Can you believe that spring training is almost here? Personally, I"m ecstatic, but not just because that means that baseball season is quickly coming. Nope, I'm excited because this year, we are planning a trip to Arizona to watch a few spring training games!!! Talk about fun! We will probably leave the kids at home with my mom, so that we can fully enjoy the experience (without having to plan all kinds of entertaining side trips). The kids don't really care about baseball until the season actually starts and they get to head to Chavez Ravine.
By now, I'm sure you all have heard that Don Mattingly has stepped down as Dodger Batting Coach. This kind of saddens me, but at the same time, you have to respect the guy for choosing to deal with his family issues ahead of baseball. The new guy is Mike Easler, who apparently was the Triple A batting coach in Vegas. Hopefully he does a good job, we need our Dodgers bats to be on fire this season!
Lets see, what else would interest you to know? How about the fact that Joe Torre (I still can't get used to saying that) is going to let Nomar and Andy LaRoche basically duke it out to see who will be our starting third baseman? I seriously hope that Nomar wins the spot. He needs to start hitting again, not to mention that he needs to be healthy. I would love to see him play a full season without injury this year!!!
Last but not least, apparently the Dodgers are headed to China! They are going to play an exhibition game against the San Diego Padres in China during Spring Training on March 15 and 16. The first MLB games to be played in China, ever! The Dodgers will be the home team in the first game, and the Padres will be the home team in the second game.
So, that's it for today folks! I will keep this updated with breaking news, community events, and all the other fun Dodger happenings! Not too hard since I live in the middle of it all!
Until next time,
Michelle
Keywords: Andy LaRoche, baseball, China, Dodgers, Joe Torre, Los Angeles, MLB, Nomar Garciaparra, spring training
