Los Angeles Times

Bill Plaschke: Those Dodgers stars fans cheer for? Marty Lamb saw them first

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Dodgers' hottest hitter is being interviewed by phone while driving his Ford pickup south through the Kentucky hills and into Tennessee.

There is country music on his radio. There is a cowboy hat in the back. In the console is a cup into which he collects the juice from the snuff that rarely leaves his lower lip.

"My wife says she can hear it when I spit," Marty Lamb says. "She said, 'Don't you get on that phone with me and spit.' "

He laughs, because he's doing what he loves, driving four hours to places such as Kingsport, Tenn., where he will sit in a minor league ballpark watching teenage kids throw curves and take hacks.

"Every night there's the excitement of watching somebody new," he says. "You look

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times4 min read
Project Roomkey: Lessons Learned From A Massive Program To Save The Lives Of Homeless People
LOS ANGELES — The state program that provided private hotel and motel rooms for homeless people during the COVID pandemic improved healthcare for thousands and provided valuable lessons for how shelters could better serve their clients, a two-year st
Los Angeles Times4 min read
Commentary: What A Quail Taught Me About Grief By Joining A Flock Of Turkeys
It’s dusk in spring, and the seven-year anniversary of my mother’s death from cancer is approaching, a death that marked the end of my biological family. I want to text my friend Margot, who lost her dad to AIDS in the spring years ago, and ask, “How
Los Angeles Times5 min read
Review: In The Sci-fi Thriller 'Dark Matter,' Joel Edgerton Battles Through Parallel Worlds
Blake Crouch has enjoyably adapted his own 2016 novel "Dark Matter" into a nine-episode series for Apple TV+, which aims to be your destination for classy sci-fi. It's got nothing to do with "dark matter" except as Shakespeare might have used the phr

Related Books & Audiobooks