Dodger Stadium

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.

Barnes & Noble Children?s Department staff will read a variety of children?s books at 11 a.m. on the third Floor of Barnes & Noble at The Americana, 210 Americana Way, Glendale. Call (818) 545-9146. ? Central Library offers children the Catch the Reading Bug Summer Reading Program that runs until Aug. 2. Children all ages through eighth grade can sign up in the Children?s Room, read eight books and comeback and choose a prize book to take home. The Los Angeles Dodgers will help reward finishers with a special parade inside Dodger Stadium before the afternoon Dodgers/Brewers game on Aug. 17. Children can sign up in the Children?

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.

When Nancy Tidwell’s daughter was diagnosed with diabetes, she immediately got on the Internet and started looking for answers. Tidwell, a Glendale resident, came across the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, where she turned to for help and support. And on Sunday, that support came in droves as thousands of people, including Tidwell and her family, took part in the foundation’s Walk to Cure Diabetes event at Dodger Stadium. “I just felt like getting involved and I thought, it would be of benefit for my daughter to be involved,” Tidwell said.

CIBA Insurance Services partnered with the YWCA on Thursday to treat 16 children to a baseball game from a luxury suite Friday at Dodger Stadium. The children are part of the YWCA shelter programs, which provide emergency lodging to mothers and their children to help them escape domestic abuse, said Eliza Karagezian, volunteer coordinator for the YWCA. The outing to see the Dodgers play the Arizona Diamondbacks came after representatives from the company?s CIBA foundation contacted the YMCA last month about coordinating a charitable activity specifically for children in the Glendale community, she said.

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.

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.

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.