Dodger VP of Communication Josh Rawitch is leaving the Dodgers for the brown and hot desert of our competitors.
A few days ago Tony Jackson announced that Josh would be leaving the Dodgers at the end of the current season and take up the same duties with the NL Western 2011 Division Champions.
Josh Rawitch, the team's vice president of communications, has accepted a position of senior vice president for communications with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Josh will be joining another ex Dodger VP of Communication Derrick Hall who is now the Chief Executive Office of the Diamondbacks. Of all the people who resigned during the first hey days of the McCourt era, losing a class act like Derrick Hall probably foretold our future since he had access to their plans and said I'm out of here.
Josh had a long history with Dodgers, spanning fifteen years working his way up from the Marketing and Special Events dept in 1995 to his current title as VP of Communications. At only 34 years of age, Josh had a rapid climb, making him the envy of all. At one point he left the Dodgers to work for MLB Advanced Media which is probably where he became aware of the importance of bloggers.
During his time with MLB Advanced Media, Rawitch served as a daily beat reporter, covering the Dodgers in 2001 and the Giants in 2002. He was the lone American journalist to cover the Caribbean Series, All-Star Game, League Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series in 2002.
Many of you have no idea why Josh was a Dodger bloggers best friend so let me try to enlighten you. Back when Dodger Thoughts was the only blogging game in town he was an early friend to Jon Weisman who talked about that a few days ago when the announcement was made.
There is no shortage of bias toward Rawitch on my end, but it was well-earned. To this site, Rawitch was an early friend, one of the first in all of professional sports to accept that a place outside the mainstream media might still be worthy of being treated with respect. Professionally and personally, he treated me as well as anyone ever has.
At Dodger Thoughts group games, Josh gave them direct access to Frank McCourt, Ned Colletti, and Kim Ng in question and answer sessions where if you had the gumption no question was off limits.
Later Josh would make his greatest contribution to Dodger Bloggers by leading the charge to be the first baseball team to allow access for bloggers to the Vin Scully Press Box on a nightly basis. TBLA was lucky enough to be involved with this, and this access has allowed Eric Stephen to give TBLA members an inside look at the team that a few years ago was only dreamed of by bloggers.
That alone puts Josh high on any blogger pedestal but even more then giving us access he gave us respect, and I'll always be grateful for that respect.
We have no idea who will replace Josh, if that person will continue to be friendly towards bloggers and maintain the status quo, but I do know Dodger bloggers will lose an important ally at the end of this year and while Frank McCourt will eventually replace him, in my mind, Josh is irreplaceable.