Dodger Thoughts

Friday, August 30, 2002

 
Here's a post-settlement baseball tidbit to get you going. Leading the league in home runs and RBI, Alex Rodriguez only needs to make up a 26-point difference in batting average to win the Triple Crown. Very doable, in my mind - especially if no one else continues to notice for awhile.
Jon Weisman (link)

 
The word came this morning that a strike has been averted, and I am happy. I am not one of those (many) fans who would have been angry had a strike occurred. Rather, I think I would have been sad, the way you would be with an incorrigible family member. You don't like it when they misbehave, but you have become jaded enough to think that they just will and there's nothing you can do about it.

Perhaps that makes me the worst kind of relative - the enabling kind. But the thing is, I am sympathetic to the players, who more than ever this year have been painted as the villains in this disagreement. Every night, fans are interviewed by the media and say that it's just a game, and the players have enough money. I'm just amazed by the narrow-mindedness of this. The money isn't being divided between fans and players; it's being divided between owners and players. And the owners are richer people than anyone. Not to canonize the players, but it is the owners' greediness and fiscal irresponsibility that is the primary cause of every labor disagreement in baseball history. I say that with great confidence.

Certainly, though, it will be nice to see this dicussion fade away for awhile, and move back onto the games.
Jon Weisman (link)

Thursday, August 29, 2002

 
By homering for the only run in the Dodgers' 1-0 victory Wednesday, Odalis Perez became the fourth Dodger pitcher to hit one out this year. The last time four Dodgers pitchers homered in the same season was 1930, when Sloppy Thurston, Ray Phelps, Jumbo Elliott and Watty Clark all went deep.

Just look at that list. Sloppy, Ray, Jumbo and Watty. Now those were some names.
Jon Weisman (link)

Wednesday, August 28, 2002

 
Never in my life have I seen an ambulance drive onto the field to aid a baseball player. Alex Cora's injury, which I saw on television Monday, not in person, was truly scary. Though it was a relief to hear that he had movement the moment he regained consciousness, as a viewer you did not see any movement at all.

On a lighter note, at Tuesday night's game, a Dodger janitor was mopping up a spill a few rows in front of us in Aisle 114. A foul ball came, and landed right where he was mopping. He trapped the ball with his mop, without even looking up. He reached down, picked up the ball, proudly held it aloft and ran off, mop raised in one hand, ball raised in the other. I don't know if he finished mopping up the spill, but it was a wonderful moment and the crowd gave him a huge ovation.
Jon Weisman (link)

Monday, August 26, 2002

 
While the Dodgers have rallied to a nice wild-card lead, here is a sobering article to remind you how far away they are from being a real team.

Jon Weisman (link)