Farewell Fernando

When Vin died, I wrote: “Some people die young, which is horrible. Then there are people who reach a ripe old age and still die too young. Vin Scully is one of those people. One I thought would always be around.”

Well, we lost another big name and he did die too young. 63 is no age to leave our planet. Fernando Valenzuela came and conquered the MLB in unbelievable fashion. He won and won and won. Not only games and the 1981 World Series, but also the hearts of the Latin Americans in LA. He single handedly made them finally fall in love with the Boys in Blue. If you wonder why the Mexican community and the Dodgers were off to a bad start, read 'Stealing Home', by Eric Nusbaum. For a great insight of Fernando’s rise, watch the 30 for 30 documentary ‘'Fernando Nation'.

No Time

I see many pictures of Dodger fans taken with Fernando. I almost got one myself the day after the 50th opening day at Dodger Stadium in 2012. I met him just before he dove into the elevator. “Sorry, no time, I have to present the Cy Young to Clayton”. I’ll get one, one day, I thought. It’ll never happen now, but I’ll have this encounter and loads of pitching greatness on film to remember him by.

Thank you, El Toro, #34, Rest in Peace!

Ron Cey: Penguin Power: Review

This is Cey’s autobiography written together with Ken Gurnick, who was Dodgers beat writer for over 40 years. It’s an honest book, though not amazingly written. Take these lines from the book: “I always thought I would be the first domino to fall. It was a total surprise to everybody that Russell outlasted all of us with the Dodgers. Simply because through all of the articles, we had been brainwashed into believing that he was going to be the first one to go. I felt if push came to shove, they could get enough in return for me. I did not think Garvey would leave. I didn’t think they would push him out… So, I thought I was going to be the first one gone.”

I had to read that multiple times and am still not sure who was thought to be the first to go. Ken was either in a hurry of, if Ron wrote this himself, didn't proof read it.

Ron seems to be obsessed with who’s ‘in his corner’. On the other hand he is open and honest about Tom Lasorda (as opposed to the book ''My Way' which treats the subject as if he was a lovely kitten) and his relationship with Al Campanis.

As could be suspected there is mention of ‘The infield’, but in a book that’s 200 pages a chapter of 20 pages about the infield is a bit thin.

In the chapter about postseason results I was surprised to read Bill Buckner is (indirectly) to blame for another World series loss! In the 1974 World Series he..... I never knew that! According to Cey, Bill committed a 'cardinal sin'. there is an entire chapter on Bucker that's sweet and full of great memories of their friendship.

The chapter on Scully and Jarrin is fun and ties in with the book 'Perfect Eloqence' entirely about Vin Scully.

Finally something that always gets me: winning the world championship. It's not possible. Still, Peter O'Malley in his foreword as well as Ron refer to winning a world championship. Ow well...

Ohtani in Dutch newspaper

On October 3rd Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant published a 2 page article about Shohei Ohtani. The article is written by Koen van der Velden, a sports journalist stationed in the USA, who regularly writes about US-sports.
Honestly, I was surprised by the two page spread with the title ‘he hits ánd steals’ which also had three pictures of Ohtani hitting, stealing and playing with Decoy.
The level of writing was good. Often non-american writers miss something but this was well written.

Ofcourse I have something to nag about, as always. Koen writes about the play-offs which in the MLB is the postseason and he mentions that the Triple Crown has not been given out since 1937, which is only parlty true. It was the last time an NL-player won is.

Other than that: great read! It mentions the big off season contract the Dodgers offered Ohtani. Although he was recovering from surgery. His pitching sabbatical and how he zoned in adding another weapon: stealing more bases.
It ends with a mention of the Dodgers going for their 8th World Series championship and that Ohtani might be the missing piece to reach it.
In short: I’m a happy camper with this kind of exposure of the Dodgers in a Dutch newspaper. 😊

Heads Up!

Ever since I became a fan of the Dodgers, I’ve been wearing fitted caps. The original one ‘the players wear’. I love the pantone 294 color and the iconic interlocking L and A. I dare to say it’s the most recognizable MLB logo after the Yankees one. I, of course, change it up a bit with postseason patches and the gold edition World Series 2020 cap but other than that, I stayed faithful to the original, but sometimes you need a change of color, style or want to wear a bit more ‘out of the box’.

3 caps, 3 opinions
This year was extravagant for me. I really liked some caps that came out and bought the lot. First up is the Seoul Series cap with patch and the Dodgers name in hangul. I didn’t see our boys play in Seoul but visited Korea a month later which gave me a lot of time to wear it throughout the country.

The city connect jerseys are bland and plain but the cap… I like! It’s a great combination of the LA and the D in champagne. Playful and a nice dark color cap. It has some colored sprinkles on the underside of the bill and on the top button. A fun detail, also there on the jerseys.

Finally, and this might be an unpopular opinion… the All Star Game cap. I love it! The colors, completely not LA chique, are all over it and the lone star and Texas patch are wild. Makes for a colorful alternative.

The New Yorker - Shotime

It’s always fun to see a Dodgers-related cover on a magazine. Sure, on a sports magazine it might be expected, but on the New Yorker, a magazine full of commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry, that’s something else.

The artist
Mark Ulriksen has been a cover artist for the New Yorker for over 30 years. Of his 70 covers 12 are about baseball (most of them Yankees related, which is curious because he’s a Giants and Red Sox fan, but understandable because… The New Yorker). His latest featuring our own Shohei Ohtani.

Ohtani
The cover features Ohtani seen from the back, just after a hit (probably hitting one out of the park) and in his back pocket a wad of money. Now, this piece of art was done when the ‘Ohtani financial scandal’ was still the talk of the town.
those hoping for a piece accompanying the art... you'll be disappointed. the cover itself is reason enough to get a copy, though.

Ohtani deal in Dutch media

In the final days I kinda suspected the deal would not happen. Then people started to follow a flight to Toronto which had Ohtani on board... but it turned out to be fake news and shortly after, the big news broke: Ohtani moves from Anaheim to Los Angeles! Ten years, $700 million. $2 a year for the first ten years, then $68 a year for ten more years. Now, that's a smart deal!

Internet exploded but what about media in my country? Well, news travels fast and although baseball isn't very big in the Netherlands this bomb was too big to ignore. The NOS posted on its website 'Dodgers tempt superstar Ohtani with record salary' and NU.nl: 'Ohtani trumps Messi'. Multiple newspapers had extensive articles about it as well. Parts of some of the articles shown below.

Retired Bracelet

I’d always been looking for a way to have my Boys in Blue with me at all times. I’ve thought about a tattoo, but somehow that didn’t really do it for me.

So, some years back I found this online jewelery shop that sells bracelets with engravable beads. I was sold and had the names of the players that had their jersey number retired engraved and I still wear the bracelet with pride.

Ten beads, ten names. It’s been in Dodgers history for years and years: 10 retired numbers, 6 World Series titles. Those numbers were fixed for so long.
Then came 2020 and ‘we’ won a 7th championship. That fact had to settle into my brain for quite some time.

Then, after years of hoping, and to be honest: years of expecting, the Classic Baseball Committee in 2022 was wise enough to, finally, induct Gil Hodges into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Dodgers organization responded swiftly by retiring number 14 soon after.

Before I could get used to 11 retired numbers, the Dodgers decided to retire number Fernando’s #34! This will happen in August 2023.

Now, I have 12 name beads on my bracelet and we all know there will be al least one more in the near future, the moment he is eligible for the Hall of Fame: #22.