GLENDALE, Ariz. – A 9-year-old Chase Utley was in the stands at Dodger Stadium with his father when the Dodgers won Game 2 of the 1988 World Series.
Now 38 years old, Utley is one of a handful of players wearing a Dodgers uniform who is old enough to recall a time when the Dodgers were World Series champions.
They have won eight National League West titles and been to the NL Championship Series four times (all in the past nine years).
The franchise with more pennants (21) than all but two others (the Yankees with 40 and the Giants with 22) has never gone this long between World Series appearances since … the World Series was created.
Had you time-traveled back to spring training in 1989 and told Hershiser it would be this long, he would not have taken it well.
“First of all, I would have taken offense to that because I thought that group had a good chance to repeat in 1989,” says Hershiser who has had time to complete an 18-year major-league career (including two more trips to the World Series with the Cleveland Indians), start a broadcasting career (which took him to the Little League World Series), play competitive poker (including the World Series of Poker in 2008) and work for the Texas Rangers as a pitching coach and in the front office (but not during their World Series years, 2010-11) before returning to the Dodgers as a broadcaster.
“I don’t care if we won last year.
But we didn’t win those years.” Of course, it is better to be lucky and good.
But this team is basically the same team with the addition of Logan and then a lot of guys healthy, a lot of guys signing back.
But having a lot of talent, a lot of depth, a lot of people who are focused and motivated on winning a World Series gives us a really good chance in our mind.”

Why Dodgers could finally end World Series drought.
The Dodgers finished two victories away last season, finally succumbing to the Chicago Cubs’ buzzsaw while seeing their season end in a game started by their best pitcher.
"The talent that we had in place … the camaraderie among the group, we felt was a real asset going forward," Friedman said.
Better health could have improved the Dodgers’ fortunes last season, when an MLB-record 28 players hit the disabled list.
He returned for the playoffs, but he was still increasing his pitch totals when the postseason arrived and was far from his best after appearing in five games over 16 days.
Toles’ first-inning defensive miscue came as the game started to go sideways early.
"I think everybody knows our team was plenty talented last year, we just had a lot of guys get hurt," Kershaw said on the first day of spring training.
"It’s not how we start Opening Day, it’s how we will finish the year," Friedman said.
"Everyone in that clubhouse wants to win a championship," Roberts said recently.
I think … on into the season, [unselfishness] is what it is going to take from each player."

ANNOUNCEMENT: Reclamation Schedules Public Meeting for 2017 Trinity River Flow and Gravel Recommendations.
The Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP), a multi-agency program with eight Partners established by the Department of the Interior, will host a public informational meeting to present the recommended 2017 spring restoration flow releases from Lewiston Dam and gravel augmentation plans.
A 2000 Record of Decision includes five water year types with a minimum volume of water to be released into the Trinity River for each type.
Gravel augmentation is combined with the flow releases to replace gravel trapped by the upstream dams that is necessary for salmon habitats.
Under the five water year types that the Program operates under, ranging from “critically dry” to “extremely wet”, a “wet” and “extremely wet” water year are likely for 2017.
The water year type is used to establish the flow release schedule.
The California Department of Water Resources estimates the inflow volume to determine the water year type which will be identified on April 10, 2017.
The actual flow schedule will be known and presented at the public meeting.
The river could remain elevated as late as May 16.
For additional information, please contact Kevin Held at 530-623-1809 (TTY 800-877-8339) or kheld@usbr.gov or visit www.trrp.net.

A cooler than average March could help lift the drought watch status that Lancaster County has been under since November, according to meteorologists.
“(March) was the coolest month of the winter or cold season.
The February pattern consisted of air passes from the Pacific which weren’t as cold, Walker said.
The stormy pattern led to more cloudy days and cooler temperatures, Walker said.
“That helped bring up the ground water,” Horst said.
“Those three events could bring us as much as a month’s worth of rain in eight days,” Horst said.
Those days of rain could fall just in time to lift Lancaster County out of its drought watch status.
The state Department of Environmental Protection’s Drought Watch Committee has its next meeting April 6 to review drought status statewide.
Looking at the month of April, Walker predicts the temperatures will average close to normal.
By the end of the month, the normal high is 68, he said.

Drought has taken a toll on Maine’s wild brook trout.
That’s way better than stressing the wild populations.” State officials have not placed restrictions on fishing for wild brook trout this spring, but biologists say they would not hesitate to react should the situation worsen.
“I would say the impact, particularly in stream systems, was very large,” said Jim Pellerin, a regional fisheries biologist in southern Maine.
Once ponds open across the state, biologists and fishermen will keep a close eye on the status of wild brook trout.
“The wild fish population just crashed,” said Obrey, Maine’s brook trout specialist.
“There are ponds I know that have really small spring inlets.
I did observe trout spawning in the Kennebago over Columbus Day as usual, although the water level was much lower.” Steve Heinz, a director with the Sebago Chapter of fish conservation group Trout Unlimited, said he saw many wild brook trout streams in the foothills of the White Mountains dry up last summer when he was replacing culverts.
So the Sebago chapter works to replace culverts to help the wild fish move between different waters.
He said if prolonged dry periods become more common, fishermen should just stop fishing to help wild brook trout populations.
People are delusional to think catch-and-release works 100 percent of the time.

Drought planning: Water shortages expected in New Mexico.
Managers in the state’s 16 water planning districts have spent the past three years crunching numbers and analyzing historic data to help create a collection of plans that identify supply gaps and possible solutions.
"We are really working with a limited resource in the state, increased demands and variable water supplies from year to year," Blaine said Thursday.
"Those are the challenges that we really need to be looking at when we start developing what our statewide plan looks like."
The need to have more comprehensive and consistent information about the challenges in specific regions came to a head in 2013 as New Mexico approached 36 straight months of extreme drought conditions, making for the driest and hottest period in more than a century.
Along the Middle Rio Grande Valley, the state’s most populated area, managers warn that the supply from the river and groundwater pumping would meet only half the region’s demand in drought years.
Officials in southern New Mexico say they would like to maintain that region’s values — including agriculture and the viability of rural communities — as water shortages are addressed.
Sam Fernald, director of the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute, said more integrated approaches are needed and that options like water banking, shortage sharing and desalination will have to be part of the conversation.
"That’s a challenge around the whole West," he said.
That’s a big question."

Zimbabwe Helps Drought-stricken Farmers Grow More Maize.
"I prefer [to sell] tobacco because when we compare prices, maize [corn] prices are lower than tobacco’s," Tarutsvira said.
"But if … tobacco gives you three-four times over what maize is giving you, go for that which gives you money.
Zacharia points out Zimbabwe could use the profit from tobacco crops to import maize that is more affordable.
"Even as a nation, we could put high-value crops in our fields, make the money that you require, import the grain.
It [is] much, much cheaper than the current $390 that we buy it locally," he said.
The El-Nino-induced drought in 2015 and 2016 left Zimbabwe with serious food shortages.
In return, the farmers will give the government five tons of maize per hectare at harvest time.
So far, the rains have been good this year, and Zimbabwe’s minister of agriculture, Joseph Made, said that, thanks to the initiative, the country is on track to harvest enough maize for local consumption — as much as two million tons.
Next month, the Zimbabwe Agricultural Society will gather to figure out other incentives for farmers to plant maize crops in the hopes of easing the country’s perennial food shortages.

Alachua County, Areas Of Florida In Severe Drought.
Parts of Alachua County are now classified under severe drought conditions.
With over 90 percent of the state of Florida considered to be in a drought, the National Drought Mitigation Center classified the situation Thursday as “severe” in nine counties, including Alachua.
Currently, Alachua County has no drought restrictions in place.
This isn’t the first time Alachua County has experienced such grave drought conditions.
An extended drought was worse in 2011 and 2012 in severity, extent and how much of the state it covered, according to Zierden.
“We are in a very similar situation to what occurred in Alachua County in 2012,” said Christine Mundy, chief of the Bureau of Water Resource Information at the St. Johns River Water Management District.
The 12-month rainfall deficit for the end of February in 2012 for Alachua County was at 16.3 inches, according to Mundy.
“So it’s very similar to the situation we saw in 2012.” A drought could mean a higher vulnerability for wildfires as well, especially with the peak wildfire season coming up in May.
“Part of this developing drought is the wildfire activity,” Zierden said.

Researchers: Flood-drought cycle can deteriorate drinking water.
March 31 (UPI) — Extreme changes in weather will lead to deterioration in the quality of drinking water, Kansas University researchers say in a report.
The findings, published in the journal Biogeochemistry, indicate that "whiplash weather," in which weather veers from drought to flood, for example, will lead to changes in farm production, with particular concern about how it will affect fertilizer use.
"Instead of going into the plants, which would be harvested, it stays in the soil — and no water is flushing it away."
The abnormal amount of nitrogen remains in the soil until a deluge, the researchers say, which will cause later problems down the road.
"The soil is like a sponge, and when it’s dry the nitrogen stays put, but as soon as you wet it, like when you wring a sponge, the nitrogen can flood into the rivers," added co-author Amy Burgin.
Remediating high nitrogen content in drinking water will involve the construction of new water treatment facilities, straining taxpayers, the report says.
Loecke cited an Iowa drought and flood cycle in 2012 and 2013, which resulted in a nitrogen increase in water and the construction of a $4.1 million nitrate removal plant costing $7,000 per day to operate.
"Increased weather whiplash will, in part, increase the frequency of riverine N [river-borne nitrogen] exceeding EPA drinking water standards.
Thus, our observations suggest increased climatic variation will amplify negative trends in water quality in a region already grappling with severe impairments," researchers wrote in the report.

Weekly Water News Summary, 25 – 31 March 2017.
Last week it was Pat Mulroy’s The Water Problem; Climate Change and Water Policy in the United States.
To access a story, click on the link beginning with ‘http://’, ‘is.gd’, or ‘bit.ly’ (usually).
Clicking on a link beginning with ‘@’ will take you to that person’s Twitter account; clicking on a link beginning with ‘#’ (hashtag) will take you to a Twitter list containing Tweets about a particular topic.
Previous weekly summaries are archived at: #WaWiNews or click here.
Big Data, Big Judgment, Big Deal: RNRF Publication: ‘Congress on Harnessing Big Data for the Environment’ http://bit.ly/2mPXKzT From Blue Marble Earth Blog: A Tale of Two Sandstones: Giant City State Park http://bit.ly/2naHHZd Elaine Hanford’s Bulletin Boards: 1) Geosciences; 2) Environ Sciences; 3) Coastal Zone Mgmt – 27 March 2017 http://bit.ly/2nnD5Qy Tracy Mehan Op-Ed: ‘Cleaning Water & Cutting Budgets: A Case for the Water Infrastructure Finance & Innovation Act http://bit.ly/2o6wQAE Enough Groundwater for Los Turistas y La Gente?
Paper: ‘When Wells Run Dry: Water and Tourism in Nicaragua’ http://bit.ly/2nN31YL Elaine Hanford’s Bulletin Boards: 1) Geosciences; 2) Environ Sciences; 3) Coastal Zone Mgmt – 27 March 2017 http://bit.ly/2nnD5Qy March-April 2017 cover @ngwatweets ‘Groundwater’: Tom Prickett & electrical-analog groundwater model.
– Jonathan Swift (via @dailybeast & @TheWeek) "We live on an island surrounded by a sea of ignorance.
– Jimmy Breslin in @JournalRecord (via @TheWeek) "Pragmatism always beats principles.
Paper: ‘When Wells Run Dry: Water and Tourism in Nicaragua’ http://bit.ly/2nN31YL "Pragmatism always beats principles….