Pitcher Clayton Kershaw had his first loss of the season.
Even the spectacular Clayton Kershaw is entitled to a bad day. But that’s when our bats have to come alive and make up for it. Didn’t happen this time, but at least no fist-fighting broke out.
I’m glad Matt Kemp didn’t get suspended for the melee in San Diego on Thursday. And Hairston just got one game, so that isn’t really a punishment. As for Carlos Quentin, he got off light: eight games. His actions cost the Dodgers our second best pitcher for eight weeks. It would almost be worth breaking my boycott just to jeer Quentin when he walks onto the field Monday night at Dodger Stadium. But I’ll probably be able to hear the boos from my house.
Speaking of Monday, it’s Jackie Robinson Day, celebrating his breaking the color barrier in 1947. It’s also a huge promo for the new movie “42,” which I saw yesterday. It was pretty good. The acting was fine, especially Chadwick Boseman as Robinson. Harrison Ford did a good job as Branch Rickey, although it might have been better to have someone who naturally looks like Rickey, like Stephen Root or John Goodman, play him, so that it didn’t look like it was Indiana Jones with wild eyebrows.
Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson in “42”
The only thing is the movie didn’t have a lot of depth. It tells the story, and there’s some ugliness in the racism of some of the other players, the fans and some managers. But for me, it was a little too much on the surface. The script didn’t capture the very complicated man that everyone says Jackie Robinson was. Also, the racists are too easily won over. In the movie, the drama of the struggle wasn’t as agonizing or heart-wrenching as it must have been in real life.
But as my husband said, “It’s exactly the movie I came to see.”
Piewalla's Dodger Blues 