Pure and Simple, a Way to Give Something Back
by Tom Hoffarth
Los Angeles Daily News
July 29, 2002

They do this for the love of the game, and these homespun Web sites about baseball reflect that. Here's our current top 5:

--BaseballSavvy.com:
Howard Cole of Calabasas describes himself as a "starving writer hanging in as best I can,'' and this outlet for commentaries helps keep the former L.A. sports radio producer sane. He notes his most prized possession is an original Dodgers bobblehead with No. 32 that looks "absolutely nothing like Sandy Koufax'' and lost half its head in the Northridge earthquake.

--Sarah's Dodger place:
Sarah Morris, who lived in Pasadena until moving to Anderson, Texas, with her mother, credits her site (www.dodgerplace.com) as saving her from the depths that can come from having cerebral palsy. The Dodgers graciously have provided a link to this off their official site (www.dodgers.com).

--DodgerBlues.com:
"Celebrating the futility, disappointment and humor'' of the team, here's a very warped place (apparently anonymously maintained) that conducts polls such as: "People have trouble finding their seats at Dodger Stadium because a) the row numbers are confusing, b) the aisle numbers are confusing, c) the ushers are confusing, d) people are (bleeping) idiots.''

--DickieThon.com:
Most fan pages can get pretty hero worshipy, but here "it's about baseball, dammit,'' as the logo says. Aside from a shrine to the onetime Angels infielder, there's an outstanding literary review section.

--HallowedGround.org:
A place to find things you probably didn't know existed, such as Jackie Robinson's home marker at 121 Pepper St. in Pasadena, the Wrigley Monument on Catalina Island, Chuck Connors' and John Beradino's stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the Ted Williams Parkway and his boyhood home in San Diego. In just one year, the site has compiled a list of 700 places with a link to baseball history - but only one grave site, that belonging to William Hulbert, who started the National League in 1876. He's resting under a two-foot tall, granite, baseball-shaped headstone at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

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