Various Topics on This Date, April 16th

The Latest Loan for Frank McCourt

I hate to belabor the ownership issue but how can it be avoided?  The fact that Frank McCourt had to get a loan to make payroll and expenses for another month leads me to believe that he’s living on borrowed time.  Isn’t it a situation where he’s paying his bills with a maxed out credit card?  I just shake my head when I think of it.  I guess Bud Selig can’t stop an owner from obtaining personal loans.  McCourt’s debt to Fox just grows and grows making it highly doubtful that the Dodger TV network will ever occur.

From the looks of tonight’s crowd, it appears that fans are staying away.  That can’t be encouraging to McCourt as he attempts to stay afloat financially.

The Return of Big Mac

Looking in the St. Louis dugout and seeing Mark McGwire, it reminds me of how quickly he has been forgotten.  Once the toast of baseball, he now is a baseball pariah and viewed as what was wrong with the game for a good ten-fifteen year span.  Yet, there he is, still having Tony LaRussa in his corner.  It should be mentioned that the Cardinal hitting approach has been excellent in this series and if McGwire has anything to do with the St. Louis hitting prowess of late, perhaps he’s the one of the best hitting coaches in the game.

Mark McGwire's new calling is as the Cardinal's hitting coach

Too Many Pitches

I hope the rest of the league doesn’t take this type of hitting approach when they face Kershaw.  They are simply running up his pitch count with constant defensive swings on two strike counts.   He hasn’t been able to put anyone away in the first three innings of this game, with the surprising exception of Albert Pujols.  (As I write this, the Dodgers trail the Cardinals 5-1 on the fifth inning).

I can’t figure out how Clayton can be nails against Pujols, striking him out in his first two plate appearances, but struggled trying to put away opposing pitcher McClellan.  In AB # 1, it was about 12 pitches long as McClellan fouled off pitch after pitch.  Then in his second at bat, Kershaw walked him on four pitches costing him a run in the 4th inning as the next batter Theriot belted a double just inches from the top of the wall.  More gray hairs for Mattingly.

Umpire Joe West isn't pinching him.  Kershaw is just off kilter tonight.  He finishes the night throwing 111 pitches over 5 innings, walking five and striking out five.  The Cardinals probably fouled off 25% of his offerings tonight.

Stats Driving Mattingly's Decision to Not Pull Kershaw?

Okay, it was obvious that Clayton didn't have his stuff tonight.  So after throwing 4 2/3 innings and 111 pitches, a laboring Kershaw was trying to get through the fifth inning.  Mattingly allowed him to continue and "boom," Allen Craig hits a three run homer to really pull the Cardinals ahead.  My question is "why?"  

If it was to get Clayton a possible win by going the required 5 innings - it's a dumb move.  If it was to get him to finish the inning so he could be pinch hit for in the bottom of the inning where he was scheduled to lead off - another dumb move.  There is such thing as a double switch.   Mattingly could have lifted Kershaw in the fourth and put DeJesus in at second base for Miles in the pitchers spot and then moved the reliever (MacDougal) in the 8th spot.  Anybody that played Strat-o-matic knows this.

It was also an ideal time to get DeJesus some plate appearances, something that Mattingly was just saying yesterday about DeJesus.  His need to get some work in.  I simply don't understand his failure to make these moves tonight.

These were the kind of decisions that Joe Torre made last year that would drive me crazy.  Double switch Donnie!  It's a simple double switch!

The Cardinals are Coming! The Cardinals are Coming! And they Brought the Big Bats Too.

Get out of the streets and take cover.  Balls that were struck by Cardinal bats are still in orbit as the Dodgers experienced a schalacking of epic proportions.  Even celebrating Jackie Robinson day wasn’t effective in breaking the Dodgers losing streak and here we are, April 15th, and the club is already 5.5 games behind Colorado and two games under .500.  The Dodgers lost to St. Louis tonIght 11-2 in embarrassing fashion.

The Cardinal bats woke up a few days ago in Arizona and have continued in blazing hot fashion in Dodger Stadium.  Lance Berkman and Albert Pujols homered twice tonight in spectacular fashion.  The Redbirds collected 19 hits against feeble Dodger pitching tonight in a game that they thoroughly dominated.  That is 35 hits against the Dodgers in the first two games of the series.

Newest Cardinal outfielder Lance Berkman is swinging a hot bat

It is not a great start, and it was just 4 days ago that I was feeling pretty good about this team.

Loney and Uribe continue to slump miserably as the Dodger offense has been limited to the likes of Ethier, Kemp, Carroll and Blake.  The holes in this lineup are starting to be exposed and the small sample size excuse is starting to get old as Loney already has over 50 ABs and Uribe approaches the same level.

John Garland was rocked in his 2011 debut while Jansen, Hawksworth and Cormier again failed to finish their outings without allowing additional runs to score.   The latter of the trio is quickly working his way off the roster.  It has been an ugly week for the Dodgers who hope to turn their fortunes in the winning direction with Clayton Kershaw starting on Saturday after his fantastic outing last Monday against the Giants.

Sid Borgia - A Man That Changed The Course of Dodger History

Sid Borgia

His influence in sports had to do with officiating.   Where he really made his mark was in the NBA. He officiated there from 1946-64 and then became the league’s supervisor of officials from 1964-66.  When the ABA formed, he was hired as chief of officials in the new league.  So what did this man have to do with the Dodgers?  Well its a good thing that Borgia had the memory of an elephant.

As was the case back in the 1950s, sports officials were always looking for another gig. Due to the low pay they received, ($40/game at the time),  it wasn’t inconceivable that a referee in the NBA would moonlight in the off-season as an umpire in minor league baseball.  Such was the case with Sid Borgia in 1950 as he umpired an International League game between the Dodger Triple A affiliate Montreal Royals and the Rochester Red Wings in New York.

It was a controversial game.  Borgia was really getting yelled at from the Montreal bench.  He ejected 7 players and continued to receive a barrage of insults from the bench.  Borgia recalls one individual that was particularly noticeable with his verbal assaults throughout the game.  “He didn’t know if I was Irish, Jewish, Italian or what.”  It didn’t matter though, the player was relentless with his insults towards the umpire calling Borgia every ethnic slur he could muster in his mind.  It worked, because it got under his skin, for years it turned out.   “It was Lasorda,” said Borgia.  And he’d never forget it.

Tommy Lasorda as a Montreal Royal, 1952

(Steve, Rushin, "This Zebra Turned Dodger Blue," Sports Illustrated, Oct. 22, 1990)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1136292/3/index.htm

So the years passed.  Lasorda had a fine minor league career and a few call ups to the majors.  He coached a little bit and the Dodgers signed him as a scout by the early 1960s in the Pennsylvania region.  Always looking to make a little extra money, Lasorda’s boyhood friend Earl Strom suggested that he officiate basketball games.  He took up his friend’s offer in a rough basketball circuit known as the Eastern League in Pennsylvania.  Players in this league were moonlighters that were quick to fight and give a lot of lip to officials.  Apparently, Lasorda held his own there as a referee.  Strom described it as a place where “you fought your way out of the gym every night.”

Earl Strom, NBA Hall of Fame Referee, he passed away in 1994

Figuring that if Lasorda could survive the Eastern Basketball League as an official, Strom lobbied the supervising official of the NBA to hire him.  That man, was Sid Borgia.  His eyes lit up when Lasorda’s application was brought across his desk. “Now, I’ve got him,” he thought.  “Now he can take some of the abuse that he gave me,”   Sid Borgia then set up Lasorda’s audition for the league, knowing full well he’d never pass the test he would give him.  It was a true set up for failure.

Lasorda was assigned to officiate four exhibition games between the Detroit Pistons and the Cincinnati Royals partnered with veteran referee Jim Duffy.  Duffy was a tough referee that was known to use a lot of profanity while performing his duties.  Borgia believed that teaming Duffy with Lasorda for four games, would result in a total cuss-fest.  What he knew and Lasorda didn’t know was that an influential coach in the games he would officiate would not tolerate that behavior.

Cincinnati head coach Charlie Wolfe was a religious man.  Someone that refrained from uttering the Lord’s name in vain.  He was quick to become offended by salty language.  Borgia knew all these facts.  Tagging Lasorda with foul mouthed Duffy in a game against  the puritanical Wolfe was a recipe of disaster for the wanna-be referee Lasorda.  After two games, Wolfe was on the phone to the NBA offices complaining of the “foul mouthed” referees assigned to his games. “You’ve got to get them out of here” he told Borgia, who quickly obliged his request.

Thus ended Lasorda’s career as a basketball referee.  Within a few months of this event, Al Campanis moved Lasorda to Southern California as a scout and then he slowly climbed the ladder within the organization to eventually be named manager in 1976.

Would Lasorda have taken the gig as an NBA ref in 1964 had the job been offered to him?  Absolutely he would have.  He was making next to nothing as a scout, and always the showman, Lasorda would have loved the limelight.

It is interesting all the twists and turns in life that seem inconsequential, how they can affect so many.

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More interesting notes on Sid Borgia:

He passed away in 1999, his son Joseph was an NBA official and now is an NBA Executive Vice President, in charge of Referee Operations.

Known as a pioneer in establishing the NBA, Borgia was quoted as saying that they first operated without a rule book.

"When I came into the league, they didn't have a rule book.  They handed us a college rule book and said we'd follow these rules with certain exceptions.  When it came to zone defenses, the rule said 'no zone defenses allowed.'  It was up to us to decide what was a zone.   We eventually decided that  a zone meant that a defensive player could not stand in the lane for more than three seconds, unless he was guarding someone.  The early officials were the pioneers in figuring out how this game should be called."

Terry Pluto, Tall Tales: The Glory Years of the NBA, Simon and Schuster, 1994

Last Day of the Roadie, Bring Home a Win Guys

The One that Got Away

You’ve got to give them credit.  Again, shaky defense almost did in the Giants when rookie first baseman Brandon Belt failed to cleanly field a ground ball hit right at him when he had a clear play at the plate, costing the Giants a run in the third inning.   But the defending champions fought back and grinded out a well deserved win last night coming back from a 3-0 deficit.  

Their hits off of Billingsley were not off mistakes served up by the right hander.  They were good pitches.  Bills did an excellent job keeping the ball down and Giant hitters went down and hit them.  Clutch hits by Posey, Sandoval, Belt and Rowand did in the Dodgers who were able to score three runs off of a flustered Tim Lincecum in the third inning.  

Giant relief pitching did a stellar job in mopping up as the bearded duo of Romo and Wilson shut down the Dodger bats in the 8th and 9th to close out the game.  Blake Hawksworth took the loss after allowing the go-ahead run in his lone inning of work.

Aaron Rowand scores the winning run on a wild pitch delivered by Dodger reliever Blake Hawksworth

The Dodgers close out the series and eight game home stand tonight with Ted Lilly facing Jonathan Sanchez.  A win makes the road trip a relatively successful one with the Dodgers finishing it at .500.

For the first time this season, the Dodgers will face opponents outside of the division as the Cardinals and Braves come into town for four games each.

There Will Be a 7 Footer on the Mound Tomorrow

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar tweets that he’ll be throwing out the first pitch at tomorrow’s game at Dodger Stadium:

http://twitter.com/#!/kaj33

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar delivers a "hook shot" first pitch at Dodger Stadium in 2008

Kareem is a Dodger fan dating back to the days of Brooklyn.   With tomorrow being the Lakers tribute, and the purple and gold hat giveaway, it’s appropriate.  It’ll be Jackie Robinson Night the following game at Chavez Ravine on Friday.  Last year Kareem read a tribute to the greatest Dodger of them all.  Jackie Robinson Day never gets old.  He is part of our heritage that was the greatest Dodger contributor to the game.

Krukow on Kemp

Mike Krukow as a Cub, 1970s photo

I’m on the road again and while driving to my destination this morning, I had the intriguing pleasure to listen to Giant broadcaster Mike Krukow talk about Matt Kemp.  “Up to this point in the season, he’s the best player in the league,” he said.  “Kemp is absolutely dialed in.  He’s not making the mistakes he made in previous years.  You used to be able to get him to chase pitches low and away.  He doesn’t do that any more.  He’s the real deal, his speed is an extremely dangerous weapon and the Dodgers are in this thing for good.  Kemp is a big reason for that.  He’s an amazing player,” concluded Krukow.  Of course he added, the season is only 11 games old, which is an excellent point.

Matt Kemp, "The best player in the league" so far, according to Krukow

Needless to say, I almost drove my car in a ditch from the shock of hearing him say something positive about a Dodger.  Good for you Mike, I know it must have hurt a lot to say what you did.

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Lastly, on the day that Barry Bonds was found guilty of obstruction of justice, and the jury hangs on 3 perjury charges, I can't help but be glad that we'll probably hear the last of Bonds for a while.  This story started brewing in 2003.   It took eight years to get to a verdict?  Talk about anti-climatic.

A Show of Solidarity Against Violence

Jamey Carroll addresses the fans last night at AT&T Park

A Show of Solidarity

In a plea to fans from both sides, Giants and Dodgers players met on the field in pre-game ceremony to express their concern and support for Bryan Stow and to implore their fans to restrain from engaging in violent conduct towards each other.  (I  was going to attach my video footage that I filmed from the ballpark last night, but technical difficulties failed to allow me to upload it.  That was probably for the best since it was my amateurish video account from my I-phone that was akin to The Blair Witch Project when it comes to the camera steadiness factor).  

Jeremy Affeldt takes the michrophone in pre-game ceremony

The Giants Troubles

I reiterate it again.  This Giant team is really awful defensively.  A productive strategy for any team that faces them is to simply put the ball in play.  This time, Pat Burrell, Freddie Sanchez and Miguel Tejada played roles in giving up over 3 runs to the blue.  Even when they picked off Kemp, San Francisco failed to execute the play to record the out.  Pat Burrell misplayed Kemp’s single in Aubrey Huffesque fashion, resulting in a couple of runs.  In all seriousness though, it should be noted that if it weren’t for two Ryan Franklin meltdowns over the weekend, the Giants would be staring at a 2-8 record.  They should feel fortunate that their record is 4-6.  It is very early, but certainly this is an ominous start for the defending champs.

Many may be blaming the Giants poor start to the amount of distractions to start the season.  First it was “banner gate” in L.A., followed by being shut down by Kershaw and Billingsley.  Then was the Bryan Stow situation.  They return home to Opening day, raising the pennant, followed the next day by the ring ceremony and then last night, the pre-game Uribe ceremony followed by the meeting with the Dodgers in a sign of non-violence solidarity.  That’s a lot of extracurriculars.  I think they simply just want the normal season to begin without all the pre-game events.

Giants first baseman Brandon Belt

As great as he looked in the opening series, Brandon Belt looked lost out there last night.  The kid appears to have the makings of a fantastic future and his plate discipline was impressive in the first four games, but Kershaw simply blew him away with three straight fastballs last night, (the last showing on the stadium radar gun at 95).  Belt’s line after 39 plate appearances is .143 avg., .231 obp, .257 slg., .488 ops, 1 HR, 4 RBI.  I hope he sticks with the big club because keeping him in the lineup means that Huff and Burrell share the outfield at the same time.

Giant players decide to give Uribe his World Series Ring in a public display on the field after overriding Giant management that earlier in the day announced that it would be done privately.

Same Old Raffy, Snake Bit Again

Furcal is out again.  It’s easy to understand his frustration.  He will probably be disabled 6 weeks due to a broken left thumb that he suffered on the stolen base when he slid head first into third last night.  This might not be such a horrible turn of events for the club in the long term since now it’ll be nearly impossible for him to have 600 plate appearances, which would invest an automatic option and guarantee him another $12 million for next year.   So now the question is: who is called up?

Ivan DeJesus Jr. is the obvious choice, but do the Dodgers dare attempt to call up Dee Gordon and see how he does?  Gordon would be a risky move and the fan base would need to be patient with him as he makes errors of enthusiasm.  It’s probably not the right time as he needs additional grooming at the Triple A level, but the idea is intriguing.  Fortunately the club has a lot of options at the position with Uribe, Carroll, DeJesus, and Gordon all possible replacements.

I would guess that DeJesus gets called up and we see a constant lineup with Carroll at second, Uribe at shortstop and Blake at third.  To my surprise, Uribe covered the position relatively well last year in San Francisco, and he has a UZR of a respectable +3.4 over his career at the position.

Clayton Kershaw greets Rod Barajas at the plate following Barajas' solo homer  to left field in the Dodgers 6-1 victory over the Giants on April 11, 2011.

Kershaw a Giant Killer

Clayton Kershaw has now put up zeroes in 26 consecutive frames against the Giants.  Is there any better way to win over the Dodger fan base than to thoroughly dominate the San Francisco Giants?  I think not.  I believe that’s why Paul LoDuca was initially so popular, he started out something like 24 for 20 against the Giants, (OK, slight exaggeration).

Not as thoroughly dominating as his opening day start, Kershaw still took charge nonetheless.  Key strikeouts against young Giant phenoms Brandon Belt  and Buster Posey were impressive bringing the oohs and ahs to a crescendo at AT&T Park last night.  

Welcome Back Uribe...You’ve Been Served & Words of Wisdom from Giant Executive

Dodger infielder Juan Uribe (Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Juan Uribe returns to his old stomping grounds to the public disclosure that his former landlord is filing suit against him in the amount of $145,000.  According to the San Francisco Chronicle Matier and Ross article, a fish fry gone awry caused a kitchen fire that not only destroyed the kitchen cabinets in the unit, but kicked on the sprinkler system and flooded other units in the condominium complex.  It is reported that Uribe promised to pay for repairs and then failed to meet that obligation.

link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/11/BAHT1IT9FT.DTL

San Francisco Giants President Larry Baer reported today on San Francisco KNBR radio that Uribe will be given his championship ring in private.

“It’s the same thing we’ll do with Edgar Renteria.  It’s not so much that we don’t want them to get their due.  They were fabulous Giants, and both Juan and Edger had huge  roles last year...It’s just everybody felt, Boch, Brian, and everybody felt that we could do it respectfully.  There’s gonna be a delegation of Giants that’ll go and search out Juan.  We’ll set it up and it’ll be respectful as it will be with Edgar.  And we’ll capture it (on video), so we can show it to the fans, but we just think, on the field, right before we’re out to win a game is just a little bit awkward.”

San Francisco Giants Executive, Team President, Larry Baer (Harris Barton Photos/Peter Marcus Photography)

Baer added that for tonight’s game, security will be extremely tight and when it was suggested that Giant fans reach out and shake a Dodger fans hands tonight, he had this to say to the radio show hosts:

“I think you’ll find, (and we encourage people to come early tonight),  that there will be something along those lines on the field tonight, and that’s exactly the tone we want to strike and the message we want to send today.  Look, booing is fine, as Kruk said, booing is fine and even the ‘Beat LA’ chant, that’s traditional and fine.  But please understand that this is a game and the Giant Dodger rivalry...I want to say something about that rivalry.  

“Remember when the Giants almost moved to Florida in 1993?  There was...and again, this shows off the field what the Giants and Dodgers sort of mean to each other.  There was no more active participant in saving the Giants in San Francisco, outside the Bay Area, than Peter O’Malley of the Dodgers.  Why? Because the Giants and Dodgers are rivals.  You know what?  In many ways, they are just two peas in a pod.  They moved out together in ’58, the rivalry is part of what makes baseball great and in some ways, the Giants and Dodgers need each other for the strength of the game and strength of the fan delirium that we’ve had over the years.  Think of all the great years we’ve had and the great moments we’ve had.  Whether it was Joe Morgan’s home run or the Dodgers, when they’ve had moments when they knocked us out.  It's one of the great parts of this game and we can’t allow one or two incidents to mar that.”

Amen to that Mr. Baer.  I'll be there tonight, with my grandson.  We'll be wearing neutral colors...just in case

Random Thoughts, April 9, 2011

What is it with San Diego and the MLB Package?

It seems that season after season, the games against the Padres are often not available on the MLB package.  Does anyone know why?  Again tonight, not the suspended game or the regularly scheduled game.

Who am I to complain though?  When I was a kid the only games on were road games against the Giants from Candlestick and some other “special occasion” games if the team was in a pennant race.  We are so spoiled today that if we can’t get all 162 games on TV we complain.

Remember when Walter O’Malley refused to permit televised home games?   It would be a real treat if we got a home game on KTTV at the end of the season.  Of course it would only happen if the game was a complete sell out.  Now those were special games to watch.

Now here I am griping about not being able to watch a regular season game a mere seven games in to the season.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

I was looking forward to attending the Giants Dodgers game that I have tickets for this Monday, April 11th, but I have been warned that there will be an element at AT&T Park that is seeking revenge.  For the first time ever, I am contemplating not attending.  At first I just decided myself to go without any blue on and no Dodger baseball cap.  Now I’m not sure I want to attend at all.

I have been told by some that attended the Giant opening day on Friday that there is serious talk amongst some to seriously give Dodger fans a hard time.  I have always enjoyed the friendly banter with Giant fans over the years.  I certainly don’t want things to return to the Candlestick Park days.  I was a lot younger than I am now when I used to brave the Candlestick crowd in a Dodger cap.  I’m too old for those shenanigans again.

Disrespecting the Duke

After Duke Snider died in late February.  There were some very dignified articles and posts circulating throughout the internet.  Over at Dodger Thoughts, Jon Weisman noted that Bay Area media had virtually ignored the news of Snider’s death and that it was hardly even noticed over on Giant blogs and message boards.  Not that it was a big deal, it was just noticeable.

My son returned from the Giants home opener and related to me that the public address announcer acknowledged many former Giants, name by name, as they recognized their first World Series Championship in San Francisco.   The Duke, who finished his career as a Giant in 1964, was one of those players announced.  When his name was heard, it was received by a resounding chorus of boos.  Never mind that he has been dead a mere 42 days.

Stay classy San Francisco.

Curtailing the Booze at Games

A decision by the Dodgers to not offer the half-price beer for 6 games this season is definitely a wise one.  The fact that they are considering cutting off beer sales even earlier would be the correct move too.  As a non-drinker, if it were up to me, there wouldn’t be any alcohol served at games.  That’s just me.  I know I’m in the minority on this topic.  But with the recent events and overwhelming agreement that an ugly violent element has arrived at Dodger Stadium crowds, how can my point of view not be seriously considered?

I’ll never understand the attraction to getting liquored up in order to enjoy a sporting event.  Is it a macho thing?  Someone, please explain to me why it is so important to have 4-5 beers while watching a game.  It can’t be because it makes you understand the action any clearer.  It can’t be because it makes you feel any better about your team.  Surely it doesn’t make you a more attentive or loving parent at the “family” event you are attending.  It certainly makes you miss more of the action due to the required bathroom breaks.  I don’t get it.  I guess I have underestimated the power of attractive advertising because beer commercials are definitely the most creative out there.

Comments from the Last Post Appreciated

A heartfelt "thank you" to those that expressed such kind words on my post yesterday.  They meant a lot.