Walk-off homer is a first for Hanley Ramirez in Dodgers' win

Up until he sent a hanging curveball 392 feet and over the left-field wall on Saturday, Hanley Ramirez had never hit a walk-off home run.

He had four other walk-off hits and 189 other home runs in his career. On 25 other occasions, his home run had started the game but it had never ended it. Not until the Dodgers' 5-2 win over the Cubs in 12 innings.

"Really? First career walk-off homer?" said Manager Don Mattingly. He said he was surprised. "I guess you would just think somewhere along the line he would run into one of those."

After the blast, Ramirez trotted far up the first-base line before finally discarding his bat. His teammates had already jumped the railings of the dugout and streamed onto the field. After he crossed home plate, Matt Kemp ripped off Ramirez's uniform and threw it at him in what has become the team's customary walk-off celebration.

In the clubhouse, though, Ramirez looked less like the game's hero and more like a man who had just finished a long, wearisome day at work. And in fairness, he had. The game went four hours, 39 minutes. A rare rain shower fell on the field for much of the later innings — the first time Los Angeles experienced an Aug. 2 rainfall since the National Weather Service started keeping track.

Afterward, Ramirez dressed deliberately. He spoke to the media for less than two minutes and kept his voice low and mostly expressionless. He managed a chuckle once — when someone mentioned this being his first walk-off home run.

Before the at-bat, he said he had told himself to cut down on his swing. There were already runners on first and second. He prodded himself to come through for his teammates.

"I was watching the way they were pitching to JT," Ramirez said, referring to Justin Turner, who had worked a walk in the previous at bat. "And they didn't look they wanted to pitch to him. They want me."

Before the final at-bat, Ramirez was 2 for 4 on the day with a walk and a double. He is hitting .276 on the year. With first base open, Cubs right-hander Blake Parker was probably being careful with Turner. If the Cubs did in fact prefer pitching to Ramirez, it was a poor choice.

Parker hung a curveball. On second base, Dee Gordon knew the ball was gone upon contact.

Ramirez took his time. He had trotted out a home run before. But never like this.

Twitter: @zhelfand

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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Walk-off homer is a first for Hanley Ramirez in Dodgers' win

Up until he sent a hanging curveball 392 feet and over the left-field wall on Saturday, Hanley Ramirez had never hit a walk-off home run.

He had four other walk-off hits and 189 other home runs in his career. On 25 other occasions, his home run had started the game but it had never ended it. Not until the Dodgers' 5-2 win over the Cubs in 12 innings.

"Really? First career walk-off homer?" said Manager Don Mattingly. He said he was surprised. "I guess you would just think somewhere along the line he would run into one of those."

After the blast, Ramirez trotted far up the first-base line before finally discarding his bat. His teammates had already jumped the railings of the dugout and streamed onto the field. After he crossed home plate, Matt Kemp ripped off Ramirez's uniform and threw it at him in what has become the team's customary walk-off celebration.

In the clubhouse, though, Ramirez looked less like the game's hero and more like a man who had just finished a long, wearisome day at work. And in fairness, he had. The game went four hours, 39 minutes. A rare rain shower fell on the field for much of the later innings — the first time Los Angeles experienced an Aug. 2 rainfall since the National Weather Service started keeping track.

Afterward, Ramirez dressed deliberately. He spoke to the media for less than two minutes and kept his voice low and mostly expressionless. He managed a chuckle once — when someone mentioned this being his first walk-off home run.

Before the at-bat, he said he had told himself to cut down on his swing. There were already runners on first and second. He prodded himself to come through for his teammates.

"I was watching the way they were pitching to JT," Ramirez said, referring to Justin Turner, who had worked a walk in the previous at bat. "And they didn't look they wanted to pitch to him. They want me."

Before the final at-bat, Ramirez was 2 for 4 on the day with a walk and a double. He is hitting .276 on the year. With first base open, Cubs right-hander Blake Parker was probably being careful with Turner. If the Cubs did in fact prefer pitching to Ramirez, it was a poor choice.

Parker hung a curveball. On second base, Dee Gordon knew the ball was gone upon contact.

Ramirez took his time. He had trotted out a home run before. But never like this.

Twitter: @zhelfand

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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Strong quake in China topples thousands of homes, kills at least 175

A strong earthquake in southern China's Yunnan province toppled thousands of homes on Sunday, killing at least 175 people and injuring more than 1,400.

About 12,000 homes collapsed in Ludian, a densely populated county located around 277 miles northeast of Yunnan's capital, Kunming, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The magnitude-6.1 quake struck at 4:30 p.m. at a depth of 6 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Its epicenter was in Longtoushan township, 14 miles southwest of the city of Zhaotong, the Ludian county seat.

Ma Liya, a resident of Zhaotong, told Xinhua that the streets there were like a "battlefield after bombardment." She added that her neighbor's house, a new two-story building, had toppled.

At least 122 of the dead were in Ludian, with an additional 1,300 people injured there, Xinhua reported. It said an additional 49 people died, one was missing and 102 were injured in Qiaojia county, which has a population of 580,000.

News reports said rescuers were still trying to reach victims in more remote towns Sunday night.

Photos on the Chinese social media site Weibo showed rescuers searching through flattened buildings and people injured amid toppled bricks.

The homes that collapsed in Ludian, which has a population of about 429,000, were mostly old brick houses, Xinhua said, adding that electricity and telecommunications were cut off in the county.

The Red Cross Society of China has allocated 2,000 quilts, 2,000 jackets and 200 tents to aid those made homeless by the quake, while Red Cross branches in Hong Kong, Macau and neighboring Sichuan province have also sent relief supplies, Xinhua said.

The mountainous region where the quake occurred is largely agricultural, with farming and mining the top industries, and is prone to earthquakes.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said the quake was the strongest to hit Yunnan in 14 years.

In 1970, a magnitude-7.7 earthquake in Yunnan killed at least 15,000 people, and a magnitude-7.1 quake in the province killed more than 1,400 in 1974. In September 2012, 81 people died and 821 were injured in a series of quakes in the Yunnan region.

In May 2008, a powerful quake in Sichuan province left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

8:30 a.m. This post has been updated to reflect death toll at 175.

6:00 a.m. This post has been updated to reflect death toll at 150.

This post was originally published at 4:50 a.m.

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Walk-off homer is a first for Hanley Ramirez in Dodgers' win

Up until he sent a hanging curveball 392 feet and over the left-field wall on Saturday, Hanley Ramirez had never hit a walk-off home run.

He had four other walk-off hits and 189 other home runs in his career. On 25 other occasions, his home run had started the game but it had never ended it. Not until the Dodgers' 5-2 win over the Cubs in 12 innings.

"Really? First career walk-off homer?" said Manager Don Mattingly. He said he was surprised. "I guess you would just think somewhere along the line he would run into one of those."

After the blast, Ramirez trotted far up the first-base line before finally discarding his bat. His teammates had already jumped the railings of the dugout and streamed onto the field. After he crossed home plate, Matt Kemp ripped off Ramirez's uniform and threw it at him in what has become the team's customary walk-off celebration.

In the clubhouse, though, Ramirez looked less like the game's hero and more like a man who had just finished a long, wearisome day at work. And in fairness, he had. The game went four hours, 39 minutes. A rare rain shower fell on the field for much of the later innings — the first time Los Angeles experienced an Aug. 2 rainfall since the National Weather Service started keeping track.

Afterward, Ramirez dressed deliberately. He spoke to the media for less than two minutes and kept his voice low and mostly expressionless. He managed a chuckle once — when someone mentioned this being his first walk-off home run.

Before the at-bat, he said he had told himself to cut down on his swing. There were already runners on first and second. He prodded himself to come through for his teammates.

"I was watching the way they were pitching to JT," Ramirez said, referring to Justin Turner, who had worked a walk in the previous at bat. "And they didn't look they wanted to pitch to him. They want me."

Before the final at-bat, Ramirez was 2 for 4 on the day with a walk and a double. He is hitting .276 on the year. With first base open, Cubs right-hander Blake Parker was probably being careful with Turner. If the Cubs did in fact prefer pitching to Ramirez, it was a poor choice.

Parker hung a curveball. On second base, Dee Gordon knew the ball was gone upon contact.

Ramirez took his time. He had trotted out a home run before. But never like this.

Twitter: @zhelfand

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

23.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Walk-off homer is a first for Hanley Ramirez in Dodgers' win

Up until he sent a hanging curveball 392 feet and over the left-field wall on Saturday, Hanley Ramirez had never hit a walk-off home run.

He had four other walk-off hits and 189 other home runs in his career. On 25 other occasions, his home run had started the game but it had never ended it. Not until the Dodgers' 5-2 win over the Cubs in 12 innings.

"Really? First career walk-off homer?" said Manager Don Mattingly. He said he was surprised. "I guess you would just think somewhere along the line he would run into one of those."

After the blast, Ramirez trotted far up the first-base line before finally discarding his bat. His teammates had already jumped the railings of the dugout and streamed onto the field. After he crossed home plate, Matt Kemp ripped off Ramirez's uniform and threw it at him in what has become the team's customary walk-off celebration.

In the clubhouse, though, Ramirez looked less like the game's hero and more like a man who had just finished a long, wearisome day at work. And in fairness, he had. The game went four hours, 39 minutes. A rare rain shower fell on the field for much of the later innings — the first time Los Angeles experienced an Aug. 2 rainfall since the National Weather Service started keeping track.

Afterward, Ramirez dressed deliberately. He spoke to the media for less than two minutes and kept his voice low and mostly expressionless. He managed a chuckle once — when someone mentioned this being his first walk-off home run.

Before the at-bat, he said he had told himself to cut down on his swing. There were already runners on first and second. He prodded himself to come through for his teammates.

"I was watching the way they were pitching to JT," Ramirez said, referring to Justin Turner, who had worked a walk in the previous at bat. "And they didn't look they wanted to pitch to him. They want me."

Before the final at-bat, Ramirez was 2 for 4 on the day with a walk and a double. He is hitting .276 on the year. With first base open, Cubs right-hander Blake Parker was probably being careful with Turner. If the Cubs did in fact prefer pitching to Ramirez, it was a poor choice.

Parker hung a curveball. On second base, Dee Gordon knew the ball was gone upon contact.

Ramirez took his time. He had trotted out a home run before. But never like this.

Twitter: @zhelfand

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

23.50 | 0 komentar | Read More

Comic-Con, Hollywood and the nature of modern fandom

At the annual Comic-Con International expo, pop-culture fandom is elevated to veritable religious status, and the convention's 130,000-odd attendees have countless ways to worship at the altars of their choosing.

Want to dress up as a Stormtrooper? Suit yourself. Want to buy a bobblehead doll of your favorite movie character? Go for it. Want to stand in line for hours for the chance to be in the same room as the stars of your most cherished TV series? Right this way. Want to stand outside the San Diego Convention Center holding a sign that says "Kneel Before Zod"? Knock yourself out.

At this year's Comic-Con, though, there was something new, a particular place where fans could gather to essentially pay tribute to themselves: the first-ever mtvU Fandom Awards, held at Petco Park for a crowd of roughly 4,500 convention-goers. There are other awards shows in which fans vote for the winners: The People's Choice Awards, The Teen Choice Awards, The Kids' Choice Awards, basically anything with the word "choice." But the Fandom Awards were conceived as the first-ever awards show in which the fans, not the stars, would actually be the winners.

"When you see all the enthusiasm fans have for their favorite TV shows and movies and the way they're expressing it online through fan fiction, fan art and Tumblr — it just seemed like it would be great if we could come up with a franchise that would embrace that passion," Ryan Kroft, MTV's senior vice president of specials and events, explained. 

Categories were designed to reflect the way fans engage with their favorite movies and shows, and celebrities on hand, including Channing Tatum, Chloe Grace Moretz and others, were instructed to keep their speeches focused squarely on the fans. "'Game of Thrones' fans are the best fans in the world!" actress Natalie Dormer announced when she collected the award for OMG Moment of the Year for the HBO series' "Purple Wedding" episode. "'Veronica Mars' fans are the best!" actress Tina Majorino enthused on accepting the Fandom of the Year award for the legions of "Mars" fans who helped bring the erstwhile TV series back to life on the big screen through a Kickstarter campaign.

You can call it pandering (or "fan-dering") if you like. But in many ways the Fandom Awards — and the entire circus of salesmanship Comic-Con has become over the years — represent the logical evolution of film and television creators' increasingly sophisticated, and increasingly urgent, efforts to capture audiences' enthusiasm.

In this digital age, fans are easier to reach than ever — and yet more fragmented and fickle than ever. With all of us awash in a vast and ever-expanding sea of entertainment options, most available at the click of a button or the swipe of a finger, it's little wonder Hollywood is looking for new and innovative ways to court, or supplicate itself to, every potential ticket buyer or binge-watcher it can.

Fans, of course, are more than happy to be treated like royalty. As the late film critic Roger Ebert noted in his 2009 review of the movie "Fanboys," there is an undeniable solipsistic and self-celebratory quality to much of fandom, a sense of being part of an elect tribe defined by taste.

"A lot of fans are basically fans of fandom itself," Ebert wrote. "It's all about them. They have mastered the 'Star Wars' or 'Star Trek' universes or whatever, but their objects of veneration are useful mainly as a backdrop to their own devotion. Anyone who would camp out in a tent on the sidewalk for weeks in order to be first in line for a movie is more into camping on the sidewalk than movies." 

On the face of it, Hollywood's exaltation of fandom seems like a positive thing, a democratizing force that puts pop culture's creators and its consumers on a level playing field. But it has its ugly side as well. There can be a thin line between obsession and aggression, and, under the Internet's veil of anonymity, particularly rabid fans can sometimes turn into petulant, pedantic bullies.

Consider the tsunami of Twitter hate actor Ben Affleck received on being named as the new Batman in Zack Snyder's upcoming "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" (which, perhaps not surprisingly, turned into uproarious cheers when Affleck took the stage at Comic-Con). Or, more troublingly, read through some of the vicious and often blatantly sexist comments Village Voice critic Stephanie Zacharek received from some diehard comic-book fans for writing a negative review of the new superhero space opera "Guardians of the Galaxy."

Despite all of its efforts, it's unclear whether Hollywood will ever figure out how to harness fan enthusiasm —be it through social media, Comic-Con, or any other avenues — in a way that consistently translates into profits. "Veronica Mars" fans may have brought the long-canceled show to the big screen with their Kickstarter donations, but, despite all the talk of the revolutionary power of crowd-funding, the movie ultimately proved a box office dud, grossing just over $3 million.

As former Variety editor-in-chief Peter Bart wrote last week on Deadline.com, "One studio chief told me recently that all social marketing represents is a road map for spending less money while still failing to find an audience." 

Nevertheless, this much is certain: As long as there are people so devoted to their favorite film and TV shows that they will make a pilgrimage to San Diego and stand in endless lines in 80-degree heat, the creators and stars of those movies and shows will be there to meet them with bells on. Or maybe even Stormtrooper costumes.

Follow @joshrottenberg for more movie stories

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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Filmmaker Werner Herzog — German-born, having made films in the Amazon, the Sahara, Wisconsin, Antarctica, all points between and most recently a resident of Los Angeles — belongs to the world, and should be cherished accordingly. An intrepid explorer of the dark corners of the soul, he is,...

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Comic-Con, Hollywood and the nature of modern fandom

Filmmaker Werner Herzog on his new box set and more

Filmmaker Werner Herzog — German-born, having made films in the Amazon, the Sahara, Wisconsin, Antarctica, all points between and most recently a resident of Los Angeles — belongs to the world, and should be cherished accordingly. An intrepid explorer of the dark corners of the soul, he is,...

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Mark Olsen

Filmmaker Werner Herzog — German-born, having made films in the Amazon, the Sahara, Wisconsin, Antarctica, all points between and most recently a resident of Los Angeles — belongs to the world, and should be cherished accordingly. An intrepid explorer of the dark corners of the soul, he is,...

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