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.