Dodgers get nod they wanted: Vin Scully bobblehead night

How would you like to market the 2012 Dodgers? No significant new players to trumpet, coming off a third-place finish, ownership still in flux . . .

The Dodgers’ solution is their "Dodger Stadium Greats Bobblehead Series," which became more interesting Monday with the announcement their final three bobblehead giveaways would be Vin Scully, Kirk Gibson and Eric Karros.

Not sure which is a bigger coup, getting the beloved Scully, who had resisted previous efforts to have a bobblehead night, or Gibson, whom I believe was so irritated the Frank McCourt Dodgers would not give him a managerial look that he auctioned off his 1988 World Series memorabilia.

Guess they could have combined the two –- like they plan to do somehow with Don Drysdale and Maury Wills in their first one. You could tap Vin’s head and it could play a recording of  "In the year of the improbable, the impossible has happened." And then have Gibson’s spring on a leg so you could pat him and it looks like he’s limping around the bases.

There are 10 bobblehead nights in all -– available in their own mini-plan ticket package. Here is the schedule:

Date                Opponent                  Bobblehead

April 28           Nationals                   Drysdale and Wills

May 15            Diamondbacks           Orel Hershiser

May 29           Brewers                      Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell and Ron Cey

June 12          Angels                        Mike Scioscia

June 28          Mets                           Karros

July 14           Padres                        Tom Lasorda with Walter Alston

July 31           Diamondbacks             Gibson

Aug. 7           Rockies                       Sandy Koufax

Aug. 21         Giants                         Fernando Valenzuela

Aug. 30         Diamondbacks             Scully

Three games are against Arizona, so I guess the Dodgers aren’t figuring on the Diamondbacks' NL West title last season turning them into a draw.

The list includes two ex-Dodgers whose bobbleheads will go out on the night they come in managing an opposing team (Scioscia and Gibson), two who are current broadcasters (Scully and Valenzuela) and two who want to buy the team (Garvey and Hershiser).

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Dodgers Web musings: Looking back on the 2011 season

The new year beckons, which of course requires looking back at the year ending.

Lists are everywhere these days, sort of like Republican presidential candidates. Alas, for the Dodgers, what tops these lists are not what happened on the field but in the courtroom, or at least the negotiating room.

Dodgers.com’s Ken Gurnick has his list of top five story lines for 2011, and bigger than Clayton Kershaw capturing the Cy Young is naturally owner Frank McCourt taking the team into bankruptcy.

ESPN/L.A.’s Tony Jackson has his own list of Dodgers’ defining moments of last season, and again, understandably, more significant than Kershaw is McCourt. This time it’s his agreeing to sell the team. Hard to top that.

Also on the Web:

-- Scott Andes of Lasorda’s Lair has completed his list of the Top Ten L.A. Dodger Bums of all-time, and coming in No. 1 is Juan Castro.

-- The Times has also concluded its countdown of L.A.’s 20 greatest sports moments, and coming in first was Kirk Gibson’s 1988 World Series home run.

The Dodgers appeared five times in the overall list, second to the Lakers’ eight times.

-- ESPN/N.Y. is reporting the Yankees are not really in on signing ex-Dodger Hiroki Kuroda, which kind of leaves the Boston Red Sox as his primary suitor.

-- Joe Block, who was not being brought back by new radio flagship station KLAC on Dodger Talk, has landed on his feet. He is the new play-by-play announcer for the Brewers, where he’ll work with none other than Bob Uecker.

-- The New York Times examines the financial problems of the Mets, who aren’t looking any better than the bankrupt Dodgers.

-- ESPN’s Buster Olney lists his top 10 rotations in baseball (Insider status required), and guess who sneaks in at 10b?

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Photos: Say what you will about Dodgers owner Frank McCourt (lower), his franchise currently has the reigning Cy Young Award winner in Clayton Kershaw and a legitimate MVP candidate in center fielder Matt Kemp (top, right and left). Credit: Associated Press and Los Angeles Times

Hey, Dodgers, I've got your bobblehead

Now that the Clippers have Chris Paul and have discovered the great wonder of running full-page ads in The Times that actually feature their own players, I am so thrilled to learn the Dodgers are stepping into this great advertising void.

The Dodgers are just as likely to run an ad trying to lure you back to Dodger Stadium with the likes of Matt Kemp as they are of Sandy Koufax. Of course, it’s been 46 seasons since Koufax actually pitched at Dodger Stadium, but I applaud the idea.

Koufax is the centerpiece of their "Dodger Stadium Greats Bobblehead Series," and on Thursday they announced six more dolls in the giveaway program. Included is the Mike Scioscia bobblehead on June 12 when the Dodgers host Scioscia and the Angels.

If you don’t want to come watch our mediocre team play, come for the bobblehead featuring a manager or player from the other team! It’s pure marketing genius.

The Dodgers still have to announce three more bobbleheads, which means three more opportunities to pick up memorabilia featuring someone from the opposing team.

Two are scheduled for games against the Diamondbacks, and tell me that doesn’t scream out for a Kirk Gibson model. Hit his head and it looks like he’s limping around the bases.

There’s also a June 28 date against the Mets. [Corrected: No current ex-Dodgers, but new manager Terry Collins was a former minor-league manager in the Dodgers' system.]

That still leaves an extra date against the Diamondbacks, who are otherwise devoid of ex-Dodgers, but then they did just win the National League West. Only check out who’s their president and CEO -- former Dodgers VP of communications Derrick Hall, the one executive who saw what was coming when the McCourts purchased the team and exited the organization of his own volition. They’d have to figure out a way to rig the bobblehead so you tap it and he shakes his head "no" to the McCourts.

The one bobblehead fans would love but that’s not coming is of Vin Scully, who has nixed the idea. If they still want to add media greats they could always do a Jim Murray model. Or maybe T.J. Simers, taking a bite out of some over-important player’s, uh, ego. Or if they really want to fill up the ravine, a smug Steve Dilbeck bobblehead. I have a very large family.

The 10 bobblehead games are offered in their own ticket package. Just check out our latest Sandy Koufax ad. I’m telling you, marketing genius. This is only the most money Koufax has made for the Dodgers since 1966.

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The singular experience of Kirk Gibson (in two parts)

For a single season, Kirk Gibson was the greatest player I ever covered. Not the best player, but the best to watch and interview, and to observe his electric effect on his team and the game.

There was never anything like Gibson in 1988. Some mocked his winning the National League MVP despite fairly modest numbers (.290, 25, 76 RBI, 106 runs and 31 steals), but I never questioned it for a millisecond.

His intensity, his will to win, his all-out effort changed the culture of the clubhouse. He challenged teammates, coaches and media people. He competed with a fire that was tangible. He ran the bases with a scorched-Earth policy. Adrenalin seemed to explode out of the hair on his head.

For that season, he was also the greatest quote I ever knew. He’d say whatever he was thinking. He was honest to a fault. He could be outrageous, vulgar, hilarious, and if he didn’t know you, an ass. He didn’t think much of sports broadcasters, but respected those who covered the game every day.

Of course, it should also be said that for a single season he was the worst player I ever covered. When things were not going well for him, his competitive nature could cripple him. And in 1990, his knees still not right, the team struggling, the Dodgers asking him to play center, he was as difficult to cover as humanly possible. A walking bad mood.

Then came the infamous blowout in manager Tommy Lasorda’s office with general manager Fred Claire, Gibson’s screams audible throughout the belly of Dodger Stadium. When he finally emerged, radio broadcaster Joe McDonnell and I were the only media folks in the clubhouse who had overhead the uproar.

Dodgers Web musings: Mulling Clayton Kershaw's young greatness

These Clayton Kershaw-Tim Lincecum matchups are turning into some of the best games of the season.

They’ll go at it for a fourth time Tuesday night, Kershaw having won each previous encounter by one run (2-1, 1-0, 2-1).

The Times’ Dylan Hernandez takes a look at the Cy Young chances of Kershaw and how those once-ludicrous comparisons to Sandy Koufax aren’t looking quite so ludicrous these days.

All  on the Web:

-- The Daily News' Curtis Zupke also looks at Kershaw and his growing will to win.

-- ESPN/LA’s Jon Weisman writes that the great finish by Cliff Lee has only tightened a superb four-way Cy Young race.

-- Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson, no surprise, thinks Ian Kennedy is deserving of the award.

-- Dodgers.com's Ken Gurnick writes that Matt Kemp and other Dodgers are on board with signing Prince Fielder, and that James Loney would be willing to move to right field it it happened.

-- Chad Moriyama takes a long and detailed look at Loney, and conflicted as he may be, comes away with what for him is a fairly shocking conclusion.

Dodgers burn out against Diamondbacks, fall 7-2

Hot met hotter, which for the Dodgers, was bad news.

There is only one team that has been on more of a tear recently than the Dodgers, if slightly, and that is the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Diamondbacks have been baseball’s surprise team this year, and they gave the Dodgers a first-hand look at why Monday night in their 7-2 victory before an announced crowd of 30,616 at Dodger Stadium.

The Diamondbacks used a five-run sixth inning to overcome the early dominance of Ted Lilly and maintain their 8½-game lead over the Giants in the National League West.

The Dodgers entered the three-game series having won 15 of their last 19 games. All while losing a game in the standings to Kirk Gibson’s Diamondbacks, who had won 16 of 19.

And it started promisingly enough Monday for the Dodgers when Matt Kemp hit a solo homer off Joe Saunders in the first inning and then Lilly held the Diamondbacks without a hit through four innings. The home run was No.33 for Kemp this season.

But the Dodgers never could get anything else going against Saunders (11-12), whom they had already beaten three times this season. Saunders retired 13 consecutive Dodgers at one point.

Meanwhile, Lilly was cruising along with his 1-0 lead until seeming to hit a wall in the sixth inning. Willie Bloomquist blooped a single and scored on an Aaron Hill double that was bobbled by left fielder Jerry Sands. After an intentional walk to Justin Upton, Miguel Montero fouled out.

Hill stole third, and with a 1-1 count on Paul Goldschmidt, Manager Don Mattingly had apparently seen enough, removed Lilly (9-14) and called on reliever Matt Guerrier. Lilly had thrown 101 pitches.

Goldschmidt lined Guerrier’s first pitch for a single to score Hill. A walk to Chris Young loaded the bases and a Ryan Roberts hit scored one more and brought the call to left-hander Scott Elbert, who was greeted by a two-run single from Gerardo Parra.

The Diamondbacks were up, 5-1, which was all the lead they were going to need.

The Dodgers got one back in the seventh inning on a walk to Aaron Miles, a wild pitch and a Sands single, but Arizona scored two more in the eighth inning on a double by Para.

The Diamondbacks’ record went to a stunning 86-62 with the victory, the Dodgers falling to 72-74 with the loss.

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Photo: Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp watches his 33rd home run of the season during the first inning of a game against the Diamondbacks on Monday night at Dodger Stadium. Credit: Chris Carlson / Associated Press

Which ex-Dodger should be N.L. manager of the year? [Poll]

The Dodger way lives successfully on, if only in other lands and other teams.

The three current leading contenders for National League manager of the year are all former Dodgers –- Ron Roenicke with the Brewers, Kirk Gibson with the Diamondbacks and Charlie Manuel with the Phillies.

It matches three different situations and personalities, with three similar results.

Roenicke is a low-key, thoughtful rookie manager who inherited what was expected to be a very good club. But under Roenicke, one of the nicest men in baseball, the Brewers have been better than good. They lead the Cardinals in the N.L. Central by six games.

Gibson is the Dodgers’ 1988 legend in his first full season as manager, after taking over on an interim basis last year. He appears to have made the most with the least, and the fiery player has been a thoughtful manager who has led Arizona to the top of the N.L. West.

Old-school Manuel may suffer from Phil Jackson syndrome. His team is loaded with talent, and everyone knew it before the first pitch. Yet he has deftly led a team of superstars and super egos to the best record in baseball.

Three deserving candidates. Only one can win, of course, but whoever it is will have Dodger roots.

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Dodgers Web Musings: How would you grade the first half for the Boys in Blue?

It’s midseason awards time!

Are you just so excited? Grades for this, grades for that. Best this, worst that. Sort of an All-Star break mini-tradition.

And how exactly would you review the Dodgers’ first half? If you try, there are certainly bright moments available, but on the whole it’s hard not to fight the image of the Titanic with its stern exposed high above the water line.

With half the season remaining.

Plenty of media outlets are passing out letter grades, but The Times’ charitable award of an overall "C" for the Dodgers is a tad mystifying, or, in the eyes of T.J. Simers, "the most ridiculous, outrageous, off-base pile of rubbish lacking even a scintilla of sense that I have ever read in this newspaper."

Fortunately, he meant only the print edition.

Simers gave them a "D-minus," saying they avoided an "F" only by managing to climb out of the cellar with their final weekend sweep of the Padres.

Over at ESPN, Jim Bowden gave them a "C minus" (available as a video at this link). I know, where were these teachers handing out grades when you were in school?

Also on the Web:

-- The Times’ Bill Shaikin has Commissioner Bud Selig alluding to a Dodgers’ future without Frank McCourt.

-- Shaikin also looks at the latest documents filed by McCourt in his bankruptcy hearing, noting he has already exhausted the $35 million owed the team this season by Fox.

-- Ned Colletti tells The Times’ Dylan Hernandez that acquiring Juan Rivera may not be a sign of a last push, but it did improve the club.

-- The Wall Street Journal reports that Major League Baseball claims the hedge fund McCourt is using to keep the team financially afloat has accepted a $5.25-million fee he tried to withhold from the court.

-- That boycott may be extending to watching games on television. The Sports Business Journal  reports the Dodgers have the third-lowest rating of any MLB team and are down 27% from last season.

-- The San Francisco Chronicle’s Scott Ostler said Selig can’t avoid his role in approving the McCourt ownership bid and that it’s time for Selig to step aside.

-- Kirk Gibson told MLB.com he fulfilled his late father’s wish by accepting a bid to coach the National League All-Star team. Gibson, the Diamondbacks manager, twice turned down invitations as a player (including with the Dodgers in ’88) because he was uncomfortable with individual, midseason awards.

Wonder how he feels about midseason grades?

-- Steve Dilbeck

Photo: Matt Kemp bats at the All-Star game. Credit: Denis Poroy / Reuters

Dodgers Web Musings: The numbers say it's over

The Dodgers are so done. The season is so over, the team is so finished it awaits only its final coup de grace.

If nothing else, baseball is about numbers. And alas, blue bleeders, it’s all there in bad digits.

It was troubling enough when the Wall Street Journal reported that, since the wild-card format was introduced in 1996, just 9% of teams that have had a losing record on June 1 have gone on to to win 90 games, the number typically considered the playoff minimum.

But now comes Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci, who writes that in that same period 96% of all teams that were both at least five games under .500 and at least five games out of first place failed to make the playoffs.

By the end of June 1, the Dodgers were left 26-31 and 5½ games out.

Verducci has the four teams that managed to buck the odds, including the 2005 Astros who were 13 games under .500 and ended up in the World Series.

The National League West, of course, continues to offer hope to all. No team has stood out, and its five teams are bunched up fairly closely.

Also on the Web:

--ESPN/L.A.’s Tony Jackson lunches with MLB trustee Tom Schieffer, who tells him: "I don't think there is any question there is a strain between the franchise and the community right now. And that isn't the community's fault.’’

--The Times’ Ben Bolch tries to figure out how Ubaldo Jimenez could do to the Dodgers Wednesday night what he couldn’t do to any other team in his first nine starts -- beat them.

--In a video, Fox Sports’ Kevin Kennedy says it would be foolish for the Dodgers to deal either Matt Kemp or Andre Ethier: "You have to give fans a reason to come to the park.’’



--The Daily News’ Tom Hoffarth has more on the story first reported by Vin Scully Is My Homeboy’s Roberto Baly, of the Vogue covering up Vin Scully’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: The Vogue is haunted.

--That new Jackie Robinson movie is a go, to be written and directed by Brian Helgeland, who penned the classic "L.A. Confidential.’’

--True Blue L.A.’s Brandon Lennox looks at players with Dodgers bloodlines who will be eligible for next Monday’s MLB draft.

--ESPN/L.A.’s Jon Weisman thinks it’s time the performances of the youngsters in the bullpen received more due.

--Fox Sports’ Jack Magruder writes that the Diamondbacks have bought into Kirk Gibson’s ultra-competitive style and it’s working.

--Yahoo Sports' Steve Henson has a terrific piece on why Sparky Anderson eschewed a funeral.

--Giovanni Ramirez, the suspect in the Bryan Stow beating, has taken a second polygraph test, according to his lawyer.

-- Steve Dilbeck

Dodgers Web musings: Long before Kuo's struggles, there was Steve Blass

This is not an encouraging story for Hong-Chih Kuo, and there are plenty of those out there.

But ESPN/LA's Tony Jackson talked to ex-Pirates pitcher Steve Blass, who suffered the same kind of sudden, unexplainable inability to throw a ball where he wanted that has landed Kuo on the disabled list with an anxiety disorder.

Blass lost control in 1973, in what was such a classic case of the "yips’’ it is now often called the Steve Blass Disease.

Blass, unfortunately, never did recover.

"I never fully understood what happened,’’ he said. "But I was lucky in that it was toward the back of a career in which I already had done far more than I ever dreamed of. I tell people if that happened to me today, I would just go to Harvard Medical School and say, 'Fix me.' But that was a different era.’’

Also on the Web:

-- The Orange County Register’s Landon Hall talks to a clinical psychologist to discuss Kuo and how his stress compares to the rest of us in the workplace.

-- The Times’ Bill Shaikin reports on Commissioner Bud Selig’s meeting with the press Thursday in New York, where he denies MLB is dragging its feet on the investigation of the Dodgers’ finances.

-- Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman came away from the meetings convinced Frank McCourt is a solitary figure among other owners and is running out of time.

--  Selig’s monitor, Tom Schieffer, tells the Associated Press that  are composed of 26 interlocking companies and calls his task "daunting,’’ with video.