The road to the ring just got a whole lot easier with the New York Mets getting embarrassed at home by little brother, San Diego Padres. The Mets were supposed to be the second Juggernaut in the National League as reporters and pundits backed the East Coast iconic team that replaced the Giants and the Dodgers after their diaspora from New York Baseball. Somehow along the way, they dismissed the…
Dragonslayer?
We Have Nothing to Fear… But Fear Itself! In 1988, the Mets beat the Dodgers like rented mules during the regular season. If my memory serves me correctly, the record against the Mets was one win and eleven losses! However, that all changed come playoff time. We all know how it turned out. The Mets were smoked by the obviously outmatched (and undermanned) Dodgers. Maybe the Mets were overconfident. Maybe…
Momentum, Talent and Depth
And all the other nonsense you’ll hear before we play our first postseason game… Momentum is defined as Mass X Velocity. In this case, the mass is the longest lineup and the deepest pitching staff in the game. Velocity is the 111 wins in a season. No one has more momentum than the Dodgers. And so it begins. As a Dodgers fan, it really irks me the negativity of the…
Player Profile: Orel Hershiser
Orel Leonard Hershiser. Tommy called him “Bulldog.” Born in Buffalo, N.Y., on September 16, 1958. His name is etched in Dodger history alongside many of their greatest pitchers. Most of that praise comes from one magical season when the stars aligned, and he was the best pitcher in the game. His performance in the regular season, the playoffs, and World Series carried the Dodgers to their fifth title in Los…
Wild Card Weekend is Here
The 162-game marathon is complete, and what an exciting season it has been, especially for us in Dodger land. Sure, we could have hoped for a record-breaking 117 wins, bet we’ll go ahead and settle for 111. What a great number! It’s so uniform and easy to remember. Clayton Kershaw just passed Cy Young on the all-time strikeout list. At this rate, he’ll get to the magic number of 3,000…
On the Alex Verdugo Comments
This is a few days old, but the latest player discrediting the Dodgers championship in 2020 is none other than former teammate Alex Verdugo. His quote: “A 60-game season, it’s still hard to judge to this day. Like yeah, it’s a World Series, right? Yeah, they got a ring. But they didn’t play any games at their home field. They didn’t. There weren’t any fans there. It was 60 games….
The End of an Era: R.I.P. Harold Uhlman
A couple of days ago, I got an e-mail from Harold. He had been sick, but he never told me that. Instead, he started with: I do check in on LADT quite regularly although I do so for your take rather that follow the comments. You get a lot of base hits and some big flies. I am pleased with the pictures that indicate you and your family are doing…
Postseason Clarity
The remainder of the regular season is going to be mostly tune-ups for the postseason teams now that a clearer picture has to be decided after the season’s final weekend. The most important series saw the Braves grudge match against the Mets’ two-headed monster, which didn’t go well for the most feared rotation twosome in the league. The Braves put the pedal to the metal and usurped the top spot…
Who Knows What Happens Next Year?
A better question is: Who cares what happens next year, this year? Here we are with three games to play, and the Dodgers are stuck on 110 wins. Will they lose 50 games this year? It’s a strong possibility. To put it in perspective, the Dodgers are 61 games over .500. There are currently four teams who have not even won 61 games. It will be disappointing if the Dodgers…
Looking Forward…
The Dodgers now have 110 wins, blowing their old record to smithereens! They now have a four-game winning streak and could sweep the hapless Rockies. The Dodgers are the first NL team in 100 years to win 110 games. The Dodgers team ERA sits at 2.79. They lead all of MLB in starter ERA and are just .07 points behind Houston for the TOP Bullpen ERA. The Dodgers are way…