Advertisement

On this night, it’s heavenly to be an ex-Angel for Dodgers

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

It was a great night to be an old, former Angel.

If you were currently a Dodger.

Yep, old guys carried the night after the Dodgers had mucked up a preseason game against the Angels in Anaheim on Friday.

Three one-time Angels, all in camp as nonroster invitees, officially made the Dodgers’ 25-man roster: Garret Anderson, Ramon Ortiz and Jeff Weaver.

Late in the 4-3 loss to the Angels, the Dodgers announced they had released Doug Mientkiewicz, who also is old but had the misfortune of never having played for the Angels.

Manager Joe Torre had told Mientkiewicz a week ago he wasn’t going to make the club unless Anderson suffered an unexpected injury. Mientkiewicz asked for his release then, but the Dodgers weren’t feeling obliging.

Advertisement

So when the announcement came after 9 p.m. Friday that Mientkiewicz was being released, that meant Anderson was officially on.
‘Garret, barring anything unforeseen at this point and time, is on the team,’ Torre said. ‘And so is Ramon Ortiz, and Jeff Weaver.’

Anderson is 37, Ortiz is 36 and Weaver the baby at 33.

Somebody see if Bobby Grich is available.

Anderson is batting .286, Ortiz is 2-0 with a 1.02 earned-run average (with 22 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings) and Weaver is 1-1 with a 3.27 ERA.

Old guys rule.

-- Steve Dilbeck

Advertisement