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

Congratulations to the Dallas Mavericks on their first NBA Championship, and especially for beating the Heat. :)

Last July, I wrote a post here documenting the Midseason Malaise both the Dodgers and myself found ourselves in. An excerpt:

When an activity that is normally an escape from the depressing parts of existence becomes itself depressing…well, what is there to write about? Especially if you’re not one to tear down your favorite team for the sake of talking about something. There’s a surfeit of commenters online, not to mention talk show hosts and callers, who like nothing more than to kvetch 24/7 about the smallest Dodger problems, never mind the major issues — they don’t need any help from me.

Here we are, a mere few weeks into the 2011 season, and the malaise is already upon us. Except that this year, the depressing news applies to the Lakers as well. Things turned ugly last night. Real ugly. No amount of seeing writing on the wall the last month of the Laker season could forewarn us that the writing would end with a string of profanities.

(As mixed as the Dodger season has been so far, the Boys in Blue haven’t been acting like the Purple and Gold. The team, however, has had its own ugliness to deal with.)

Things are also not exactly like the (newly re-minted) Silver and Black, with a string of heartbreaking losses in their playoff series versus the Sharks. The season is still young.

No, we have ownership issues. Such issues. And now with no historical hitting streak to distract us from the latest bad news, I joked to friends of mine that I was thinking of giving up watching the local teams and switching to World News so I can cheer up a little.

As the Lakers and Kings were gearing up for their playoff runs earlier this year, I was pondering expanding the Trolley Dodger into more of an LA sports blog rather than just the Dodgers. Lakers and Kings, sure, not to mention the suddenly intriguing Clippers, the “5th-sport” teams Galaxy and Chivas USA, and the reportedly inevitable return of an NFL team to LA. Now, I’m not so sure. If all the bad news keeps up, I’m going to need intensive therapy to get over my sports depression.

I do have a summer to get over the 2010-11 Lakers and Kings, and hopefully the 2011 Dodgers will put it all together during that same period. And it’s not as if there is no good Dodger news. Ethier and Kemp are carrying the team, and despite the bullpen woes, our starters are doing pretty well. New manager Don Mattingly has been impressive enough for a rookie. There might even be a pot of gold at the end of the McCourt rainbow. As usual, patience is called for. Lots and lots of patience.

Besides, I’m not desperate enough for World News yet.

* – there’s a “1971″ typo, but it’s ’41.

San Bernardino Sun: “Stolen Los Angeles Dodgers championship ring recovered”

A 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers championship ring that was stolen from a golf bag Monday in Chino Hills has been found.

La Verne police officers recovered the ring during a search warrant at an Azusa house. Detectives were investigating several thefts that occurred in the past two months at area golf courses.

On Wednesday, La Verne police arrested Frank Carrillo, 44, of Azusa. Carrillo is suspected of multiple thefts at the Sierra La Verne Country Club during September and October, according to a La Verne police news release.

I grew up a few miles from where the Texas Rangers play, used to go to games at the old Arlington Stadium. Last year, I wrote the post “Dodgers and Rangers” talking about the feelings seeing the two teams playing each other during interleague play.

The team was never that good during my fan years of the mid-70s to mid-80s, though they turned in a few close calls in the AL West. The Rangers didn’t make the playoffs until the 90s. Luckily for my childhood sports fan ego, I had the Cowboys to cheer for in the 70s.

But despite it all, if it was summer time (and the heat + humidity outside wasn’t fatal ;) I was running around the “bases” in my back yard, throwing and batting a tennis ball off a brick wall, playing as a Ranger.

Tonight, the Texas Rangers have been crowned American League Champions, beating the Yankees (which makes it even sweeter), and getting ready to play whoever winds up winning the Phillies/Giants series.

Tonight, I’m more misty-eyed than I expected I’d be.

Congrats to the Rangers, and I look forward to seeing what happens next.

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.

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.

A most excellent win.

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!

After last night’s ninth-inning derailment, I was just about ready to give up on baseball.

Well, not really, but it felt like it for a few minutes. That was a gut punch if ever there was one, or indeed a heartbreak. Funny how dealing with such big emotional swings requires being described by things visceral.

Some hours of sleep later, I am no longer ready to jump off a metaphorical fandom bridge. Being a Dodger fan, Feeling Blue is like yin-yang: it encompasses both the positive and the negative, the high and the low. One Feels Blue being a Dodger fan. To achieve enlightenment, one must accept both sides.

This bit of rationalization didn’t occur to me until I happened to come back to my computer earlier this afternoon and replaced my earphones on my head. Organ music was playing, and you could hear a crowd waiting expectantly for a game to start. It was a sound file in my iTunes library that I recorded the night I sat in the press box back in June. It was before the game, and Nancy Bea was playing her organ between PA announcements. A moment of zen-like bliss. One of the best nights of my life, and there it was flowing into my brain again.

The Dodgers lost that night, but it did nothing to dim the glow I had walking around for the next week.

As the philosopher said, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.

Whatever happens in tomorrow night’s Game 5, there will always be another spring training. It’s the circle of life, and no single loss, no matter how visceral, will change that.