Blog Kiosk: 5/14/2016 - Dodgers Links - Haren, Erskine and Baseball Voodoo Helps Puig

Ballplayers will go to just about any length to get their bats going right.

Case in point, check out the photo above tweeted by Yasiel Puig.  It features a reverent Kiké Hernández standing over his bats.  Puig wrote (likely Kiké wrote):

Electric stim machine for treatment on bats. Trying to extract hits. Puig's bat is next.

I say, do whatever works.  BTW, Kiké also Instagrammed the following:

Kids; make sure that if there's something wrong with your body, you let a trainer know. I learned the hard way, but now my bats are getting treatment and they should be better in the upcoming days! Thanks to everybody for the prayers and good wishes! Love y'all!

So, what happened?  Did the voodoo work?  Why yes, it did!  Yasiel broke out after just having three hits over the past 24 at-bats.  Last night he recorded three hits; including a run scoring single and a home run in the sixth inning.  No doubt, Kiké Hernández's magic worked out.  Via a follow up tweet by Puig after the game:

I think the electric stim machine gave result thanks @kikehndez for the idea

Go here to check out a bunch of pics from yesterdays game from Jon SooHoo.  Below are more links to check out:

• This Day in Dodgers History: In 1981 Fernando Valenzuela improved his season record to 8-0 with a complete game victory over the Expos at Dodger Stadium.  In 2011 the Dodgers, for the first time since 1914, were defeated after giving up only one hit.  Chad Billingsley gave up a double in the second inning to Stephen Drew of the Diamondbacks; who eventually scored on a failed pick-off play at second.  Jamey Carroll had forgotten to cover the base, so the throw went into centerfield.
• Via Tim Brown at Yahoo Sports, "Clayton Kershaw: Man...myth...legend."

So, the left off of Sunset Boulevard onto Vin Scully Avenue takes a few more lights than normal. So the cookies in the press box dining room disappear faster than normal. So the beer is colder and the crackle louder and the mountains more purple and, when the curveball loops and takes a hard right turn, the oohs come from somewhere deeper.

• Fernando Valenzuela, Dr. Frank Jobe and LA Kings broadcaster Jim Fox (among several others) will be inducted as a part of the 2016 Class of the California Sports Hall of Fame on Sunday, June 26th.  The ceremony will be at the Morongo Casino in Cabazon.  Go here for information.
• Via Andy McCullough at the LA Times, "Former Angels and Dodgers pitcher Dan Haren opens up about the inner turmoil that led to his retirement from baseball."

"The No. 1 thing I don't miss is the feeling of letting down your team," he said. "The feeling of walking into the dugout after 4 1/3 [innings] and giving up seven runs. The feeling that I always felt like teammates felt bad for me."

• Tom Hoffarth reached out to SI writter Tom Verducci for any nuggets he didn't include in his recent Vin Scully cover story and got a reply back.
• Don Newcombe, Bo Jackson and writer Arnold Hano are inductees into Baseball Reliquary's eighteenth class (2016) of the Shrine of the Eternals.  Go here for information. A public ceremony will occur on Sunday, July 17, 2016 at the Donald R. Wright Auditorium in the Pasadena Central Library in Pasadena.
• Via Rick Teverbaugh at The Herald Bulletin, "Erskine relives no-no 60 years removed."

"We used to car pool to Ebbets Field," said Erskine. "That day it was Duke Snider and I and Pee Wee Reese drove, I believe. When we got out of the car, we saw a New York newspaper." That newspaper said that the Dodgers were over the hill and the headline especially pointed out that Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella were no longer what they once were and specifically said, "Erskine can't win with that garbage he's been throwing." The source was a New York Giants scout.

• Not to downplay the traditions and superstitions of Baseball, but "Puig's breakout was a matter of time," via Jack Baer at MLB.com.

For three days, it was the same story each day: Puig made the hard contact his coaches were looking for, saw disappointing results, and eventually ended with his weakest at-bat of the night. Then, on Friday night, some of those hard-hit balls found the grass and one, the stands.

"Across the board, I think he's doing a lot of things well," Roberts said. "You look at the stat line, and the numbers aren't there offensively, but I think sometimes you get that, I don't want to call it a cheap hit, but an infield hit, and that lets you exhale a little bit, make you feel a little bit more confident. He's a guy that builds on momentum, so hopefully he carries it over to tomorrow."

• Via Chad Moriyama at Dodgers Digest, "Yasiel Puig does interview in ‘Make Baseball Fun Again’ hat & #PuigNotLate shirt."

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