On Sunday the Dodgers honored the memories of Gianna and Kobe Bryant on what would have been his 42nd birthday. In addition to the pregame ceremony, Gianna and Kobe’s uniform numbers were painted on the pitchers mound for today’s game against the Rockies. See it above. Pic via
@Dodgers on twitter:
Below are more links to check out:
- This Day in Dodgers History: In 1960 Vin Scully famously had fans at Dodger Stadium wish third base umpire Frank Secory a happy birthday during the game. In 1975 Davey Lopes stole three bases against the Expos to extend his Major League record of consecutive steals to 38. Then in the 12th inning of this same game he is thrown out at second base by Gary Carter. Coincidentally, Carter had been the last catcher to throw Lopes out before starting his record streak -- on June 4th. In 2007 the Dodgers signed free agent pitcher David Wells. In 2014 Joc Pederson became only the fourth player in the history of the PCL to have a 30-30 season, and the first to do it in 80 years, when he stole a base for the Albuquerque Isotopes (a Dodgers Triple-A affiliate). He would come up to Los Angeles later that September.
- Happy Birthday, John Brown, Kip Gross, Jeff Kubenka, Kevin Correia & Enrique "Kiké" Hernandez!
- Via Rowan Kavner at Dodger Insider -- "The stars of a starring Dodger bullpen."
“That credit goes to those guys and obviously the player,” Bard said. “The whole driving down to the city park and throwing it against the net, it seems like that’d be an easy thing but after the third week of it when you’re an elite professional baseball player, sometimes that can get a little monotonous. Kudos to these guys that they kept competing, trying to stay ready. It speaks to the culture Dave built here.”
“So when it came time to meet with Don in my office at Dodger Stadium about a contract for Hideo, and this became very impressive to me about Hideo: I told Don that I wanted to sign Hideo, but it would not be a major league contract. It would be a minor league contract. And he said, ‘Oh, no Fred, it’s gotta be a major league contract.’
“I said, ‘No, Don, I want you to explain to Hideo that major league contracts in the Dodger organization have been earned, and not given. We haven’t given a major league contract to any player. They are earned through our system, and then they have the opportunity.’
“And Hideo, it seemed to resonate with him, in my view, sitting across the room, that he understood that this was something that he was going to have to prove that he was worthy of the major league contract. And then Hideo said through Don to [tell] me, ‘OK, Hideo understands that, and he doesn’t dispute that, but he’s asking one thing: If he does sign, will he be given a chance to make the major league club.’ ”
Diamond Kinetics develops small motion-tracking sensors that are embedded into bats, baseballs, and softballs. The sensors track metrics such as a hitter’s launch angle, swing speed, and exit velocity, as well as pitching metrics such as velocity, spin rate, and arm extension on each throw. Players and coaches can view tracked metrics through Diamond Kinetics’ mobile apps.
- WTF! Per Eric Stephen at Halos Heaven -- "Mike Trout rookie baseball card sells for a record $3.936 million." Wow! I guess we should not doubt Vegas Dave. He was criticized for buying the card for $400,000 a couple of years back, but I guess he gets the last laugh.
- Dumb! Just plain dumb. Via a tweet from Francys Romero:
