It’s nothing major, just the removal of a spur in the back of his right elbow and a repositioning of the ulnar nerve. He has been experiencing discomfort when throwing, so I guess it’s a good thing he doesn’t throw that much. He is expected to being throwing (without pain) in about six weeks and be ready by the start of spring training. … By the way, Mariano Duncan was inducted Sunday into the Dominican Sports Hall of Fame, the 93rd player to be so enshrined. And if you read today’s paper, where I listed the Dodgers’ arbitration-eligible guys this winter, I forgot to mention Takashi Saito, so add him to the list.

Manny Ramirez was cleaning out his Dodgers locker in the clubhouse Thursday morning. But he wasn’t really talking, not about his free-agent status, anyway. I caught up with him in the hallway, and asked him if he had a second. He said: “No, I’m done talking. see you next year.”
Here in Los Angeles?
“I don’t know,” he said.
Manny was approached by a group of reporters at the elevator as he was about to leave. Questions were fired at him, but he either said nothing or said he wasn’t talking again.
“I said all I’ve got to say yesterday,” he said.
Manny was wearing jeans, a black T-shirt, a grey bandana on his dreadlocks and sunglasses. He was carrying CDs.
When the elevator finally arrived, he got in said “I’ll send you guys a Christmas card.”

This was a stinker from the Dodgers’ standpoint: another bad (and short) outing by Billingsley, three errors by Furcal in a single inning, a wild pitch that Russell Martin made no attempt to get in front of and a throw from James Loney that went to the backstop. But given that it all came in a series the Dodgers were never going to win anyway after they lost Game 4, none of that should mar the fact that this was a spectacular season, the best around here since 1988. More importantly, it was a season this team can build on. They have a lot of veteran free agents, many of whom won’t be back. But they also have a nice core of young talent that will be here for years to come. … I will keep up this blog as much as possible this winter, but don’t hold me to posting something every day (and DEFINITELY not tomorrow). I would like to say thank you to you, the readers, for all your comments and all your emails and all your hits this season, and I appreciate your patience with the occasional glitches here and there. See you soon.

Dodgers tickets for Game 5 of the NLCS were selling for as little as $8 on Wednesday afternoon. The Dodgers are down 3-1 in the NLCS and were on the verge of being eliminated at Dodger Stadium. Apparently Dodgers fans didn’t put much stock in getting a win against Philly ace Cole Hamels.
Here’s the story from the Associated Presss:
Continue reading “Dodger tickets, anyone?” »

I might have mentioned a time or two that I am trying to move in the middle of all this playoff coverage. Last night, while in the process of doing so, I was purging a bunch of stuff from this one drawer where I keep a ton of old greeting cards, handwritten notes and correspondence from readers (yes, back in the day, I used to get actual LETTERS from readers, like that came through the U.S. mail). Anyway, I ran across a note I received while working at the Rocky Mountain News in the late 1990s. During that time, one of my baseball-season responsibilities was a regular Monday feature called Colorado Connection, in which I would pick a minor-league player from Colorado, try to get in touch with him and write a brief story about him. Well, the note I found had a return address from Ralph T. Lidge of Englewood, Colorado, and it read as follows:

Dear Tony,
I wanted to thank you for the recent article you wrote concerning Brad. We are very grateful to you and Tracy (Ringolsby) for continuing to cover him and for your effort to contact Brad and the Astros in order to present some insight regarding his activity in Kissimmee. Thank you, Tony. Please feel free to call us at any time.
Sincerely,
Ralph Lidge

Brad Lidge, a former standout at Cherry Creek High School in Denver, was an Astros prospect pitching at Single-A Kissimmee of the Florida State League that year. And now, he is someone Dodgers fans have gotten to know all too well over the past few days.

Anyway, here is tonight’s lineup

Dodgers:

Furcal. SS
Ethier. RF
Ramirez. LF
Martin. C
Loney. 1B
Blake. 3B
Kemp. CF
DeWitt. 2B
Billingsley. RHP