Dodgers Blue Heaven: Blog Kiosk: 11/27/2019 - Dodgers Links

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Blog Kiosk: 11/27/2019 - Dodgers Links - Some Odds and Ends

Here's an AP wirephoto featuring the great Roy Campanella (eBay listing).

February 9, 1972 -- 'Campy' Comments -- Roy Campanella reflects on a photo of himself as a Brooklyn Dodger Thursday, at New York's Gallaghers restaurant where he volunteered to serve as sports chairman for the Highway Safety Foundation. Commenting on the naming of black athletes Josh Gibson, a catcher, and Walter "Buck" Leonard, a first baseman, to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Campanella said, "They were two of the greatest players I ever played with."

Below are more links to check out:

This Day in Dodger History: In 1953 Roy Campanella is the named the National League MVP for the second time in his career. He slashed .312/.395/.611/1.006 with 41 homer runs, a league leading 142 RBI's and recorded 7.1 WAR. In 1956 Don Newcombe was awarded the inaugural Cy Young Award, going 27-7 with a 3.06 ERA. A week prior he was given both the MVP and Rookie of the Year Awards; thereby becoming the first and only player to win all three major awards for a pitcher in one season.
Happy Birthday, Jimmy Schmitz, Mike Scioscia & Jimmy Rollins!
FYI, the Dodgers have launched an online auction with game-used items and autographed memorabilia from fan-favorite Dodger moments, players, and legends -- through December 15th. Go here to check it out: Dodgers.com/auctions.
Podcast: Ross Stripling on his "The Big Swing" podcast chats about Bellinger, the Astros scandal and a bunch of other stuff -- Episode 43 (Podcast Link).
Check out Cecil Cooperstown's newest drawing. This time it's of Dodger catcher Steve Yeager. Go here.
This is a must watch. Per Ron Cervenka at Think Blue LA -- "‘Dodgers Stories: 6 Decades in LA’ to Premiere on Thanksgiving Evening." What better way is there to spend the holiday then to watch a show about the Dodgers. You can watch a trailer here.
Just in case you care, Bill Shaikin passes along the Dodgers 2019 Postseason share and compares it to the Nationals share:

A full postseason share for each of the #Dodgers players: $32,427.60.

A full postseason share for each of the World Series champion Nationals players: $382,358.18.
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) November 26, 2019

Via David J. Halberstam at Sports Broadcast Journal -- "Vin Scully: On eve of his 92nd birthday, the greatest is still the greatest; Talks PC, TV analysts: Referencing pioneer Ted Husing whom Scully admired: "Dick Enberg sounded a bit like Ted"; Vin speaks effusively about Jerry Doggett."

Halberstam: Connie’s undoing in Brooklyn forced a change on Labor Day Weekend, 1956. Desmond was out and Jerry Doggett was brought in to replace Desmond. It was the beginning of a remarkable relationship between you and Jerry, 32 seasons. You’ve said before that without him, you weren’t sure how successful and popular the broadcasts in Southern California would have been. After the 1957 season, Al Helfer didn’t make the cut. It was just you and Jerry, two announcers not three, going to Los Angeles. Radio would be indispensable there. No home games would be televised.

Scully: I would do seven innings and Jerry would do two. Only one man was on-air at a time. Jerry would do the third inning, the seventh-inning and the 10th when the game extended into extra innings.

Jerry was a dear friend and a wonderful human being. If there was praise issued, I was getting it. It was almost as though Jerry was overlooked. At no time in all our years together was there any sign of frustration on his part. No irritation or jealousy. Nothing. He was just a beautiful guy. With Jerry in the booth, it really established my career. We worked together very well. He was great. During the season we were together of course all the time. We never parted. We ate dinner together. We took walks. We had lunch together.

FYI, Panini America is once again hosting their Black Friday promotion card set being given out to collectors at participating hobby stores throughout North America. Go here or here for some preview pics. Unfortunately, there I don't have a Dodger card to share.
Via Brenna Ehrlich at Rolling Stone -- "Song You Need to Know: Harry Nilsson, ‘Yo Dodger Blue’: “Dad was devoted to this team ever since they were the Brooklyn Dodgers,” his son Kiefo Nilsson tweeted of the track."

“Yo Dodger Blue” is almost heartbreakingly straight-forward and pure: an unadulterated pump-up song that can only really serve one purpose: stoke the fires in the hearts of Dodger fans. No audience required: The cheers of the crowd are right there in the track. It fits well within an album that refuses to take itself too seriously: The edge-of-sanity bedtime song “Lullabye,” the stomping, extremely literal “Animal Farm,” the hilariously tender “What Does a Woman See in a Man.” It’s The Point! soaked in liquor — all with a hefty sheen of delightfully Eighties production.

Listen to it here.

Since his name has been bandied about I thought this new article would be appropriate to share. Via Craig Edwards at FanGraphs -- "What to expect from Josh Donaldson."

If we want to paint a broad brush, we’d say Josh Donaldson is an infielder with a good bat, decent defense, star-level play in his past, and is coming off a very good season. As we can see above, similar players have fared fairly well into their mid-30s. The group above averaged a 117 wRC+ and roughly three wins per season from 34 years old through 36 years old, which is the period of a three-year deal for Donaldson. I ran a similar test removing Donaldson’s 7.6-WAR season at age 30 and still got roughly the same results. When we are dealing with the long-term future and deals of five years or more, age can be very important. When we are talking about the short term and just the next few years, present production trumps age. Josh Donaldson was really good in 2019 and that means he’s very likely to be really good in 2020 and pretty good for a couple years thereafter. Josh Donaldson bet on himself and now he just needs a team to make the good bet on him.

As you may know, the LA Kings and Colorado Rockies will be playing a outdoor Stadium Series game this season at Falcon Stadium at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, and as always they'll be wearing special unique jerseys on the ice. John Hoven at Mayors Manor shares an early peak at the Kings jersey, and it looks a bit like the logo from the ol' LA Express football club from the USFL. Check them both out below to see what I mean.