Japan and South Korea in the championship game was perfect. We had two serious baseball countries who took the World Baseball Classic seriously, too. Maybe each side was missing a few of their major-leaguers, but the guys they had seemed utterly devoted to the concept and not dragging around a “we’re doing you a favor” […]

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I’m a bobblehead maniac. And I know it’s not just me. I will see some random team play, for a bobblehead. I will endure sellout crowds, for a bobblehead. I love bobbleheads. They kill me. I can watch them wiggle for hours … even if the Chinese craftsmen didn’t quite do justice to whomever is […]

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I don’t mind the concept. Organize the world’s baseball talent along national lines and have yourselves a soccer World Cup-style tournament. See who comes out at the end. Turns out, it’s just not really workable and certainly not very compelling. The issues with the WBC? Well, gee, let us enumerate the primary ones.

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Same day the Dodgers re-introduce Manny Ramirez … individual tickets go on sale. Here is the release from the Dodgers.

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It seemed like a good idea, at the time. That is, more than two weeks ago. Dodgers vs. White Sox, “right next door” in Glendale, Ariz. Road trip! Here was the plan: Zoom over to the Dodgers’ new spring-training site in Arizona, see a game, zip right home. Over and back,  same day. Talk about […]

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Could this have turned out any other way? Well, no. So why did it take so long? The Dodgers were a team that needed a marquee name and figured Manny Ramirez should be that guy. Manny Ramirez was a free-agent slugger who nobody really wanted, aside from the Dodgers. They managed to avoid acknowledging the […]

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It’s time. The Dodgers need another hitter. Manny Ramirez needs another contract. Time for Scott Boras to get out of the way and let the man-child he represents, Manny, sign with the Dodgers and get on with what he does best: Crush baseballs. Let’s get busy. The Dodgers apparently have sweetened their offer to Ramirez […]

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If I could go back to the height of steroids abuse in baseball … and maybe 2002, 2003 would be it … I am convinced I could pick out the users, most of them, just by looking at them. I now believe I can spot the reckless or unsophisticated user — and that was most […]

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Alex Rodriguez and steroids. Lots of anger out there. Ball fans, journalists, regular Joes and Joannes. “How could you!” “He’s evil!” All the rest. It’s pretty amped up. I absolutely am not going to give A-Rod a pass on this, but I’m not blowing a gasket over it, either. For several reasons.

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I haven’t done a list in ages. Since before Hong Kong. Maybe since before Beijing. I was looking occasionally at the Pro Bowl today, and I remembered a stat about that … So, in the vein of “it’s all about me” … 10 events I covered, as a sports writer — that happened an impossibly […]

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