The news that Los Angeles Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt are divorcing came with a bitter kick: Team chairman Frank's first move against his soon-to-be-ex was to fire her from her job as the Dodgers' chief executive.
It's 1988. What a slice of time in Los Angeles!
NEW YORK -- Star Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins, an amateur Jimmy the Greek, says his Phillies are going to win the World Series in five games. Rollins is on a few-year roll with his predictions, although the Yankees generally seemed more amused than concerned about Rollins' latest. "Nostradamus,'' Jorge Posada called him, though it was hard to tell whether Posada was lauding or mocking Rollins.
PHILADELPHIA -- When the NLCS was over, and the Dodgers were done again, eliminated just like the year before in five games by the Phillies, iconic Dodgers manager Joe Torre gathered his mostly young troops together, and he spoke of progress. It seems like a tough sell job, with the result from one year to the next being exactly the same. But Torre could sell parkas in L.A.
When it ended, there were no massive dog piles, no exuberant displays of over-the-top-excitement and no outward sign that their second consecutive National League pennant signified anything more than what they had said it would be all week long: just another step on their journey to what they, and a growing number of others, are envisioning as a second straight World Series championship.
PHILADELPHIA -- Wherever Joe Torre went when his team arrived at Citizen's Bank Park on Saturday, he saw it. When he went to the weight room, it was on the treadmill. When he went to his office, it was cued up on the television on his desk. If Torre had successfully blocked out his Yankees' 2004 American League Championship Series collapse to the Red Sox, Dodgers first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, a first baseman on that Boston team, made sure he was reminded of it when the team got to Philadelphia. At the time, it was meant as playful payback for Torre recently watching Aaron Boone's home run that beat the Red Sox in 2003, but now it serves as a potent, if somewhat unpleasant, reminder that compared to Torre's situation in '04, the Dodgers are in a relatively comfortable 3-games-to-1 hole to the Phillies in this season's NLCS.
PHILADELPHIA -- Pedro Martinez held court in the corner of the Phillies clubhouse for 20 some minutes today, answering questions in English and Spanish, referring to himself and Raul Ibañez as the club's "old goats," proclaiming Boston's 2004 ALCS comeback "the greatest in the history of the game" and riffing on Jimmy Rollins' youthful appearance ("he looks just like he did in that 'Beyond Baseball' commercial").
Team owner Frank McCourt and his CEO wife Jamie's split is getting nastier than a playoff series!
PHILADELPHIA -- One Dodger was going over the possibilities and permutations following the heartbreaking Jimmy Rollins-authored 5-4 Game 4 defeat that left Los Angeles on the cusp of elimination, and that Dodger mentioned having to win a game here in Philly, then two more back in L.A. Then that Dodger mentioned having to beat Cliff Lee, who they couldn't touch, if they even get to a Game 7.
PHILADELPHIA -- Part of being a closer, the most mentally taxing job in baseball and perhaps all of sports, is knowing that eventually it will be your turn to fail. Sooner or later, a ball is hit where they ain't, or an outfielder loses a ball in the lights, or a hitter who knew exactly what you were about to do rips a game-winning double into the gap, and then you lose. And when that happens, you look very much like Jonathan Broxton did just before midnight on Monday: head down, shoulders slumped, eyes on the ground, the pain of defeat stabbing you anew with every step and with every cheer of the crowd.
The news that Los Angeles Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt are divorcing came with a bitter kick: Team chairman Frank's first move against his soon-to-be-ex was to fire her from her job as the Dodgers' chief executive.
It's 1988. What a slice of time in Los Angeles!
NEW YORK -- Star Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins, an amateur Jimmy the Greek, says his Phillies are going to win the World Series in five games. Rollins is on a few-year roll with his predictions, although the Yankees generally seemed more amused than concerned about Rollins' latest. "Nostradamus,'' Jorge Posada called him, though it was hard to tell whether Posada was lauding or mocking Rollins.
PHILADELPHIA -- When the NLCS was over, and the Dodgers were done again, eliminated just like the year before in five games by the Phillies, iconic Dodgers manager Joe Torre gathered his mostly young troops together, and he spoke of progress. It seems like a tough sell job, with the result from one year to the next being exactly the same. But Torre could sell parkas in L.A.
When it ended, there were no massive dog piles, no exuberant displays of over-the-top-excitement and no outward sign that their second consecutive National League pennant signified anything more than what they had said it would be all week long: just another step on their journey to what they, and a growing number of others, are envisioning as a second straight World Series championship.
PHILADELPHIA -- Wherever Joe Torre went when his team arrived at Citizen's Bank Park on Saturday, he saw it. When he went to the weight room, it was on the treadmill. When he went to his office, it was cued up on the television on his desk. If Torre had successfully blocked out his Yankees' 2004 American League Championship Series collapse to the Red Sox, Dodgers first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, a first baseman on that Boston team, made sure he was reminded of it when the team got to Philadelphia. At the time, it was meant as playful payback for Torre recently watching Aaron Boone's home run that beat the Red Sox in 2003, but now it serves as a potent, if somewhat unpleasant, reminder that compared to Torre's situation in '04, the Dodgers are in a relatively comfortable 3-games-to-1 hole to the Phillies in this season's NLCS.
PHILADELPHIA -- Pedro Martinez held court in the corner of the Phillies clubhouse for 20 some minutes today, answering questions in English and Spanish, referring to himself and Raul Ibañez as the club's "old goats," proclaiming Boston's 2004 ALCS comeback "the greatest in the history of the game" and riffing on Jimmy Rollins' youthful appearance ("he looks just like he did in that 'Beyond Baseball' commercial").
Team owner Frank McCourt and his CEO wife Jamie's split is getting nastier than a playoff series!
PHILADELPHIA -- One Dodger was going over the possibilities and permutations following the heartbreaking Jimmy Rollins-authored 5-4 Game 4 defeat that left Los Angeles on the cusp of elimination, and that Dodger mentioned having to win a game here in Philly, then two more back in L.A. Then that Dodger mentioned having to beat Cliff Lee, who they couldn't touch, if they even get to a Game 7.
PHILADELPHIA -- Part of being a closer, the most mentally taxing job in baseball and perhaps all of sports, is knowing that eventually it will be your turn to fail. Sooner or later, a ball is hit where they ain't, or an outfielder loses a ball in the lights, or a hitter who knew exactly what you were about to do rips a game-winning double into the gap, and then you lose. And when that happens, you look very much like Jonathan Broxton did just before midnight on Monday: head down, shoulders slumped, eyes on the ground, the pain of defeat stabbing you anew with every step and with every cheer of the crowd.
PHILADELPHIA -- It was surely past his bedtime, but as midnight approached on Sunday night in Citizen's Bank Park, there was a little boy in a Cliff Lee jersey hanging with the man himself, and a few of his Phillies friends, just outside the home team clubhouse. The grown ups were talking and joking with their pint-sized pal and only minutes before, Lee had finished off a dazzling performance that gave the Phillies a 2-1 lead in the National League Championship Series. The scene now was reminiscent of the schooling he had just given the Dodgers -- in both cases he looked like a man among boys. In the Phillies 11-0 blowout win in Game 3, Lee delivered as superb an outing as this postseason has witnessed to date, even if the line itself -- eight innings, no walks, 10 strikeouts, no runs and no chance allowed -- doesn't do justice to the level of brilliance he displayed on Sunday.
LOS ANGELES -- An hour after his win and one of the postseason's most intriguing storylines had slipped away, Pedro Martinez was standing at his locker in the back corner of the Phillies clubhouse, looking just as calm as he did during seven brilliant shutout innings in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series. He was still dealing, only now they were tales from his brilliant afternoon, rather than fastballs and filthy off-speed pitches, that he was offering. He rambled on so long that when he was reminded that the team bus would be leaving shortly, Pedro all but ignored it. He seemed interested in staying as long as he wanted.
LOS ANGELES -- As Brad Lidge finished his warmup pitches before the bottom of the ninth inning on Thursday night, an interesting tune began pulsing through the Dodger Stadium loudspeakers: Metallica's Enter Sandman. It was a curious choice, and not just because it is best known in baseball circles as the personal anthem of the Yankees' Mariano Rivera, and its foreboding sound has been a staple of Octobers past, usually serving as last rites for the opposition.
LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti stood on the field before Game 1 of the National League Championship Series and said he did not anticipate his team would change the way it does business in light of the separation between owner Frank McCourt and his wife Jamie. He sounded a little like former Padres general manager Kevin Towers two years ago, oblivious to the freight train that was barreling toward him.
LOS ANGELES -- They met in this same round a year ago, finished with the two best records in the National League this season and each had home-field advantage in the division series, and yet somehow the fact that the Phillies will meet the Dodgers in the NLCS feels mildly surprising. The Dodgers upended a Cardinals team overflowing with top-quality starting pitching, supposedly that most determinative of postseason factors, while the Phillies eliminated a Rockies team that had been playing the best of any team in the league since late May.
There are times -- like when he's conducting a giant yoga instruction on the outfield of Dodger Stadium to help boost the team's female fan base, or when he's conducting a champagne-spraying exhibition in the middle of the Dodgers clubhouse after they've clinched a return to the National League Championship Series -- when everybody wants to be around Andre Ethier. Then there are the times when absolutely no one wants to be around Ethier. This usually occurs any time he makes an out.
Postseason baseball is filled with thrilling highs and lows, and each October produces its own heroes and goats, many of them victims (or victors) of timing and small sample sizes. Nonetheless, it's always fun seeing which players seem to rise to the occasion and, more sadistically, which appear to fold under the pressure. With one round of this year's postseason in the books, here are the heroes and goats of the 2009 League Division Series.
Like Bernard "Beanie" Campbell, Vince Vaughn's character in Old School, Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti isn't much of a talker. But as his players danced around the visitor's clubhouse at Busch Stadium and drenched each other with beer and champagne in a frat-house type scene worthy of the hit comedy from 2003, Colletti stood on safe and dry ground outside the door and recalled one of the rare times this season when he had addressed his team. It was on the first day of spring training in Glendale, Ariz., and his message was simple.
LOS ANGELES -- This being Los Angeles, the Dodgers are never far from the intersection of Hollywood glamour and baseball drama. There is the retinue of celebrities who attend games at Dodger Stadium, the endless parade of movie references between innings on the scoreboard, and the "Think Blue" sign nestled into the hills beyond the leftfield wall that calls to mind the iconic Hollywood sign just a few miles away. And against a back wall of their home clubhouse is a faux a movie poster, showing a jubilant bunch of Dodgers piling on each other after a walk-off win that reads "The Dodgers star in ... THE COMEBACK KIDS" and a tagline promising "It's never too late."
LOS ANGELES -- His offense left 16 men on base and went 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position. His defense gave up a gift run by allowing a fly ball to drop between two fielders. His starting pitcher couldn't even give him four innings and yet Joe Torre was all smiles on Wednesday night. The reason, of course, was that -- despite all their bungling that was more befitting of the team that nearly choked away all of their NL West lead rather than the team that rampaged to the best record in the league -- his team won the game. To be sure, these were not the artful Dodgers in Game 1 of the National League Division Series, but they were the victorious Dodgers, and in so doing they have changed more than a few minds about how the rest of this series will play out.
1. It took only four innings for the Dodgers to announce and execute their game plan for the entire NLDS against St. Louis: turn the games into a battle of the bullpens. Los Angeles manager Joe Torre yanked his Game 1 starter, Randy Wolf, only two outs into the fourth inning while holding a 3-2 lead. And it worked. Five Dodgers relievers took care of 16 outs to beat the Cardinals, 5-3.
The Cardinals' Tony La Russa and the Dodgers' Joe Torre, baseball's Nos. 3 and 5 all-time winningest managers, have such respect for each other that when their teams played in St. Louis in late July, the two had dinner together. What they talked about is anyone's guess, but even then the prospect of their first postseason tête-à-tête was surely on the table. With 28 combined managerial playoff appearances, it's remarkable that this is the first meeting between La Russa and Torre in the postseason. And now that it's here, don't expect them to dine together again.
With one weekend remaining in the regular season, baseball suddenly finds itself with the one thing it seemed almost sure to be without this year: pennant race drama, albeit a much more muted version than the high-stakes scenario that has played itself out so often through the years. For instance, with three games remaining, seven of the eight playoff spots are already taken, the American League matchups have been set (AL East vs. AL Central, AL West vs. wild card) and the series that might have been the most compelling because of its head-to-head nature (Rockies-Dodgers) instead will be not much more than a postseason warmup act for two teams who are already playoff-bound. 1951 it is not. That said, there are still several playoff plotlines yet to be determined.
The Colorado Rockies aren't a team, they're an armada. Even their depth is deep. With apologies to Atlanta fans -- all 18 of them -- the Braves are strictly an opening act when it comes to thrills, bedlam and suspense in the National League's wild-card race.
The Dodgers' deadline-day acquisition of slugger Jim Thome wasn't as startling or nearly as significant as their pickup a year earlier of Thome's ex-Indians teammate Manny Ramirez, of course. But those who suggest that it is meaningless are misguided. Thome enhances the Dodgers' bench, their psyche and their chances. Optimistically speaking, he also provides a DH option should L.A. reach the World Series.
SAN FRANCISCO -- When I was 9 years old, I received a T-shirt from my father that I wore almost every day for the next three years or so (to peruse our family album it appears as if it were a mandated uniform). It had a caricature of San Francisco Giants journeyman pitcher Bill Laskey in mid-windup, his extravagant black mustache curled downward into a sneer, as if threatening to advance to full handlebar, and it read:
Yesterday, Tom Verducci examined the AL wild-card situation, so today it's time to break down the race in the NL, which is slightly more competitive, with five teams entering Wednesday within four games of the lead, compared to four teams within 5 1/2 in the AL. Here's a snapshot of each of those five clubs. (Sorry Brewers and Astros fans; you must be this tall (at least .500) to go on this ride.)
Knowing their chances remain slim for superstar pitcher Roy Halladay and even slimmer for star pitcher Cliff Lee, the Yankees called the pitching-strong Mariners on Saturday to inquire about their status as buyer or seller. The Yankees need a starting pitcher, and Jarrod Washburn is a pitcher they've liked for years.
A number of writers, at SI and elsewhere, have recently discussed how a quick and cheap way for a major league team to improve its fortunes from one season to the next in this (presumably) Post-Steroid Era is to revamp its defense. In April, Tim Marchman persuasively argued on SI.com that the Mariners' upgraded defense had turned them from AL West laughingstock into legitimate contender, and I detailed how the Rangers are following a similar path to success in a June Inside Baseball column in SI.
While the Phillies remain almost everyone's favorite to land superstar pitcher Roy Halladay, and the best-in-baseball Dodgers are now believed to be showing interest, two big-market contenders for the summer's big pitching prize -- the Yankees and Red Sox -- recently have been informed by the Blue Jays that their chances to land Halladay are slim.
NEW YORK -- As the larger-than-usual media throng exited the visiting clubhouse at Citi Field on Tuesday night, Dodgers manager Joe Torre said, "See you guys tomorrow. Some of you, anyway."
The All-Star teams have been announced and most clubs have reached the midway point of their schedules, making this the perfect time for the midseason edition of Diamond Digits. We're looking back at some of the biggest on-field numbers so far, and taking a glance at some players who want to duplicate what they've accomplished ... and others who would like to forget about the first three months.
LOS ANGELES -- Like every other Hollywood diva who has been in trouble -- Winona, Paris, Lindsay, Nicole -- Manny Ramirez got his own T-shirt. It is white with royal blue script, the words "Free Manny" spelled in large block letters. Ramirez was so taken with the shirt he brought one into the Dodgers' clubhouse weeks ago and hung it in shortstop Rafael Furcal's locker. "I never moved it," Furcal said. "I never touched it." While Ramirez served his 50-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs, the T-shirt became a constant reminder of his presence, greeting teammates as they shuffled in and out of the showers.
Since May 7, all Juan Pierre has done in 48 games back in the Los Angeles Dodgers starting lineup is bat .319 with 32 runs and 21 RBIs to go along with 17 extra-base hits and 20 stolen bases. Those are stats that put him near the top of the National League leaderboards over that stretch, and numbers that have helped the Dodgers maintain the best record in the majors and a six-game lead in the NL West.
No team looks perfect with nearly two months to go before the trade deadline ... well, no team except the Dodgers, that is. Whomever they use performs. At least that's the way it looks now. But even the Dodgers -- who are getting a .379 season out of Juan Pierre and have big performances out of Eric Stults, Jeff Weaver, Eric Milton and just about everyone else in blue -- still might need some help eventually.
Manny Ramirez apologized to his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates on Friday after being suspended for 50 games for using a banned drug.
The Manny Ramirez True Hollywood Story began nine months ago, when he was introduced in a press conference behind home plate at Dodger Stadium, and at one point leapt in the air while answering a question. What followed were electrifying performances, sellout crowds, bitter contract disputes, and finally, revelations of drug use. Ramirez came to Los Angeles a diva and quickly devolved into a bad actor, the worst kind of Hollywood stereotype.
This week's Diamond Digits takes a look at the Dodgers who love L.A. the most, Milwaukee's one-man show and the baserunners who've collected a six-pack of steals and the men who were unable to stop them.
Gotta say the new Yankee Stadium sure is a happenin' place. You had your gang gunplay in front of the courthouse down the street on Opening Day. Extra Mustard proprietor Jimmy Traina recently encountered a raging brushfire right outside the ballpark. Then there are all those "affordable" empty field level seats everyone keeps talking about, not to mention the flocks of home runs soaring over the rightfield fence.
The grass is still green, the baseball diamond pristine. But the crack of the bat is gone, and the sizzle of a Dodger Dog is no more.
JUPITER, Fla. -- While the Dodgers may be the most likely landing spot for Cooperstown-bound pitcher Pedro Martinez, the Mets can't quite be ruled out yet. And though one Mets person said a significant gap remains between Pedro's asking price and the Mets' target figure (probably $5 million vs. about $2 million), an NL executive said over the weekend, "I wouldn't be shocked (if the Mets get him) ... Omar loves him."
1) Forgetting Manny for a second (and that isn't easy), the Dodgers have terrific young positional talent. It starts with the big four of Andre Ethier, James Loney, Matt Kemp and Russell Martin. All are under 27, and only Loney is mature beyond his years, according to Dodgers personnel. So there's plenty of room for growth here. Regardless, they're no dummies and all seem to understand the importance of Manny. Of greater significance, they all can play.
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- At precisely 9:50 a.m. Thursday morning, Manny Ramirez opened the door to the Dodgers clubhouse and was immediately greeted by a sound that has followed him, for better and for worse, throughout his Hall of Fame career: laughter.
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The mood brightened in sunny, balmy Dodgers camp with the news that Manny Ramirez was on his way into town to continue a Dodgers career that could not have begun more auspiciously. Quirky, funny Manny isn't due in until Thursday, after he completes a full physical Wednesday in L.A., but his peppy personality was already seen in some teammates who were just happy to hear they weren't going to have to fend for themselves.
Manny Ramirez and the Dodgers have agreed to a two-year, $45 million contract with an option for Ramirez to opt out after the first year and it could be announced as early as late Wednesday.
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Manny Ramirez is set to meet Wednesday with Dodgers owner Frank McCourt in Los Angeles in what both sides hope will be the final, successful step after four months of difficult, often contentious negotiations.
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Despite seeming to be practically pennies apart in his negotiation with superstar free agent Manny Ramirez, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt suggested again here Sunday that the sides were "starting from scratch." Those are ominous words indeed, if he means them.
This article is adapted from Forever Blue by Michael D'Antonio, to be published by Riverhead Books. © 2009 by Michael D'Antonio.
The long lines of parked cars outside Dodger Stadium could have been the typical sign of an afternoon game featuring the Boys in Blue. But the massive crowd of cars at the stadium during the weekend had more to do with income than infield plays.
Agent Scott Boras has told the Los Angeles Dodgers that Manny Ramirez is willing to return to the team for $45 million over two years, with $25 million in 2009 and a player option for $20 million in 2010.
Carlos Zambrano was wrong in 2007. Ryan Dempster was wrong in 2008. And after consecutive seasons of hearing players predict the Cubs, the team that hasn't won a World Series in more than a century, would end that drought, manager Lou Piniella instructed his team to not make any predictions for 2009. That will let the rest of us make the predictions for him: For the first time since 1945, the Chicago Cubs will be playing in the World Series. Last year's squad rolled to 97 wins and the NL Central title but was swept out of the NLDS by an inferior Dodgers team. This year's team features the best offense in the National League and a pitching staff that specializes in missing bats. The Cubs return virtually every key part of an offense that led the league in runs, walks, on-base percentage and slugging percentage and finished second in batting average and hits. Their pitching staff not only topped the league in wins, but also in strikeouts and fewest hits allowed, while finishing second
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Top Dodgers executives recently huddled at a swanky beachside retreat south of L.A. And it'll be interesting to see what new strategy they came up with.
Well known for bold free-agent signings and boosted by a solid financial situation, the San Francisco Giants look like a major threat to steal superstar free agent slugger Manny Ramirez away from the archrival Dodgers.
On the night of September 27, as Mark Teixeira stood at home plate in Anaheim, Manny Ramirez stood at home plate in San Francisco. Scott Boras, seated in the second row at Angel Stadium, was watching Teixeira when he noticed out of the corner of his eye that the Dodgers game was being broadcast on the flat screen in his box. "Look," he said. "It's Manny." Boras, the agent to both players, was torn -- to watch Teixeira or Ramirez? For the next several minutes, his head spun as if on a swivel, from Teixeira to Ramirez and back again.
1. Los Angeles general manager Ned Colletti denied reports that CC Sabathia told him, "I want to be a Dodger." But the two of them did speak casually and joked with one another in a chance meeting on Sunday night, Colletti said. The Dodgers do fit Sabathia's profile of a prospective employer: a National League team on the west coast. But Dodgers owner Frank McCourt has not yet authorized Colletti to get into the Sabathia sweepstakes, even to see what that NL West discount might be.
The Dodgers' two year-offer to Manny Ramirez -- believed to be for about $45 million -- is very unlikely to lead to a quick deal between the sides, or perhaps any deal.
DANA POINT, Calif. -- Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said what's been obvious for a while, and that is that their talks with superstar free-agent outfielder Manny Ramirez aren't going to result in a quick signing.
In the past, sports were largely recession-proof. But today, they're inextricably tied to the fate of deep-pocketed corporations
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The Dodgers appear willing to meet or come close to superstar free agent Manny Ramirez's annual salary target but are strongly disinclined from acceding to his wish for a deal of five or six years, people familiar with the club's thinking tell SI.com.
There was no champagne in the Dodgers' clubhouse Wednesday night. The bottles of Moet the team had become so familiar with over the past three weeks were being popped and sprayed in the boisterous visiting clubhouse that could be heard through the double doors and down a hallway of old retired Dodgers jerseys that only further served as a reminder of how long it had been since the Dodgers had done something meaningful in October.
Just a minute or two into Game 5 of the NLCS (Recap | Box Score), Jimmy Rollins, the diminutive Phillies leadoff hitter known for his big talk and even bigger stick, sent one over the same right-field wall that teammates Shane Victorino and Matt Stairs cleared two days before. The game wasn't quite over eight pitches in ... but it sure felt that way.
LOS ANGELES -- There are some early signs that the Dodgers' negotiations involving Manny Ramirez, who almost single-handedly lifted the storied franchise to the postseason, will not necessarily go smoothly. Ramirez is believed to be seeking a six-year deal for as much as $25 million per year, and Dodgers owner Frank McCourt is said to be skeptical that the competition will be keen for the controversial but ultra-productive superstar he acquired for virtually nothing a minute before the trade deadline.
LOS ANGELES -- Anyone who happened upon the home clubhouse at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday would have guessed the offseason had already begun. Nobody was playing cards. Nobody was listening to music. Nobody was even there. With the Dodgers trailing the Phillies 3-1 in the National League Championship Series, manager Joe Torre decided to cancel his team's scheduled workout and give them a day off, neglecting to mention that they might be getting a lot of days off in the very near future.
History tells us that hope is not completely lost here in Mannywood. The Red Sox of Manny Ramirez came back to win a league championship series from this far down, and from even further down than this.
LOS ANGELES -- The recommended book on Phillies 45-year-old pitcher Jamie Moyer is to exhibit patience aplenty at the plate. Perhaps the thinking is this: the longer you wait, the older he gets.
There was no doubt, the kid could pitch. And at 6-feet-3, with a powerful left arm, high school senior James Loney had scouts crowding around the backstop, oohing and awing in advance of the 2002 First-Year Player Draft. But once Loney stepped in the batter's box, the crowd thinned and the interest of most scouts waned. But not Chris Smith.
PHILADELPHIA -- At least one person at Citizens Bank Park on Friday wasn't impressed with the biggest defensive play in Game 2 of the NLCS. "It wasn't that tough a catch," Dodgers third baseman Casey Blake said, of Shane Victorino's leaping grab in front of the centerfield wall at Citizens Bank Park. It was Blake's deep drive in the seventh inning, with two men on base, that Victorino snagged to preserve a three-run lead for the Phillies. "I'm not sure he had to jump like that," Blake said. "I think [Victorino] had more room than he thought."
PHILADELPHIA -- The franchise-transforming hitting savant Manny Ramirez shot his right index finger into the sky as he rounded first base on his three-run home run in Game 2. Nobody can be sure what the finger signified, but it couldn't possibly have meant that his Dodgers are No. 1. The opposing Phillies take a well-earned two-zip lead in games to Los Angeles despite their strange stubbornness in continuing to pitch to the unconscious Ramirez.
The Phillies made short work of the Brewers in the Division Series and come into the NL Championship Series with arguably the most potent lineup of any of the four remaining teams, along with the top starting pitcher in Cole Hamels.
Breaking down today's National League Championship Series opener between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies.
In the final week of spring training, when Joe Torre was still getting used to his new shade of blue, he looked out over the field at Angel Stadium before an exhibition game and was reminded why he wanted to be a manager in the first place. Scattered around the field were about half-a-dozen players under the age of 25, either taking batting practice, fielding ground balls or shagging flies. "It's the fun part," Torre said. "It's watching young talent develop and grow. It's looking in the eyes of young players and sensing when they reach the point that they come to the ballpark knowing what to expect, what to do."
1. The most important Dodger in the NLCS may turn out to be Hong-Chih Kuo, their lockdown lefthanded reliever who is needed against the balanced Philadelphia lineup. Los Angeles had no need for a lefty against the righthanded-heavy Cubs; the Dodgers played Chicago 10 times this year without having a lefthander throw a single pitch. But with Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, switch-hitters Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino and bench players Greg Dobbs, Geoff Jenkins and Matt Stairs, the Phillies present big-time trouble from the left side. Joe Beimel gives the Dodgers one good situational lefty, but Clayton Kershaw is a young lefthanded starter who can't be counted on to come into a jam to face a lefthander. That's why the Dodgers need Kuo, who was left off the NLDS roster because of a mysterious arm ailment. Kuo's left arm began changing colors when he warmed up to pitch in the final series of the regular season. Though it has been reported that Kuo was suffering from a circulatory problem,
Sue: Hey man, you're not from here, alright. You don't know how it is. I grew up in L.A.
Manny Ramirez looked jarringly preppy in a gray, argyle-style V-neck as he stood outside the Dodgers clubhouse not long after his Game 1 destruction of the Cubs in the NLDS last week.
Baseball history is filled with examples of players who go from clutching their throat in one postseason round to being Mr. Clutch in the next .Or the other way around. Craig Counsell, with the Diamondbacks back in '01, had just three hits in a five-game National League Division Series against the Cardinals. But the Diamondbacks, thanks to a couple of pitchers named Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, moved on, and in the NL Championship Series that year against the Braves, Counsell had eight hits in the five-game win, including three doubles. He drove in six runs and hit .381 in being named the NLCS MVP.
How big a difference has Joe Torre made with the Dodgers? One Torre intimate said the great manager possibly called more meetings this year with the Dodgers than during his whole 12-year tenure with the Yankees.
1. Before NLDS Game 3, Los Angeles pitcher Derek Lowe asked manager Joe Torre, "Are we going to have a meeting?" When Torre said yes, Lowe said, "Good. I want to talk."
1. The Dodgers are better now than they ever were during the regular season.
LOS ANGELES -- If you're looking for that one moment the Dodgers turned their season around. That one trade, that one signing that one managerial decision that transformed this bunch from playoff outsiders to the first team to advance to the Championship Series you won't find it.
Cliff Corcoran breaks down today's Division Series action; all games are on TBS; all times Eastern.
They're crying in their beers at Murphy's Bleachers on Sheffield and Waveland, out beyond the real bleachers, as well as at various other watering holes around the town famed for its raucous bars, its broad shoulders, its corrupt politicians and especially for its unlucky Cubbies. Barring that long-awaited miracle, the 100th anniversary of their beloved team's last championship will turn out no differently than the previous 99 years -- that is, with someone else winning the World Series.
The Cubs come into the postseason with a team that makes for a study in contrasts when it comes to its assets: a broad and deep collection of hitters to attack the other team's pitchers, balanced against a stars-and-scrubs pitching staff that runs perhaps no more than six men deep before trouble arises.
The Dodgers are on one impressive run, powered by maybe the most dangerous hitter in baseball today. They have, statistically speaking, the best pitching in the National League. They have fans filling Chavez Ravine and a playoff-tested manager in Joe Torre, and yet the Dodgers now face their most difficult challenge of the season.
Barring a repeat of the craziness that was 2007, when the Rockies authored their improbable 21-1 run, the Padres melted down and the Mets blew up, the three best races should be in the NL East (where it's the Mets or their personal tormentors, the Phillies), the AL Central (where the surprise winner is sure to be the White Sox or Twins) and the NL West (where the Dodgers or Diamondbacks will wear the crown, no matter what anyone thinks).
The Dodgers and Diamondbacks are, essentially, working without a net. That's true, to some degree, with a lot of other teams this September. But when it comes to pure death-defying, high-wire pennant races between two desperate teams -- mediocre teams, sure, but at least they're fairly evenly matched -- nothing this season can top the National League West.
LOS ANGELES -- It is a prerequisite of every pennant race, even in the National League West, that the participating teams spend a great deal of time watching their competition on television. So on Wednesday afternoon, the Dodgers assembled around two TVs in their clubhouse and queued up the St. Louis-Arizona game. After Arizona's Adam Dunn pulled a game-winning double down the right-field line in the bottom of ninth inning, the Diamondbacks mobbed Dunn behind second base, their celebration spilling into the outfield at Bank One Ballpark. One incredulous Dodger supplied his own commentary: "Damn. Did they just make the playoffs?"
LOS ANGELES -- Hitting savant Manny Ramirez got a quick glimpse of Dodgers teammate Andruw Jones' failing batting technique and is said by intimates to have opined that Jones' backside (not to mention his career) was obviously collapsing and that it should be an easy fix.
Welcome to the third annual Baseball Prospectus Ultimate Fantasy Draft. We will attempt to answer this question: If you were starting a baseball team from scratch, which players would you want to build your team around? That is, which players would you take -- and in what order would you take them -- if your goal was to win as many championships as possible over the medium-to-long-term?
The Los Angeles Dodgers have re-acquired Cooperstown-bound righthander Greg Maddux in a trade with the Padres, SI.com has confirmed.
Baseball, being a team game and all, is never supposed to come down to just one guy deciding a team's fate. Nevertheless, the Diamondbacks and Dodgers are banking on one guy to awaken their long-sleepy lineups and push them to the top of the National League West and beyond. And you know what? In the short time that Manny Ramirez has been swinging for the Dodgers, and the shorter time that Adam Dunn has played for the D'backs, the one-guy theory seems to be working.
A red "easy" button sits on a table below the players' mailbox in the Dodgers clubhouse, mere inches from Andruw Jones' slot, which is overflowing with fan letters he has yet to pick up. Judging from the reaction he gets at Dodger Stadium every time he steps into the batter's box these days, he probably isn't missing anything he hasn't already heard.
When the Red Sox originally offered Manny Ramirez in trade to the other 29 teams, they went 0-for-29. Red Sox GM Theo Epstein made tens of calls and found no takers.
LOS ANGELES -- Manny Ramirez arrived at Dodger Stadium on Friday like a bad Hollywood cliché, another long-haired diva seeking reinvention, another high-maintenance character seeking acceptance, as well as a $20-million-a-year deal.
The Dodgers, who appeared to be running second at best for days in the race for embattled superstar Manny Ramirez, pulled a last-minute shocker and acquired Ramirez just before Thursday's trade deadline from the Red Sox, who were determined to unload the unhappy slugger.
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