Follow Up After Last Night's Game

I’m sure as I wandered around the Dodger clubhouse last night for the first time, that I looked like a deer in the headlights.   As much as I attempted to be nonchalant, I find that for me that usually has the opposite affect and I stick out looking like I don’t belong.

My wife bought me this awesome Nikon digital camera camera that can zoom in on a mosquito from 200 years away.  Carrying that thing around my neck made me feel a bit out of place as I noticed that I was the only one carrying anything other than a notepad and pen.

Matt Kemp at batting practice, Aug. 22nd (photo by Evan Bladh)

The reporters had their cliques, like any organization does.  There were those clusters of guys conversing and walking around comfortably.  Here I was, in the Dodger dugout for the first time, amongst all the players, trainers, and coaching staff for the first time and I know i looked like a fish out of water.

Sure, I've been around these guys before, but never in this capacity.  Intimidating?  Sure it was.  Overwhelming?  Not really.  I kind of expected what I saw.  I was surprised at the Dodger locker room that is embarrassingly small.  Players came and went, but I didn’t approach anyone one on one.  Just an eves drop here and there.  I didn’t know my way around, wasn’t quite sure where the boundaries were and certainly didn’t want to go past them.

Overall I must say that the experience was amazing.  I'll definitely want to do it again.  Jon Chapper and Garrett Thomas in the Dodgers P.R. Department were very helpful.  I'd like to thank them for being so helpful and accommodating.

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Unknown to me before yesterday is that Andre Ethier has been dealing with a problematic blister on his right hand.  Something that may be responsible for his diminishing power numbers this season.  Mattingly had this to say about it in his post game comments:

Denis Poroy/Getty Images

“That thing is huge.  It’s not like a little blister.  It’s a monster.  They said something to me last night.  He’s having some trouble.  I saw him today.  It’s not pretty.  But he did a little something different tonight.  He wrapped it a little different.  He had to hold the bat a little different.  He’s trying to go off the bat.  That we talked about, choking up a little bit.  He went a little left.  He tried that tonight.  AK (Adam Kennedy) had something like this too.”

“I think this is something that’s going to nag a little bit.  It’s going to limit the amount of work that he’s going to be able to do.  Because if he keeps working any kind of true amounts it’s gonna keep ripping.  This is gonna be something that I think is gonna hang around a little bit.

“I hate to call a blister like it’s not a big deal but if you see this thing, it’s ugly.  It came in as a blister and then he ripped it and it got underneath the callus.  It’s not pretty.”

More on the blister issue can be found in Alex Angert's mlb.com column.

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On Rubby De La Rosa’s outing:

“It was okay.  A little rough.  But I didn’t really know what to expect after a year and Tommy John (surgery).  I didn’t really want to be behind like that getting him in a game, I would have rather been ahead, but...he got his feet wet and we’ll see what he looks like next time.