Brian
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Post by Brian on Mar 2, 2022 1:06:57 GMT -8
Well, they did it today. The owners canceled the first two series of the 2022 season. They didn't have to lock out the players last December. They could have spent the past three months negotiating. Apparently, most owners don't mind losing revenue in April when the real money comes in October -- especially the teams with low attendance and no lucrative TV deals -- and, let's face it, it's another way to stiff players out of their salaries. My whole life most fans I've known side with the owners reflexively. But the good guys have always been on the players' side. And they're hanging together, from the biggest names in baseball to the players who've only come up for a cup of coffee, for a contract that benefits everyone. We've been told that whenever an agreement is reached at least three weeks will be required for spring training before real games can begin. Yet every team's roster has been frozen throughout the lockout -- an entire offseason when teams make trades, free agent signings and arbitration deals. I can't tell what the owners are thinking, but their inaction says that they're all in for a much longer delay to opening day.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Mar 15, 2022 0:48:35 GMT -8
For a week after my initial post, I heard people who are paid for their opinions predicting that the owners' lockout would last until May. Then suddenly it was over last Thursday, and the players signed for this season so far have reported to spring training.
The players got most of what they wanted for themselves, which is good for baseball. I followed the negotiations so I expected that they and the owners would agree to instituting the designated hitter in the National League and selling advertising on uniforms. But I didn't learn until after the agreement was signed that full interleague play is coming in 2023 -- every team will play the other 29 teams in both leagues for at least one series every year, which means that the Dodgers will play fewer games against the Giants, Padres and other National League rivals.
Old traditional fans like me found little to cheer. At least they abandoned the experiment of placing a runner on second base at the beginning of extra innings, which had spoiled two seasons of late night baseball TV for me. And the players prevented the insanely greedy owners from expanding the playoffs from 10 to 14 teams, nearly half of all teams total. Instead we'll have 12 teams starting the postseason in a complicated system that I hope I won't think about again until September.
Right now every team is scrambling to sign free agents and make trades before opening day on April 7 to fill their rosters. I'm ecstatic that the Dodgers signed Clayton Kershaw immediately.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 11, 2022 23:00:25 GMT -8
I always lean Pollyanna, so when Major League Baseball and the players signed their agreement last month, I fastened onto what was missing: Old traditional fans like me found little to cheer. At least they abandoned the experiment of placing a runner on second base at the beginning of extra innings, which had spoiled two seasons of late night baseball TV for me. Two weeks later, they agreed to continue the inherited runner in extra innings.
I was unprepared for this bad news, but not the designated hitter in my National League. That was a long time coming as the generations of players and fans who appreciated seeing pitchers take their turns at bat got older and died while younger people grew up not caring about the centuries old tradition. To prepare myself emotionally, I spent last season savoring every pitcher's at bat. Now I will be paying extra attention to Dodger games against their National League West rivals because instead of playing 19 games against each team, they will only have 14 games against them in 2023 -- that adds to up to 20 fewer meaningful games each season in the race to win the division. All to make way for the expansion of the thing I hate most about the MLB in the past quarter century, interleague play.
Yet I still love baseball. Maybe I can get Pollyanna to return to this thread.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on May 4, 2022 23:00:15 GMT -8
Look at the two lead headlines on that front page: Bobby Thomson's homer denied the Dodgers what would have been their first appearance in a World Series on the same day the world learned that the Soviet Union had exploded a hydrogen bomb, which instantly vaporized our national assumption of military and scientific superiority. Don DeLillo wrote about October 3, 1951 in the first chapter of his 1997 masterpiece "Underworld," which recreated that afternoon at the Polo Grounds in New York down to "the crowd shaking in its own noise." But I felt powerful emotional ties to that game long before I read the book, don't ask me why -- it happened seven years before I was born.
Maybe "Underworld" was a jinx. Before it was published, the Dodgers went to the World Series nine times after moving to Los Angeles in 1958, winning most of them, while the San Francisco Giants appeared unsuccessfully in just one Fall Classic. Since the book came out, the Dodgers have gone to three World Series, winning only once, while the Giants have been in four, winning three of them. After the Giants won that third World Championship in 2014, the Dodgers ruled the National League West and I didn't think about the Giants much -- until last season when they won 107 games and the Dodgers won a record 106, which only earned them second place in the NL West and a Wild Card game.
That season must have given me PTSD. Until then I never looked at the standings in April. This season I check the box scores every day to see what the Giants are doing. Right now, the Dodgers lead the division -- one game ahead of the Padres and two and a half ahead of the Rockies and the Giants, who are tied for third place -- and they momentarily have the best record in the National League.
The Dodgers swept the Giants tonight in a two-game series in Chavez Ravine, their first meeting of the year, so I'm feeling as good as I can while bracing for the next bomb to go off.
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Roberta
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Post by Roberta on Jun 3, 2022 9:14:25 GMT -8
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Post by Brian on Jun 23, 2022 23:00:31 GMT -8
I've held off from posting here until the Dodgers were on the upswing -- and back in sole possession of first place in the National League West. They're a game ahead of the Padres, coincidentally where I left off on May 5, and a more comfortable five and a half games in front of the Giants. The Dodgers are .002 percentage points behind the Mets for the best record in the National League.
Things got rough for the Dodgers when June rolled around. They left too many runners on base -- that is, when they got hits or walks. Defense suddenly became sloppy. And even their stellar pitching staff suffered from injuries, bad luck and fatigue. I had circled the Dodgers second meeting of the year with the Giants two weeks ago on my calendar then watched them get swept in a series visiting the Hated Ones in Frisco for the first time since, oh, I forgot, boo hoo hoo. They scored only four runs in the three games.
The Dodgers retook first place by sweeping the Reds in Cincinnati this week. The team brought their three best starting pitchers to the series and the batting line up clicked, clicked, clicked -- and exploded. My glee was tempered whenever I thought about the Reds fans among the Montrose Peace Vigil stalwarts, namely Roberta and Bruce. But the Reds have improved after a horrific start to the season, briefly tying the floundering Cubs for last place in the National League Central division last week. They probably will not end up winning the division, but I don't think of the Reds as a last place team.
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Post by Brian on Jul 13, 2022 23:00:14 GMT -8
The Dodgers have taken off in the last three weeks -- now they're eight and a half games ahead of the Padres and 12 games ahead of the Giants in the National League West, and six games in front of the Mets for the best record in the league.
As I waited for 42 years for the All-Star Game to return to Dodger Stadium, I swore that I would be there when it finally happened again. The only time that the annual exhibition game between the National and American Leagues played in Chavez Ravine was 1980 and I missed it. With 30 teams in both leagues, Dodger Stadium should have had another All-Star Game a decade ago. Back then I might have been able to afford tickets -- when I checked last month, the cheapest seats for next Tuesday's Midsummer Classic cost more than $400.
Oh, well. The game ain't what it used to be since baseball commissioner Bud Selig ended a tie game in the 11th inning in 2002. In the wake of that universally derided decision, Bud and Major League Baseball decided it might be fun to award home field advantage in the World Series to the winner of the All-Star Game. That was the system from 2003 until 2016 -- when the American League won 11 of those games and the National League only three. Since then, the team with the best record in the regular season hosts the World Series. But 2022 brings another rule change: if a game is tied after nine innings, it will be settled with a home run derby instead of extra inning play.
Yet I'll be watching it on television. Four Dodgers were selected to the NL team, including Mookie Betts and Trea Turner by vote of the fans. Clayton Kershaw and Tony Gonsolin were chosen for the pitching squad -- Tony's record has earned him the starting spot but Clayton is the sentimental favorite because he never started in any of his eight previous All-Star appearances. Most of all, I'll be rooting for the National League to win its first All-Star Game since 2012.
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Post by Brian on Jul 25, 2022 23:00:14 GMT -8
I'm still bummed the National League lost its ninth All-Star Game in a row, so that's all I'll say about that.
The season resumed in Chavez Ravine as the Dodgers hosted the Giants for the third series of the year between the two teams. The Dodgers swept the Giants in their first series at home, two games in April. Last month, the Giants swept the Dodgers in three games in Frisco. And sure enough the Dodgers swept the Giants in four games last weekend.
The Giants came to Los Angeles 12-1/2 games behind the Dodgers and left town 16-1/2 games back. After living in terror of the Giants winning the National League West throughout the entire last season -- which they did, although the wild card Dodgers kept them from advancing -- I have studiously followed them this season, though with a diminishing sense of dread as they've fallen apart. Sometimes I must admit I start to feel sorry for them. Tonight, they fell to a .500 winning percentage, 48 wins and 48 losses.
Full complacency won't set in until late September. For one thing, I always remember that the Brooklyn Dodgers led the New York Giants by 12 games in mid-August 1951 and wound up tied at the end of the season, losing to the Giants in a three-game playoff that ended with Bobby Thomson's Shot Heard 'Round the World. That's inherited generational trauma. More practically in this modern era, the Giants are only 2-1/2 games back in the wild card race, so they remain a threat in the postseason.
The Dodgers have only 67 games left to play -- and ten of them are against the Giants.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Aug 8, 2022 23:40:00 GMT -8
It was fitting that the news of Vin Scully's death was released during last Tuesday's Dodger game in San Francisco. Vin called his last game in that ballpark at the end of the 2016 season instead of retiring at Dodger Stadium a few days earlier because he grew up as a Giants fan in the Bronx. At the start of the series, the Giants unveiled a plaque in the broadcast booth honoring Vin, and it was from that booth that many Dodger fans like me learned we had lost Vin forever. That was how the Dodger-Giants game ended the previous night. Don't be surprised if someday I start a thread dedicated to GIF's and videos of Trea Turner's defensive and base running feats. That play -- running from his position at shortstop to foul territory a few steps from the catcher's spot to make the sliding catch -- reminded me of a Yankees-A's playoff game in Oakland early this century when third baseman Derek Jeter instinctively ran across the diamond to spear a line drive up the first base line. I never saw anything like that before and I probably won't again. The season resumed (after the All-Star break) in Chavez Ravine as the Dodgers hosted the Giants for the third series of the year between the two teams. The Dodgers swept the Giants in their first series at home, two games in April. Last month, the Giants swept the Dodgers in three games in Frisco. And sure enough the Dodgers swept the Giants in four games last weekend. The Dodgers broke the pattern by taking all four games in their next meeting -- on the road. Now the Dodgers have won 10 games against the Giants in 2022 and the Giants have only won three. Six games remain between the teams, all in September. The Dodgers' swept a Giants team lacking its best player, injured shortshop Brandon Crawford, and right as another Dodger killer, Darin Ruf, was traded to the contending Mets in the National League East.
More shocking was the Dodgers' sweep of the San Diego Padres when they returned to Dodger Stadium last weekend. The Padres won the trading deadline sweepstakes, nabbing four excellent players including 23 year old Juan Soto, already touted as the next Ted Williams. Yet they came to Los Angeles trailing the Dodgers by 12-1/2 games and left town 15-1/2 games back in the National League West. They're 16 games behind tonight after losing to the Giants while the Dodgers rest for an interleague series at home Tuesday. The Padres are clinging to a wild card spot despite a five-game losing streak. The Giants are now 5-1/2 games out of contention.
I still follow the standings daily out of habit. My real pleasure is just watching the Dodgers play on television, admittedly with the volume turned down sometimes. I will always miss Vin.
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Post by Brian on Sept 7, 2022 23:00:28 GMT -8
The Dodgers wrapped up their next to last series of the season against the Giants Wednesday afternoon and for the first time neither team swept a series. Both teams embraced the rivalry, playing three hard fought games, with the Dodgers winning the final two games after losing the first one.
Everybody played as tough as they did down to wire last season when the Dodgers won 106 games and the Giants won 107, although the outcome of these games didn't matter to either team's standing. The Giants, who were officially eliminated from the National League West race on Tuesday, are 28-1/2 games behind the Dodgers and 9-1/2 games back in the wild card race. Their only battle now is remaining in third place -- the Diamondbacks are only half a game behind them. The Dodgers -- who have only been out of first place for seven days this year -- are 19 games ahead of the Padres, who have managed to cling to a wild card spot for several weeks. The Dodgers will clinch the division any day now.
My PTSD from last season has ebbed but I remain interested in the Giants anyway. I subscribe to the Santa Cruz Sentinel online, which recently revamped its website allowing me to read the rest of the newspapers in the Bay Area News Group. So I've been reading the daily reports about the Giants in the Mercury News. With the Dodgers never out of contention for the better part of a decade, I forgot about the kinds of stories beat writers have to file when a team is floundering. They've turned my vague pity from afar into recurring empathy for the players. And given me reason to believe that the current rookies will help the Giants to threaten the Dodgers again next year.
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