True Blue LA welcomes new staff members

Our staff is growing at True Blue LA. I’m pleased to announce a trio of new writers on board to provide comprehensive Dodgers coverage, as well as a quartet of old friends coming back to rejoin the team.

Samantha Costanzo Carleton, Steve Dittmore, and Jex Musa are our newest staff writers, and you’ll be seeing their work beginning this week.

Samantha Costanzo Carleton was born and raised in Los Angeles. She is a graduate of Boston College and still lives in Boston, where friends, neighbors, and bus drivers have plenty to say about her Dodger blue. In addition to baseball, Samantha is an avid fan of cooking, swing dancing, writing short stories, and chocolate malts.

Steve Dittmore is a PhD who is an assistant dean and a professor at the University of Arkansas. In addition to being a Dodgers fan, Steve is an assistant editor at Athletic Director U. He will write essays and features for True Blue LA.

Jex Musa works in tech during the day with a focus in marketing, and is an avid Dodgers fan all of the time. She lives and works in Southern California with her husband, kid, and aging pit bull. She was the stat girl for her high school baseball team, grew up watching the Yankees and Cardinals, but after moving to California, fell in love with Dodger baseball.

Along with Samantha, Steve, and Jex, four others are coming back into the fold.

Lindsay Adams is back with True Blue LA, running the site’s Twitter account during many games. A social media strategist for a tech company by day, Dodgers aficionado by night, Lindsay was born and raised a Dodgers fan in Southern California and now lives in Ogden, Utah, home of the Raptors, a Dodgers’ rookie-level affiliate for 18 years before MLB’s minors reorganization this winter.

Says Lindsay: “Go Raptors! Even though they’re not a Dodgers affiliate anymore, we live down the street and can still catch games.”

David Hood is back to write about Dodgers minor leaguers, after doing so comprehensively for the site for many years. I’m looking forward to again reading his unique perspective on prospects.

Craig Minami has written for the site for years, covered many Dodgers games in person at Dodger Stadium, Camelback Ranch, and even road series in Pittsburgh and Kansas City as well. Craig has stayed connected with True Blue LA both as a regular commenter, and longtime contributor to the True Blue LA podcast with his Questions from Craig segment each week.

Stacie Wheeler is also back at True Blue LA, where she wrote in 2018. You can also continue to find her work at Dodgers Digest. I’m very happy to be able to read more of Stacie going forward.

Thanks to everyone who applied to contribute to True Blue LA over the last month. We are still looking to fill one or two more spots, and I’ll be reaching out to others soon.

Please give Samantha, Steve, Jex, Lindsay, David, Craig, and Stacie a warm welcome in the comments, and thanks to them for joining the site.