The Trolley Dodger

Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues

While it’s seemed more and more inevitable since the All-Star Break, the optimistic fan keeps hope till the bitter end. That end has now achieved full bitterness with the mathematical elimination of the Dodgers from possible playoff contention. Now we begin Phase 2: rooting against the Giants from making the playoffs either.

Accompanying Phase 2 is a certain sense of relief that the suffering is almost over. Not many depressing Dodger displays to go this season, say a dozen left — and then the pain will ease, and we can look forward to the vagaries of Hot Stove season and then Pitchers & Catchers.

Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Dodger Divorce (which sounds like a comedy from the 50s with, maybe, Doris Day and Danny Thomas [1]) proceeds with all the speed and amusement of a difficult appointment at the dentist. There is reportedly a “mediation” session scheduled for tomorrow, though what that means for the interminable process is unclear. I can’t say my optimism extends to this portion of the 2010 Dodger Follies [2], and rather expect the legal equivalent of chimp tribes throwing poop at each other.

And of course I am anxious (as I am every year) to see what signings and trades the team can accomplish this off-season. There is seemingly so much wrong with the team, that the penny-pinching of recent years would be a recipe for a repeat performance in 2011 — and how hard would that be to watch?

Not to be too melodramatic (hey, why stop now?), but I can’t really bring myself to look beyond the end of the season with any real thought or projection. I’m exhausted by the slog of the last few months, the “safe” leads lost, the inevitable 3-run homers given up, the snarky comments around me when some once-reliable reliever comes out of the bullpen or yet another strike 3 goes by.

Working hard to get my fill
Everybody wants a thrill
Payin’ anything to roll the dice just one more time

These are the times that try a fan’s soul, but I can’t even begin to imagine how spent the players are. Making it through a baseball season is a physical feat when things are going well, never mind when they have been, as Casey Blake put it the other day, “swimming upstream” — an apt description.

Still, these are autumnal thoughts, appropriate to the equinox just now marked, and written with the tired eyes at the end of a long 2010 campaign. As much as I love Fall as a season (the impending hellish temperatures notwithstanding), there’s nothing like the optimism-inducing Spring and its “hope” and “confidence” and new “manager.” ;)

There have been some wonderful moments this year, and some awful ones. I look forward to a whole new set next time around.

You can stop believin’ now.

But only for now.

[1] Not, however, “I’ll See You in My Dreams”. ;)

[2] Dodger Follies (1945) with Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, and Leo Durocher.

Analysis of the 2010 Dodgers season can get pretty snarky, fatalist, and needlessly complex. The truth of the matter is all-too simple: just check the standings.

NL WEST STANDINGS Through 8/15/10

    W   L    PCT  GB  RS  RA  DIFF
----------------------------------
SD  69  47  .595    - 508 395 +113
SF  67  52  .563  3.5 518 440  +78
COL 61  56  .521  8.5 558 517  +41
LAD 60  58  .508 10.0 516 517   -1
ARI 47  72  .395 23.5 540 648 -108

Colorado and Arizona have been scoring (RS) like crazy compared to the other teams — in the Rockies’ case, they’re keeping their opponents from scoring (RA) too many in return, while the Dbacks have a woeful -108 run deficit (DIFF).

Meanwhile on the top of the division, San Diego and San Francisco aren’t scoring very many runs, but their pitching and defense are keeping the opposition down — the Padres with a phenomenal +113 to the positive.

And then there’s the Dodgers. They have kept their opponents to a tepid 517 runs…and have scored one less than that themselves. This is a recipe for malaise.

Whether viewed from an NL (8th out of 16 teams) or overall NL+AL perspective (15th out of 30 teams), the Dodgers are in the middle of the pack. They are 6.5 games out of the wild card, 10 games away from the NL West pennant.

What can they do to save the 2010 season?

Score more runs. It’s not too complicated.

Lincecum gets all the cool commercials.

The punch line of course is that the gangster gets a hit at the end and wins the game. ;)

Via Big League Stew

Thank goodness Bill Plaschke has been distracted by the Lakers playoffs this past week. Let’s hope the Lakers go all the way, if for no other reason than to keep him preoccupied and away from Dodger Stadium.

For those just tuning in, Plaschke submitted a diatribe 10 days ago, in which he lambasted Dodger fans for getting on with their lives without Manny Ramirez, calling them no better than San Francisco Giants followers. Them’s fightin’ words.

Today came an article by Randy Cohen in the NY Times, “Is Manny Ramirez Really All That Bad?”, in which the reverse of Plaschke’s “tar and feathering isn’t good enough for Manny” argument is opined:

If we admire athletes who work hard to improve their play, then why do we damn those who do just that with the use of banned substances?

Fellow commenter “Hollywood Joe” and I got into a conversation about that piece in this thread on Dodger Thoughts. My take is that Cohen skirts around what to me is the core issue — taking PEDs is against the rules of baseball. And moreover, it’s rude. :) I wrote,

Baseball is an all-too human activity masquerading (at least for some folks in the fourth estate) as a religion. The imperfect human story is always more entertaining than the flawless saint’s. If every game pitched were perfect or every hit a home run, then it ceases to be interesting. This is why I don’t play sports video games on rookie mode once I’m used to the controls.

This is also why gaining an advantage via an activity that is against the rules sullies the game, at least to me. It becomes a less entertaining game, even if the subject itself is more interesting. Cheat codes are maybe fun once or twice, to continue the metaphor, but making a habit of them while playing with friends is unsporting.

Now, this doesn’t mean that I enjoy baseball less because of the rampant PED usage. The sport is more than just the game, and the reasons to watch it are more complicated than just faceless automatons throwing, catching, and hitting mechanically.

It’s the human side that adds depth to watching sports. Otherwise, you might as well just flip a coin and be done with it. The stories are what keep me entertained over the course of a long season. Not a soap opera, but the drama of a marathon grind.

Will Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, and the other “kids” continue their maturation into the ballplayers we think they can be?

Will the pitching staff keep it together with Hiroki Kuroda out, or will they fold under the pressure?

Does Jonathan Broxton have what it takes to be a closer?

Will Manny Ramirez be himself when he returns in July?

Can the team go all the way this year and erase 21 years of futility?

I continued in my comments,

To use an ESPN favorite, Derek Jeter’s “classiness” is much less of a big deal without A-Rod’s soap opera on the team as a counterpoint. :)

Doesn’t mean I condone A-Rod’s behavior — I don’t get why, with his innate talents, he felt the need to get even more of an advantage. And that question makes him way more fascinating of a character than the manufactured facade he worked so hard to maintain.

And none of this requires burning him, Manny, Clemens, Sosa, McGwire, or Bonds at the stake. People like Plaschke who are seemingly more interested in making sure they get back on “Around the Horn” are worse for baseball than Manny or A-Rod.

As a postscript, I feel as if I should reiterate what I said in my 5/9 post: I like Bill Plaschke. When he’s on, he can be a great sportswriter who shines a light on that human drama like few others in his field.

Let’s hope the Lakers keep him busy for a while.

Eric Stults pitches a beauty of a complete game today, a mere four hits away from a perfect game. Juan Pierre steps in and offers some hope for left field. Matt Kemp continues to show the faith in his future abilities is both well founded and no longer in the future.

All that, and what does Bill Plaschke carriage-return about today?

He uses his page-one pulpit to complain about Dodgers fans getting on with life sans Manny.

He berates them for being supportive of a beloved player who made a stupid mistake, one for which he is paying both a literal and figurative price.

He insults an entire fanbase, millions of people, for choosing sanity not insanity.

I mean, there aren’t very many worse insults than to say Los Angeles citizens are sullen San Francisco denizens, that supporting Manny is the moral equivalent of cheering Barry Bonds. Or kicking puppies.

The problem is, Plaschke has missed the point. Again. Check this out:

Fully two-thirds of the approximately 750 e-mails I have received about Manny Ramirez have ripped me for criticizing him.

No, they are ripping you for saying the rules should be broken to prove your crusading point. The owners and the players union (finally) agreed to severe penalties in case of pharmaceutical infractions. Manny is paying the penalty right now.

Bill, you want to throw all that away. You’re saying the rules should be broken because Manny broke the rules. That he should be kicked off the Dodgers (which can’t happen anyhow) for making a mistake. That he should be banned from baseball.

The fact is that if a big name like Manny Ramirez gets caught and suspended for 50 games, the system is working. If you destroy the system, which is what you are apoplectically advocating right now, then you will destroy baseball.

Bill, you are acting like a self-serving, sanctimonious jerk right now who is more concerned with driving web traffic to your articles and eyeballs to Around the Horn than with what’s best for the Dodgers, Los Angeles, or the fans. I am not going to provide a live link to your current article because of that attitude.

You are better than this. You are a good writer. You don’t need to act this way.

Please stop.