
- Harold Uhlman at Think Blue LA remembers the great George "Shotgun" Shuba.
“Shotgun” got his nickname for the way he sprayed line drives while he was in the Dodgers’ farm system, but his smooth left-handed swing wasn’t a fluke, it was the result of a tenacious practice regimen when he was a teenager.
- Bill Baer at ESPN compares Cole Hamels versus Zach Grienke.
Is Hamels really as good -- and Greinke really as bad -- as ERA indicates? It doesn't appear to be the case in a vacuum. If you put both pitchers in the same league facing the same hitters with the same defense behind them, they would likely put up remarkably similar numbers. Now with the Dodgers, though, Greinke will have a defense that is sufficiently average according to ultimate zone rating, and he will benefit from the pitcher-friendly confines of Dodger Stadium. Perhaps 2013 is the year Greinke returns to his Cy Young-caliber ways.
* Please follow on twitter @ernestreyes *
* Like Dodgers Blue Heaven on facebook *
* Dodgers Blue Heaven home page *
