The Trolley Dodger

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution comes this gem from one Andruw Jones in “Andruw: Once and future Brave?”:

“I’ve got one more year in my contract,” said Jones, now playing with the L.A. Dodgers. “Hopefully, I can come back to Atlanta. I would love to finish my career here.”

Yeah, you know what Andruw? I’m afraid you already did.

It’s easy to glorify the past, the proverbial good old days, the golden years. Baseball, for instance — it’s easy to set aside the bad stuff whilst remembering all the good. When you’re confronted with a picture like this one from 1940, however, you start to think maybe today’s game isn’t so bad after all.

(Click to see original.)

And yes, that is a Dodger fan.

Now, granted, we’ve all probably wanted to do something similar in the past — I imagine there are more than a few Phillies and Rays fans who’ve felt like beating up their umpiring crew the past week or so. But this sure makes the modern-day occasional cussing out of the ump look rather tame.

This is from the photo blog “If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats” which, as I’ve mentioned before, is very, very, very cool.

Many a time the enraged fans of Flatbush have made the Welkin ring with their roar of “Kill the Umpire”. Today that roar was especially bitter and loud as Umpire George Magerkurth’s tenth inning decision on a close play enabled the first place Cincinnati Reds to nose the Brooklyn Dodgers out by 4 to 3 score.

Read the rest at “Adventures in the National Pastime #7″

UPDATE: Looking through the ever-useful Retrosheet, it looks like this game was on September 16, 1940. I didn’t track down a box score, but here’s the line:

CIN N    0  0  2    0  0  0    0  0  1    1  -   4  9
BRO N    2  0  0    0  0  1    0  0  0    0  -   3 10

Congratulations to the Philadelphia Phillies on their victory tonight and on becoming World Series champs. Evidently the ghost of William Penn was appeased. ;)

I would be remiss in not congratulating the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on a stellar season and a great run at the championship. Here’s to next year for you guys and continued dominance of the AL East.

Let the off-season madness commence!

No more Dodger baseball this season. I’ve been steeling myself for this moment since the playoffs began — not because I didn’t hope we could win, but because I knew we might not. The odds were against us.

The team was written off by most everyone, then came back to win the division. No one thought they had a chance against the Cubs, and they swept.

And now the Phillies. Clearly, they were firing on more cylinders than were the Dodgers, though not everything was going perfectly for them. In the playoffs where every small mistake is magnified tremendously, ours accumulated faster and more damagingly. Congrats to the Phillies on winning the pennant.

2008 has not been a magical ride. It has been a hard ride, full of frustration. With injuries, growing pains, melodrama, and good old-fashioned inconsistencies, this has at times been a hard season to watch.

But even so, there were magical moments, memories that will stay with me for a long time.

After a little break to recharge the batteries, I’ll be looking forward to pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training. In Arizona.

Of course there’s the annual Hot Stove insanity, which got started immediately after the game — see this LA Times story and scroll down to “Peavy to the Dodgers?” Yeah, right.

Thanks to the Dodgers team for trying their best this year — congratulations on a great year of learning and growth. Also thanks to the Dodger organization for reaching out to the Internet fans and expanding their online presence. And to my fellow Dodger bloggers, thanks for thousands of entertaining words this year.

Just wait ’til next year. Anything could happen.

If you’re looking for a public place to watch Games 1 and 2 versus the Phillies, sharing in the insanity with your fellow fans, the Dodgers have announced several locations hosting viewing parties in the area.

Fans attending the Home Base Network NLCS viewing parties will enjoy meet and greet sessions and autograph signings with Dodger greats Kenny Landreaux, Bobby Castillo, and Rudy Law, Dodger dogs and giveaways including NL West Division Championship locker room merchandise and tickets to Game 4 of the NLCS.

Check out http://www.dodgers.com/homebase for locations and more info.