The last time someone other than Mike Scioscia was manager of the Angels … it was another decade. Another century. Heck, it was another millennium. Lots of Angels fans have no memory of the club without Scioscia. And may not even know Scioscia was a key player for two Dodgers World Series championships, in 1981 […]

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Too soon. It was way too soon. After completing a three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies eight days ago, outfielder Yasiel Puig predicted the Dodgers would win the National League West for a sixth consecutive season and a prominent Los Angeles columnist wrote: “It’s over” — that the Dodgers had their mojo back and would […]

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Media outlets are suggesting Los Angeles Angels fans are excited that Japanese rookie Shohei Ohtani will return to the pitcher’s mound tomorrow night. I am filled with foreboding. Ohtani, the most prominent pitcher-hitter since Babe Ruth, has not pitched since June 6, when he exited a game with elbow stiffness — later described as a […]

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Every baseball fan knows the situation in Los Angeles. The Dodgers have not won a World Series since 1988, and fans can do the math: That’s 30 years ago. The Dodgers owe it to their fans, who lavish a lot of money on one of the richest clubs in Major League Baseball, to push, hard, […]

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It was when Shohei Ohtani hit two home runs in a game at Cleveland two days ago that it became clear to me. The rookie from Japan should stick to hitting. His dream of becoming the first player since Babe Ruth, nearly a century ago, to be a regular Major League starting pitcher as well […]

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The Dodgers publicity release landed in my inbox earlier this week, and I was flabbergasted. Dumbfounded. Gobsmacked. Confused. The title of the email: “Matt Kemp Wins Los Angeles Dodgers Heart and Hustle Award” (Emphasis added.) My first thought was a silly one: Is there another Matt Kemp in baseball? There was a Steve Kemp, a […]

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The nadir was Wednesday morning, July 18. As I rolled out of bed, this is what was in the “scoreboard” bar of the espn.com homepage: –The final score of the baseball All-Star game. –A result from an NBA summer league game. –And two scores from the WNBA. Yes, which still exists. And that was it. […]

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David Price is a left-handed pitcher and former Cy Young Award winner who is in Year 3 of a $215 million contract with the Boston Red Sox. Unfortunately, he cannot pitch at the moment, due to pain in his left wrist, and when he had a doctor look at it, the doc had an interesting […]

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Sports injuries have become a “thing”. Seemingly not a day goes by without some fairly prominent athlete going down with a prominent injury. I remember when none of us were quite sure what an oblique was, but straining/tearing it would put a guy on the shelf for weeks. Those were the good old days. Now […]

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Another benefit of waking up at 4 a.m. in France. West Coast baseball is just getting started! And I stumbled on to the start of the Los Angeles Angels home opener, versus the Cleveland Indians — also known as “Shohei Ohtani’s first game in Anaheim Stadium.” And the Japanese Babe Ruth acquitted himself well, slugging […]

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