2001

Even in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001 I couldn't really make myself root for the Yankees. I don't suppose there is any reason why I should have rooted for the Yankees, but back then the often reviled city of New York had suddenly become a America's city, and I think rightly so. There was talk of having a Super Bowl in New York back then, though sadly nothing ever came of that. People started wearing NYFD and NYPD hats, in solidarity I guess. And the three-time defending champion Yankees seemed a little less objectionable. A possible fourth title in a row didn't seem quite as obnoxious in the aftermath of that dreadful September morning and the weeks of rubble and mourning that followed.

When Yankee fans talk about their recent dynasty the year 2001 is always included. They speak of the 1996-2001 years. There may be some who include 2003 in a desperate attempt to spin out the dynasty a little longer, and other might just go on playoff appearances and maintain that it has never ended ( until this year ) but I don't think they ever leave 2001 out of the dynasty years. I think those comeback wins in New York off of Byung-Hyun Kim mean too much for 2001 to be excluded. I can't put myself in that place, though. Of being a person directly and personally affected by the attacks, and returning to baseball as a kind of refuge of normalcy and hope, and seeing my heros Captain Jeter and Brosius and Tino hitting all those clutch home runs and winning those dramtic games in New York --- I don't know what those November nights were really like. It's a strange combination, really, of real life tragedy and heroism mixed in with pretend baseball heroism and tragedy. It all happened so close together. Sometimes we make sports mean too much, but maybe this was a time when sports meant more precisely because we had seen so vividly how insignificant it could be. A sobering perspective should, in time, magnify the small joys of life.

The Yankees are finished for this year. Torre escaped just in time, maybe. Even though he has a worse record with his new team than his replacement has in New York, Torre is going to come out of this looking pretty good as long as the Dodgers hang on in their awful division. I would say he's been pretty lucky. As for the team he left behind they have been unlucky, with injuries and un-clutch hitting and failing prospects and living in the toughest division and league in baseball being the main culprits. But it was also probably time for the Yankees to miss the playoffs. New York fans will be able to savor again how truly special it is to make the playoffs next year when they make it, as I expect they will.

Right now Dodger fans seem to be hooked into the "every-other-year" playoffs plan. This is not as swanky as the "every-year-dammit" plan Yankee fans had until now but it's a hell of a lot better than the plan Pirates fans have right now. I just hope Torre and Manny can upgrade the experience of the playoffs if the Dodgers make it.

3.5 Games Up

The next time I feel like complaining about some shaky performance by Broxton I ought to ask a Snakes fan what they feel about their closer. They have cause to complain. I think we Dodger fans sometimes don't realize how good we have it when it comes to relievers.

Eugenio Velez beat the Snakes today in the bottom of the ninth. My wife and I call him Honest Abe because we think he bears a mild resemblance to Abe Lincoln. His face is kind of the right shape, and his little beard thing with no mustache also adds to the effect. I just hope Honest Abe is honest about his limited hitting skills when he plays the Dodgers and refrains from any late-game heroics. I wouldn't want to have my defense of Broxton put to the test by a late Giants rally led by a fringe hitter, after all.

Though Broxton may not be the closer by the time the Dodgers are playing the Giants again. Saito seems ready to come off the DL soon. I look forward to Saito's first save back, when he breaks into his great grin and then Manny runs in from the outfield and gives him a bear hug. I just hope Saito is all the way ready when he returns.

There is still time for the Snakes to ride a hot-streak past the Dodgers, but it's going to be tough for them since they don't play the Dodgers at all again. The only thing I worry about is the Dodgers collapsing on the road. They've taken two of three in San Diego but Colorado is something else again Pittsburgh is in an evil non-Vinny time zone. Not that having someone other than Vinny announce games should influence how the Dodgers play, but it makes the losses even harder to bear when they come in an early game narrated by Steiner and Lyons.

I like Steiner's enthusiasm but I also feel like he has yet to really grow fully into the job. That's a problem since he's already pretty old and unlikely to get any better. Steiner is like Casey Blake, in that he's solid but his game has also has some holes and he's never going to suddenly become a revelation of excellence like Ethier. And Vinny is like Manny without all the strange baggage. It would be nice if we had a young announcer backing up Vinny who could be compared to Ethier or Kemp in potential but what I really want is Ross Porter back.

83-79

If I am at once optimistic and realistic, I guess I think the Dodgers will finish the season 83-79. This is realistic because the Dodgers are a slightly better than average team, and those sorts of teams tend to end up with a slightly better than average record. This is optimistic because I assume the Dodgers won't just collapse down the stretch.

I think I will be happier if I just accept that the Dodgers are an 83 win team. Then events such as last night's 4-3 loss become bearable. Then watching gameday as Broxton gives up a lead-off double and threatens to give up a 3-1 lead feels like a natural part of things. That sweep of the Phllies was an aberration. An abomination, Phillies fans would say. The Phillies will have a chance to set things right when the Dodgers visit Philadephia. That 4 game series will start a 10 game road trip that, according to prophesy, is supposed to sink the Dodgers postseason hopes.

There is another side to this postseason thing, though. A loophole in the prophesy of doom. The Snakes also have to hold up their end of it. I'm through overestimating them. After a month of this season I thought they were a very good team and that was a lie. I'm also through underestimating them. They have a good rotation and Adam Dunn and a few other guys who can hit a home run. I guess I'm just through estimating them. I don't know what the Snakes will do. But let's not pretend that they are better than they are. They are still capable of losing a lot of games. My goal for them is 80 losses, since I want the Dodgers to make the playoffs. I think in a division as bad as the NL West this year it is appropriate to make this kind of goal. The winner of this division will be the worst playoff team in the majors by far, so let's not pretend the Dodgers can do anything but back into the playoffs anyway. The goal I set for them getting in should reflect that.

Broxton just struck out the side to win the game for the Dodgers. I've been a longtime defender of Broxton's, but two more blown saves and I'm going to retire from that vocation. If he blows two more saves then the next time someone says he just doesn't have what it takes to be a closer I'll just nod sympathetically. Maybe I'll throw in something like, "yeah, he's just an eighth inning guy."

So only one out of three from the Rockies. A really good team would take at least two of the three. The one that hurt was last night's loss. That was my new nominee for most depressing game of the season. Not most heartbreaking, mind. Just depressing. Billingsley struggled with his control, but he fought for six innings and only gave up two runs. Could have been just one. And they wasted it. His performance last night reminded me of his rookie season when he maintained a 3.8 ERA with a strikeout to walk ratio of 1:1 by pitching so much better with runners on base. He was so clutch last night. And they wasted it! Kicked it away with bad defense and bad at bats and shaky relief pitching. Juan Pierre even struck out twice. You know it's not your night when Peavy can't hold a 4-0 lead and Juan Pierre can't even make contact. That's your one skill at the plate, man! You have to come through with it.

The Snakes need to lose 20 more times to reach my goal for them. I'm worried they're not going to make it. Their hitters need to really step up and strike out even more than they already do. The pen needs to blow a few more saves. It's going to be tough with Webb and Haren in the rotation but I have faith that the Snakes can make it to 80 losses.

How does that protection thing work again?

I didn't even know that about the Kent v Scully thing until I read Dodger Thoughts. Well, I knew Scully was saying things about how Kent was doing batting in front of Manny. But I didn't know Kent was complaining about it to TJ Simers. I wonder who started it? Did Simers smell blood and see if he could stir something up, or did Kent go to Simers on his own and complain about Scully?

After about the third time Vinny mentioned Kent's success batting ahead of Manny, my wife asked me why it would matter. She's been following baseball for four years, and she knows quite a lot about it now, but there are still traditional bits of baseball lore and knowledge that are unfamiliar to her.

"Well," I say, in answer to her protection question, "the pitcher doesn't want to walk Jeff Kent, because that would put someone on base for Manny Ramirez. Therefore Kent will see more strikes."

She considers this, then says, "But if he sees more strikes, won't he get more hits, and get on base more that way?"

"Um, well, the pitcher isn't thinking about that. He just doesn't want to walk him."

"That doesn't make sense."

Indeed. It was a lame answer, in explanation of a lame theory. I don't much believe in protection myself, so I wasn't trying to defend it as much as explain it. If in fact pitchers have changed their approach to limit Kent getting on base in front of Manny then it has been a miserable failure. He's getting on base a lot more than before. Another thing: I've seen Kent chase after bad stuff before. He's not always the most patient guy up there. Why would any pitcher worry primarily about walking Kent, about making sure he threw strikes? That's just asking for trouble with Manny coming up next. If anything I would expect Kent to hit worse with Manny on deck, because pitchers were so zeroed in on getting him out. I would expect Kent to see fewer strikes.

Maybe the protection theory is that pitchers will throw mostly balls to Kent, until the count gets to something like 3-1, whereupon suddenly they have to worry about the walk and they groove a fastball that Kent can crush. But how many of Kent's recent hits have come with three balls?

It did appear that Martin was messed up batting in front of Manny. But I don't know that one thing had anything to do with the other. Hitters get messed up from time to time during the season. They start pressing, chasing bad stuff, watching hittable fastballs go by and swinging at outside curveballs. ( Or is the theory of the pressing hitter just another myth? ) In any case, Martin seems to be fine now. Kent seems to be fine after injury woes and a streak of bad luck. Manny's doing great. Kemp is on fire. Ethier is so hot he's undergoing solar fusion as we speak. These guys don't need protection. They got talent.

7-5 vs. 5-1

I was dozing off when the ninth inning started yesterday. The Dodgers were up 5-1 and I was comfortable and lazy. When I did think about something it was not about who would pitch in the ninth inning for the Dodgers but about where I might have a short nap while I waited for the last load of clothes to dry.

Loney's error woke me up. But what really woke me up was my fear of Chan Ho Park. There was about a week where I fully trusted him. Those days of foolish innocence are gone. My conclusion early in the season was correct. He's a home run yielding menace. I about felt the same as Park when he hurled his glove to the ground after Braun's home run, except that I had nothing to throw. Also I liked the Dodgers chances to score in the ninth, as long as the Brewers didn't hit another home run to take the lead. Fortunately Prince Fielder capped his terrible series with a ground out and the stage was set for Golden Boy Matt Kemp and Silver Bullet Andre Ethier.

I wonder now if it was better that the Dodger game ended up 7-5 and not 5-1. That's kind of crazy talk, but it all depends on your standards I think. For Kershaw it wasn't better because he didn't get the win. For Torre it wasn't better because he had to be pensive and tense for longer than otherwise. For Park is was awful because he was further exposed as an actually terrible pitcher.

And yet that game ended up being terrifically entertaining. Horrifically entertaining there, for awhile. I was twice as happy after the 7-5 victory than I would have been after they hypothetical 5-1 victory. Game winning home runs are delightful. I want more of them. Does that mean I want more ninth inning bullpen meltdowns, though? No, no! What am I saying?

About a half minute after the home run I said to my wife, "Take that, Pierre!" This shows how petty I've become about Pierre stealing playing time from Ethier. How sad that one of my first thoughts after Ethier won the game was how it showed again how superior he is to the slap-tacular Pierre. The only advantage Pierre has over Ethier at this point is that he's faster and that Torre feels sorry for him occasionally and feels compelled to start him. I hope Pierre keeps bitching about his playing time to the press. That should dry up Torre's last bit of sympathy for Juan.

If Pierre was the Dodgers third-best outfielder then I would gladly see him start, though I would also be upset that the Dodgers third-best outfielder had no throwing arm and no power and also had an annoying batting tick where he jerked in his back elbow like a chicken just before the pitch came. But he's only fourth best, clearly inferior to Andre Ethier, which is why I've nicknamed Ethier the silver bullet because his home runs have felled the were-Pierre who used to start every game.

I've become really accustomed to the Dodgers playing well. I can't even remember the last time it felt like the team wasn't in the game. The last three losses were all tough ones that got away late. The key here is the lineup is solid from 1 to 8 most nights now, except when you-know-who starts ahead of the silver bullet. Oh yeah, and Nomar can't always start, and who knows how long he can keep up his good hitting or his health, but it's still a good lineup. Eighty-eight wins looks like a real possibility now. With the Snakes also playing well they may need that many.

Overmatched yet unbowed

By the end of the third inning it was clear that the Dodgers would not win. Cole Hamels was overpowering the Dodger lineup while Clayton Kershaw had bent under the pressure of the potent Phillie lineup. It was only good fortune that Werth had not hit a three run home run in the third inning: just a little less elevation on his deep fly out to a sprinting Kemp and the Phillies would have led 6-1 with their ace pitching and could have cruised to an easy win.

I drew up a mental plan of action for the Dodgers at the outset of the fourth inning. I had mostly given up hope that they would win, but not wishing to prematurely bury them I tried to imagine what could realistically happen to give the Dodgers a chance to pull even. It was a hard thing to imagine, given how overmatched both the offense and the pitching looked. To be sure Kershaw had struck out the side in the first inning, so even though his curveballs had yet to make more than a few cameo appearances in the strike zone there was hope here. So I thought, well, maybe he can hold the Phillies down for three scoreless innings, then turn things over to the bullpen. Kershaw is a talented pitcher; he just had to start finding the strike zone more often.

On the offensive side things were more difficult. Hamels just looked unhittable. Only a really terrific at bat by Blake had allowed the Dodgers to score at all: I was stunned and impressed when he muscled that low, tough 1-2 fastball into left center for the RBI. Hamels' one weakness is that he gives up a lot of home runs, about 1.3 per nine innings, but aside from Manny the Dodgers just don't have true home run hitters. It was harder for me to mentally write a reasonable offensive script to get the Dodgers into position for the win, so I just hoped that somehow they could score a run and bounce Hamels from the game by the eighth inning. Somehow being a failure of imagination, or a grim recongnition of how good Hamels was.

Indeed Hamels was terrific through the fifth, but Kershaw also turned his night around with a flurry of strikeouts and the rout was postponed. That is talent, but it is also character, if such a thing exists in a baseball game performance. After tonight I would like to think it does. If I am going to harbor dark thoughts about Dodger players' will to win after assorted defensive and pitcher malfunctions last weekend to drop two heart-breakers to the Giants, then I must at least allow for the opposite qualities, and celebrate them to the fullest. Kershaw gave the offense a fighting chance, a target they could reasonably aim for.

They might have got it all back against Hamels in the sixth. The entire team seemed to rise up offensively in that inning. That was the offense's moment of character. But Kent's ball was caught at the wall, and Martin's ball was snared, and only one run was scored. Nevertheless the damage was done. Hamels was mortally wounded, his arm nearly spent, and he could not remain much longer on the battlefield. He left after seven, up only one and the outcome very much in doubt. My desperately imagined plan had come to pass, and the Dodgers no longer seemed like inevitable losers. The Dodgers would go on to win 4-3, off of runs scored in the eighth and ninth innings, but it is not for those innings that I will remember this game as a great victory in 2008. It was the middle three innings, when the overmatched Dodgers turned the game around and made the comeback possible. When they played like a team full of character and the will to win and every other cliche that may not make rational sense but regardless passes through the minds of most fans. Being a fan is not a rational thing after all. What a victory, what a game to savor.

The Levels of Irrationality

If I am irrational enough to panic when the Dodgers are only 2.5 games back, then I am certainly irrational enough to think that my panic helped them turn around and get back to nearly even with the Snakes. Next time the Dodgers fall to 2 or more games back I'm sure I'll be back at it, lamenting the end of the season and calling for Torre to be fired. And I will secretly hope that the Dodgers will respond to an obscure blogger's tirade, as well as hoping that the Snakes will at the same time be intimidated into losing a few games by my ranting. Fear my run-on sentences, Orlando Hudson!

That's pretty irrational. But it's not as irrational as I could be. It's not as irrational as the Dodgers can be either. There are levels of irrationality, which I will demonstrate below, along with some enlightening commentary. The further down the list we go the more irrational things are, until the very last item when Pierre is brought in to pitch.


1. Let's bench Loney so that Danny Ardoin can play!

Ardoin's home run yesterday was the most stirring Dodger backup catcher home run since Tom Prince hit one off Brian Bohanon in 1997.

2. Let's give up on Andy LaRoche and trade for an old guy who looks like Mark Hendrickson!

Blake has hit a lot better then Hendrickson ever did, and he hasn't fallen down while playing third base yet.

3. Let's use Brian Falkenbourg in a close game and then release him a few days later!

We had to make sure releasing Falkenburg was the right thing to do.

4. Let's spell Falkenborg's name three different ways because it's too much work to look up the proper spelling!

Hey, he's no longer on the roster. Cut me some slack!

5. Let's make Manny cut his hair!

Yes, because it's always a good policy to potentially piss off your mercurial superstar over a trivial matter. It's not like he'd ever quit on a team or fake an injury or anything.

6. Let's attribute some of Manny's success to his long hair!

Damon never played as well after his caveman days.

7. Let's bench Ethier in favor of Juan Pierre!

Pierre should play because he wants it more, which he demonstrates by bitching to the press. That's called leadership!

8. Let's bench Ethier in favor of Andruw Jones!

Young players need to build character by having their spirits crushed under overwhelming unfairness. Ethier hasn't built enough character yet.

9. Let's sign Juan Pierre to a 5 year deal!

D'oh!

10. Let's give Pierre an extension!

If he's got the hubris to complain about losing playing time when Manny, Kemp and Ethier are on the team, then he's got the hubris to ask for an extension with three years left on his deal while having the worst year of his career.

11. Let's give Jones an extension!

The more years we sign him for the more likely it is he'll hit 10 home runs for the Dodgers. Eventually.

12. Let's bring in Juan Pierre to pitch in a road extra inning game when only Broxton is left in the pen because Broxton has to be saved for the potential save situation.

I hear Pierre throws a mean riseball.

13. Let's do the same as above, except in a home extra inning game.

Imagine the cheers of the crowd when Pierre was announced as the pitcher.