Lineup 3.14: Farewell to Dodgertown
DODGERTOWN — For what is the Cardinals’ final visit to Dodgertown — before it becomes Orioletown or O-Town or, gasp, Bird Land — manager Tony La Russa is turning to a new leadoff hitter. Fittingly, it’s a former Dodger.
Shortstop Cesar Izturis, who won a Gold Glove in his career year of 2004 with the Dodgers, brings his .103 average and .161 on-base percentage to the job.
Where Thursday’s lineup hinted at what a regular-season lineup could look like for the Cardinals this season, Friday’s reveals who is still in the competition for jobs. And it may give an interesting prospect his first turn in a big-league game.
Sometime, that is, after two of the team’s best pitching prospects throw their innings.
Old meets new, as young arms wave so long to retiring Dodgertown.
THE CARDINALS
- Cesar Izturis, SS
- Brian Barton, LF
- Rick Ankiel, CF
- Joe Mather, RF
- Chris Duncan, 1B
- Adam Kennedy, 2B
- Jason LaRue, C
- Clayton Mortensen, RHP
- Brendan Ryan, 3B
Also scheduled to pitch: RHP Kyle Lohse … oh, wait, that’s happening right now back in Jupiter, Fla. Sorry, here in Vero Beach, it’s LHP Jaime Garcia, LHP Randy Flores, LHP Ron Villone, RHP Russ Springer, with a couple minor leaguers as backup.
The bench: C Bryan Anderson, C Gabe Johnson, OF Colby Rasmus, OF Skip Schumaker, 1B Josh Phelps, OF Amaury Marti, INF D’Angelo Jimenez, INF Aaron Miles and, the aforementioned prospect, INF Jose Martinez.
-30-h


Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between.
DG….let us know how local (well, fairly local….Sikeston, MO) guy Blake DeWitt does at 3B for the Dodgers. He won’t be on the ML team this year, but he’s getting a great look and taking advantage of it so far. I assume he’ll still play despite 3 lefties scheduled to go for the Cards.
Thanks