R U Ready?

In about a week Jeff Dominique will be the Big Kahuna here and the Mark Timmons era will have come to an end. I am sure I will post or write a blog occasionally, but the day-to-day pressure is gone. I look back and see all the friends I made and the sense of community here and I am both proud and sad… but it is time to move on – of that I am sure.

Jeff Dominique is extremely qualified to run this site… from a baseball and business viewpoint to his concise and far-reaching columns and comments. Forget his self-deprecating remarks – he’s a good writer… VERY, VERY GOOD! I thought that as a parting shot, I would list some of my Top Three best and worst picks and predictions. Let’s start with losers:

Losers

• Andy LaRoche – I predicted great things for Andy. I am not sure what happened but he never came close to fulfilling his promise. It turns out that Theo Epstein held Andy in high regard as well. In a recent interview, Ned Colletti disclosed that Theo tried to trade for LaRoche on three separate occasions. We were both wrong, but I was in good company.
• Frank McCourt – After the Fox Ownership Debacle (“FOD”), I was excited that a small businessman like Frank McCourt bought the Dodgers. I knew that if he could just wait it out he would get a huge TV deal and create a superteam. Ned Colletti was good as was Logan White and I felt that Frank could really make something of the Dodgers. There were only two things wrong with Frank and Jamie McCourt: Everything they said and everything they did! I did not know that they were thieving, lying, dirty, underhanded bastards! I have a few things to say to Frank:

You swine. You vulgar little maggot. You worthless bag of filth. As we say in Texas, you couldn’t pour water out of a boot with instructions printed on the heel. You are a canker, an open wound. You took your last vacation in the Islets of Langerhans but your mispronounced, incoherent and drooling langobardic babblings got you jailed for your entire stay. 

You’re a putrescent mass, a walking vomit. You are a spineless little worm deserving nothing but the profoundest contempt. You are a jerk, a cad, and a weasel. I take that back; you are a festering pustule on a weasel’s rump. Your life is a monument to stupidity. You are a stench, a revulsion, an overflowing latrine, a big suck on a sour lemon. 

I will never get over the embarrassment of belonging to the same species as you. You are a monster, an ogre, a malformity. I barf at the very thought of you. You have all the appeal of a paper cut. Lepers avoid you. You are vile, worthless, less than nothing. You are a weed, a fungus, a stinking snotrag, the dregs of this earth. You are a technicolor yawn. And did I mention that you smell like a sack of garbage with rotting meat in it that has been sitting in the sun for a week? You are so repulsive that even maggots don’t wanna be filthed or slimed by touching you. 

Other than that… the McCourts were fine.

• Guggenheim and the new Dodger Owners – Personally, I was not impressed with the new Dodger owners. I wanted Steve Cohen, but it turned out OK, didn’t it?

Winners

• Adrian Beltre – I said Adrian was a Future Hall of Famer his rookie year and was castigated for it. Well, he was and will be soon! I have never forgiven Paul DePodesta for letting AB walk away. Paul never got another GM gig because of his lack of ability to communicate and what happened with Beltre. Many people close to the game thought he was not human. Adrian Beltre should have been a lifetime Dodger.
• Clayton Kershaw – I remember when RogerDodger (the late Roger Sobin) and Voldomer, and I went to Beloit Wisconsin t see 19-year-old Clayton Kershaw pitch. It was quite obvious that this kid had “it.” Even at 19, the ball just had a different look as it came to the plate. Early on I compared him to Sandy Koufax, but you really can’t compare them. There was never a better pitcher in a five-year period than Sandy Koufax, and there was never a better pitcher in a ten-year period than Clayton Kershaw. Yes, I know about his post-season failures, but we also have to realize that while Sandy pitched 57 innings in the post-season, Cayton has pitched 101 more innings. Clayton has had more opportunities to be exposed and he was. I will say this: Sandy Koufax had the most violent (that’s the only word I can come up with) pitches I have ever seen. Sandy was brute force and Clayton was more of an artist.
• Andrew Friedman – I never took more heat on anything than when Andrew Friedman was hired as President of Baseball Operations. OMG! Since I had supported McCourt in the beginning, commenters piled on and every time Andrew Friedman made a mistake (and he certainly made a few – but everyone does), the haters piled on like you cannot believe.

As I write this right about now, even the Haters have been forced to shut up. The Dodgers have been the best team in MLB over the past 5-years. They have a Top 3 Farm Systems and Major League Depth that is the envy of every other team. Many other team executives complain that “it’s just not fair” how the Dodgers operate their franchise. MLB.com surveyed Executives and the results were clear.

Andrew Friedman is the best GM the Dodgers have ever had… and he’s not even the GM. The Dodgers are built for the now and the long run. The model is both practical and sustainable. It’s a great time to be a Dodger fan… if they ever start up the season.

Will There Be a Baseball Season?

I would not be surprised if the season was canceled and I would not be surprised if it was played in empty stadiums with 2 umpires and electronic balls and strikes and replay. I think the NBA and NFL are much more problematic because of the constant contact. It seems like the world we live in changes every 6 hours. I won’t predict either way whether there will be a season… or not. It’s foolish to speculate when one great discovery could change everything or the pandemic could ravage society even more. Even the experts don’t know… so neither do I.

However, I remain hopeful.

Moving Forward

Life may never be like it once was. US Water Systems is an essential business and not only are we involved with water purification, we also are deeply involved with air purification. We use UV Light to kill bacteria and virus in the air.

I recently wrote a Blog on Using Hydrogen Peroxide to kill COVID-19. We are deeply involved with helping families and businesses in the COVID-19 recovery, which won’t happen as quickly as some think. The economy will be tough – we are thankful that we have not laid off anyone and not one employee has contracted COVID-19… but we remind the everyday to be safe and we practice what we preach!

I am going to miss some aspects of this blog, but I write another one that is really important. www. AskTheWaterDoctor.com Several of you are friends with me on Facebook and Linkedin and I do appreciate hearing from you. If you are ever in Indy, make sure you stop in – I’d love to see you and catch up.

This is not the end… just a new beginning. I will be around occasionally and I appreciate all of you. Be Safe My Friends!

Tommy Bahama LA Dodger Shirt

I just got one of these and it is super cool:

In uncertain times, what we value the most are people who know how to be resilient in uncertain times.