LOS ANGELES DODGERS CLIPS TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 2014 LATIMES.COM Dodgers arrive in Australia ahead of season-opening series By Dylan Hernandez March 17, 2014, 8:32 p.m. SYDNEY, Australia -- The Dodgers landed in Australia on Tuesday morning, four days in advance of their two-game, season-opening series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The series will be played at Sydney Cricket Ground, which was established in 1848. The Chicago White Sox played a series of exhibition games here 100 years ago. The Dodgers are scheduled to work out at the venue later Tuesday and play an exhibition game against an Australia All-Star team Wednesday. They will then face the Diamondbacks on Saturday and Sunday. (The games will be played at 1 a.m. and 7 p.m. PDT on Saturday.) In Australia, where baseball is a minor sport, excitement over the event appears to be modest. Only a couple of television crews greeted the Dodgers at the airport. The series was referred to on the cover of the Sydney Morning Herald, kind of. “Are the NBA and NFL coming to Sydney?” read a teaser, which included a picture of LeBron James. The graphic referred to a story on the back page about how a successful series could lead to the NBA and NFL scheduling regular-season games in Australia. The newspaper pointed out that Australia ranked No. 1 internationally in NBA League Pass subscriptions. Zach Lee, Joc Pederson are two of Frank McCourt's surprising moves By Dylan Hernandez March 17, 2014, 5:35 p.m. PHOENIX -- Sometime in the relatively near future, perhaps even this year, Zach Lee could take the mound for the Dodgers in a regular-season game. Or Joc Pederson could step into the batter’s box.
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LOS ANGELES DODGERS CLIPSTUESDAY, MARCH 18, 2014
LATIMES.COM
Dodgers arrive in Australia ahead of season-opening series By Dylan Hernandez March 17, 2014, 8:32 p.m.
SYDNEY, Australia -- The Dodgers landed in Australia on Tuesday morning, four days in advance of their two-game, season-opening series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The series will be played at Sydney Cricket Ground, which was established in 1848. The Chicago White Sox played a series of exhibition games here 100 years ago.
The Dodgers are scheduled to work out at the venue later Tuesday and play an exhibition game against an Australia All-Star team Wednesday. They will then face the Diamondbacks on Saturday and Sunday. (The games will be played at 1 a.m. and 7 p.m. PDT on Saturday.)
In Australia, where baseball is a minor sport, excitement over the event appears to be modest.
Only a couple of television crews greeted the Dodgers at the airport.
The series was referred to on the cover of the Sydney Morning Herald, kind of.
“Are the NBA and NFL coming to Sydney?” read a teaser, which included a picture of LeBron James.
The graphic referred to a story on the back page about how a successful series could lead to the NBA and NFL scheduling regular-season games in Australia. The newspaper pointed out that Australia ranked No. 1 internationally in NBA League Pass subscriptions.
Zach Lee, Joc Pederson are two of Frank McCourt's surprising moves By Dylan Hernandez March 17, 2014, 5:35 p.m.
PHOENIX -- Sometime in the relatively near future, perhaps even this year, Zach Lee could take the mound for the Dodgers in a regular-season game. Or Joc Pederson could step into the batter’s box.
If it happens, fans at Dodger Stadium might consider raising their plastic cups in a tribute to the man responsible:
Frank McCourt.
If not for the team’s unpopular former owner, the Dodgers’ two top prospects would be somewhere else.
Lee might be counting down the days until the NFL draft. Pederson might have reentered the draft in a more recent year and now be preparing for a season with the Class-A affiliate of another organization.
Somewhere between rewarding the team psychic with six-figure bonuses and taking one of the most storied franchises in American sports into bankruptcy, McCourt scrapped together enough money to buy Lee and Pederson out of their college scholarships.
“I do give him credit for letting us sign them,” scouting director Logan White said.
When the Dodgers selected Lee with their first-round pick in the 2010 draft, he was a top-rated quarterback and starting pitcher who had committed to play both sports for Louisiana State. Pederson, who was taken in the 11th round of the same draft, was headed to USC.
Lee received a $5.25-million signing bonus, almost five times as much as the $1.13 million recommended by the commissioner’s office for the 28th overall pick. Pederson landed the second-highest bonus of any Dodgers selection in that draft, $600,000.
Of the Dodgers’ top-shelf prospects, they appear to be closest to the major leagues.
Lee, 22, was 10-10 with a 3.22 earned-run average in double-A Chattanooga last season. Pederson, 21, batted .278 with 22 home runs and 58 runs batted in on the same team. Pederson’s swing has been compared by Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly to those of All-Stars Robinson Cano and Carlos Gonzalez.
Both players were in their first major league camps this spring. They are unlikely to make the Dodgers’ opening-day roster, but they traveled with the team to Australia, probably to play in an exhibition game before the first regular-season games against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Whether Lee and Pederson would ever be Dodgers was a huge question when they were chosen four years ago.
The Dodgers were about a year away from filing for bankruptcy and already showing signs of financial strain. As it was, they typically were not big spenders in the draft. The commissioner’s office had not yet imposed spending limits on the draft, but it nonetheless recommended how much teams should pay for particular draft picks. The Dodgers usually drafted players they could sign at the recommended price, which at times meant they passed on superior talent.
So, eyebrows were raised when the Dodgers picked Lee, who was known to have a particularly high asking price. There was even speculation that the Dodgers couldn’t afford to pay a seven-figure bonus and drafted Lee with the intention of not signing him.
“To be honest with you, I wasn’t really sure at all,” Lee said. “The whole entire time, I thought I was going to be at LSU playing football and baseball. It was a great opportunity.”
Lee even participated in the football team’s summer workouts.
“I had, for the most part, memorized the playbook and was comfortable with the system,” he said.
Shortly before the deadline for teams to sign their draft picks, the Dodgers and Lee reached an agreement.
White said he persuaded McCourt to invest in the draft by pointing out how the Dodgers were hurt by not spending in the past. In particular, he reminded McCourt of the 2004 draft, in which the Dodgers selected Joe Savery in the 15th round and David Price in the 19th.
The Dodgers failed to sign both players, who went to college. Savery became the 19th overall pick of the 2007 draft. Price was the first overall selection that year and became an All-Star.
That history was especially useful when White tried to persuade McCourt to sign Pederson.
“I can’t tell you he’s going to be a big leaguer,” White said he told McCourt, “but I can guarantee you he’ll be a first-round pick.”
Also Dodgers break camp and head for Australia Zack Greinke, Carl Crawford, Matt Kemp see action back at Camelback Young Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias impresses Fernando Valenzuela Dodgers' Andre Ethier embracing role of versatile outfielder Exactly what answers did the Dodgers discover in camp? Ads by GoogleThe Dodgers took a flier on Pederson, who slipped to the 11th round because of his bonus demands.
The Northern California native was prepared to attend USC, where he would have tried to walk on to the football team as a wide receiver.
“I signed right at the deadline,” Pederson said. “I already had my bags packed to go down to ‘SC. I had a bike. Instead of moving to the dorm, I was driving down to get a physical. Everything happened really quick.”
Pederson’s bonus was four times the recommended amount for draft picks after the fifth round.
But, as was often the case with McCourt, this wasn’t exactly what it appeared to be on the surface.
Yes, McCourt committed to pay Lee and Pederson a combined $5.85 million. But he also found a way out of paying all of it.
Because Lee’s bonus was deferred over five years, a significant portion of it was inherited by the Dodgers’ current owners.
Andre Ethier irritated by questions about Sydney playing surface
By Dylan Hernandez March 18, 2014, 6:11 a.m.
SYDNEY, Australia -- As much as bombastic Dodgers President Stan Kasten tries to convince people otherwise, it’s clear not all of his players like the idea of starting their season on the other side of the world.
Working out at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Tuesday turned the usually affable Andre Ethier into the moody Andre Ethier of years past. Without the slightest trace of a smile, a clearly irritated Ethier sarcastically recited the company line.
“Glad to be here,” Ethier said. “Fun trip. This is a good time. Great for baseball. Good for Australia. Happy to be here, guys.”
What prompted the snide remark were questions regarding the conditions in center field, which he will be defending in the two-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He obviously didn’t like what he saw out there.
When the stadium is used for cricket, that part is known as the pitch, a rectangular clay strip covered with short grass on which most of the game’s action takes place. Longer grass was grown there as part of the ground’s transformation into a baseball field, but the area remains hard.
Asked what it was like out there, Ethier said curtly, “I’m here to play a baseball game. I boarded a plane last night and this is where I landed. I’m here to play.”
Told of how Diamondbacks center fielder A.J. Pollock described it, Ethier snapped, “Write whatever he said.”
So we will.
Pollock was in good spirits. He spoke respectfully about the venue and its history, in particular of how the ashes of some deceased players and umpires have been spread on the field.
“But it poses a lot of challenges for us,” Pollock said. “It’s probably the quickest field I’ve ever seen.
“You go out there and throw a baseball, it just scoots off it.”
Pollock said the playing surface hardens at the Diamondbacks’ home of Chase Field when the Arizona heat dries out the grass. But, he added, “It doesn’t have that same zip like it does here.”
Dodgers utilityman Chone Figgins said the field reminded him of the field at the Oakland Coliseum after a football game had been played on it.
“Extremely fast,” Figgins said.
Figgins said he was asked by rookie Joc Pederson on how he should field balls out there.
Figgins recalled telling him, “Just get to the ball, make sure you catch it. Don’t try to be heroic and throw a guy out because if it skips past you, you’re going to end up giving up four bases instead of two. Make sure you get over and just knock it down.”
Exactly what answers did the Dodgers discover in camp?
By Steve Dilbeck March 17, 2014, 2:00 p.m.
While wondering if the Dodgers have almost talked themselves into jet lag, a quick look at questions and answers provided during this spring’s camp:
Who’s the fifth starter?
Uh, they’ll have to get back to you on that one. Josh Beckett looked strong his first time out, then slammed his thumb in a clubhouse door and suffered a setback. And Paul Maholm didn't exactly impress.
Beckett remained back in camp with the minor-leaguers when the team headed to Australia. Maholm is on the trip and will act as a reliever, unless something unexpected befalls starters Clayton Kershaw or Hyun-Jin Ryu.
Fortunately the Dodgers won’t really need a fifth starter until the middle of April, so they can give Beckett more time to see if he can pitch his way into the rotation. Meanwhile, Chad Billingsley is expected back in May.
Who’s the second baseman?
Dee Gordon, for now. Appears he’s made the adjustment from shortstop better than Cuban Alex Guerrero. Gordon bulked up some in the off-season and this time he really, really is trying to bunt. His speed remains incredibly tempting; he went nine-for-nine in steals.
Guerrero actually hit .300 in Arizona, but after not playing last year, there seems a consensus he could benefit from playing every day before making the jump to the majors. Gordon, of course, was once the starting shortstop and couldn’t hold it, so he’ll have plenty to prove.
Can they find a bench?
Well, sure, but that doesn’t mean it will be any good. Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal said the consensus of evaluators in Arizona is the Dodgers have the weakest bench in the National League West. And they might have been simply geographically kind.
The bench appears to be utilityman Chone Figgins, out of baseball last season after three lousy years; infielder Justin Turner, released by the oh-so-ordinary Mets; catcher Tim Federowicz, who hit .231 last year; outfielder Scott Van Slyke, who has shown nice power but hit .219; and for the moment, outfielder Mike Baxter, another Mets' castoff.
The bench will get a huge boost when Matt Kemp is ready and one of those four outfielders is sitting, but in the meantime all those fragile starters best stay healthy.
Who will make up the bullpen?
This is the product of having a very deep bullpen, and qualifies as a good problem. Still, it not only wasn’t cleared up this spring, it emerged more complicated.
The bullpen penciled out to be Kenley Jansen, Brian Wilson, Chris Perez, Brandon League, J.P. Howell, Jamey Wright and Maholm. This group assumes Beckett is in the rotation and League proves remotely worthy of the $17 million he’s still owed over the next two years.
That scenario already would leave out Paco Rodriguez and Chris Withrow, two young, hard-throwing relievers who excelled last year. Then the Dodgers picked up Seth Rosin in the Rule 5 draft, who was impressive this spring and they would like to keep. Plus, hard-throwing Jose Dominguez looks fully recovered from that quad injury that ended his 2013 season.
Once back to the United States and with Beckett presumably going on the disabled list, they can carry at least one extra reliever. Meanwhile, League and Wright better start performing.
Will Matt Kemp be ready to start the season?
Nope. At least not in the first two games.
Kemp remained in Phoenix to continue his comeback from significant foot surgery. He is apparently making good progress, however, though they aren’t ready to make a decision on when he’ll return.
Zack Greinke, Carl Crawford, Matt Kemp see action back at Camelback By Steve Dilbeck March 17, 2014, 3:40 p.m.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch …
While the Dodgers were preparing to land in Australia on Tuesday, back at Camelback Ranch some of the players they left behind were back at work Monday.
Right-hander Zack Greinke tested his sore calf, apparently without problem against a Class-A Padres team. He threw four scoreless innings, allowing just one hit. The Dodgers said he used all his pitches, had one fielding play and covered first base on another. He threw 42 pitches, 32 for strikes.
Matt Kemp, recovering from foot surgery, is still trying to find his stroke. He went 0 for 3 with a pair of strikeouts and a walk. He played four innings in center field.
Carl Crawford, who remained behind on paternity leave, had a single in three at-bats. He also stole a base after reaching on an error. He played five innings in left field and reportedly ran well.
Brandon League and Dan Haren also remained behind, but neither pitched in the minor league game.
DODGERS.COM
Dodgers scope out Sydney Cricket Ground
By Ken Gurnick / MLB.com | 3/18/2014 5:04 A.M. ET
SYDNEY -- After arriving in Australia on Tuesday, most of the Dodgers' players walked from the team bus right past the clubhouse to get a first look at the hallowed Sydney Cricket Ground reconfigured for baseball.
"We're excited to be here," manager Don Mattingly said at a news conference. "I think we love being able to go to different parts of the world and play in different venues. The historic appearance and being able to play in this park is very exciting to us."
At least to most of the ones who made the trip. They found a ballpark that Clayton Kershaw said looked small -- 100 meters (328 feet) down each line, 122 meters (400 feet) to dead center. They found a lightning-fast infield, which first baseman Adrian Gonzalez said was something between Dodger Stadium and artificial turf. They found expansive foul territory, much like that at O.co Coliseum in Oakland.
"It's fast," said Mattingly. "And the ball is carrying today. I don't know if it's the wind. It's good for offense, that's for sure, it seems to me. There will be some cheap outs in foul ground, but also a lot of runs if overthrows get away."
There also is a hard strip of grass in center field covering the pitch, where most of the action in cricket takes place. Chone Figgins said the area reminds him of the hard-packed Oakland outfield after a Raiders football game.
Gonzalez said the ball really gains speed when it hits the infield dirt.
"If you get one with topspin, it's already past you," he said. "The grass is flat, but no bad hops. Everything was true. You've just got to get used to the speed. But the fields we play on in Arizona are fast anyway. It's a little like the turf in Toronto, but not as bouncy."
After a nearly 15-hour flight that landed at 9:40 a.m., the Dodgers held a 4 p.m. workout to fight off jet lag. It was a full workout, including batting practice. The D-backs, whose charter flight arrived in Sydney four hours earlier than the Dodgers, held a shorter workout without batting practice.
Both clubs will work out again on Wednesday. On Thursday, the Dodgers will play an exhibition game against the Australian national team at 7 p.m. (1 a.m. PT). Mattingly said non-roster pitchers Zach Lee and Red Patterson will throw, but he wouldn't say which would start.
The Dodgers will work out on Friday, when the D-backs play Team Australia, before Saturday night's season opener between the National League West rivals at 7 p.m. (1 a.m. PT). The Opening Series wrap up Sunday at 10 a.m. local time (7 p.m. PT Saturday).
Mattingly would not reveal his starting lineup, but he addressed the response his players have expressed about the trip.
"The main thing that we tried to do is just be prepared in knowing that people have said different things about coming and the difficulties of it, but at the end of the day, these are two games on the schedule and the division could come down to one game," said Mattingly. "These are real games, and I'm sure [Arizona manager Kirk] Mr. Gibson feels the same way. And from my standpoint, if we can't win, I hope they do."
D-backs, Dodgers arrive in Sydney fired up
By Doug Miller / MLB.com | 3/18/2014 3:25 A.M. ET
SYDNEY -- They spent more than 14 hours on airplanes, left their Spring Training camps back in the States and crossed the Pacific, and now they stare down the beginning of the Major League Baseball season in a beautiful, welcoming country and city.
So if the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers were a tad jet-lagged upon arriving in Australia on Tuesday morning, the feeling was washed away by the excitement of the upcoming Opening Series and a sun-splashed Sydney Cricket Ground that's more than ready for some serious hardball.
That was the truth of the matter on Tuesday, or, in the native lingo of D-backs pitcher and proud Aussie Ryan Rowland-Smith to his manager, Kirk Gibson, "fair dinkum."
"The flight was great," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said at a welcome news conference at the hallowed Sydney Cricket Ground, which has been the city's premier sporting venue since the 1850s. "We got off the flight, everybody was feeling good. We're excited to be here."
Members of the D-backs got in earlier than the Dodgers and had a few hours to traipse down to the Circular Quay area, where the water sparkled under a deep blue sky, the early-autumn temperature begin climbing into the 80s, and the views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House are unmatched.
By the time the players reached the ballpark and stood on the pristine field that has been put in to accommodate these games, however, it didn't take long to be reminded that they're here for a very serious reason that has little to do with sight-seeing.
"We're ready to go, and there's definitely no feeling of these being exhibition games," Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez said. "We'll be ready to play Saturday."
It's an honor for this organization and our players to represent @MLB, Los Angeles and the millions of Dodger fans around the world. -NC
- Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) March 18, 2014Tuesday's news conference featured a video with bouncy techno music and some of Sydney's most famous architectural wonders being lit up in neon while its fun-loving people moved to music and celebrated around them. New South Wales, the Australian state in which Sydney is located, was represented by its premier, Barry O'Farrell, who welcomed MLB chief operating officer Rob Manfred, MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark, plus Mattingly, D-backs skipper Kirk Gibson and the dueling first basemen, Gonzalez and Arizona's Paul Goldschmidt.
Goldschmidt is a regular Australian veteran, having visited earlier in the winter for a few days, but even he seemed surprised when O'Farrell presented him and Gonzalez with autographed cricket bats. He reported that the field held up well during his team's brief workout, and the only real difference between this configuration of the very oval Sydney Cricket Ground and most big league parks is that this one has a lot more foul territory than in America.
"It's just something to deal with," Goldschmidt said. "All the baseball stadiums are different in the States, so it's just another little adjustment."
As for the rivalry between the two clubs, nothing needs to be adjusted there, but as Gibson pointed out, this trip has been in the works for a long time and it goes beyond box scores and pinch-hitters and a couple of games in the standings.
"We expect it will be great," Gibson said. "The first game we played this spring was against the Dodgers. … You go through the spring season, guys were ready for it. We want to show them a good show. We want to play the game the way it's supposed to be played.
"We're trying to leave Major League Baseball's legacy here. We're all grateful that we've had great careers and we want to give back to the game."
"We're trying to leave Major League Baseball's legacy here." #Dbacks Manager @23KGibby at the @MLBSydney2014 #OpeningSeries News Conference
- Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) March 18, 2014Arizona starter Wade Miley, who will throw the first pitch of the Major League season on Saturday at 7 p.m. Sydney time (4 a.m. ET), said he's "not great" on airplanes, but that the long haul from Phoenix wasn't too bad and that the challenge and eagerness to tackle the task at hand made every minute worth it.
Of course, Miley gets to pitch for his team, while the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, Clayton Kershaw, gets the ball for the Dodgers.
O'Farrell, meanwhile, pointed out that the two games will be played in front of more than 80,000 Aussie spectators who have been getting hyped for this event for much of the winter ... or, in their case, summer.
The Dodgers and D-backs seemed to agree that a rambunctious Sydney Cricket Ground would be most preferred.
"I hope they're loud and they're excited," Gonzalez said. "I love when the crowd gets loud, so we're expecting that."
And while the continuation of this hard-fought struggle for NL West supremacy also is expected, the pageantry of the Opening Series managed to lend itself to good-natured humor on Tuesday.
"These are real games, and I'm sure Mr. Gibson feels the same way," Mattingly said. "And from my standpoint, if we can't win, I hope they do."
After Gibson answered that with a quick, "I hope he lets us win," he told the media that he came to Sydney on his honeymoon with his wife, Jo Anne, after their wedding in 1985.
"That part's worked out pretty good," Gibson said. "So I hope this one does, too."
Sydney Cricket Ground welcomes America's pastime
By Doug Miller / MLB.com | 3/18/2014 1:02 A.M. ET
SYDNEY -- Attention, cricket-crazy and soon-to-be-baseball-loving fans who will pack the legendary Sydney Cricket Ground when the Major League season begins here Friday night with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers playing the first of two games in the Opening Series.
If a baseball flies into the stands and you're lucky enough to pick it up, keep it. Seriously. Please keep it.
"One of the things about cricket is that they use the same ball for 90 overs, which is almost a full day," said Scott Egelton of Moore Sports, who has been serving as stadium operation manager, working hand in hand with Major League Baseball field and facilities coordinator Murray Cook to transform this iconic sporting venue into a big league field.
"If the fans here don't realize how it works in baseball, the field might be showered with the balls that they throw back onto the field," Egelton said.
Yes, there might be a bit of a learning curve as the baseball action begins in earnest on Thursday, when the Dodgers take on the Australian national team at 7 p.m. Sydney time (4 a.m. ET), but local fans are accustomed to sitting in the stands at the country's most famous oval to watch cricket and Australian rules football and rugby at the Allianz Stadium next door. Now they'll get to watch Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw pitch to D-backs slugger Paul Goldschmidt and Arizona southpaw Wade Miley up against Los Angeles' dynamic outfielder Yasiel Puig, and they'll have vendors bringing hot dogs to their seats.
No wonder both games are sold out. And no wonder Sydney Cricket Ground has already wowed early onlookers as quite a place to play America's national pastime.
"I think we're set to go," said Cook, who, along with SCG curator Tom Parker, has overseen the conversion of the monstrous oval "pitch" that has featured top-level Aussie cricket since the 1850s and actually hosted an exhibition with the Chicago White Sox in 1914. "We'll get the guys out here in the exhibitions, see how she plays, and we'll see if they want it a little softer or a little harder. We'll do what we've got to do to get it ready."
So far, they've done plenty.
Crews removed all the grass and put in clay for the basepaths and home plate. The clay, all 200 tons of it, came into Sydney Harbour from California on a cargo ship labeled "quarried material," and has the reddish hue of any storied big league park. New dugouts were built, outfield fencing, a batter's eye, a warning track, foul territory fencing, foul poles screwed into large wooden boxes, batting tunnels and a backstop were added. This took 16 days.
First look at where @ClaytonKersh22 and the #Dodgers will start the 2014 season. #OpeningSeries pic.twitter.com/BdzK5T88t6
- Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) March 18, 2014The players who filtered onto the field for the D-backs' early workout -- the Dodgers arrived later in the afternoon -- seemed blown away by what they saw.
One of them, pitcher Ryan Rowland-Smith, grew up in Australia and had been tracking the progress of Cook and Parker and crew online. He was all smiles when he finally witnessed the real thing.
"Stepping out here to see it firsthand is so much better than what I saw in the photos," Rowland-Smith said. "It looks unbelievable. I'd been here as a kid. I would walk out here and just admire how big it was. And the fact that they've kept the pavilion, the heritage side of the SCG, is awesome."
That pavilion is a green-roofed gem of Victorian architecture preserved as it originally appeared, with the more modern decks and sections of the stadium built around it. During cricket season, it's reserved for members, and inside, the gathering areas between the old locker rooms, which will house the big league umpires this week, its history rings out from every corner.
There are stately pressed-tin ceilings, arched stained-glass windows, elaborate wooden bars and photos and mementos from the various eras of Australian cricket.
But there are lifetimes of memories in every seating section at the SCG, with more to come courtesy of the first regular-season Major League games to be played Down Under.
Out beyond what is serving as the left-center-field wall this week, there's a bronze statue behind a front-row stall. It's the likeness of legendary SCG fan Stephen Harold Gascoigne, better known as "Yabba," who enjoyed heckling the British
team. He's in full scream, with a bottle of beer to his right. The inscription on the plaque reads, "A tribute by the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust to every spectator who has ever come to these Grounds."
Upwards of 45,000 spectators per game are expected for each game of the Opening Series, and baseball will be showcased. It's been a long time coming for the small but passionate fraternity of big leaguers who grew up in this country, and D-backs special assistant Craig Shipley, who was the first native Aussie to make it to The Show in the modern era, could sense the excitement as soon as he arrived here a few days ahead of his club's traveling party.
"It's amazing," Shipley said. "It's a special, special venue for a baseball field, and it looks perfect."
Mattingly may bat Gordon ninth, pitcher eighth
By Ken Gurnick / MLB.com | 3/18/2014 5:01 A.M. ET
SYDNEY -- Manager Don Mattingly said he is considering batting speedster Dee Gordon ninth in the Dodgers' lineup instead of eighth in certain situations.
Mattingly has yet to name Gordon his starting second baseman, but all signs point to that. Mattingly previously has said he would prefer to bat Yasiel Puig in the leadoff spot to maximize his at-bats. When Puig led off this spring, Gordon batted eighth with the pitcher ninth.
But Mattingly said the staff has discussed the pros and cons of using Gordon ninth when the club starts an above-average hitting pitcher, like Zack Greinke. Gordon, who has demonstrated an improved swing this spring to go with nine steals in nine attempts, would be followed in the order by Puig instead of the pitcher.
Mattingly said the negative to batting Gordon ninth is concern with having the pitcher following the No. 7 hitter, who most likely would be his catcher, A.J. Ellis or Tim Federowicz.
"You have to think about protecting the seventh hitter," Mattingly said.
Figgins, Turner thrilled to join Dodgers
SYDNEY -- Probably the two proudest Dodgers on the flight to Australia were new utility men Chone Figgins and Justin Turner, non-roster invitees whose contracts were purchased.
Figgins made the team after sitting out the 2013 season. Turner won a job after being released by the New York Mets in December.
"It's almost more gratifying than being called up to the big leagues," said Figgins, released twice in the last two years. "The last four years have been hard. I wouldn't say it was life changing, but it makes me appreciate the hard work. I was with my wife when I got the call from my agent, and it was emotional. She's seen me come home the last four or five years, watching video and not playing. Now she sees me smile again."
Figgins said one of the more gratifying messages came from Dodgers vice president Vance Lovelace, who scouted Figgins at what he called "a high school tryout" early this year and was instrumental in his signing.
"I also had a good conversation with [general manager] Ned Colletti," Figgins said. "He said congratulations and I said thank you, but the goal is not finished. I want to win a championship here."
Turner said he was equally proud of making the club, although he noted he's been in the "same position the last three or four years."
"This time my family is excited because I get to stay at home," said Turner, who went to Cal State Fullerton.
Greinke, Kemp continue making progress in Arizona
SYDNEY -- Dodgers manager Don Mattingly on Tuesday gave upbeat reports on the work of Zack Greinke and Matt Kemp back in Arizona.
Greinke pitched four innings of one-hit, scoreless ball in the Minor League game against the Padres. Greinke, continuing to stretch out after suffering a mild right calf strain, is expected to be available for the Dodgers' first series stateside against the Padres if he has no setbacks, Mattingly said.
Kemp played four innings in center field in the game and went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a walk. Mattingly said he is not worried about the outfielder's lack of offense since he's been cleared to play the field and run the bases.
"I know he's thrown up some zeroes, but he should be fine," Mattingly said. "We like the way the ball was coming off the bat, better this spring than last. He doesn't have to try out."
Carl Crawford also played in the game and went 1-for-3 with a stolen base.
DAILYNEWS.COM
Dodgers’ Mike Baxter a well-traveled player
By JP Hoornstra, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
GLENDALE, Ariz. – Dodgers outfielder Mike Baxter shouldn’t have enough major-league miles under his belt to be playing his fourth series outside North America.
The 29-year-old veteran of 194 games can proudly say he’s played baseball in Italy, China, Japan and now Australia. The Dodgers landed in Sydney on Monday afternoon Pacific Time – Tuesday morning Australia time due to the 18-hour time difference. Their next game is Thursday, an exhibition game against the Australian National Team.
If he plays Saturday or Sunday against the Arizona Diamondbacks, it will be Baxter’s first regular-season major-league game outside North America. As a member of the San Diego Padres, Baxter went to Beijing, China for a March 2008 exhibition series against the Dodgers.
As a child growing up in the Queens section of New York City, Baxter played on a local youth team that traveled to Italy when he was 12 and another in Japan when he was 14.
The China series is still fresh in his mind.
“The medical staff here has done an incredible amount of preparation, way more than in San Diego,” he said. “I’m going to follow their advice. I did suffer from jetlag in China.”
The Padres won the second game against the Dodgers in China; the first ended in a tie. Baxter went 0 for 2 in the series.
Six years later he’s carved out a niche that fills a need for the Dodgers, who claimed Baxter off waivers from the New York Mets in October 2013. In 20 Cactus League games, Baxter went 10 for 36 (.278) with two doubles and two stolen bases, playing all three outfield positions and a little first base.
“I don’t know if he’s pitched or not,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “Mike kind of does everything pretty well. He runs pretty good. he has good at-bats. He plays pretty well in the outfield.”
Hamilton debuts
Josh Hamilton made his Cactus League debut in the Angels’ 8-7 split-squad win over the San Francisco Giants in Tempe, Ariz. Hamilton went 1 for 3 in three at-bats as the Angels’ designated hitter.
He grounded into a forceout in the first inning, hit a single to right field and scored in the fourth inning, and lined out to Giants right fielder Hunter Pence to end the fifth inning.
In a game featuring the majority of projected Opening Day starters, Kole Calhoun’s two-run home run in the ninth inning off Giants right-hander Jean Machi gave the Angels the walk-off win.
With one out in the ninth and the Angels trailing 7-6, Shawn O’Malley singled and stole second base. Calhoun took three pitches for balls before hitting his first Cactus League home run to right field.
Angels starter Hector Santiago allowed four hits and three runs, all earned, in 5 1/3 innings. The right-hander walked three batters and struck out five. Kevin Jepsen and Nick Maronde tossed 1 2/3 scoreless innings out of the bullpen.
The Angels lost their other split-squad game Monday, 4-2 to the Chicago Cubs in Mesa, Ariz. Chicago scored three runs on a walk and three consecutive hits in the third inning off Angels starter Joe Blanton. The right-hander allowed four hits, walked two and struck out one in 5 1/3 innings.
Notable
The Angels optioned five players to their Triple-A camp: pitchers Buddy Boshers and Josh Wall, infielders Tommy Field and Luis Jimenez and catcher Efren Navarro. ... Pitcher Clay Rapada and catcher John Hester were reassigned to the Angels’ minor-league camp, reducing their camp roster to 42. ... Matt Kemp went 0 for 3 with a walk, and played four innings in center field in a Dodgers minor-league game against the San Diego Padres in Peoria, Ariz. Zack Greinke started the game and pitched four scoreless innings. He threw 42 pitches (32 for strikes) and allowed one hit. Outfielder Carl Crawford played five innings in the same game and went 1 for 3 with a stolen base.
OCREGISTER.COM
Dodgers see the light ... and get some sleep
BY PEDRO MOURA / STAFF WRITER
GLENDALE, Ariz. – Lightbulbs that cost $70 apiece, watches that track how many times users toss and turn during sleep, and compression socks to prevent in-air ankle swelling.
The Dodgers and vice president of medical services Stan Conte spared no expense to prepare players, coaches and staffers for the 15-hour red-eye flight from Phoenix to Sydney, Australia that landed Monday afternoon – about 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, Sydney time.
“They’re trying everything,” said ace Clayton Kershaw, who starts the first game Saturday, at 1 a.m. PT against the Arizona Diamondbacks at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The lightbulbs, developed by Lighting Science Group for astronauts and released this year, come in two types. All interested players were given the Good Night version, which slowly changes color to help bodies produce more melatonin, a natural hormone that causes drowsiness and aids sleep, and the Awake & Alert version.
As you might expect, the latter keeps users awake with what players described as a “bluer” light. The company says it’s approved for use to treat seasonal affective disorder, and catcher Tim Federowicz said it helped him adjust to the time zone change.
The lights were also on the chartered Qantas 747 the team flew, in the players’ hotel rooms in Sydney and at home in Los Angeles upon their return Sunday, if desired.
“When you see the light, you go to sleep. See the light, go to sleep,” said backup infielder Justin Turner. “And then, when you get on the plane and they turn those lights on after a few hours, you go to sleep. It’s training a habit.”
The watches, manufactured by Basis, are more of a research tool. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly proudly wore one in the days before the team left to Australia, but professed to having no idea how it worked.
“This is about your biorhythms and all that stuff,” Mattingly joked.
The watch contains Advanced Sleep Analysis software, billed as the most in-depth sleep assessment in the health tracker market. It will measure how much the sleep schedules of Mattingly – and other wearers – are affected by all the travel.
Left-hander J.P. Howell said he wasn’t concerned about a lack of sleep before or on the flight.
“It’s not so much the sleep, it’s the dehydration, the body concerns,” Howell said, noting he drank 12 bottles of water each day before the flight.
NOTES
Three players who stayed behind participated in minor-league action Monday. Right-hander Zack Greinke (calf) pitched four scoreless innings in a Class-A game at Camelback Ranch, throwing 42 pitches while allowing just one hit. Center fielder Matt Kemp (ankle) went 0 for 3 with a walk, logging four innings in the field. And left fielder Carl Crawford (paternity leave) went 1 for 3 with a stolen base.
ESPNLA.COM
Dodgers, D-backs enjoy a historic venue
By Mark Saxon | ESPNLosAngeles.com
SYDNEY -- They’ve got the bunting up in time for Opening Day as usual. The red-white-and-blue cloth, in this case, is decked out along the railings of a building that was almost 50 years old the day Wrigley Field opened its gates.
“This is sacred ground,” says Scott Egelton, the director of the Sydney Cricket Ground.
It might be sacred, but some of it is now foul ground -- and there's a lot of it. Major League Baseball, for the next week, is taking over the most historic sporting venue in Australia.
British troops played cricket at this spot in the 1850s. What’s known today as the Sydney Cricket Ground opened its doors in the 1880s, and two of the original buildings are still standing. They’re wood with pale green pillars.
One of them is the Members Pavilion and next to it is the Ladies Pavilion, where, until the 1970s, women were segregated from their husbands. Some people have chosen to have their ashes scattered on the pitch, and their names are commemorated on little silver plaques that line a white picket fence.
Major League Baseball sent Murray Cook here weeks ago. His expertise is carving out baseball fields out of non-baseball playing lands. He has built baseball fields in Beijing, Frankfurt, Germany, and here in Sydney for the 2000 Olympics. He and his crew got the field in working order using the materials on hand, though they had to import a few hundred tons of clay from Southern California to make a proper infield.
The field looks like most any other major league field. The foul ground is more generous than most -- though not quite as expansive as it is in Oakland -- and, to avoid making it such a pitchers' park, Cook pinched the corners. You only have to hit it 328 feet down the lines for a home run.
The builders had to build dugouts where there were none. They are smaller than most. The steps were so steep, Arizona coach Mark Grace muttered, “Good Lord, don’t they know how un-athletic we ballplayers are?” as he struggled to make his way down them at Tuesday’s workout.
“Yeah, I like it. It looks like a pitchers’ park, a lot of foul ground,” said Arizona pitcher Wade Miley, who will throw the first pitch of the first major league game to be played here.
Miley wasn’t even planning to be in Australia. He would have stayed behind when the Diamondbacks embarked on the 15-hour flight to Sydney, instead pitching in minor-league spring-training games, but the Diamondbacks’ young ace, Patrick Corbin, injured his elbow. The team told Miley he would pitch Game 1 on Saturday night. He packed up hastily.
“I’m the first pitcher of the 2014 baseball season. That’s special,” Miley said.
Major League Baseball official John Blundell was here in January and took in a couple of games played by the local cricket team, the Sydney Sixers.
“I knew nothing, just like they’re going to know nothing about our game,” Blundell said.
Soon, they might know a little bit more. About 80,000 fans will get to see some of the best players in the world -- pitchers such as Clayton Kershaw and sluggers such as Paul Goldschmidt -- but the legends this place reveres compete in a different arena. Above center field, a sign reads, “Victor Trumper Stand.” Trumper scored 214 points against South Africa in 1910-11. Above right field, a sign reads, “Clive Churchill Stand.” Churchill was a fullback, one of the greatest Australian rugby players of all time.
And then there’s Stephen “Yabba” Gascoigne. He’s the fan who heckled the English cricket team so mercilessly, he became an icon. They built a bronze statue of him. If you look closely while the Dodgers and Diamondbacks play, you might be able to make it out. He’s in the second row sitting in left-center field, his hands cupping his mouth, a bottle nearby.
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks baseballers hail new-look SCG
Michael Chammas
There was no doubt the Sydney Cricket Ground looked a picture as a ball park, but on Tuesday it was given the ultimate stamp of approval by Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks players.
Having touched down in Sydney on Tuesday morning, the two teams got their first look at the iconic ground when they held their first practice sessions in the afternoon.
After checking out the SCG's incredible transformation, which has been likened to the Oakland Coliseum, both the Dodgers and Diamondbacks were drawn to the iconic members' stand.
"I had the privilege of growing up in Tiger Stadium (Detroit), one of the most historic ball parks in the United States, and had an opportunity to play in Fenway (Boston Red Sox) as well," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.
Advertisement "When you get here and you see the history, all the dents in the wall and the cracks in the wall and all the different players that have come through with the plaques on the wall, it makes you feel like a part of that history. We're excited to be here."
However, the hallowed turf will provide a unique experience when games get under way on Thursday when Team Australia take on the Dodgers in an exhibition game.
The centre square, which only a few months ago played host to Australia's Ashes series whitewash against the old enemy England, raised a few alarm bells.
"It's a little hard there," Diamondbacks outfield coach Dave McKay said.
"But we can't do anything about it. We have to work around it. The ball will get to you harder, it will bounce a little bit. It will make it feel like an in-fielder. You don't go through that ball if you don't have to. We did some work on it and we'll do some more. We showed the guys how it bounces higher off that area there.
"No one really thought about that, but there's nothing we can do about it. We know they can't dig it up and replace it, there's so much history there. It's something special that area, so we'll just work around it. It's unique. Every stadium will have something in the dimensions that you have to concern yourself about and that is this one's."
Apart from the centre square, there is another characteristic of the ground that differs to all Major League Baseball stadiums.
Well, not quite all.
The Oakland A's home ground is renowned for its large foul territory, but the SCG might just have it covered.
"I think the foul territory will be a big difference to what both teams are used to," Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt said.
"There's a ton of foul territory, especially in the infield and behind home plate. All the baseball stadiums are different in the States. It's just another little adjustment."
Joining the Diamondbacks on their tour Down Under is Craig Shipley, special assistant to Arizona general manager Kevin Towers.
In 1988 Shipley became the first Australian to play in the Major League since the 1800s when he debuted for the Dodgers.
Having watched several rugby league games and even played schoolboys' rugby union at the SCG, Shipley described the renovation as ''outstanding''.
"What an incredible transformation from a cricket field to a baseball stadium, it's outstanding," Shipley said.
"It's pretty special. As a kid, I never would have imagined there would be a Major League baseball game on the SCG. Having left when I was 18 at a time where nobody had made it to the big leagues, it's been a long journey. This is a special week.
"I remember sitting on the old hill when I was too young to have a beer. I remember coming to rugby league games. I actually played a rugby union game here in my last year [at Epping Boys High School]. Our Waratah Shield team was pretty good, we had Brett Papworth and Ian Williams in our team. That was a good memory."
BOSTONHERALD.COM
Dodgers, Diamondbacks arrive Down Under
AP
SYDNEY — Adrian Gonzalez ripped line drives to all areas of the park, often scattering his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in the outfield from the safety of the batting cage. It was just a few hours after arriving in Australia, with his body thinking it was about midnight.
Still, the first baseman who led the Dodgers in hits, home runs, RBIs and games played last season did a good job of making Sydney Cricket Ground, the home for two Major League Baseball season-opening games this weekend, sound and look like a real ballpark.
The Dodgers and their weekend opponents, the Arizona Diamondbacks, arrived early Tuesday on separate jumbos from the U.S. west coast. It was a 15-hour flight and took the teams across the International Date Line, missing Monday altogether, and putting them in a time zone 18 hours ahead of the one they left behind.
Hence Gonzalez in the batting cage was well past his usual bedtime, but looking pretty impressive.
"We're all very excited to be here," Gonzalez said before the Dodgers' workout. "We'll have a few hits, see how the ball carries, but it all looks like a real ball park."
Vin Scully, the 86-year-old Dodgers' announcer, proclaimed after he got off the plane that "it's great to be here," and Dodgers manager Don Mattingly and his Diamondbacks counterpart Kirk Gibson later gave the ball field a similar thumbs-up.
"No question, everyone is saying that having a chance to start the season here in Sydney, to be able to get out of spring training a bit early, it's great," said Mattingly. "Let's get this thing started."
Gibson said he had fond memories of Australia because he spent his honeymoon here in 1985 "and that part worked out pretty good, so I hope this does."
"Of all the historic places we've played over the years, you walk in and you can see they've put a lot of work into the field," Gibson added. "And I've been told by (Diamondbacks' Australian relief pitcher) Ryan Rowland-Smith, it's fair dinkum."
Translated, that means he thinks it's a pretty good place to play baseball.
Arizona first baseman Paul Goldschmidt was in the best position to judge the change to Sydney Cricket Ground, having been part of a promotional visit here last year.
"When I was here it was set up for cricket matches, but you wouldn't know that walking out there today," he said. "Very impressed."
Goldschmidt said he was surprised by the distance in foul territory between the baselines and the stands. That's in keeping with the natural shape of a cricket ground, where the batting "wicket" is usually closer to the center of the ground and the entire field is in play.
"Foul territory, that's going to be the big difference," Goldschmidt said. "But baseball stadiums are different in the States, so it'll just take some adjusting. We'll work it out in the next few days."
The teams will only have one workout Wednesday before taking on Team Australia in a pair of exhibition games — the Diamondbacks on Thursday and the Dodgers on Friday.
Clayton Kershaw, who spent time Tuesday stretching in the outfield bullpen, will start for the Dodgers in Saturday's season opener. Left-hander Wade Miley replaces Patrick Corbin, who has a left elbow injury, as the Diamondbacks starter.
Gibson said Tuesday the Diamondbacks were still waiting for a second opinion on the severity of Corbin's injury, which could require surgery and put him out for the season.
The teams will close out the two-game series Sunday when the Dodgers' Hyun-Jin Ryu is slated to start against Arizona's Trevor Cahill.
The series marks the first regular-season games in Australia. Previous MLB season openers were held in Monterrey, Mexico (1999), San Juan, Puerto Rico (2001) and four times in Tokyo, most recently in 2012.
The weekend games will mark the 100th anniversary of an exhibition game played by the Chicago White Sox and the New York Giants at the same stadium.
Capacity crowds of about 40,000 are expected for both games at the historic ground where Australia's cricket teams have played memorable matches for the past century and a half. In keeping with the theme, Goldschmidt and Gonzalez were presented with cricket bats signed by Australia cricket captain Michael Clarke.
The two first basemen were asked to pose with the bats, and a few in the crowd chuckled when Gonzalez initially slung it over his shoulder in a very un-cricket like pose. But he quickly adopted an impressive Clarke-like stance for the cameras.
Gonzalez also prompted laughter later when he answered a question in Spanish for about 30 seconds. When asked for a translation into English, his response took only several seconds. He smiled and said: "We're ready to go."
BRISBANETIMES.COM
LA Dodgers bring secret weapon to Sydney
Peter Mitchell
Light bulbs, not $US215 million pitcher Clayton Kershaw, may be the key to the Los Angeles Dodgers' success in Australia.
The Dodgers have turned to "light therapy" to help prevent their squad of millionaire baseballers from being derailed by jet lag on the 15-hour flight to Sydney.
When the team's charter plane takes off from the US on Monday AEDT it will be fitted with "Awake and Alert" LED lightbulbs with high blue spectrum light to keep players awake for the first four hours of the flight.
The lights will then be switched off, and the dark cabin will allow the players' bodies to naturally prepare for sleep.
Advertisement When the team arrives in Sydney on Tuesday morning AEDT and they check into their hotel rooms, the light therapy will continue.
"We had somebody who went down to Australia yesterday and they are changing out the lights within the hotel rooms the players are staying in," Sean Tegart, vice president of Florida-based Lighting Science, hired by the Dodgers, told AAP.
Lighting Science has worked with NASA and Harvard University to refine its technology which, through manipulating LED light, has been found to create certain biological effects.
The Dodgers will play Team Australia in an exhibition game on March 20 and then take on the Arizona Diamondbacks on March 22 and 23 at the Sydney Cricket Ground to start the Major League Baseball season.
Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke raised eyebrows when he admitted he had "absolutely zero excitement" about flying to Australia, citing the disruption to preparations.
Injury ended up forcing Greinke out of the trip, but Kershaw, who recently signed a $US215 million, seven-year contract, will lead the Dodgers.
Lighting Science began its program with Dodger players three days ago as they played Spring Training games in Arizona.
They analysed each players' sleeping patterns, finding out if they were "night owls, early risers or hummingbirds".
A hummingbird is a person who gives their peak performance around midday.
"If we can start to help individual players who may be early risers and peaking at 10am or 11am and instead help them peak at 7pm or 8pm when the game is on, can you imagine what a three or five per cent rise in batting average could do for these players?" Mr Tegart said.
The program will also be used when the Dodgers return to the US.
DAILYTELEGRAPH.COM
Effect of hectic start to season in Sydney on MLB teams LA Dodgers and Arizona Diamonbacks an unknown quantity
Nick Walshaw
WELCOME to the worst road trip in Major League baseball history. There, we said it.
Breaking rank on what has otherwise been glowing coverage of a historic Sydney season opener which, from this morning, sees some $300 million worth of swingin’, pitchin’, spittin’ talent arrive for that blockbuster between the LA Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks.
And, yes, we agree Sydney sport gets no bigger than this.
Acknowledging too the breathtaking SCG transformation, the NSW Government coup and, perhaps most importantly, the chance to finally buy a hot dog from someone other than that old bloke outside Leichhardt Oval.
But these, last we checked, are still the sports pages.
And the undeniable sports story is that, once we Aussies have got buzzed on Budwesier and broken our seventh-inning stretch virginity, two Major League baseball clubs will be left to complete an exhausting 24,000km round trip wondering exactly how this experiment has cost them.
Which isn’t to say we shouldn’t get giddy on the exploits of Mark Trumbo, Paul Goldschmidt and co. But understand, too, that outside the Book if Genesis it’s hard to remember anyone being asked to do more in six days.
Take the Dodgers who, having just completed an abbreviated Spring camp, fly 17 hours Down Under, have a day to adjust, then play one practice match with Australia, two more against the Diamondbacks, then fly 13 more hours home — having been bussed straight from the SCG after game two — for three more practice games and another start to the regular season in San Diego.
Privately, this is what both teams having been dreading and planning for all Spring.
Understanding that an Australian opener has, through a mix of jetlag, disruptions and it’s very stop-star nature, the potential to cruel a season far more than previous openers in Mexico, Puerto Rico or even Japan.
Which is exactly why, when the Dodgers strolled onto their private jet yesterday, they were greeted by specially-fitted “Awake and Alert” LED lightbulbs, whose blue spectrum light is designed to keep players up for the first quarter of the flight.
Then, after exactly four hours, the lights were switched off, allowing the players’ bodies to naturally prepare for sleep in the darkened cabin.
Indeed, so concerned are Dodgers staff about the effects of this trip, they even flew a lighting specialist out ahead of time — ensuring every one of their hotel room booked at The Star, Darling Harbour are also fitted out with the globes.
It’s a cautious approach organised, in part, by Dodgers players — not all of whom voted ‘yes’ when the Australian opportunity was first put in a team vote.
And club manager, the legendary Don Mattingly, who was coach of the New York Yankees side that, after opening their 2004 season against Tampa Bay in Japan, went 9-11 in early games before rallying to make the American League Championship Series.
Quizzed about his concerns of a repeat, Mattingly said: “We came back with four spring training games and that was miserable. Those are the things I worry about. The bell rings, those two games count, then you come back and say, ‘Don’t matter.’ I worry about bad habits.”
Because for Mattingly and his Dodgers, a Major League season extends much longer than six days in Australia.
THEJEWISHWEEK.COM
Where Have You Gone, Sandy Koufax?
Steve Lipman
“I can’t picture people talking about me 50 years from now.”
— Sandy Koufax in a 1965 Sports Illustrated interview.
Glendale, Ariz. — Baseballs in hand, Kyle Leibel, a 14-year-old fan from East Meadow, L.I., and John Fuchs, a pal from Phoenix, patrolled the grounds of the Los Angeles Dodgers spring training site here one recent morning, looking for autographs.
In the early days of the Dodgers’ preparation for the 2014 season, the teens, among dozens of other fans, chased down pitchers and catchers, traditionally the first players to report to spring training.
Then Steven Leibel, Kyle’s father, steered them to a scrum of fans pressed against a chain link fence, clamoring for an autograph from a white-haired senior citizen.
Kyle and his friend didn’t know much about the former player — Sandy Koufax — at the center of the fans’ attention, but Steven Leibel quickly filled them in: Koufax, now 78, is a long-retired Hall of Fame Dodgers pitcher, the wielder of an overpowering fastball and a drop-off-a-table curveball who dominated National League hitters for an unmatched six-year stretch in the early 1960s. He retired at 30 because of an arthritic left arm, and cemented his reputation in the Jewish community for declining to pitch the opening game of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur.
Koufax noticed the teens across the fence. “Are you out of school?” he kidded them. “You shouldn’t be out of school.”
The question was rhetorical. Kyle and John didn’t answer. They got his autograph. “Thank you, Mr. Koufax,” they yelled. Then they ran off, in search of other, younger players. But before they did, Steven Leibel made sure they knew what they had: “You got the autograph of the century.”
Welcome to the life of Sandy Koufax, No. 32, a reluctant hero who, in an age of selfies and Twitter, has carved out a rare zone of privacy for himself. When he does venture into the public eye, his signature is in demand. Next season, though, the 50th anniversary of arguably the most famous game a major league pitcher did not pitch, Koufax will likely find himself in a brighter spotlight. The subject of countless sermons and newspaper columns and bar/bat mitzvah speeches in the last 49 years, that game, that decision, that moment that served as a touchstone of an emerging Jewish confidence in this country, will likely be recalled again in the Jewish community, and perhaps beyond.
This season — the Dodgers open against the Arizona Diamondbacks on March 22 and 23 in Australia — will be Koufax’s last before American Jewry relives that World Series, before the 2015 commemorations begin, before the onslaught of historical essays and requests for his thoughts.
Not that he’s likely to answer many questions or make many personal appearances. Koufax notoriously avoids making himself a celebrity, an elusiveness that has undoubtedly added to his mystique. He rarely grants interviews.
But for reasons he did not reveal, he agreed to be interviewed by The Jewish Week that morning at spring training, two days before he was struck in the head by a foul ball during the team’s batting practice. (He was shaken, received treatment by the Dodgers’ trainer, and was OK the next day.)
It was a sunny, unusually warm winter week in this Phoenix suburb. Outfitted in a white golf shirt, cargo shorts and running shoes, Koufax sat at a small beach table outside the Dodgers’ headquarters, in the shadow of an umbrella, a pair of sunglasses over his eyes. He’s still in shape, his grip strong; he looks at least 10 years younger than his age.
Koufax spoke for about a half-hour, in short replies, sharing — as is his wont — snippets of his career but nothing about his inner life. He was civil, courteous; but being subjected to an interview was clearly painful; he looked like a hitter must have looked at the plate, facing a Koufax fastball. Public self-reflection is not his comfort zone.
After introductions, the conversation turned quickly to Yom Kippur of 1965, which fell during the Dodgers-Minnesota Twins World Series; it is the subject that most interests Jewish fans. Yet Koufax wrote virtually nothing about it in his 1966 autobiography, devoting two paragraphs to the historic game. “I had already pitched and lost the second game because of the coincidence of the opening game falling on Yom Kippur,” he wrote, looking back at his start in game 2. “There was never any decision to make … because there was never any possibility that I would pitch. Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish religion. The club knows that I don’t work that day.”
A reader does not learn from the autobiography how Koufax spent that day (reportedly in his room at the ritzy St. Paul Hotel a few blocks from the banks of the Mississippi), if he prayed, if he fasted, if he followed the game on TV or radio, if he looked out the window at downtown St. Paul or at rowers from the Minnesota Boat Club, which is housed on a small island across from the hotel.
“You’re not going to learn about that now,” Koufax told The Jewish Week.
What he did that day in ’65 was private; he never talks publicly about it.
Taking off on Yom Kippur wasn’t a big deal, he said. “It was something I always did.” In 11 previous seasons with the Dodgers, in Brooklyn and in Los Angeles, he had taken off Yom Kippur, which had occurred during the regular season, he said. He had adjusted his pitching schedule each year to make up for the missed start, while spending the holiday with his parents.
Yom Kippur in 1965 drew more notice, Koufax said, only because of the confluence with the World Series.
Why didn’t he play that game?
“Respect.”
It’s as simple as that?
“It’s as simple as that,” Koufax said.
He wasn’t trying to make a statement about Jewish pride?
“Absolutely not.”
Did anyone — owners, management, teammates — pressure him to start the Series, a pitcher’s most prestigious assignment?
He shook his head. “No pressure.”
Was it a risk — could he endanger his standing with the team?
“No.”
Did the other Dodgers ask him, when he showed up to pitch the next day, what he had done on Yom Kippur? Did they ask anything about the holiday?
“No discussion.” They were used to his absence on the Day of Atonement; then, back to business.
Did he have any idea that that day of rest — barely a month after he pitched his fourth and final career no-hitter, this time a perfect game — would make him an icon?
He shook his head. “No.”
When did he start to realize that, for many Jewish fans, he would become more famous for the one game he didn’t pitch than for the hundreds he did?
The buzz began, a little, the next year; the momentum built afterwards. “There have been 49 years since then,” Koufax said.
Does the ongoing fuss surprise him?
“Yes.”
“I wasn’t the first” — the first Jewish star to sit out a Yom Kippur game, he said, trying to deflect the focus from him. “Hank Greenberg did it.”
Greenberg is the Hall of Fame first baseman for the Detroit Tigers; his Yom Kippur off came in 1934, during the end of the Tigers’ successful drive for the American League championship.
Koufax answered several questions, declined to answer others, then stood up and walked into the Dodgers’ headquarters building.
‘In the Jewish Ether’
He spent a few hours that morning tending to his official duties, working with Dodger pitchers as a part-time instructor — his official title is Special Advisor to Dodgers’ Chairman Mark Walter — while along the way giving his autograph to fans who held out balls or programs or old baseball cards for a signature scribbled by the most famous left hand in American Jewish history.
Koufax’s decision to observe Yom Kippur in 1965 didn’t attract particular attention in the media at first. The New York Times and New York Post reported matter-of-factly that he would miss the start because that day was “the holiest Jewish holiday.” The Daily News was on strike that week. This newspaper’s predecessor, the Jewish Week & American Examiner, made no mention of the game.
But, through word of mouth in Jewish circles, everyone knew. Over time, that game assumed mythic proportions.
“A generation of young Jews considered him ‘the greatest Jew in America,’” Brandeis University historian Jonathan Sarna tells The Jewish Week. “In an era when lots of Jews thought it was best to keep their Judaism quiet,” Koufax’s act “gave some Jews courage to be outwardly Jewish in other ways — by wearing a Jewish symbol, demonstrating for Soviet Jews, or the like.”
The missed World Series start “was in the Jewish ether after ’65,” says Steven Schnur, a Scarsdale author and college instructor whose 1997 book about a fifth-grader who is supposed to pitch an important game for his team on the first night of Passover is titled “The Koufax Dilemma” (William Morrow). Koufax, Schnur says, “was the universal symbol of a Jew who made a choice that we as a community admired.
“It has nothing to do with an Orthodox lifestyle,” or with a commitment to observance of halacha, says Schnur, who identifies himself as a committed Reform Jew.
Koufax, who grew up in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, was (and remains, as far as is known) devoutly secular, with little formal Jewish education and (according to all accounts) no bar mitzvah. He intermarried twice and divorced twice; he has no children.
“A secular, non-practicing Jew,” is Jane Leavy’s description in “Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy” (Harper Perennial, 2002). A secular Jew who became a symbol for the entire Jewish community, Koufax committed an act of respect for Jewish tradition that even reached into Orthodox circles.
“As we boys huddled in the lobby of shul that Kol Nidrei night the talk was not on Teshuva [repentance], rather it was on Koufax,” Rabbi Ron Yitzchok Eisenman, a haredi spiritual leader who grew up in Brooklyn and now lives in Passaic, N.J., wrote last year on the aish.com website.
That Yom Kippur game came only two decades after the end of World War II and the Holocaust, two years before Israel’s triumph in the Six-Day War, which gave American Jews a boost of pride.
“When Sandy Koufax stated that he would not pitch on Yom Kippur, many Jews in America stood a little taller and had a better sense of self-worth and Jewish pride. That was as true in the Orthodox observant community as it was in the general Jewish community,” says Rabbi Berel Wein, an Orthodox scholar and historian who now lives in Jerusalem. “His refusal to pitch on Yom Kippur influenced that generation of American Jews to become more publicly assertive and to be less ashamed of their Jewishness. The decision of Koufax to do the Jewish thing so publicly and in such a quintessential American setting as the World Series pumped a new confidence into that generation of American Jews.”
For many Americans, Koufax’s decision to sit out a World Series game transcended Greenberg’s similar decision.
“What makes Koufax’s episode so enduring,” says Jeffrey Gurock, professor of American Jewish history at Yeshiva University, “is the reaction of the baseball world — Christian world — to his decision.”
Koufax’s announcement that he would not pitch on Yom Kippur “was met with wide understanding and tolerance and constituted a reflection of the new levels of acceptance Jews were beginning to feel in the 1960s,” Gurock says. “It symbolized acceptance for our minority faith in an increasingly pluralistic world.”
‘Role Model’
According to Sports Illustrated, Koufax once told Rabbi Hillel Silverman, a veteran spiritual leader who has served congregations in California and Connecticut, “I’m Jewish. I’m a role model. I want them” — other Jews — “to understand they have to have pride.”
Jewish fans often tell him, “Thank you for not pitching,” Koufax says.
He says he talked about his 1965 decision with Shawn Green, a Jewish major leaguer from 1993 to 2007 (he spent time with the Dodgers and Mets), who twice faced his own Yom Kippur dilemma, “I didn’t tell him what to do.”
A growing number of Jewish athletes in the major leagues, the NFL and college football are facing the same decision about playing or praying. Almost all opt to play, citing their responsibilities to their teammates.
Does Koufax think they’re making a wrong decision?
“I don’t judge,” he says.
The day after Yom Kippur in 1965, Koufax was visited at his hotel in St. Paul by Rabbi Moshe Feller, a Chabad-Lubavitch chasidic leader. The desk clerk “probably figured I’m his rabbi,” Rabbi Feller said of his access to the star. The rabbi came with a set of tefillin.
Koufax accepted the gift. Rabbi Feller did not report if Koufax donned the tefillin that day. Either does Koufax. “He gave me the tefillin,” he says.
Since retiring, Koufax, who has lived in California and Maine, now resides in Vero Beach, Fla.; He’s taken up fishing and golf and marathon running. He has worked, at times, as a minor league pitching coach, as a broadcaster for NBC and as an instructor for the New York Mets, who are owned by Fred Wilpon, a high school teammate.
He did not return to the University of Cincinnati, which he left when he signed with the Dodgers; he did not take up architecture, his college major.
How does he spend his time nowadays?
“I keep busy.”
Usually, by design, out of the public eye.
“Koufax might be,” the Bleacher Report website opined in 2010, “the most famous hermit left in American ‘public’ life … after the death of J.D. Salinger earlier this year.” His occasional public forays — throwing out a ceremonial first pitch at the Dodgers’ opening home game in 2008, attending a White House reception in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month in 2010 — are headline news.
“Here’s a Sandy Koufax shocker: He’ll spend a night in the spotlight,” the Los Angeles Times stated in 2010 when Koufax agreed to appear at a fund-raising dinner for manager Joe Torre’s Safe at Home foundation, which combats domestic abuse.
“I’m not a loner. I’m not a hermit,” Koufax says in his interview with The Jewish Week. “I go to movies. I go to restaurants.”
The autograph seekers are often rewarded.
Family Tradition
Robert Trujillo, 72, who grew up in New Mexico listening to the Dodgers’ games on radio, says he drove from his current home in Southern California to the spring training site in Glendale to get a pair of Koufax autographs for his grandchildren. He achieved his goal that day.
Steven Leibel, 51, who came from Long Island, says he heard Sandy Koufax stories as a kid from his father, a “rabid” baseball fan. Mostly, he heard about Yom Kippur 1965. “That was his top story. He kept telling that story.” Koufax’s decision that year “said the Jewish religion is more important than a baseball game.”
Now it’s Leibel’s top story. “My wife is from Israel. She doesn’t know baseball, but she loves to keep hearing that story.”
Leibel says his kids are too young to appreciate Koufax’s impact. They’ll hear more as they grow older — as Kyle did the other day here, when he got Koufax’s autograph.
The Koufax stories, the tale of the ’65 World Series, won’t stop with his children, Leibel says. He hopes his children will carry on the family tradition. “Hopefully they’ll to continue tell that story to their children.”
SCPR.ORG
Dodgers president optimistic channel will strike deals as opening day approaches
Ben Bergman
There’s less than a week until the Dodgers open their regular season in Australia, but Time Warner still hasn’t been able to strike deals with major pay-TV providers for the new Dodgers channel.
Most of the 4.8 million pay-TV customers in the LA market subscribe to Time Warner. They will get Dodger games.
But according SNL Kagan figures provided to the Wall Street Journal, about 68 percent of LA customers subscribe to another provider. And as of now, they are mostly out of luck. (The only deal Time Warner has reached is with tiny Bright House, which usually has Time Warner negotiate its deals)
DirecTV and other distributors have said the Dodgers and Time Warner are asking for far too much money. Still, Dodgers President Stan Kasten told KPCC he expects the channel to get picked up as the season nears.
“We remain optimistic that in short order we’re going to have full coverage throughout the market because it’s something this incredibly deep and loyal fan base wants to have,” Kasten said Friday.
Kasten said he’s not surprised it’s coming down to the wire, because that’s how it went with the Lakers channel, and what’s happened in other cities.
“Negotiations will get more serious as we get closer to opening day, and perhaps beyond, if we’re not completely done by opening day,” Kasten said.
As the season approaches distributors start to really feel the heat from their customers, something the Dodgers and Time Warner are counting on.
The Dodgers games next weekend in Australia will be locally blacked out on the MLB Network and broadcast exclusively in Southern California and Hawaii on SportsNet LA. The first game only on the Dodgers channel is April 1 st, against the Padres.
TRUEBLUELA.COM
Zack Greinke, Matt Kemp, Carl Crawford stay back at Camelback Ranch
Eric Stephen
While the bulk of the Dodgers traveled overnight to Australia – the team landed in Sydney just before 4 p.m. PT – an important group stayed behind in Arizona. The trio of Matt Kemp, Zack Greinke and Carl Crawford all played in a minor league game against Padres Class-A players on Monday at Camelback Ranch.
Greinke pitched four scoreless innings and allowed just one hit. He threw 42 pitches, including 32 strikes. He threw two innings last Wednesday against the Diamondbacks in the Cactus League in his first outing since straining his right calf on Feb. 27.
Manager Don Mattingly said on Sunday that both Greinke and Dan Haren would continue to get work in minor league games but neither are expected to open the season on the disabled list. Both are expected to be named as exempt players along with reliever Brandon League when the Dodgers submit their Opening Day 28-man roster on Friday night at 7 p.m. PT.
Greinke if he stays on four days rest every time out will be in line to start in the Freeway Series opener against the Angels on March 27 and potentially the second game of the series against the Padres, on April 1.
Kemp was 0-for-3 with a walk and played four innings in center field, his longest time in the field to date in spring training. Mattingly on Sunday noted the importance of these two works of minor league games for Kemp.
“It’s kind of the start of spring training for him, getting his at-bats, playing in games,” Mattingly said. “He’ll build up his innings, and anything that could happen during a game he’ll have to deal with. It could be a slide, it could be making a play in the field.”
Kemp is expected to start the season on the disabled list, which would make him ineligible to play in any Freeway Series games since even though they are exhibition contests are still considered major league games. A timetable for Kemp’s return hasn’t yet been set, but a start on the DL means the absolute earliest he could be activated is for the Dodgers home opener on April 4.
Crawford played five innings and went 1-for-3 with a stolen base. He is essentially on standby, waiting for the birth of his baby. He will be on paternity leave and miss the opening two games in Australia.
Something to watch this week in Dodgers minor league games is when Haren and Josh Beckett might pitch next. Haren last week said he was tired and might be going through a dead-arm period, while Beckett left his Friday start with a right thumb contusion. Beckett is expected to open the season on the disabled list.
The Dodgers Double-A and Triple-A teams play Mariners farmhands on Tuesday at Camelback Ranch.
LAIST.COM
Larry King Talks About The Dodgers And His New Sports Program
Matthew Bramlett
Larry King, reigning monarch of the interview, will be making his debut in the sports world next week.
His new show, "Larry King at Bat," will be one of the cornerstone programs on the Dodgers' new network SportsNet LA, the new TV home for the boys in blue. There have been some pains regarding coverage, as some Dodger fans may have to wait weeks for the opportunity to watch games. But the Dodgers top brass is no doubt hopeful about the network, and King's new show is a step in the right direction.
LAist had the opportunity to talk to King about his unending love for the Dodgers and what he expects from the team this year.
LAist: So first off, tell me a little bit about the show. King: Larry King at Bat features hour-long interview with sports, celebrities and others outside the world of sports on the new L.A. Sports Net network and it'll cove the Los Angeles Dodgers. The show will premiere on March 17. First guest is going to be Orel Hershiser, the Dodger pitcher. And we'll have Kareem Abdul Jabbar, we'll also have Conan O'Brien scheduled.
It's what I've been doing all my life, interviewing, and this will be solely within the world of sports, which I love. It's my avocation. I've been a Dodger fan all my life. To be part of this new network and part of the Dodgers, it's a kick to be able to sit down and ask questions and be part of this brave and exciting new venture.
You mentioned that you are a lifelong Dodger fan. Tell me about your favorite Dodger moment. Well, I grew up in Brooklyn, where the Dodgers played, of course, through the years before they moved to L.A. My favorite moment as a fan, when I was a kid I was at Jackie Robinson's first game. I was sitting out in he bleachers and it was a big thrill realizing that we were part of history. I wasn't a sellout that day, it was 28,000 and the stadium held 34,000. I later in life got to interview Jackie twice, out of the 60,000 people I've interviewed, he was one of the top highlights. So on a personal basis that was it.
The biggest excitement was during the 1955 World Series victory. [The Dodgers] beat the Yankees, who had beaten us in three previous World Series. I still remember everything about the game, and I've interviewed people who were part of that game. They won, two to nothing. We always expected to lose to the Yankees, and [the Dodgers] were up 2-0 in the 9th inning and I had given up. I knew the Yankees were going to score three runs. And the amazing thing to me was how simple the inning went. It was just 1-2-3. It was over in five minutes. Elston Howard hits a ground ball to Pee Wee Reese, Reese threw to [Gil] Hodges, and the Dodgers had won and I went nuts.
There are a lot of high expectations for the Dodgers this year. How do you think the Dodgers' season will turn out? I think all signs point to a terrific year. They're favored in Las Vegas, they are the early pre-season favorite to win it all. If people play to their capabilities, they should prevail. They have a great pitching staff, a tremendous bullpen. They have question marks—there's a question mark in second base, there are some injury questions like when will [Matt] Kemp be able to play, he's still not running as swiftly as he could. So a lot of question marks, but everything has question marks, and the Dodgers have less. They have the best pitcher in baseball, they have the best front line staff, certainly they have the best bullpen. So I'm looking forward to an exciting season and I'm looking forward to opening day.
I have the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, and over the years we've helped thousands of people with various heart procedures. And on opening day with cooperation with the Dodgers, we're going to be giving away tickets to people who are cooperating in our contest. And I will host them on opening day, when the Dodgers host their home opener here. They'll open on the road, they're opening in Australia and then San Diego. And the home opener is on April 4. So with that part of the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, we'll host people. It should be one of the greatest opening days in history, I think. With this special team, at this special ballpark and this great new ownership. It's going to be a great year, I think.
Any specific players that you think will make a big splash this year? Arguably, Hanley Ramirez will be the best hitter in the National League. Adrian Gonzalez is a Gold Glove first baseman and a solid RBI man. Andre Ethier is very dependable
outfielder as is [Carl] Crawford. And of course there's [Yasiel] Puig, who was one of most exciting young players in baseball. It's a very solid team. [Dee] Gordon at second base, they got the best pitcher in Clayton Kershaw. It's a team of stars, and stars don't always win, as sometimes there's bad chemistry. But I think this team likes each other. They have a wonderful manager in Mattingly, who was a great player in his own right. I just am so excited now, as I have been in the past. But there's nothing certain in baseball.
Baseball will confound you and disappoint you and drive you nuts. But I have very high hopes for this Dodger team, and my being a small part of it.
More information on the chance to hang out with Larry King on Opening Day can be found here. You can also learn more about SportsNet LA here.
