Went to a rodeo, and a baseball game broke out

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OK, the first part of that isn’t true. I myself didn’t PERSONALLY go to the Professional Bull Riders event tonight at Jobing.com Arena, which is near the Dodgers’ spring-training complex. But Colin Gunderson, Tommy Lasorda’s personal assistant, went to it with Tommy and just called me from there. The second part of the headline isn’t really true, either, but if a baseball game HAD broken out, it would have been a pretty good one. First off, there were at least three Hall of Famers there in Lasorda, Nolan Ryan and George Brett, who no doubt came down from nearby Surprise where their current employers, the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals, respectively, share a complex. Russell Martin, Jonathan Broxton, Blake DeWitt and Scott Elbert also went along in Lasorda’s party.

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  • LASteve

    Sure hope Tommy keeps young Russell away from those cow girls. They like ropes you know.

  • TeamHasHoles

    Ya know, Gretzky’s a huge baseball fan. I’m sure next weekend when the Coyotes are home the players could catch a game at Jobing, maybe meet the team.

    If so, Tony, could you tell Russell, who growing up in Montreal couldn’t be to unfamiliar with a hockey stick, to whack Shane Doan over the head a few times in the locker room? He kills the Kings every time they play and it would be nice if he wasn’t able to play against them down the stretch.

    Just a small favor.

  • LASteve

    While we are making assignments for Russell, is he aware that one of his pitchers has a birthday coming up and it is the job of the catcher to break in new pitchers?

    03/19/1988…

    Torry probably will have young Master Clayton on lock down that day/night, or Larry Bowa on alert status for a especially nasty workout with the pitchers on 03/20.

  • Tony Jackson

    Team, after posting this blog entry, I got an additional email from Colin letting me know that the Great One was, indeed, in the house.

  • TeamHasHoles

    They have a couple days off before they fly to St. Louis, so I’m not shocked he’s in Phoenix.

  • http://juliehibbard.blogspot.com Julie H

    Wow! Wow! How amazingly fun would that have been to see all those guys there? Must have been like a dream.
    I used to wait on Tommy John and Don Sutton at Coco’s back in the day…and one day Nolan Ryan came in to have breakfast with Tommy John. I was so nervous, I had to have one of the other waitresses come over and get their order! I did, however, get BOTH of their autographs–on a Coco’s napkin–and have them to this day.
    Tommy and Don both came in many times after that (they were both with the Angels at that point!) but never saw Nolan Ryan again.
    Seriously, it was like a dream.
    I met Ned Coletti a few weeks ago. Talked with him a bit and realized that I couldn’t be more excited if I were talking to Brad Pitt or George Clooney.
    Maybe would be more excited if it were Nolan Ryan.
    No promises tho.