September 2009
No-Decisions galore
Yet another No-Decision for Randy Wolf.
That’s No-Decision #16 . He’s got 33 starts, 11 wins, and 6 losses.
And guess what? I didn’t realize it till I started looking up the
stats and doing the math… up until today’s game, he actually wasn’t
leading the league in No-Decisions. Nope. Up until today, that
prestigious spot belonged to a pitcher who’s been on the DL for the
last week or two. And since he’s done for the season, that means
Wolfie will either finish the season with most No-Decisions or tied
for most. Well, there’s still another pitcher who’s close behind.
So
who has just as many No-Decisions as our Randy? Let’s start at
listing all the pitchers who have double digit No-Decisions with at
least thirty starts.
Ten No-Decisions – Felix Hernandez, Mark
Buerhle, Kevin Correia, AJ Burnett, James Shields, Tim Lincecum, Andy
Pettitte, and Max Scherzer.
Eleven No-Decisions – Doug Davis,
Matt Cain, Josh Johnson, Cole Hamels, Edwin Jackson, Ryan Dempster,
and Joe Blanton.
Twelve No-Decisions – Braden Looper, Jason
Hammel, Matt Garza
Thirteen No-Decisions – Paul
Maholm
Fifteen No-Decisions – Joba Chamberlain
Sixteen
No-Decisions – Roy Oswalt
Looking at Randy, Joba, and Roy’s
numbers… Randy has better numbers of the three. Randy leads them in
wins, ERA, innings pitched, strike outs, pick offs,
He has
the least number of runs scored and earned runs allowed, number of
batters hit, slugging percentage, on base average, average, pitches
per inning, hits per nine innings.
Not sure how you gauge the
ground outs/fly outs ratio and WHIP. But he’s got a lower GO/AO and
WHIP.
Those numbers don’t reflect his outing today. And it
probably doesn’t hurt that he’s started in two more games than Oswalt
or Chamberlain. However, Oswalt does have three complete games where
Randy and Joba don’t have any. The funny coincidence is that they
each have 6 losses. Randy has 11 wins, Joba 9, and Roy 8.
What
do you think? Will Randy get a win in his final outing? Or another
No-Decision? On the bright side. He won’t break Bert Blyleven’s
record. How many No-Decisions did he have? 20
Anyone going to the Pirates vs. Cubs game on Sept 30?
I just found out from a member in my Snoopy Yahoo! group that the Cubs are giving away a Snoopy wearing a 1984 Cubs Road Jersey to the first 10,000 fans in attendance to their game on Sept 30 against the Pirates. Anyone out there willing to sell their Snoopy?
I think it’s interesting to see what kind of promotions other teams have. It’s also interesting to see how many fans in attendance receive the promotion. For example, 10,000 seems like a small number to me because the promotions at Dodger games are usually the first 50,000. And if they do a smaller one, it’s about 30,000. I wonder what’s the average attendance at Wrigley Field. That probably has something to do with it, right?
Let’s see what other teams in our division are offering…
Padres
They don’t seem to have a limit on their promotions. It’s either all fans, or all fans fourteen and under. A lot of caps. A lot of t-shirts.
Giants
They have a limit on their promotions for kids. The first 7,500 kids, fourteen and under. Thta’s half the number that the Dodgers give promotions to kids. I don’t get it. Why limit promotions for kids? Our number is 15,000. Their regular promotions vary from the first 20,0000 to 40,000. And their photo day? First 3,000 fans. With cameras. They gave away more mini U.S. Flags than Bobbleheads. On the bright side. They have a Dog Day, and a Giants/A’s wives softball game.
Diamondbacks
For their Fan Vote bobble heads, they have a 25,000. Wonder if they’ll extend that limit for the missing Augie Ojeda bobble heads. Their kid limit is 5,000. A third of ours. On the bright side. They gave away 5,000 Chris Young Growth Charts to kids12 and younger. Their promotions are a little confusing. Maybe because I don’t go to Chase Field. What in the world is athe Sutt & Gracie’s Redheads night or the Shirts off our D-Backs night?
Rockies
Like the Giants, they vary the number of promotions. From as low as first 5,000 fans to all fans. Depending on the promotion. They even limited the Isle Casino & Hotel Floppy cap to the first 15,000 ADULTS. Guess they wanted to make it clear that Casinos are for adults. On the bright side, pretty much all their kid promotions are for all kids. What are some of their interesting promotions? First off, there were no bobble head promotions. Who doesn’t give away bobble heads? But they do like to give away a $1 Hot dog coupon.
Next up: The NL Central Division give aways
Skate for Autism event with Orlando Hudson
So, I knew about this event ahead of time. But I didn’t plan on going. Until JoAnna put up a picture on her facebook! One text led to another … and before I knew it… I was at Skateland in Northridge.
The first player I saw was Orlando Hudson. He was talking to someone else … who turned out to be Jon Garland! Since I only brought my scrapbook and Orlando signed it already, I only asked Orlando for a picture with him. After all, I wasn’t able to take a picture with him at Living Spaces. Well, Angelina snapped a quick one… but he was talking in the picture.
Here’s the picture of me and Orlando at Skateland.
Here’s the picture of me and Orlando at Living Spaces. See the difference?
James Loney was next. You can see Jon Garland walking out of the picture. I had thought about getting a group shot … but figured individual pictures with each player was better. I asked him to sign my scrapbook. I had a page marked for him… though I have to admit. When I got home, I found some better pictures that I could’ve asked him to sign. Oh well. He asked me and JoAnna if we were going to skate. I said I wasn’t cuz I had hurt my knee someone at the game the day before. JoAnna and I talked to him for a little bit.
Juan Pierre was the last player we saw in the main room. I was so excited to meet him. I’ve met or gotten autographs from the other four players already there. I was really looking forward to see Juan Pierre. However, I didn’t have a tab in my scrapbook for him. So I had to flip through my book real quick to find a picture of Juan. Finally found one.
JoAnna knew Matt(y) was around somewhere. She told me that he was puzzled when she called him Matty. I’m not sure who started it. It was either JoAnna or Cat. One of those two. He was eating and I was like, “oh no, I don’t want to bother you while you’re eating.” He put down his pizza and said not a problem. I asked him to sign my scrapbook. He asked me, “What do you have one me?” I told him, “what don’t I have?” Fortunately, while I was flipping through the book looking for a page for Pierre, I saw a page I wanted for Matt. When I got home, there were so many good pictures of Matt that it was hard to choose just one. I’m happy with the one I chose. He signed it and then I asked him for a photo. He grabbed a napkin to make sure he didn’t have any pizza sauce I guess. I jokingly told him that he missed a spot. And I also asked him to sign a baseball for a birthday gift. I went around and got Loney, Hudson, and Pierre to sign the ball too. I looked for Garland, but he was gone by then.
They had a silent auction going on to raise money for Orlando Hudson’s C.A.T.C.H. Foundation (Curing Autism Through Change and Hope). What’s the C.A.T.C.H.? Here’s the description from their website (linked right above) : non-profit foundation established by Hudson in January 2008 to enable
children with autism to enjoy a normal life through the funding of
outlets for proper therapy, education, and extracurricular activities.
Through its grants to schools and other non-profit organizations that
support the fight against autism, the foundation is building a strong
force to defeat the growing developmental disorder.
The players mingled a lot. People were either hanging around, skating, or dancing! The event was scheduled from 8 – 12. I got there a little after nine and left a little after 11. I had a blast. I loved the event. It was an interesting event to be at. I got a lot of autographs this week!
Wednesday: Jon Garland
Saturday: Charlie Haeger, Hiroki Kuroda, Jim Thome
Today: Juan Pierre, Matt Kemp, James Loney, Orlando Hudson
Not bad for a week, huh?
Bye for now!
Jack Pot!!!! Wolf, Kuroda, Haeger, and Thome (9/19/09)
I love day games. I always tell people
that. First of all, it makes it easier for me to take pictures since
there’s plenty of natural light. But the biggest reason why I love
day games? The players are much more accessible to the fans. The
thing I don’t like about day games? It’s hot. Really hot. And I
usually pack a lot of gear, so I usually end up paying for parking.
For instance, I had one bag with the Dodger cooler bag with five
bottles of ice water (well they were frozen solid at the time), a
towel (to sit on) sun block, my big bottle of coke, my Dodger cap and
my wolf mask. I also had my purse with my scrapbook, Sharpies and
pens, and all my other necessary little things like chapstick and
stuff. Then there’s the camera bag with the school’s SLR camera and
my digital camera (plus extra batteries and stuff). Think I got
enough stuff? It was funny. Right before the gates opened, another
Dodger fan noticed I was waiting for the gates to open. He asked me,
“not walking in today?” I said no, and offered him and the person
he was with a ride (sorry if you guys are reading this. I met a lot
of people today and can’t remember half of everyone’s names). They
hopped in the back seat and off we went. I got the spot I wanted,
under the trees. I waved to the crossing guard guy since he wasn’t by
the cross walk where I was.
By the time I got in, most of the
Dodger players (well, pitchers) were already out playing catch. Why
is it that only the pitchers are out during day games and batting
practice? Anyway, I zoomed in and raced over to the baseline section
right behind where Wolfie was. I took a few photos from the row
that’s right behind the baseline since I couldn’t go down. But I
would go down a few boxes to take a few photos and then go back. Cat
came down and went to her box seat. Just in time for a ball to come
right to her! I saw Wolfie look up, yell out “look out” and the
ball bounce right to Cat! Wolfie started to leave and I called out to
him. I asked him to sign my scrapbook. He said, “how about a ball
instead?” and he threw me the ball. I had a little trouble seeing
(bright sun and all) and the wolf hat on my head. I almost caught it.
But it hit the bone of my palm where the thumb connects to my hand.
That hurt. The ball rolled away and I had to chase it down. Thank
goodness no one tried to go after it! I probably looked silly chasing
after the ball. But Wolfie threw it to me! To me! I put it in a case
and stuck it on top of the other Wolf ball I have.
With Wolf gone, I went back to my usual
field section. Mainly to look for friends. I talked to one of the
ushers for a bit. Showed him some of the worksheets I have with the
stats of the games I’ve gone to. He asked me to bring it the next
time I come to a game. He thought it was cool and interesting. I
didn’t realize it till I was going over the stats, that after we
traded for Manny last year, I know he hit a ton of homeruns for us …
but he didn’t hit any homeruns in any of the games I went to last
year. He’s hit a ton for us this year, that’s for sure! I found Chris
and Chelsea. Hiroki Kuroda came by and signed a bunch of autographs.
I tried to get him to sign my scrapbook, but he had already gone down
a few people. With Chris’ help, I got his autograph!
Next came the Birthday Boy, Charlie
Haeger. A fan brought a tray of cupcakes for him. He started signing
autographs by the baseline section and worked his way towards the
bullpen. I tried to get him by the baseline but he already left by
the time I got there. So, I had to chase him down towards the bullpen
too. I didn’t have a picture of him, but I did have the article from
his first start. He said it was cool, when I told him what he was
signing.
It was hot and I was ready to get in
the shade. I found a friend and she asked me if I wanted to go down
front with her. We ended up in the baseline seats, right by the
camera well by the dugout. She introduced me to her usher and her
friends. Two of her friends were the couple from the car next to
mine! What a coincidence! The players started coming out to warm up.
Jim Thome came over to sign. I had him
sign the inside cover of my scrapbook. Again, I haven’t caught up yet
in my scrapbook. Man, I wish I had! Right before Thome, Ronnie
Belliard came over too. He was talking to my friend while Thome was
signing for us. My friend asked me to get a ball signed by Belliard
for her. I agreed, after all, she was the reason why I was down
there. After the game started, I wished I could’ve asked him to sign
my scrapbook too. Juan Castro also came by and I had him sign the
ball, too.
Right before the players took the
field, Matt always stands on the top step of the dugout and jumps up
and down. He looked over and the kids who take the field with the
players were jumping up and down with him. It was super cute!
I walked around for a little bit before
heading up to my seat. I think I’ve become accustomed to not being in
my seat when the game starts. Thankfully, Garland only gave up one
unearned run in the first. He settled down for the rest of the game.
Eight innings! You knew Penny wasn’t going to be able to go eight
innings like Garland. Especially not after he gave up the grand slam
in the first inning to Ronnie Belliard! When Belliard hit that homer,
I didn’t realize it was a grand slam. Funny. I knew the bases were
loaded. I was taking pictures of each runner as they crossed the
plate and I counted, “one, two, three… hey it’s a grand slam!”
The Creature made another appearance at
today’s game. He made his appearance in the bottom of the fifth
inning. He was in the Top Deck, where fortunately there are no
cameras to zoom in on him. He started in one section on the first
base side and then he came down our aisle. He disappeared for a
little bit. He came back again, but this time security wasn’t that
far behind him.
Penny didn’t last long. Two and
two-thirds, seven earned runs, three home runs. Not only did I get
three autographs and ball, the Dodgers got four home runs today.
Ronnie Belliard’s grand slam. Then Brad Penny served up back to back
home runs to Matt Kemp and James Loney. Loney finally hit his first
home run at Dodger Stadium in over a year! I was kicking myself for
not capturing a shot of Kemp’s home run. I had my camera ready,
finger on the shutter, when Kemp hit his home run. But I didn’t push
it! I was kicking myself over it … and then Loney hit his! I was
kicking myself even more! And to add even more fat to the fire …
Blake DeWitt added a pinch-hit home run to the mix.
By the time the game ended, the score
card probably looked more like a spring training game than a game in
the middle of a heated divisional race. That’s what my new friend
behind me was saying. It was good to see Eye-Chart play first base.
Oh, and by the way. My hand has been
hurting most of the night… not sure if it’s related to trying to
catch a ball barehanded … or something else… And yes … I am going to post more pictures from this game in a separate entry. I got some really good ones. But I didn’t want this entry to get too long.
Memorial Service for Fire Captain Tedmund Hall and Firefighter Specialist Arnaldo Quinones
Thank you to the Dodgers, Frank and Jamie McCourt, for opening up Dodger Stadium to the thousands of firefighters (local, from New York, and all over), law enforcement, officials, friend and family, and the general public for the use of a memorial service for Fire Captain Tedmund Hall and Firefighter Specialist Arnaldo Quinones.
Here’s a quick recap, in case you haven’t been following the news or you didn’t hear about it.
August 26 – The Station Fire broke out. I don’t remember when it broke out or seeing the smoke on this day. I do remember the smoke from the other fire … but not this one.
August 27 – smoke can be see rising into the sky. Photo taken from the Top Deck of Dodger Stadium
August 30 – The mushroom cloud looks almost like something you’d see from a volcanic eruption. This is taken from outside a coffee house in Los Feliz/Silverlake area.
It was also on this day that Fire Captain Ted Hall and Firefighter Specialist Arnie Quinones were killed. I remember hearing about it and was deeply saddened. I was also worried because I have a friend who’s a firefighter and I didn’t know if he was involved in this fire or not.
The smoke and heat was pretty bad the first week. On Saturday, I was driving into Pasadena and the “outside temperature” on my car said it was 109 outside. I know it’s usually off by two or three degrees. Even then that meant it was about 106 degrees outside!
Today was the memorial service for the two fallen firefighters. It was beautiful service. Unfortunately, I arrived a little late.
First thing I saw when I walked in was all the fire trucks and engines lined up. There were two with their ladders raised and a Camp 16 flag was hung between them. Here’s a link to a page the explains the different fire camps. And here’s a link to a page with a little more insight about Camp 16 and the two fallen heroes. The second link includes photos of the site with photos from before and after.
However, I did get there in time for the presentation of the colorguard… (I’ll have to get my program to get the right term in there. I left it at my friend’s house). 
Bagpipes! I love bagpipes! This reminded me of Tim, JoAnna’s son. He plays bagpipes and gets requests to play “Amazing Grace” at funerals. (BTW, JoAnna, if I die before my time, can Tim play at my funeral? After everything that’s happened today…)
There was a performance of the National Anthem. Acapella. It was very
beautiful.. They had the fire chaplain open up with prayer.
The last of the guest speakers was Vice President Biden.
After Vice President Biden’s speech, there was a beautiful rendition of “You Raise Me Up”. It wasn’t the Josh Groban version, but the other version where there’s a second verse (I’ve heard it done by Secret Garden, as well as Selah).
Since I had a previous engagement, I had to leave after that. But not before I snapped a few more photos. Like the flags flying at half-mast. I wanted to get a shot of the giant flag at the fire station by Dodger Stadium, but didn’t have time to stop there. Actually, not sure if I could have.
On the field.
I had to get a picture of the fire trucks and engines all lined up before I left.
From L.A. Now, blog on L.A. times
Firefighters are honored at Dodger Stadium as heroes
From the L.A. Times
Thousands honor two fallen firefighters in memorial service at Dodger Stadium
From KTLA
Thousands Attend Memorial for Fallen Firefighters
Gotta love those bases loaded walks (9/1/09)
At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it to the game tonight. Tonight’s game was part of my twelve-game mini plan, which I’ve only missed one game so far. Today was the first day of classes for me. And you can’t miss the first class or else you get dropped. Fortunately, it also meant that sometimes you get out of class early. My class was scheduled till 7:35 but I got out a little before 7. I got to Dodger Stadium shortly, thanks to the smooth ride on the 110. I hate taking the 110, but it was a more direct route to get there than to take the 210 to the 134 to the 2 to the 5 to the 110 (since I was exciting Academy Dr. anyway). Right after I parked, the guys in the truck next to me asked me what station I was listening to. I was listening to the Dodger game on KABC 790 as I was driving to the stadium. I got my things together and made my way to the stadium. Surprisingly, I ran into a few guys who were trying to sell tickets. I told one guy, I didn’t need a ticket. I had two! He tried to talk me into giving him my extra ticket.
The moon as I was walking in.
Padilla had a tough first inning. It lasted about 21 minutes. It was enough for me to get to the top deck just after Matt Kemp hit his homerun.
Russell Martin scoring … looks like he knows how to drop and roll (no stopping though)
Kemp giving it a try too!
If you were listening to Dodger Talk after the game, you probably heard about this. Play was interrupted for a few minutes because of a remote-controlled airplane flying around the stadium. I think it started in right field somewhere. It made it across to left field and back to right before finally crashing in front of the Diamondbacks’ dugout. Auggie Ojeda got out of the dugout and smashed the plane before breaking it to pieces.
Funniest thing happened as I was leaving though … the Dodger employee who handles the crosswalk saw me and said, “you were late tonight.”
Smoked out by the Snakes (8/31/09)
With the fire raging so close yet so far from Dodger Stadium, I was wondering how it was going to affect the game. I arrived at my gate a little after four, unsure of what kind of traffic to expect. Plus, I was ready to leave and didn’t want to stay home any longer anyway. I got to my gate and there were only TWO cars there. Two. I was a little concerned. But then I figured since I arrived so early anyway that was probably the reason there were only two cars there. I looked in my rear-view mirror and noticed the big cloud of smoke behind us.
I wanted to stop and take a picture of the smoke behind the Think Blue sign… but figured I better just make my way to the gate. I did notice the difference between driving in and walking in. By the time I got to the parking lot, there were about three or four rows of cars already. Last time when I parked, I was the first one there. I went in and said hi to all the usual people.
During batting practice, Kirk Gibson came by the Dodgers’ bullpen and started signing autographs. I pulled out my ticket stub, but by the time he got close to where I was, he had to stop. He was probably about five people away from me.
Randy Wolf was starting, so yes, I had my Wolf hat on. In fact, one of the security guys told me that I was going to have to check the hat in. I told him, I’ve brought the hat to the game several times and never had a problem before. It’s probably because the hat was in my purse and it probably looked more like a mask than a hat in there. I walked around the field level a little before before the start of the game. I said hi to Laurie, Kristin, and Stacey over in the right field side of the field. I stopped a little behind home plate to take pictures of Randy and the players as they were taking the field. One of the ushers asked me if I had a little one taking the field. I told her, no, I was excited to see Randy. She noticed the Wolf hat then. I had about two or three people tell me that they liked my hat.
After the players took the field, I made my way up to my seat. I was sitting in the reserve level, right behind home plate. There was a scary/funny moment when Manny collided with Matt Kemp in left center field. Everyone afterward was relieved that they were okay. Then they started joking about how they’ve never seen a left fielder run so far so fast. He was clearly in Matt’s territory when he didn’t need to be. I was sitting in front of a couple where one was a Dodger fan and the other was a Giants fan. Can’t remember at the moment which was which.
Right before the trade deadline, Roberto sent me a text about the Jim Thome and Jon Garland trades. I tried to find info online to confirm the trades. Sure enough. Right before the deadline, we got Thome and Garland. The Garland one was funny, since he was in the Diamondbacks dug out at the time of the trade. Since I was at the game, I didn’t get to see the video footage of Garland being told he was traded. To the other dug out. At least he’ll have a shorter travel time than Thome. However, I did wonder if he was staying at the team hotel. And if he rode on the team bus to get to the stadium. Someone said he lived local, so he probably drove himself to the stadium. Can you imagine though if he did ride on the team bus to get to the stadium? I joked about Jon needing to find a different ride to get back to the team hotel.
Since Roberto texted me about the trades, I knew about it long before
they posted it on the Dodger Vision. And I had told the people around
me, so they knew about it too. Speaking of trades. Today was the Dodger debut of newly acquired Ronnie Belliard. What did he do in his first at-bat as a Dodger? He hit a home run! And no, he didn’t finish the game with a cycle. That would’ve been nice.
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