Blog Kiosk: 9/28/2018 - Dodgers Links - Some Odds and Ends

Check out this AP wirephoto featuring Jackie (auction link here). Dated to April 24, 1960, it features Robinson joining a protest in Cleveland. Per a newspaper clipping attached to the reverse:

Jackie Robinson, former major league baseball star, grabbed a sign and joined pickets at Cleveland, Ohio, who protested discrimination against Negroes at lunch counters in the south. Pickets staked out a Cleveland store whose stubborn branches have been reported as refusing service to Negroes.

I somehow wanted to relate this photo to today's charged social and political climate, but struggled to find a path. Then, I came across something written by Steven Levingston at the Washington Post regarding the oftentimes contentious relationship between Jackie and John F. Kennedy:

“Without meaning to be impertinent, Mr. President, we have a suggestion,” Robinson said. He advised the president to go off somewhere alone and think about racial prejudice until he got as angry as he was about steel prices. Then the president could channel his fury into “the battle against the bigots in this country who are working harder to destroy it from within than any foreign power is working to destroy it from without.” Robinson wanted the president to inject some passion into his fight for civil rights. “Why Mr. President,” the baseball hero urged, “why don’t you get angry again?”

Is this the solution? Should folks around the country "go off somewhere alone and think about the" violence we've all been, to a certain extent, conditioned to accept as normal?  Three years later we finally heard JFK get angry, as Robinson suggested:

“We face,” (JFK) said “a moral crisis as a country and as a people. It cannot be met by repressive police action. It cannot be left to increased demonstrations in the streets. It cannot be quieted by token moves or talk.” He addressed civil rights in moral terms as no president ever had.

I still don't know if I accomplished my goal of relating the above photo to today's issues, but I do know that there is a moral crisis today and I think we'd be remiss not to touch upon it -- even on a sports-centered blog. Below are more links to check out:

• This Day in Dodgers History: In 1988 Orel Hershiser broke Don Drysdale's Major League record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched at 59.  He went ten scoreless innings against the Padres in San Diego, but unfortunately did not walk away with the victory. The Dodgers eventually won in the 16th inning, 2-1.  In 1997 Mike Piazza set the Los Angeles Dodgers record for home runs at 40. He hit two homers against Rockies starter John Thomson in Colorado.
• Happy Birthday, Jack Fournier, Whitey Witt, Glen Moulder, Todd Worrell, Héctor Giménez & Jerry Sands!
• Video: Watch highlights from Clayton Kershaw's Ping Pong 4 Purpose event at Dodger Stadium earlier this season at Kershaw's Challenge (Link Here).
• Video: During an August road trip to Texas, Clayton and Ellen Kershaw hosted the Dodgers Fantasy Football Draft Party (Video Link).
• This happened last Friday. Per CBS; "‘NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN’: Lifelong Dodgers Fan Asked To Cover Up Shirt Of Uterus Or Leave Game." I don't really get why this happened.
• This is very good. Per Hailey Branson-Potts at the LA Times; "Mom changed a diaper in the 1st inning. Dad spilled fries on a stranger. Charlie learned Dodger Stadium is home."

In the evenings those first weeks after Charlie’s birth, Mark and I went for long neighborhood walks, talking about taking our son to a place that felt like a second home: Dodger Stadium. Even on my darkest days, the thought made me smile.

For the game, Charlie wears a pair of blue, noise-canceling headphones, and, just before the national anthem, a woman sitting behind us declares him “a little Vin Scully in the making.”

• Via Blake Harris at True Blue LA; "Pedro Baez has become a reliable weapon in the bullpen for the Dodgers: Over the last six weeks, Baez has been the best reliever in the National League."

Over the course of the last six weeks, Baez owns a 0.50 ERA, the lowest in the NL and the second lowest in all of baseball during that stretch.

In 18 innings, Baez has 17 strikeouts, while allowing only one run, which came courtesy of a home run. Opponents are hitting .100 off of Baez during the stretch, which is the lowest in all of baseball.

• Per Ken Gurnick at MLB.com; "X-rays negative on Turner's left thumb: Dodgers third baseman sore after Goldy's hard grounder."

"There's a little bit of swelling there," said Roberts. "He's certain that nothing is wrong as far as structurally, but it's a little sore right now."

• I don't know what this means for the Dodgers, but it doesn't sound good. Via Jeff Passan at Yahoo Sports; "Sources: A federal grand jury is investigating MLB's international dealings, and officials on all sides are worried."

While the target of the inquiry could not be confirmed by Yahoo Sports, sources said investigators have subpoenaed at least one former Atlanta Braves official as well as people involved with the signing of Cuban star Hector Olivera, who agreed to a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers before being traded to the Braves. Multiple witnesses have agreed to cooperate with the investigation, according to sources.

• Here's and old Dodger alert... And not a good one. Per Liz Roscher at Yahoo Sports; "Former MLB pitcher Mat Latos ordered to stay away from ex-girlfriend after threats, violence."

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