L.A. Trainer Will Not Have Contract Renewed

The Dodgers' made their first offseason changes, however it was not on the player roster but in the medical department, when they declined to renew the contract of assistant trainer Stan Johnston, who has been with the organization since 1985.

  The popular Johnston, a 23-year employee of the organization, was the club's head trainer from 2000-06 until Stan Conte was brought in last winter, shortly after Conte resigned as San Francisco's head trainer. At that point, Johnston was moved into an assistant's role to make room for Conte, and assitant trainer Matt Wilson was let go.

?Johnston spent 10 seasons as a trainer in the Dodgers' minor-league system before joining the big-league training staff in 1996. He was head trainer for the organization's Triple-A affiliate, Albuquerque, from 1989-95. He joined the organization in 1985 at rookie-level Great Falls and spent the next three years at Class A Bakersfield.

Johnston, 44, had been a performer for nine years on the professional rodeo circuit. He earned a Master's degree in sports medicine from Montana State University in 1985 and was one of the National League trainers for the 2006 All-Star Game.

?"I enjoyed my 22 years with the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and everything I did to advance and further their commitment to being an outstanding organization," Johnston said. "I am saddened that I am not going to a part the future of the organization."

?Abreu Operation Successful--Dodgers infielder Tony Abreu underwent surgery on Wednesday for a torn abdominal muscle and is expected to be healed in time for the start of Spring Training. Dr. William Meyers, a specialist in sports hernia injuries, performed the surgery. Abreu was to remain hospitalized overnight and return to Los Angeles on Thursday. Recovery time is expected to be six to eight weeks.

Dodger History 101-- Brooklyn went wild on this day in 1955 when lefty Johnny Podres stopped the Yankees, with the help of a spectacular catch by Sandy Amoros, and the Dodgers won their first World Championship in eight tries. The 2-0 victory before 62,465 fans in Yankee Stadium also snapped a string of five straight series losses to the Yankees (1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953). Podres allowed only eight hits and struck out four in the complete game victory and first baseman Gil Hodges drove in both runs with an RBI single in the fourth and a sacrifice fly in the sixth. Amoros catch down the left field line off Yogi Berra in the sixth inning and his relay to Pee Wee Reese who threw to first base for a double play saved two runs and the series..

October 4, 1959:-- After splitting the first two games against the Chicago White Sox in the World Series, Don Drysdale worked the first seven innings and Larry Sherry allowed a run in the eighth but closed out the 3-1 win in the first World Series game to be played in Los Angeles and in front of a booming crowd of 92,394. The Dodgers were held to one hit over the first six innings but in the seventh, Charlie Neal singled and Norm Larker and Gil Hodges walked to load the bases. Pinch-hitter Carl Furillo single in two runs. Neal singled home Maury Wills in the bottom of the eighth after Chicago had scored their only run in the top of the inning. Sherry would sparkle in the series, winning two games and saving the other two. He would be chosen the Series MVP for his remarkable pitching.