Tangled up in Blue since 1883.
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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.
Via bobster1985 on Flickr, here’s a 1956 Lucky Strike commercial featuring what may or may not be real Dodgers in the background:
“That’s the way to enjoy your baseball: get out early, look over the lineups, and light up a Lucky. You’ll be way ahead of the game, ’cause Lucky sure tastes better.”
We split two four-game series with the Phillies this season, winning four in LA and losing four in Philly. And similarly to the series against the Cubs, they both took place in a 16-day span, August 11-14 and 22-25:
Looking at the four losses in Philly:
The first was against an ineffective Maddux, who gave up 7 ER in 5.2 IP.
The second game, Kershaw gave up 6 ER and Jason Johnson 3 more. Their ace Hamels was pretty much on, giving up only 2 ER in 7 IP.
The third game saw Kuroda going 6 IP and giving up only 1 ER, with Chan Ho Park and Hong Chi Kuo shutting them down for another inning each. Unfortunately, Jonathan Broxton had one of his rare blown saves, which took the game into extra innings where Joe Beimel got the loss, giving up 1 ER, and Jason Johnson 2 ER.
The fourth was a shutout, with Billingsley only giving up 3 ER, but with five walks and three strikeouts. Chan Ho Park had two more ER. Brett Myers took care of the Dodgers with 7 IP, 9 H, 3 BB, and 8 SO.
All four losses included Kent/Ozuna and Garciaparra/Berroa up the middle and in the lineup. And while we did have Manny and Casey Blake, we had only tiny hopes about Rafael Furcal coming back someday. Jason Johnson was not on the NLDS roster, and I don’t expect he will be. Takashi Saito might be back on track after a few more days’ rest, but in any case Broxton looks to be in great shape after last night’s domination. And who knows, maybe Hong Chih Kuo will be back as well.
Some possible pitching matchups:
Game four might also see Lowe made available on short rest, depending on the series situation at that point.
No mistake, this will be a tough series, testing the Boys in Blue to the extreme. But I think we’ve got a good shot at beating them.
With our dominant pitching, better defense, and an awakened offense, we can beat the Phillies.
They did it.
The obvious, cliché to say is “I can’t believe it!” But I can believe it.
More to the point, the team believes it.
Congratulations to the Boys in Blue. I can’t wait to see what you guys do next.
Matt Kemp and James Loney were recently on Best Damn Sports Show. Very funny.
Including discussion of basketball, hitting, the Bison nickname, the Yorvit Torrealba fight, Manny (with Loney doing an impression!), and more.