The Los Angeles Dodgers will celebrate the 12-year career of Andre Ethier and honor him with a pregame retirement ceremony on Friday, August 3 prior to their 7:10 p.m. game against the Houston Astros, the team announced Wednesday afternoon.
The ceremony will be emceed by actor Jason Bateman, and include tributes from teammates past and present. Fans are encouraged to arrive early, as a capacity crowd is expected, and also enjoy postgame Friday Night Fireworks.
“I look forward to coming back to Los Angeles and Dodger Stadium, places I’m so lucky to have called home for the last 12 years,” said Ethier. “There’s nothing like stepping out on the field at Dodger Stadium and looking up and seeing the faithful Dodger Blue supporting you, and I’m grateful for the reception and support I received in all my years playing there. I’m humbled by this evening and look forward to sharing it all with you.”
Ethier, 36, played all 12 of his Major League seasons with Los Angeles and helped lead the Dodgers to seven division titles and eight postseason appearances from 2006-17. He batted .285 with 303 doubles, 162 home runs and 687 RBI in 1,455 games, earning two All-Star selections (2010, ’11), a 2009 Silver Slugger Award and a 2011 Gold Glove. During the course of his career, Ethier earned a reputation for coming through in the clutch and finished his career with 14 walk-off RBI, the second most in Los Angeles history (Dusty Baker, 16), while posting career marks of .282 with runners in scoring position and .315 with the bases loaded. Fittingly, his last Major League at-bat resulted in a clutch hit – a pinch-hit RBI single in Game 7 of the World Series against the Astros.
Ethier earned his place among the best in Los Angeles history (since 1958), as he ranked among the club career leaders in games (1,455, 7th), hits (1,367, 7th), extra-base hits (499, 4th), doubles (303, 3rd), homers (162, T-8th) and RBI (687, 6th). He holds the Los Angeles record for hit by pitches (58) and also consecutive hits, stringing together a hit in 10 consecutive at-bats from Aug. 22-25 which tied Edward Konetchy’s franchise record set in 1919. His 30-game hitting streak from April 2-May 6, 2011 remains the second longest in franchise history behind only Willie Davis’ 31-game run in 1969.
He was originally selected by the Athletics in the 2nd round of the 2003 First-Year Player Draft out of Arizona State University and acquired by the Dodgers in a December 2005 trade in exchange for Milton Bradley and Antonio Perez.
In addition to his contributions on the field, Ethier was passionate about his impact off the field and provided support to underserved communities, including donations of $375,000 to the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation during his time with the club. These funds were used to revitalize and rename the Union Rescue Mission Learning Center, now The Maggie and Andre Ethier Learning Center, which provides classes to homeless men and women in Los Angeles. His contributions also supported four-year scholarships for three current Jackie Robinson Foundation/Ethier Family Scholars attending college at Arizona State University and the University of Arizona. In addition to the generous monetary support, Ethier partnered with LADF on Dre Dayz, a program that afforded over 700 youth from 24 different organizations supported by LADF, a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch batting practice from the field and enjoy the game in a premium suite.
(John Chapper furnished the information provided in this report)
Think Blue Planning Committee 
I hope and expect that Ethier will continue to maintain his relationship with the team through the coming years. He was a true Dodger in every respect and it will be nice to see him at old timer’s games, etc. Played the game the right way, as they say.
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Hail to the “Walk-Off King”, baby!
🙂
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Marshall “Big K” Kasowski had his first appearance at Tulsa last night. 2 innings, 0 runs, 0 hits, 2 walks, 1 k. Let’s see if his strike outs decrease at AA or if this was an aberration. Admittedly a VERY small sample size.
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I believe K’s stuff would play in the bigs now. I think we might see him later this summer.
Roberts getting skewered for pitching Kiké. Hard to squeeze in a 16 inning game in this stretch of 17 straight. I’m thinking.500 on this trip is a win.
I always liked Ethier. I used to post on a blog where the owner continued to call him “Mr Softie”. I went round and round with that guy. Ethier was a player.
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I tuned in to that Drillers game, Jeff. Kasowki was excellent that night. Thing is, Tulsa was facing a Springfield team (Cardinals affiliate) that was so hot with the bats in that series that virtually every one of their pitchers on that staff has been touched up considerably. For a moment there, looked like Kasowski was gonna meet the same fate but he imposed his will on those Springfield hitters and got out of it unscathed. THAT was what I was looking for out of him and now I know he won’t be hanging around in the TL for much longer. I agree with Scoop, he just might be a legit September call-up later this season…
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If the guys in the front office don’t get busy and trade for someone, we may see him up here next week. 🙂
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This may sound strange but I have confidence in both Fields and Baez. As long as they are 100% they will have value. If they aren’t healthy we should know right away.
We have Urias making progress, or at least he was, I have no update on him. Cingrani? Garcia? I don’t know. Ryu is on assignment and will be doing that for at least 3 starts. If these guys make it back, the bullpen could be our strength. With so many blind squirrels in our lineup there will be times when no nuts will be found. We’ve seen those times already this year. We need the pitching to keep us in games. We lead the league in team ERA which is a freakin miracle considering what’s happened to this staff. A strong argument could be made that pitching is our strength. We will need it – and if it’s whole, I actually like our chances.
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Confidence in Baez? Yes, that sounds strange but hey, you’re entitled to your opinion. As we have discussed previously, assuming we actually get to the playoffs, there will be a number of starters who might actually wind up in the bullpen and that could ultimately be a major strength for us. And how about Ferguson? He’s been downright incredible in relief. All of that said, I firmly believe that we need an established closer to sit right behind Kenley, because I’m not entirely sure we can completely depend on him this year. As I’ve said, I no longer consider him invincible.
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