Dodger Stadium

The mountain is high, the valley is low, And you're confused on which way to go So I've come here to give you a hand, And lead you into the promised land So come on and take a free ride Yeah, I realize I'm trying too hard here, but that's what happens when you go six months between baseball games. And I was having withdrawal symptoms from not having used an oldie as an easy lead into a post. It's a personal weakness. The free ride here is the shuttle from Union Station to Dodger Stadium, a collaboration between Metro and the Dodgers.

PHOENIX - The majority of the renovations at Dodger Stadium will be completed by Friday for the Freeway Series exhibition against the Angels, team President Stan Kasten said. The Dodgers will have a new clubhouse and there will be new amenities on every level of the stadium. The team wants to provide improved mobile phone service in the ballpark, but that probably won't be available until the second homestand of the regular season. Wi-Fi will be upgraded throughout the stadium, but in June.

Elysian Park near downtown L.A. is a huge space containing great networks of trails and commanding broad city and mountain views. This introductory walk might make you a regular visitor. The stats Distance: 2.5 miles Duration: 1 hour Difficulty: 2 on scale of 1-5 Details: Dogs on leash are OK, but not bikes. Ample parking on Stadium Way, Elysian Park Drive. 1. Begin at the trailhead and walk uphill, past the big swing gate, into a grove of eucalyptus trees.

About 24,000 runners will take to the streets Sunday morning and participate in the 28th Asics L.A. Marathon. The 26.2-mile event begins at Dodger Stadium and will wind through Los Angeles, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills before ending at the intersection of Ocean Avenue and California Avenue in Santa Monica. Simon Njoroge of Kenya, winner of last year's men's race, leads the 16-man elite field. Deena Kastor, the U.S. women's record holder, is among eight elite female runners.

And here we go again … The Times' Sam Farmer picks up on a Business Daily report that says the NFL has had direct talks with the Dodgers' new owners about putting an NFL stadium in the Dodger Stadium parking lots. Cats don't have this many lives. At some point, you have to wonder whether the NFL ever wants to come back to Los Angeles. It has so much fun just talking about it. The idea was a good one when Peter O'Malley wanted to do it back in the Bronze Age, but it's tired now and hard to imagine the city getting all excited about starting this stadium process over again.

Is Dodger Stadium in play for the NFL? Dan Kaplan of Sports Business Daily reported Monday that the league has had direct talks with Dodgers owner Guggenheim Partners about the possibility of a football stadium at Chavez Ravine, a concept that has been floated since the mid-1990s, when Peter O'Malley pushed to bring the NFL there. At first blush, the idea is enticing and makes sense, because that's an iconic L.A. location that's appealing to many NFL owners as well as Commissioner Roger Goodell, who consistently has called it a great site for a football stadium.

Mike Piazza would never exist today. He would have to be created by the Hollywood machine that once embraced him. He was taken in the 62nd round of the 1988 baseball draft. There are no longer 62 rounds in the draft. He was given a private tryout at a locked Dodger Stadium as a favor to his family friend and quasi uncle, Tom Lasorda. There are few managers remaining with the longevity and power to make such arrangements. After two minor league seasons, he was no better than an average Class-A catcher, yet he was promoted to a higher Class A the following spring.

There wasn't much news attached to Monday's official announcement that the Dodgers had finalized their deal with Time Warner Cable, nothing that wasn't known already. The 25-year contract starts after the following season and is reportedly worth $7 billion to $8 billion. Mostly it left the same old questions: Will the deal gain Major League Baseball approval, will there be other sports programming on the channel, will there be a Spanish-language outlet, will there be any games on free television?

For the first time in more than two decades, Sandy Koufax is officially a Dodger. The Dodgers made one of their most symbolically powerful moves in what has already been an eventful off-season, announcing on Tuesday that Koufax will be a special advisor to Chairman Mark Walter. The Hall of Fame member will attend a portion of spring training to work with pitchers and consult with the team throughout the year. Koufax last had a formal role with the Dodgers in 1989, the final of his 11 seasons as the organization's minor league pitching instructor.

Wonder what our Mike Piazza is really thinking right now? Not all that surprised, I'd imagine. Not exactly thrilled, either. The 2013 Hall of Fame vote was announced Wednesday without a single player garnering the required 75%  of the vote to earn baseball's highest honor. It was the first real “steroid class” and voters punished Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, leaving them at least 38 percentage points shy of the required vote total. I'm thinking they never get in. And then there was Piazza, the Dodgers' former National League Rookie of the Year, who in his first time on the ballot came in with 57.8% of the vote.