Tag Archives: Dodgers

by | December 11, 2012

Perspective on Dodgers for Giants Fans

To begin with a paragraph that I am sure Giants fans will forget reading by the end of this post (this isn’t my first rodeo), I want to publicly state my admiration for the Giants two World Series wins in the last three years.  After a long dry spell, they won with pitching, team dynamic and a slough of “Rudy type shit”  that made it impossible, even for a season-ticket holding die hard Dodger fan not to root for them.  Hard to not like a Matt Cain or a Buster Posey.  Hard not to love the fact that guys like Angel fucking Pagan and Marco fucking Scutaro decided to over index for the sake of just winning the damn thing.

For me, there was zero to dislike about how the Giants won except, well, it was the Giants who won.

Onto the thesis…  Giants fans on Twitter are going out of there way to point out that the 2008 super expensive Yankees didn’t win the World Series.  They point out that money does not equal championships.  They are totally right on both accounts.

What they are missing is that as a Dodger fan, coming off some of the cheapest, most depressing years of all time under Voldemort McCourt, we are printing money and our ownership is actually spending it on BASEBALL PLAYERS which is insanity.

I don’t care if Greinke is any good.  I don’t care if Ryu plays baseball worse than I played his namesake in Street Fighter back in the arcade days (note that I note Ryu was Japanese, this Ryu is Korean).

I am just happy that our ownership group is going out there and fucking things up for the universe.  The Yankees are in financial decline because their stadium isn’t paying itself off fast enough.  The Dodgers went out and took a bunch of expensive players so they could get Adrian Gonzalez.

I remember being in SF for a bachelor party (and it lived up to its name) when the Dodgers came up there and swept the Giants on the heels of the Ramirez and Scutaro acquisitions.  I remember the papers being furious that the new Dodger ownership would constantly be getting Ramirez-types and the Giants would be bargain shopping for Scutaros.  We all know Scutaro turned out amazing and we also know SF papers are drama queens when it comes to baseball.  For the record, I don’t read the LA Times at all, so I’m casting rocks in a glass house.

I guess the point is, the fact that the Dodgers could have signed Scutaro to put pine tar on the team bats for fun caused his price to jump to, well, un-Scutaro levels.  Angel Pagan for that price?  I mean, I get that we spent a lot on Greinke, but he’s won a Cy Young.  Recently.  He’s filthy in the National League and well, we can afford it.  Committing 80MM to Marco fucking Scutaro and Angel fucking Pagan?  Rocks in a glass house.  More like Molotovs in a grass hut.

I hear the formula of keeping a winner together, but if that was the case, where is Cody Ross?  If keeping a team together meant repeat wins, well, there’d be more 3-peats in baseball.

The part I fail to understand in this “money can’t buy championships” logic is that money buys every championship.  Some players cost less than others.  Some championships are expensive.  Some aren’t.   Of course the example of the 2008 Yankees is true, that monster payroll didn’t lead to a World Series win.  At the same time, the Phillies had a payroll of over 106 million, a franchise record.  They spent more than they ever had and it equalled a title.

While I agree spending just to spend doesn’t guarantee titles, it does improve rosters and it buys better players.  The better team on paper doesn’t always win.  But they win a lot of the time.

The thing is, Giants fans haven’t quite grasped the amount of money the Dodgers have, because very few understand it.  Everyone said 2.15 billion for the Dodgers was ludicrous, except the Guggenheim line was basically “it was the right price because you can’t buy the Dodgers every day”.  2.15 is what it cost and when you have so much money you are considering buying AEG also, you don’t care what it costs, you just buy it because that’s what you want and that’s what it takes.

It’s not a weird concept for anyone who ever bought a house.  If you have the money, if you can afford to outbid your competition, you just do it.

Then there is the media deal.  LA is the #2 DMA and has no real competition for summer live TV.  Look at what the Angels got paid and the 6+ BILLION the Dodgers are sure to net.  The Angels are not from LA, no one in LA cares about them and the proof was KCAL dropping them the year the won the World Series to get the Dodgers, who finish second to last that year (I believe).  The Dodger logo is “LA”.  It’s on tattoos and t-shirts and bumper stickers.  It’s the city brand along with the Lakers and suddenly, they have the money to fashionable again.

So think about what 6 billion dollars (which is lower than what the final sale will be) breaks out to over 25 years.  That comes out to 240 million dollars a year.  There’s your payroll covered for a quarter century before you sell an overpriced t-shirt, an 8 dollar Dodger Dog or even a single solitary ticket.  That’s before you get advertising dollars.  That’s before anything.  And they are going to sell the rights for more than 6 billion, I was being conservative.

6 billion is the new conservative for the Dodgers.  Like it or not, they changed the game.

Many think this is a bubble for baseball, fine.  Dodgers sold their house before the bubble burst.  That deal is a contract and if the bubble bursts, it won’t be the Dodgers missing out.  Their 240 million a year will just pay for more players.

The next argument has been that you can’t just buy talent and expect to win.  I actually agree, but the thing is, the Dodgers have so much fucking money right now they are going to stock the farm system too.  They signed a Cuban defector for 42 million.  They are going to draft the Zach Lee’s of the world who teams let slip only because they are expensive and not bat an eye at offering them 5+ million to give up getting crushed in pads in college football.  The Dodgers have the money to spend big in the pros and in the farm system.  They’ve poured more money in a year into scouting and player development than most teams do in five years.

They signed 8 pitchers and now can trade a Chris Capuano for prospects or bullpen help because they can eat his salary if they have to.  Money doesn’t just help you sign free agents.  It helps you sweeten deals.  It helps you sign better draft picks who otherwise you’d ignore.  It changes the game if you are committed to playing every facet of it.

They are going to grow their talent AND buy it.  They didn’t even give up a draft pick for Greinke.  It’s a juggernaut like that of the Real Madrids of the world.  It’s more than the Yankees did because they never stocked the farm system.

How did the MLB let such wealthy owners come into the league?  Simple.  They were the assholes who ruined the Dodgers by letting Frank McCourt buy them on a stolen credit card.  Dodger fans, the team, the city suffered embarrassment after embarrassment with McCourt.  They dealt with a lack of security leading to Bryan Stow being beaten in the parking lot and it was totally appalling and a tragedy none are proud of.  They owed us and they knew it.  They fucking took team control away and forced a sale and the richest people ever to want a team bought it, partnered with a guy who is famous for building farm systems and an LA sports icon who just tweets hilarious shit all the time.

ADIOS FRANK.   That’s over now.  It’s all over now.  Guggenheim Baseball is making a statement and it’s loud an clear.  If it can help, we’ll buy it.

Fucking Ned Colletti went from being a headache to a guy reciting poetry about seeing toothpicks and thinking redwood tree.  As a long time fan and season ticket holder, it’s an odd feeling.  It’s literally like you’ve had an awful, ugly, mean teacher who has been flunking you and trying to keep you out of college get replaced by a former Victoria’s Secret model who wants to let you ditch class, take you to prom and buy you a Bentley.  And she likes watching sports and bourbon too.

So pardon us, Giants fans, if we aren’t worried about what it costs or if it means we’ll win next year.  Pardon us if we don’t see the same pressure to win that we’re supposed to.  It’s been 23 years and suddenly we have a chance again.  We can sign Brian Wilson just to tell jokes for more than you are overpaying Angel Pagan.  That’s real.

You won two World Series in an amazing, gritty manor that made me appreciate you and root for you even though I hate you.  That’s amazing.  Like Tonga is at the Fairmont.  It’s good for baseball.

Guggenheim is good for Los Angeles.  You don’t have to understand, but we’d rather have a Lakers team with stars struggling than a scrappy team.  That’s the city.  Better or worse.  That’s us.

Sure, right now it just looks good on paper.  We all saw this team needs to gel.   Damn, though.  It looks good on paper and we’re not even done.

I wish you good luck this season.  After 50 years of futility, you have taken control of the rivalry.  We finally have the means to try to do something about it.  Can’t wait.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN ME ON FACEBOOK

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER BECAUSE I TWEET PROFESSIONALLY

I’M ON INSTAGRAM @LOSTANGELESBLOG – FIND ME ON GAMEDAY FOR BOURBON

http://thearrogantnation.com/delivery-schedule/

24 Comments

Filed under Dodgers

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

by | July 13, 2009

Dodgers Halfway Home.

Before the season began I suspected the Dodgers would be a very good ball club.  Their lineup would produce runs, there was no weak link.  The defense set up to be incredibly strong.  I felt like the bullpen was better than people realized.  As much as there were concerns about the pitching staff, I felt Chad Billingsley was almost an ace, Hiroki Kuroda and Randy Wolf would each be able to give the team some chances to win, and Clayton Kershaw sometime in the next 4 years would become a Cy Young winner.  I felt like the Giants would be the real competition in the division with Lincecum and Cain anchoring a very strong rotation.

121630_angels_dodgers_baseball

If you told me the Giants would be 10 games over .500 at the All Star Break, I think I’d have been scared the Dodgers would be in trouble.  That would mean the Giants were playing strong defense and more importantly, finding a way to put runs on the board.  That would mean the Dodgers would have to be on fire to be in first place.  Totally on fire.

If you told me that Rafael Furcal and Russell Martin would be having immense trouble at the plate I’d have thought we were in trouble.  If you told me Andre Ethier would be hitting .250, I’d have been concerned.  If you told me Will Ohman would be a bust, Jason Schmidt wouldn’t be healthy, Hong Chih Kuo would be permanently on the DL, I would be certain things would be shaky.  If you told me Juan Pierre would be one of our top players statistically, I’d have thrown up in my mouth.

Simers

If you told me Manny Ramirez would get caught for taking PEDs and would miss 50 games, I’d say we were more screwed than an Ikea coffee table.

Only all those things happened and the Dodgers ended the first half with a record of 56-32.  These things happened and the Dodgers had the best record in the major leagues.  The Dodgers have a 7 game lead on those over-achieving San Francisco Giants.   They lead the last place San Diego Padres by 20 games.  They ended the Arizona Diamondbacks season by May.

The Dodgers +105 run differencial is the greatest in the league by a landslide.  They have been at the top 5% of almost every statistic a team can tabulate during the 2009 campaign so far.  They have struggled to hit the long ball, but they have not struggled to score runs for the most part.

Angels Dodgers Baseball

This is a team that has comeback wins twice a week.  This is a team that is all smiles.  This is a team that seems content to pick up right where the Lakers left us, floating on cloud nine dreaming of westward championships.  Finally, a squad that seems to befit the strategy GM Ned Colletti has talked about for years, a strategy that made sense if we ever saw it on the field.  You’d heard it a million times.  Use veterans to bridge the gap to the future with the talented core of youngsters.

Only in years past, the vets were too far over the hill and the youngsters not long enough in the tooth quite yet.  All of that seemed to change last season.  We started to see it.  The pieces were coming together, but the team we have this year, at least the bulk of it, was only together a few months.  A few months that had the Dodgers losing the lead in three NLCS games and just a stone’s throw from the World Series.

Now the veterans are Casey Blake and Rafael Furcal and Manny Ramirez and Randy Wolf and Orlando Hudson.  The role players can produce when called upon, led by Brad Ausmus and Mark Loretta.  The youngsters are looking legit.  Chad Billingsley and Jonathan Broxton are All-Stars.  James Loney leads the team in RBIs.

mlb_g_ramirez_412

Along with Manny, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier form possibly the best Dodger outfield ever to wear the regal blue cursive.

This team can pitch and run and hit and throw.  They do not give up when they are down.  They seem to enjoy the game.  They smile at each other.  To watch them from the stands so many times this year, I can say with conviction that they love the game right now.  They love it and I believe them.  Nothing makes me happier.

Heading into the break, there is only one real question.  Is it enough?  Do we have enough?  Rumors of looking to add a starter and/or a reliever are commonplace.  Roy Halladay looms on the east coast.  He can be had, but at what cost?  At what reward?  Would he and Billingsley be able to deliver us the title?  What if the Phillies snatch him?  Would a Hamels/Halladay frontline be unstoppable?  Would it waste the team we have assembled?

I wish I knew, but more and more my gut is to play this one out and do it ourselves.  Make no mistake, this town loves the Lakers.  But we are used to the Lakers winning.  Mark my words, if we have a sweet October followed by an even sweeter November, this city will party like it’s 1988.  Everything will be blue and we’ll celebrate all the way through spring.

I personally will buy a keg and roll it around Silverlake in a radio flyer, pouring everyone in an LA cap a cold beer and smiling like a punk.

Until then, who knows.  So much can happen to screw this up.  I’ll keep wondering, “do we have enough”.

I hope we do.

1 Comment

Filed under Dodgers

Tagged as

by | June 29, 2009

Summer is Here.

About Tuesday of last week it became apparent summer really needed to start.  With this blog, work, the screenplay I am currently commissioned to write and a fairly packed band calendar, I felt like I had been heads down since 2009 had began.  I knew technically summer had began and it seemed really important to jump start the vernal season.

Friday I went to see the Dodgers with my father.  I got out of work a few minutes early and enjoyed the slow ride down Jefferson through the lesser travelled spots of the city, rolling through afternoon light all the way past Rodeo (like cowboys, not Beverly Hills) and Crenshaw and Normandie.  I went all the way east until I spotted my college dorm, the giant white “H” shaped building called Fluor Tower.  I remember so many little details about that place from the girl who was at the mail room (and like hot enough for you to look forward to going downstairs) to the way the elevator floors sunk to one point which usually was filled up with beer or urine late on Thursday nights after the row parties got out.

_wsb_612x224_rowmap

I stop and Cal Mart just off Figueroa to shotgun a beer for old times sake.  All the orange light in the smog is making the world look like old photographs and I am so, so guilty of nostalgia.  There are homeless people I recognize, but they do not remember me.  I used to talk to them a lot.  After all, I like to talk a lot and my ex-girlfriend lived in an alley off the Shrine, which is Spanish for “homeless people were everywhere”.  Homeless people can teach you a lot also, in a strange way.  They used to haunt my late night walks to the Pantry after I moved downtown, before LA Live and the Edison and the Standard.  Man, I heard all kinds of stuff.

The game is a lot of fun.  Andre Ethier (who still hasn’t agreed to eat at Roscoe’s with me) hit 3 home runs and the Spartan (Casey Blake, check out that beard) went long as well.  An easy drive home and another fortunate night of watching baseball with my father, who should be Commissioner.  You heard me Selig.  We will do away with Interleague play and save the sport.

Saturday, we got up pretty early and hit Will Rogers to get a hike in.  Despite it being hazy, I was pleased with the weather and the lack of horseshit on the trail.  Sometimes it’s horseshit city there.  In the parking lot after we hiked, I witnessed a long-haired blonde woman who looked like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler.  It was pretty intense.  I couldn’t figure out her deal with the two people she was with, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.  Then I felt all guilty for judging another human being.  At least I was quiet and didn’t do anything but smile when they walked away.  Until I blogged about it.  Woops.

There was a pick up football game going on at the polo field like there usually is on Saturdays.  I don’t know if these are kids that go to Pali High or what, but this is the Douche Circus.  These kids definitely decide in advance who are shirts and skins.  They have the flag football flags.  They have a playbook.  They shout all kinds of shit at each other throwing in the proverbial “yeah, baby!” and the “atta kid”.  They get in arguments over calls in a non existant league that no one outside of them cares about.  These guys definitely have never seen a girl with her pants off.  I am so sure of it.  These are the kinds of guys that if you told them, “I bet the closest you have come to getting laid was renting American Pie”, they would respond with something like, “Fuck you bro, I roll ten deep”.   Ten deep in fantasy basketball maybe.  Tool.

Later, we made our way to the Trancas Market and got knee deep in some sandwiches to take down to one of our favorite beaches that will remain nameless as I will be there all summer and it isn’t that crowded.  If you have figured it out, you probably go there anyway.

maybe you've been here?

maybe you've been here?

Took a nap in the sand, caught a strange sunburn, played some smash ball with my lady.  Felt summer for the first time.  If you close your eyes all you heard was waves and a few kids screeching at the cold Pacific water chasing them up and down the shoreline.  It was the kind of afternoon that made you committ to going every Saturday all summer, only you won’t.  Plans will get the best of you.

this shit is no joke.

this shit is no joke.

Stopped over at the Vital Zuman farm to see what was going on there.  Passed on the opportunity to help them farm, but did pick up a bottle of Balsamic Lemonade.  My girlfriend can’t stop thinking about it.  I can’t stop thinking about pouring vodka in it.  Electric Lemonade is fun in the summer and is a nice change up from whiskey.

Slow jaunt over Kanan-Dume to my hometown through the three lonely tunnels where locals hold their breath, lift a foot and hand in the air out of childish superstition.  Drove past Calamigos Ranch and a vinyard on a hill that I never remember the name of.  Later in the afternoon I made time to run around the lake like I used to in high school.  I took my time with it and tried to slow the world down as much as was possible.

On Sunday, caught the day game with my father.  It was really hot and the Dodgers didn’t seem to know that hitting the ball was the best way to score runs.  They have been getting sloppy lately and it is kind of frusterating.  I think it is just pre-Manny jitters.  I get it.  At least interleague play is over and we can return to normal campaign action.  Other than getting to play the Angels, I can’t really get fired up to play the Seattle Mariners, although it was a pleasure to see Ichiro hit again.  I think if I had such a meticulous approach to urination as he has to hitting, I would never hit the seat even if the lid was closed.  That guy is a machine.

random_key_12021_file_suzuki.ichiro.1_article

The heat was not the biggest detraction from my enjoyment on Sunday.  The losing effort of the home team was not either.  It was the moron parade sitting nearby.  I recognized one of the guys from an unnamed extracurricular sporting league played by drunken professionals.  That’s all I will say.  These guys went through a number of topics that were painful.  I do not claim to know as much about soccer as I do about baseball.  In fact, I’ll go toe to toe in baseball with anyone and I feel pretty solid about college football, but some sports, I exert caution before speaking.  One of my least favorite experiences in life is talking at length about things I do not understand.

These guys shouldn’t be allowed to sit so close.  Well, that isn’t fair.  They can sit there, just don’t circle jerk each other with your statistical vomit masquerading as wisdom.   After I spent five innings shaking my head like an elitist, they began to discuss girls at which point I became sure that they all were paying for sex.  Either that or they were all dating women they ordered from Russia in exchange for freedom and non-bootlegged Levis.

Soon, I had to start writing down some of their dialogue, which I will now list and set the record straight.  I fear nothing as I could have sat anywhere in the stadium, perhaps we sold our season seats, and I could be talking about anyone in any direction.  So, here goes and fellas, you may want to write this down:

  • Mastros is not the best steak in Los Angeles.
matt kemp loves dodger nation.

matt kemp loves dodger nation.

  • Matt Kemp is, in fact, a good center fielder.  His .990 fielding percentage puts him a little over our team average which is 4th best in the show.  He only has 2 errors.  He has 7 outfield assists so far.  That leads the majors.  So yes, dipshit.  He’s a good centerfielder.
  • Just because it is a wheat beer or Hefeweizen, just because it has a slice of fruit on it, doesn’t automatically make it a Blue Moon.  Blue Moon was on tap at Barney’s effing Beanery five years ago.  It’s not new.  Also, it is not a microbrew.  It’s owned by Miller.  I know you said five times to your friend you love microbrews.  That may be true.  I am just fairly sure you wouldn’t know if and when you are drinking one.

2552344007_c3a4908e80

  • Ken Griffey does have a beautiful swing in its own way.  Is it the most beautiful ever?  No.  He takes his hand off the bat.  Watch some old Ted Williams or Mickey Mantle footage.  Also, when you say his swing is the most finesse swing ever, what does that mean?  That’s the kind of thing a guy who thinks Blue Moon is a new, indie microbrew says.   Oh, wait.
  • When you say “that guy has good stats”, what do you mean?
  • I could go all day, but just one more question.  Do you guys have a fantasy baseball league?  I could really use the easiest 200 bucks I have ever made.

The only thing that saved my day was the new “fat guy dance off” on the Jumbotron.  These guys both went for the gold, and I am pretty sure no one loses during a fat guy dance off.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Rants and Musings

Tagged as ,

by | May 8, 2009

The King of Los Angeles.

The media was flocking to Chavez Ravine to help push Manny’s head under water.  This Dodger team would finally get the slap in the face the world wanted to give them.  We had gotten off too easy with Gagne, who was long gone by the time we realized his 84 game save streak, his Cy Young award and his Welcome to the Jungle intros were all a tower of horseshit.  The Dodgers couldn’t duck this one.  Hell, left field had just been renamed Mannywood.  There are crews of billboard technicians that have to work this weekend to hide that fact.

kobe-bryant-6-med

Lost in the shuffle was the NBA’s decision not to suspend Laker’s superstar and 2008 MVP Kobe Bryant.  Los  Angeles was on the verge of cosmic sporting destruction, but we survived.  The Dodgers failed to win, but they scored nine runs.  The Lakers wait.  The Lakers wait deep in the heart Texas and more than ever our collective heart is in their hands.

This city has two teams we all agree on.  The Lakers and the Dodgers.  There are Trojans and Bruins, but no matter what college you pull for, you are in the company of your brothers and sisters when you enter Staples or the Ravine.  Their colors are our colors.  They are the very essence of this city, a place where the best from all over collects to stand out from the crowd, to let their freak flags fly and be themselves.

Manny, our second biggest hero, has let us down.  We must pick up the pieces, but that process seems like it could take forever.  How do we even begin peeling back the shame.  We are not a lesser team that is happy for the press.  We integrated baseball.  We are all that is good in sport.  It will take a long while to remind the world of that.

One thought possessed me this morning.  I woke up and stumbled through my routine.  My communte to work was hazy, something on NPR about cops getting paid for the time they are getting dressed.  Can’t be bothered.

All I could think about was Kobe.

080612_Kobe_Bryant

Once a fallen prince himself.  Here’s a man who has all the talent in the world, but has managed to take the heat for almost everything he does.  Despite his “victim” dropping the accusations, he is still referred to as a rapist.  He is seen as arrogant.  He is the reason Shaq left Los Angeles.  His three titles belong to Shaq.  He won an MVP for being selfish.

Kobe’s list of digs against him are many, but his talent is matched by none.  No one does what he does, but somehow Kobe is always left behind.  Has there ever been a more decorated athlete with more to prove?  Imagine what it is to be Kobe.  Three NBA titles.  An MVP.  All-Star appearance after All-Star appearance.  The man is an artist, but he is the enigmatic competitor who wanted out of this city because he felt he couldn’t win here.

Tonight, he can.  Over the next month he can win in a way no one, I mean no one, has ever won in this city.  Kobe can take back home court from the Houston Rockets tonight.  He can be a warrior and shift our minds away from the pain at the Ravine.  He can take our Lakers one step closer to a championship while giving the boys in Blue, the ones who got left behind a chance to regroup and stand up tall.  They are connected.  You may not think so, but they are.

Tonight at Dodger Stadium, people will line up outside the glass of the Baseline Box Clubs to watch the flat-screens inside.   The fans are the same.  The scoreboard will show the Lakers score and if we are winning, the crowd will cheer with the same passion they do for the Dodgers.

Kobe can help this city move forward.  Kobe, our city’s greatest star can put us all on his shoulders tonight and carry us up the stairs.  He is, in so many ways, the same as this city.  He is perceived as talented and exciting, but with a dark and messed up side that makes it hard for you to love him.  Except just like the city itself, if you are from here, you love Kobe.  You can’t get enough.

Kobe must tell LeBron that he is not the King yet.  Last I checked, you must kill the King to become him.  I would like to believe that Kobe is standing there ready, a smirk on his face and that look in his eyes.

We’ll know tonight.  Dodger fans will be watching closely, hoping for a moment of joy they don’t need to feel guilty about.  Even though summer has begun, they will dream of a march down Figueroa proclaiming Kobe, even if just for one more year, is still the King of Los  Angeles.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Rants and Musings

Tagged as , , , ,

by | May 8, 2009

After the Flood, In the Ravine.

When you go through a break up or you lose a person close to you, people start telling you about the grieving process.  You know.  That list of phases you experience from shock to denial to bargaining.  All that jazz.  I know that denial comes early on.  Yesterday when I received a constant deluge of electronic messages from every outlet possible informing me the King of Dodgertown was a fink, it was pure denial.  I was holding on to the hope this was just a mistreated case of “not getting it up”, that it was true he was having sexual performance issues.

ramirez-manny-584-090506

Then I stepped back.  Do you think fans in the Golden Era of Baseball ever had one conversation about Duke or Gil or Jackie’s sexual performance issues.  I guess I had always known it, but yesterday the game was officially bastardized.  Manny had always stood for being too crazy to use steroids.  As Bill Simmons once said, the guy was too stupid to stick to a “cycle” of injections and doses.  Only it doesn’t seem so anymore.

I went to the game last night looking for my opinion.  Eventually, the denial would wear off and I’d know how I felt.  I thought for the briefest moment about being super-effing-indie and wearing my Manny jersey to the game, just to shake things up.  I decided against it.  I thought about how much I hated Giants fans for wearing Bonds jerseys in the middle of all of this.  I also thought about all the people who could only afford one shirt a season and they bought one with #99 on it.  This made my stomach turn.  I felt sick.  I thought about how I felt and then I imagined what the littlest Dodger fans thought.  In this tough economy in a state that is going broke with unemployment soaring, Manny fucking Ramirez let every single one of us down.

Baseball is like life.  Sometimes your hero is a villain.

In fairness, it’s not just Manny.  It’s us.  It’s society.  It’s our demands to see bigger, better, faster, more-more-more.  Last weekend I saw 19 innings of baseball (one went to extras) and only 3 runs were scored.  I had friends laugh at me saying they couldn’t believe how boring that must have been.  It’s the wrong mentality.  It’s saying home runs are more special than drag bunts or sacrifice flies.  They aren’t.  To win is our goal.

Last night, we walked in thirty minutes late as traffic was horrible and believe it or not, I work for a living.  I walked in just as Matt Kemp launched a grand slam and the Dodgers found themselves up 6-0 after one inning.  The crowd was alive.  There was a tangible feeling of “we’re gonna get through this”.  Manny or no Manny, we were going to push this streak of home wins to fourteen.  I knew it.  I started running scenarios.  Randy Wolf was great.  We cheered some six innings later when he gave up a home run and left us with a 5 run lead going into the final nine outs.

Then the wheels came off.

Troncoso and Ohman and Leach and Mota.  Each could not accomplish what they set out to do and we saw the lead shrink, then cling to it’s last breath before dying on a line drive to left field, where Mannywood used to be before they closed the gates.  How apropos.  It started to hit me and everyone else in that stadium.  For the first time since before Manny arrived like a dreadlocked tornado, the fans started filing out with their shoulders slumped.

There was a brief glimmer of hope.  Casey Blake had a chance to win it with one swing in the ninth.  Had he done so, he’d have been the second Dodger to hit for the cycle in the young season.  Alas, it was not to be.  Today class was in session and the Dodgers were made an example.

The parking lot was quiet.  It was easy getting out of the stadium.  Shadows from the trees on the mountains stretched out into the asphalt fields beneath them.  Fans avoided eye contact.  We needed to lose this one then sleep on it.  We needed to wake up with the resolve that Manny may never come back.  Sure, 49 games from now he will be back in the flesh, but can it be the same?  I don’t know what to do.

If it really was a doctor helping a 40 year old with erectile problems, then why doesn’t the doctor speak up?  Manny would be the victim then.  Far be it from the American public to tell a man he shouldn’t be able to “get it up”.  This just has bullshit written all over it and it kills me.

manny

What kills me more are Red Sox fans bragging.  If, in fact, Manny roided, doesn’t that sort of taint your two titles?  Don’t you guys really have more to lose than the Dodgers?  I don’t know.  I look at the field and right now all I see are people who haven’t been caught yet.  I’m very disillusioned.  This too shall pass.

I guess they say it is always darkest before the dawn.  A late bullpen meltdown happens sometimes.  Six runs should have been enough to beat back the lowly Nationals.  Just on that one hot night we hoped the streak could carry us one day more.  We hoped maybe we’d win in spite of our fallen slugger.  Until we do, it’ll just be torture.  It’s all about the brightside though.  LA could have suffered the loss of Kobe and Manny in one day, but the NBA spirits saved us.  We will see how this all shakes out.

Loud footsteps beckon us back to the ballpark.  It is our rivals from the north, who stand five and a half games behind us licking their lips.  The loud footsteps of the Giants stomping south.  They know the dreadlocked wonder cannot save us.  We will have to save ourselves.  Manny has let his city down.

80322773LB026_San_Diego_Pad

It is his teammates’ job to pick us all back up.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Dodgers

Tagged as , , ,

by | March 26, 2009

In a Bad Economy, Don’t Whine.

It’s 3pm on a work day.  Suddenly, a good friend of yours calls and they ask you if you know anywhere that is hiring.  They have worked hard, they loved their old job and were happy doing their daily toiling.  Now, they don’t know what to do.  You ask if their next gig has to be in the same field.  They don’t care right now.  Times are tough and they just want to work.  They want to provide for their families or keep saving for a house or even just pay off tuition loans from college or grad school.

My mother used to say “read the room” to me.  That meant it was always important to make sure what you are saying or what you are doing is appropriate for what is going on around you.  I wish I could say I always read the room, but I didn’t.  Still, can you imagine after your friends around you are looking for work, replying back to them, “I am angry at my job because they are overpaying me and not asking me to do much work and are keeping me around for at least three years?”

I can’t imagine that either.  But I know two guys who literally DID just say that.  They both have the same job:  centerfielder.  They both play a game for a living:  baseball.  They both didn’t “read the room”.  They are Juan Pierre (Dodgers) and Gary Matthews Jr. (Angels).

The Dodgers and Angels had their reasons, but both teams decided to overpay for new centerfielders.  The Dodgers were even dumb enough to give Juan Pierre a  year deal for just under 50 million dollars.

roids make you jump really high.

roids make you jump really high.

This should be where the story ends, honestly.  Two guys, God bless ‘em, got paid enough money that their families and their ancestors will always be rich (unless one great grandchild decides he wants to collect islands and build diamond crusted buildings on them).  But this isn’t where the story ends.

In the case of Juan Pierre, he was a lazy hire by GM Ned Colletti, a knee jerk for J.D. Drew opting out to go be lazy in Boston (a place that sucks) and win World Series.  They sign Pierre and he does what he always did.  Never strike out, hit about .300, have a frusteratingly low OBP, steal a lot of bases and throw like an eleven-year-old girl.  Eventually, the Dodgers decided they needed more and proceeded to admit Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp could play, and after a failed Andruw Jones experiment, they landed the Dreadlocks to patrol left field and be awesome 24/7.  Juan was out of a job.

here's juan practicing resting on the bench.

here's juan practicing resting on the bench.

For Gary Matthew’s Jr., when he wasn’t eating steroids at an amazing clip, when he wasn’t eating them in a contract year, he was busy letting the Angels watch his batting average shrink 71 points since the aforementioned roiding contract year.  So the Angels signed Juan Rivera and figured they could at least utilize Gary’s high flying defense.  That was until the poor economy led to a great deal on Bobby Abreu, who now makes Gary the odd roiding outfielder out (3 OF postions and a DH).  Luckily, Gary is off the juice because he is pretty angry right about now

Today, USA Today grabbed quotes from these two guys who should be counting their lucky stars.  They should be counting them because in a time where fans of the team they played for are hustling to scrounge up cash to come to a ballgame and endure seven dollar hot dogs and eleven dollar beer, these guys are complaining about playing time.

A very pissy and infantile Matthew’s had this to say today:

“I’m not going to sit here and not play this season,” Matthews said in a calm, measured voice. “I’m just not going to do it. Obviously, something must be done.”

Something will be done, Gary.  You will shut your pie hole and collect your paychecks which equal out to around $68,000 each time he doesn’t have to do his job.  That money is guaranteed.  He gets it no matter what.  I know it sucks to sit on the bench.  Everyone wants to feel useful.  Well I got an idea for you Gary that doesn’t involve using steroids or playing baseball:  Pick fifteen games this year and donate your day rate to sit on the bench and complain to a fifteen Angelinos who lost their job this year.  Don’t worry, you will still get 10 million dollars in salary AFTER doing this (based on his 33 million dollars and three years remaining on his deal).

Juan Pierre was just as insensitive and doubled up on Gary in saying this:

“It’s tough because I’m used to playing every single day.  Last year was torture for me. If this organization thinks I’ll be happy making money and sitting on the bench, they signed the wrong guy.”

Was it torture Juan?  Was it like having to tell your wife you lost your job?  Was it like telling your kid they can’t have a bicycle for Christmas?  Or was it just a bummer to want to play a game, but not being allowed to.  Well, I know in fairness you have been performing at the level you always have and someone probably would stick you in centerfield and see if you could break a glass window by throwing a rock at it, but don’t tell us it is torture.  Torture is watching you never take a walk while collecting 9 million dollars a year.

some of his BS dribbled down his chin. see.

some of his BS dribbled down his chin. see.

Bobby Crosby of the Oakland A’s was almost as lame as Pierre and Matthews today, but at least had the public relations savvy to mention how it affected the team:

“You’re getting paid the same, but you don’t want to sit on the bench. I don’t think the A’s would want me around if I ever thought, ‘Oh, great, I get to sit around and do nothing now.’ ”

But the truth is, what everyone wants out of all of you is to shut up and collect your paychecks.  If the team can move you, then great, bon voyage.  If it really isn’t about the money, ask the teams for a reduction in salary.  If Juan Pierre came to the Dodgers front office and said, “Hi Mr. McCourt.  I really appreciate how much you are paying me, but I really would like to play everyday.  Maybe we could reduce my salary to a level where you could trade me more easily and still get something back.”

What do you think they’d say?  Nothing, they’d be too busy doing a wild and naked dance while dialing a dozen other clubs on the phone at once.  But Juan isn’t doing it.  That’s because in a time when people are fighting for crumbs, he and roiding Gary and Bobby Crosby all want their cake and to eat it to.

Well they can.  From the bench.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Dodgers, Rants and Musings

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

by | March 5, 2009

Welcome Home Manny.

Soon the clock will spring forward and snowboards will climb back into the garage to collect a summer’s worth of dust.  California will start to show her true colors again.  Cold mornings, burning hot middays and cool evenings with purple skies.  Sea foam from a day at the beach and sand between your toes, work feeling less serious because of all the times and places you could have lived, you got California in the lottery.

I hope this summer we’ll still be glowing from a well-deserved Lakers World Championship, but I can’t predict much.  But summer is about no new television, it’s about being outside.  It’s about baseball.  The boys of summer are in Arizona right now getting ready to represent our fair city in battle and we are going to stick it to the world this year.

For four months I wondered if this season was going to be worth it, the same way I felt when Kobe was wigging out.  I wondered because if Manny wasn’t in blue this year, it wouldn’t be the same.  Sometimes you are ready to leave, I wasn’t.  I wondered if at all it meant anything to him, playing here and feeling the energy that went on in that stadium.  In the stadium you could hear things like, “it hasn’t been like this since Fernando” or “I’ve never seen someone hit like this.”  No one has.

We’re witnessing the best hitter of our time.  He is here in Lost Angeles.

Everyone says it is gross that he gets paid so much or that he held out and far be it for me to say that is a wrong sentiment to have.  All I can tell you is that it is hard to put a price tag on greatness.  When you see a little kid stomping around with Manny’s fake dreads on you feel it.  You felt it when he tried to pick a fight during the NLDS.  Here’s a psycho in a city full of lunatics and whether it is for show or now, we will never know.  All we care about is that he is performing.

And oh how Manny performs.

He is only the second man in history to hit 50 rbis in both the AL and NL in one season.  The hard part isn’t hitting 50 before the trade deadline, or even getting traded in a season where you did.   The hard part is hitting so well for six weeks that your stats even out.  Manny was a freak.  He made no sense.  The Dodgers finally were not a team to be fucked with.

People are quick to knock the pitching staff, saying it won’t matter we have Manny.  We don’t have the arms.  To play devil’s advocate is easy.  Manny changes the offense so dramatically it changes the defense.   Pitching is easier when you believe you will score runs, when you give up a homer and know you just need to lock it down so Manny can bring it back.

The rest of the lineup gets more patient.  They want to be on base when Manny comes up.  Not just because they want to score a run, but because they want the best view in the house when the dreadlocked predator takes it all out on the ball.

I will talk more later, I just am glad I am excited to this degree.  I want to fight a total stranger I am so excited.

So are the Dodgers.  Check out how quickly Manny is the face of the team again:

count the mannys

count the mannys

Leave a Comment

Filed under Dodgers

Tagged as ,

by | March 2, 2009

The Dodgers Are Negotiating to Lose.

This is getting ridiculous.  Normally, this is the time of year the avid baseball fan can focus on Spring Training and the little things; which minor leaguer will make the squad, which pitching reclaimation project will pan out.  Normally, this is not the time of the year to be wondering if your best player is coming back to suit up.  Speaking only for myself, I am sick and tired of waiting for Manny to be coming back.

i bet that suit is more than 1.5 million.

i bet that suit is more than 1.5 million.

I am not sure who is responsible, but the love triangle of Dodger owner Frank McCourt, total cocksucker super agent Scott Boras and Manny Being Missing are making me want to vomit.  Not the kind of polite vomit that is symptomatic of the flu.  Oh no, I want to do the painful and frightening purge, the kind that has you screaming into the toilet bowl at full volume cursing the day you thought you could chase vodka with tequila and tequila with twenty-five Chicken McNuggets and a McFlurry.  That’s how bad this negotiation has gotten.

Let me recap this in plain speak:

  1. Manny comes to the Dodgers.  Hits every pitch they throw to him.  Helps team win first playoff game in 20 years, first playoff series in 20 years and gets us pretty close to the World Series, losing in 5 games to the future champs (the same 5 games the AL Champ Tampa Bay Rays lost in).
  2. Manny, or “Mannywood” as we called him, has no sense of loyalty to Dodgers and states “the price of gas is up, so am I” or something to that effect.
  3. Gas prices plummet.
  4. Free agent market sets up.  Dodgers, Yankees, Braves, Red Sox, Cubs, Giants, Angels.   Lots of teams.  Manny bidding war seems imminent.
  5. Dodgers offer Manny 2 years, 45 million dollars.  Agent Boras rejects claiming he will only field serious offers.
  6. Yankees sign C.C. Sabathia and AJ Burnett for around 400 million.
  7. Angels, Red Sox and to a smaller degree Yankees are fighting for Mark Texeira’s RBI machine with gold glove talent.
  8. Yankees claim to want Manny.
  9. Dodgers offer Manny arbitration.  Based on his stats, Manny could get up to 30 million on a one year deal.  He rejects.
  10. Yankees sign Mark Texeira and essentially run out of money.  Red Sox would never take Manny back.  Nationals don’t want an old player.  Cubs and Angels don’t want him.  The only two teams interested are the Dodgers and the broke ass Giants.
  11. Manny and Dodgers begin pissing match.  Manny wants a 6 year, 150 million dollar contract.  Dodgers offer Manny one year at 25 million.  Manny says fuck off.
  12. Dodgers offer Manny 2 year, 45 million dollar deal with deferred payments, but also with an opt out so Manny can peace out after one year if Obama has the country magically rich again next off season.  Dodgers request a simple Yes or No answer.
  13. Boras makes two counter offers, one at 45 million, 2 years, no deferred money.  The other is 2 years, 55 million with deferred money.
  14. Dodgers ignore the offers.  McCourt says we need to start from scratch.
  15. Manny instructs Boras to make a counter offer with deferred money.  At this point, Dodgers and Manny are apart by 1.5 million.
  16. Dodgers refuse to talk to Manny.  Still saying we need to start over.

So what is going on?  Well, for one, Frank McCourt hates Scott Boras.  Two, I suspect McCourt is a little broke.  What is painful at this point is that Manny and the Dodgers are 1.5 million apart.  The Dodgers are paying Mark Loretta that much to sit on the bench.  They are paying Andruw Jones over six times that to play for the Texas Rangers.

This sounds like McCourt wanted to yes or no.  He wanted a no so he could negotiate backwards.  He keeps saying the economy is hurting as if we didn’t fucking know our pay roll is about 40 million dollars less than it was last year.  I just can’t stomach this.  It is such a slap in the common fan’s face to think they do not keep track of payroll.  I think it is a huge disconnect that the common fan would rather have his ticket prices stay unchanged than to have them go up incrementally and have Manny, the excitement, and the hope of another magical autumn of postseason glory at the Ravine.

It’s a slap in the face.

Now please don’t think I am giving Boras or Manny a pass.  I’m not.  With Bobby Abreu, Orlando Hudson (and Cabrera), and even Adam Dunn talking huge paycuts from years past, Manny should have taken the money and been happy.  But that isn’t Manny’s style, and it definitely isn’t Boras’.  I get that he is the top employee of the Dodgers and the top employee doesn’t tend to take well to getting half his salary now and more later in installments.  Imagine if you boss wanted to pay you your 60K that way?  Not so much.

piece of shit.

piece of shit.

Still, this is an argument among millionaires while the rest of us just want something so much more simple.  We want the right to believe in our team and our town.  We want to scream and hope and celebrate the wild-haired wonder.  We can forgive him his personality and his greed, along with the snake Scott Boras and the McCourt style of bargaining.  We can forgive all of these things if we can have another wonderful October.

But even writing like that makes me sad.  It makes me so cognizant of how much this offseason exemplifies what is wrong with baseball and America.  Alex Rodriguez and the steroids.  C.C. Sabathia earning nearly two times the Gross National Product of Ethiopia.  And now the dread-locked slugger refusing to play baseball, a game, for 45 million dollars when the Dow has slipped the lowest its been since I was born.

oh manny i couldn't have tried any more. you made a first class fool out of me.

oh manny i couldn't have tried any more. you made a first class fool out of me.

Noise noise noise noise.  Whine whine whine whine.  Let’s go, batter up, we’re taking the afternoon off.  Vin Scully’s pipes.  Dodger Dogs and beer.  Manny?

Maybe.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Dodgers, Rants and Musings

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | January 26, 2009

Guest Blogger Dave Strumpf on Jeff Kent Retiring.

FROM DAVE STRUMPF, FORMER WCAV SPORTSCASTER AND CURRENT RESIDENT LOST ANGELINO GUEST SPORTS CONTRIBUTER. ENJOY:

Jeff Kent Isn’t as Cold and Emotionless as I Thought he Was, But He’s Still a Prick.

Even clubhouse-killers, racists (ask Milton Bradley) and homophobes (link) can cry. All you needed to do was watch Jeff Kent’s retirement speech yesterday morning on ESPNNews. I must admit he’s one of the greatest second basemen of all time and has legitimate HofF creds. But as a man who bleeds Dodger Blue, I say, “so long, Jeff. You will not be missed.”
A few quotes from El Mustachio’s press conference:
“I treated this game with respect….I treated it’s legacy with respect.” Hmmmm. Well you seemed real respectful when you took a shot at Vin Scully.
“I’m tired. I’m tired of coming back from roadtrips and seeing my kids have grown half-an-inch. I’m tired of living out of a suitcase.” Well, Jeff, we’re tired of you. Consider it mutual.
Watching the press conference made me realize that Kent’s exodus is one of the few positive things the Dodgers have done this offseason. They did bring back Raphael Furcal, and recently gave raises (deserved) to Russell Martin and Jonathan Broxton. But just months after going to the NLCS for the first time in 20 years, the franchise has refused to build on that momentum and commit itself to winning a championship…LAYMANS TERMS: signing Manny.
Thursday, July 31. 1:30pm: Ned Colletti announces he’s Baseball Jesus. He walked on water, turned water into wine, and somehow convinced the Boston Red Sox to pay for a first-ballot Hall of Famer (a mentally unstable one) to play in a Dodgers uniform in exchange for two no-names. I have no idea how he pulled off this crazy magic trick. This was Kwami-for-Gasol on steroids.
The results were undeniable. Manny completely transfixed and reenergized Dodger fans. Over the course of only two months, Manny became one of the most iconic Dodgers over the past 20 years. Let be honest, Nomo-mania was just a phenomenon. Eric Gagne’s “Game Over” pursuit of the consecutive saves record was a neat way to keep fans in their seats late in games. But Manny Ramirez actually got fans to Dodger Stadium EARLY. He gave baseball fans like me a baseball boner (yup). He single-handedly raised excitement and optimism of the Dodgers to levels unknown for a long time.
Dodger fans have been incredibly loyal to their franchise, and the Frank McCourt has yet to prove that he is loyal in return. I saw about seven Dodger games post-Manny trade, three of them in the playoffs. I didn’t miss a game on TV. I had tremendous appreciation and fascination for what Manny was doing to Dodgers culture, but when a friend asked me if we should buy #99 Ramirez T-shirts, I declined. I told him I wasn’t going to buy a t-shirt of a part-time Dodger. I wasn’t convinced I’d be able to wear the t-shirt next season….which shows the level of faith I have in the Dodgers front office.
Frank, I get it. $65-$100 millions dollars is a crap-load of money. And in these economic times, its tough to justify large expenses like that. But with something as simple as your signature on a check made out to one Manuel Aristides Ramírez Onelcida, you can restore that faith and pride that most Dodger fans have lacked and hopefully get the Doyers into the World Series.
Do the right thing.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Dodgers

Tagged as , , , ,

by | January 23, 2009

Jeff Kent Quote

“More than likely I would’ve been a cop when I grew up, hence the mustache,” he said, drawing laughter. “Yet when we were kids, we fantasize about being an athlete. I wanted to be a baseball player. For 17 years, I got to live a fantasy and I’m truly, truly grateful for that.”

Beautiful.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Dodgers

Tagged as , ,