Andre Ethier was strapped to skater and reality TV star Rob Dyrdek’s go-kart. Manny Ramirez was strapped to his bike. And they were taken for a ride at Dyrdek’s outrageous Fantasy Factory.

 

So it wasn’t really Ethier and Ramirez, but their bobbleheads.

 

Ethier’s bobblehead, which will be given out to the first 50,000 fans on the May 18 Dodger game against the Astros, bobbed with every move of Dyrdek’s go-kart, and Ramirez’s bobblehead got quite the ride.

 

Others celebrities have filmed Ethier bobblehead skits, including Laker legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Cooper and Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden.

 

But Dyrdek had the most fun with it and it’s something you will see on the Blue Carpet section of the Dodgers Media Network. Dyrdek also gave the Dodgers Media Network a tour of his Fantasy Factory, his base of operations.

 

Inside the 25,000-square-foot warehouse are offices, an indoor concrete skating plaza, a zip-line, highly elevated basketball hoops, a foam pit and a music studio.

 

It’s a big kids’ dream and Dyrdek’s living it. He showed off some of those toys, including the foam pit as he prepared for takeoff with Ramirez’s bobblehead tagging along.

 

“Manny, now I realize you’re used to hitting homers and being Mannywood and being the mayor of Dodgertown,” said Dyrdek prior to launch, “but this is the Fantasy Factory my friend and around here we get a little reckless.”

Frank, Sammy, Dean and company.

 

Joe, Bowa and Donnie Baseball in the same company?

 

Sort of.

 

The Dodger coaching staff squeezed into the Stadium Club for a morning photo session on April 17. The photos, taken by team photographer Jon SooHoo, will become a nostalgic poster for 60s Night at Dodger Stadium on May 7. The first 20,000 fans at the Friday night game against the Colorado Rockies will receive the poster that gives a nod to the Rat Pack.

 

The Dodger coaching staff, wearing dark suits and loose ties, recreated an iconic photo of the Hollywood legends. Just like the original photo, they played it cool around a pool table. Some coaches got into character, gnawing on cigars, others playing cards, others sharing a fedora.

 

The first sample of the photo was released online the same day — an image of cool.

 

The heartache, the “Wait ’til next years” were all over.

Just 23 years old, Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Johnny Podres shut the mighty New York Yankees down in Game 7 of the 1955 World Series, giving the Dodgers organization its first World Series title.

 

“Johnny Podres to this day, possibly with the exception of Sandy Koufax, to me was one of the best clutch pitchers I’ve ever seen,” Dodger Hall of Famer Duke Snider said.

 

There was so much magic in the ’55 Dodgers. There were the 10 straight wins to open the season. There was the swing of emotion from falling down two games to the Yankees in the series to tying things up at three apiece.

 

There was the Jackie Robinson steal of home in Game 1, bookended by the Sandy Amoros catch in Game 7 in the left field corner that saved the day.

 

And there were the names that live on in baseball lore — Robinson, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Don Newcombe, Snider, Podres and manager Walter Alston.

After losses in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953 to the Yankees, the Dodgers finally crowned Brooklyn as the capital of baseball.

 

“What a memory. All I have left are memories at this stage of my life,” said Newcombe. “To have that ’55 championship and be the first the Dodgers ever had and me and Jackie and Roy were part of it.”

 

Joe Torre recently answered questions from Mark Sweeney about the pain of last season’s NLCS loss, the team’s growth, his message during Spring Training, Sandy Koufax and expectations.

 

On the NLCS: “There were players in that room in the clubhouse that were very emotional a number of them just openly crying, which was much different than the year before.”

 

On growth: “This spring the energy level is very good in the clubhouse and on the field. They’re having fun. It’s sort of that quiet confidence you need to have when going into a baseball season.”

 

On his message during Spring Training: “You’ve got to conduct yourself to where winning’s not a surprise anymore. You expect yourself to win and the only way to do that is to make sure you go out there and basically come to work every day.”

 

On Koufax: “The one thing about Sandy and a lot of former big leaguers is, they’re willing to share. Sandy’s a little more unique because he has some real ideas on mechanics and what pitchers should do.”

 

On expectations: “I think L.A. deserves to have the Los Angeles Dodgers be the sports team in town.”

A cause near and dear to Dodger center fielder Matt Kemp’s heart is autism, as his 16-year-old brother, Carlton, has the disorder.

 

Kemp, along with his agent and former Major League pitcher Dave Stewart, co-hosted the second annual “Ante Up for Autism” event in Phoenix on March 6.

 

The casino-styled event raised funds for TACA (Talk About Curing Autism).

 

“This is a special event for me and my family and some of my friends,” said Kemp. “We picked TACA because my brother is autistic and that’s something I want to make better.”

 

Hanging out at the poker and blackjack tables were Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, Angel center fielder Torii Hunter and Dodgers Russell Martin, James Loney, Clayton Kershaw, Casey Blake and others.

 

“He has outstanding character,” said Blake. “He’s just got it all together and he cares about the game of baseball and he cares about his teammates and obviously he cares about autism.”

A special season got its reward on Oct. 3, when on the 161^st game of the 2009 season a fly ball settled into the glove of Andre Ethier at precisely 10:12 p.m. That’s when the Dodgers officially became NL West champs for the second year in a row, the first time this has happened since 1977-78.

 

Dodger players jumped on one another. Fans sang along with “I Love L.A.” and cheered lustily for the newly crowned champions. It was a festive atmosphere that hopefully will continue on in 2010.