The Los Angeles Dodgers would have to stumble to historic lows to blow a playoff spot this year – and while it’s felt that way recently, the 21-game cushion the club built earlier in the season should hold up. Hanmi Bank, meanwhile, seems to have a bigger chance of missing the postseason with its star endorser, South Korean pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu, who appears in an ad campaign dressed in the KorAm financial institution’s colors rather than Dodger blue. Ryu has had some good outings recently, but he’s down the list in the team’s rotation, and there’s a chance he could be left off the playoff roster. … South Korea-based Hite Brewery Co. Ltd. went the other way, lining up with the Dodgers brand over any star for a marketing association that has paid off at spots such as OB Bear at 7th and Westmoreland in Ktown, where crowds come as much for the televised ball games as the hot wings that have won local renown – and like their beer with both. … Plenty of historic crosscurrents behind the move by Los Angeles Times’ parent, tronc Inc., to add the New York Daily News to a stable that also includes the Chicago Tribune – this isn’t the first time the operation has had a presence in the three biggest media markets in the U.S. Tronc is the newspaper rump of what used to be Tribune Co., which counted the Tribune as a cornerstone, added the New York Daily News as a startup in 1919, and bought the old Van Nuys News and Green Sheet in 1971, eventually changing its name to the Los Angeles Daily News. Tribune sold the L.A. Daily News in 1985, and shed the New York tabloid in 1991. Tronc’s reacquisition in New York looks digitally driven, and came at the price of $1 and the assumption of liabilities believed to be in the low- to mid-seven figures. … This isn’t the first time the Times has had a sister in New York, either. Former parent Times-Mirror once owned Long Island-based daily Newsday, and made a serious push with a NYC edition for years back in its glory days. … Where does Brentwood-based PR pro Arlene Howard get her smarts and drive? A lovely lunch at Drago in the Petersen Automotive Museum made it clear that the answer to that question could fill a book – and the book would start with an account of the eight hours she spent tending to Eleanor Roosevelt as a teenager working for a New York radio station that had the former first lady – long removed from the White House by then – on hand for Election Night coverage during a presidential season some time ago. Howard says she sensed greatness – and she seems to have been fully engaged in life ever since. … Sullivan Says: That new, made-in-the-Arts District custom shoemaker I told you about last week shows off its fashion chops upfront, proudly calling itself Comunity with one m – a stylistic choice that was overridden by autocorrect in the prior mention in this space.