LOS ANGELES DODGERS CLIPS

THURSDAY, MAY 17, 2012

LA TIMES

Dodgers owners could gain much from Bankruptcy Court settlementTerms of settlement between former owner Frank McCourt and Major League Baseball could allow the team's new owners to retain millions in television revenue.

By Bill Shaikin May 17, 2012, 5:00 a.m.The Dodgers' new owners could reap hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits from the confidential terms of a U.S. Bankruptcy Court settlement between former owner Frank McCourt and Major League Baseball.

The terms can be enforced for up to 40 years, with final authority over distribution of the Dodgers' television revenue granted to the court rather than to MLB, according to two people familiar with the sale process but not authorized to discuss it. As a result, the Dodgers' new owners could retain millions each year that otherwise would be shared with other teams.

The terms help explain the record sale price for the Dodgers and the context of MLB attorney Thomas Lauria's statement in court last month that the settlement could result in a league of "the Dodgers and the other 29 teams."

The disclosure of the terms could aggravate tensions among owners already upset that Commissioner Bud Selig let McCourt control the sale process to get him to surrender the Dodgers.

The commissioner's office disputes that the terms could enable the Dodgers to tap financial streams unavailable to other teams, according to a person briefed on the league's position.

Dodgers President Stan Kasten and MLB spokesman Pat Courtney each declined to comment, noting that the terms are under court seal.

McCourt took the Dodgers into bankruptcy last year, after Selig rejected a proposed television contract with Fox Sports. That contract called for the Dodgers to receive a minority ownership stake in Prime Ticket and annual rights fees starting at $84 million, with an annual increase of 4%.

The league takes 34% of each team's television revenue and distributes it to other teams via revenue sharing. The league can assess an additional charge if it determines a team-owned television outlet is paying an annual rights fee under fair market value.

Under the confidential terms of the settlement with McCourt, the league agreed that the annual rights fees in the proposed Fox contract represented fair market value, according to three people familiar with the sale agreement.

Guggenheim Baseball, the Dodgers' new owners, can negotiate a new television contract as soon as this fall, with Fox Sports, Time Warner Cable and perhaps CBS expected to bid. If the Dodgers accept an annual rights fee, they would simply pay 34% of whatever money they receive into the revenue-sharing pool.

However, the Dodgers are expected to pursue a regional sports network, on their own or in partnership with Fox, TWC or another television outlet. Guggenheim could establish a media company separate from the Dodgers, then have the company pay the team in accordance with the proposed Fox contract and keep the remaining revenue.

The difference could be tens of millions each year, according to media analysts. With broadcast outlets fighting fiercely over rights to live sporting events, the annual value of the Dodgers' next television contract is expected to start well above $84 million.

"There will be a significantly bigger number," said former NBA TV president Ed Desser, who testified on behalf of MLB and Fox in the Dodgers' bankruptcy proceedings. "If the Guggenheim people didn't believe that, they would not have bid what they bid for the team."

Guggenheim's winning bid of $2.15 billion was believed to be more than $500 million above the next-highest offer.

The confidential terms — and the ability of the court to enforce them regardless of what Selig might say — represented what

Guggenheim attorney Michael Small called in court a "substantial component of the value proposition of the transaction."

The league believes the deal simply provides the Dodgers with "most favorable" status, similar to the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and other teams that own their television outlet, according to the person briefed on the league's position.

Andrew Zimbalist, a Smith College economist and advisor to the commissioner's office on revenue sharing, said he could not discuss the specifics of the Dodgers' settlement but disputed that the league had made a poor deal. He noted that ownership of a regional sports network might not be so lucrative over the long term, as fans transition from watching games on television to watching on the Internet, where the league holds the rights.

However, the more millions that flow to the regional sports network as opposed to revenue sharing, the more the Dodgers could make by selling a share of the network, said a sports industry banker who declined to be identified. Such networks generally command a sale price of at least 12 times revenue, the banker said.

The Dodgers also could try to air English and Spanish broadcasts on separate channels while paying one rights fee rather than two, according to two people familiar with the sale process. The commissioner's office probably would take exception, but the league would have to appeal to a court that last month sided with the Dodgers on interpretation of the settlement.

Marc Ganis, president of Chicago-based Sportscorp Ltd., said the settlement could compel owners to challenge Selig.

"It's bad enough that there is a third party," Ganis said. "You have one set of rules — and a judge — for one team, and you have another set of rules for 29 other teams.

"They'll say, 'How can Bud Selig treat us differently? Do we have to file for bankruptcy and threaten to put Bud Selig on the witness stand? Is that we have to do to get treated like the Dodgers?'"

Dodgers' offense sputters in 4-2 loss at San DiegoThey have only five hits with backups in the lineup and Chris Capuano suffers first loss in six decisions.By Dylan Hernandez May 16, 2012, 9:32 p.m.SAN DIEGO — Twelve more days until Matt Kemp is eligible to return from the disabled list.

If the Dodgers' 4-2 defeat to the San Diego Padres on Wednesday was any indication, they could be the 12 longest days of the season.

With Kemp unavailable and Manager Don Mattingly fielding what look like triple-A lineups, the Dodgers have scored a combined three runs in their last two games, both losses.

Chris Capuano (5-1) left two pitches up in the strikezone to Chase Headley and that was enough to send him tumbling to his first defeat of the season.

"We're not good enough to come down here, get four hits and expect to win a game," Mattingly said.

The Dodgers' hit total was, in fact, five. Of them, two came in their first two at-bats, a single by leadoff hitter Tony Gwynn Jr. and a run-scoring double by 27-year-old rookie utilityman Elian Herrera. The Dodgers scored two runs in that inning and did nothing of consequence the remainder of the game.

Andre Ethier, who drove in his National League-leading 34th run, was the only opening-day starter in the lineup. With the Dodgers facing a left-hander in Clayton Richard (2-5), Mattingly sat the left-handed-hitting Dee Gordon and James Loney. Mark Ellis and A.J. Ellis were given days off.

But the Dodgers don't have depth and they don't have much of a farm system.

Herrera started his first major league game, playing second base and batting second. Two other starters were called up from triple-A Albuquerque in the last week: shortstop Justin Sellers and first baseman Jerry Sands.

"That's what other teams have when they have guys down," Mattingly said.

Juan Rivera and Juan Uribe are on the disabled list. So is utilityman Jerry Hairston Jr.

"We're probably lucky, still," Mattingly said. "We've got it, but we don't have major. We've got temporary."

And they're still 24-13.

Capuano, who entered the game with a 2.06 earned-run average, seemed upbeat considering what happened.

"For the most part, I felt pretty good," Capuano said.

A high fastball he threw to Headley in the first inning was sent over the left-field wall, reducing the Dodgers lead to 2-1.

That lead turned into a 3-2 deficit in the sixth inning, when Capuano left a changeup up in the zone that Headley clobbered into left-center field for a two-run double.

Capuano was charged with four runs (three earned) and six hits in 61/3 innings.

But in the Dodgers' collective defeat, there was a personal triumph.

Herrera, who was in his 10th season in the Dodgers minor league system, collected his first hit and first run batted in, in the first inning.

Signed out of a week-long tryout camp in 2003, Herrera spent three years at the Dodgers' academy in his native Dominican Republic. His experience was similar to that of many of his countrymen who come to the United States to pursue a career in baseball: he couldn't speak English, he lived with host families, he was homesick.

He was with the Dodgers' triple-A affiliate Monday when the manager called the team together. In front of his teammates, Herrera was told he had been called up by the Dodgers.

"It was incredible," he said. "It was something I always dreamed about."

Dodgers' Matt Kemp is expected back May 29Outfielder has plasma treatment for his strained hamstring. Dee Gordon sits again.By Dylan Hernandez May 16, 2012, 9:57 p.m.SAN DIEGO — Matt Kemp is expected to be ready to play again when he is eligible to be activated from the 15-day disabled list May 29, according to trainer Sue Falsone.

"That is our goal," Falsone said.

Kemp was placed on the disabled list Monday with a strained left hamstring.

The next day, Kemp received an injection of platelet rich plasma. He had blood drawn and spun to isolate the platelets, which clot and promote healing. The platelets were injected into the site of the injury.

Kemp traveled with the Dodgers to San Diego and is scheduled hit off a tee Thursday.

Manager Don Mattingly said he would like Kemp to play in a minor league game before he returns. Falsone agreed.

"I think that's the smart thing to do," Falsone said. "You can't mimic competition."

Tee work for Dee

With the current and previous hitting coaches standing nearby, slumping shortstop Dee Gordon hit balls off a tee as his teammates emerged from the dugout for their pregame stretching session.

What was unusual about the drill was that Mattingly and hitting coach Dave Hansen had Gordon perform it outdoors instead of in the underground batting cages at Petco Park.

"You see the ball travel," Mattingly said. "It helps you find your contact points. He knows when he's hit it good or not. He's getting instant feedback. In the cage, sometimes, it hits the net so quick … you don't quite know where you're hitting the ball."

Gordon is batting .212, including .156 against left-handers.

With the Dodgers facing a left-hander in Clayton Richard, the left-handed-hitting Gordon was out of the lineup. Justin Sellers started at shortstop in Gordon's place.

Guerra back to form?

Former closer Javy Guerra has entered the Dodgers' last two games with the bases loaded, with no outs Tuesday and with one out Wednesday.

Both times, Guerra limited the damage to one run.

Guerra threw 23 pitches in the two appearances, only seven of them for strikes. But Mattingly is encouraged.

"Javy's been really good," Mattingly said. "I've kind of used him the last two days like a closer to keep us in the game. He's given us two chances to win the last two days."

Guerra walked the first batter he faced in the seventh inning Wednesday to force in a run and increase the Dodgers' deficit to 4-2. He retired the next two batters, Will Venable and Chase Headley.

"That game could have gotten out of hand, but he comes in, gets us out of the jam, gives us a chance to score," Mattingly said.

Short hops

Juan Uribe, who is on the disabled list with a sprained wrist, will visit a hand specialist in Los Angeles over the weekend. Uribe underwent an MRI exam Tuesday, but Falsone wouldn't offer details of what it showed. Falsone said surgery was unlikely at this point, but hasn't been ruled out. … Sidelined reliever Matt Guerrier had a bullpen session and threw breaking balls for the first time since he was placed on the disabled list April 19 with an elbow injury.

It's Chris Capuano, mere mortal, in Dodgers' 4-2 loss to PadresThe starter suffers his first loss of the season as the injury-riddled Dodgers' lineup struggles against San Diego's Clayton Richard.

By Steve Dilbeck May 16, 2012, 6:27 p.m.

In six starts against any team not named the San Diego Padres, left-hander Chris Capuano has pitched like an ace. Against the lowly Padres, he’s pitched like a journeyman desperate to hang on.

It makes no sense, but as managers and players alike are fond of saying in these situations, that’s baseball.

That was a 4-2 loss for the Dodgers and Capuano, his first of the season, on Wednesday in San Diego.

The injury-riddled Dodgers sent out a lineup that wouldn’t have been allowed in a spring training game -- it had only one regular, Andre Ethier.

It wasn’t a lineup designed to score much, and it did not surprise, sending both runs across in the first and then going so quietly it was hard to remember a single at-bat.

Capuano, meanwhile, was not his normal, sharp self. Anyway, the normal, sharp guy the rest of the league knows.

Against every other team this season, Capuano is 5-0 with a 1.38 earned-run average. In two starts against the Padres, he’s 0-1 with a 6.55 ERA.

Things at least started promisingly enough for Capuano when the Dodgers scored twice in the first. Tony Gwynn Jr., starting in center for the injured Matt Kemp, singled and scored on a double by Elian Hererra, who was making his first major league start.

Herrera scored on an Ethier sacrifice fly, and the Dodgers had an early 2-0 lead.

Capuano, however, immediately ran into trouble in the form of Chase Headley, who hit a solo home run in the bottom of the first.

It remained a 2-1 lead for the Dodgers until the sixth when Headley -- in another nine-pitch at-bat -- doubled in two more to give the Padres a 3-2 lead.

The Padres added one more in the seventh after loading the bases on an Orlando Hudson single, a Capuano error on a sacrifice bunt and a walk. That brought a call to reliever Javy Guerra, who threw four consecutive balls to Cameron Maybin to force in the final run.

In his 6 1/3 innings, Capuano (5-1) allowed four runs on six hits and three walks, throwing 94 pitches.

After their first-inning outburst, however, the Dodgers' meager lineup could do nothing with Clayton Richard, whose situation is the exact opposite of Capuano's.

Richard had lost five consecutive decisions, his only victory this season coming against the Dodgers. He is now 6-1 lifetime against the Dodgers.

On Wednesday, Richard went seven innings, holding the Dodgers to two runs on just four hits. He struck out six, walked one and was not deducted any points for opposing a triple-A lineup.

Until Bobby Abreu singled with one out in the ninth, the Padres had set down 15 consecutive Dodgers. The Dodgers ended the day with just five hits.

Dodgers' Matt Kemp expected back May 29The All-Star center fielder could play in a minor league game before coming off the disabled list.

By Dylan Hernandez May 16, 2012, 4:08 p.m.

SAN DIEGO -- Matt Kemp is expected to be ready to play again when he is eligible to be activated from the 15-day disabled list on May 29, according to trainer Sue Falsone.

“That is our goal,” Falsone said.

Kemp was placed on the disabled list Monday with a strained left hamstring.

The next day, Kemp received an injection of platelet-rich plasma. He had blood drawn and spun to isolate the platelets, which clot and promote healing. The platelets were injected into the site of the injury.

Falsone said Kemp will probably hit off a tee on Thursday.

Manager Don Mattingly said he would like for Kemp to play in a minor league game before he returns. Falsone agreed.

“I think that’s the smart thing to do,” Falsone said. “You can’t mimic competition.”

In other injury news, Juan Uribe is expected to see a hand specialist in Los Angeles over the weekend. An MRI exam revealed Uribe has a sprained wrist.

Love, love, love: A.J. Ellis, the Dodgers' catching god (Web links)

By Steve Dilbeck May 16, 2012, 1:37 p.m.

While breathlessly awaiting news of Johnny Depp’s next movie in caked white makeup, a look at the Dodgers around the Web:

-- It’s getting be a regular A.J. Ellis lovefest out there. I told Ellis that I was going to have to find something to rip him about, simply to bring him back to planet Earth.

Not that he’s not deserving of high praise — his .455 on-base percentage is fourth in the majors, he’s batting .322, and, with Matt Kemp down, his 15 RBIs are actually second on the club.

And then there’s his excellent work behind the plate and his growing leadership role.

Which has led to an almost embarrassing amount of flowers being thrown at his feet, many championing an admittedly long-shot bid to be an All-Star.

Ken Gurnick at Dodgers.com said Ellis was playing like an All-Star, but because of a lack of name recognition it would require an actual campaign for him to make the NL roster.

Which is just fine with Jon Weisman at ESPN and Mike Petriello at Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness, both more than happy to beat the drum.

And he gets the Q&A treatment at Grantland, Jonah Keri comparing Ellis to Crash Davis and writing: “A.J. Ellis is laying waste to the National League.”

-- If you thought Tuesday’s lineup was on the interesting side, check out Wednesday’s against the Padres: Tony Gwynn (CF), Elian Herrera (2B), Bobby Abreu (LF), Andre Ethier (RF), Jerry Sands (1B), Adam Kennedy (3B) and Matt Treanor (C). Lucky Chris Capuano.

For those counting at home, that’s one opening day starter (Ethier).

-- Josh Suchon, the former Dodgers Talk cohost, has written a terrific post on his unusual personal path with Orel Hershiser. It’s on his new blog, Out of Ink, which he shares with Matt Hurst, the ex-Angels beat writer.

-- Tony Jackson at ESPN L.A. thinks Chad Billingsley loses focus when he gets frustrated.

-- Abreu tells The Times’ Jim Peltz he’s happy playing with the Dodgers.

-- Robert Timm at Dodger Dugout has a very different view from mine on the new owners’ start.

-- Eric Stephen at True Blue L.A. thinks trying to fill the hole at third with both Juan Uribe and Jerry Hairston Jr. on the DL may prove even more challenging to the Dodgers than the loss of Kemp.

-- Mark Ellis has been named the American Legion Graduate of the Year.

-- San Francisco Chronicle columnist Bruce Jenkins thinks the NL West race is still going to come down to the Dodgers and Giants.

-- The Dodgers are hosting a fanfest in connection to Dodger Stadium’s 50th anniversary on Saturday.

The event starts at noon and runs until the 7 p.m. game time. Most players and coaches will sign autographs, plus Vin Scully and Jaime Jarrin are scheduled to make appearances. Tommy Lasorda will host a … Lasorda Wine tasting.

Waiting for Chad Billingsley, superstar, after all these years

By Steve Dilbeck May 16, 2012, 8:10 a.m.

This is an old story, just dusted off every season and presented anew.

Chad Billingsley is working on this or that -- working on his mechanics, working on his approach, on being more aggressive, on being more consistent.

This is Billingsley’s seventh major-league season and he somehow remains a work in progress, his perceived potential somehow still out of reach.

That’s not that he’s completely horrible, just that he’s completely mediocre. In the last four seasons, he is a combined 37-36 with a 3.98 earned-run average and a 1.35 WHIP.

It was hoped he could be the Dodgers’ No. 2 starter, but instead he keeps looking like a nice No. 5.

Tuesday night, the Dodgers on a nice five-game winning streak, Billingsley takes the mound and is typically OK. Perhaps I’m being a tad generous. He went four-plus innings and allowed four runs and eight hits.

Sure, there was a strikeout that got past catcher A.J. Ellis for a wild pitch that led to a run. There were hits just past a diving Justin Sellers and Dee Gordon.

But they were hits that were part of a five consecutive hit barrage that chased him from the game.

"I thought Chad was OK," said Manager Don Mattingly. "I thought the pitches were better tonight, the ball was coming out better tonight. Honestly, I thought Chad was a little unlucky."

In his last two starts, Billingsley went eight total innings and threw 162 pitches. In his last three combined starts, he’s gone 14 innings and thrown 269 pitches.

"He’s unlucky all right," said one Dodgers follower, "he has umpires who can call balls and strikes."

Of course, in Billingsley’s first three games of the season he was a different pitcher. He owned a 1.33 ERA and had 17 strikeouts to one walk.

But that’s the thing about Billingsley: He can look so good for awhile and get you thinking he’s finally got it figured out, and then he slips back and puts together three very different games.

"Obviously we don’t like the result, but I’m encouraged the way the ball came out tonight," Mattingly said. "He’s been working hard, kind of trying to get back where he started the season, get the delivery where he needs it to be, just being more consistent with it.”

A tired, old story.

ESPN.COM

Chase Headley helps last-place Padres rally by Dodgers

SAN DIEGO -- Chase Headley was more pleased with a two-run double against left-hander Chris Capuano than he was with surpassing his home run total from last season.

Headley homered, doubled and drove in three runs, and the last-place San Diego Padres rallied to beat the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers 4-2 on Wednesday, helping left-hander Clayton Richard snap his personal five-game losing streak.

Capuano, who had won his previous four starts, took a two-hitter and a 2-1 lead into the sixth inning. Cameron Maybin and Chris Denorfia opened the inning with singles before the switch-hitting Headley doubled into the gap in left-center to score both.

The better at-bat was "definitely the double, because he threw some tough pitches early in that at-bat and I had to fight to get to that pitch, whereas in the first at-bat I just got a mistake over the middle of the plate early and I was able to put a good swing on it," Headley said. "When you drive guys in in big situations, those are the at-bats you come out feeling good about."

Headley homered to left with two outs in the first, his fifth.

He hit only four last season.

"That was kind of a sore spot for me last year," Headley said. "I'm by no means a guy that's trying to hit home runs, but I do feel like I'm going to hit more than four homers most years. To come out and get off to a decent start in that manner, it's nice, but I think more importantly is if you go out there and have good at-bats, for me the home runs are going to come, but the rest of it's going to come as well and that's where I'm trying to focus."

Richard and two relievers combined on a five-hitter as the Padres beat L.A. for only the second time in eight games this season. The Dodgers have lost two straight since Matt Kemp went on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left hamstring.

Richard (2-5) had lost his previous five starts. It was his first win since beating the Dodgers 8-4 at home on April 8, helping the Padres avoid a season-opening, four-game sweep. He held the Dodgers to two runs and four hits over seven innings Wednesday, struck out six and walked none. Dale Thayer pitched the ninth for his fourth save in as many chances after Andrew Cashner struck out the side in the eighth.

"Winning feels a lot better," Richard said.

Not having to face Kemp "definitely changes the lineup," Richard said. "He's an elite player, probably the best of the best. That would change any lineup. You never want to see anybody miss because of an injury but that definitely changes the lineup."

Said manager Bud Black: "I think we saw through seven innings what we've seen at times during his starts. Today the difference was he strung the innings together."

Capuano loaded the bases in the seventh with a single, his throwing error and a walk. Javy Guerra came on and walked Maybin on four pitches to make it 4-2.

Capuano (5-1) allowed four runs, three earned, and six hits in 6 1/3 innings, struck out six and walked three. He was trying for the best start to a season in his career. He went 5-0 in 2007 with Milwaukee and then went 0-10 in his final 18 starts. He finished 5-12 after losing two games out of the bullpen.

Richard is 6-1 in 10 career starts against the Dodgers.

Elian Herrera had an RBI double for his first major league hit as the Dodgers took a 2-0 lead just four batters in. After Tony Gwynn's leadoff single, Herrera brought him in with a double that landed just inside third base and rolled all the way into the left-field corner. Herrera advanced on Bobby Abreu's groundout and scored on Andre Ethier's sacrifice fly.

"We're not good enough to come down here and get (five) hits and think we're going to win a game," manager Don Mattingly said. "I don't care what kind of record we've got, what kind of record they've got, you come in here and get (five) hits and don't give yourself a chance to score, you're not going to win."

Herrera was recalled Monday from Triple-A Albuquerque and made his big league debut as a pinch-hitter Tuesday night. He made his first start Wednesday, at second base.

It was Ethier's 27th RBI in his last 24 games against San Diego.

Notes:

Black said LF Carlos Quentin had a cortisone shot in his right knee on Tuesday. Quentin has been out since having arthroscopic surgery during spring training. .... Jimmy Jones, the pitching coach at Double-A San Antonio, is filling in as bullpen coach with the Padres while Darrel Ackerfelds undergoes treatment for pancreatic cancer. He underwent chemotherapy and radiation. ... Richard committed his fourth error, one off the team lead, when he spiked a short throw to first on Gwynn's grounder leading off the third. Gwynn was then caught stealing. ... The two-game series concludes Thursday night when L.A.'s Aaron Harang (2-2, 4.46 ERA) is scheduled to face San Diego's Edinson Volquez (2-2, 2.79). On April 13 at Dodger Stadium, Harang set a Dodgers record with nine consecutive strikeouts, one short of the major league mark, and tied his career high with 13 strikeouts. Harang was with the Padres last year, leading them with 14 victories.

Is it 'next year' for Dodgers fans?

Frustrations in L.A. lift with team in first, new owners, good young playersUpdated: May 17, 2012, 11:36 AM ET

By Kareem Abdul Jabbar | ESPN.com

As a lifelong Dodgers fan, I am accustomed to disappointment and extremely delayed gratification.

The history of the franchise in Brooklyn certainly was one of frustration. Despite heroic efforts and dogged determination, the Dodgers struggled to win the World Series. Championship trophies were the property of the Yankees, the superior presence in New York who ruled baseball from their regal home in the Bronx. In seven head-to-head tries between 1941 and 1956, Brooklyn was able to beat the Yanks in only one World Series, 1955.

The Dodgers' move to Los Angeles in 1958 put them in an environment where they were the big show, not a team overshadowed by a crosstown rival. They bolstered that status by winning the World Series in 1959, 1963 and 1965, and again in 1981 and 1988.

Unfortunately, the team has been less successful under two ownership groups -- first Fox, then Frank McCourt -- since the O'Malley family sold in 1998. Despite four playoff appearances in McCourt's first six seasons, Dodgers fans did not enjoy increased prices at the stadium or how he ran the team, especially when his divorce and bankruptcy threatened the team's ability to sign players. After record numbers from 2004-09, attendance dropped in 2010 and fell below 3 million in 2011 for the first time in a decade. Commissioner Bud Selig finally stepped in to force the sale of the team.

The change in ownership has energized the team in ways that were totally unanticipated. Start with the price tag: a staggering $2 billion paid by the group led by former Laker Magic Johnson, baseball man Stan Kasten and Mark Walter (CEO of Guggenheim Partners, the money behind the deal). The new owners still have to get to a point where fans feel that nothing crazy is being done on the sly with regard to their team. There has been an undercurrent of suspicion about the role of the former owner, who fans grew to detest, that needs to be put the rest.

A strong start has certainly eased the transition. A team that hovered around .500 the past two seasons is now in first in the National League West, in part because there's a genuinely talented nucleus of players on the roster. A player like Matt Kemp, who is arguably the best all-around player in baseball (2011: .324 average, 39 HRs, 126 RBIs, 40 SBs; 2012: .359 AVG, 12 HRs, 28 RBIs, 2 SBs through 34 games before being placed on the DL), can be the centerpiece of a contender. Fellow outfielder Andre Ethier is leading the NL in RBIs. Left-hander Clayton Kershaw was a CY Young pitcher last year and he has been joined by Chris Capuano (5-1) and Ted Lilly (5-0) to form a solid rotation for the pitching staff. Rookie shortstop Dee Gordon has continued to improve both offensively and defensively. He is often on base, giving Ethier and Kemp RBI opportunities.

Second-year manager Don Mattingly has done well with his opportunity to run the team. He has been both wise and patient, and the players have responded positively to his leadership. The final quarter of last season was an indication of what the team could do if things went right. The Dodgers, who stood at 52-64 after a 9-8 loss on Aug. 10, finished 82-79, winning twice as many games as they lost in those final weeks.

When the Brooklyn team would lose the Series to the Yankees in the 1950s, the rallying cry for Dodgers fans would be "wait until next year!" This year has started out to be just that kind of next year. In addition to the sterling on-field start, the new owners have stated that they will try to make the team competitive in all ways. Many issues that irked fans, such as parking rates and the lack of renovation in certain parts of the stadium, are being addressed.

These efforts could not be more timely. The Los Angeles Angels franchise has become a serious contender for baseball fans in Southern California. The acquisition of Albert Pujols was a big event for Angels fans, and the team's rivalry with the Dodgers will be drawing attention the whole season, especially if Pujols ever starts hitting. The interleague games will be sold out for sure this year and the ultimate dream of Southern California baseball fans, a "freeway series," is not beyond the pale.

If that were to happen, veteran Dodgers fans would be transported back to their former crosstown rivalry and the glory of 1955. That year the Dodgers took the Series in seven games, winning the final game on a 2-0 shutout thrown by young left-hander Johnny Podres. Roy Campanella was the regular-season MVP that year, and Podres credited him for his series-clinching win. Campanella called the game pitch by pitch in a way that took all the pressure off Podres.

The Dodger faithful are hoping that today's boys in blue -- Ethier, Kemp, Kershaw, Gordon and Capuano -- will lead the team to its first title since 1988. The bad old days when the McCourts were in charge have gone away.

Now that the new owners are in charge, they can do what is necessary to win back the fans. The O'Malleys were very good at relating to the fan base, and I'm sure the new owners will see what they can do to build the same warm relationship with the fans that was the standard in the old days. A title would be a great start.

Early signs of a new Dodgers era May, 17, 2012

Dodgers players have exercised gallows humor in recent years, as former owner Frank McCourt's ugly financial situation manifested itself in organizational cutbacks. "I don't write any checks," one player said privately last summer, "until I know for sure that my paycheck has cleared."

But times have changed quickly. The Los Angeles Dodgers have new ownership, they are in first place, and this is a time of renewed commitment -- the organization to the players and vice versa.

The family room at Dodger Stadium has already been renovated, and there are more changes to come to make the players more comfortable.

Stan Kasten, the new team president, met with the players recently and provided each of them with two jerseys signed by Magic Johnson -- one personalized to the player, and the other to be used for the player's favorite charity. And Kasten told the players that the Dodgers needed them to be part of the organization's effort to touch the community.

What Kasten said, in so many words, was this: A few minutes ago, your faces lit up when I gave you that autographed Magic Johnson jersey -- and that's exactly the reaction that our fans have when they get something from each of you.

On Sunday, Kasten asked four members of the team to go to a gate at Dodger Stadium as fans came through the turnstiles; a fifth player, Clayton Kershaw, also volunteered. After they finished, pitcher Aaron Harang approached Kasten and told him how much he enjoyed it and how he had thought about what Kasten had said about their possible impact on fans.

The response to this new era in the Dodgers' history, Kasten said, "has been phenomenal."

DODGERS.COM

Short-handed Dodgers bested by Padres

Capuano pitches well in first loss of seasonBy Ken Gurnick / MLB.com | 5/16/2012 10:55 PM ET

SAN DIEGO -- The Dodgers put Matt Kemp on the disabled list after Monday night's game and they haven't won since.

It's only been two games, but there's nothing reassuring about a 4-2 loss to the last-place Padres Wednesday after a 5-1 loss to the D-backs on Tuesday night.

With Kemp and his disabled hamstring looking on, Chris Capuano (5-1) suffered his first loss of the year, despite a quality start (6 1/3 innings, three earned runs). He was done in by Chase Headley, who homered, doubled and drove in three runs.

With Kemp, Juan Rivera, Juan Uribe and Jerry Hairston on the disabled list, manager Don Mattingly could have pulled the lineup he used out of a hat. It consisted of one Opening Day starter (Andre Ethier), five left-handed hitters (including all three outfielders) against lefty Clayton Richard and three players who were at Triple-A a week ago.

Not exactly what you'd expect for the team with the best record in baseball. Mattingly blamed the quality of play, not the quality of players.

"We're not good enough to come here, get four [actually five] hits and think we're going to win a game," he said. "I don't care what record they've got or what record we've got. You're not going to win like that."

The three right-handed hitters (Elian Herrera, Jerry Sands and Matt Treanor) accounted for three of the four hits the Dodgers got in seven innings off Richard, who holds left-handed hitters to nearly 100 points less in average than right-handed hitters (.286-.192).

The first two Dodgers hitters -- Tony Gwynn and Herrera (first Major League hit, double and RBI) -- reached base and scored off Richard and that was it for the Dodgers' offense, which had only three hits the rest of the game. No Dodger reached base between Sands' fourth-inning double and Bobby Abreu's ninth-inning single.

"We just didn't do enough," said Mattingly. "You really can't expect to win if you don't basically do anything between the first two hitters and the ninth inning. You can't expect to win a game like that. We didn't give ourselves a whole lot of chances. Right now, we've got to give ourselves opportunities or we're not going to score."

Richard now has two wins this year -- both against the Dodgers. He also had a no-decision against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, when he allowed eight runs in six innings, a Kemp homer included.

"He executed better after the first inning," said Gwynn, a former Padre teammate of Richard. "He showed me different locations. The ball was popping. He was throwing a lot better today than at our place. He pitched well. You've got to tip your hat to him. When he pitches like that, he can be tough."

The Dodgers came into this game 6-1 against San Diego this year and 13-5 against the NL West. Of greater concern, the Dodgers are 9-8 against left-handed starters, but 15-5 against right-handed starters. Kemp is hitting .486 against lefties.

"Left-handed pitchers give us more trouble," Mattingly said. "It doesn't matter if Matt's in the lineup. We've seen quite a few and, for the most part, we're not doing a lot with them."

And that will put extra pressure on the starting pitching, which to this point has been up to it. Even in defeat, Capuano pitched a winning game. He held the Padres to one run through six innings on Headley's second-inning homer. But the game changed quickly with one out in the sixth on an infield single by Cameron Maybin and a Chris Denorfia single that put runners on the corners for Headley.

Capuano's out-pitch all game had been a sinking changeup, but he left a couple 3-2 versions up in the zone to Headley, who fouled off one and laced the other into the left-center gap for a 3-2 lead.

"I was hoping to get a double play, trying to force contact and I tried to guide it," said Capuano. "I wasn't attacking like earlier in the game, sort of lost focus and tried to get a certain outcome instead of just getting the ball down. It wasn't the right focus."

Capuano booted a sacrifice in the seventh that led to an unearned insurance run when reliever Javy Guerra relieved Capuano and walked Maybin with the bases loaded.

A key play for the Dodgers occurred in the second inning, when Adam Kennedy fouled a pitch off his shin, the ball rolling to first baseman Jesus Guzman, who made the putout at first base and none of the umpires saw that the ball hit Kennedy's leg, but TV replays did. Matt Treanor followed with a double.

"Nobody's feeling sorry for ourselves or feel we have to do extra," Treanor said. "We're in a good place as far as that's concerned."

Ethier only Opening Day starter in lineup

By Ken Gurnick / MLB.com

SAN DIEGO -- There are more players from the Dodgers' Opening Day lineup recovering from Tuesday injections (Matt Kemp and Juan Uribe) than are in Wednesday's starting lineup (only Andre Ethier).

Kemp (left hamstring) and Uribe (left wrist) received platelet-rich plasma injections to speed recoveries from their respective injuries. Kemp has a slight left hamstring strain and is expected to begin hitting off a tee Thursday if he has no pain and might return after the minimum 15 days on the disabled list.

Trainer Sue Falsone said it's still the club's goal to have Kemp back to work on May 29. Manager Don Mattingly said Kemp is likely to play at least one Minor League rehab game before returning.

"Then you know he's 100 percent," Mattingly said.

Uribe's injury is more complicated. Falsone said Uribe will see a hand specialist over the weekend. She said surgery hasn't been ruled out, but would not say what a Tuesday MRI showed.

"I'm not giving you much -- call it a wrist sprain for now, stemming from when he slid in April," she said.

Uribe's wrist tends to improve with rest, only to flare up again with activity, indicating that even if surgery isn't the next course of action, he's likely to be sidelined a while.

Additional injuries to Juan Rivera and Jerry Hairston left Mattingly to pencil out a lineup that included only one player from Opening Day. Mattingly had five left-handed hitters against a left-handed starting pitcher (Tony Gwynn, Bobby Abreu, Andre Ethier, Adam Kennedy and Chris Capuano).

It wouldn't have qualified as a legal Spring Training lineup, which requires four starters or established Major Leaguers.

"It qualifies for next year in Spring Training," joked Mattingly. "We're in a situation like a lot of other teams where guys are down. We've just got to weather the storm. We're lucky, we've got it, but they're temporary. It seems worse because it came in bunches."

Matt Treanor, who apparently is the unofficial catcher for Capuano, was behind the plate for A.J. Ellis. Mark Ellis was rested after his three-hit game on Tuesday night.

"It's because we've had a couple funky series, a day game, bussing back and forth, and it just looks funny because nobody else is in the lineup," said Mattingly. "He's just getting a day. I don't want another guy [hurt], not that you can prevent it."

After long journey, Herrera gets first start

SAN DIEGO -- Elian Herrera, promoted this week from Triple-A Albuquerque as a speedy infielder, was signed by the Dodgers in 2003 as a slow catcher.

Herrera, who got his first Major League start Wednesday at second base and batting second, said he originally was signed by the Dodgers as a catcher after trying out with the Yankees. He hurt his elbow and, while rehabbing, spent time running on the beach in the Dominican.

"I built up my legs and I started running faster," Herrera said.

Herrera also took balls in the infield and outfield while rehabbing and coaches liked his actions and decided to move him out from behind the plate.

But that didn't mean he was on a fast track to the Majors. In fact, that was nine years ago. He spent three years at the Dodgers' academy in the Dominican Republic.

"If I hadn't come to the States after that, I wasn't going to play anymore," he said.

There was another three years in Rookie and Class A before he said his game came together while playing for Carlos Subero at Class A Inland Empire, where he stole 42 bases. He had 32 and 33 steals the next two years and had nine more at Albuquerque.

"He taught me a lot," Herrera said of Subero. "He taught me what kind of player I am."

Herrera wasn't protected in the Rule 5 Draft or invited to Major League Spring Training, but he was hitting .358 when promoted. A .404 average against left-handed pitching earned him a spot in Wednesday's lineup against left-hander Clayton Richard.

Herrera said his confidence was boosted by success playing winter ball in the Dominican.

"I played with a lot of good players, and if you can play in the Dominican, you can play here," Herrera said.

Mattingly, Hansen working with struggling Gordon

SAN DIEGO -- The Dodgers held a course in remedial hitting for struggling shortstop Dee Gordon before Wednesday's game.

Rather than in the privacy of the indoor batting cage, manager Don Mattingly and hitting coach Dave Hansen had Gordon hitting off a tee in the batting cage on the field before the Dodgers stretched for regular batting practice.

"It's just to get him to hit," said Mattingly. "That's a drill I've done with a couple guys so they can see the ball travel. It helps find contact points. It controls where the ball is and you see where it travels -- instant feedback.

"In the [indoor] cage, it hits the next so quick you don't know where the ball is going. This tells you if you're too far out, not far enough out."

Entering Wednesday's game, Gordon was hitting .212 (.156 against left-handed pitching), coming off a .161 homestand. He has 28 strikeouts and seven walks in 137 at-bats and a .248 on-base percentage.

Justin Sellers started at shortstop on Wednesday and Tony Gwynn hit leadoff.

Guerrier making progress toward return

SAN DIEGO -- Dodgers reliever Matt Guerrier, on the disabled list since April 19, is finally making progress from right elbow tendinitis and is hoping for a return in the next two weeks.

Guerrier threw his second bullpen session on Wednesday, incorporating offspeed pitches for the first time off a mound. He could soon face hitters, a prelude to a Minor League rehabilitation stint before being activated.

"It's going good right now," said Guerrier. "I'm recovering. I'd like to be back by June 1 if I could. I don't feel any sharp pain anymore, and that's what I was having before."

The Dodgers' bullpen has been one of the trouble points this year, with Javy Guerra losing the closer job to Kenley Jansen, the ineffectiveness of Todd Coffey and inconsistency of Scott Elbert. Meanwhile, Josh Lindblom has moved into Guerrier's workhorse role and Ronald Belisario has returned to take over the innings Coffey was signed to pitch.

Sarah's Take: Can Dodgers survive injuries?

By Sarah D. Morris / MLB.com | 05/16/12 7:45 PM ET

Matt Kemp, arguably the best player in the National League, went on the disabled list on Monday with a strained hamstring, thus ending the longest consecutive-games streak in the Majors at 399.

For the first month of the baseball season, the Dodgers had a healthy team and built a sizable lead in the NL West. Despite still having the best record in the Major Leagues, the Dodgers have lost four important position players to injury within the past two weeks.

Every team has to deal with injuries during the course of the long baseball season. Whether it can find a way to win without an important player or sink in the standings while an important player is on the disabled list will determine which teams go to the postseason and which teams watch the playoffs. Now, the Dodgers will show whether they are a playoff-caliber club or whether they are just ordinary.

Losing a player the likes of Kemp is quite a blow for any team. But for the Dodgers, who already have a weak offense, losing their star player for even two weeks can have a detrimental effect on their chances of making the playoffs.

For the last week, Kemp had played with a tight hamstring. His performance had declined, and many people surrounding the Dodgers worried that Kemp would severely injure his left hamstring and miss a significant amount of time. Kemp irritated the injury on Sunday while running out a ground ball. He had an MRI on Monday that confirmed everyone's suspicion that he had a strained hamstring. A day after vowing that he wouldn't miss two weeks, Kemp went on the 15-day disabled list.

Kemp has either scored or driven in about 30 percent of the Dodgers' runs this year. Although he hasn't been stealing bases like he was projected to, he is an offensive catalyst for the Dodgers while also providing them with great defense. Putting Kemp on the DL was a wise thing to do in order to assure he will be able to play for the rest of the season, barring another injury. If Kemp kept on playing and tore his left hamstring, he would miss a lot more time, and it is doubtful that the Dodgers could maintain their large lead in the division. Now, even if the Dodgers can't maintain the lead, they will have time to regain it.

The Dodgers also disabled Juan Uribe with a sore wrist on Monday. For the past two weeks, Uribe has been bothered by the injury, forcing him to take a day off here and there. Though Uribe hit his first home run on Friday against the Rockies, the wrist became a chronic problem. The Dodgers hope his wrist doesn't need surgery and Uribe can return in 15 days.

A week from last Sunday, Jerry Hairston Jr., who can play almost anywhere, strained his hamstring. The Dodgers delayed putting him on the disabled list in hopes his hamstring would improve. However, it didn't, and they put him on the disabled list on Friday. Since Hairston was Uribe's primary backup at third base, the Dodgers have a need to find an adequate replacement.

Until either Uribe or Hairston return, Adam Kennedy and Justin Sellers will split time at third base. Whereas Kennedy is an experienced infielder who has proven offensive skills but limited range, Sellers is a better defensive third baseman. Sellers doesn't have a proven offensive record, but his superior defense should help preserve victories and lessen stress on the pitching staff.

A week from Monday, the Dodgers discovered that Juan Rivera had a torn hamstring. Although he had been trying to play with the nagging injury, he wasn't able to appear in many games for the past two weeks before the Dodgers placed him on the disabled list. The Dodgers believe Rivera can return within six to eight weeks, even if he elects to have surgery.

When Kemp went on the disabled list, the Dodgers promoted Jerry Sands from Triple-A Albuquerque. Early last year when Sands first arrived in Los Angeles, many Dodgers fans envisioned him as the answer to the club's power problems. Like most young rookies, Sands struggled adjusting to a Major League breaking ball. During Spring Training, Sands couldn't hit anything, so he began the season in Albuquerque. When the Dodgers promoted him, he was hitting .257. The team hopes he can contribute to the offensive production.

Just before Rivera went on the DL, the Dodgers signed Bobby Abreu to bolster the offense. The 17-year veteran can't play every day, but he gives the Dodgers an experienced, patient hitter who is a decent left fielder with an above average throwing arm. With the recent rash of injuries, Abreu will play an important role.

The Dodgers also promoted Scott Van Slyke, the son of the former Major Leaguer Andy Van Slyke. Last year, he was the Player of the Year in the Dodgers organization. So far in four games, Van Slyke has two hits in six at-bats.

Since the NL West appears to be weak this season, the Dodgers should be able to hold onto their large lead if they continue pitching and fielding well until some of the injured players return. Scoring runs is the big question, however.

Harang looks to solve his Padres problem

By Tom Green / MLB.com | 5/16/2012 11:30 PM ET

In a 162-game season, injuries are bound to cause teams to alter lineups, but the Dodgers have been bitten particularly hard by the injury bug recently, with Matt Kemp, Juan Uribe, Juan Rivera and Jerry Hairston all sidelined.

Because of the string of injuries, the Dodgers have had to put together some makeshift lineups as of late, and Wednesday against the Padres they had just one Opening Day starter in the lineup -- Andre Ethier.

Another provisional lineup will be the case again Thursday, when the teams wrap up their two-game set at Petco Park.

"We don't have some guys out there, but the guys we have out there can pick it," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "We're going to catch the baseball. We'll play defense and find a way to get some runs."

The injury-plagued Dodgers lineup, which mustered just two runs on Wednesday, could be good news for Padres righty Edinson Volquez, who has given up just four total runs in his last four starts, all of which have been San Diego wins.

Volquez is 1-1 with a 3.71 ERA in three career starts against the Dodgers, with the one loss coming on April 5 at home. That loss marked the first of four straight Volquez starts that the Padres lost. However, the Padres are 4-0 in his last four starts and will look to extend that streak in Thursday's series finale.

Dodgers: Harang taking the mound at Petco• Aaron Harang (2-2, 4.46 ERA) is coming off his best start in a Dodgers uniform, working eight innings of one-run ball against the Rockies last time out. The righty will look to carry that momentum into Thursday's start against the Padres, a team he has had some trouble with recently.

Harang is 3-5 with a 4.36 ERA against San Diego in his career, but he has dropped his last five decisions against the Padres. In one start against them this year, Harang gave up four runs in 6 1/3 innings and fanned 13 while earning a no-decision on April 13.

• Reliever Matt Guerrier, who has been on the disabled list since April 19 with elbow tendinitis, threw his second bullpen session on Wednesday and could face hitters soon.

Guerrier said he is hoping to return from the disabled list in a couple of weeks, which could be good news for a Dodgers bullpen that has been a point of concern this season.

"It's going good right now," Guerrier said. "I'm recovering. I'd like to be back by June 1 if I could. I don't feel any sharp pain anymore, and that's what I was having before."

Padres: Alonso extends streak• Rookie Yonder Alonso reached base with a walk while pinch-hitting in the seventh inning on Wednesday and has now reached base safely in 20 straight games. Alonso is third among all National League rookies in on-base percentage (.367).

Worth noting• The Dodgers have taken six of eight against the Padres this season, and 16 of 20 dating back to July 8, 2011. Since the start of last season, the Dodgers are 9-5 at Petco Park.

DAILY NEWS

SAN DIEGO 4, DODGERS 2: Something's missing in defeatBy J.P. Hoornstra Staff Writer

Posted: 05/16/2012 10:15:54 PM PDT

SAN DIEGO - They were there in spirit and in person, all $24.5 million and 55 RBIs occupying the stalls belonging to Matt Kemp, Juan Rivera, Juan Uribe and Jerry Hairston Jr., in the visitors' clubhouse at Petco Park.

The quartet of disabled Dodgers was everywhere except the lineup - where they were needed most - which sputtered in a 4-2 loss to the San Diego Padres on Wednesday.

Padres starter Clayton Richard (2-5), who coincidentally dealt the Dodgers their first loss of the season in April, made the Dodgers hitters look even more lifeless than Arizona's Wade Miley did a day earlier.

After scoring twice in the first inning, they collected only three hits and never got past second base.

"We did a good job getting pitches to hit, just good at-bats, in that first inning," Dodgers catcher Matt Treanor said. "We just didn't put it together after that. (Richard) stuck to his game plan and got us out."

The Dodgers' lineup didn't look the same as it did Tuesday - not even close - and it showed promise when Tony Gwynn Jr. and Elian Herrera led off the game with a single and RBI double, respectively.

The double was Herrera's first major-league hit in his first major-league start; he scored later in the inning on Andre Ethier's sacrifice fly.

What happened next is something the Dodgers hope does not become a pattern.

Treanor doubled in the second inning. Jerry Sands, who moved to first base and batted fifth in his second game of the season, doubled in the third inning. Bobby Abreu singled in the ninth. No other Dodgers reached base against the left-handed Richard, who went seven innings and struck out six, or relievers Andrew Cashner and Dale Thayer.

"For the most part it's been the lefty, the funky lefty, that really has given us trouble this year," Mattingly said. "It didn't matter if Matt was in the lineup or if we had all our guys. We haven't done a lot against lefties so far."

Chris Capuano (5-1) was the hard-luck loser for the first time all season. His final line - 6 1/3 innings, six hits, four runs and three earned runs - didn't tell the whole story. Padres third baseman Chase Headley took advantage of a pair of pitches up in the zone and finished 2 for 3 with an RBI double and a two-run home run.

Capuano also loaded the bases in the seventh inning on a single, an error on a throw to first base - his first since 2007 - and a walk.

Javy Guerra entered the game with the bases loaded and issued a walk, forcing in San Diego's fourth and final run, before getting out of the jam.

Capuano dropped out of the top 10 in the National League in ERA (it rose from 2.09 to 2.34), but he looked like himself the majority of the day. He rarely relied on a fastball in the upper 80s and mixed speeds on his breaking pitches.

"I was feeling good today and the team got me a good lead in the first so I was trying to bear down," he said, "but it didn't work out today."

When healthy, the Dodgers were winning regardless of who pitched.

Their five-man rotation entered Wednesday's play with the best winning percentage in baseball (17-6, .733) and a 2.92 ERA, third-best in the majors.

Now it may not matter as two vastly different lineup combinations the past two days yielded nearly identical results. The Dodgers have three runs in two games since scoring 18 in the two games before that.

Mattingly kept Ethier in the cleanup slot Wednesday but had regulars James Loney, Dee Gordon, A.J. Ellis and Mark Ellis on the bench. All four are healthy and figure to be back in the starting lineup today.

Treanor insisted the team's attitude will remain the same.

"That's why I enjoy this clubhouse so much," he said. "It wasn't like `Matt's gone, Juan's gone - both Juans - and Jerry's gone.' Nobody's really even felt like that. It's more or less, `First day of the series, let's go through our meeting, let's do what we have to do and continue to play.'

"Nobody's feeling sorry for themselves or thinking we have to do extra because there are guys out of the lineup. That's a great characteristic for a team to have."

DODGERS NOTEBOOK: Abreu could stay in lineupBy J.P. Hoornstra, Staff Writer

Posted: 05/16/2012 08:35:44 PM PDT

SAN DIEGO - Bobby Abreu has appeared in 11 of a possible 12 games since signing with the Dodgers, starting seven.

That's more playing time than the team had in mind for the 38-year-old outfielder, and it might have seemed like a scary proposition after Abreu batted .208 with the Angels to start the season. He was demoted to a fourth outfielder/backup DH role in Anaheim before finally being cut on April 27.

But Abreu has responded to his increased workload so far, batting .290 with four RBIs, and four of his nine hits falling for doubles. After an off-day Tuesday, he was hitting third Wednesday for the first time since spelling injured slugger Matt Kemp on Monday.

"I'm always going to be ready to play every day," Abreu said. "That's how I am."

The Dodgers might need him in the lineup every day if the four players recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque over the past 10 days - Justin Sellers, Scott Van Slyke, Elian Herrera and Jerry Sands - don't pan out as major-league regulars.

Abreu won't play that much regardless of anyone's performance, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

"I do feel like I could kind of (start Abreu) five out of seven (days) if that's there," Mattingly said. "I could go seven but I feel that's just pushing the envelope a little bit - not so much from injury but from production. Guys have that energy every day when you get a little break, especially when you get older. He's not a 22-year-old. He can still hit, but his body's going to need a day here, a day there, to stay strong and help him be effective."

Injury updates

Kemp received a platelet-rich plasma injection Tuesday, one day after he was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left hamstring.

Sue Falsone, the Dodgers' head athletic trainer, said Kemp will resume stretching today and is still expected to return as soon as he is eligible on May 29.

Mattingly said he would prefer Kemp play in a rehab game first.

"It's always safest to have this guy get four at-bats, three at-bats, play the field," Mattingly said, "just to know that the next morning he doesn't wake up going, `You know what, I'm not quite there yet,' or `I'm fine today, I woke up feeling great."'

An MRI on Juan Uribe's left wrist confirmed a sprain, but the Dodgers won't have an idea of when the third baseman can return until after he sees a specialist this weekend in Los Angeles.

"Nothing's been ruled out right now," including surgery, Falsone said.

Uribe originally injured the wrist sliding at home plate April 15 in Milwaukee.

Right-handed pitcher Matt Guerrier, on the disabled list since April 19 with elbow tendinitis, threw his first bullpen session with breaking balls Wednesday.

Notable

The Padres have nine players on the disabled list; the Dodgers seven. But the Dodgers are hurting where it counts more: Only one player in the lineup Wednesday, Andre Ethier, was in the Dodgers' lineup Opening Day in San Diego. The Padres had six Opening Day starters in their lineup. Mattingly said he gave shortstop Dee Gordon a day off Wednesday primarily because the Dodgers were facing a left-handed starter, Clayton Richard, and are scheduled to face right-handed pitchers the rest of the week. The left-handed hitting Gordon hit off a tee Wednesday. Edinson Volquez, San Diego's scheduled starting pitcher tonight, has a 5.40 earned-run average against the Dodgers this season and a 2.11 ERA against the rest of the league.

PRESS TELEGRAM

Downtown L.A. will have a perfect storm of sports this weekendBy Susan Abram and C.J. Lin, Staff Writers

Posted: 05/16/2012 08:49:21 PM PDT

There'll be slap shots and slam dunks, cycling and strikeouts.

And, most of all, crowds and cars. Lots and lots of 'em.

Angelenos are gearing up for one of the most jampacked weekends in local sports history, with three teams in playoff competition at home, a major cycling tour and a handful of other events that will draw crowds - all within a few blocks of downtown.

"In my 25 years, this is the biggest thing I've ever been a part of because of the magnitude of the games, and the bike race," said Lee Zeidman, senior vice president and general manager for AEG, which owns Staples Center and operates the Amgen Tour of California.

"This will never ever be duplicated anywhere else."

An estimated 120,000 ticket holders are expected downtown over the four days of sports events beginning Thursday night, when the Los Angeles Kings face the Phoenix Coyotes for Game 3 of the Western Conference playoffs. Friday night, the Lakers face the Oklahoma City Thunder at Staples for Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals.

Things pick up Saturday afternoon when the Clippers face the San Antonio Spurs and later that night the Lakers take on the Thunder again.

But the real crush comes Sunday.

The Amgen tour is expected to draw up to 100,000 spectators to the streets of downtown for the final leg of the 750 mile race, which started in Northern California eight days ago.

Before the tour hits downtown, however, thousands of people also are expected to participate in the free "Nissan Ride Before the Pros," from 8-9:30 a.m. along the same 5-mile downtown circuit.

Even as the Amgen tour finishes in front of Staples Center, Kings fans will be streaming into the arena to see Game 4 against the Coyotes, which starts at noon.

As soon as the hockey game ends, Staples crews will dismantle the ice surface and begin putting up a basketball court for another Clippers-Spurs matchup at 7:30 p.m.

In the meantime, Club Nokia is hosting an amateur mixed-martial arts match and the Los Angeles Convention Center is hosting two events that are expected to draw 18,000 attendees. In between, the Dodgers will face the Cardinals only a few miles north at Dodger Stadium.

Zeidman said AEG is working with the LAPD, the California Highway Patrol, the Los Angeles Fire Department and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation to ensure that downtown doesn't turn into some sort of Thunderdome.

"This is going to be an awesome weekend for sports in downtown Los Angeles," said LAPD Commander Andrew Smith, who said captains will be assigned to each sports event.

"We'll have an army of motorcycle officers, primarily helping traffic, but also watching out for drinking and driving," Smith said.

"We're used to big events happening downtown," Smith added of the marches, parades, protests and raves that take place on various weekends.

"People are going to see a high presence," he said. "Hopefully, folks have gotten over that silliness of destroying and burning things."

Smith and city officials are encouraging spectators to use public transportation.

Metro officials urged motorists to park at Union Station and take the free Dodger Stadium Express to Dodger games.

"Many buses, including the Metro Silver Line, run past Staples Center, the new Metro Expo Line and the Blue Line's (Pico Station Stop)," said Dave Sotero, spokesman for Metro.

The Red and Purple Lines are also available.

Street closures include Figueroa Street from Pico Boulevard to Olympic Boulevard, Pico Boulevard from Flower to Figueroa streets, 11th Street from Flower to Hill streets.

"It'll save you a lot of time, a lot of stress, a lot of money," said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry, of taking public transportation.

Perry also urged those heading downtown to check DOT's website for real-time information on possible route changes, stop relocations and delays.

The big challenge of the day would be coordinating with the various agencies involved and controlling crowds, Perry said.

"There's a lot of moving parts here," Perry said. "But there'll be a lot of things for people to see. This is going to be the epicenter for a lot of exciting activity."

DOT officials recommend taking public transit to cut down on congestion in the already-clogged area.

"Be patient and root for the home teams," said DOT spokesman Bruce Gillman.

Meanwhile, hotels and restaurants are bracing for brisk business.

"All the restaurants we've checked with are doing a box-office business," said Carol Schatz, president and CEO of the Central City Association of Los Angeles.

Schatz said with so many freeways around downtown as well as public transportation, Los Angeles is prepared for a surge in population.

"This is the right place to have this kind of activity. You can get in and get out, because of the transportation," she said.

But Sal Hernandez, the general manager for El Sembrador Ministries, said he's praying for a peaceful weekend. His ministry is hosting 4,500 men for a Catholic-based conference at the Convention Center, called Metanoia de Hombres.

"This is chaos this weekend," Hernandez said. "Thankfully for us, we tend to have a good audience."

The Chivas USA soccer team is also facing the Galaxy on Saturday at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

AEG officials are urging sports fans - especially for the Kings and Amgen Tour - to plan their routes in advance and leave plenty of time to get downtown.

The only other time Staples burst with so much energy was when Garth Brooks played five concerts over 90 hours back in 2008, Zeidman said.

Zeidman urges people to arrive early Sunday and hopes the Kings don't see overtime.

The Kings begin play at noon, with a typical game lasting two-and-a-half to three hours. It takes a little more than two hours to convert a hockey ice floor into a basketball court. The Clippers play at 7:30 p.m.

"It is huge, but the men and women who have worked there are the best in the business," Zeidman said of all the logistics. "Everybody in the nation will be looking at Los Angeles."

TRUE BLUE LA

Dodgers 5/16/12 Minor League Report - Loons Win Marathon Game

by Brandon Lennox on May 17, 2012 8:31 AM PDT in Los Angeles Dodgers Minor League Report

Minor League Player of the Day – Leon Landry - 2 for 4, 2 2B's, 2 Runs, 1 SB. With just 2 games on Wednesday there weren't a whole lot of options for this award, but Landry continues to impress with his 8th multi-hit game in his last 10 contests. Landry has a 1.158 OPS over that time frame, and for the season is hitting .371.

AAA –Off day

AA – Off day

HiA – Brandon Martinez continued his success in the California League with 5 innings of 4 hit ball, but spotty defense caused the Quakes to lose to Lancaster (Astros) 6 to 4. B-Mart allowed 1 run and struck out 4, but then Freddie Cabrera gave up 5 scores in relief which put the game out of reach. 3 of the 5 runs Cabrera permitted were unearned, however, thanks to a pair of Rancho errors in the 7th inning. Scott McGough and Eric Eadington finished the game strong as they combined for 2.2 shutout frames. At the plate the Quakes scraped together 7 hits, and 6 of them were doubles. Leon Landry led the way with a pair of two-baggers and a stolen base, while Joc Pederson drove in two with a double and a sac fly. Scott Wingo went 2 for 4 with a double, and the rarely mentioned Nick Akins also doubled.

LoA – The Loons won a marathon game on Wednesday as Great Lakes defeated the Whitecaps (Tigers) 6 to 5 in 16 innings. After West Michigan tied the game in the top of the 9th, the two clubs played 6 innings of scoreless ball before James Baldwin finally drove in the winning run with a RBI double. For Baldwin it was the breakthrough he needed on a rough day which saw him go 1 for 8 with 4 K's. O'Koyea Dickson contributed to the win by going 3 for 5 with an RBI, while Jesse Bosnik went 2 for 5 with a homer. The Loons sent 7 different pitchers to the mound in this game, starting with Arismendy Ozoria who allowed 4 runs despite giving up just 3 hits over 5.2 innings. Most of his base-runners came via the walk as he issued 4 free passes. Several relievers followed, including Yimi Garcia who was the one who blew the save in the 9th. Once in extra innings Jason West tossed 3 innings of 2-hit relief, while Joel Lima finished the game with 4 scoreless innings to record the win.

Coming up – All the teams return to action on Thursday, including the Lookouts who will send Aaron Miller to the mound. Jarret Martin will start for the Loons, and while the other two games have TBD pitchers I'm guessing it will be Michael Antonini for the Isotopes and Angel Sanchez for the Quakes.

Rancho Cucamonga Quakes Box Score (HiA)

Great Lakes Loons Box Score (LoA)

http://firstinning.com/daily/la

The Battles Between Chris Capuano & Chase Headley

by Eric Stephen on May 16, 2012 7:52 PM PDT in Dodgers Postgame Reaction

Chris Capuano pitched pretty well on Wednesday, a game that as manager Don Mattingly likes to say gives the Dodgers a chance to win. Capuano pitched into the seventh inning but suffered his first loss of the season, thanks in large part to Chase Headley, who homered and doubled to drive in the Padres' first three runs in their 4-2 win over the Dodgers on Wednesday at Petco Park.

Headley's two-run double in the sixth inning turned a one-run Dodgers' lead into a one-run deficit, and came with runners on first and third base and one out.

"In that last at-bat I was hoping for a double play there and trying to force contact but guided a changeup a little up in the zone and he was able to hit it to the gap," Capuano said.

Catcher Matt Treanor praised Capuano's start, which lasted 6 1/3 innings, in which he gave up four runs, including three earned, while striking out six. Treanor said Capuano really only made two mistakes, as the double to Headley and the home run to Headley (in the first inning) both came on pitches that missed location.

Headley also had a 10-pitch walk in the fourth inning, winning all three matchups against Capuano.

"That really was a fantastic at-bat. I was really bearing down there to make pitches and we was fouling some good ones off," Capuano said. "It's a battle you always want to win as a pitcher, and when a guy battles and draws a walk it can get at you a little bit."

Headley is 2-for-3 with three walks against Capuano this season, and has reached base in each of his last five plate appearances.

Notes Capuano's final batter was Yonder Alonso, who walked. Capuano appeared to argue with home plate umpire Brian

Runge after his final pitch. Capuano explained:

"Brian Runge has an interesting strike call. Sometimes he just says, 'Yeah' for a strike. I thought it was a pretty good pitch, a fastball down and away that looked like a strike to me," Capuano said. "I thought I heard 'Yeah' and Matt Treanor did too. I got the ball back walking back to the mound thinking it was a 3-1 count and saw Alsonso running to first."

The Dodgers scored just two runs on Wednesday, and nothing after the first inning. They have scored six runs in three games since Matt Kemp was placed on the disabled list.

"We just didn't do enough to score. You can't expect to win when you basically don't do anything, after the first two hitters until the ninth inning," Mattingly said. "We're not good enough to come down here and get four hits and think we're going to win a game."

Mattingly focused more on Javy Guerra allowing two of his six inherited runners to score over the last two days than his 16 balls and just seven strikes.

"Javy's been really good. I've kind of used him the last two days like a closer to keep us in the game," Mattingly said. "He's given us two chances to win in the last two days."

With the loss, the Dodgers are now 9-8 against left-handed starters this season, a far cry from their 15-5 mark against right-handers. "We really haven't done a whole lot against lefties so far," Mattingly said.

Up Next

The Dodgers look for a split of the two-game road trip on Thursday night, with Aaron Harang getting the call in the ballpark he called home last season. Opening day starter Edinson Volquez starts for the Padres.

Dodgers Get Ahead, But Padres Have A Headley

by Eric Stephen on May 16, 2012 6:13 PM PDT in Dodgers Game Recaps

Chase Headley got the better of Chris Capuano on Wednesday, and the Dodgers fell 4-2 to the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. It was the second straight loss for the Dodgers, who have scored six runs in three games without Matt Kemp.

Headley hit a solo home run in the first inning to cut the Dodgers' lead in half, then hit a two-run double to the left center field gap in the sixth inning to give San Diego the lead.

After Tony Gwynn Jr. opened the game with a single, Elian Herrera followed with a sharp grounder down the third base line that rolled into the left field corner for an RBI double. It was Herrera's first major league hit and first major league RBI, in his first major league start and his second major league at-bat. A ground ball and a fly ball later, Herrera scored his first major league run for a 2-0 lead.

Unfortunately for the Dodgers, that was all Richard would allow, as they got just two hits over the next six innings against him. In two starts at Petco Park against the Dodgers this season, Richard has allowed four runs (two earned) on six hits in 14 innings, with no walks, nine strikeouts, and two wins. In his six starts in between those two victories, Richard was 0-5 with a 6.32 ERA.

After Jerry Sands doubled with one out in the fourth inning, San Diego pitchers retired 15 Dodgers in a row, including six by strikeout, before Bobby Abreu singled with one out in the ninth inning. Andre Ethier nearly followed with a fly ball single down the left field line, but James Darnell made a sliding catch to prevent the tying run from reaching base.

Capuano ran into more trouble in the seventh inning, thanks in part to his own throwing error on Andy Parrino's sacrifice bunt attempt. That led to a bases loaded situation with one out, and Capuano's removal from the game. Javy Guerra relieved Capuano, then walked the first hitter he faced for a run, but got out of the inning without any further damage.

Guerra has entered each of the last two games with the bases loaded, and thrown a total of 16 balls and 7 strikes. But each time, he allowed just one of the three inherited runners to score.

Ronald Belisario pitched a scoreless eighth inning for the Dodgers, his sixth consecutive scoreless outing since returning from his suspension. In 5 2/3 innings so far this season, Belisario has allowed two hits and three walks, with four strikeouts.

Juan Uribe To Visit Hand Specialist This Weekend

by Eric Stephen on May 16, 2012 4:44 PM PDT in Dodgers Pregame Notes

Dodgers third baseman Juan Uribe, who was placed on the disabled list on Monday with a left wrist injury, could be out for longer than 15 days. Uribe had an MRI on his left wrist on Tuesday that confirmed a sprained left wrist. He is scheduled to see a hand specialist this weekend when the Dodgers return to Los Angeles.

Manager Don Mattingly said the MRI showed what could be arthritis or wear and tear, but trainer Sue Falsone declined to discuss specifics until Uribe met with the hand specialist.

"It's something that they're going to let calm down," Mattingly said of Uribe's wrist injury. "We feel like we'll be able to rest this thing and it will get better. If it doesn't, there are other steps we have to take."

When asked whether or not surgery on Uribe's wrist has been ruled out Falsone said, "We haven't ruled out anything at this point."

Meanwhile, Matt Kemp is expected to return on May 29, his first day eligible to be activated from the DL. Kemp, on the disabled list with a left hamstring strain, received an injection of platelet-rich plasma on Tuesday, which was followed by rest yesterday and today.

Kemp will be able to hit off a tee on Thursday if he doesn't feel any pain in his hamstring, and will also begin a program of progressive movement. Falsone, like Mattingly, feels it would be best for Kemp to ultimately play in a minor league rehab game or two before returning to the Dodgers.

"The smart thing to do is put him in a game situation," Falsone said. "You can't mimic competition."

Starting Lineups

When asked if today's Dodgers lineup, with only Andre Ethier remaining from the opening day lineup of April 5, would qualify in spring training given the requirement to start at least four regulars or semi-regulars, Mattingly joked, "It will qualify next year in spring training."

Mattingly cited the funky mid-week two-day trip to San Diego with a day game after a night game, along with the Dodgers in the middle of a stretch of 13 games in 13 days, as reasons to give a day of rest to both A.J. Ellis and Mark Ellis.

Today's lineup is the product of having three starters plus a semi-regular reserve on the shelf. Mattingly put it simply, "It would be what I would normally do, but it just looks funny because nobody else is in the lineup."

Dee Gordon, who is hitting .156/.191/.178 (7-for-45) against left-handed pitchers this season, is sitting today against the southpaw Clayton Richard for the San Diego Padres. The slumping Gordon hit balls off a tee today during batting practice, a method Mattingly is fond of.

"You hit off that tee, and it helps you find your contact points. You can control exactly where the ball is, that's what I like about that," Mattingly said. "The guy can actually see the ball travel, as he knows if he's hitting it well or not. He gets instant feedback. In the cage sometimes the ball hits the net so quick you don't really quite know where you're hitting that ball."

Dodgers Starters Have Outpitched Padres

by Eric Stephen on May 16, 2012 12:05 PM PDT in Dodgers Game Previews

The Dodgers look to rebound from Tuesday's defeat with a trip down to Petco Park to face the San Diego Padres for a brief two-game series. This is already the third series between these two clubs this season, and their second meeting in San Diego. The Dodgers took three of four in the season's opening weekend and have beaten the Padres in six of their seven meetings this season.

The Dodgers have won three games against the Padres in their final at-bat, including two walk-off wins, and have a 3-0 record in one-run games against the Padres this season. The Dodger bullpen has been relatively similar to the Friar pen in their seven games this year, though the Dodgers have allowed five more runs. The one similarity between the two bullpens has been their extreme wildness.

Bullpen IP H R ER BB K ERA FIP WHIP

Dodgers 25.0 17 12 12 17 22 2.45 5.46 1.442

Padres 25.2 18 7 7 19 19 4.32 5.16 1.360

The man difference has been from the starters, with the Dodgers' starters sporting an ERA nearly half of their San Diego counterparts, plus roughly one extra strikeout every 2 1/3 innings or so.

Starters IP H R ER BB K ERA FIP WHIP

Dodgers 39.0 28 17 14 18 44 3.23 2.99 1.179

Padres 37.2 37 34 26 18 27 6.21 5.27 1.460

Chris Capuano made his first start of the season at Petco Park, and through four innings had not allowed a run. But he ran out of gas in the fifth inning, walking three en route to a four-run inning that he didn't see the end of. But since that start Capuano has been attacking the strike zone, and it has paid off. Capuano has allowed six runs in his last six starts, with 35 strikeouts in 39 innings.

Clayton Richard gets the call for the Padres, making his third start of the season against the Dodgers. He shut down the Dodgers on April 8, allowing just two unearned runs on two hits, but since then is 0-5 with a 6.32 ERA in six starts.

SI.COM

Ethier’s bounceback year coming at right time for Kemp-less Dodgers

Ben Reiter

Sometimes it is easier for the highly skilled, purpose driven athlete to deal with injuries that happen in the blink of an eye. You crash into the wall; you take a bad step; you throw an awkward pitch. You break a bone; you snap a tendon; you tear a ligament. As painful and psychologically challenging as those injuries can be, at least what comes next is often clear cut. You get it fixed. You don't play for a month, or six months, or a year. Then, if all goes well, you do.

Andre Ethier, the Dodgers' rightfielder, has so far this season driven in more runs, 34, than anyone but the Rangers' Josh Hamilton, and has combined with Matt Kemp to give his club one of the most productive hearts-of-the-order in baseball, and an MLB-best 24-13 record. Last season, though, was a different story, as Ethier experienced the other type of injury, the kind that slowly but surely turns from something nagging to something far worse, the insidious kind that first takes over your body, and then your mind.

There is no doubt that the central reasons for the degeneration of the slick-haired Ethier's 2011 season -- from an April in which he batted .380 and did the bulk of the work toward what would become a 30-game hit streak, to an August in which he hit .253 and mustered five extra-base hits in 25 games -- were the loose particles that swam behind, and became lodged in, his right kneecap. Ethier has said that he had felt some pain in his knee since early in 2010. By late last summer, its physical impact on him was obvious.

"Basically, he couldn't hit against his front leg," says manager Don Mattingly of Ethier, a lefthanded hitter. "You really have to be able to do that. That's where all power comes from, and the torque. When you can't do that, you spin around balls and do stuff you don't need to be doing."

"I wasn't able to keep my front side closed," says Ethier. "I was pulling off a lot of pitches. Not seeing the ball as long as I possibly could, because I had to cheat to get to some."

Soon, Ethier's problems became more than physical, and they snowballed. "He's ultra-competitive -- I mean, beyond most," says Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti. "And he's also really hard on himself. And when things don't go completely as planned -- which in sports, you know, they rarely do -- sometimes he takes it out on himself."

"At the beginning, it didn't really get to me, but as it went on, it did," says Ethier, 30. "Every day, once you wake up, it's: How's it going to feel? Am I going to be able to figure it out today, make an adjustment today? This is a game of adjustments, but knowing you're not only going to have to adjust as far as the pitcher, but as far as yourself, was tough to go through."

Even as the Dodgers improbably took off on a late-season flight to respectability -- they went 41-51 before the All-Star break but 41-28 after to finish three games above .500 -- Ethier's personal tailspin accelerated. It ended, finally, in the first week of September, a week before he underwent a 35-minute arthroscopic procedure to clean up his right knee, and a week and a half after all but accusing his club, in the Los Angeles Times, of forcing him to play hurt. "I keep getting put in the lineup, so what am I supposed to do?" Ethier told columnist T.J. Simers.

"I got kind of blindsided by this," Mattingly told reporters then. "That's taking a shot at my integrity, at the organization and training staff and Ned... We knew 'Dre is banged up. But I always check with him, and he's never said he couldn't play."

Ethier quickly backed away from his assertion. It was, it seems, a product of his frustration. Still, the question was whether Ethier would ever again be the player he once was -- an All-Star, one who hit .289 with an average of 25 home runs and 88 RBIs between 2008 and '10 -- and, if so, if it would happen in Los Angeles or elsewhere.

Just before Christmas, Colletti took a day trip to Phoenix to clear the air with the first player he ever acquired as the Dodgers G.M., in a trade that sent Milton Bradley to the A's in December 2005.

"He's always going to have a special place for me," says Colletti. "Sometimes things get lost, people don't communicate, they don't know what to say, they don't know how to feel. I don't want that with him. I said, let's talk. Tell me what's on your mind. Tell me how you're thinking, tell me where your frustrations are. Let's figure out how to make this thing even better for everybody. We had a nice conversation. He's had nothing but good days for us since."

To Ethier, his bounce back this season has stemmed from his health. "As soon as I got the procedure taken care of and got into my rehab, my frame of mind was, I'll figure this out," he says. "I sat down and had a deep talk with myself: It's going to be better. Figure out a way to make this work, and make yourself a productive player on this team again."

He did more than that, from the start. At April's end, he and Kemp occupied the top two spots on the National League's RBI leaderboard. "We talked about it starting in spring training, how it's us two guys, and we're going to have to back each other up," said Kemp late last month. "Usually last year, guys would walk me. This year, you've actually got to pitch to me, because you've got Andre behind me, and he can pop you too."

Soon, though, it was Kemp's turn to experience a nagging injury: a strained hamstring that sapped his power, leaving him homerless with three RBIs in 11 May games, after he'd hit 12 homers and driven in 25 runs in 23 games in April. Kemp temporarily fought off a trip to the disabled list, but on Tuesday the disabled list finally won, as it usually does.

With Juan Rivera and Juan Uribe also on the D.L., the Dodgers are suddenly bereft of three of their top five run producers. No one, though, will be missed more than the preternaturally talented Kemp, who will not be eligible to return until May 29. "We're going to have to back each other up," said Kemp, pre-twinge. "When one's not doing good, the other one has to step up."

Until Kemp's hamstring heals, the burden will be on Ethier to keep L.A.'s surprising season afloat. As last year suggested, the Dodgers can be an average club with only one of their stars in the lineup, but it will take both -- sound in body, and sound in mind -- for them to be something more than that.

New York filled with sports ghosts

Steve Rushin

At the corner of Montague and Court Streets in Brooklyn, in the ghostly quiet of last Sunday morning, I stood outside a glass-fronted bank and gazed up, to a spot in the air where Branch Rickey offered Jackie Robinson a contract with the Dodgers organization 67 summers ago.

It was there, at the former 215 Montague Street, that the Brooklyn Base Ball Club had its front office from 1938 to 1957, and even now one doesn't require a powerful act of imagination to picture the corner as it once was: The trolley-dodging pedestrians who gave the team its nickname, the advance ticket office that saved you the schlep to Ebbets Field, and the two men meeting on an upper floor on August 25, 1945 -- three weeks after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- to transform post-war America.

The TD Bank branch wasn't open, but it was lit from within -- and fairly quickly so was I, fogging the front window to see the gorgeous mural of Ebbets Field on the back wall, behind rows of empty desks. Today, signatures are procured within to open checking accounts and guarantee loans, but "once upon a time" -- in the phrase of a small bronze plaque outside -- signatures secured the services of Robinson, Snider and Campanella, and also sealed the team's abandonment of Brooklyn for Los Angeles in 1957.

So many of these places where history was made have vanished, or become banks and pharmacies and other factories of our daily drudgery, bereft of plaques or any other hint of their former glory, so that we usually go about our errands oblivious to them.

It isn't true that every other business in New York has become a Duane Reade drugstore. But there was, last I checked, a Duane Reade drugstore at 51 West 51st Street in Manhattan, the former address of Toot Shor's famous saloon, where Joe DiMaggio and Jack Dempsey ate, where Shor literally drank Jackie Gleason under a table, and Yogi Berra allegedly said upon meeting the writer Ernest Hemingway: "What paper are you with, Ernie?"

Seated one night at the circular bar, Frank Sinatra watched Dempsey, then Bing Crosby, then Babe Ruth walk through the front door. "When Babe Ruth walked in," Sinatra recalled in a film clip in the 2009 documentary Toots, "I damn near wet my pants."

Today you can purchase Depends on the former site of Shor's, but have very little reason to wet your pants there, which is an irony evident in many of these ghostly shrines.

Ruth himself used to sign his contracts at 1639 Third Avenue in Manhattan, in the offices of Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert, whose Ruppert Brewery sprawled over four blocks of the Upper East Side. That brewery's front door was near the corner of East 91st Street, where the portal to a kind of anti-brewery stands today: It's a health club -- a branch of the New York Sports Club -- so that this former shrine to Knickerbocker Beer and Ruthian excess is now a temple to physical fitness and self denial.

This seems to be a theme connecting these ghost buildings of New York. Upon his arrival in the city, after signing with the Jets, Joe Namath was introduced to Toots Shor, who in turn introduced him to the New York press at a cocktail party-slash-press conference on January 23, 1965. Eventually, the pair had a falling out -- specifically a throwing out, when Toots tossed Namath after an argument -- and Broadway Joe opened his own swinging joint, Bachelors III.

That place is still there, still a pickup spot, still full of fur coats and heavy breathers, but now 798 Lexington Avenue, on the corner of 62nd Street, is a pet shop, American Kennels, and the only pedigree the customers care about is the pooch's, not the building's.

It's a pity, because these places are frequently unmarked and on the surface unremarkable, like speakeasies, known only to a few passers-by. And so the old U.S. Customs House in downtown Houston, at 701 San Jacinto Street -- built in 1911 as a post office -- remains a Military Entrance Processing Station, just as it was on April 28, 1967, when Muhammad Ali refused induction into the U.S. Army on the third floor there, in a room full of draftees leaving on a 6 p.m. bus for Fort Polk, La. and fates unknown.

Other buildings softly whisper their history to anyone interested in listening. Embedded in the floor in Posvar Hall, the largest academic facility on the University of Pittsburgh campus, is home plate from Forbes Field, home of the Pirates from 1909 to 1970. Displayed under glass like a cooked pheasant, the plate is where Bill Mazeroski was mobbed after winning the 1960 World Series with a walk-off home run. Or rather, it's a few yards from the same spot: The exact location of home plate evidently became a restroom, and it's a pity they didn't leave the plate there, under Lucite, full-bladdered students racing for home in homage to all the others who did so -- including Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth, who hit his last three home runs there, in the same game, on May 25, 1935, five days before his final at-bat.

As a kid, I worked Twins and Vikings games at Minnesota's Metropolitan Stadium, which was torn down and replaced by the nation's largest shopping mall. To this day, I cannot pass the Mall of America without hearing the voice of Frank Sinatra, who nearly wet his pants when Ruth walked into Toots Shor's.

People race in and out with their shopping bags and middle-distance mall stares. And all the while Sinatra's singing: "The air was such a wonder from the hot dogs and the beer/There used to be a ballpark right here."