via www.hauntedshop.co.uk

Don't miss seeing Eric Stephen squirm while USC is pummelled by Cal, Jacob saying something clever, Paul Scott saying something to irritate me, Rolex saying something to irritate Eric, Tripon explaining why he doesn't give his friends free donuts, Craig intelligently defending someones attack on Ned, Marty on why he hasn't given Jon the tech support he needs at the Tribune, El Lay Dave on what it was like to see Elvis back in the 50's, MWhite on why the Clippers are more fun to watch then the World Champion  Lakers , CeaserBook complaining when some neer do well sits next to him that should be sitting 20 rows above us, Delias hating on anyone with HAM in their name, the quiet Roy Kim, Lidlbit and her new husband, my wife and her old husband, and of course the prizes. Yearbooks, DVD's, T-Shirts. Plus it is Star Wars Night so Yodabrthr should be right at home.

Five Tickets Left

More photos » by Pablo Martinez Monsivais - AP

"I just want to thank all the troops..."

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Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda had his portrait hung at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. this morning, capping off a season of many honors for the longtime Dodger. 

"I am proud and honored by this very special recognition," Lasorda said last week.  "I have been honored many times in the past, and am appreciative of them all, but to be included in the National Portrait Gallery is very special, and very humbling."

From the Dodgers' press release:

By having his portrait in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Lasorda will join Dodger stars who have their picture in the collection: Don Drysdale (1962), Leo Durocher (1947 & ‘63), Walter Alston (in a gelatin silver print with Casey Stengel and Dwight Eisenhower, 1956 and with Casey Stengel, 1956), Sandy Koufax (1963), Gil Hodges (with John Reardon, Ed Fitzgerald and Charles Edwards, 1947), Branch Rickey (1945), Jackie Robinson (1947, ’49, & ‘83), Wilbert Robinson (1930), and the 1955 Dodgers team photo (1955).

Artist Everett Raymond Kinstler has painted more than 1,200 portraits of well-known personalities and public figures. The Portrait Gallery’s collection includes paintings and sketches including Katharine Hepburn , Tony Bennett , Richard Nixon , Norman Rockwell and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Lasorda sat for the portrait at Kinstler’s National Arts Club studio in New York City in June 2009.

Dodger General Manager Ned Colletti and Manager Joe Torre were in attendance, as well as former Dodger Steve Garvey, Jamie McCourt, and Commissioner Bud Selig, among others.  The Dodgers play the Washington Nationals tonight at 4:05pm.

Be sure to click on that photo to see other photos from the event.

As if spending his 82nd birthday having a portrait of him hung at The Smithsonian wasn't enough, Lasorda will also join Dodger fans online at Dodgers.com for a chat later today, at 2pm!

True Blue has reserved 32 tickets for the 10/3/09 Saturday Night game against the Rockies. Hopefully this will not be an important game but if it is we will be there to lend support as we take down the Purple.  Details after the jump.

Current Roll Call:
Mwhite
Eric
Phil
DellBlue
BH
El Lay Dave (2)
Rolex
CesearBook (2)
Paul Scott
Tripon
Jacob Burch(2)
Yodasbrthr(2)
LidBit(2)
Buck18(3)
Roy Kim
Marty
delias man
Eric's sister (3)

Five Left

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More photos » by Charlie Riedel - AP

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Despite the Dodgers 7-4 loss hopefully everyone is having a great Independence Day!

via rugbynetwork.net

We are planning to have a True Blue LA get together on Friday, July 3 at Petco Park in San Diego.  That just so happens to be the first day Manny Ramirez is eligible to return from his 50-game suspension.

I have to purchase tickets in advance, so I want to see how many people are interested (perhaps we can qualify for a group discount).

The seats will probably be in the upper infield reserved section, which is $22.50 per ticket if there is no group discount.

If you are interested in attending this game, please indicate in the comments below.

UPDATE 6/15/09:

I'm buying tickets this week, so please indicate your interest in the comments below, or by emailing me at ericdstephen@gmail.com.

More photos » by Chris Carlson - AP

5 months ago: Los Angeles Angels center fielder Torii Hunter robs Los Angeles Dodgers' Casey Blake of a hit during the sixth inning of a baseball game in Los Angeles, Friday, May 22, 2009. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

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Despite being a Dodger fan and having been to Los Angeles quite a few times in my life, I had never actually been to Dodger Stadium. That is until a few days ago. Over Memorial Day weekend I finally had the pleasure of making my first trip to Dodger Stadium. The 350 mile trek down from the Bay Area was a small price to pay to finally see my beloved team at their home park. I ended up going to my sister to all three games against the Angels and despite the fact that the Dodgers only won one game, it was quite the experience. I'm not ashamed to say that I screamed like a little girl when I finally laid eyes on the beautiful stadium. And I was fortunate enough to attend three thrilling games, one of which went extra innings and ended  on a Juan Pierre walk-off walk. I'm not one to take pictures, but I can share some thoughts from my experience:

• Getting into the stadium was very easy, I never had any problem with that. Only once did I have trouble getting out. The Saturday night game took probably a half hour to get out of the parking lot.
  
• The stadium itself was beautiful. The field looked great and it was never hard to get a good view of the game. Somehow the outfield looked smaller live than it did on TV though, which is weird because it is usually the other way around.
• The amount of Dodger gear was incredible. This might seem like a small thing for an LA native but I'm used to going into a sports store and seeing 1-2 types of Dodger hats and shirts, not 30-40.
• At the same time, the number of Dodger fans was somewhat amazing. This is a given at a Dodger game, but it was a fun experience rooting along with throngs of other Dodger fans. I thought there would be more Angels fans given that the play in LA as well, but I would guess Angels fans made up at most 20% of the total attendance.
  
• One of the few complaints that I have was that you were not allowed to go down to lower levels without a ticket. I've never been to a stadium with a rule like that before and it was quite annoying when we got there for batting practice on Friday and weren't allowed to go down to the first deck.
• The other thing related to this is that even if you had tickets for the first deck the ushers wouldn't let you into the first couple rows of stands without tickets for them. This was fairly ridiculous as there was no one in those seats at the time and it made it much harder to get autographs and catch foul balls. I understand that they don't want people seat jumping but I think this is taking it too far.
• The level of intensity was much higher than I thought it would be. Dodger fans have a stereotype as being laid-back and uncaring, but I thought the fans were more passionate than anywhere else i had been. This was probably helped by the fact that all of the games were close.
• Dodger Dogs are the best, period.
• The old "Get there in the third and leave in the seventh" maxim seemed mostly true. I wasn't sure how much of that was a myth, but the crowd definitely began to disperse early. Also, on Sunday the couple next to us didn't arrive until the fifth inning! Pathetic effort...
• My only other complaint was that the ushers didn't allow you to stand up at the edge of the stands and watch ppitchers warm up in the bullpen. I guess this was for the safety of the players, but it was already hard enough to see what was going on in there, it would have at least been nice to allow people to stand and watch.
• The video screen was much better than at most other MLB stadiums. At both the Giants' and A's parks you can expect maybe a replay an inning at most but at Dodger Stadium ther was a replay for nearly every play. The little factoids provided were a nice addition as well, though  I imagine they would get old if you were a season ticket holder.
• What is with the eyes of the players appearing on the small video boards when they come to the plate? That was just weird.
• I finally got to see the Dodgers in person in their home-whites. And they look so, so much better in those than in the road jerseys.
• I thought the pictures of past Dodger players was a memorable touch, and I liked how they were lined next to the current players. Another cool thing was finally seeing the "THINK BLUE" sign that is often shown on TV, though it was farther away from the stadium than I expected.
• My favorite moment of the trip was getting to walk on the field to watch the fireworks. While the fireworks were neat, walking on an MLB diamond has been a dream of mine and just standing out in the outfield for awhile was sublime.

All in all, going to Dodger Stadium was extremely fun and the few faults I found with the park were more than made up for by the enjoyable atmosphere and thrilling games. Dodger Stadium is not the most cutting-edge stadium you'll find, but it is classically fascinating and being around 55,000 fellow Dodger fans watching your favorite team makes for quite a memorable experience. How about you? What was your first trip to Dodger Stadium like?

After five months of waiting, it's finally gameday again. Today, Hiroki Kuroda and Jake Peavy will be squaring off in what should be a great opening day. Let's take a look at how each pitcher pitches and how they might do during the game. Here's the career statistics for the projected starters against Peavy and Kuroda.

Because Peavy is a pretty darn good pitcher, these guys haven't had a lot of success off of him. Manny and Blake spent their whole career until July of last year in the AL, so they haven't faced Peavy much. Kemp hasn't hardly faced him because Kemp wasn't allowed to start against "tough righties" much. Of the group, only Loney and Furcal have ever hit a home run off of Peavy. Loney's got 2 doubles and 2 bombs in 20 PA while Furcal has 3 doubles, 2 triples, and 3 homers in 44 PA. Ethier seems to struggle the most against Peavy, with no extra base hits and 9 K's.

There's not really much to learn here because nobody has faced Kuroda enough. Brian Giles hit 2 home runs off of Kuroda last year, the only player in the league to hit more than one. Both of Adrian Gonzalez's hits off of Kuroda were extra base hits, and he had 3 walks and no strikeouts, so he seems to see Kuroda well.

Peavy, the 2007 NL Cy Young Winner, is 3-0 on Opening Day and 13-1 with a 2.32 ERA in 22 starts against the Dodgers for his career. Obviously, he's had their number. He's got a lifetime 2.77 ERA at Petco and holds batters to a .613 OPS there.

Hopefully Kuroda will play better on the road this year. Last year he was only 3-8 away from Dodger Stadium and his K/BB ratio dropped from 4.43 to 1.93. Also note that while Kuroda has never started on opening day in the MLB he has started opening day in Japan five times. After the jump we'll use Josh Kalk's PITCHf/x tool to look at why each pitcher is effective.

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With five days left until the season starts for our boys, we're about to begin a long journey that hopefully wont end until November. I think this is a very good team with lots of fun and exciting players. With that in mind, I have a question for all Dodger fans. Who are your five favorite current Dodgers? This can be anyone on the team or in the minors, provided they are somewhere in the organization. It can even be a coach if you want. Lets just have some fun with this before we get down to business. Here's my five:

1. Manny Ramirez

I love everything about this guy, from his hitting, to his attitude on the field (usually), to his hair. Not to sound too cliche, but he brings a presence and attitude to the team that we're legit and we need to be taken seriously. Not only is he awesome, but he's also very funny. Even when he was in Boston, he was always one of my favorite players, but now that he's with us, he sits squarely at number one.

2. Matt Kemp

I have a predisposiion for outfielders because I play outfield for my school's team. But the Bison is one of the most exciting outfielders you'll ever see. I love watching him on the field whether its running, fielding, throwing or hitting. This guy just has so much talent and makes everything look so easy, he is truly a pleasure to watch. He's also got a great personality, and in every interview I've ever seen of him he seems like a class act.

3. Hong-Chih Kuo

Kuo is my favorite pitcher because of his absolutely dominant left-handed stuff. I'm left handed too (its funny how we tend to like guys who are like us) so I love seeing a fellow lefty shut everyone down, especially because lefties always get picked on in baseball. One of the best things about watching Kuo is that he's a relative unknown, so his stuff always surprises people when they first see him. Since I live in the Bay Area I had to buy the MLB Extra Innings package to watch the Dodgers play so I often watched the game on the other teams' TV feed. Like clockwork Kuo would come into the game and the announcers would talk about how he had pretty good numbers but not really think much of it. Then he would blow a few of their hitters away and the announcers would be shocked at how well he pitched. Also, at a couple of Giants-Dodgers games last year i got a chance to talk to Kuo for a minute, and the guy is pretty good with fans. I hope Kuo can stay healthy, because he has the stuff to be as good as anybody.

4. Russell Martin

Russ is the heart and soul of the Dodgers. He should be the team captain because he seems to be a great leader. Russ always seems to be the most excited when we play well and I love seeing him get pumped after a big homerun or strikeout. He doesn't have the talent of some other guys on the team but he sure makes the most out of what he has.

5. Clayton Kershaw

Clayton is not only blessed with terrific stuff, he seems to be really poised as well. It is going to be extremely exciting watching this guy blossom into one of the best pitchers in the game before our eyes. Its also amazing to me that a guy this young could already be so good. He's only a year older than me to the day, and i just could not imagine playing in the majors and doing interviews and all that. He handles all of that stuff tremendously and im convinced he will be truly special when its all said and done (Now don't go all Mark Prior on me).

It feels wierd to list those guys and still feel like there's so many guys that i love to watch left off of the list. There's Raffy, Ethier, Loney, Billz, Broxton, Kuroda, Dewitt, and even Hudson. They're all great players who are fun to root for. We are very lucky to be fans of a team with so many exciting and likable players. So next time Ned makes a bad move and you think you think you have it bad, just remember, you could be a Giants fan. That's my list, who's in your fave five?