Andre Ethier is congratulated by Manny Ramirez after hitting his 20th homerun of the season. AP Photo by Mark J Terril This is finally it... maybe. The Dodger's weekend showdown against the Arizona Diamondbacks could determine who gets into the post-season and who is left out. With that, the Blue got this weekend series started off right by continuing their winning ways. They completely took out the D-Backs 7-0 extending their win streak to......

This past Wednesday, LAist was lucky enough to head over to Dodger Stadium to party in Nintendo's VIP suite in celebration of Mario Super Sluggers, the latest sports release for Wii. With dodger dogs and Wii-motes in tow, various media gathered to check out how Nintendo would answer their last successful Mario-related soccer game, Mario Strikers Charged. Product developers and PR reps went through the motions of how to negotiate all our favorite Nintendo characters......

US Sweeps Women's Individual Saber Medals. Gold medalist Mariel Zagunis (center) is flanked by silver medal winner Sada Jacobson (left) and bronze medal winner Becca Ward(right). AP/Andrew Medichini With so much going on in the world of sports right now with the Olympics, baseball, USC injuries and all, here's a list of things to keep an eye on. The USA got it's first medal sweep in women's fencing. Mariel Zagunis defended her 2004 gold......

Manny-mania has hit Southern California. With Manny Ramirez, the Dodgers have injected themselves in the ass with a syringe filled with hopes of playing in October. Friday night the script was written perfectly. The first three Dodger hitters were retired by D-Backs starter Randy Johnson making the video montage of some of Manny’s home runs right before he led off the second inning the perfect elixir to get the crowd into a frenzy. MAN-NY!......

Moments ahead of the MLB trade deadline, the Los Angeles Dodgers finally picked up a big bat. Red Sox outfielder Manny Ramirez will call Chavez Ravine home after a rocky end to his career in Boston. The slugger begged to be traded anywhere, saying he would play in Iraq and joking that he should be traded to the Green Bay Packers for Brett Favre. Recently, he was seen chatting on a cell phone during a......

Starting tomorrow and throughout the baseball season, thanks to efforts by the LA City Council, a free "Dodgers Trolley" begins service between Union Station and Dodger stadium (behind Center Field). With two stops in between at Cesar Chavez Ave/Figueroa St. and Sunset Blvd./Marion Ave., the trip is estimated to take less than 20-minutes and a trolley can be caught every 8 or so minutes. A map of the route can be found here and more......

As we mentioned earlier today, Los Angeles native Baron Davis is headed home and he's bringing his beard and 21 points per game with him. The former Crossroads School and UCLA standout came to a verbal agreement with the LA's other team, making the Clippers suddenly relevant and a playoff contender. Baron credits the community for his decision telling ESPN, "I'm happy with where I'm going. A big reason is because of the impact and......

A follow up on last week's proposal going to committee and City Council: "The Los Angeles City Council decided unanimously today [Friday] to spend $70,000 to offer DASH bus service to Dodger games beginning July 25 and going through the end of the season. The council meeting was pretty much a replay of Wednesday's transportation committee meeting -- with the Dodgers saying they wouldn't pay and Councilman Bill Rosendahl complaining that they should," Steve Hymon......

The proposed route from Union Station to Dodger Stadium | View Larger Map Come end of July, expect to see public transit hit Dodger stadium again after a 14-year hiatus (save for a small Friday night 2004 experiment that failed). A proposal is making it's way through city council this week and is expected to pass out of committee and the full council. The plan, for the last 32 home games starting July 25, is......

LAistory is a series that takes us on a journey to what came before to help us understand where we are today. So far we've been to Val Verde, Thelma Todd's Roadside Cafe, a house in Beverly Hills, Echo Park's Bonnie Brae House, Marineland of the Pacific, and Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale. Now we're going to take you out to the ballgame, some decades back... The arrival of the Dodgers in Los......

The city of Anaheim's challenge to have the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim remove their northern neighbors local from their name will have to wait until the pennant race heats up even more. The hearing has been postponed until September 11. No reason was given for the delay except that they had "good cause" to sit on it for the summer. At this rate, the Angels may not find out if they must change......

Imagine a stadium full of knitters tonight! / Photo by Atwater Village Newbie via LAist's flickr pool. MUSIC CLASS The Ford Amphitheatre is holding class tonight. Its “J.A.M. Sessions” will teach singers and musicians of all levels (string and chord instruments) learn how to transform a pop tune into a modern classical arrangement. At the end of the session, all will perform the song together with musicians from the upcoming “Notes From The Edge”......

Los Angeles has a lot of interesting places with interesting histories. Take, for instance, Dodger Stadium and how it came to pass in Chavez Ravine. But just adjacent to Dodger Stadium is another place that has an interesting history and purpose in the CIty, and around the world. Located at 2000 Stadium Way, Barlow Respitory Hospital was founded in 1902 as the Barlow Sanitarium to treat the tuberculosis epidemic that swept the nation. In fact,......

Andruw Jones doing a belly flop in a game against the Mets 5/6/08. AP/Kevork Djansezian I really keep hoping the Dodgers would break out and show they are a team that could contend for a World Series, but I have to face the fact they are making me look like an oracle. The Dodgers are a team that will make things interesting for a while but will come up short in the end. At......

I can't believe I called in sick to work to watch this utterly terrible Dodger game. The Blue Crew lost 12 to 1 to the Mets at their monthly mid-week day game today. Maine was pitching a complete game shutout into the 9th until the Dodgers managed to squeak out one run to wipe that big fat 0 off the scoreboard. Not much to say about this one. It sucked balls. A bunch of......

This is going to be brief. I am lucky to be alive after 3 hours in scorching 90+ degree heat, and my very last ounce of energy will be used to get these photos up before I pass out. Literally. The Dodgers started Loaiza, which is usually a death sentence but today he only gave up two earned runs! This is a huge improvement! The Rockies started Jeff Francis (0-2), who didn't throw nearly......

Tonight's Dodger game was amazing in so many ways. The emotions ran high, ranging from the elation of witnessing Matt Kemp's grand slam to top off a 10 run first inning, the fear and helplessness of watching umpire Kerwin Danley get hit in the head by one of Penny's pitches, and then the absolute anger and frustration that I personally experienced sitting in front of the most annoying fucktard ever. Sometime around the 5th......

Andre Ethier gets hit by a pitch. There are very few days in my life when I actually wish I were rich, but today happened to be one of those days. My sister scored us field level seats behind home plate, which are a world of difference from our season seats in reserve level. As luck would have it, every time someone gives me amazing seats, the Dodgers lose. Every single time I've sat......

I’m an Angels fan. There. It’s out there and I feel pretty good about it. No longer will I feel the need to only wear red among my closest friends who will not snicker or judge me. I may even have a coming out party. I’m walking on eggshells as many of my colleagues here at LAist bleed Dodger Blue. Seriously, I’ve seen it. It’s really gross, like ink and ranch dressing. Being an......

Photo by LAist News Editor Andy Sternberg Wait, cancel that, reports The Smoking Gun in March: Major League Baseball has forced the closure of an online business run by a Barack Obama supporter who tweaked team logos to create t-shirts promoting the Illinois Democrat's presidential bid. The web site Obamaofdreams.com began selling the $19.99 shirts last month and had more than a dozen versions available when an MLB lawyer sent proprietor Morris Levin a......

In 1989 I was chewing on the strings of my glove while patrolling the infield for the North End Little League Tee-Ball Padres in my hometown of Bridgeport, CT. We didn't lose a game. We didn't win either - they don't keep score in tee-ball. That same year, ESPN's Buster Olney began his career as a baseball writer, covering the Nashville Sounds for the Nashville Banner. Rather than get analysis and insight on the 2008......

Memphis Tigers defeat UCLA Bruins 78-63. Memphis was too much for UCLA. While the Bruins kept it manageable for most of the game, the Tigers turned up the gear in the final five minutes to send the Bruins home. Darren Collison scored only two points before fouling out in the second half, and the Bruins couldn't get the ball to Kevin Love. Memphis will face Kansas Monday night in the championship game. San Diego......

Clippers defeat Seattle Sonics 102-84. Elton Brand's return from a torn Achille's tendon sparked the Clippers. Orginally slated to play just a few minutes to get back into game form, he ended up playing 25 minutes notching 19 points on 7-15 shooting off the bench. Giants defeat Dodgers 2-1. The game started weirdly when both starting pitchers (Chad Billingsley for the Dodgers and Tim Lincecum for the Giants) were pulled due to the impending storm.......

Photo by kristi.nicole via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr One week after being subdued in his cell with a taser gun and lapsing into a coma, 35-year-old Orange County inmate Jason Jesus Gomez has died, officials announced today. Gomez, who was in jail for a probation violation, stopped breathing after officers used the taser on him during a scuffle. Say cheese: LA City Council voted today to approve a contract that will put......

Yesterday came news of afternoon rain for today. As of mid-morning, the National Weather Service said the rain is at a 70% chance. The bad news is if the predicted rain happens, the Dodgers' third game could be canceled and with a two-game winning streak, who wants that? "The storm forecast for tonight could result in the first rainout at Dodger Stadium since April 17, 2000," the Pasadena Star News reports. "Since the last rainout......

Angels defeat Twins 9-1. Catcher Mike Napoli and first baseman Casey Kotchman had solo homers to demolish the Twins. Jon Garland pitched eight innings for the Angels giving up six hits and one earned run in the fifth on 95 pitches. 95 pitches! For today the Angels pitching gives a sigh of relief. Dodgers defeat Giants 3-2. Dodger third base coach Larry Bowa almost ate umpire Ed Montague's head off after getting thrown out......

Tonight's game was a hell of a lot of fun, even though it was cold and windy and we were getting dive-bombed by hummingbird-sized moths. Both pitchers (Lowe and Cain) pitched five shutout innings before giving up a few runs. Lowe took a comebacker to the lower leg to make way for Joe Beimel to come in and allow two runners to score. Troncoso make his ML debut with the bases loaded and one......

What a glorious day for baseball. Not too hot, not too cold and a bright blue sky. Well as bright as it can get in LA. In the emotional pregame ceremony, the Dodgers brought out the legendary former players starting with Duke Snider and concluding with the elusive Sandy Koufax. It showed how much Dodger fans appreciate the history of the franchise and always yearns for a team to carry on the legend. When......

Kevin Roderick, by Marc Goldstein courtesy KCRW. In May, Kevin Roderick's LA Observed will celebrate its fifth year as one of the city's main online destination for those seeking the inside scoop on media and politics. Roderick, a 25-year veteran of the LA Times and author of two books about Los Angeles, sat down for nearly an hour where talking about the past, present and future of LA Observed, why he thinks people should......

Dodgers defeats Giants 5-0. A 5-0 win to usher in the 50th anniversary in Los Angeles. The Dodgers looked like World Series contenders against a Giant's team many expect to lose more than 100 games. Jeff Kent hit his 18th opening day RBI with a two-run homer in the first inning, the most among active players. Brad Penny pitched 6 2/3 innings of shut out ball in which he admits he was subpar while......