Crawford Back In, Guerrero Sent Out

With the regular season about to restart back in the States, the Dodgers will be making some adjustments to their 25-man roster. 

Their Australian roster did not include key players who were on the exemption and paternity leave list; such as Zack Greinke, Dan Haren and Carl Crawford.  So, expect the team to make some changes to include them onto the roster.  BTW, reliever Brandon League was also on the exemption list for the overseas trip, so the team has an interesting decision to make about his future with the club.

Announced today, the Dodgers have decided to reinstate Carl Crawford from the paternity list.  As you know, Carl's fiance gave birth to a bouncing baby boy on Saturday, March 22nd.  The little tyke came in at 8 lbs. and was 21 inches long.  Also, he has been named Carl Leo Crawford.  (Via Haley Longman at OK!)

For their corresponding move, the Dodgers have decided to option Alex Guerrero to AAA - Albuquerque. 

It appears that the Dodgers will go the same route with Guerrero that they used with fellow Cuban Puig.  The Dodgers want their Cuban imports to spend some time in the minors, in order to acclimate themselves to the game and new country, before having them face the grind of a Major League season.

Guerrero ended his first big league Spring Training camp hitting .300, with a team leading nine RBI, after signing with Los Angeles as a free agent on Oct. 21, 2013.  He appears to have the bat to excel in the league, but it remains to be seen if he can play the infield.

The Blue Heaven Fantasy card at the very top of Carl Crawford uses a pic from Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers2014, and the card on the bottom of Alex Guerrero uses a pic from Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers2014.

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The Ron Perranoski 1961 Union Oil Dodger Family Booklet

Here is another post featuring the 1961 Union Oil Dodger Family Booklet set.  Go here to see my past post showcasing this set; including complete scans of both the Vin Scully/Jerry Doggett and Sandy Koufax booklets.  This time I share the Ron Perranoski Booklet.

Ron Perranoski started out his Major League playing career with the LA Dodgers in 1961, and was a dependable arm out of the bullpen.  He was our go-to guy for much of the early-60's.  He lead the league in appearances 3-times, finished 273 games and recorded 101 saves as a Dodger.  In 1963, he was an important arm during the Dodgers World Championship run.  He won 16 games and saved 21 games as a reliever.

On a side note, he originally came to the Dodgers as a throw-in in a trade with the Cubs in 1960.  Via the booklet below:

In many major league swaps, there is a "throw-in" player, demanded by the team bargaining with the strongest hand.  Sometimes these throw-ins turn out to be the prize of the package.  Ron Perranoski was the Cub throw-in when they wanted Don Zimmer.  Outfielder Lee Walls and infielder John Goryl were the offer of record.  Buzzie Bavasi countered by asking $27,500 cash and "someone else."  That was Ron.

He found out about the trade in an unusual way.

If Ron Perranoski were not a newspaper reader, he might have taken weeks to find out that the Cubs had dealt him to the Dodgers.  He was in the army then, and read about it in the sports page.  Nobody had told him.

Below are complete scans of every page from Ron Perranoski's 1961 Union Oil Dodger Family Booklet.  Click any pic to embiggen. 

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A Rocky Bridges Autographed Card for my Collection

Rocky Bridges was a local kid who signed with the Dodgers out of Polytechnic High School in Long Beach.  He rose through the Brooklyn ranks until he got his chance with the Dodgers in 1951.  From then on, he bounced around the league; playing for 7 different franchises over a 11-year Major League career.

After his playing days, Bridges managed in the minors and coached in the Big Leagues.  He was highly regarded for his enthusiasm for the game.  As stated by Jim Bouton (in a story written by Jerry Crowe in the LA Times):

"In fact, I've never even met him," Bouton wrote in his 1973 collection of short stories, "I Managed Good, But Boy Did They Play Bad," which took its title from a Bridges quote. "However, I've spent a good piece of my life sitting in bullpens around the country listening to different ballplayers talk about how much fun it was when they played for Rocky Bridges. …

"The reason Bridges was a great manager was that he understood that baseball is supposed to be mainly fun."

The card featured in this post is a 2011 Topps Lineage certified autographed card of Brooklyn Dodger Rocky Bridges.

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Blog Kiosk: 3/25/2014 - Dodgers Links - Some Odds and Ends

So this happened this morning.  Dee Gordon, Hanley Ramirez and AJ Ellis got stuck in the elevator at Dodger Stadium.  I kid you not.  Pic via @AJEllis17 on twitter.

• Scott Killeen at the Sons of Steve Garvey shares a bunch of recent pics from his visit to Dodger Stadium.  It includes some updates to the renovation currently being done.  Here are even more pics from Scott.
• Awesome!  Via Patrick Truby at Deadspin, "Baseball's Back! Here's An Animation Of Yasiel Puig Being Yasiel Puig".
• Redditor VinceWilfork shares a whole bunch of pics from the Australian Opening Series games, here on imgur.
• Mark Langill at Dodger Insider writes, "Opening Day memories: Carl Erskine".
• M Brown at the Left Field Pavilion has some fun with colorizing vintage Dodger photos.  Here is a Koufax/Drysdale pic and a Gil Hodges photo.
• Via Harold Uhlman at Think Blue LA, "Meet Lookouts Pitching Coach Scott Radinsky".
• Dustin Nosler at Dodger Digest suggest that the, "Dodgers should consider pre-MLB deals with Joc Pederson and Julio Urias".

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