Brian
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Post by Brian on Feb 17, 2011 0:50:12 GMT -8
This is probably my ninth annual baseball thread on an Internet forum. I've never started one so early, just after the pitchers and catchers report to spring training. What's up with that? Two weeks ago at the concert in Santa Ana, I finally got to talk to a wonderful guy from San Francisco named Andy, who's traded posts and private messages with me on the Ian Hunter Message Board since 2004. Those same years, the Dodgers routinely topped the Giants in the National League West. But when we meet in person, the Hated Ones are the World Champions. Still, I was happy for Andy, whose team -- despite going to the World Series twice since the Dodgers last played there -- hadn't won in our 52 years alive and living on the Left Coast. And I've always admired Andy's purity, rooting for the Dodgers over the Oakland A's because the A's are American League. I felt dirty last October when I tried to get fired up for the Rangers -- a team I didn't know that came from Texas, of all places -- just because they were playing the Giants. Andy was true to his principles. It's only February. But if I want National League baseball in October, I may have to hang out with Andy.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Mar 15, 2011 23:01:30 GMT -8
Last year was the first season I didn't go to Dodger Stadium since 1981, not even once. Although the cost of two Infield Reserve tickets with food and parking now exceeds $100, I can afford that. Somehow I was able to attend 20 home games in 1986, when I didn't really have a job. I didn't intentionally boycott the stadium, but the McCourts were whoring every square foot for some kind of ad or money making scheme, so it was getting harder to summon the will to drive to Chavez Ravine. Also, many of the old time Dodger fans were dead or gone, replaced by people who behave like Giants fans at Candlestick in the 1980's. I'm going to try to get down there this season, if I can pry myself away from the television where Vin Scully will call almost every home game and every inning as he has since I was born in April 1958.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 3, 2011 23:01:06 GMT -8
I can't believe Brian wasn't crowing at midnight about the Dodgers going undefeated! Roberta knows me. Well, it took some effort not to post after Kershaw outpitched the amazing Lincecum on Opening Day, but even more when the Dodgers came from behind on Friday. I held back because I had just witnessed the bench and bullpen that blew all three exhibition games against the Angels and Mariners. That was the team that lost on Saturday, 10-0. With their win on Sunday, the 2011 Dodgers took three out of four from the 2010 World Champions. Which ain't bad. What's bad is how I feel since hearing about the grievous brain injury inflicted on a Giants fan, a paramedic from Santa Cruz, in the parking lot after the first game by two men wearing Dodger gear. I have so much to say about this latest violent incident and the rivalry I used to enjoy that I'll have to save it for a later post. What a great story. But you almost have to take pity on John for being a long suffering Orioles fan. Wait! Baltimore tops the American League East at 3-0 after the first series of the season -- the same record as the Reds, which isn't surprising at all. Cincinnati may have the best team in the National League, striking the right balance of youth, experience, raw talent and hunger for a World Series title.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 9, 2011 23:39:09 GMT -8
I had been drafting different baseball posts in my head before two Dodger fans attacked Bryan Stow in the parking lot on opening day and permanently injured his brain -- one about the state of the century-old rivalry between the Dodgers and Giants, the other about how owner Frank McCourt has turned Dodger Stadium into a pimper's paradise, to borrow Bob Marley's phrase. But I think they belong together. In the 1980's and '90's, when it was still fun to hate the Giants, I attended games in Chavez Ravine with Giants fans like Dudley, Darren, Peter and Patrick. We argued between innings while Helen Dell and Nancy B. Hefley played the organ. I was afraid to go to Candlestick Park because the Giants fans there threw trash on Dodger players on the field, the depth of bad fan behavior in those days. Dodger Stadium started feeling less homey after Rupert Murdoch took over. I saw a gang chasing and slapping around some guy on the top deck, then waited 10 minutes until security responded to our summons. I've witnessed Giants fans being verbally abused in the stands. One of them was shot dead in 2003 and another was stabbed in 2009 in the parking lot after Dodgers-Giants games. I never intended to boycott McCourt's stadium and his money grubbing ways, but I haven't been to a game there since 2008. He's made it inhospitable to a baseball fan like me. The over-amped public address system blasts crappy rock songs and advertisements. The concession stands run out of hot dogs by the seventh inning, but you can still find plenty of beer. The fundamental problems at Dodger Stadium cannot be solved by deploying more LAPD troops and private security hacks, as we should have learned already from our nation's occupation of Afghanistan, without addressing the corrupt government and a violent culture. If I want to enjoy National League baseball in a civil atmosphere, I'd better head to those beautiful ballparks in San Francisco and San Diego.
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Post by Sharon W on Apr 10, 2011 7:27:18 GMT -8
Brian, this would be a great letter to the editor in the LA Times. I'm going to share it with some SF area friends who know Bryan Stow.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 13, 2011 23:34:38 GMT -8
Brian, this would be a great letter to the editor in the LA Times. I'm going to share it with some SF area friends who know Bryan Stow. Whoa, that is extremely kind, Sharon. I just hope that your friends up north who know much better what a good man Bryan is found some peace in what I wrote. I had been reconsidering my role in -- and feelings about -- the Dodgers-Giants rivalry long before Bryan was hurt. It was silly, but I'd get more pumped up about games against San Francisco than any other team in the league. With my blind allegiance to a nearly mythic history and a need to demonize an abstraction, I knew I wasn't fundamentally different than Michelle Bachman, at least when it came to baseball. I even tried to parody myself here by constantly referring to the Giants as the Hated Ones, but there's no sport in that anymore. I've always loved their fans and admired the players. Anyway, back to the game: The Giants took two out of three from the Dodgers at AT&T Spies on You Park -- I'm not giving up that one -- after the Dodgers won three out of four to open the season. They're tied for second place with 6 wins and 6 losses in the National League West, three games behind the Rockies, who have the best record in baseball at 8-2. The Reds still top the Central Division with a 8-4 record.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on May 30, 2011 23:00:22 GMT -8
With two consecutive wins where the Dodgers scored 15 runs, I'm finding it easier to watch them play on television. Last week, I actually left the room when the Dodgers led the Astros in the bottom of the ninth and needed only one strike to win because I couldn't bear to watch what happened next.
Like many, I'm not ready to go back to Chavez Ravine. Monday's game, scheduled at the family friendly time of 5 p.m. on a national holiday and featuring $1 Dodger Dogs, could not attract 38,000 ticket buyers. The Dodgers have suffered the worst percentage of attendance decline of any team in the major leagues.
They're only a game and a half out of last place in the National League West -- yet they're only five and a half games from first. The Diamondbacks, who started the season at the bottom, lead the division with one third of it gone. The once blazing Reds have become a .500 team, in third place, four games back in the Central Division. They play the Dodgers at home in Cincinnati next weekend.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Jun 14, 2011 23:00:15 GMT -8
I quit running in fear from the TV before the end of Dodger games soon after I wrote my previous post. Not only have the ever changing, no name, would be closers been performing better, Dodger batters have been making the late innings exciting. I know a guy who's been talking about Matt Kemp winning the triple crown -- hey! don't jinx it! It's only June. Truth is, Matt's also been stellar in center field and on the bases, and he's played every game. How much has first base coach Davey Lopes has brought to this team? I was going to launch into my annual rant against interleague play, but I'm in a good mood tonight. So I'll save it for later and leave you with this: Turns out that the MLB has an official logo for interleague play. Scary, huh? Thanks for the nightmare, Bud.
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Roberta
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Post by Roberta on Jun 15, 2011 17:40:50 GMT -8
Who's in a good mood?
I'm in a good mood, as only a sweep of ... oh you know the rest :=)))))))))
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Jun 28, 2011 23:00:54 GMT -8
Despite the summer solstice, these are dark days indeed as a Dodger fan. I'm not talking about the bankruptcy -- with tonight's loss in Minnesota, the Dodgers are tied for last place in the National League West, nine games below .500. And the Giants are in first. There isn't much to hope for, at this point in the season. At least interleague play will end next weekend, then comes the annual distraction of the All Star Game. Maybe by September, I'll be able to score $20 tickets for those seats where they serve Wolfgang Puck's food, in what used to be foul territory. What makes things even worse right now is watching the games without Vin Scully, who doesn't travel east of Denver, and wondering how he feels sitting at home in Pacific Palisades and seeing Frank McCourt's $150,000 debt to him mentioned in every news story.
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