All For the Marbles, Part I

On “Do or Die Friday” the Dodgers put their ace on the mound before the whining St. Louis Cardinals and their fans who seem to be obsessed with the fact that it is somehow unprofessional for a team to celebrate when they do something well on the field.  That is unless they themselves are doing the celebrating, of course.

Never have I lost so much respect for an organization in such a short period of time as with the Cardinals organization that has essentially self-annointed themselves as the “class of baseball.”  All to which I say, “phooey!”  Their fans and players have been whining since day one of this series.  They have shown a complete misunderstanding of the modern game and they could really use an education in cultural differences as well when you consider their comments on Puig.  There is also a serious hypocritical slant to their words and actions as well.

St. Louis has had a lot more to celebrate this series than the Dodgers, and they haven’t backed off from dancing, fist pumping, elevating arms and hip gyrations from game one on.  Yet, not a word of complaint has been uttered from the Dodger dugout because they understand that is part of the game.  All you need to do is look at the highlight clips and such Cardinal players as Molina, Carpenter, Kelly, Wacha, Rosenthal, Freese and others that have engaged in celebratory activity that isn’t any less boisterous than that of the Dodgers.

I really wanted to avoid this topic altogether, due to the silliness of it, but it hasn’t gone away and Bob Nightengale's USA Today columnn today really took the cake.   Where do the Cardinals get off at crowning themselves as the authors of the un-written rules of baseball?  They come off as whiners and cry-babies.  Perhaps they can use those white towels they waive to wipe away their tears tonight.

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The Dodgers present a starting lineup void of shortstop Hanley Ramirez, who probably can’t loosen up enough to play in this cold weather which is said to dip into the fifties and perhaps upper fourties tonight.   This broken rib condition is something that will probably shut down Ramirez for the remainder of post season play.   Additionally there is a 30% chance of showers.  So it’ll be Clayton Kershaw trying to keep the Cardinals off the scoreboard, with hopes that the Dodgers can put up two or three runs.  That should be enough to hold them off, but you never know how this crazy game will play out.

So grab your rabbit’s foot, rosary beads, or anything thing that you deem worthy of providing good fortune to the L.A. nine tonight.  This one promises to be a real nail-biter.  Wouldn’t have it any other way.
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UPDATE:  Hanley Ramirez has been inserted into the Dodger lineup.  Apparently he has loosened up and been swinging the bat in the batting cages underneath the stadium.  A very interesting development.