Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 6, 2009 23:00:24 GMT -8
Baseball fans are superstitious. Last year, just past midnight after opening day, I started a thread on another message board gloating about the Dodgers' victory -- only 161 games left! -- and they played into the post-season. Anyway, that's my excuse.
The Dodgers faced the Padres, a team that could lose more than 100 games in the National League's worst division. But they beat Jake Peavy for only the second time, the first since 2003.
I'd be fine babbling to myself in this thread for the next seven months, believe me. But all are welcome to post -- even American League fans.
Roberta and Bruce root for the Reds, who lost a squeaker at home, where opening day began and still does. I see that many pundits pick them second in the Central Division behind the Cubs.
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Roberta
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Post by Roberta on Apr 7, 2009 12:15:18 GMT -8
Thank you Brian for sharing that the baseball season has traditionally begun with the Reds, as the world's first professional baseball team. (They had to have someone to sell all that beer to. And in Cincy they still sell beer seat-side, and laughed when I asked in which inning sales ceased. This was the case a few years ago anyway, I'll update my info this summer when I'm back for a family reunion.)
But that beloved (by me) tradition has fallen by the wayside. In fact, this year I believe there may have been a game the night before so-called "opening day." Along with the DH, wildcards, artificial turf and interleague play, a blight on the game. And probably harder to correct at this point than war as a foreign policy ...
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 9, 2009 23:03:32 GMT -8
But that beloved (by me) tradition has fallen by the wayside. In fact, this year I believe there may have been a game the night before so-called "opening day." The first major league game of the season Sunday night totally escaped my attention. I didn't really check until after you posted, Roberta, but indeed the Phillies lost to the Braves before the Cincinnati Reds took the field for the earliest game on what used to be opening day. I had gotten swept up in the giddiness of a story I read on the Reds' website, which detailed how the city celebrates every year -- more lunchtime beer drinking than St. Patrick's Day in Boston -- and didn't mention the loss of their unique, century old distinction. I truly appreciate the correction, because baseball is built upon verifiable, indisputable facts. I may not even be able to converse with about policy and politics with the kind of right-wingers who shove straw men down slippery slopes, but I could argue baseball with them while agreeing upon what's true. It's also true that the Dodgers split the four games in San Diego. It's only arguable that's a good outcome, given their losing record there against most Padre teams in both parks throughout the decades. Next they play the Snake Team in a state that doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time. I'll pick up the game in progress after Friday night's vigil on the corner.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 12, 2009 21:34:06 GMT -8
I looked it up after Roberta and I spoke on the corner Friday, and the Cincinnati Reds indeed retain the distinction of being the only team to always open their season at home.
Good thing I didn't post about the Dodgers that night. They were leading the Snake Team when I turned off the ignition, then James McDonald fell apart as soon as I turned on the TV, on his way to a bitter 9-4 loss. But they redeemed themselves to take the last two games of the series.
Every game is important but stats and records mean little in April. Still, I'm strangely satisfied that the Dodgers are only a game out of first place in the National League West -- and one and a half ahead of the Hated Ones -- after the first week of the season.
The Giants will grace Chavez Ravine for the Home Opener Monday afternoon, marking the 23rd consecutive year I have to miss it.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Apr 13, 2009 23:00:31 GMT -8
11-1!
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Post by Brian on Apr 18, 2009 23:00:13 GMT -8
Of course, I have to note that the Los Angeles Dodgers have won seven games in a row -- until Saturday, mostly without Manny's help. The young rookie arms are pitching well. Every player, even those from the bench, are hitting. Then there's the defense, especially the middle infield of O-Dog and Furball. Certainly, it helps that the rest of the National League West teams -- except for the Padres, who'd a-thunk it -- are sucking. But the Dodgers are tied for the best record in baseball, except for the Fish Team.
Because of television, I've seen a lot of innings since Wednesday, soothed by Vin Scully's voice yet a little perplexed at all the empty seats. Attendance in Chavez Ravine peaked at 45,000 for the first five games. Yesterday, the field box sections by both bullpens were empty. The Dodgers only play seven home games in April, the fewest of any team, and the weather's beautiful. Is it the economy?
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Post by Brian on Apr 19, 2009 23:03:22 GMT -8
Geez, eight in a row. 14 to 2. The Padres lost, giving the Dodgers sole possession of first place -- and the second best record in all of baseball, behind the incredible Marlins, two weeks into the season.
Only 41,000 tickets were sold in Chavez Ravine Sunday, so fewer showed up. To amend yesterday's post: Dodger Stadium set a record attendance Opening Day of more than 57,000, but they didn't sell 46,000 the rest of the homestand, despite the weather, all those wins and Manny. Again, WTF with that?
I wanted to go but I'm just too tired from work. Needing to celebrate, I searched for the original 1984 video of Randy Newman's "I Love L.A." unsuccessfully, due to copyright restrictions. Instead, here's a broadcast quality concert appearance from 2006 with a lot of polite Germans who clearly have no enthusiasm for Victory Boulevard:
I remember discussing what a weird choice it was to play that song after every home victory with my friend Don when they started it years ago. You can read the lyrics on the right field scoreboard: Look at the bum over there/Man, he's down on his knees. But who better to convey the Chandler-esque -- meaning Raymond, not Otis or Dorothy -- image of our city into the new century than Randy Newman, the master of both delicious and bitter ironies?
Somehow it's caught on. Those few fans who stay until the end of the game now sing along and shout "We love it!" to the original recording. However, not as much in the bleachers, even after the Dodgers' only win against the Phillies in the National League Championship Series last autumn:
I love L.A.
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anni
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Post by anni on Apr 21, 2009 5:24:26 GMT -8
I believe my Monday was better because I read Brian's thread before school, and again, just now!!! I love L.A.
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Post by Brian on Apr 23, 2009 0:02:55 GMT -8
I have previously stated and re-affirmed my man crush on Vin Scully on this here blog, and when he does either decide to retire completely or shuffle off the mortal coil, it will be a great loss to baseball and sport. He has garnered a 95% approval rating in Deadspin’s Media Approval Ratings, and if you don’t like Vin Scully calling a baseball game all by his lonesome, serving as PBP-er and color man at the same time, you also dislike apple pie and America, you filthy pinko Commie.An extreme view, maybe, which I ran into while searching for a photo of Vin. And that blogger detests the Dodgers. Vin Scully was discussed after Tuesday's Curveball vigil. Someone Who Shall Remain Nameless -- not that there is any right or wrong regarding taste, but because she's so counter to the rest of the human race who have an opinion -- finds Vinny too sentimental and trivial in his broadcasts, and those who play their radios at the stadium downright annoying. (Which should be less prevalent in recent years because they only simulcast him for the first three innings, right?) I was born in Los Angeles only a few days after the team came here from Brooklyn, so Vinny's voice has been everywhere, from the workbenches in the open garages during summer evenings to earphones plugged into smuggled transistor radios at school in September and, hopefully, early October. But I didn't really start to appreciate him until I worked downtown at a newspaper during the 1981 season and tuned in KABC-AM to plot my drive around Dodger Stadium. He drew me into Fernandomania and the strike-shaped World Series win. Every year since, I count as a miracle that he chooses to give us. Vin can call them all: the record-setting moment, the play neither he nor you have seen before, the horrific fifth inning ten-run blow out as well as the 17-inning marathon. Every April, we're reminded that he's our last living connection to Jackie Robinson. Maybe the guy with the man crush said it better. But to me, it's more like the love of my whole life.
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Post by anni on Apr 23, 2009 17:12:33 GMT -8
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