Monday, July 16, 2012

Phillies at Dodgers: July 16th to July 18th

Dodger Stadium - Los Angeles, CA
Monday and Tuesday 10:10, Wednesday 3:10

Phillies 39-51, 5th Place in the N.L. East, 14 games behind the Nationals
Dodgers 48-42, 2nd Place in the N.L. West, 1 1/2 games behind the Giants

Phillies Probables:  Joe Blanton (7-8, 4.98), Roy Halladay (4-5, 3.98), Cliff Lee (1-6, 3.92)
Dodgers Probables:  Nathan Eovaldi (1-5, 4.21), TBA, Clayton Kershaw (7-5, 2.84)

At the Ballpark:  Tomorrow night, all fans will receive a Dodgers Beach Chair, which is actually a great give-away item!

Phillies Leaders
Average:  Carlos Ruiz - .353
Runs:  Hunter Pence - 59
Home Runs:  Hunter Pence - 17
RBIs:  Hunter Pence - 53
Stolen Bases:  Juan Pierre - 21

Wins:  Cole Hamels - 11
ERA:  Cole Hamels - 3.07
Strikeouts:  Cole Hamels - 125
Saves:  Jonathan Papelbon - 19

1979 Burger King Phillies #1 and 1979 Topps #290
1979 Topps Flashback:  Tonight's flashback features a few former Major Leaguers with both Dodgers and Phillies ties.

As a first baseman, Danny Ozark played 18 seasons in the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers minor league system, never making it to the Majors.  Following his playing career, he joined Walter Alston's coaching staff with the big club, where he spent the 1965 through 1972 seasons.  Following the 1972 season, Ozark left the comforts of the Dodgers franchise to assume the managerial duties for the last-place Phillies.  It took him (and the club) a few years to come around, but Ozark would guide the Phils to play-off berths in 1976, 1977 and 1978.

Unfortunately, the Phils fell short in each of those years and Ozark was fired on August 31, 1979 with the team two games under .500.  Ozark returned to the Dodgers as a coach on Tommy Lasorda's staff until part-way through the 1982 season.  He joined the Giants in 1983 and assumed interim manager duties in August 1984 following the firing of Frank Robinson.

Davey Lopes enjoyed a 16-year career, beginning with a decade with the Dodgers.  He's back as the Dodgers first base coach now, after having spent the 2007 through 2010 seasons on Charlie Manuel's staff.

2 comments:

Steve F. said...

Davey Lopes's impact on the Phillies was great. Check out this post:

http://www.philsbaseball.com/Articles/2010/archive_November.php

"Davey Lopes had an immediate impact on the Phillies' running game when he joined the Phillies in 2007. The Phils led the major leagues in stolen base percentage in all of his four seasons. They finished with the best stolen base percentage in MLB history in 2007 at 87.9%. It might be easy to attribute that success to the players, but consider that the Phillies improved from 6th in steals with a 78.6% stolen base percentage in 2006 to 4th in steals with an 87.9% rate a year later under Lopes."

I can't find confirmation, but I seem to recall that their 2008 percentage was the 2nd highest in history, and their 2010 percentage was 3rd or 4th highest!

That's why when I saw a game-issued Davey Lopes 2009 alternate home jersey at the CBP memorabilia stand for $125 earlier this year, the same price as all of the Rich Dubees, Andy Tracys, Sergio Escalonas, etc., I snagged it!

Jim said...

This is great stuff! He was definitely underrated during his time with the Phils.