Well, it’s official – Jerry Sands has been called up and will play his first game for the Dodgers tonight (April 18th). Sands will initially start in left field but has said he is comfortable at first base also and saw a fair amount of time at that position during spring Training.

Sands is batting .400 (10-for-40) with five home runs and 17 RBIs with an OPS of 1.297 in his 10 games thus far in Albuquerque. While many expected Sands to hone his play in the minors until later in the season, the Dodgers clearly saw a need to try and spark the offense beyond Matt Kemp’s strong performance this season.

From Dodgers.com:

Dodgers management wanted Sands to remain in the Minor Leagues at least until midseason, but his hot bat, coupled with the Major League club’s inconsistent offense, forced the move.

Sands will be sporting number 47 and is slated to bat 7th tonight against Atlanta.

Alex will be joining Daniel Shoptaw of C70 @ The Bat tonight at 7:45 p.m. to discuss the upcoming Dodgers – Cardinals series. You can catch the show and even call-in questions by clicking here.

The Dodgers just announced that the team will be wearing an memorial patch featuring Duke Snider’s number throughout the 2011 season and will host a celebration of his life on Aug. 9 at Dodger Stadium.

Snider passed away on Feb. 27 at the age of 84.

The event on August 9th will include Snider’s family as part of a pre-game celebration of life and the first 50,000 fans will get a Duke Snider bobblehead.

The Dodgers official press release:

DODGERS TO CELEBRATE THE LIFE
OF HALL OF FAMER DUKE SNIDER
Team to wear a memorial patch in 2011 and host a celebration on Aug. 9,
which will include a bobblehead of the late Dodger outfielder

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers announced today that the team will wear a patch in memory of Hall of Fame outfielder Duke Snider throughout the 2011 season and will host a celebration of his life on Aug. 9 at Dodger Stadium.

The memorial patch (photo attached), will feature Snider’s uniform No. 4 and will be worn on the Dodgers’ home, road and alternate Brooklyn uniforms at every 2011 game beginning tomorrow night when the team opens the season against the San Francisco Giants. Snider’s uniform number was retired on July 6, 1980 and is one of just 10 retired numbers in franchise history.

The club also announced it would celebrate the life of the legendary Dodger outfielder at the Aug. 9 game against the Philadelphia Phillies. The first 50,000 fans in attendance will receive a bobblehead featuring the likeness of Snider, whose family will participate in a special pregame ceremony honoring the franchise’s all-time leading home run hitter. The sixth bobblehead of the season is presented by Kaiser Permanente.

Snider passed away on Feb. 27 at the age of 84. He was born Edwin Donald Snider in Los Angeles, CA on Sept. 19, 1926 and became one of the game’s most feared hitters during his 16 seasons with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers (1947-1962), playing on a pair of World Championship teams (1955 and 1959) and in six World Series overall.

The eight-time All-Star center fielder ranks as the franchise’s all-time leader in home runs (389) and runs batted in (1,271) and during the 1950s, he topped all Major Leaguers with 326 homers and 1,031 RBI. He slugged four home runs in both the 1952 and 1955 World Series.

The last time the Dodgers wore a memorial patch on the team’s uniforms was in 2000 in memory of Snider’s teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Pee Wee Reese. Other memorial patches worn by the Dodgers were done so in tribute to Jim Gilliam (1978), coach Don McMahon (1987), Tim Crews (1993) and a combination patch for Hall of Famers Don Drysdale and Roy Campanella, who passed away within a week of one another in 1993.

Snider is survived by his wife, Bev, children Kevin, Kurt, Pam and Dawna and 10 grandchildren.

Chris and I recently sat down (virtually) with Daniel from C70 At The Bat to discuss The Los Angeles Dodgers upcoming season. Daniel began reaching out to blogs across MLB a few years ago, and his efforts eventually spawned the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, an organization designed to improve the communication and collaboration of bloggers across baseball.

There are several good interviews for many of the teams he’s done thus far, so be sure to take a look