Archives for category: 2014

dodgers dollar signOne of these things, $tan Ka$ten and his cohorts in Dodger management care very much about.

The other can go to hell in a hand-basket for all they care. (Actually, the trip started last year when so few people showed up to the games that bobblehead nights were rarely more than ⅔ full and many concession stands were closed!)

But, hey! They got their $8.5 billion. Who gives a fig if the loyal fans who have loved their team through thick and thin for more than 50 years can’t enjoy the games at home on their TV sets, hear the melodious voice of Vin Scully and feel part of a community with a common and heartfelt passion.

It makes me physically ill to see this crippling greed and loathsome insensitivity take hold of my beloved Dodgers. And I’m not alone. I dread saying it, but one of my least favorite haters is on our side in this. Read Plaschke from yesterday’s L.A. Times.

“The most impactful collision of greed and arrogance in this town’s sports history,” Bill Plaschke writes, “has resulted in wreckage that is still smoking in the middle of the freeway, looking like another six-month SigAlert, twisted metal everywhere.”

And we are the hapless victims of this crash, bleeding on the side of Stadium Way, wishing an ambulance would come and whisk us off to salvation.

Who cares if half the National League West champion team from last year is gone? Andrew Friedman’s Moneyball tinkering won’t mean a thing if no one can watch the damn games.

Some say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but in this case it’s out of sight, out of mind. You’ll see it when the camera pans the stands and nobody’s there. Oh, wait, no you won’t.

I felt a little guilty skipping out in the 7th as the Dodgers were behind, 7-0, though not bad enough to stay for the post-game praying at Faith & Family Day. Even God couldn’t have saved the Dodgers as they fell to the Brewers, 7-2.

Then as Steve and I walked past the executive parking lot, my guilt was assuaged by the sight of someone slinking past us in his black luxury automobile to the strains of “God Bless America” emanating from the half-full, sun-baked stadium. If anyone should have more faith in the Dodgers than I do, it’s $tan Ka$ten, don’t you think?

Stan FleeingI don’t know if it was the pathetic weakness the Dodgers have shown in the first three games of this home stand, being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers. I don’t know if he is frustrated by the injuries that have been chipping away at our first-place team’s foundation. Or if he just had something better to do on a sweltering Sunday afternoon. But he looked like he couldn’t wait to get as far away from Chavez Ravine as he possibly could. (It couldn’t have been the desire to beat the traffic. Since the Dodgers have been off TV for most of us, our interest seems to have flagged. Even “sell-out” games have lots of empty seats.)

Ka$ten probably just doesn’t care that much about the team. Lord knows, he doesn’t care about the fans. Who needs ’em? His prayers have already been answered to the tune of $8 billion.

 

The Dude & The Beard

I’m sorry I missed this one! The Dude throwing out the first pitch to The Beard! I love it.

Unfortunately, the Dodgers played like they’d all been drinking White Russians. Not cool, man! Letting the Cubs win, 8-2. The Cubs?!? The Windy City ruins everything, once again.