My wife and I walked into the restaurant on Valentines Day at precisely 5 PM for our reservation. I was stopped by the valet who pointed out to me the sign that said “Coat and Tie Required.” I went back to the car and rummaged around only to find a jacket that was stuffed behind the spare tire. I shook the dust off of the wrinkled corduroy jacket and tried…
Is the Third Time a Charm?
I set out today to write a “tongue-in-cheek sarcastic column on how bad the Dodgers were as a team and a critique on each player. After a few minutes, I realized that as much as I tried, I could not be that devoid of reason. There was no way I could even make up a way to devalue this team. I’m dumb, but I am not that dumb! Well, maybe…
Jon Littell: 37th Round Selection 2018
I always have a fascination with young players who are selection in the last few rounds of the First-Year Player Draft. Often, they are “take a chance” picks for high school players who most likely will not sign. Two such players that may well have been steals had they signed with the Dodgers after being selected in the last three rounds of the 2018 draft opted to go to college….
Houston, You Have a Problem…
Houston Mitchell is a writer for The LA Times and covers the Dodgers. Yesterday he stated that he was trying to make sense of the Dodgers’ off-season. Houston is a wonderful writer, but he has papers to sell and he knows that many Dodger fans are not sophisticated enough to understand how a successful team is built. He and The Times understand that the average fan is underwhelmed at what…
What Can We Expect From Dodger Hitters in 2019?
Everyone here has already heard that Robert Van Scoyoc, a 32 year-old punk who has really never played baseball beyond college (and was never very good there) is the Dodgers Hitting Coach for 2019. Aaron Bates is the Assistant Hitting Coach… and by the way, he has never coached… except in the minor leagues. If you add Robert Van Scoyoc (RVS) and Aaron Bates (AB) ages together, you will be…
Being a Dodger
Per JT on the Suits: “We trust them,” said the third baseman and team leader. “The front office has done a great job. They build a 40-man roster, not a 25-man roster, and that’s the biggest difference between the Dodgers and other teams.” I have been saying that for 4 years running. AF is a master at building the 40-man roster to play in a 162-game season. The Dodgers should…
12 Seconds
I was listening to MLB.RADIO yesterday morning and one of the commentators was talking about when he worked as an intern for the Pirates under Syd Thrift. Allegedly, Thrift commissioned a study to determine how long the human brain took to “re-set” or adjust after seeing a 97 MPH fastball followed by a 89 MPH slider. Well, not actually that exact pitch sequence, but he wanted to determine how long…
DH – The Lightening Rod
I used to be against the DH, but then I became totally indifferent because it is not a question of it, but rather when. The DH in the NL is inevitable, get used to it. This is not the NLB and the ALB…it is MLB. MLB is the only professional sport where the rules are different for one group of teams compared to rules of another group of teams within…
Change Is In The Air… And It’s About Time!
I told you all about 6 months ago that the DH was coming to the NL. As usual, that was met with a lot of skepticism (maybe some mocking as well), and I have to confess that since there was nothing mentioned about it this offseason (until yesterday), I thought that maybe it was a dead deal. Well, it still may not happen THIS YEAR, but it turns out that…
What Does the Future Hold for Raul Ibanez?
Last week Mark kind of stole my thunder with his remarks about Raul Ibanez who is a Special Assistant now to Andrew Friedman. He had signed with the Dodgers in February of 2016 along with Greg Maddux. The reasons for my interest in Raul Ibanez was that first, it was recently rumored he had an opportunity to move to another organization and didn’t. Secondly, suggestions were made that others were deserting…