Who’s on First?

The Dodgers will open a home stand tonight after a long road trip, time away from Chavez Ravine that we hope the management has used to update the scorecards that it sells at games. “You can’t tell the players without a scorecard,” the old saying goes, but at Dodger Stadium you can’t tell some of the players with a scorecard, either.

When the Dodgers were last in town, we took in a game against the Braves, plunking down a buck for a program on the way to our seats. Neither Enos Cabell nor Len Matuszek, both of whom had been with the team for a month, appeared on the Dodgers’ roster. R. J. Reynolds was listed with a number that had been changed long before.

The Braves’ starting pitcher that day wore number 38. Neither that number nor the pitcher’s name (which we later found out was Joe Johnson) appeared in the program. During the game a Braves player named Thompson pinch-hit for Glenn Hubbard. Thompson’s name and number also weren’t in the scorecard, and we never did find out his first name.

The programs ought to contain the names of the players who are playing that day. But they are as out of date as the National Geographics in a doctor’s waiting room. We half-expect to find the names of Garvey, Lopes and Cey (not to mention Snider) listed on the Dodgers’ roster.