Sheesh! The Season

Dodgers never did get it together this season.

At first it was the pitching. Dodgers' starting pitchers couldn't stay in the game long enough to be convincing, to get the job done.

Since the All-Star break, the starters have been great.... But everything else has broken down. The relief pitchers can't seem to provide relief. And nobody can hit! Dodgers are about 4 for 400 with runners in scoring position, don't have a single player with 25 homeruns, and only one, James Loney, with as many as 80 runs batted in.

General Manager Ned Colletti went out and got Ted Lilly to bolster the pitching staff, and that wasn't a bad move. And he got Rod Barajas to help fill in for the injured Russell Martin. But he didn't find a Manny to replace the faded Manny, who he let go for nothing, and he didn't find a closer, which the Dodgers desperately need.

Although you don't really need a closer if you can't score enough runs to take a lead into the 9th, do you?

The Dodgers started this season with high hopes and big plans. They end it with low results and small returns.... With the owner or owners locked in a divorce/ownership squabble that won't look good no matter how it comes out, and can only have a negative effect on the team for next year.

Sheesh!

Too Young to Win?

The Dodgers have sputtered since the All-Star break. Starting pitching has been great, but relief pitching has not, and the offense has totally fizzled.
Two runs or less in 2/3 of the games played? You can't win like that.
Joe Torre is a great manager, but this is a new situation for him. He's used to veteran players who know what to do and do it. Ned Colletti is also used to veteran players, I think. (I don't know Ned, so I won't speak for him, but I think he's more familiar with putting together teams that include proven veterans than he is with assembling teams with mostly young guys.)
But the team is what it is, and the players are what they are. And if the Dodgers want to get into the post-season this year, they better start playing some baseball. The players better step up. They need to hit the ball, catch the ball, pitch the ball. Mr. Kershaw needs to learn how to get out of the first inning. Mr. Kemp needs to run the bases correctly. Mr. Broxton needs to close games.
53 games left. Still time, men, if you do what you get paid to do.

Dodgers Lack Leadership

I'm not an insider in the Dodgers clubhouse, but it seems to me that the Dodgers lack leadership this year.

They had Jeff Kent, a take-charge, "listen to me" kind of guy two years ago. They had Greg Maddux. Last season they had Randy Wolf.

This season, they don't seem to have anyone who can take a leadership position.

They have Garret Anderson and Reed Johnson, both veterans, but both are bench players and neither man is outspoken. Rafael Furcal has 10 years experience, but he's coming back from physical problems and has a lot on his mind. And they have Manny Ramirez – but does anyone think Manny would command the clubhouse?

Meanwhile, the Dodgers are a very very young team. Of their current starting pitchers, Kuroda is 35 and the other four starters combined don't add up to 100 years old.

Dodgers need someone to take the lead in the clubhouse. I don't think the young ones should lead themselves; go read Lord of the Flies and you'll see why.

Shaking my head here and wondering where this season will go.

A year ago today, doctors calling themselves the pros from Dover placed a stent in my heart. That made the blood flow and made me live.
Good for you, Pros from Dover!

They stripped me down, the team of three boys and two girls; they let me hold my hospital gown over my privates and they let me keep my scapular on, and they let me hold my simple one-decade rosary in my left hand.

"We're gonna give you something to relax you," they said, and they shot something into my arm.

One of the women said "We're gonna insert this catheter into your artery," and with gloved hands she moved my masculinity out of the way and inserted the catheter into my right femoral artery.

"Watch the monitors," Trapper said, and I did, fascinated as the monitors showed the progress of the probe up along my body and right into the heart.

"There it is!" cried Hawkeye. "That's the blockage!"

And even I could see it, in the right cardial artery. Right there on the video screen. "We're gonna fix that," Hawkeye said.
I think that's when I passed out.

When I woke up, I was in the hands of the recovery nurses. Their first job, at least in regard to me, was to stop the bleeding.

You cut into the femoral artery, you get some bleeding.

They strapped me into this device called a FemStop. Invented during the Inquisition, I think.

Two hours of that, and then two hours of a twenty pound sandbag on the inside of my thigh.

And then two more hours of the FemStop.

But eventually they stopped the bleeding and gave me some orange juice.

That was this day last year.

This day this year.... I went for my daily walk (3 miles); I listened to baseball (Dodgers beat the Braves 5-4 in 11 innings), I prayed my Rosary and I made some plans for tomorrow.

Life is wonderful!

It's been a year to the day since I had my heart attack. June 5, 2009. They kept me in the hospital overnight and the next day (the anniversary of D-Day) The Pros from Dover put a stent in one of my coronary arteries; my doctor prescribed a bunch of medicines that lowered my risks; I changed my diet and added exercise to my daily routine.

I am still in the process of rethinking my life. I am working with an old friend to start a new business; I am working with God to update my spiritual activities.

But the Dodgers. The Dodgers. They still don't have enough pitching.

I suppose no team ever has enough pitching, especially in these days of three divisions in each league and twelve pitchers (twelve pitchers?) on each team. Really; each team can have twenty-five players. Do you really want twelve of them to be pitchers?

I don't think the number of pitchers matters. What matters is the quality, the ability of the pitchers you have.

My team is the Dodgers. I won't apologize for that.

But I have to say I am not overly impressed by the effectiveness of the pitchers on the Dodgers roster at the moment.

More to come.