Batting Cages (the tour continued)
After we got a glimpse of the club house, we moved on.
First we stopped at the batting cage where Kirk Gibson took his swings before his infamous 1988 walk-off home run against the Athletics’ closer Dennis Eckersley. Josh explained that this poster (tarp) was put up recently, as in this season. During the Arizona series when Gibson was still just a coach, Josh happened to walk by when Gibson initially saw it. It was a cool experience. Can you imagine?
Here’s the actual cage. Did you know the bat boy who Gibson sent to tell manager Tommy Lasorda that he was ready to hit is now the Dodger Clubhouse manager? None other than Mitch Poole. Can you image where some of our bat boys will be in 20 years?
Next up was the weight room. Before we went in, Josh checked with the trainer if it was okay for him to bring a group in. The trainer (Nick) scampered into another room to hide from us while we were in there.
Next we headed to the batting cages right before the bullpen. We met up with Manny Mota again. He subbed in for Josh while Josh went looking for some of our members from the tour group. I shot a short video of Mota talking to the group, just before Josh returned. I hope you can catch what he was saying. It was a very warm afternoon and there is a big fan going on in the background. A fan as in the kind that blows air at you. Not a person, the thing.
Josh came back and noticed something interesting in Manny Mota’s shopping cart. It was a golf club! He picked it and pretended to swing it at Manny. He asked him about it. Sorry guys, I forgot what the answer was.
We got a surprise visitor! Well, not really a visitor because he just walked on by.
Hong Chi Kuo!! He looked a little overwhelmed by all these people in the batting cages. He’s probably not used to seeing so many people around.
Tune in for the next part of the Dodger Stadium tour! I’ll give you a little clue… we saw another Dodger player while on our tour.
fallingleaves02
