I took a month...

But the Dodgers are starting to play like the team that they are. The high-scoring duel in the mile-high city just made it 7 W in a row. Keep rollin'!

Into the spring, with some training

With the spring (almost) upon us, MLB teams are entering training camps and Dodgers are no exception. Joe Torre had his 1st team meeting in Vero Beach and from what I've read things went well, save for some apprehension Torre felt from the players, but hey, that's to be expected when sitting in a meeting for the first time with the new manager.

The new addition in the pitcher ranks obviously made a good stand when he pitched and Torre was among those observing. Even Martin was surprised about the hard pitches that Hiroki Kuroda hurled towards the starting catcher. That is good news, since Jason Schmidt prolly won't be game-ready come season start.

In other news, former Dodgers catcher issued a statement about his name coming up in the Mitchell Report. Paul Lo Duca regretted the ˝mistakes in judgement˝ he made in the past. What awaits the Nationals' new addition, is up to Commissioner's office.

Season's over, Red Sox are champs and Dodgers got a new manager

Well, after a hefty break from posting, I've finally convinced myself to ponder on recent baseball events.

First off, no silver-lining here - Dodgers played sub-par in the last month and a half to be considered a viable post-season contender. Come end of September, the result was: 7 1/2 games behind wild card berth and a hope for next year. Shame, the team wasn't bad, chances were there, but that's pro sports - competition was playing better in the final stretch. The team that probably let its fans down in an even more devastating fashion are these guys.

Off to the playoffs. The team that impressed me the most were the Rockies and their amazing run. Sure enough, from what I've seen during regular season, the Red Sox were a favorite to grasp the World series trophy, which in the end they did, sweeping the Rockies (too bad, I hoped that Colorado would manage 2 wins at least).

At first a was a bit surprised, but after thinking for a while, the decision by Dodgers management to bring in Torre isn't bad at all. Mr Torre is a great manager no doubt about it - he's got 4 WS rings to prove it - and after his last two stale seasons in NY, a change of scenery will benefit Joe, who's undoubtedly got a lot of 'fuel left in his tank' for a new challenge in bringing the team to October and (hopefully) the ultimate prize.

Skid comes to an end

Waking up in the morning and watching the numbers rise in the L column for the last two weeks, I sat down and finally got to watch a live Dodgers game after more than a week and I couldn't have picked a better day.

Although Beimel allowed the Reds to score a leading run via balk in the bottom of the 7th, things went LA's way after that. Come next inning Martinez leveled the score with a RBI single down the right field line. In the 9th and 10th Dodgers' latest addition to the bullpen, Scott Proctor took the mound and prevented the Reds from scoring. Then top of the 11th, with 1 out and nobody on, Furcal got the Dodgers right to the exit of the dark tunnel that was the losing skid with a 400+ foot dinger to the right field bleachers to take the 5-4 lead. With his 28th save of the season, Saito then drove the LA into the daylight.

But despite feel-good win, a glance at the NL wild card standings reveals that our Dodgers will require a large dose of wins in the coming weeks to climb to that 1st spot. IMO, that should be LA's first priority - start stacking up the wins, not look so much to the standings, but focus (hard) on winning every upcoming game and they will definitely be around come October.

GO Dodgers!

PS
The fun moment of the game (for me) was in the 9th, when Proctor threw a strike three curve ball to Dunn, he obviously thought otherwise and barked something to home plate ump Emmel, who then promptly tossed him. That only fired the 6'6 Texan up and they were face-to-face in a verbal exchange for a couple of secs, until the Reds manager intervened. :)

Rooting for the Dodgers

Even though I like baseball in general and enjoy watching good matchups regardless of the teams involved, I've always have a favorite that I root for in any sports.

So during the playoffs last fall, I've gone through Wikipedia articles, team history section on MLB.com for every major league team that has been playing in the pre-sixties era.

As it's plainly obvious from the banner, I've chosen the Los Angeles Dodgers. Dating as far back as 1884 when they went by the name of Brooklyn Atlantics, the Dodgers played their home games at legendary Ebbets field in baseball's hotbed, the city of New York. Causing great disappointment among Brooklyn faithful, just three years after winning their first World Series, Dodgers relocated to the west coast in 1958, settling in Los Angeles. Appropriately enough, their long standing rivalry with the New York Giants didn't end in 1958, since the Giants also relocated to Pacific coast that same year, going to San Francisco. Dodgers were the first major league team to cross the color divide, signing HOF Jackie Robinson, who played his first game in the majors on April 15th, 1947. The 'bums' as they were nicknamed, always had great pitchers - Don Newcombe, HOF Don Drysdale, Claude Osteen, HOF Don Sutton, Fernando Valenzuela, Orel Hershiser, Chan Ho Park, Derek Lowe, Brad Penny. And I've just recently finished reading a book on their perhaps best hurler ever, Sandy Koufax. HOF's biography, which is mixed with flashbacks to each inning of his 1965 perfect game vs Cubs, was superbly written by Jane Leavy (1). But not only pitchers, other positions with the Dodgers were manned by some great players throughout the years: HOF Pee Wee Reese (great leader, who played a big role in acceptance of Robinson as the first African-American in the majors (2); these two also made up one of the greatest double-play combos in baseball), Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Maury Wills, Kirk Gibson, Mike Piazza, Paul LoDuca, Shawn Green to name a few.

Clearly a team with great tradition, as evident from (just some of) historical facts listed above. All this and more enticed me to embrace the LA Dodgers as my favorite.

Go Dodgers!

1 - Amazon link to Leavy's Book: US readers, UK/Europe readers
2 - Link to photo of a sculpture in KeySpan park in Brooklyn, NY depicting Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson (posted on Flickr.com by member ElissaSCA)

Sharing the passion.

Well, this is it. Just can't keep this to myself anymore. I'm a regular European guy, who likes sports, but with a minor flaw. I follow sports played in the USA. Yes, that would be hockey, football (the american kind) and basketball among the more known ones.

You're now probably scratching your head thinking: 'Why didn't he mention baseball?' Well, keep reading, the best part is just ahead.

To get it off my chest I'll admit to something in this first post. Ever since I was a kid in grade school - when I was more impressed by the show and visual elements of the US pro sports - and up until present day, when I understand the rules and follow the major sports more closely, I was mostly a fan of hockey, basketball (kind of logical on this one, since hoops is very popular on the old continent) and football. In fact, I was not much into baseball at all. I did know the reigning World Series champions and some of the more known players, but that was mostly it. Even went as far as to say that the game was boring to me, mainly because of lengthy time needed to play one game and due to the fact I had little knowledge beyond the basic rules of the sport.

But my view on baseball changed drastically last September. I said to myself: 'Why not give it a chance?' So I did. I read the rules and some history of the game and what do you know? It grabbed me! The fact that it was late September and the playoffs were around the corner just added fuel to the fire. And already those first few weeks of my baseball experience gave me some amazing moments. The positive one was without a doubt wild card Tigers winning over the Yankees in ALDS and their subsequent reaching the World Series. The downside - unfortunately - was Mets' sweep of the Dodgers in NLDS.

And yes, feel free to pounce on me for tagging the sport with the 'boring' label. :) I'm just glad that I realized how wrong I was about baseball and it's anything but boring! It's a great sport, despite some 'dark spots' in the recent years and here's one fan who will be drawn to it until his eyes and ears give up on him, which hopefully won't happen anytime soon. As for the other major sports? Well, one-timers, rushing TDs and beyond-the-arcs are now occupying the back seat.

This blog of mine is purely about the great game played on the green diamond. Don't expect other major sports to be included and reflected on in my writings (this first post being an exception), like I said, they're taking the back seat.

Enjoy the game!