Hey there -- saw these questions on the Kamenetzky brothers' Lakers Blog and thought they'd be fun to ask here.

What is the best play you ever made in sports, whether at the little league, high school, college, or, if you happened to be that good, the pro level? And have you ever made a game-winning play?

What's the worst injury you ever played through?

My all-time favorite play was in a pickup basketball game my senior year in college. I was coming down the right side of the court as the wing man on a 3-on-2 fast break.  A guy whom I had never played with before was bringing down the ball. 

He held off passing the ball until I curled underneath the basket and was coming out, facing him, on its left side. He threw the ball up toward the hoop, and in one motion, I leaped up, caught it with my back to the basket and lofted it backward over my head. Swish.

Biggest smile I've ever had on the court.

A few years later, I was playing for the Daily News in a media softball game, and (as it was later diagnosed) I fractured my scapula making a diving catch.  I stayed in the game even though I couldn't really move my left arm – even managed a swinging bunt for a hit. Not exactly Willis Reed, but that's all I got for you.

The following worksheet reflects players under contract to the Dodgers for the coming season. This is not a prediction of the 2010 Opening Day roster.  (Most of the dollar figures below are estimates to begin with, but feel free to let me know about any mistakes. Honestly, the deferred money has gotten so complicated, it's gotten out of my league.)

I know cynicism reigns, but I don't believe the Dodgers will enter the season without a new addition to the starting rotation in the slot where I currently have Charlie Haeger.

Starting pitchers (5)

$13,000,000	Hiroki Kuroda
*$4,000,000	Chad Billingsley
*$500,000	Clayton Kershaw
*$405,000	Charlie Haeger
*$401,000	Scott Elbert
*$18,306,000	Total
*estimate

* * *

*$3,500,000	Jonathan Broxton
*$4,500,000	George Sherrill
*$1,500,000	Hong-Chih Kuo
*$450,000	Ramon Troncoso
*$425,000	Ronald Belisario
*$405,000	James McDonald
$400,000	Carlos Monasterios
*$11,180,000	Total
*estimate

* * *

Javy Guerra
Kenley Jansen
Brent Leach
Travis Schlichting
Eric Stults
Cory Wade
Armando Zerpa

* * *

Luis Ayala
Francisco Felix
Justin Miller
Juan Perez
Josh Towers

* * *

$10,000,000	Manny Ramirez
$8,500,000	Rafael Furcal
$6,000,000	Casey Blake
*$6,000,000	Russell Martin
*$5,500,000	Andre Ethier
*$4,000,000	Matt Kemp
*$3,500,000	James Loney
*$409,000	Blake DeWitt
$43,909,000	Total
*estimate

* * *

Bench (5)

*$1,850,000	Jamey Carroll
*$750,000	Doug Mientkiewicz
*$405,000	Chin-Lung Hu
*$401,000	Xavier Paul
*$400,000	A.J. Ellis
*$3,806,000	Total
*estimate

* * *

Other players on 40-man roster (4)

Ivan DeJesus Jr. 
Lucas May
Jason Repko
Trayvon Robinson

* * *

Angel Berroa
John Lindsey
Prentice Redman

* * *

Also paying …

$7,000,000	Juan Pierre
*$3,200,000	Andruw Jones
*$2,500,000	Jason Schmidt
$1,440,000	Orlando Hudson
$1,250,000	Nomar Garciaparra
$200,000	Will Ohman
*$15,590,000	Total
*estimate

* * *

At Baseball Analysts, Rich Lederer has paired a great essay by Stan Opdyke, aka Dodger Thoughts reader Stan from Tacoma, with the Vin Scully chapter from my book, "100 Things Dodger Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die."

Opdyke's piece discusses the time the paths of Connie Mack and Scully crossed. Here are the opening two paragraphs:

At an inconsequential Spring Training game in Florida in 1950 the torch was passed. In the broadcast booth for the Brooklyn Dodgers was a nervous youngster who at the ripe old age of 22 was about to begin his big league broadcasting career. On the field below him was a very old man who was about to begin his final year in major league baseball. The old man stepped down as manager of the Philadelphia A's after that season. Sixty years later, the young man in the broadcast booth is still the broadcaster for the Dodgers.

The major league careers of Connie Mack and Vin Scully intersected at the midpoint of the 20th century. Connie Mack was born Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy in 1862, before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, at a time when Abraham Lincoln was President and America was engaged in the Civil War. Today, Vin Scully is broadcasting for the Los Angeles Dodgers at a time when a black man is President. ...

* * *

• David Pinto of Baseball Musings passes along positive thoughts about Jamey Carroll. "According to Fangraphs, in only one of his seasons did he fail to deliver much more value than his salary," Pinto writes. "Given his last two seasons, the Dodgers got a very good deal here."


• I'm not trying to open up any controversy -- I just want to pass along the happy news (via Pinto) that Hee Seop Choi had a great 2009 in Korea. Choi hit 33 home runs to help Kia to a Korean Series title. Click this link to see a fun picture of Choi.


• Joe Posnanski makes the Hall of Fame case for Tim Raines at SI.com.


• Beyond the Box Score solicits ideas for a college class on baseball with a sabermetric emphasis.


• From Salt in Wound: "Eight Reasons You Haven't Spotted Me on the Citizen's Band."

Recent Dodger infielders Doug Mientkiewicz and Angel Berroa have signed minor-league contracts with the team and will have invitations to big-league camp at spring training, joining Justin Miller, John Lindsey, Prentice Redman, Francisco Felix, Juan Perez, Josh Towers and Luis Ayala.

Mientkiewicz would seem to have a good chance to win a spot as a reserve. Berroa will compete for a backup shortstop role with Chin-Lung Hu – assuming Hu isn't included in a trade for a pitcher such as Aaron Harang, a rumored target for the Dodgers, according to Dylan Hernandez of The Times.

Berroa, who will be 30 in January, went 7 for 49 with three walks for the Mets and Yankees combined last season, so the former American League Rookie of the Year might also just be headed straight for the minors to be an emergency backup.

Elsewhere, Dodger Thoughts commenter Daniel Zappala passes along the news (via MLB Trade Rumors) that minor-league outfielder Mitch Jones has signed with Atlanta, according to David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Daniel Green, who wrote "The Perfect Pitch: The Biography of Roger Owens, The Famous Peanut Man at Dodger Stadium," passed away Tuesday, according to a posting on his Facebook page by his wife, Julia.

Green was Owens' nephew. In my years meeting people online via this site, he was one of the nicest people I've come across. He expressed a yearning to achieve great things.

He was deeply religious. When I wrote about Green's book on Dodger Thoughts nearly five years ago, I talked about how his spirituality influenced his writing.

... Faith is also an integral part to the Owens story, and while as a religious work the book is on the mild side, Green clearly has a goal to place Owens' life in a spiritual or testimonial context. That's not to say that Owens is portrayed in any way as the Second Coming, but that his humility, along with his dedication and selflessness and even occasional missteps and depression, are themselves as important to Green as Owens' peanut purveyance itself. Broadly speaking, it's a Horatio Alger story with occasional surprises ...

I find myself simply in shock that Green died so young. My heart goes out to his friends and family.

The long-anticipated righty-hitting second baseman to caddy, complement or smother Blake DeWitt has arrived in Dodgertropolis, in the person of Jamey Carroll. Ken Gurnick of MLB.com is reporting that it's a two-year deal, which Buster Olney of ESPN.com and Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com believe to be totaling under $4 million, plus incentives.

Carroll, who will be 36 in February, brings a .351 career on-base percentage, including .355 in 358 plate appearances in 2009. Against lefties, Carroll's OBP was .367. Carroll brings no power or speed, however, meaning that DeWitt should get his fair share of at-bats. Carroll will serve as the Dodgers' utility man in 2010.

Eric Stephen of True Blue L.A. has more, including some positive thoughts about Carroll's defense. And for those who worry about the Dodgers clubhouse after Juan Pierre's departure, let it be known that Carroll won the Cleveland Indians' Frank Gibbons/Steve Olin Good Guy Award in 2009, according to MLB.com, "for the leadership he provided in the Tribe clubhouse and his approachability and accessibility with the media, in good times and bad."

Dodger hitting coach Don Mattingly talked to MLB.com at last week's winter meetings about, among other topics, Manny Ramirez's down-the-stretch struggles.

"I think at times he was the same (after his suspension as before)," Mattingly said, "and at other times he seemed to be a little inconsistent. And I think we all felt (it), and I think he knew it and just couldn't get away from it. He started chasing that ball in. They were pounding him in pretty good, and he chased in there. In the past, I've seen Manny really leave that pitch alone.

"And you know, it's like anybody else — if you can really pound that ball on the inside corner on just about anybody, you can get 'em out. But he wasn't patient enough to let 'em make some mistakes in there. Guys will try to go in, leave the ball out over. He swung at some balls off the plate, I thought.

"I really feel like Manny's gonna come back (and) be ready to go next year and have a great year for us."

Mattingly also talked about his future as a manager, Andre Ethier and the playoff loss to the Phillies. (Link via Phil Gurnee of True Blue L.A.)

While Dodger fans fret, a local team sits atop the Western Conference of its sport — and I don't just mean the Lakers. The Kings have taken over the lead in hockey's WC — and I don't mean water closet.

This, shall we say, is not typical. But I don't follow the Kings closely enough to know what's really going on.  So I ask the hockey-baseball experts out there to tell me what baseball team the Kings and/or their players resemble.

Is this a first-half fluke like the Royals or Pirates on a hot streak doomed to coldness, or the start of something bigger?

MLB Commissioner Bud Selig has convened a special committee to recommend improvements for baseball — but it's a little like Kellogg's asking Snap, Crackle and Pop to be agents of cereal-related change.

Mike DiGiovanna of The Times lists the 14-person membership: four managers (including Mike Scioscia and Joe Torre), four general managers, four team presidents, Frank Robinson and George Will. 

"There are no sacred cows," Selig said.

Why should there be sacred cows, when you can buy the sacred milk for free?

* * *

Elsewhere in baseball and sport ...

• 'Topes Tattler has some Albuquerque comings and goings: Farewell, Scott Strickland, and welcome back, John Lindsey, Tim Corcoran and Francisco Felix.
• Rich Lederer of Baseball Analysts renews his well-reasoned campaign to push Bert Blyleven into the Hall of Fame.
• Richie/Rich/Dick Allen's interview with Bob Costas will air on the MLB Network tonight at 5 p.m., 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Tom Hoffarth of the Daily News has a few details.
• Coverage of the origins of baseball, from The Onion.
• Mammoth Mountain founder Dave McCoy is a 94-year-old shutterbug, writes Louis Sahagun of The Times.

* * *

As for the morning's news ...

• The Trolley Dodger says thanks and good luck to Pierre.
  
• Memories of Kevin Malone looks at the two seven-lettered pitchers rumored to be headed for the Dodgers organization, John Ely and Jon Link.
• Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness has a farewell in not one, but two parts.
• The Big Dead Sidebar thinks the White Sox got a more expensive Scott Podsednik.

... the Dodgers open the 2010 Spring Training season against the Chicago White Sox.

Previously on Dodger Thoughts:

Report: Juan Pierre traded to White Sox