I got the call at 7:00 AM on Sunday morning, March 4, 2012.  It was Ron Cervenka from the ThinkBlueLA.com forum calling from Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Arizona.  I knew that Ron was already at Spring Training even though the first official Dodger Spring Training game was still a day away.  I knew this because I had read about Ron’s pending trip on his forum.  I knew that he was taking a 10-day vacation with fellow forum members to eat, drink, and sleep Dodger baseball.  What I DIDN’T know was why the heck he was calling me at 7:00 AM on my precious day off when I was planning to sleep in.  I’m used to getting calls at all hours of the day and night – it comes with the territory in the law enforcement field, and these calls usually require me to get up and get to work to deal with something that has surfaced on the daily beat.  It was a relief knowing that this call was from Ron (in spite of the early hour on my day off) and an even greater relief knowing that I wasn’t going to be rushing out the door.

Ron told me that he was sitting in his car in the Camelback Ranch parking lot waiting for the complex gates to open and that he was planning to be among the first to hurry on over to the Minor League fields to watch an intrasquad game in which Clayton Kershaw was scheduled to pitch.  There is only one other person I know of who is crazy enough to do something like this… me; I did it at Spring Training last year.

As Ron spoke, I could tell that he had something other than Spring Training, Camelback Ranch, or Clayton Kershaw on his mind because he was pretty excited and was talking a mile a minute… and I soon learned why.  He proceeded to share with me an idea that he had about expanding his popular ThinkBlueLA.com forum to an entirely new level… a well thought out and top quality Dodger blog site.

“I’d really like you to join my team and submit an article for the blog every now and then,” he said.

Now I have been asked to contribute as a writer for another blog site before and though I was flattered by the invitation, the fit was never quite right.  This time, however, I didn’t even hesitate and I immediately agreed to join his staff.  Why?  Well, simply put, Ron is a guy that I trust.  I respect his insight and his attention to detail.  I had only known him for a few weeks, but felt that I knew enough about him to immediately commit to this new venture.  There is no doubt in my mind that his blog would be a quality product and not something just thrown together, (like mine was).  To be honest, it was quite flattering to even be asked to write for him.

Although my friendship with Ron is relatively new, it came about in a rather unique way.  I met him through one of his forum regulars, Harold Uhlman (also known as Bluenose Dodger) from Nova Scotia, Canada, who responded to a trivia question that I had posed in one of my ‘Opinion of Kingman’s Performance’ blog articles in January.  Long story short, Harold answered the trivia question correctly, having been fed the correct answer by Ron, so Harold asked that I send the prize (a T-shirt) to Ron instead of himself, which I did.  Ron responded with a very nice thank you email and we continued corresponding back and forth after that.  A few weeks later he showed up at the Dodger blogger’s softball tournament as a spectator.  “Heck with that,” I told him, and I tossed him a jersey, and wearing jeans and sneakers (and now an ‘Opinion of Kingman’s Performance’ jersey), he promptly went out and got a knock in his first AB.

Ron C singles during the Dodger Blogger Softball games

That Saturday we hit it off.  It was an immediate connection and camaraderie that only the fraternity of fellow cops understands; of which there were seven on our softball team.  (Ron is a retired detective from the Burbank Police Department, having served for over 30 years).

Other than both being in law enforcement, I can’t say that Ron and I have much in common; he loves NASCAR… while I see it as left turn mania.  He is a prize winning bass fisherman… something that I don’t have the patience or skill for.  I love Mozart and have a weakness for schmaltzy musical theatre… and though I’m not a gambling man, I’d be willing to bet that Ron doesn’t give a rat’s rear about these things.

But Ron and I DO have one very big thing in common – our love and passion for the Dodgers.  That was evident immediately as we sat in the stands at the West Covina Big League Dreams complex on that Saturday and spoke about Lasorda rants, Colletti trades, the Dodger-Giant rivalry, Dodger history, Dodger Fantasy Camp, the ownership debacle, the Minor League affiliates, autograph seeking, etc, etc. We could have gone on for hours (or days).

So I give this backdrop to explain why I believe that the ThinkBlueLA.com blog site is going to be one of the best out there.  It will be so because Ron is at the reins.  His web-designer, Scott Harvey, is very talented.  The ThinkBlueLA.com blog has been weeks in the making and I am convinced that it will be constantly monitored and tweaked to near perfection because of the passion and desire that Ron and Scott have to make it a quality product.

One thing that the ThinkBlueLA.com blog has from the get-go is readership; a loyal following of die-hard Dodger fans from across the country and Canada who currently make the ThinkBlueLA.com forums their thrice daily (or more) stop for Dodger information, entertainment, and friendly interaction.  I have no doubt that these loyal ThinkBlueLA.com followers will also follow the new blog, as will many new readers once they learn about it. Ron cares a great deal about his loyal forum readers and he wants them to have the best blogging experience possible.  It is this basic foundation and the unique features that Ron and Scott are planning that will make ThinkBlueLA.com a one-of-a-kind Dodger blog site.

So a new adventure begins, just as the Dodgers and their new ownership begins their race to the pennant.  I can’t think of a better time for the birth of this Dodger blog.  Though there are many other Dodger blogs out there – some good, some not so good, I’m fairly certain that ThinkBlueLA.com will be of a quality that few others will match.