The Trolley Dodger

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?

On September 18th this year, it will be the 5th anniversary of the famous 4+1 game, in which the Dodgers tied the score with four consecutive home runs, then beat the Padres in extra innings with a walk-off homer.

With Russell Martin no longer with the Dodgers, that means the five players (six if you count Kenny Lofton’s walk that represented one of the two runs in the 10th) involved in the 4+1 are gone.

1. Jeff Kent
2. JD Drew
3. Russell Martin
4. Marlon Anderson

and then Nomar Garciaparra. In fact, looking at the boxscore for that night, only Rafael Furcal, Jonathan Broxton, and Andre Ethier are still on the team.

Starting catcher for the Padres? Mike Piazza.

With the Dodgers home opener versus the Giants being on ESPN this year, we were worried that we’d miss out on having Vin Scully calling the game — and it wouldn’t seem like a real opener without him.

The Dodgers have sent out this press release, which is good news at least in part — we can turn the sound down on ESPN (usually a good idea anyhow ;) and up on the radio.

VIN SCULLY TO CALL OPENING DAY ON TALKRADIO 790 KABC
Hall of Fame broadcaster will handle play-by-play for six innings at his 54th Los Angeles Dodgers home opener

GLENDALE – Vin Scully, who is entering an unprecedented 62nd season broadcasting Dodger baseball, will call six innings of the Dodgers’ home opener on TalkRadio 790 KABC on March 31. Scully will broadcast innings one through three and seven through nine, with Rick Monday and Charley Steiner handling the duties during innings four through six in typical postseason format. The Dodgers take on the San Francisco Giants at 5:00 p.m. on Major League Baseball’s Opening Night on ESPN.

Scully will be calling his 54th home opener in Los Angeles, as he joined the club in 1950, eight years before the franchise moved to the West Coast.

Read the full press release on Dodgers.com

Although this does raise the question of whether the game will be in sync on TV and radio, or “enough” in sync, to be watchable.

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.

As I’m observing my 40th birthday this week, I thought I’d have a look see at the 1969 Dodgers season. This was the 7th year in Dodger Stadium and 11th in California.

100th anniversary celebrations for MLB saw the addition of four expansion teams in 1969: the KC Royals and Seattle Pilots in the AL, and the Padres and Montreal Expos in the NL.

Not a great finish for the Dodgers in 1969: 4th place in the newly formed National League West division. The teams in the NL West from 1969-1992:

• Atlanta Braves
• Cincinnati Reds
• Houston Astros
• Los Angeles Dodgers
• San Diego Padres
• San Francisco Giants

(Colorado was added in 1993, while the Braves, Reds, and Astros moved away in 1994. Arizona came in 1998.)

The Dodgers finished 85-77, eight games back from the division-winning Braves. The opening day Dodger starters:

• CF Willie Crawford
• RF Len Gabrielson
• 3B Bill Sudakis
• 1B Ron Fairly
• LF Andy Kosco
• C Tom Haller
• 2B Jim Lefebvre
• SS Ted Sizemore
• P Don Drysdale

That was April 7, 1969, at Cincy. LA won, 3-2. Don Drysdale won, with Bill Singer getting the save — the first official save in baseball history.

While the 4th-place finish wasn’t great, it was a bit of an improvement over their awful 76-86 and 73-89 performances the previous two years. One step closer to the glory years of the mid-to-late 1970s.

Two highlights from 1969:

• On January 21st, Roy Campanella was elected to the Hall of Fame.
• On August 11th, Don Drysdale retired. He was the last active Dodger who had also played in Brooklyn.

Transactions that year (from Wikipedia):

• March 30: Acquired Jimmie Schaffer from the Cincinnati Reds for Ted Savage
• April 17: Acquired Al McBean from the San Diego Padres for Tommy Dean and Leon Everitt
• June 5: Bob Randall was drafted by the Dodgers in the 2nd round of the 1969 Major League Baseball Draft (Secondary Phase).
• June 11: Acquired Maury Wills and Manny Mota from the Montreal Expos for Ron Fairly and Paul Popovich
• August 15: Acquired Jim Bunning from the Pittsburgh Pirates for Ron Mitchell, Chuck Coggin and cash
• September 1: Acquired Jack Jenkins from the Washington Senators for cash

More info:

• 1969 Dodgers at Wikipedia
• 1969 Dodgers at Retrosheet
• 1969 Dodgers at Baseball Reference
• 1969 Dodgers at Baseball Almanac
• 1969 MLB season at Wikipedia