This link is to an espn.com story about the Yankees’ failure to make the playoffs for the first time since 1995. The gist of the story is that the Yankees have had a horrible minor-league system for years, and it finally caught up with them. At the end of the story is a very interesting […]

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While sitting in press row at Dodger Stadium … –Who pays for the cleanup of a clubhouse when a team clinches on the road? If they don’t collapse here, the Dodgers likely will clinch the National League West this weekend in San Francisco. Where Giants officials have to be less-than-enthused about the champagne/beer dousing their […]

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The Dodgers are in the final days of a pennant race here, and they probably are going to win the National League West. And that leaves me, as a lifelong Dodgers fan … supremely disinterested. I’ve been out of the sports journalism business (technically) for six months, so in theory I ought to be reinventing […]

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Maybe I’m reading this wrong, but I have the sense that a lot of sports journalists are very political. And not talking “college football poll” here. I’ve been in press boxes and heard rants from people at both ends of the political spectrum. My theory is that elections are rather like sports, which is why […]

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An interesting dynamic, in Southern California journalism. And this pertains to blogging as well as writing: You have to get your ideas into print/on the web … before the Los Angeles Times does. Or you run the real risk of being seen as a intellectual-property thief. The maddening thing is, it doesn’t work the other […]

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I haven’t done one of these already, have I? An Angels top 10? I’m confident I have not. To the point that I’m not going to search my own blog. The Angels. Hmmm. The deal with them? I saw them play, a lot, when I was a teen. Once I got a driver’s license, and […]

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No matter how many “personal all-time top-10 Dodgers” lists I compile, as I decline into senility, I can guarantee this: Andruw Jones will never make the list. Neither will Kevin Brown, Bill Buckner, Juan Pierre … nor Jeff Kent.

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Former colleague Dennis Pope points out I already had done a “favorite Dodgers” list before I did the one just below. So, yes, I’m officially losing it. I had a flicker of a “did I do this before? Nahhh!” thought before going on ahead. The amusing thing is how the lists differ. Orel Hershiser is […]

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This was my favorite sports team, as a kid. I have a vivid memory of lying on the floor in front of a speaker in my parents living room, elbows down, my face in my hands, listening to Vin Scully do a Dodgers game. Was it an important Dodgers game? Maybe. Maybe not. Thing is, […]

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It’s hard to be a good guy and a good reporter. I’ve known more than a few good people, in journalism. But they tended not to be rise-to-the-top reporters or editors, and they often got stepped on during the career scramble. Because “good” held them back. I’ve known some very good journalists. But I don’t […]

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