Friday, October 02, 2009

Me calling Dodger baseball

The regular season is over but the Dodgers are in the playoffs! They can't seem to win one more game to clinch it but still!

The good news: More games to cover. More Dodger Talk shows on KABC.

The bad news: No, I can't get you tickets. And even if I could, you haven't talked to me since high school. Why the hell should I do you a favor? Oh...and it's Ken, not Kevin.

Earlier in the year I got to fill in and do some Dodger play-by-play. Several of you have asked to hear a sample (not the high school guy, he just wants tickets --and parking passes if possible). I've been lax in uploading it but figure I better do it now cause once the playoffs are over no one is going to give a shit about listening to a baseball broadcast.

So relive some exciting moments and a lot of standing around as I call a Dodgers-Brewers game with Steve Lyons.

15 comments :

Kevin said...

What can you do to stop the bleeding?

-Kevin.

Really, it's Kevin not Ken.

Mary Stella said...

GO PHILLIES!

Kyle Baker said...

Really enjoy hearing you call a game or comment on it before and after. Great work!

Aaron Barnhart said...
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Aaron Barnhart said...

I just think it's cool that Vin taped an intro for you. If the Dodgers did their intros like the network newscasts, Vin would say, "Now here's Rick and Charley," and then YOU'D have to say, "Good afternoon, I'm Ken Levine filling in for Rick ... or ... Charley."

Unknown said...

EXCELLENT KEN! Now that I've finally been able to tell the difference between you and Josh Lewin, if he's good enough for Fox, or the Rangers for that matter, you're good enough for regular fill-ins for the Dodgers! After all you and Rick both have the Padres on your resume.

Tim W. said...

It's amazing. I've heard your voice before, but for some reason, baseball play-by-play announcers all seem to sound the same, to me. I'd take that as a compliment, because you fit right in.

Oh, and you should do an essay for the Village Voice entitled, I Will Not Get You F**King Dodgers Tickets.

VP81955 said...

Good stuff, Ken. Now get a load of this comment, courtesy of Red Sox exec Larry Lucchino: He was recently interviewed by the Harvard Crimson regarding a law school class' trip to Fenway Park, which included this exchange:

When the reporter said he had only ever been to a Nationals game, Lucchino had a ready retort, flashing his team allegiance. “You can’t go see the Nationals,” he said. “That doesn’t count.”

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=529313

Larry, you just exponentially increased the number of Angels fans in the Washington area next week. May your comment (and its hubris) become the 2009 equivalent of "Is Brooklyn still in the league?" as the New England Evil Empire takes a tumble.

Mike Barer said...
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Anonymous said...

This just in:
Laker Girls are changing their name to The Navel Academy.

Cap'n Bob said...

Hearing footsteps, Vin Scully?

Good to hear you, Ken. I've bashed the Dodgers a lot over the years because they left Brooklyn, but I recently learned they didn't want to go. They'd submitted plans for a new ballpark and Robert Moses, who was in charge of city planning or some such, nixed it. So they left.

Mike Barer said...

It looks like a Dodgers-Angels World Series matchup is an real possibility. It would be interesting because this year marks the 20th anniversary of the "Bay Area World Series" between San Francisco and Oakland, which was a story in itself. Hang on to your hats.

VP81955 said...

I've bashed the Dodgers a lot over the years because they left Brooklyn, but I recently learned they didn't want to go. They'd submitted plans for a new ballpark and Robert Moses, who was in charge of city planning or some such, nixed it. So they left.

Definitely true. O'Malley wanted to build a domed stadium near the LIRR Atlantic Avenue terminal in downtown Brooklyn, roughly the site where the NBA's Nets plan to build an arena now. Moses would have none of it; he wanted the Dodgers to move to Flushing Meadows in Queens (the area the Mets now occupy).

O'Malley was cool to the idea for several reasons. One, the Dodgers wouldn't have been in Brooklyn, but Queens, and the area lacked direct subway access from most of Brooklyn -- and still does. To see the Mets from Brooklyn by subway, you have to change trains in Manhattan or transfer to the rickety G line, a clumsy local that goes through Williamsburg and Greenpoint. (For some reason, Moses never offered the Flushing site to Horace Stoneham.)

Given 1950s technology, a dome in that era might have been an aesthetic disaster, an early version of the Kingdome. But that's what O'Malley wanted, and when the choice came down to either staying in a declining ballpark with next to no parking or moving to the largest city on the West Coast, he chose the latter; had it been my money, I'd probably have done likewise.

So Pete Hamill and his cronies who keep whining about O'Malley should look at Robert Moses as the real villain in this piece -- and given all the other things Moses did to destroy the city in the name of suburbanization, he deserves to be far more vilified. (Let me also add I am the son of Brooklynites who regularly went to Dodgers games in Flatbush.)

Incidentally, the "Daily Mirror" blog in the Times is curretnly running material onf the 1959 World Series.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/

Ken, did you ever go to any baseball games at the Coliseum from 1958 to '61? (Or, for that matter, see the first-year AL Angels at LA Wrigley Field?)

David K. M. Klaus said...

VP81955 wrote:

> So Pete Hamill and his cronies who
> keep whining about O'Malley should
> look at Robert Moses as the real
> villain in this piece -- and given
> all the other things Moses did to
> destroy the city in the name of
> suburbanization, he deserves to be
> far more vilified.

So you're saying that Red Barber was wrong, and the most evil men of the 20th century weren't Hitler, Stalin, and Walter O'Malley but instead Hitler, Stalin, and Robert Moses?


WV: "paulaste" -- greeting used by offshoot Buddhist sect who have little pot-bellied statues of Paula Abdul.

Joe Hass said...

Since the only previous pxp I've heard you do was from "Dancin' Homer," this was great! Plus the People's Choice award reference was a nice touch.