Dodger Stadium

Two local youths, Chelsea Johnson from Crescenta Valley High School and Abraham Frandsen from La Cañada High School, were honored last week at "Mormon Night at Dodger Stadium." A tradition for many years, "Mormon Night at Dodger Stadium" draws thousands of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from numerous stakes in the greater Los Angeles area. (A stake is a geographical area which includes seven to 10 local congregations.) Six graduating high school seniors who are members of the church in the greater Los Angeles area are honored each year for outstanding academic, extracurricular activities and community service.

DODGER STADIUM — Ron Cey approached 4-year-old Reece LoCicero for an introduction and autograph. "Who's your favorite Dodger?" the former all-star third baseman asked the kindergartner. Reece was speechless, his mother saying the youngster might be better catching behind the plate than fielding the hot corner. "And you can be short and be a good catcher," she said. "That'd be perfect for you. " The Montrose family missed Back to School Night on Thursday to be the Dodgers' guests during batting practice.

Minutes before Glendale resident Montana Tsai was due to sing the national anthem before thousands of people at Dodger Stadium, the 15-year-old was all smiles. Montana’s mother, Lisa Wong Tsai — who stood nearby quietly preparing her video camera — admitted that she was probably more nervous than her daughter. “But I have a little secret,” Montana said, giggling. “When I’m nervous, I smile and laugh a lot.” A sophomore at Glendale Adventist Academy, Montana was tapped by the Dodgers to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” on Tuesday night in conjunction with the organization’s annual Chinese American Community Night, said event organizer Mike Gin, a member of the Chinese American Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles.

GLENDALE — The following are odds and ends from the local sports scene.   For the second time in three games, the Glendale Community College football team defeated Santa Ana College. The Vaqueros’ home-opening 27-13 win against the Dons on Saturday came two games removed from a 23-14 win in last season’s Western State Bowl. Saturday’s win showcased a stingy defensive effort led by defensive end Grant Valentine . The sophomore out of Burbank High had 13 tackles — five solo — to go with 3 1/2 sacks, four hurries and a forced fumble.

LOS ANGELES — Just like they were in Ohio in August, all eyes were on the members of the San Gabriel Valley Babe Ruth All-Stars on Thursday. Except this stage might just have been a bit grander. The squad stood alone on the field at Dodger Stadium as it was honored for capturing the 16-18 Babe Ruth World Series title, prior to the Dodgers’ game with the San Diego Padres. Some picked pieces of the infield grass, others used their cell phones to capture lasting images and each and every member heard their name echo through the stadium during individual introductions.

LOS ANGELES ?Baseball players don't wear earrings. At least that's how Tommy Lasorda sees it. While being honored Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium for winning the Babe Ruth baseball World Series, the San Gabriel Valley baseball team learned at least one piece of valuable information. "I told these kids to get those earrings off," said legendary Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda to a couple of the team's players. "If you want to be a big leaguer, you better look like a big leaguer."

GLENDALE — The following are updates on area Major League Baseball players.   Freddy Sanchez (Glendale Community College, 1998) Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman: Mired in a two-for-26 slump at the plate going back to April 3, the former Vaqueros and Burbank High standout raised his batting average 50 points with a three-for-five effort on Monday night in a 6-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. “I really needed that game,” said Sanchez, who was batting .250 on the season with three runs batted in and two runs scored going into the second game of Pittsburgh’s three-game series with the Dodgers on Tuesday night.

Charles Rich Make that two cherished moments celebrated by Phil Torres on the hallowed grounds of Dodger Stadium. Torres wasn't about to compare coaching the Crescenta Valley High baseball team to the CIF Southern Section Division I championship to guiding the North San Gabriel Valley Babe Ruth All-Star team to the World Series crown in August. Either way, Torres knows a good ceremony at Dodger Stadium. North San Gabriel Valley -- which featured eight local players -- was honored prior to Thursday's San Diego Padres-Dodgers contest at Dodger Stadium.

Freddy Sanchez remembers where he was when he watched Kirk Gibson's home run in the 1988 World Series. He reminisces about the days when his dad, Fred, would take him to Dodger games, sit in the pavilion and watch their heroes play. Those were the memories he savored as a kid. Now a mature 28-year-old, Sanchez couldn't help but have the same giddy emotions when he returned to Dodger Stadium as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. "I've played at Yankee Stadium, I've played at Fenway Park and I've played at Wrigley Field," said Sanchez, a 1996 Burbank High graduate who attended Glendale Community College in 1997-98.

An NFL stadium at Chavez Ravine? You can bet the new owners of the Dodgers will at least kick the tires on that idea. In fact, a league insider said the buyers had preliminary discussions with the NFL while doing their due diligence on the investment. Peter O'Malley did more than that in the late 1990s. He was well down the road on a proposal to build a football stadium next to Dodger Stadium when the city let the air out of his balloon by supporting the Coliseum, which it partly owned.

DODGER STADIUM — Ron Cey approached 4-year-old Reece LoCicero for an introduction and autograph. "Who's your favorite Dodger?" the former all-star third baseman asked the kindergartner. Reece was speechless, his mother saying the youngster might be better catching behind the plate than fielding the hot corner. "And you can be short and be a good catcher," she said. "That'd be perfect for you. " The Montrose family missed Back to School Night on Thursday to be the Dodgers' guests during batting practice.

I was 8. Some would say too young to understand. Others would wonder what took so long. I remember the smells, the sounds, the faces. Equally frightening and liberating. I was changed forever. And that time has come for my daughters. Time for Dodger baseball. Time for that pilgrimage to the Church of Chavez Ravine, the Holy Land of Hot Dogs, the temple of blue steel and gray concrete that is Dodger Stadium. The House that O'Malley Built, the Valle de Valenzuela, the land of Lasorda, the …well …you get the idea.

The first step to putting on any event, said Glendale-based Your Great Events founder Laura Thompson, is organization. It doesn’t matter if it’s a birthday party, baby shower or a wedding reception at Dodger Stadium. It was for the latter event that Thompson and her staff was nominated for a 2010 Spotlight Award as Event Producer of the Year at the Event Solutions Conference and Trade show in Las Vegas. The Spotlight Award marks the second nomination for Thompson.

GLENDALE — At this point in his 15-year Major League Baseball career, Mark Loretta’s job description has been simplified for the most part to watching from the dugout and staying ready, waiting for his chance to affect a game with his bat. Easier said than done, particularly when the former St. Francis High standout has been sitting on the bench for the better part of nine innings, as was the case in Thursday’s second game of...

GLENDALE — The Los Angeles Dodgers released their 25-man postseason roster on Wednesday morning and both Mark Loretta and Juan Castro were on it. Castro, a Glendale resident, and Loretta, a St. Francis graduate, are both utility infielders for the club. According to mlb.com, Loretta edged out Doug Mientkiewicz for the final position player spot. Neither was in the Game One starting lineup, as the Dodgers (95-67), the National League West Division champions, were set to open the National League Division Series against the visiting St. Louis Cardinals (91-61)

GLENDALE — The following are updates on area Major League Baseball players .   Mark Loretta (St. Francis High, 1989) Los Angeles Dodgers infielder: Loretta, a two time All-Star, delivered one of the biggest hits of the season for the Dodgers on Saturday night en route to helping Los Angeles win the National League West Division championship. He came through with a pinch-hit two-run single to begin a five-run seventh inning in the Dodgers’ 5-0 home win against the Colorado Rockies that clinched the division title.

GLENDALE — Graham Miller was asleep Thursday morning when he heard a scream inside his Northridge home. It was a good scream, though. Miller’s mother had just found out that he had been drafted — by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 32nd round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. Then the former Glendale Community College athlete awoke and celebrated with his family. “I had a mini-celebration with my family,” said Miller, a left-handed pitcher who was selected 967th overall after earning a bachelor’s degree in history from The Master’s College in the Santa Clarita Valley in May. “The draft started Tuesday, and I didn’t expect to be drafted.

Though it’s tough to say just how comfortable he is with his new team, Mark Loretta certainly isn’t complaining. “It’s going to be a lot different back in L.A. than it is here in Arizona,” Loretta said to the Valley Sun at spring training in Arizona. “[But] this was the team I grew up watching. I went to my first major league game at Dodger Stadium, I used to go to 10 or 12 games a year. My memories were of Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Ron Cey and Bill Russell.

W hat do a Dodgers' outfielder and a Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist have in common? They both use "perceptual judgment mechanism needed to track a sphere as drag coefficient and Magnus forces induce non-symmetric parabolas" — of course. "That’s geek speak for how a fly ball [travels]," said Don Yeoman, manager of NASA Near Earth Object Office at JPL. Yeoman used the analogy of how a ball player calculates the speed and direction of a fly ball to how scientists determine the velocity and path of asteroids as they hurdle through space.