Baseball 2013

[Brian]

I'm deeply ambivalent about these 2013 Dodgers and their renovated home in Chavez Ravine, but I have six months to spew my enthusiasms and revulsions here. Please feel free to interrupt my rants and post anything about your team or baseball in this thread anytime.

My season began Tuesday night in front of the TV, just as 2012 ended -- watching the San Francisco Giants win another game and wishing that they were wearing Dodger uniforms. The Hated Ones comprise the best balanced, most exciting team that I've seen since last August. And 21 of the 25 players on last fall's World Series roster were sitting in the visitor's dugout in Dodger Stadium tonight.

The pundits name the Giants to win a weak National League West. I can't disagree, but fortunes can change radically in a 162-game season. I'll be content if the Dodgers can make it a race to October.

[anni]

Brian just alerted me to this article about my 2013 favorite Dodger, Matt Kemp. They're season might not be too stellar, but with actions like this...they're winning all the way. Also check out the video:

www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/dodgers/la-sp-0508-plaschke-20130508,0,7024920,full.column

[Brian]

Everytime I see my old friend Art, he wants to argue about the money paid to major league baseball players. For 28 years, Art tells me that escalating salaries are going to ruin baseball. I've always pointed out that nobody ever complains about how much the owners are netting despite those salaries.

When I went to Art's house last week, I didn't know what to say. The Guggenheim Group's ownership of the Dodgers has unsettled me. Their $230 million team is in last place in the National League West. Yet I probably wouldn't feel much better if the Dodgers were leading the division, because that would raise the stakes for the rest of the team owners. And possibly ruin the game. I still root for the Dodgers, but at some level I don't mind all this losing. For Art's sake.

[Brian]

May 12, 2013 23:00:11 GMT -8 Brian said:

...the Dodgers (are) in last place in the National League West.

The Dodgers have spent every day since in last place. Now they've played exactly half their games for the season, for a record of 38-43, five games below .500. Sometime in June, my mind started wandering, following other teams on the scoreboard as if it were September and the Dodgers had been elimated.

But wait -- this morning, the Dodgers are still in last place, but the Giants are only half a game ahead. Suddenly, something to live for. And the Dodgers are three and a half games behind the first place Diamondbacks. National League West teams are lousy: The second place Rockies have a losing record.

The Dodgers have not won the World Series since 1988, nor played in one since, yet it will take another few decades before I feel the depths of deprivation a Cubs fan does. The Pittsburgh Pirates got me excited. They haven't been in a World Series since 1979. Right now, they have the best record in baseball.

[Roberta]

Dear Brian,

You're welcome.

The Reds

[Brian]

I had hoped to accompany Roberta on her annual visit to Dodger Stadium to see the Reds the only time they visit this season. My dream date would have been this Thursday -- for Vin Scully bobblehead night. Instead, she's giving us great posts in other threads from Amsterdam and Florence. Thank you, Roberta!

Jul 1, 2013 23:28:07 GMT -8 Brian said:

The Dodgers have now spent every day since May 13 in last place in the National League West.

The Dodgers were tied for first place for about a hour Sunday afternoon, after they swept the Nationals in Washington. The Diamondbacks held on in San Francisco to beat the Giants in their afternoon game, so the Dodgers remain a half game out of first place. They are 20-5 since June 22, just phenomenal.

This is how perverted I am about the Giants: All weekend I was torn, wanting the Snake Team to lose so the Dodgers could attain first place yet needing the Hated Ones to lose so the Dodgers could put more distance between them. Right now, only five games separate the Dodgers from the Giants in fourth place. The poor Padres will probably keep the Giants out of the cellar. I'm just starting to believe that the Dodgers could win the division -- and that the world champion Giants will not.

[Roberta]

Jul 21, 2013 23:00:42 GMT -8 Brian said:

My dream date would have been this Thursday -- for Vin Scully bobblehead night

Oh my yes, you know that would have been my dream date too!!!!!! Next year for sure ;-)

[Roberta]

"The Reds lost three straight against the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend as they managed to score only two runs in that span. "

A good weekend for me to have been where baseball reporting is non-existent!

[Brian]

Jul 29, 2013 20:09:18 GMT -8 Roberta said:

A good weekend for me to have been where baseball reporting is non-existent!

The same thought crossed my mind this weekend, Roberta. I was truly glad you were so far removed from the entire series -- from the incredible ovation for Vin Scully before Thursday's game on his bobblehead night to Yasiel Puig's hot dog antics with his walk off home run in the 11th on Sunday. But for me, it was a pleasure to watch the Reds fighting hard in all four games. They're the best team the Dodgers have faced this season. I'd love to see them represent the National League in the World Series (if the Dodgers don't).

I got to go now -- Clayton Kershaw is about to appear as a guest on "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

[Brian]

Jul 21, 2013 23:00:42 GMT -8 Brian said:

The Dodgers are half a game out of first place. They are 20-5 since June 22, just phenomenal...Right now, only five games separate the Dodgers from the Giants in fourth place.

Exactly one month later, they have an eight and a half game lead in the National League West -- 18 games ahead of the last place Giants. The Dodgers' recent 42-8 record was historic, you might have heard.

I haven't been holding my tongue, far from it. My mouth is locked wide open in continual awe. The team from Chavez Ravine inevitably will have to cool down from their .840 winning percentage -- yikes! -- in the remaining 36 games. That's all?

Roberta told me before she left for southern Ohio that she was going to a couple of games in Cincinnati. Her Reds are 7-3 in their last ten games, currently only two and a half games out of first and just behind the second place Cardinals in the Central Division. The star-crossed Pirates are starting to lose.