Jul 18

All Star Game and HR Derby, 2022

The best of news: Clayton Kershaw has been named to start the game in his home park. MLB made the announcement in a Monday news conference.

Kershaw had come close to being the All-Star Game starter several times before.

During Kershaw’s first All-Star-caliber and Cy Young-winning season in 2011, Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies got the nod. For the 2013 game hosted by the New York Mets, the host team’s ace, Matt Harvey, was picked over him.

In his 2014 MVP season, Kershaw was second in line again, following Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals. And since then, he’s twice seen teammates get the honor, with Zach Greinke starting in 2015 and Hyun-Jin Ryu in 2019.

The honor, however, had always eluded the best pitcher of the club’s generation.

Until this year, that is, with Kershaw now set to achieve one more milestone at the mound in Dodger Stadium.

The Home Run Derby can take a toll on its participants. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen to this year’s group. It’s televised on ESPN beginning at 8:00 PM EDT, 5:00 PM PDT, 2:00 HST.

In case you’re paying attention to the MLB Draft, “The Dodgers were the one team without a first-round pick in 2022. Their top pick fell 10 spots due to exceeding the competitive balance tax threshold, and their first selection is No. 40 overall.” They used that pick on a catcher: Dalton Rushing of Louisville. He just completed his junior year there, and he did pretty well: he batted .310 with 62 RBIs, 23 home runs, 68 runs scored and four stolen bases.

Mookie Betts has bouts of self-doubt, just like the rest of us.

Just in time for the ASG, screenwriter/director Ron Shelton has published a book detailing the making of Bull Durham, one of the most beloved of baseball movies. It’s called “The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham: Home Runs, Bad Calls, Crazy Fights, Big Swings, and a Hit.”

Nov 16

Hunkering down, again

With the incredible surge of the pandemic over the past week, I expect that many of the country’s governors will start issuing stay-at-home orders very soon. That being the case, then, while at home we can cook, watch movies and read books. Here are the twenty books in my library I’ve tagged as Dodgers-related. Authors include Jon Weisman, Red Barber, Molly Knight, Roger Kahn, Peter Golenbock, Ron Fairly, John Roseboro, Jane Leavy and Doris Kearns Goodwin. My baseball movies (on DVD) include Bull Durham, Fever Pitch and The Natural.

Anybody gonna read any baseball books or watch any movies?