Category Archives: Los Angeles Dodgers

Dodgers & the New York Yankees!

Posted on October 18, 2017 | 5 comments

Be honest. Aren’t most of you secretly hoping for a Dodger/Yankee World Series?  After all, baseball is about a whole lot of memories and what better ones to share than those of  Ebbets Field and Yankee Stadium.  I didn’t come of baseball age until the early 1950’s so I may have a tainted view of what constitutes a valid baseball memory, but believe me, the Dodgers and Yankees are right at the top.

The Yankees have won the most World Series in history and it’s not even close.  They’ve won  participated in 40 while their closest contender, the SF Giants (okay New York Giants if you’re an oldie) is second with only 20.  But no matter.  I have different thoughts on who should even be in the playoffs.  Back in those days there was only the American League and the National League.  No Divisions.  That was it.  So the team that won the most games in each league were the Pennant Winners and automatic World Series participants.

And isn’t that the way is should still be?  Good grief.  It’s bad enough having really bad Division Winners being able to compete for the Pennant.  Some teams under .500 can still compete for the Pennant depending on how bad the rest of the division is.  And forget about the Wild Card.  The only possible reason for having that competition is for gate receipts and MONEY.  MLB is good at that.  They’re running unbelievable ads during the playoffs trying to get kids, I mean 8 and 9 year olds, sucked into buying MLB products online.  MLB.com?  That’s what’s happening, reminiscent of Wheaties and Cheerios ads in the old days.  Get ’em while they’re young.  And that merchandise is expensive.  How can the average joe afford to buy this stuff for his kids?

I digress.  The teams with the best records in MLB for any given season should be the Pennant Winners for each League and they alone should advance to the World Series.  And there should be NO INTER-LEAGUE PLAY DURING THE SEASON.  Inter-league play undermines the Divisions.  How can you say the best team in any Division is one or the other if they’re all playing each other during the regular season.  That’s what the World Series is supposed to determine.

So here it is.  The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Houston Astros – 2017 Pennant Winners.  That’s the way it should be. (Well, actually Houston was one off from the most league wins but they’re there so we’ll leave it alone.)

World Series winner to be determined.

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in A1 Baseball, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees

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Oh Those Lowly Dodgers ……..

Posted on September 5, 2017 | Leave a comment

Baseball Surprises!

Recently, I asked my brother-in-law if he thought the Dodgers would be able to put together 100 wins this season.   It seemed a given, but they’ve lost 9 of their last 10 games and it reminds me of the 2008 season when the first place San Diego Padres lost 10 in a row in the last month of the season to allow the Giants to win the division, and eventually the World Series.

I know.  I get it.  Us Giants fans are supposed to hate the Dodgers so we’re always cheering for their demise, but I’m older and have a different perspective.  Back in the 1950’s when there were only 16 MLB teams, the closest being located in the Midwest, you had to be a Dodger or Yankee fan, but you couldn’t be both.  I was torn because Mickey Mantle was my hero.  But the Dodger’s were generally considered the underdog, so they had to be my team.

When the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers moved West it changed everything.   West Coast fans were of course delighted.  Since I was an Oregonian at the time the closest MLB team was now San Francisco Giants.  And that’s how it’s been since 1958, when I got to watch my first live pro baseball game between the Giants & Dodgers at Seal Stadium.

I may be the only Giants fan who’s delighted in watching  Yasiel Puig, the snot nosed rookie from Cuba, dive in over his head to become a bonafide contender against the odds.  And it wasn’t because he didn’t have the talent, he did.  But his attitude stunk up the place and we generally cheered for his demise. His numbers aren’t all that great even now, but I still pay attention when he’s at bat.  And then there’s Kershaw.  If we could have him and the D’Backs Goldschmidt we could easily be back in the saddle again.   But “what ifs” are for Fantasy players.

So this morning’s Wall Street J0urnal published a great article by Jared Diamond bringing up some memories of the 2001 Mariners and comparing that team to the current Dodgers in their win/loss record.  The semblance is striking and should make the Dodgers a bit nervous about their chances in this year’s playoffs.

After the awful season the Giants have put us through this year, I’m going to root for the Dodgers and hope I can get some sort of satisfaction through them.  I’ll just pretend it’s 1958 and start all over again.

 

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Posted in A1 Baseball, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners

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Question for You Boche!

Posted on April 28, 2017 | Leave a comment

Why in the world was Michael Morse warming the bench in the 9th inning Thursday night?  Or in the 10th inning?  We’re getting used to it really, because there’s always some silly reason you know?  Like the DL injuries up the kazoo, just having an off-night, they outplayed us, outpitched us or we just plain stunk up the place.

But Thursday night was different.  Michael Morse was a Giant again, something I’ve been waiting for since the day he left.  So when he suited up at Spring Training this year there was hope.  Hope there wouldn’t be another really, really lousy year like last year.  Because now we really didn’t care if we had a really bad bullpen.  We had a power hitter.  Again.

So the line-up is announced on Opening Day and guess what?  Michael Morse isn’t in it. And it’s okay.  We’re getting used to it, remember?  But Wednesday night was different because he was back wearing a Giants uniform.  Ahhh, still hope.  And he didn’t let us down.

So Thursday night I would have been really anxious with the score tied  bottom of the 9th, but I knew Morse was in the wings and at least this time we had a chance.  It would be okay.  And we waited and waited and …… still waiting.

So I’m wondering why Michael Morse wasn’t called off the bench in the 9th inning. And I’ll bet there are thousands of other fans wondering the same thing.   No big deal. Just curious, that’s all.

 

 

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Posted in A1 Baseball, A1 Baseball, General, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants

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The “Supposed” Agony of Defeat

Posted on October 14, 2016 | 2 comments

Let’s face it.  How many of us really believed the Giants were going to make it to the 2016 Playoffs?  You’d have to be the eternal optimist to even suspect there might be a chance after the disastrous play the last half of the season.  I mean, really, the team went 0 for 60 in games where they were behind in the 8th inning. That must be an all-time record.   Sure, there were some bright spots and there’s always hope in baseball, but really?

bochy-citifieldWe know how to win.  And this was our time, being an even year and all.  The year started out with a bang and we had the rest of the baseball world believing it too, with our best record in major league baseball at the All Star Break.   So when the bottom fell out in the 5th game of the NLDS we were in shock and disbelief and we were angry.  My anger was directed toward our dear quiet, unassuming Manager, Bruce Bochy.  The team played their hearts out that last game.  Matt Moore’s pitching was incredible throughout, but was pulled at the top of the 9th to make way for our not so incredible bullpen, at which time I left the room and started cleaning up the kitchen.  I knew it was over.  We all knew it was over.  What was he thinking?

In retrospect, in my heart I  don’t think the 3 time World Champion San Francisco Giants really deserved to be there. And I don’t think they thought so either.  Okay.  I said it.  But that’s how I felt.  When you compare it to the Chicago Cubs season, the Cubs belonged there.  They deserved to win. And they did win, fair and square.  Did Moore have another 10-12 pitches left in him?   Probably.  But we’ll never know and it doesn’t really matter.  It pains me to say it, but the best team DID win and good for them.

I love my Giants.  Always have.  Always will.  Ann Killion wrote this in her SF Chronicle post today:  “Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard said on social media: ‘Baseball has a way of ripping your heart out, stabbing it, putting it back in your chest and then healing itself just in time for spring training.”

epic-fail-baseball-failMy point is this.  The Giants had a real weakness in the bullpen this year.  It was apparent in 60 of 60 games.  It won’t happen again.  They have an amazing staff that will build on this and they’ll be back.  Not all of them, of course, but enough that another world champion team will emerge again.

And when it does, and if we lose then, we’ll really know the true agony of defeat. Because in this defeat, we should have felt honored just to be sitting at the table. Personally, I can hardly wait for the NLCS to begin tomorrow with the Chicago Cubs against ….. wait for it …….a worthy opponent, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

My bet is on the Chicago Cubs who have the best record in Major League Baseball this year.  But like Syndergaaard said ……baseball has a way of ripping your heart out ……..

Good luck to the Cubs and Dodgers.  It’s gonna be a great series!

 

 

 

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Posted in A1 Baseball, General, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants

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THE SOUNDS OF BASEBALL

Posted on May 9, 2015 | Leave a comment

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“SOUNDSOFBASEBALL.COM“

There’s a new kid on the block, the result of a terrific website that literally outgrew itself.  Jam-packed with over 400 audio clips and several thousand photo’s its popularity as an online baseball library continues to grow.

“Sounds of Baseball” is the dream of Steve Contursi, a teacher and non-apologetic baseball aficionado from Catskill, New York, and is the culmination of years of work on an archaic system of programming known as “coding”.   It involved the ideas around what it could, should, and would be, and eventually ended up as an informative website that was like no other.

Most of the data on the website could be found somewhere else in the blogosphere, but it would have been a real challenge to find a website that contained all of this specific type of data in the same place.

This was and this is exactly what he did. Over time and with much patience, “Sounds” reached the level of top-rated baseball websites by the top search engines.

However, change was occurring fast in the internet world and with that came many challenges.  A call was put out to the baseball community for someone to help with a transition to a more user-friendly website.

Along came Ronni Redmond of Santa Cruz, CA, a baseball blogger with a small amount of baseball knowledge, and not a lot of computer experience.  But she wrote a decent blog, had an insatiable appetite for anything baseball and lots of chutzpah and opinions.

This is the new “Sounds of Baseball”.  Its foundation is the original “Sounds” with a few little ditties thrown in and published in a Word Press format that’s much easier to maintain.  The Site will be evolving as new material becomes available.  Goodbye to coding and hello to the formation of an unlikely pairing of a fan of the New 39. Morning CoffeeYork Yankees and a fan of the SF Giants and all teams in-between.

We hope you’ll visit the site.  So please grab a cup of coffee, pull up a chair, and turn up the volume.  

This one’s for you!

                                        “SOUNDSOFBASEBALL.COM“

 Sounds of Baseball, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) Non Profit Corporation.

T

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Posted in A1 Baseball, A2 Ballparks, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, baseball dress, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, General, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Mets baseballs, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, NY Mets baseball dress, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals

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2014 World Series ….. How Much Did they Make?

Posted on November 25, 2014 | Leave a comment
2014 World Series Parade

2014 World Series Parade

Reposted from ESPN, Tuesday, November 25, 2014.  NEW YORK — A full postseason share for the World Series champion Giants was worth a record $388,606, topping the previous mark of $370,873 set by San Francisco two years ago.

San Francisco’s total was up from $307,323 for the Boston Red Sox last year. The players’ pool of $62 million was down from $62.7 million last year and a record $65.4 million in 2012.

The Giants split $22.3 million into 47 full shares, partial shares equivalent to another 9.65 and 17 cash awards, the commissioner’s office said Monday.

A full share on the AL champion Kansas City Royals was worth $230,700, up from $228,300 for the St. Louis Cardinals last year and down from $284,275 for the 2012 AL champion Detroit Tigers.

The players’ pool included 50 percent of the gate receipts from the two wild-card games, and 60 percent from the first three games of each division series and the first four games of each league championship series and the World Series.

Full shares were worth $125,288 for the Baltimore Orioles, $115,481 for St. Louis, $31,544 for Detroit, $31,543 for the Los Angeles Dodgers, $29,845 for the Angels, $29,418 for theWashington Nationals, $16,556 for the Pittsburgh Pirates and $15,266 for the Oakland Athletics.
Copyright 2014 by The Associated Press

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Posted in A1 Baseball, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, Washington Nationals

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Clayton Kershaw wins the National League Most Valuable Player Award

Posted on November 14, 2014 | Leave a comment

Featured Image -- 5822Clayton Kershaw’s the first pitcher to win the NL MVP and the Cy Young award in the same season since Bob Gibson in 1968. And how could the outcome have been any different? Most fans chalked up an automatic Dodger win when Kershaw was scheduled on the mound. He’s a true professional, he’s young and he’s a winner!

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Veterans Day and Every Day ….. Thank You!

Posted on November 11, 2014 | Leave a comment

Note:  This is a re-post of my 2014 Veteran’s Day Blog.

Arlington National Cemetery

“But the mainstay of the big leagues was the reservoir of 4-Fs – males of draft age who had been rejected on physical grounds by the Armed Forces. Not since harem attendants had gone out of style were men’s physical deficiencies so highly prized. Ulcers, hearing defects, and torn cartilages were coveted by team owners.” – Frank Graham, Jr. in Farewell to Heroes (1981)

This and the following list of Hall of Fame Members Courtesy of  Baseball Almanac.

Baseball Hall of Fame Members  who Served in the Armed Forces.
The Civil War  
Morgan Bulkeley United States Army
World War I
Grover Alexander  United States Army
Happy Chandler United States Army Continue reading →

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Posted in A1 Baseball, General, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals

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MLB SALARIES ~ DID THEY GET WHAT THEY PAID FOR?

Posted on October 31, 2014 | Leave a comment

scales of justice 2Here’s a list of the 2014 salaries for the Major League Baseball teams.  You can get a look at the individual player salaries from USA Today’s website.  Individual rankings are interesting because you have to look past 65 players to get to the Royal’s top paid player, James Shields at #66.  To find the highest paid “active” player on the Giants roster you’ll go to #29 for Tim Lineceum and further down to #89 for Buster Posey.   But the real surprise was Madison Bumgarner who’s way down the list at #271.  I’ll bet that’s going to change in the near future huh?   Of course, you have to look at the total number of years in the individual contracts to see what the actual value is.

So the question is “Did they get what they paid for?”  I’d say the Kansas City Royals management is feeling pretty good about themselves right now, ranking #18 out of 30 for highest salaries and still  producing the top American League team in the nation.

RANK TEAM CURRENT DIFF AVG SALARY
1 Dodgers $241,128,402 $ – $7,778,335
2 Yankees $208,830,659 $ – $8,031,948
3 Phillies $179,521,056 $ – $5,791,001
4 Tigers $163,078,526 $ – $5,824,233
5 Red Sox $154,380,395 $ – $5,717,792
6 Giants $148,239,158 $ – $5,490,339
7 Nationals $134,366,735 $ – $4,798,811
8 Rangers $132,491,596 $ – $4,140,362
9 Blue Jays $129,427,700 $ – $4,793,618
10 Angels $128,046,500 $ – $4,415,396
11 Reds $112,378,771 $ – $3,405,417
12 Diamondbacks $111,798,833 $ – $3,726,627
13 Cardinals $108,020,360 $ – $3,857,870
14 Orioles $105,084,121 $ – $3,389,810
15 Brewers $102,724,338 $ – $3,804,605
16 Rockies $99,579,071 $ – $3,688,113
17 Braves $97,855,673 $ – $3,156,634
18 Royals $90,481,500 $ – $3,351,166
19 Padres $89,881,695 $ – $2,899,409
20 White Sox $89,551,982 $ – $3,316,740
21 Mariners $89,539,642 $ – $3,087,573
22 Twins $84,912,500 $ – $3,396,500
23 Mets $84,281,011 $ – $3,121,518
24 Indians $82,500,800 $ – $3,055,585
25 Rays $82,035,490 $ – $2,828,810
26 Pirates $77,845,999 $ – $2,883,185
27 Athletics $77,220,900 $ – $2,490,996
28 Cubs $74,546,356 $ – $2,662,369
29 Astros $44,985,800 $ – $1,606,635
30 Marlins $41,836,900 $ – $1,549,514

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Posted in A1 Baseball, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, General, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals

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Video: Yasiel Puig made a fantastic throw last night to nail Brandon Belt at the plate

Posted on September 23, 2014 | Leave a comment

That Pesky Puig just won’t go away. I was trying to explain this play to someone today, but nothing I could say did it justice.  It was just one of those plays dreams are made of.  Thanks to Hardball talk here’s an instant replay ….. if MLB will let us use it for awhile and not delete it.

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Name Origins of all 30 Major League Baseball Teams

Posted on September 22, 2014 | Leave a comment
Cincinnati Red Stockings. 1st Professional Baseball Team

Cincinnati Red Stockings. 1st Professional Baseball Team

Cincinnati Red Stockings Photo Courtesy “www.todayifoundout.com” Daven Hiskey.

I “Stumbled” on this great post that lists the origins of all 30 Major League Baseball Teams.  It appears the Boston Red Sox hold the oldest named team dating back to the 1860’s, popularized by the Cincinnati Red Stockings from 1867-1870 and used by Boston’s National League franchise from 1871-1876.

But the actual team name origin that’s  with the same team is the San Francisco Giants, formerly the New York Giants, that dates back to 1885.    

Read the original Post  Stumbleupon.com, written by Scott Allen. 

 

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Posted in A1 Baseball, A1 Baseball, General, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, General, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals

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Clayton Kershaw wins his 20th game of the season

Posted on September 19, 2014 | 2 comments
National League All-Star pitchers Madison Bumgarner and Clayton Kershaw watch the Home Run Derby Monday July 15, 2013, at Citi Field in NY. Photo by SF Giants/Andy Kuno

National League All-Star pitchers Madison Bumgarner and Clayton Kershaw watch the Home Run Derby Monday July 15, 2013, at Citi Field in NY. Photo by SF Giants/Andy Kuno

I love this guy! Okay, so I’m a Giants fan, but who can argue with the stats? Not to take anything away from Madison Bumgarner, but Clayton Kershaw rocks and if we don’t make it (and things aren’t looking too good right now) I’m cheering for the Dodger blue. Well, at least for the rest of the season.   And I’m trying to figure out how the Giants are going to be able to acquire Kershaw while keeping Bumgarner.  Yes, I know.   One thing at a time.

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Posted in A1 Baseball, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants

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