Late Night Dodger Notes: Team Takes Train, Triumphs in Taiwan
The Dodgers ended their Taiwan trip with a 11-1 win over the CPBL All-Stars at Kaohsiung County Stadium. Among the highlights:
- Manny Ramirez hit the ball hard all night (or day, if you prefer), finishing with three hits, a double, and three runs scored. His best hit ball was probably the long out to right field in his final at-bat
- Taiwanese native Chin-Lung Hu collected three hits, including a double
- James Loney has a pair of hits, including an RBI triple in the first inning
- Josh Towers started, and allowed one run in his three innings of work, allowing four hits while striking out two
- Josh Lindblom, who along with Towers and Jon Link were called "candidates to make the team," per Ramona Shelburne of ESPN L.A., pitched even better, allowing but two baserunners in his three scoreless innings while striking out four
- Trayvon Robinson hit an absolute bomb of a home run to center field, a two-run shot to close out the scoring in the top of the ninth
- Xavier Paul had a pair of RBI singles, before leaving the game with a
brokenbloody nose. He also appeared to hit his head on the dugout while leaving the field. - Apparently the seventh inning stretch at Kaohsiung County Stadium featured a singer reading the lyrics off his hand
- Before the game, Josh Rawitch of Inside the Dodgers wrote of the club's experience on the bullet train to Kaohsiung
Many thanks to the 18 of you that participated in a weekend overnight game thread for a game halfway around the world. You, along with the folks at Dodger Thoughts, Dodgerfan.net, and the like, made this a fun night.
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Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, in Taiwan with the team, has a nice profile of Brian Barton, who just might be the most interesting man in the world:
Barton's statistical goals can be measured in hundreds, but it's not about home runs or RBIs.
"I want to visit a couple hundred countries eventually. That's a lifetime goal," he said.
Barton wants to take his family on one of these trips, so they can learn about life in other parts of the world as he has.
"I guess this passion is really from, when I was growing up, I wanted to be an astronaut," he said. "I always wanted to go into space, wondering what's out there, seeing the stars and the moon and thinking about life on other planets.
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Gurnick also reported that, aside from the reported $170,000 appearance fee received by Manny Ramirez, the players on the trip will get paid a few thousand dollars each:
All of the players will receive a fee from gate proceeds that will probably be about double the $3,000 each received from the China trip
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Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times wrote about Blake DeWitt's hot hitting and Chad Billingsley's developing changeup
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Tom Singer of MLB.com had a nice profile on many of the 10 players from minor league camp that played in Saturday's Cactus League game in Tucson, including Andrew Lambo, Preston Mattingly, Scott Van Slyke, and Dee Gordon.
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For the traveling Dodgers, they will head home today on another 15+ hour flight. Meanwhile, at Camelback Ranch, the rest of the Dodgers will play the Rangers later today at 1:05pm (not noon, remember daylight savings!), on Prime Ticket.
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Comments
Eric's a pro's pro these days
Writing that gamer on deadline …
Joe Torre, on Taiwanese fans
“I really appreciate the passion, the energy they bring to the ballpark.”
The Taiwanese report
has trouble speaking Chinese.
Kuo
“Very sorry that I can’t pitch for you today. Thank you all for coming to the game. I’ll continue to work hard in the coming season. Hope to be able to pitch for you here one day.”
Thanks a lot for all the translations over the last few days.
by Eric Stephen on Mar 14, 2010 1:14 AM PST up reply actions
You are welcome
I rely on you guys (here and at DT) for my Dodgers fix. It’s nice to be able to contribute.
Be sure to come back ...
Our night games are your late-morning games, right?
late morning/early afternoon
I won’t be able to comment much but I’ll read all the posts and comments as usual.
Later today
Rangers’ scheduled pitchers are Derek Holland, Geoff Geary, Clay Rapada, Pedro Strop, Michael Kirkman, and Willie Eyre.
Haven't yet seen the Dodgers' game notes
but the Rangers’ game notes show the Dodgers having these scheduled pitchers:
Kuroda, Weaver, Broxton, Sherrill, Troncoso.
But I’m a little skeptical since both Broxton and Sherrill pitched Friday. Then again, it wouldn’t be out of the question.
by Eric Stephen on Mar 14, 2010 1:21 AM PST up reply actions
It might be a little early since they still have 3 weeks to go
Come next weekend, I think we’ll see some cuts in the NRIs and guys being sent out to minor league gamp.
Post-game press conference
Manny is speaking Spanish. Mandarin – English – Spanish and then Spanish – English – Mandarin. A lot of translations going on there.
Manny, “I’m not quite in form yet. I still need to play some outfield but this has been good practice. The league [CPBL] and the level of competition is good.”
Manny
Regarding his goals for hitting HRs: My only goal is to represent my family well. [….]This is just a game and I want to enjoy it. The most important thing to me is my kids.
Regarding whether he can play five more years: I should be able to play another 15 years.
The Taiwanese interpreter
Did a terrible job translating from English to Chinese. He translated “game” to “kid’s play.”
3000
is some nice cabbage for a 6 day trip, a lot of these guys may not even have a minor league deal in a few weeks.
Remember
Players don’t get paid during ST, they get a meal stipend and I think some money for their housing but no salary.
XAVIER PAUL DOES NOT HAVE A BROKEN NOSE ..
IT IS SAD THAT SOMEONE ALWAYS REPORT NEGATIVE AND FALSE NEWS REPORTS .. AS OF THE TEAM LEAVING TAIWAN, EVERY PLAYER WAS DOING GREAT .. I THINK THAT FANS SHOULD STOP FOLLOWING EVERY NEWS STORY .. X IS DOING GREAT AND HAD A GREATSHOWING, AS WELL AS OTHER TEAMMATES IN TAIWAN …
WATCH TRAVON ROBINSON HR ON YOUTUBE .. X PAUL HUGS HIM .. 9TH INNING
X PAUL IS IN THE VIDEO AFTER TRAVON HITS HR .. LOOKS GREAT TO ME .. NOSE AND ALL
Oh, man
Total typo on my part…I meant to type “bloody” nose there. Sheesh.
by Eric Stephen on Mar 14, 2010 4:30 PM PDT up reply actions
Clips
Robinson’s HR:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5zt_3o22xc
.
Manny catching:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raq67vEuMI0
.
More Manny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOtM-IZTNdg
.
Post-game interview w/ Torre:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxZLXJlUPTU
by wen_JK on Mar 14, 2010 7:08 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
Ah, the snake market
Loved reading Josh’s experience at the snake market and temple. I visited with a lovely coed I had met the night before (back when I was single… mmm memories). I didn’t drink any of the snake blood, but it was quite the experience. I think I ended up buying some maoyan (cat eyes) instead. Glad they got some night life in. Too bad they didn’t hit the Natl Palace Museum or the Kai-Shek Memorial – also great places to go – maybe next time. Glad the Dodgers won the last game, would’ve been a little embarrassing to get swept, even with mostly our B squad.
vr, Xei

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