Michael "Bear" Norris

Barnsie Was a Perfect Backup

After my post about the top 24 players in Dodger history, Phil suggested that I break them down by the era in which they played. He opined that it would be…

An overview of the best Dodger players... ever!

I was going to do this post when Chris announced he was retiring, then he changed his mind, but since the chances of him ever playing for the Dodgers again are slim and non-existent, I will go ahead with this post. He unretired, went on the IL, then decided to call it quits on May 24th. Taylor was born in Virginia Beach VA on August 29th, 1990. He attended Great…

I watched the video Jeff posted of Zack Erhard hitting an inside the park homer yesterday. And I was thinking that although many say the triple is the most exciting play in baseball, I tend to think hitting an inside the park homer is a little more exciting. I would bet many of us have no clue who hit the first one at Dodger Stadium. We know who hit the…

The image of a prototypical lead-off hitter has changed dramatically over the last several years. When I first started watching baseball in the 50’s, most lead of hitters were players with high OBP’s and some speed. Of course, players in the 50’s were evaluated a lot differently than players are today. Pee Wee Reese was actually hit second more than he led off. As a leadoff man, Pee Wee hit…

Since he took over as President of Baseball Operations in November of 2014, one thing that Andrew Freidman has valued in his players is versatility. Players capable of playing multiple positions have made this team very versatile and to have the ability to replace stars who are injured with players who can capably play well until the star returns. This was shown over the last couple of years especially when…

In 2004, Frank McCourt became the owner of the Dodgers. He hired Paul DePodesta as his GM in February of 2004. One of his first trades sent Jason Frasor to the Jays for Jason Werth. In April, DePodesta traded Franklin Gutierrez to the Indians for Milton Bradley. At the deadline, he traded Paul lo Duca, Juan Encarnacion and Guillermo Mota to the Marlins for Brad Penny, Bill Murphy and He…

The Dodgers throughout their long history, have been involved in many historic baseball moments. Not only their own history, but major league baseballs as well. Their first was winning the pennant in the first year of the National Leagues existence. There was no World Series as we know it now back then. Manager Bill McGunnigle had some pretty good players on his team. Some really great baseball names too. Back…

The National League as we know it, began in 1890. The Brooklyn team had been part of the American Association from 1884-89. The new rules for the new league stipulated that in order to have a team in the National League, a city must have 75,000 in population. The eight original NL teams were the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, Chicago Colts, Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds, Boston, (no nickname yet), New York Giants,…

Two things really irk me in baseball. Strikeouts and walks. So far this season, Dodger pitchers have allowed 198 free passes. They and the Seattle Mariners are the only teams below 200. I am not sure how many of those walks ended up scoring, there are no stats on-line for that. Free runners cannot be a good thing for a pitcher. Sasaki leads the Dodgers with 24 free passes in…

What do I mean by true blue? Well, over the years I have seen my share of bandwagon and fair-weather fans. True blue fans stick with the team no matter what. Their allegiance to the team never waivers. Not when a favorite is traded or lost to free agency, not when the team…

In 1957, Brooklyn Dodgers owner, Walter O’Malley, finally gave up on his dream of building a state-of-the-art ballpark in Brooklyn. He had been fighting with Robert Moses, who was in charge of all new construction for the City of New York for several years. Walter had purchased…

Over the last couple of years, the Dodgers have primarily used a closer by committee mindset. Since Kenley Jansen left via free agency, LA has not found a lock down guy. Jansen left in 2022 and took his 350 career saves to that point with him. They traded for Kimbrel in 22. Had…

Not long ago during an interview, Dodger first baseman Freddie Freeman said he wanted to play four more years which would give him 20 in the majors and take him to his age 40 season. His reasons for this are his goal of reaching 3,000 hits and finishing with a .300 batting…

Last season when Scott came into a game, Dodger fans held their breath. Their supposed closer had a disastrous season. Signed to a four-year contract, he was not performing like a star reliever. He did manage to log 23 saves on the year. But it was the 10 blown saves that the…

You look at the players who play in the majors now, and some of them a huge physical specimens. Arron Judge, Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, James Wood. All are 6’4″ or taller. Large does not always mean better, but you are more likely to be a power hitter with some size to you. But…

Carl Reginald Smith was born on April 2nd, 1945, in Shreveport Louisiana. His father played in the Negro Leagues; his mother was a gifted musician.

Since the Guggenheim Group took over in 2012, the fortunes of the Los Angeles Dodgers have been on a 13-year ride that any fan who lived through the McCourt years should never take for granted.

Johnny Roseboro caught 1,476 games for the Dodgers. He won four pennants and three World Series. And in a sport that ate Black catchers alive in the 1960s, he was the steadiest, smartest battery mate of his generation.

In the Dodgers first ten seasons in Los Angeles, they had 10 different opening day third basemen. Dick Gray opened at 3rd in 58. In 59, Jim Baxes. In order from 60-67, Gilliam, T. Davis, Darryl Spencer, McMullen, Werhas, Kennedy, Lefebvre. The first player in LA history, to…

Many years ago, 1973 in fact, when the Mets were fighting the Cubs for the division title, a fan showed up with a sign that said “You gotta believe” The phrase itself was coined by Mets reliever, Tug McGraw. Fans picked up on it, and it was seen throughout their run to the World…

Hitting for the cycle happens at about the same rate as no-hitters. Although with pitch counts the way they are, it is going to take a special effort by a starter to notch a no-hitter. Many of the cycles in baseball, are not accomplished by power hitters. There have been to…

Combinations of brothers in major league baseball are pretty rare. But there have been several cases over the year. Brothers on the same team are much rarer. There have been 461 sets of brothers play in the majors. Some have pretty famous last names, others, not so much. One…

At a very early age, I loved to read. When I began to love the game of baseball, I read every book in the school library I possibly could on the subject. Some were novels about the game like John R. Tunis’s series about the Brooklyn Dodgers. Others were biography’s written…

He isn’t a product of the Dodgers system; he was actually drafted by the Astros in the 6th round in 2009. He started his pro career in the Gulf League, a rookie level team. He was 17 years old. He showed versatility from the beginning playing SS and 2B primarily. He played in 53…

Last week when the Dodgers faced the Giants, their all-time record against each other was tied at 1,288-1,288. What you did not see were the 17 ties that they have had. So, I thought it would be interesting to see how they have fared against the teams in the National League…

On the Dodgers last road trip, they first went to Colorado, a team with the worst record in the majors. They got a stellar starting performance from Tyler Glasnow who went 7 innings and allowed just one run on two hits and two walked. Dreyer then came in and pitched two innings…

It seems like every season lately the media talks about the depth of the Dodger organization. It also seems like every season that depth is tested. The beginning of this season seems to be no exception. The depth of the starting rotation is already under scrutiny because of the…

I got to thinking about this earlier today when I was watching an old Miller beer commercial on Facebook. The player in the commercial was none other than “The Penguin”, Ron Cey. Back when I first began following the game, there were so many players with nicknames. Some were…