NLDS Series Against Mets Starts Friday - Batting Practice, Pregame Info and Other Stuff!

The NLDS starts tomorrow evening against the New York Mets.  Below are various odds and ends for these upcoming two home games.

It is recommended that fans going to the game get their parking tickets in advance.  It will no doubt be a madhouse.  Go here for information.  For the NLDS, parking is $15 if purchased in advance and $25 at the gate.  Premium parking is available in advance for $40 in advance and $60 at the gate.  Parking at Lots 13 and 14 on Stadium Way costs $10 in advance and $15 at the gate for the Division Series.  You should also plan on arriving early... Like really early.

BTW Dodger Stadium Express, a dedicated bus lane on Sunset Boulevard from Union Station to Elysian Park Avenue, is free with a game ticket.  It begins operating 90 minutes before the game and continues for 45 minutes after the game. Fans can also park at Union Station for $6 and take the Dodger Stadium Express free with a ticket, with dropoff points behind the pavilions and the Top Deck (Lot P). 

South Bay fans can board the Dodger Express from the Harbor Gateway Transit Center (731 W. 182nd St., Gardena) located next to the 110 Freeway or two miles from where the 110 Freeway meets the 405.  Service from the South Bay starts two hours before game time and runs every 15 minutes thereafter.  South Bay stops include the following stations:  Slauson, Manchester, Harbor Freeway, Rosecrans and the Harbor Gateway Transit Center.  Go here for information on Dodger Stadium Express.

 Extreme Loaded Dog

• Inferno Bacon Wrapped All-Beef Dog, an all-beef hot dog topped with jalapeño relish, tomatoes, sport peppers with ghost chili aioli. It will be available at three Extreme Loaded Dog locations on the field, loge and reserve levels. 
• Half Jidori Chicken with jalapeño cornbread, smoked baked beans, charred corn kernels served on a special pressed palm platter will be available at the Think Blue BBQ at the left-field pavilion plaza. 
• A Steakhouse Stuffed Smoked Gouda Burger on a potato bun with dijonnaise and fries will be available at the Elysian Park Grill on the field level section 22.

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Game 1

Friday, October 9th at 6:45 PM
RHP Jacob DeGrom vs. LHP Clayton Kershaw
TBS / AM 570 (Eng.), KTNQ 1020 AM (Span.), AM 1540 (Korean)

Friday's game starts at 6:45 PM.  Auto gates open at 3:45 PM, and stadium gates open at 4:15 PM.  Dodger batting practice is from 3:50 PM to 4:50 PM.  Mets batting practice is from 5:00 PM to 5:50 PM.  Pregame ceremonies begin at 6:30 PM.  The first 50,000 fans in attendance tomorrow will receive a rally towel.  The left-field plaza will be open to fans to enter and watch batting practice from 4:15 PM to 4:45 PM.

The Umpire crew for this game will be Alan Porter at home plate, Jim Wolf at first base, Greg Gibson at second base, Chris Guccione at third base, Gary Cederstrom in left field (Crew Chief), and Chad Fairchild in right field.  Eric Stephen at True Blue LA writes a nice roundup of how the Dodgers did for each umpire at home plate, here.

Four-year-old Ella Mason Annear, who has battled cancer for the past two years, will throw the honorary first pitch.  Annear, who also goes by “Ella The Great,” is the daughter of Dodgers Vice-President of Merchandising and Retail Allister Annear and his wife, Amanda.  Ella was diagnosed with Heptoblastoma and a lung tumor seven months ago.  After surgery on April 20th and seven rounds of chemotherapy, the youngster was cleared of cancer and pronounced NED (no visible disease).  Ella has a website, where fans can check her journey--http://ella-the-great.tumblr.com.

All-4-One, Grammy Award-winning ‘90s pop stars, will perform the national anthem. The U.S. Air Force will provide its Blue Eagles Honor Guard.

Face painters will be on hand in the left-field plaza and DJ Adam will provide musical entertainment in the right-field plaza from 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM.

• The Military Hero of the Game is U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Victor Mexicano of Jalisco, Sonora, Mexico. Mexicano has been deployed to Iraq in support of three missions for Operation Iraqi Freedom. He also served a deployment to Afghanistan with the 1st Battalion in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and is currently serving at a recruiting station in Los Angeles.
• The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF) conducts silent auctions throughout the season featuring more than 25 signed pieces of memorabilia from Dodger players, coaches and alumni. Auctions will take place behind the Vin Scully press box on the club level. The items up for auction on Friday include a Vin Scully autographed baseball, Orel Hershiser autographed 1988 World Series baseball and Clayton Kershaw autographed Dodger jersey. The auction will end at 8:15 p.m.

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Game 2

Saturday, October 10th at 6:07 PM
RHP Noah Syndergaard vs. RHP Zach Greinke
TBS / AM 570 (Eng.), KTNQ 1020 AM (Span.), AM 1540 (Korean)

Saturday's game starts at 6:07 PM.  Auto gates open at 3:00 PM, and stadium gates open at 3:30 PM.  Dodger batting practice is from 3:15 PM to 4:15 PM.  Mets batting practice is from 4:25 PM to 5:15 PM.  Pregame ceremonies begin at 5:45 PM.  The first 50,000 fans in attendance Saturday will receive a rally towel. The left-field plaza will be open to fans to enter and watch batting practice from 3:30 PM to 4:00 PM.

The Umpire crew for this game will be Jim Wolf behind the plate, Greg Gibson at first, Chris Guccione at second, Gary Cederstrom at third (Crew Chief), Chad Fairchild in left and Alan Porter in right.  Eric Stephen at True Blue LA writes a nice roundup of how the Dodgers did for each umpire at home plate, here.

Tommy Lasorda have been named to throw the honorary first pitch.  The Hall of Fame skipper, who is the special advisor to the chairman, is baseball’s greatest ambassador.  Lasorda is currently in his 66th season in the Dodger organization.  He managed the club for 20 seasons before retiring to the front office in 1996.  Lasorda won two world championships, four National League pennants and eight division titles.  He recently celebrated his 88th birthday.

Mariachi Sol de Mexico de Jose Hernandez will perform on the field pregame and also present the national anthem.

Face painters will be on hand in the left-field plaza and DJ Adam will provide musical entertainment in the right-field plaza from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM.

• The Military Hero of the Game is U.S. Air Force Major Robert Daugherty of Barstow. Daugherty enlisted in 1994 and has served as a basic Military Training Instructor and trained as a Flight Navigator and a Combat Systems Operator. He deployed to Afghanistan nine times in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom and will retire from 21 years of military service in January.
• LADF conducts silent auctions throughout the season featuring more than 25 signed pieces of memorabilia from Dodger players, coaches and alumni. Auctions will take place behind the Vin Scully press box on the club level. The items up for auction on Saturday include a Clayton Kershaw autographed baseball, Kirk Gibson autographed 1988 World Series baseball and Zack Greinke autographed Dodger jersey. The auction will end at 7:45 p.m.

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1947 Tip Top Bread - All the Dodger Cards

Continuing my quest to catalog, checklist and share pics of every Dodger card in the hobby (no doubt a lifelong endeavor) I now point to you a group of cards many collectors have scarcely come across.  Featured below is the complete 14-card Dodger team set from the 1947 Tip Top Bread set.

This is one of the toughest post-WWII sets to complete.  It is filled with short prints galore due to a distribution that saw regions only receiving teams in their geographical locations.  As such, cards for clubs like the Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs are hard to come by while the New York area teams are easier.  Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that Dodger cards are cheap.  The general scarcity of the issue makes completing a team set a costly endeavor, and I hesitate to state a value even in VG condition for fear of coming out too low. 

Bob Bragan                                 Ralph Branca

Today is the Dodgers Birthday of Sorts

For Los Angeles Dodger fans today is a significant day.  It marks the 58th anniversary of Dodgers official announcement that they would be moving the franchise from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.  And with that tears, screams and anger could be felt throughout the New York borough.

Of course, the announcement was of no surprise to many since earlier that year, May 28, 1957, the other Major League clubs had already unanimously voted to allow both the Giants and Dodgers to move out west.  So, it was just a formality that the team would be playing the following season in Los Angeles.  Still, it provided a finality to the contentious situation.  All the protest and rally's begging for O'Malley to "Keep the Dodgers in Brooklyn" had been for naught. 

I can imagine, though, that most Angelenos were ecstatic about having a Major League club as storied as the Dodgers suddenly becoming their hometown team.  Heck, if you can forgive my lack of empathy, I imagine many west coast fans had something like this running through their mind (watch the video below).

Video Link:

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Topps Made Real All-Star Rookie Trophy Bowls - Here's Garvey's

Just about every kid who has collected Baseball cards knows exactly what this is.  Since 1959 Topps has awarded a group of the brightest young stars in the game with an "All-Star Rookie" trophy logo on their subsequent Baseball card.  What I didn't know is that they apparently awarded a similar distinction to up-'n-coming prospects in the Minor Leagues; as evidenced by the trophy above.  Check out the auction listing here on eBay.

Featured is an Topps National Association All-Star Rookie Team trophy cup that was given to fast rising prospect Steve Garvey for his excellent play during his freshman campaign with the Ogden Dodgers in 1968 as a third baseman.  In fact, this might very well be the first professional trophy he had ever received.  Garvey had just been drafted and signed by the club that June, and immediately joined the rookie level team in the Pioneer League.  That season he hit 20 home runs, drove in 59 RBI's and slashed an impressive .338/.421/.699/1.120 in just 254 plate appearances.  So, it's not surprising he would be recognized like this. 

As you can see the trophy looks just like the logo that was awarded to the Major League rookies since the 70's (see the pic on the right).  This trophy has a rather rough looking patina to it, so I'd suggest buffing that out.  It's time to make it shiny and new again. 

BTW, this award was originally sold by SCP Auctions back in the Spring of 2013.  It has sold for $472.00 then.

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Blog Kiosk: 10/8/2015 - Dodger Links - Seager, Porter and Bill Dahlen

"Lookin' pretty chill."

Staff aces Clayton Kershaw and Zach Greinke take a moment to rest their weary legs during yesterday's workout at Dodger Stadium in the photo above tweeted by Dodger photographer Jon SooHoo.  Go here to see more pics from yesterday's workout from Jon.

Below are more links to check out:

• Via Steve Dilbeck at The LA Times, "Dodgers call a halt to their Jim Johnson experiment."  He will not be in the postseason.

“I feel, out of respect, we didn’t feel like Camelback Ranch was a place for him as a veteran,” Mattingly said. “He just had a baby. We didn’t see him as the next guy up if somebody was hurt. Didn’t feel like it was fair to ask him to go Camelback.”

• Three Dodgers make Baseball America's 2015 Texas League Top 20 Prospects, here.  They are Julio Urias, Jose De Leon and Jharel Cotton.  (Hat Tip: Cary Osborne at Dodger Insider)
• Former Brooklyn Superbas/Dodgers shortstop Bill Dahlen is being considered for induction into the Hall by the 2016 Pre-Integration Committee at the Hall of Fame.  Ten folks are on the ballot.  Check out the story here.  Dahlen is often considered one of the best 19th century ballplayers not already in the Hall of Fame.  In fact, SABR selected him as the Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend for 2012, here.
• Eric Stephen at True Blue LA take an early look: "Dodgers 2016 salary arbitration preview."
• Via Bill Shaikin at the LA Times, "Rob Manfred Q&A: topics range from Dodgers TV debacle to Pete Rose."

Q: At the root of the dispute – and the Dodgers are not the first team to have their games blacked out in this way – is that cable and satellite distributors are reluctant to raise rates for fear that subscribers will cancel their service entirely. You don’t need a cable or satellite subscription to watch TV any more. How worrisome is that for you, given the substantial percentage of revenue clubs get from the local cable television contracts?
A: I think the market in L.A. has been particularly difficult, with the fragmentation of the RSNs [regional sports networks]. I think the ability to pass on additional costs to consumers is a concern. But I think the RSN business is a fundamentally sound business. Occasionally, there are going to be blips in terms of getting distribution. This is not the first one, and it probably will not be the last one. But the fundamentals of the RSN business, the strength of live sports programming, remains solid.

• Via Ken Gurnick at MLB.com, "Seager motors from NASCAR country to bigs."
  

  "I wore cleats until I went to kindergarten, and they wouldn't let me wear them anymore and apparently I bawled my eyes out for days just because they wouldn't let me wear cleats to school," Seager said. "I wore cleats everywhere, literally, but they wouldn't let me wear them. I don't even remember it, but I've seen pictures and they tell me. They said I bawled my eyes out."

• Via Paul Francis Sullivan at Sully Baseball, "VIC DAVALILLO – Sully Baseball Unsung Post Season Hero of October 7."  Vic is an often forgotten Dodger.
• I would just blame McCourt, and his penny pinching, lets fleece and squeeze the club for everything they're worth actions.  Via Houston Mitchell at The LA Times, "Former Dodgers announcer Ross Porter still doesn't know who fired him."

I was less than an hour away from guest-hosting a radio sports talk show. Asked if they planned to notify me before I went on the air, the Dodger executives not only said, "No," but reported they were releasing the story at the same time I was going on the air. My agent said, "So, Ross may learn about this from a caller to the show? This isn't right." He raced to his car and drove 30 minutes to reach me before airtime and give me the news.

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