It’s time for Dodger baseball!
{ Monthly Archives }
Dylan Hernandez, Diamond Leung and I got a few minutes with Ned Colletti in the tunnel after the game. Said he might be getting close to acquiring a veteran utility infielder who could better plug the gap while Furcal is out, or if Furcal is out again later in the season.
Esteban Loaiza for Wilson Betemit anyone? ;)
Congratulations to the Los Angeles Lakers, 2007-08 Western Conference Champions!
In my RSS feeds just now came this gem from the Dodgers on MLB.com:
“Relive the 1988 World Series”.
The Los Angeles Dodgers 1988 World Series Collector’s Edition Boxed DVD Set gives fans an opportunity to relive their past and witness some of the greatest moments in baseball history. The Oakland Athletics, featuring the emerging Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco — otherwise known as the “Bash Brothers” — were heavily favored over Los Angeles. However, as Vin Scully put it, “the impossible happened.”
The seven-disk boxed set, originally priced at $69.95 but now available for $51.95 at the MLB.com shop, includes more than 17 hours of footage. It features the Dodgers’ memorable National League Championship Series against the Mets, which set the stage for their title heroics. During the NLCS, Mike Schmidt delivered “Inside Pitch” scouting reports throughout the games. The overwhelming enthusiasm of fans at Shea Stadium in New York and the superb commentary provided by ABC’s Sports Presentation opens up a door of memories.
I guess on another night, this might be something I’d be excited about, but after the three straight losses in which one run was scored, after yet another beautiful pitching performance squandered, this one by Derek Lowe, it seems an ill-timed announcement. It’s hard to get excited about 20-year-old memories, boxed set or no, when the 2008 season is so shaky.
Somebody will point out that we’re only four games back of Arizona, which is all well and good, except that we should be in first place right now. Somebody else will say that it could be worse; at least we’re not the Padres or Rockies. I repeat: we should be in first place right now. We have injuries, yes — so does everybody.
This isn’t giving up by any means — I’m sure it will all work out for the best. I’m just saying it was way easier to skip watching the Dodger game and instead watch The Abyss on Fox Movie Channel. Great flick. Feels like an appropriate name.
And like the end of the movie, I’m sure tomorrow will dawn brighter as we rise out of the depths. Besides, we have some great pitching. Right? ;)
The AP is reporting that Mike Piazza has decided to retire.
“After discussing my options with my wife, family and agent, I felt it is time to start a new chapter in my life,” he said in a statement released by his agent, Dan Lozano. “It has been an amazing journey.”
We had the opportunity to see Jason Schmidt pitch his rehab start tonight at San Bernardino. It was also Armed Forces Night, so there was a Dodger Camo Hat giveaway and several flybys from a Blackhawk helicopter. It also hovered over the outfield during “God Bless America” and the National Anthem, sending the warning track up in great boiling dust clouds and rendering the music, well, moot with the noise.
Still, a cool moment. As was seeing Jason Schmidt walking out to the mound, wearing #7 on his 66ers uniform. He got a nice round of applause as he was announced.
It was hot in San Berdoo, with a high over 100, which I imagine didn’t make the job any easier. Schmidt looked like he was doing pretty darn well, apart from a brief moment in the 2nd when either Schmidt was having trouble finding the strike zone, or the ump was.
He went 2.1 innings, giving up only one single and one walk, with no runs, three Ks, three flyouts, and one groundout on a difficult comebacker that hit him pretty hard in the 1st inning.
He had to spin around for a moment to find the ball, but still managed to throw the man out at first. Schmidt didn’t seem to be any worse for wear after the ball hit him, or at least he wasn’t letting on if it was. As he walked off, Eduardo Perez looked like he was asking him how he was, and Schmidt nodded and waved his glove as if to say “No problem.”
We left after the Lake Elsinore Storm put up six runs in the 4th, but according to the box score, the 66ers managed to pull out an 8-7 victory in the bottom of the 9th.
The Sports Illustrated Vault has a gallery feature up right now: Aces High: Best Pitching Seasons with some cool pictures. As you might imagine, the Dodgers have a couple of guys in the spotlighted 15 pitchers.
Perhaps no pitcher has been better over a four-year stretch than Sandy Koufax from 1963 until his premature retirement due to arm trouble at age 30 in 1966. Over that span, Koufax won three Cy Young awards, but his best season came in 1965, when he went 26-8 with a 2.04 ERA, pitched a perfect game and struck out an NL-record 382 batters.
For most of the 1988 season, Orel Hershiser was merely very good. When he took the mound on Aug. 30, he was 17-8 with a 2.88 ERA. But beginning with a shutout of the Expos that day, Hershiser’s season went from very good to historic. By the time it was over, he had pitched a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings, including five straight shutouts. He finished 23-8 and steamrolled through the playoffs by winning all five of his starts and even notching a key save, leading the Dodgers to the World Series title.
Oh, and there’s this guy who shall remain nameless, for this post anyhow. ;)
Landon Heying, a Los Feliz tattoo artist and gargantuan Dodger fan, is featured in this LA Times article, “True Blue tattoo parlor owner is a Dodger fan on and under his skin”:
For Heying, representing is all about the ink, and the ink is all about the Dodgers. He’s the owner of True Blue tattoo studio in Los Feliz, where for $8, a discounted rate down from around $50 (he charges $100 an hour), he’s offering Dodger tattoos. Of course not everyone is ready for the Lasorda treatment, so the simple Dodger script may have to do. Still too hard-core? There’s also a selection of studs and rings for piercings emblazoned with the club’s logo.
Not sure about the Tommy Lasorda tatt, but I could definitely see a script logo. :) The coolest to me, though, is Heying and the TRUE and BLUE across his fingers. That is sweet.
UPDATE: Veronique de Turenne (now that’s a name!) over at L.A. Now posted a video with Landon, showing off his shop.
Appropriately on Mother’s Day, today’s lineup is mostly a bunch of kids. :)
And speaking of kids, how about the 66ers destroying the JetHawks last night to the tune of 25-1, 10 of which were in the 9th inning? Yikes!
“These are the times,” as Vin Scully might quote, “that try men’s souls.” It’s the first line of Thomas Paine’s essay “The Crisis.” An appropriate title for Dodger fans at the moment.
Here’s most of the famous first paragraph:
THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.[...]
Now, I’m not going to go too far drawing parallels; after all, Paine was writing about important topics like tyranny, freedom, and American independence. Baseball, while of vast importance, has its limits. Yet even still, there is something to be said for standing by one’s team, to be not a sunshine patriot (or fair-weather fan), but rather keep on rooting for the team no matter the score.
Which is not to say the score doesn’t matter. And here we come to the soul-trying part of the evening.
Baseball is all about patience. “It’s a long season,” you know. “It’s still early.” Whatever the hand-wringing, wincing, and neck pain being generated by our starting pitching and what I hesitate to call our “hitters,” it is only May, and we are only 3.5 games back from the Diamondbacks. We had a nice winning streak going there for a while, and we will get to play the Rockies again at some point.
But it’s depressing to watch the Dodgers right now.
It feels like it did before that win streak. Like you don’t want to watch because you just know what’s going to happen. There really isn’t any point in watching sports (or any entertainment for that matter) if you know what’s going to happen beforehand. You might as well just read the box score.
Ooof, never mind.
If it weren’t for the dulcet tones of Mr. Scully, I don’t think I’d watch at all. The way things are going at the moment, I feel sorry that he has to watch every game.
Another old baseball saying is that you have to have a short memory. Put the bad games out of your mind and get on to the next one.
That’s one I’d like to challenge. If you remember how bad it feels to nearly get shutout by Brian Moehler, maybe you’ll work harder to keep that from happening again.
The last month or so last season, I had to take a break from baseball. It was too depressing. Sports are supposed to take you away from your troubles for a few hours, not add to them with a lot of bad news every day. (Unless your Cubs fans, but that’s another post. ;)
I do, however, believe the Dodgers can turn things around again. It’s a long season.
It’s still early.
Maybe 1958 wasn’t the best 50-year anniversary to be celebrating. Maybe we should have waited until 2009 and celebrated the golden anniversary of the first world series win in Los Angeles.
Yeah, that sounds familiar. Wait ’til next year.
Congratulations to #24 on his well-deserved award.