The Trolley Dodger

Congratulations to the New York Yankees on their 27th world championship. Nice job inaugurating the new stadium.

And while I can’t say I was too sad by the looks of disappointment on the Phillies’ faces ;) congrats to them as well for a hard-fought battle and a great year.

Now the off season can commence. Not that there’s anything going on in LA this time around. Should be real quiet in the Dodger world. Yep. Real quiet.

Until 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers had gone through a long series of near-misses at World Series glory, coming close but not close enough. It became a running theme and spawned a team slogan: “Wait ’til next year!” Next year finally did show up, but it was a long wait.

The Yankees were the Dodgers’ perennial opponents when they made it to the series back then, so the Bombers losing it in 1955 to the Bums made it even sweeter. Putting it in video-game terms for the younger set, they were the final boss that it took forever to beat. This was one of the reasons I was hoping for a Yankee-Dodger World Series this year.

Apart from the wrenching disappointment the past week, and a few issues here and there, the 2009 season has been more of a joy to follow than not. On a personal level, having the opportunity to attend the Bluetopia premiere, the annual Dodger Blogger Night (the night before the Manny revelation), and particularly getting to cover the game as a member of the press are memories I’ll never lose.

Thanks to the Dodgers organization and team for a great year and for continuing to reach out to the online fan community. Thanks to my fellow Dodger bloggers for lots of entertaining and thoughtful commentary this season — especial thanks and kudos to Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts, the sundry Sons of Steve Garvey, the intrepid lads of True Blue LA, the aptly named Blue Heaven, Ken Steinhorn of isportsweb, and Larry and Keith over at the always-fascinating Daily Mirror.

Congratulations to the Phillies on the NL Pennant, and while I don’t see myself exactly cheering you on the next few weeks, please destroy the Yankees if you get the opportunity. Pretty please? ;)

Finally, thanks to everybody for reading Trolley Dodger in 2009. The site’s third anniversary is coming up next week. Can’t believe it’s been three years!

I expect to be posting here during the off season, as there will be the inevitable melodrama, speculation, and other craziness, but I’m guessing a short break will do a body good. So we won’t have to wait ’til next year to solve the myriad problems of the baseball universe, thanks to 24-hour sports news and the Internet, but we will have to wait ’til then for more Dodger baseball.

See ya!

What if the rumored Adrian Gonzalez/Heath Bell to the Dodgers trade was only Part 1? What if Part 2 is the Blue Jays wanting Broxton as part of a Roy Halladay deal? Might explain the George Sherrill deal as a backup plan. Or flipping Bell to Toronto in a 3-team deal?

Yikes. This last hour of the trade deadline is always nerve-wracking.

UPDATE: Well, much ado about nothing, as usual. :) Barring some August waiver-wire deals, this is it.

Let’s say you’re the GM of the non-existent MLB franchise Poughkeepsie Pachyderms. In this alternate universe, you have a 24-year-old Roy Halladay and a 21-year-old Cliff Lee at the top of your pitching rotation, with three serviceable pitchers in the other spots. The Pachyderms have these two aces under contract for five years at cheap prices. They are already good, and they will only improve. Virtually everyone who has scouted the pair raves about where they are at for their ages, not to mention their amazing potential.

Why in the name of all that is holy would you trade either of these young guns to get a 31-year-old pitcher who will cost you over $10 million a year? Oh, and he’s only yours for one full season and part of another, with no guarantees he’ll stick around after that.

The Dodgers are in that position right now with Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw. Why would we trade either one of our aces, both of whom will otherwise be in Dodger Blue (and cheap) for years?

They are both good right now, whether you go by stats or by observation. They both will likely be great by next year.

Yes, Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee are awesome pitchers. It would be killer to have either one of them in Dodger Blue. But if getting one of them costs us Bills or Clayton, the price is too high. Why trade for one or two years’ worth of increased chances for the World Series when we could have five years’ (or more!) worth of increased chances?

Doesn’t make sense to me, and I’ll bet it doesn’t make sense to Dodger management either.

Now Roy or Cliff plus Bills and Kershaw as the 1-3?

Heh heh heh. [evil laugh]

There is a certain myth perpetrated about how “classy” the Yankee organization is. Derek Jeter is the poster child for this.

Of course, the organization tends to behave in the “Chandelier Galaxy” sense of the word, as evidenced in “New Stadium classy not flashy”:

[Hal] Steinbrenner said he doesn’t see the ballpark as too extravagant given the economic situation. He said the organization did its best to retain the tradition from the old stadium and integrate it with new amenities to enhance the fan experience.

“I don’t see it as ostentatious or flashy, I see it as classy,” Steinbrenner said.

Last week, there was a brief brouhaha after MLS commissioner Don Garber commented on empty seats at Yankee Stadium due to the economy and their outrageous prices. Randy Levine, Yankees President, went off on him:

“Don Garber discussing Yankee attendance must be a joke,” Levine said yesterday. “We draw more people in a year than his entire league does in a year. If he ever gets Major League Soccer into the same time zone as the Yankees, we might take him seriously.

“Hey Don, worry about Beckham, not the Yankees. Even he wants out of your league,” he said.

Humorous as the statement was, it doesn’t match up with the notion of the Yankees as big leaguers.

To go with the Classy Myth, there’s also the Yankee Mystique, which has to do with how much the club has won over the years. Their record speaks for itself.

The team has won 26 World Series, appearing in 39 of them, which “currently amounts to an average appearance every 2.7 seasons and a championship every 4.0 seasons.”

When you’re that good, when you “have an all-time regular season winning percentage of .567 (a 9472-7235 record), the best of any team in baseball,” you don’t need to act like an insecure asshole. There’s few things more pathetic than an insecure 800-pound gorilla.

To put it in terms New Yorkers will understand, it’s like the difference between a Mafia Don acting like a Mafia Don and not like a goombah pushing a guy in a bar parking lot. If somebody is beneath you, you don’t acknowledge them. They’re beneath you. If they’re insulting, you don’t care. It doesn’t matter.

In any case, Levine’s insecure jokes look even smaller today as the news comes out, “Yankees Slash the Price of Top Tickets”:

Twelve days after opening their new stadium, the Yankees on Tuesday bowed to the sour economy and the specter of empty seats by slashing in half some of their top-end, $2,500-a-game prices.

Going further, the team also announced it will provide significant numbers of complimentary seats to existing season-ticket holders in premium sections, including some of the critical, and very visible, real estate behind home plate.

Whoopsie. Guess all those empty seats looked pretty bad on TV.

Over all, the new policy represents a dramatic retreat from the team’s initial luxury-sales strategy for the new stadium, which was underlined in advertisements that crowed “Own the Greatness” and “Select the Greatest Seats in the World.”

It’s as if the Evil Empire actually still wants to have the class and mystique of the Old Republic. That way lies madness.

Be Darth Vader, or be Mace Windu. Either way, you’re a bad ass. But if you try to be both, you look like a whiny prick.

You know, like Anakin Skywalker.