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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Blog Kiosk: 3/27/2013 - Some Puig Notes, Ryu is up to the Challenge and Thorn's Love of the Dodgers


Here's a fantastic photo featuring Matt Kemp with Elmo, provided through twitter @Dodgers.  Check out a preview of his appearance on Sesame Street right here.
Now normally this little piece of baseball nirvana is a desired destination, but we’re talking about Andre Ethier, a man who believes he’s built a career constantly facing down naysayers.

It’s a motivational tool used his entire career. He’s admitted that chip on his shoulder provided focus and determination, fueled his ascent as a major leaguer. You know, to that career not a single soul on planet Earth believed he would ever achieve.
Once Puig has enough service time to have become arbitration-eligible had he not signed this particular deal, he can void the contract.  That doesn't make Puig a free agent, but it allows him to have his salary determined by arbitration.
"I told Ned (Colletti, general manager) this, I look at Yasiel like a Ferrari. The motor is there, the body is there, the wheels are there, but you just haven't painted it yet. Then you leave it out in the sun with no paint and you get it exposed a little bit," Mattingly said. "We want this guy totally ready as possible when he walks in the door at Dodger Stadium, and not to ever have to go back down again."
“I thought it’d be fine starting the fourth game. I feel a bit of pressure starting the second, as the opposing team will send out a good pitcher,” Ryu said, according to Sports Hankook.

In the game against the Giants, Ryu is expected to face off against Madison Bumgarner, who went 16-11 last year. Bumgarner, 23, won the second World Series game last year, shutting out the Detroit Tigers over seven innings.

Ryu says he’s up to the challenge, however.

“When I was in Korea, I thought I’d like to strike out San Francisco catcher Buster Posey,” Ryu said.

“I want to win. If I pitch well in the first game, I think I’ll be able to maintain a good pace.”
“I fell in love with the cards before I fell in love with the game because they’re these cardboard gods, these iconic bits of America that for me as an immigrant boy, were visas that I could have stamped and would let me into places that otherwise I thought I might not get into,” he said.

“I love the Jackie Robinson card, 1952 Topps. That was a prize. I loved anything associated with the Dodgers. If you’re a Jewish immigrant boy, you feel like an outsider, you feel like an underdog. So you identify with the underdog club. The fact that the Dodgers lost to the Yankees every year had a certain appeal. You come close, you come close, you lose, but you fight, you come back. That kind of tenacity was very appealing. Jews in particular identified very strongly with the integration experience of African-Americans of that period, and Jackie Robinson was the god.”
  • In my opinion, the country version of this Keisa song, Die Young, is better than her auto-tuned version.  Here is the country adaptation by Scott Bradlee.

Video Link:

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