viewfromaloft

A Sound of Spring: The Dodger Stadium Organ

 

Nancy Bea Hefley playing "It's a Beautiful Day for a Ballgame" on the Dodger Stadium organ. The song was written in 1960 by Harry Simeone. Some fans may remember it as the opening music for Dodger radio broadcasts.

Today is the home opener for the Los Angeles Dodgers 2012 season and the first pitch will be thrown by Peter O’ Malley to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dodger Stadium. The symbolic pitch  comes after a tumultuous year that ended with new ownership led by figurehead Magic Johnson.

There is another special Dodger Stadium Field of Dream-like constant; Nancy Bea Hefley will be at the organ wafting poetic sounds over the stadium. She, along with Hall of Fame broadcasters Vin Scully and Jaime Jarrin, will be honored this afternoon. (The Beach Boys, also celebrating a 50th anniversary, will sing the national anthem).

For purists, it's not the same when the sound of an organ is set aside when a playes strolls to the batter’s box with at-bat walkup music playing canned rock, hip-hop and mambo. Moments when "Master of the House" from "Les Miserables" were heard when Orel Hershiser appeared on the field are replaced by a sample of "All The Right Moves" by OneRepublic for Clayton Kershaw (today's home opener pitcher).

Besides that potential Cy Young mix, other brief bars of recorded music are "Plomo Plomo" by El Negro 5 Estrellas for Juann Uribe; "Spend It" by 2 Chainz for center-fielder Matt Kemp; and "I Wanna Rock (Remix)" by Snoop Dogg/Jay-Z for Kenley Jansen.

But before players became playez, music came from keys and pedals.

There is a Ghost of a Chance for Pro Football to come back to L.A.

Downtown Dios de los Muertos wearing California shades designed as a pro football team logo. 

ADDED 12.18: The introduction of renderings for AEG's proposed stadium were revealed Dec. 15.

 

Bringing NFL football back to Los Angeles is an idea that simply will not die.

The duel between Tim Leiweke and Ed Roski to resurrect L.A. as a NFL town is turning into a quarterback controversy between two players with high Power Rankings.

ESPN reports Vikings vice-president of public affairs Lester Bagley has stated both camps have approached the team to discuss relocation. The Vikings lease at their civic-owned stadium will soon end and there has been no commitment on a public funded stadium complex.

Now it has been reported that AEG plans to buy 35% of the San Diego Chargers, another team that has been on the relocation short list. Like the Vikings, they want a new stadium and have been unable to get beyond a conceptual rendering. Of course, the sale is being denied.

It also means that even if L.A. can land a team it won’t be naming it, disappointing provincial purists who prefer Los Angeles to finally have a sports franchise reflecting the region, not East Coast migration patterns.

There is some consolation with the Chargers's name. It has a L.A. pedigree. The Los Angeles Chargers are a charter AFL team and played here for one year.   The Los Angeles Vikings sounds out of place, but if they moved to Downtown it would have another relocated Minnesotan next door in The Lakers.

The bright side to a team that comes with a name is the tired snark won't come up;  monikers like LA Traffic, Taggers, or Wanna-bes.

Still, a new name can be more than a nod to the city and the diverse cultures that have a shared tradition.  Like the locals who honor the dead: Mexico’s Dias De Los Muertos in November,  Japan’s Obon Festival in August, the Chinese Ghost Festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month.

The Los Angeles Spirit, L.A. Phantom, or even Los Muertos. Crazed and loyal costumed L.A. football fans can fill a section dubbed The Haunt.

Not only that, naming a team after cultural apparitions would honor the long list of pro football teams that once played in L.A. and are no longer with us.

 

Professional Football Teams in Los Angeles

Los Angeles Buccaneers  (1926)  National Football League
Los Angeles Wildcats  (1926) American Football League *
California Shamrocks  (1935-1935?)  Pacific Coast Professional Football League
Hollywood Braves  (1935-1935?)  Pacific Coast Professional Football League
Los Angeles (Southern California) Maroons  (1935-1935) Pacific Coast Professional Football League
Westwood Cubs   (1935-1935?)  Pacific Coast Professional Football League
Hollywood Stars (1936-1938)  California Pro Football League
Los Angeles Bulldogs (1937) American Football League II*
Los Angeles Bulldogs  (1940-1945) Pacific Coast Professional Football League
Hollywood Bears  (1940-1942, 1945)  Pacific Coast Professional Football League
Los Angeles Mustangs (1943-1944) Pacific Coast Professional Football League
Hollywood Rangers (1944) American Football League lll*
Los Angeles Wildcats (1944) American Football League lll*
Hollywood Wolves (1944)  Pacific Coast Professional Football League
Los Angeles Dons (1946-1949)  All American Football Conference
Los Angeles Rams 1 (1947-1995) National Football League
Los Angeles Chargers 2  (1960-1961 )  American Football League lV*
Long Beach Admirals (1967) Continental Football League
Los Angeles Express  (1983-1985) United States Football League
Los Angeles Raiders 3 (1982-1995) National Football League
Los Angeles Cobras  (1988) Arena Football League
Los Angeles Xtreme  ( 2001) X Football League
Los Angeles Avengers  (2000-2009)  Arena Football League 

ADD: Southern California Sun (1974 -1975) World Football League

* There were four unrelated leagues over history named "American Football League."
1: Anaheim Stadium (Orange County) in 1980  /  St. Louis in 1995.
2: Moved to San Diego in 1961
3: Returned to Oakland in 1995.

List via L.A. Almanac

Graphic: (c) 2010 ed fuentes/ viewfromaloft

How Laker Fans Should Be; Loud!

Audio of a good Los Angeles Laker fan.

All the new sports bars around Downtown offer a number of choices to watch a game. However, on Friday night I got caught by late deadlines, and later forced to find the nearest bar with any kind of television to catch Game 6.

That's where I found one Laker fan who should hired to give lessons to the Staples Center fans who sit on their hands during the game. Rule one; be loud.

About that "Back to Back to Back"

Lakers come home battered from Boston, but take game 3 with a 87-81 win LAT [Back from the Dread]

Before gametime, NBA Commissioner David Stern denies allegations made by a so-busted point shaving official. Ex NBA ref Tim Donaghy claims that game 6 of the 2002 NBA playoffs between the Lakers and the Kings was compromised by two of the three refs who worked the game, allegedly to extend the series on behalf of the boss. The SACBEE is all over it:  "Even if unfounded, Donaghy's claims peck at a continuing perception problem for the league, in Sacramento in particular because of lingering resentment over the 2002 series."

At Staples,

I say it's a Lakers-Celtics series

TOP BILLING for the 2008 NBA Finals follows readership lines The Los Angeles Times calls it a Lakers-Celtics series while the Boston Globe uses Celtics-Lakers. Si.com splits it.

. . ––
Sports Writers Bring Out Their "A" Game:  Solid prose about the NBA Finals started Friday.  To those who migrated to the City of the Angels in the last, say, 20 years, the rivalry between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics must be a curiosity . . –– L.A. sports scribe Bill Plashke offers a primer and writes: When the Lakers meet the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals for the 11th time beginning Thursday, it will not be an ending, but a continuation, another chapter in a book written with Magic and Bird, Balloons and Clotheslines, Massacres and Heat, Old Man Cigars and Baby Sky Hooks."
. . –– 
Mark Heisler reports that Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck pulled a Red Auerbach by defining the NBA Finals rivalry as something the Celtics won 8 times, and the Lakers twice. Heisler says "This is now known as the Shot Fired 'Round Lakerdom."
. . –– 

RETRO THEMES: Opening intro to the NBA on CBS. Some old timers still habor video tapes of Lakers-Celtics Finals from the 80s . . –– Not saying who.
. . –– 
I'm Obsessed, Ya Say? The Boston Globe reminds readers the woe of green  . . ––  LAT and BoGlobe Bloggers go one-on-one. . –– BoGlobe writes the orgin of the chant "Beat LA" started in Boston Garden when the 76ers were about to wrap up the 1982 Eastern Conference Finals and head toward Los Angeles. . . ––   SI lists, with YouTube evidence, classic "Celtics-Lakers" moments. Number one? The Baby Sky Hook. ESPN agrees. . . ––  If you don't want to cruise the YouTube cultural memory bank, ESPN Classics will air six games packaged as  Lakers vs Celtics Revisited.
. . ––
Enough of that: Before VFaL returns to blogging, Downtown Los Angeles Lakers in 6.

Dodgers to play Boston in Coliseum for March Exhibition Game

More Dodger Golden Anniversary News:  Reader Dennis Smith tips us of another Christmas gift for Dodger Fans that's even better than the Rose Parade Float set for New Years Day.  On March 29, 2008, the Dodgers will play an exhibition game against the World Series Champion Boston Red Sox. The Dodger website says "the exhibition contest is expected to include similar dimensions on the playing field."

Due to the oval shape of the stadium, the left field fence was only 251 feet from home plate, causing the team to erect a 42-foot high fence to avoid an excess of home runs. Dodger outfielder Wally Moon took advantage of the short porch, clubbing 56 home runs - dubbed "Moon Shots" - during the four-year span in which the team played at the Coliseum. While the dimensions will be altered as a result of physical improvements made to the Coliseum in recent years, the fence in left field will remain.

With so many transplants missing baseball, and locals wanting in on the action, the Coliseum played host to the largest crowds in MLB history.  The Dodgers and Yankees played before an exhibition crowd of 93,103 in honor of Roy Campanella on On May 7, 1959, still the highest single-game attendance mark.

As Tipster Dodger Blue Dennis says, "With all the heavyweights like Vin Scully on hand today to make the announcement, my favorite comment was passed on by a member of the Coliseum Commission who quipped 'We always figured the Dodgers would beat the NFL in the race to return to the Coliseum'."

Dodger Website [view]

Picture: ballparks.com
 

Peanuts and Roses for Parade

Never mind the roster of Hall of Famers and Broadcast All-Stars, employee legend “Peanut Guy” Roger Owens is riding the Dodgers entry for the 119th Rose Parade.  "The Dodger float [Celebrating America's Favorite Pastime] will honor the team’s 50-year relationship with Los Angeles and its loyal fans.” according to Dodger vice chairman and President Jamie McCourt,

Joining Owens is Tommy Lasorda,  Vin Scully, Jaime Jarrín,  Fernando Valenzuela, Carl Erskine,  Don Newcombe,  Steve Garvey, and Ann Meyers Drysdale, widow of Hall of Fame Dodger pitcher Don Drysdale.  I also like how Dodger organist Nancy Bea Hefley will play live on the float, designed to be the opening pitch for the 50th anniversary celebration of the Dodger's move to Los Angeles. Also riding is Billy DeLury, a 58-year Dodger employee who worked Ebbets Field, the Coliseum and Dodger Stadium.

Dodger Stadium is the backdrop, and a nice touch is the scoreboard  even if it doesn't have the throwback Union 76 logo seen for years. The 35-foot tall Dodger player is, according to float designer Craig Bukowski. "in the middle of a grand slam swing" that is bound to inspire ooohs and aaahh from the crowd, and ridicule from LA Times Sports columnist T.J. Simers, who is known to prey on Dodger spin.

Warning: If any parade-goer want to and pick a white mum, red carnation, or blue ribbon iris from the float, remember "Peanut Guy" Owens has a very accurate arm and can peg a bag of peanuts from behind his back 15 to 20 rows away.
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view [offical Dodger Website]
view [biz of baseball]
view [espn on Roger Owens]
 
 

Meet your new Los Angeles Dodger manager, Joe Torre.

Signed and delivered. Official press confrence will be held Monday. Joe Torre states in a press release:

"Having grown up in Brooklyn, I have a great understanding of the history of the Dodger organization and I am committed to bringing a world championship back to Los Angeles," Torre said in a statement released by the team. "I consider it an honor to be a part of this organization, which is one of the most storied franchises in all of sports."

Sports Ticker

Joe In? "The Los Angeles Dodgers are planning on firing manager Grady Little and replacing him with former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, according to multiple reports." Yahoo 

Later Add:  LAO / LAT "No one can be reached."
More Add of 'multiple media reports':  LAist. SI.com ESPN
Add: Militant Angeleno
Jeez, even Wiki: "On October 29, 2007 it was widely reported, although not officially announced, that Joe Torre had accepted an offer to manage the LA Dodgers and that such an annoucement would take place in the following days.[4] Wiki  

Kobe Out? A trade to Chicago may be all bull. [LAT]
A-Rod in Red or Blue? LAT

Hell Froze Over

41 point underdog Stanford, with a backup quarterback no less, beats USC. Headlines are as follows:

It's stun and done for USC [LAT]
Absolutely Stunning [SI.com]
Cardinal Rule [ESPN.com]
Cardinal Spin [YahooSports]