Willie Mays Aikens was a rookie first baseman with the Angels in 1977, the one season I was the beat guy for the team. He was a big guy, somebody who could become a serious power-hitter, but I always worried about him. Not in a parental sort of way. More in a semi-concerned bystander sort […]

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This expression really bugs me. And you see it in newspapers and magazines, hear it on the airwaves … a lot. “Heart and soul.” As in, “he is the heart and soul” of this or that team. I want usage of this to decline about 90 percent. Because it’s used too often and, more important, […]

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OK, because they’re in Orange County. OK, they appropriated the “Los Angeles” name when their team has nothing to do with the city or county of that name. But the ball club … you have to love these guys. These guys, and last year’s guys and basically every team the club has run out there […]

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I’m at Angel Stadium for the first time this year, and I have a couple of concepts I want to broach. One is … what happened to Vladimir Guerrero? When did the Scariest Hitter in the American League turn into Little Bo Peep? Vlad went into this game hitting .246 with seven homers and 28 […]

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I believe Andruw Jones will go down as one of the great disasters in Dodgers personnel history. Right there with the Pedro Martinez for Delino DeShields trade. Maybe even above it; the Dodgers didn’t give Delino $36.5 million over two years. So, I’m already thinking in terms of a list of nicknames appropriate to immortalize […]

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Two news items last week seemed only tangentially related. Mike Piazza announced his retirement. Nomar Garciaparra went on the 60-day disabled list. Actually, those stories have more than a little in common. The careers of both men, perhaps the end of the careers of both men, speak to one of the biggest issues the Los […]

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Jose Canseco leaves me feeling conflicted. He was/is a relentless, almost pathetic self-promoter. A guy out of control far too often. A tattle-tale and finger-pointer. As a ballplayer, he was a muscle-bound freak. If he wasn’t a complete creation of steroids, he wasn’t far off. He could run a little, before he got brittle (remember […]

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There goes Andruw Jones, off to knee surgery on Tuesday and “6-8 weeks” off, an absence I believe will be considerably longer. He now has an acceptable excuse for doing nothing to make the Dodgers better. The man is hurt, see? Just a tough break. Not at all a function of a guy whose career […]

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Live long enough, and you pick up on some trends. If you’re paying even the slightest attention. You don’t have to be some sort of sage, doling out pearls of wisdom. Just a regular old person with his eyes open and his memory intact. And with that prelude, let’s get to the point of this […]

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Someone just threw Andruw Jones a life line. An injury. The Dodgers’ mega-bust center fielder, arguably the worst free-agent position-player signing in baseball history, apparently has torn cartilage in his right knee. “Gutty ‘Druw” said he will wait until Friday to see if the knee comes around. If it doesn’t he may go in for […]

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