01 April 2009

Lost Spring

This is a my April Fool's joke. A post on the blog that never gets new posts any more.

It's been a lost spring training for Dodgerama. That's all I can say. My wife and I have bought a house, and between moving and unpacking and getting the massive garden ready there just hasn't been time to write about the Dodgers' spring training adventures. This is not any great loss, I will admit. Dodger Thoughts and the rest of the Dodger blogs have Spring Training scoped out from every angle.

I've seen one Dodger game this spring. Part of one. It was bonus coverage on Prime Ticket using the Fox Sports NW feed, so I didn't even get a Dodger announcer. But I saw Manny hit his so far only home run of spring, and I got to see Kershaw mowing down Mariner batters, so I picked the right few innings to see Dodger action, I guess. The only way it could have been better is if Kemp hit a triple or something.

I've never been able to get into spring training. You know how the final innings of a blowout game have no edge to them? Every inning of spring training is like that. Spring training is like All-Star game snub controversies. You know how those things go --- people act like it matters and have fun with it but then forget it like it never happened the day after the All-Star game. The truth is no one ever refers to anything that happened in spring training once the regular season starts.

Do you believe that? It's not true, even though I want it to be true. Make a top ten list of memorable Dodger events from 1986 and Pedro Geurerro's disastrous spring training slide has to be on it. I don't think Kershaw's "public enemy number one" strike three curve ball looking last spring would crack a 2008 top ten, but it sure was memorable. People have noted that the first signs of Andruw awfulness to come were evident in spring training last year. So --- I guess I am forced to admit that spring training really does matter, at least a little bit. Yeah, I have missed something, even if I'd like to tell a different story about what's gone on the last few weeks.

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