Tagged: Rose Parade.
Rose Parade 2014: Dreams Come True
I barely uploaded all my pictures from the Rose Parade. With Vin Scully being the Grand Marshall in 2014, I made sure to get up early to go to the parade. The last time Vin had been to the parade was in 2008 when the Dodgers had this float:
Remember it? Vin Scully, Tommy Lasorda, Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine, Nancy Bea, Fernando, Garvey, Nomah, Saito, Eric Karros, James Loney were on the parade. I remember it so well spending a few days and nights working on the parade. I was worry that it was not going to be done on time that after spending the day working on it, I went home for dinner and went back to work on it the night before on the 31st. I went back a few hours later to see it leave the place to the parade. Afterwards when It was going by on Colorado, I took off running next to it saying hi to the guys on the parade that were on my side of it. I did it without thinking until I could not go by any further due to the people on the side. When I stopped I realized I should not have done that. We had a good laugh about it with the two friends that followed me running along the float.
Here are the pictures of the parade. This time I stayed put watching all the floats and taking pictures until my battery went dead.
Vin Scully, Grand Marshal 2014
Burbank float.
Jon Soo Hoo walking taking pictures.
Kiwanis float
Vin Scully
A tribute to teachers!
One of the two cars carrying Vin Scully’s family.
Rosie the Riveter did not come out as clear. Note part of my Dodger crazy hat showing and my arm up in a fist.
I hope your dreams come true in 2014!
Vin Scully on Twitter 12/16/13 #AskVin
What a treat for Christmas to have Vin Scully take over the Dodger account on Monday.
As everyone knows, Vin Scully will be the Grand Marshall at the 2014 Rose Parade.
Here are the questions that Vin Scully answered:
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! A pleasure to be tweeting with you this morning. #AskVin
@Dodgers #AskVin Are you going to the football game after the Rose Bowl parade? Maybe call a little of the game with @KirkHerbstreit ?
@weber_virginia yes, the Grand Marshal tosses the coin to start the game! No, I’ll be busy with the entire family who will be there#AskVin
@Dodgers any special plans with the family for the holidays? #AskVin
@LADodgerFans I called http://santascall.org and the grandkids are in for a big surprise with a call from Santa.#AskVin
No question but @Dodgers vin you are truly a great man and it’s been an honor to have listened to you all these years #AskVin #VinIsTheMan
@Dodgers Vin, after many many years with the Dodgers, what play and game do you hold closest to your heart..#askvin
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@vincebase5 probably the ’55 World Series. That was the only one the#Dodgers ever won in Brooklyn. That was probably the most momentous.
#AskVin what was your most memorable year
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@clariceann__27 Certainly the 42-8 stretch was bordering on the miraculous. That was really amazing.#AskVin
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@h_horenstein I should say, that has to be the ultimate compliment.#AskVin
@Dodgers hey Vin, you have seen many great dodger pitchers. Where would you rank Kershaw among them? #AskVin
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@21AGM Clayton is on his way to joining the top 5. He just needs some more seasons.#AskVin - On naming Public Enemy No. 1: It was the most electrifying curveball we had seen in some time.
#AskVin
Vin, do you have an iPhone and what apps do you use? #askVin
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@Ruy24 I have a whole bunch — a dictionary, a history one, the stock market and a newspaper app. Those are a couple that I use.#AskVin
@Dodgers Hi Vin. Merry Christmas! Do you have a favorite childhood memory from the holidays? The best gift you ever received as a boy?
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@TBrownYahoo the best gift I ever received was a bicycle. I was about 8 years old. As a small boy we never had a Christmas tree. I’d go to bed and there would be no sign of Christmas in the apartment. I would wake up and rush into the living room and there would be a Christmas tree fully decorated.#AskVin
@Dodgers favorite baseball movie? #AskVin
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@LBthrowbackDUDE I did work on a movie, “For Love of the Game.” Perhaps because I was so involved in it. They built a press box in the studio and they showed the game on a huge screen. I broadcast what I saw. There was no script.#AskVin
@Dodgers Vin, I would be honored if you and your lovely wife would join us for Christmas dinner. #AskVin
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@Geeman1026 It would be hard for me to leave the gathering at our house with 16 grandchildren. It will be quite a group.#AskVin
#AskVin Where and when did “Pull up a chair…” originate?
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@DJLBroker I don’t really know. It was just something that came out of my mouth some sixty odd years ago. I just picked it up.#AskVin
@Dodgers Mr.Scully #AskVin is now trending, your thoughts? pic.twitter.com/gcnV9ibrEe
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@Viv_Scully it’s fun, somewhat intimidating and a thrill.#AskVin
@Dodgers Have you ever met Mariano Rivera personally? #AskVin
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@davidsDOINit Yes, he is an amazing charitable man. I didn’t know that until I met him.#AskVin
@Dodgers How did you arrange to have http://Santascall.org call your grandkids?
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@jaredkaufer Enter the website, answer the questionnaire, and Santa gives three choices for times to call.#AskVin
@Dodgers #AskVin Do you remember the first baseball game you attended?
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@ErnieMontano It was at the Polo Grounds. Dodgers and the Giants. I would say it was 1939. In the bleachers and cost 55 cents.#AskVin - I started calling games in my head when I was playing stickball with the boys. Then would holler a little play-by-play from my apartment.
@Dodgers Good morning, is there a particular celebrity memory that is a favorite? Presidents? Thrilled you’re on twitter. Thanks! #AskVin
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@LAKingsSCC2012 Walter O’Malley introduced me to General Douglas MacArthur. He was a typical General — strong, quiet, austere. I lived in Ronald Reagan’s neighborhood and went to the White House for his 1st inauguration with my wife.That was really one in a million.
@Dodgers who is the greatest baseball player of all time? #AskVin
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@sanjosegarber Babe Ruth. Great hitter, great pitcher.#AskVin - Vin Scully on if he heard the
#Dodgers are doing a Babe Ruth bobblehead this season: No, but I want one.#AskVin
And to conclude:
- A heartfelt thanks to all, and as Tiny Tim said, “God bless us, every one!” -Vin Scully
#AskVin
Thank you Vin for taking the time to answer questions on Twitter. See you at the Rose Parade! My question was favored by the Dodgers but it was not asked. I wanted to know what is Vin Scully reading in the offseason.
Feliz Dia de los Reyes! The Three Kings brought me a present!
Today January 6th, is the day of the Three Kings or the Three Wise Men.
The three kings were late to bring presents to baby Jesus. They finally arrived on January 6th. It is a day well celebrated in Latin America. Instead of believing that Santa Claus brings you presents, kids believe the three Kings bring them.
I got a present in the mail today from the three Kings!
Ok, so it was not the Three Kings that brought me a bottle of Tommy Lasorda wine. It was my friend Sandi who was here in the LA area visiting last week! Thank you Sandi! You shouldn’t have but I love it!!
After I picked up Sandi last week and we had lunch at Portos Bakery, guess where we went?
Here we are at Santa Barbara with Julie who is another Cardinal fan.
Coming back from Santa Barbara, we stopped at Jeff Suppan’s restaurant “Soup’s Grill”. jeff was the nicest person. He even gave us one of his baseball cards that he made specifically for the Grand Opening of his restaurant. Thanks Jeff! You rock! I hope you do sign with a team soon!
Sandi took a ton of pictures from the Rose Parade, the two wine tasting places, Soup’s Grill, the Equestrian Festival, the Griffith Observatory.
Thank you Julie for driving us to Santa Barbara. It was fun hanging with you two in Santa Barbara and Woodland Hills (Jeff’s restaurant & Trader’s Joes (Sandi had never been) Wine was good, company great and I loved Polo’s suggestion of going to the Santa Barbara Shell Fish Co. Is a small world that Polo suggested also to go to Surf Dog for a Dodger Dog. I know about Surf Dog because of Jane Heller.
Thank you Sandi! I loved having you here in LA and I got to go to places that I had not been to even if I am a local here.
Is great to hang with Baseball friends! The Rose Parade theme was just perfect: “Building values, friendships and memories.
visit Jeff’s Suppan restaurant at http://www.soupsgrill.com/ He has a ton of baseball memorabillia.
Ozzie Guillen Answered my Question! Happy 75th Birthday Sandy Koufax!
A while back when the Dodgers got Uribe, I posted a question on Ozzie Guillen’s blog. He responded! Thanks Ozzie!
Q: Since the Dodgers have Juan Uribe and he played for the White Sox, what can you tell us about him?
A: Uribe is awesome. He may look like a little Buddha, but he is an amazing baseball player. I think he is so good because he is not afraid of the moment. He really is fearless, maybe because he has no idea how big the moments actually are! (haha) I only kid with him because that’s my boy, and he will be great for the Dodgers.
As I always say, keep the questions coming!
Until next time …
— Ozzie
Haha. Ozzie is funny. If you want to sent Ozzie any question, go to his blog at http://ozzie.mlblogs.com/
Happy Birthday Sandy Koufax! Our Sandy turns 75 today December 30th?
I have a friend who is a big Cardinal fan in town so I’ve been busy.
Tuesday: We went to Portos in Burbank, Dodger Stadium, The San Antonio Winery, Philippes, Olvera Street, Union Station.
Wednesday: The Equestrian Fest in Burbank, lunch at a Honduran restaurant (Lempiras) and the Griffith Observatory.
Thursday: We are going to Santa Barbara with another Cardinal fan who has a blog here then coming back to Woodland Hills to go to Jeff Suppan’s restaurant “Soup’s Grill”
Friday: ???? Sandi: What are we doing Friday? Maybe help decorate a float and then ???
Saturday: The Rose Parade.
Building Dreams, Friends and Memories
“Building Dreams, Friends and Memories” is the theme of the Rose Parade for 2011.
Congratulations to CPompe1 (Carol) for knowing that trivia in my prior post: What do Gregory Peck, Lorne Greene, Arnold Palmer, Dr. William H. Pickering, E.L. Bob Barlett and Earl Warren have in common?
They all served as GMs (Grand Marshals) of the Rose Parade. The years in order of names above: 1988, 1981, 1965, 1963, 1959 and 1955. Those are the years the Dodgers won the World Series.
Paula Deen was named the Grand Marshal for 2011 ya’ll I wonder if she was the first choice.
From the www.examiner.com:
Peck wasn’t the first choice, but he was a terrific one. The first choice that year, was Walter Cronkite. Perfect, but Cronkite had a previous engagement. The second, unnamed choice, bowed out at the last minute, just the before the programs went to press.
Despite being third in line, Peck was one of the most enthusiastic Grand Marshals ever. He had been attending Rose Parades with his father since he was a boy, and was thrilled to be riding along Colorado Blvd. in a vintage car. He pulled some strings and got on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, the first Grand Marshal to appear in that bastion of late-night celebrities.
Baseball players as GMs:
1999 Jackie Robinson (posthumously)
1975 Henry L. “Hank” Aaron.
Anyone seen the add on the internet for the ’67 Rose parade hosted by Vin Scully with Elizabeth Montgomery from Bewitched?
For a list of other Rose Parade grand marshals go to http://www.tournamentofroses.com/the-rose-parade/history/grand-marshals
Here is to building dreams, friendship and memories!
Looking back at The Dodgers and the 00 Decade
The 00 decade saw me going from single games, to mini packages to returning to being a season ticket holder.
When I review my Dodger pictures, what I remember from the 00 decades are the thrill of victories, the friends that I have made because of baseball and or the Dodgers, the friends that I continue to have, the sadness for departed players, the pain by the beloved players that have used PEDs, the way I have learned to accept that we can’t win every game but still the frustration of some of those winnable games, my beloved Dodger Stadium, the road trips, Vero Beach, Camelback Ranch, the game at the Coliseum, the Dodger float at the Rose Parade, the Bluetopia movie, the Dodger Star in Hollywood Walk of fame, my family and non-baseball friends accepting and understanding for my love for the Dodgers.
Dodgers Most Remembered during this 00 Decade.
Vin Scully. Hearing Vin Scully on the radio or TV or when I ride the elevator at the stadium brings a big smile to my face. He is the reason I carry a radio to the stadium.
Adrian Beltre. My first and last player’s jersey. After his departure, I vowed not to get a current player’s jersey. My next jersey was a Jackie Robinson jersey.
Paul Lo Duca. He lingered in the minor league for a while. From 2001 to 2004, he hit .288 and hit 55 homers and 286 RBIs. I cried when I heard him crying when he found out he got traded to the Marlins.
Eric Gagne. Oh, how electrifying it was to listen to “Welcome to the Jungle” when he exit the bullpen gate. There was such energy from the entire stadium with the anticipation of him coming into the game.
Paul Lo Duca and Eric Gagne: How dissapointed I was when I read the Mitchell report.
Shawn Green He hit 91 homers in a two-year span, including four of them in a single game at Milwaukee on May 23, 2002. Shawn just went quietly about his business. He was such a nice guy.
Here is a picture of Shawn Green with Sandy Koufax:
Jeff Kent. He was the Dodgers’ best offensive player for the bulk of his four seasons with the club. He got a raw deal with a writer from the L.A. Times. I am glad that he got to host the WIN Baseball clinic for four years so that we, the fans that attended those events and others he attended got to see a more approachable and friendly Jeff Kent.
Derek Lowe. Reliable, never been on the disabled list. At times, I felt bad for the lack of run support. I made it a point to go by the bullpen after his starts to praise his starts when he lost. He was nice and friendly with the fans. He helped Jeff Kent at one of the WIN baseball games
Manny Ramirez. He energized the team when he was traded during the July 2008 tradeline. His production dropped off after his return from his suspension but one must also remember that he got hit on the wrist after coming back. Likable and friendly when my friends and I met him by coincidence in the parking lot during Spring Training.
Andre Ethier. There was no other player I’d like to see when the game was on the line than Andre. He lead the majors with six walk-off hits in 2009 and a total of nine walk-off hits in 2008 and 2009 combined, with five of those hits home runs. What an incredible year he had in 2009.
2008: It was a very good year…
Looking back at my camera and all the pictures I have taken, it reminds me of baseball seasons from beginning to end! 2008 was a very good year! Baseball season started a little earlier for us Dodger fans from the volunteering to decorate this
for the Rose Parade. We worked until our fingers were numb filling out little vials of water, then we moved to glue flowers, then to glue peanuts, then we worked with so many flowers to start giving shape to the design of the float.
We got up early to go to the parade and then I did a crazy thing without thinking!. I followed the Dodger float running along side and my friends followed me!. Dodger players and ex-players were seated in the dugout seats made on both sides of the float.
As i was running I waived at the players and yelled “HI GARVEY!” “HI FERNANDO!” “HI NOMAH!” HI PENNY” “HI SAITO-SAN”. they looked at me and waived back. I remember a security guard just smiled at me. At one point we could no longer get thru so we stopped. At that point, one of my friends said “OMG! We could have been arrested! I did not know that you could get arrested for doing that! The three of us laughed about it afterwards.
Fast track to Caravan day where I got up very early to go to the stadium to see the equipment truck leave the stadium. The words in the side of the big wheel were “VERO BEACH OR BUST.” I noticed boxes of this
The days activities continued to the Panda Inn event where my friends and I already had reservations. The Panda Inn event was out of this world having our boys in Blue act as our waiters. We had James Loney and Pepe Yniguez as our waiters. James became one of my favorites that day! When we started a chant “LET’S GO DODGERS! LET’S GO!!” from our table, Tommy Lasorda came over to our table and gave one of his inspirational speeches. It was a good thing we had already finished eating as spit started flying. WE LOVE YOU TOMMY!
Vero Beach was great as usual. I attended the WIN baseball clinic there. I got to talk to my favorite player Jeff Kent who said he remembered me attending the WIn events at Dodger Stadium. i talked to D. Lowe also. I told him “I might draft you again in my baseball fantasy team.” to which he replied “No, don’t do that. I am not good with numbers.” :-).
Vero Beach WIN Baseball clinic. See how close fans were to the media area (where you can see clock)?
The exhibition event/game against the Red Sox at the Coliseum was wonderful. I wish I would have had a chance to meet Carl Erskine (Oisk), but the lines were huge. Too bad Sandy Koufax was not in attendance but he did show up for Opening Day! Who would have thought seeing Manny at the Coliseum that he would end up in L.A? During BP at the Coliseum, I yelled to D.Lowe, “D.LOWE! I GOT YOU IN MY BASEBALL FANTASY”. To which he yelled back “I TOLD YOU NOT TO DO THAT.” Some fans around me were laughing at his response :-).
What an incredible day Opening Day it was! I’ll never forget Duke Snider slowly walking from center field and all the players that kept coming from both bullpens and from the Dodgers dugout. The last person to show up was Sandy Koufax. All thru this event, our venerable Vin Scully was at his booth doing us the honor of introducing each player. Carl Erskine , Sandy Koufax and Don Newcombe threw out the first ball. The catchers were Joe Torre, Tommy Lasorda and one of the bat boys. Kent hit a 2 run HR and Penny got the win against Zito for a score of 5 -0. King of Cali: Do you remember 😕
Along with attending games, I attended several events like the WIN Baseball clinic hosted by Jeff Kent. Thank you Jeff for being such a great host these past 4 years! I will miss you :-(. Other events were the “Carne Asada with Nomah”. This year is going to be hosted by Andre Ethier. There were also events for the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s & 90’s with players of each decade attending the event. I missed the 90’s event since the WIN baseball clinic was scheduled for the same day.. I talked to players from Wes Parker of the 60’s to 80’s players like Bobby Welch. Yankee fans might remember Bobby Welch as the rookie that struck out Reggie Jackson in the 1978 World Series.
A roller coaster took us thru some ups and downs. I missed three games during the season but I attended a few road games. I made two trips to San Diego and Arizona, one trip to Anaheim, San Francisco, Colorado and the last one to Pittsburgh that also included a trip to see Yankee Stadium for the first and last time. As I sat at Yankee Stadium, I remembered when I watched the 1981 WS games on TV, in particular when Kenny Landreaux caught the last out and Steve Howe (RIP) jumped up and down.
We won the NL West, we swept the Cubs and then got eliminated by the Phillies. At least we got eliminated by the team that won the World Series.! Yes, like Frank Sinatra says in his song “it was a very good year”.
Dodger Blue World 
