* Or, the anatomy of a collapse. I’ve been following sports since I was, like, 7 years old, which goes back to the Eisenhower Administration. I’ve watched the entire American suite of sports, and some of the international, too. And my contention that the most painful experience for an American sports fan … Is watching […]

[Read more →]

Not that the Dodgers went about this all wrong, or anything. First, they lowballed the Cleveland Indians to the point that the Indians sent ace left-hander Cliff Lee to the Philadelphia Phillies for not, apparently, not much of anything. I like keeping top prospects around, but it turns out Lee was available for something less […]

[Read more →]

OK, yes, we concede it: The rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees is the keenest in baseball, and has been for at least a decade. Nothing comes close. Whatever pretensions the Dodgers and Giants or Cardinals and Cubs or anyone else might have had to being Beisbol Rivalry Numero Uno […]

[Read more →]

I like Russell Martin, Los Angeles Dodgers catcher. So do most Dodgers fans, who applaud him warmly and rarely criticize him and never (to my memory) have booed him. He’s an intelligent young man, even something of a team spokesman, at age 26. He is durable, and he wants to play every day. Admirable qualities, […]

[Read more →]

This is what we in journalism call a “sidebar,” and it goes with the main story that is the blog item just below this one. On Walter O’Malley and the Dodgers. This sidebar is about one Vincent X. Flaherty, sports writer, sports columnist and, it turns out, mover and shaker in the Dodgers getting from […]

[Read more →]

Walter O’Malley always has been a divisive figure, and the two main camps were these: Those who didn’t like him very much. Those who loathed him. Now we have a 324-page apology, largely, for the man who moved the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and built Dodger Stadium. Entitled “Forever Blue” and subtitled, “The […]

[Read more →]

Was it Branch Rickey who said this? Or who just got credit for it (as he did for so many other things)? Neither the Dodgers nor Angels made a big splash, here at the end of the non-waiver trading deadline. The Dodges got left-handed reliever George Sherrill from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for a […]

[Read more →]

I’ve thought this before. Many times. But not a few minutes before I was ready to do some blogging. If I had a nickel for every time Vin Scully has said, “the deuces are wild!” … Heck, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard it in real time, with my own ears […]

[Read more →]

I like Juan Pierre more now than I did four months ago. So do Dodgers fans. There is something a bit odd, actually, going on around Juan Pierre. He has become something of the Official Pet/Mascot of the 2009 Dodgers. As far as fans are concerned.

[Read more →]

Yes, he’s a drug cheat. Absolutely, I wish the Dodgers had washed their hands of him after he served his 50-game suspension. But Manny Ramirez has a way of delivering big hits in dramatic moments. I was one of 56,000 people in the house at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday night. For Manny Ramirez Bobblehead Night. […]

[Read more →]