Dodgers Diaries

Doug Glanville’s column in today’s NY Times reminds me of a piece I did from a fan’s perspective about Spring Training. My wedding anniversary falls during spring training every year, but because my wife is a baseball fan, we get to spend the weekend revisiting the game we love almost as much as each other.

View the spring training piece here.

Russell Martin says the 25 pounds he put on over the winter includes no love handles. It’s all muscle. Sorry, Russ, but count me as dubious, especially after the part about working out with Eric Gagne over the winter. Even if you’re not taking anything to bulk up that quickly, you probably shouldn’t mention that you’ve been associating with guys implicated in the Mitchell Report.

The Dodgers are holding “Viva Los Dodgers” days every Sunday there’s a home game in 2010. But when I called to find out exactly what the days will encompass, the PR dept. couldn’t tell me. All they knew was that the celebration will be held inside the stadium, it will be a tribute to Latinos in some way, and will include live music and presumably concessions.

You gotta hand it to the McCourts. They find ever more ways to part people from their money. No tailgating, but come on inside and enjoy our $8 beers and equally overpriced lousy food before the game even starts.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL