Congratulations to Landon Donovan, David Beckham, Robbie Keane, and the rest of the LA Galaxy, the 2011 champions of Major League Soccer!

Thanks to everybody who have been around the last five years, especially my fellow Dodger bloggers. A big thanks as well to the team and its PR department, who have been open-arms with online fans and writers.

This has been a trying year to be a Dodger fan and, at least in my case, a Dodger blogger. I’m looking very much forward to the changes (ownership and otherwise) to come in the next few months, not to mention the hopefully swift recovery of a legendary franchise.

Thanks for reading!

Reports are coming in that Robbie Keane is on his way to join the LA Galaxy.

Keane is unwanted by Spurs boss Harry Redknapp and said last week that he expected to tie up a move before the end of the transfer window.

The Irish international played in a friendly on Wednesday night against Croatia in Dublin, but is believed to be flying to LA to sign a contract worth a reported $9 million over next two years.

(Cross posted with Celsius1414.com.)

The Galaxy will be fine, I’m sure, and the Dodgers…well, sometimes the old maxim about not saying anything if you don’t have anything nice to say is probably a good idea.

With no NFL (yet), no NBA, and the NHL season still to come, I think I’m going to need to find a new escape. As the weather cools down from the summertime 9000-degree heat and humidity out here in the Inland Empire, other options should present themselves.

There’s always the English Premier League, which starts up a week from Saturday. I’ve been following Everton FC ever since Landon Donovan had his stint there. Hopefully they’ll be able to overcome off-field worries and make a good showing.

I saw his first at-bat last night, and while it was weird seeing him in red instead of blue, I have to echo one of the comments at Dodger Thoughts — I wish him well no matter what uniform he has on. He was one of my favorite Dodgers, and I’ll miss him.

Someone I’m missing in advance is AAA outfielder Trayvon Robinson, who was shipped off to Seattle in a complicated three-team affair yesterday. I watched Trayvon as far back as the Single-A 66ers. In fact, he played CF at the first 66ers Manny rehab game in 2009 we went to.

There have been cries of “Konerko!” and “Pedro!” about this trade, and I can understand why. However, I can’t get on the tar-and-feather-Ned-Colletti bandwagon just yet until we see what happens with who we got in return – there’s an old truism about trades not being gradeable until several years down the road. But whatever players these three turn out to be, I’m definitely worried about seeing Trayvon excelling in a Mariners uniform some day and none of these guys ever again.

• Tim Federowicz – catching prospect
• Stephen Fife – RHP
• Juan Rodriguez – RHP

There’s also Alex Castellanos, who came back from the Raffy trade.

Bringing some stats in,

WHIP (NL)

Hamels, C (PHI) 0.99
Kershaw, C (LAD) 1.02
Harstens, J (PIT) 1.04
Halladay, R (PHI) 1.05
Hanson, T (ATL) 1.06
Lee, C (PHI) 1.07

Freakin’ Phillies. ;)

Other Kershaw NL stats:

OBA .209 (4th)
SO 167 (1st)
ERA 2.72 (5th)
Wins 11 (tied for 2nd with four other guys)

By the way, those five guys in the top 6 in WHIP? Here’s another stat for you:

Hamels 28
Kershaw 23
Harstens 28
Halladay 34
Hanson 24
Lee 32

That’s how old they are. And Hanson will be 25 in a month.

Much has been said about the business practices of Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and his battle against the efforts of Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig to forcibly seize the team. But what does an insolvent Dodgers franchise say about the state of America in the 21st century?

Maybe it says nothing at all. Maybe it’s as simple as saying that Frank McCourt mismanaged the team. Yes it’s true that McCourt looks terribly incompetent and used the team as a personal ATM to live a lifestyle that would shame Caligula.

But that doesn’t explain the broader economic crisis in the sport. It doesn’t explain why the Texas Rangers in 2010, on the road to the World Series, had to be auctioned off at a bankruptcy sale. It doesn’t explain why the New York Mets, playing in the game’s biggest market, are flat broke after team owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz thought Bernie Madoff would make a fine personal investment banker. It doesn’t explain why Selig, when he crows about baseball’s rosy financial picture, sounds like he’s living in the last days of disco.

But more than anything else, it doesn’t explain how – of all teams – the Los Angeles Dodgers find themselves in this crucible of humiliation. The Dodgers are arguably the most culturally significant franchise in the history of American sports. It’s the team of Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax, Fernando Valenzuela, and Hideo Nomo.

That’s more than just a tradition. That’s a Ken Burns epic.

It is perhaps a mark of the modern age that I feel like I need therapy to get over how bad things are for the Dodgers right now.

I envy those who can blithely separate what’s going on in the executive offices (and the courthouse) with what’s going on on the field, enjoying the latter while ignoring the former. In fact, as badly as the Dodgers are playing, I’m not even sure how the denial thing can function right now.

If the Dodgers were winning consistently, if their budget matched up with their media market, if if if…

Instead of if, here’s a fact: the Dodgers are in last place in the NL West. The NL West, for the love of Mike. Somebody will bring up how good the pitching is across the division. Pitching, smitching — we have some of the best pitchers in the game. This is a bad division that the Dodgers should be owning.

And speaking of owning, how about that Frank McCourt?

The seemingly endless muck and mire to which the McCourts (and, let’s face it, the Selig regime by dint of having given them the team) have subjected the Dodgers is just astounding. No matter what happens next, no matter who winds up owning the historic franchise, this has been a dark time, and it’s getting darker. It makes you want to stay away from Chavez Ravine, turn off the game, and find some quiet place in which you can meditate on the important things in life. You feel dirty just paying attention.

Yesterday, ESPN Los Angeles asked (via the Dodger Thoughts blog), “Dodger fans, tell us your stories.”

Fair readers …. we at ESPNLosAngeles.com would like to hear from you about the Dodgers, and not just in the short-form comments section below. We’re asking you to submit your real-deal stories of how you became Dodger fans, what the team means to you and how recent events (um, I think you know what we mean) have affected you and that fandom.

They will be sharing some of the submissions on the website in the near future. My first contribution in the comments was,

“For sale: Manny wig, never worn.” *

A real submission from me would have to hearken back to my “Back in the day…” story, which I wrote five(!) years ago. Dodger fandom came late for me, only since about 2002-03. As I put it,

Above and beyond proximity, the Dodgers are a team with a long, rich history stretching back to the 19th century and filled with underdog heroes battling evil Giants and villainous Yankees — I’m a sucker for that kind of story.

The Dodgers and Jackie Robinson were also responsible for breaking the color barrier in the majors, and while there have been mistakes or controversy over the years (e.g. the Battle of Chavez Ravine), there have been numerous people and moments to be very proud of.

So, much in the same way a religious convert might be more fervent and motivated than someone who grew up in the church, I am once more living and dying with my (adopted) favorite team.

This was only a couple of years into the McCourt regime. If I only knew what was coming. Actually, that’s a good question: would I have changed allegiances? Would I have jumped on the 2002 Angels bandwagon? Would I have decided to skip baseball, and then with the 2004 NHL lockout have just given up again on watching sports?

Hard to say.

Thing is, it’s not just the Dodgers having issues right now. The other three major North American sports are flirting with labor disasters. Other sports I’ve followed, like pro cycling and soccer, are either tainted (literally!) or take an effort to follow outside mainstream media outlets. This is not an easy time to be a thinking, feeling sports fan. As the Great Recession continues, and world news is just bad news, what should be a welcome respite is just another depressing brouhaha.

A while back, a friend commented that she didn’t like sports and would rather be doing something than watching somebody else do them. There’s a certain truth to that, and indeed it’s usually better to be outdoors moving around and breathing than not doing those things while indoors in front of the television. Sometimes, though, you want to watch ostensibly high-skilled people perform to the best of their abilities.

So no, I don’t think I’ll give up my sports watching just yet. This is not because of some sort of “Dodgers for Life” uber-fandom, by the way. It’s just a practical thing. I have a hard enough time staying happy and productive in my real life — why should I subject myself to daily emotional beatings Just Because I’m a Fan?

Thanks, no. If that makes me not a “real fan,” then so be it. I’ve also never been a real fan of institutional flagellation either, and I’m okay with that.

This isn’t rats fleeing a sinking ship, it’s a paying passenger thinking that, since the ship appears to be sinking, it might be a good idea to double-check where the lifeboats are.

So instead of queuing up for the whipping, I think I’ll try the Safe Distance approach. Keep an eye on things, keep up on the news from the periphery. Maybe even watch a game every now and again if there’s an intriguing pitching matchup.

But I have to say, I don’t think I’ll be watching the All-Star Game this year. If the Dodgers keep losing, I won’t have to worry about watching the playoffs, either. And the World Series? Unless there’s some compelling storyline, I can’t imagine even that mainstay of mine will be watched.

What about you? Are you wallowing in the muck, reading every story, commenting willy nilly across the Web? Are you giving up on the whole thing? Or are you taking a wait-and-see approach?

Who knew sports could be so damn complicated?

Gary Finkler’s 7th Inning Sketch is a new blog combining two of Gary’s passions — baseball and cartooning. It also boasts a thoroughly boss name. :D

Today’s sketch features our favorite bankrupt local team owner, so head on over and support a freelance artist starting on his dream.