(Note from Ron: Other blogs... y'know, the ones that make money... send their writers here and there to cover major events. Here at SB, where we're so broke we can't even come up with a decent analogy, we just take advantage of our commenters' vacations. Enjoy!)

Game 3: St. Louis Cardinals at Los Angeles Dodgers (ss)
Holman Stadium at Dodgertown, Vero Beach, FL
March 7, 2007

A Little Ballpark History: Dodgertown has been in existence since 1948, when the then-Brooklyn Dodgers took over a former WWII naval air station in Vero Beach. Holman Stadium, the ballpark, opened on March 11, 1953, and was named for the Vero Beach businessman who invited the Dodgers to come to Vero Beach. Dodgertown is more than just a spring training facility; it also includes housing, a conference center and a golf course. Dodger personnel also have the use of a swimming pool, basketball court, four all-weather tennis courts, game room and movie theater. Dodgertown was created so that all of their players and coaches (minor and major leagues alike) would have a place to train and learn about baseball. Activities are for the most part year-round, and, in some cases (such as the conference center and golf course), open to the general public.

Best Thing About It: The history. This place has seen 60 years' worth of Dodgers players come and go. To look out on the field at Holman Stadium and realize that legends such as Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Jackie Robinson have played on this field is just mind-blowing. To Dodgers fans (and anyone else who really loves baseball), I highly recommend the book, Dodgertown by Mark Langill. It details the history of the place in stories and photos.

Saddest Thing About It: Unfortunately, all too soon, there will be no more Dodgers in Dodgertown. In 2009, the Dodgers will be doing their spring training in Arizona, and unless someone decides to take their place, Holman Stadium will be empty. I expect someone will be moving in once the Dodgers are gone (it's far too beautiful a facility to remain unoccupied), but all the same, it's not going to be the same without having the Dodgers there.

Okay, enough with the memories, on to the game...

The Weather: Sunny and hot--about 80 degrees worth of hot. "Break out the sunscreen and buy yourself a cap" hot.

The Attendance: 4,525, which is pretty damn good in a stadium that holds just under 6,500--and especially good since this is a split-squad game, which means that each team only has about half its players there. At least half of that number were Cardinals fans; the entire first-base side was a sea of red shirts. Cardinals fans are a loyal bunch, much like Indians fans--and the fact that their team won the World Series last year doesn't hurt, either.

Star Power: The legendary Tommy Lasorda made his usual appearance in full uniform and sat with the team...and dozed off within the first three innings of the game. Ya gotta love Tommy, he's like the Dodgers mascot when they're at Dodgertown; big (and I do mean big, those Slim-Fast days are long gone), lovable and totally fan-friendly.

Cardinals' starters: Aaron Miles, 2B; Chris Duncan, LF; Scott Rolen, 3B, Tagg Bozied, 1B; Rick Ankiel, DH; Jolbert Cabrera, SS; Skip Schumaker, CF; Gary Bennett, C, Miguel Negron, RF; Braden Looper, P.

Dodgers' starters: Damian Jackson, SS; Juan Pierre, CF, Nomar Garciaparra (aka NOMAHHHHH!), 1B; Jeff Kent, 2B; Luis Gonzales, LF; Russell Martin, C; James Loney, RF; Mike Lieberthal, DH; Andy LaRoche, 3B; Brad Penny, P.

Non-Roster Appearances I noticed: None--not that neither team has any, but two things made it hard to really notice:

1. the Dodgers do give out a roster list for both teams, but the lists must get made in January or something, because not only do they NOT list all the players, they don't always have the players' numbers right when they do list them. They also don't designate which players on the roster are non-roster invitees.

2. Both the Dodgers and Cardinals did some serious lineup juggling today. Not only were they subbing players, but they'd move players from one field position to another. I was lucky if I could get the batting lineup straight just with the regular subbing, never mind having to figure out if they'd been moved around or not.

Best Hitting: Cards, hands down. Five home runs hit today; two from CF Skip Schumaker(who went 3 for 4 for the day), one from LF Chris Duncan, and one each from subs John Rodriguez and Edgar Gonzalez. Scott Rolen went 2 for 4 with two singles, Gary Bennett doubled, and Aaron Miles, Tagg Bozied, and Jolbert Cabrera each singled.

The Dodgers weren't exactly slouches at the plate, either. James Loney went 3 for 3 with three singles, Nomahhh, Jeff Kent, Russell Martin and subs Ramon Martinez and Larry Bigbie all singled as well. If they'd been able to group all those singles into runs, maybe they'd have done better, but they didn't.

Best Fielding: Fielding was decent for both teams; only one error for each team. The Dodgers' James Loney got a lot of fan abuse for his play out in RF, but once he got moved back to his usual infield spot, he did much better. Nomahhhh made two especially sweet plays on poor beleaguered Rick Ankiel, snagging a line drive of his in the 2nd inning, then digging Ankiel's hard-hit ground ball out of the dirt and tossing it to the pitcher for the out just a step ahead of Ankiel in the 4th.

Starting Pitching: Brad Penny should have stayed in bed today (or perhaps asked to pitch against the Marlins in the night game). Two innings of work delivered six runs on seven hits, one walk and one K. The only thing that kept his walk total down was the hits; he had a lot of batters at full count.
In contrast, Braden Looper held the Dodgers to four hits and no runs over 3 1/3 innings; not bad for a pitcher better known as a mediocre closer than as a starter.

Other Pitching: The Dodgers brought out six pitchers after their bad Penny; out of all of them, only Takashi Saito and Jonathon Broxton managed to come out relatively unscathed. The Cardinals used four; none outstanding, but at least they were able to hold the Dodgers to only one run.

Final Score: Cardinals 11, Dodgers 1

Overall Report: Early as it may be, if I was a Dodgers fan, I think I might be a tad concerned. Not that they were all that bad, but when you can only generate one run out of nine hits, it's not good. As for the Cardinals--good gawd, if this is a split-squad team, imagine what the full squad could do. I saw a lot of things I liked; lots of hustle, good hitting, decent pitching. Too early to talk repeat, but they're on the right track.

Cardinals: A
Dodgers: B-

Next Game: Astros at Nationals