The Trolley Dodger

At least we’re not Angels fans.

Yes, that’s Bill MacDonald and Rex Hudler. It’s apparently GAHH!!! Night at Angel Stadium of Anaheim this evening.

A couple of years ago, when there was speculation that the Dodgers might look at free agent Barry Bonds to solve their anemic outfield power production, I wrote something to the effect that, “The day the Dodgers sign Barry Bonds is the day I stop being a Dodger fan.”

Fast forward to this morning, when I was anticipating a pleasurable write up of last night’s blogger get-together at Dodger Stadium, and here’s a news story out of left field: Manny Ramirez suspended 50 games.

I ran through the stages of grief pretty quick, not unlike Homer Simpson:

Dr. Hibbert: You can expect to go through five stages. The first is denial.
Homer: No way! Because I’m not dying!
Dr. Hibbert: The second is anger.
Homer: Why you little–!
Dr. Hibbert: After that comes fear.
Homer: What’s after fear?! What’s after fear?!
Dr. Hibbert: Bargaining.
Homer: Doc, you gotta get me out of this! I’ll make it worth your while!
Dr. Hibbert: Finally, acceptance.
Homer: Well, we all gotta go sometime.
Dr. Hibbert: Mr. Simpson, your progress astounds me!

So my first half hour went something like this:

1. Must be a joke/rumor/conspiracy.
2. That’s it, I’m done with baseball!
3. Christ, the Giants and Red Sox fans are going to be insufferable.
4. Okay, I’ll stop watching the team for 50 games…
5. That means we get a rested Manny sometime in July. Heh heh.

If the first reports are true (and as the MLB rules quoted indicate this is the case), then it wasn’t steroids, wasn’t HGH, wasn’t a stimulant, and wasn’t something along the lines of marijuana. What does that leave? A whole slew of prescription drugs that are in that gray area of being permissible, but only if you get an official exemption from MLB.

Considering Manny’s apparent lackadaisical attitude about everything except studying pitchers and hitting the ball, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that he simply spaced on doing the paperwork.* But in any case, we’ll have to wait for all of the details to come out to make an informed judgment.

Anyhow, I still want to write up last night’s blogger night, which was a blast, as was witnessing the historical 13-0 moment. (I’ve been lucky enough to be at a number of those at Dodger Stadium over the last few years.) Having a chance to chat in person with the ever-expanding and intelligent cadre of Dodger bloggers, not to mention other august personages like Ken Levine and Tony Jackson, was a privilege.

And now, I am going to go get on my roof and summerize the swamp cooler. It’s going to be frickin’ hot today.

–

* Not to fall back into stage one of grief, but I do think the timing of this is mighty suspicious, with Manny reportedly informed last night just after the record-setting win. To counter-balance that and move back into stage five, I imagine this makes him opting into that second year with the Dodgers much more likely — who else is going to take him?

ESPN.com really must not like hockey.

Seriously. Soccer and College Football before the NHL? I guess ESPN pays lip service to Soccer since 4 billion people on Earth like it, but what the heck is College Football even doing on there in May? Yikes.

Curious, I checked out SI.com. Even worse!

First of all, College Football is before MLB and NBA, then frickin’ College Basketball and Golf are before the NHL. Golf?!

For the sake of completeness, here’s FoxSports.com:

Never thought I see day when Fox was more reasonable than the other guys, but there’s the evidence.

Just spent some time reliving one of the happiest nights of my life.

Woke up early this morning and found I’d fallen asleep with the MLB Network going last night. This probably explains why random Dodgers started showing up in my dreams just before I woke up to find the network was replaying the glorious 9/18/2006 Dodgers comeback against the Padres, also known as the “4+1″ game.

We were lucky enough to be there that night, and I wrote about it the next day: “11-10″.

The replay is up to the bottom of the 10th. Kenny Lofton is coming up. Nomar is on deck.

The Dodgers’ seven homeruns and the 11-10 final score is quite a contrast to last night’s Dodgers-Padres game and Russell Martin’s walk-off walk. It was also awesome to see all the “kids” celebrating who are now starting and excelling.

I miss Nomar. I hope he’ll have a role with the team once he decides to retire.

Awful news about Tony Jackson, Dodgers beat writer, getting laid off by the Daily News. It’s difficult to comprehend there only being two beat writers covering the team now.

Like Diamond Leung, also let go recently, Tony is too talented not to get a gig somewhere. He did some TV work on ESPN last year, so maybe he can parlay that somehow.

Best of luck, Tony.