Showtime in Chavez Ravine

He did it again. Just like he did in 1979, we now have hope. Tuesday evening Earvin “Magic” Johnson was again drafted by Los Angeles. And just like then, he has set the city abuzz. The LA Times is on it. Facebook is lit up. Sports talk radio is alive. And life could not be better for Los Angeles sports fans. With the stroke of pen, Magic is once again the hottest sports figure in the city. Just like he was back in the day when Jerry Buss signed the skinny kid from Michigan State to a Laker contract. We don’t know how this is going to turn out. Magic is walking into a situation that has few usable parts and the parking lots are still owned by the Butcher of Baghdad, er Boston, Frank McCourt, who can wreak havoc from afar. But we have hope, an owner who wants to do right for Los Angeles, even if only to preserve his image, and a reason to go out to the ballpark. This year I will my buy first Los Angeles Dodger tickets since Rupert Murdoch traded Mike Piazza and started this once storied franchise on the road to ruin. Not because I believe everything Magic touches will somehow turn to gold, but because he already has. The O’Malley did not win every year, and neither will Magic. But the Dodgers are back. And because of that, Chavez Ravine will become the new home of Showtime for Los Angeles. Now excuse me while I dream of sitting in the stands, watching the sunset over Chavez Ravine and a great baseball game while eating a grilled Dodger Dog. I just wish my parking lot fees weren’t going to settle a divorce decree.

Can Magic Strike Twice?

A little over a year ago I wrote an article for Bleacher Report, an online sports blog site, asking Magic Johnson to consider buying the Los Angeles Dodgers. I felt then, as I do now, that the Dodgers deserve local, respected leadership that believes in Los Angeles. We do not need a carpet bagging owner from another city who only wants the franchise so they can make money. We can do just fine with our own guy making money thank you! As a long time Dodger fan, my heart, along with those of millions of other followers has been in a funk pretty much since the O'Malley family felt they had to give up the team. Today brings word that apparently Magic Johnson has finally agreed with me and is putting together a team to make a bid to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers. All I can say is that it is about time we had some good sports news out of Los Angeles. Hopefully, with an owner like Magic, the Dodgers could put together a nice run of championships over the years just like the Lakers did. I wonder what Showtime would look like at Chavez Ravine? Hey, do you think someone passed my article on to Magic last year?

A Little Sports Potpourri

1. I miss Dandy Don. Early Monday Night Football announcer Don Meredith passed away yesterday. For all you folks who like watching football, I am not sure I can explain the importance of Don Meredith and his two buddies, Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford to the sport. They came along when football was just another game, along side basketball, and right after the baseball season. But Monday Night Football changed that. It was an event. It was appointment viewing, either at home or in a bar. Monday Night Football made the NFL and sports television what it is today. If you go to sports bars to watch games these days, thank Don, and Howard, and Frank. Rest in peace Don Meredith... and say hello to Howard. 2. Auburn vs. Oregon in the BCS Championship. I admit, I am conflicted about this. I grew up rooting for the Pacific 8/10 and have been a fan all of my life. But my son went to Auburn and I have come to love that school. I have many friends who have attended Oregon, and a nephew who is also an Auburn grad, so picking a winner is going to be tough. But here is where I am. I am taking Auburn in a lower scoring game than most people think. I think Auburn coach Gene Chizik is a better defensive coach than Oregon coach Chip Kelly, and defense wins championships. Sorry Gordon. 3. Adrian Gonzalez signs with the Red Sox. With apologies to my blogging friend Shaw over at Progressive Eruptions, this is another nail in the baseball coffin. Following a trend that started when Curt Flood challenged the reserve clause of baseball, Gonzalez is the latest star to leave the team that gave him his start for more money. Is it any wonder kids have no allegiance to a specific team. Except for a few rare exceptions, gone are the days when players were identified primarily with one team. Think Mays and the Giants, Ripkin and the Orioles, Koufax and the Dodgers, and now Jeter and the Yankees. While good for the Red Sox, this was bad for baseball. 4. With apologies to Peyton Manning, Tom Brady is the man in the NFL. A winner and champion to me is someone who can elevate those around him to another level. Think Magic Johnson here. He came to a team that had all the parts and made them champions. If you take Tom Brady off the Patriots, they are not the same team. They'd still be good, but not the dynasty they are on the verge of becoming. If this team wins the AFC and the Super Bowl this year, Brady just might replace Joe Montana in the eyes of many as the greatest quarterback in NFL history. 5. A judge has ruled in favor of Jamie McCourt in the Dodger Divorce Duel. This potentially means that to settle their divorce, the McCourt family will have to sell the Dodgers. I could only hope that maybe Magic Johnson might be interested. We could do a lot worse.

All Eyes Are On Washington Tonight

*Update Below* Tonight is the night. The phenom takes center stage in Washington D. C. and I ain’t talkin’ about Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, Barack Obama, or any other politician. Nope, today is not about primaries, tea parties, and oil. Today is about Stephen Strasburg, the fireballing right handed pitcher for the Washington Nationals. To hear his backers tell it, this guy is Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan, and Walter Johnson all wrapped in one, with perhaps a little Carl Hubbell on the side. The savior of a franchise. The Lord of the mound, the anointed of Major League Baseball. I am not sure we need to really play the game tonight. After all, it is against Pittsburgh, one of the worst teams in the National League for as long as I can remember. Let’s just give the guy a win and call it good. Even Dan Patrick and the Danettes were musing on the radio this morning about the possibility of a no-hitter. Not one to want to throw cold water on a party, but we’ve been down this road a few times before. Here’s the pattern. Young player is dominant in high school or college, signs for millions in bonus money and is quickly brought up to the bigs because no owner is making this type of investment to watch a kid play ball in Toledo. Now some of these kids make it, but for every Koufax, who took 7 years to become the dominant pitcher he was, there is a Mark Fidrych, a one year respite from the doldrums of summer. I am not saying young Mr. Strasburg will not have a long, spectacular career. I hope he does. I am just saying let’s keep our wits about us. While it is entirely possible this kid is the second coming, it is also possible he will be just an average pitcher, struggling with control and lacking a major league curve ball when it counts. Besides, even if he flames out quickly, we’ll soon have Bryce Harper, baseball’s newest 17 year old future star coming up soon. He was just drafted last night and will be signing for about $345 million dollars to play for the same team as Strasburg, the Nationals. I wonder where Rich Reichardt is today? *Update* In his debut, Strasburg struck out 14 in seven innings while walking none. A pretty impressive performance for the rookie pitcher.

Now Entering the Hall of Fame, Ken Griffey Jr.

Sometime in the early 90's I decided to take my son to see the California Angels play the Seattle Mariners at Anaheim Stadium. We went figuring we would be able to by tickets at the gate, because back then no one ever went to see the Angels play. As we were walking into the parking area, us savvy folks always parked outside and saved a few coins, a guy approached me and wanted to know if I wanted some good tickets. I think I paid $40.00 for two club level seats just up the third base line from home plate. It was the perfect place to watch Ken Griffey Jr. hit. And hit he did. I am not sure when it happened. I am not even sure who won that night. But this much I know. Griffey hit a line drive shot out of the park that night and we saw it. Now I know a lot of you are saying big deal, lots of guys hit home runs, and I agree. But not every hitter can put a ball clean out of the stadium. And very few will ever do it like Griffey. You see, he didn't put the ball over the tops of those right field bleachers. Nope. He put that screaming line drive through the entrance tunnel to the seats in right field. He could have killed someone. It was one of the hardest balls I have ever seen hit. Yesterday, Ken Griffy Jr. retired from the game of baseball. From 1993 through 2000, he was the most feared hitter in baseball. An all star every year, gold glove winner every year, and the American League leader in home runs 4 of those years. He was the total package, hitting .294 and 351 home runs . And he did not take steroids. Griffey is retiring with 630 lifetime home runs. In my book, that places him fourth on the all time list, right behind Aaron, Ruth, and Mays. I count myself as privileged to have seen the future Hall of Famer play. Congratulations Ken Griffey Jr. on a great career.

Dear Commissioner Selig

Dear Bud Selig, What a mess you have on your hands. Steroids, HGH, cheating, lying, and who knows what else. No matter what you say, no matter how you plan to spin it, you cannot escape the fact that baseball, since you took over has been damaged, perhaps permanently. I know that the numbers in the stands are better than ever, but so are the numbers for Hockey and no one is calling that a major sport in the U.S. anymore. I’ll give you that for once we were able to negotiate a labor agreement with the union without a work stoppage, but as the saying goes, “What have you done for me lately?” So what are you going to do? Over the last few days we have heard that some of what we once thought were the best players in the game today are cheaters. We are not talking pine tar or spitball cheaters; we are talking unfair advantage cheaters. And you let it happen. You can say all you want about being the one to finally clean it up, but that is like giving credit to a two year old for cleaning up his own spilt milk after an hour of whining. Clemens. Pettitte. Bonds. Justice. Giambi. Sheffield. Dykstra. Brown. Tejada, and about eighty others. How did this happen? How could this have happened without one owner knowing anything? Could it be because you all [they are your employers aren’t they?] were too interested in improving the bottom line as opposed to improving the game? So what are you going to do? Simply saying that we now must move past this will not work. Baseball needs a bold statement that this type of behavior will not be tolerated, now or ever again. We need a Judge Landis response. Are you up to it? In the eighties major league baseball banned Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays from all baseball activities for conduct detrimental to the game. Do you remember what their sin was? It was saying hello to patrons at an Atlantic City Casino. That sure seems minor league compared to this. Here is my suggestion. Effectively immediately, ban every single person listed in Senator Mitchell’s report. If you believe his report to be accurate, and I have not heard you say otherwise, ban them all. For a period of years equal to the steroid era, roughly 12 years. Under your broad powers to uphold the integrity of the game, you have the power to do this, and you should. And then make it clear moving forward that anyone else caught using performance enhancing drugs in any fashion will face an immediate banishment for life from the game of baseball. Mr. Selig, we have a crisis of confidence in this great game. Children do not watch the game. Grown ups are disgusted. Moms do not want their kids to grow up like Jose Canseco, capable of hitting home runs but loaded up with drugs. The game I grew up with, the great game of Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays, Reggie Jackson, and Hank Aaron has been sullied, on your watch. I hope and pray you have the courage and fortitude to step to the plate and clean it up. Please don’t get caught looking! Sincerely, A Concerned Fan UPDATE: It is always good to see that someone else agrees with you. Check out this short post asking the question wwkld? (as always, use this however you want, just give us credit) technorati tags: Bud Selig, Steroids, Baseball, Cheaters, Mitchell Report

Mission Potpourri

Just a little potpourri today for you all to enjoy. First up is one of one of my favorite daily comics from the newspaper. For you cyber connected kids under 20, a newspaper is the place us old folks go to learn what is going on the world. It's a pretty cool thing, they print news using ink on paper, which is made from trees. Anyways, Lalo Alcarez is just a funny guy to me. Talvez because he is from Mexico and seems to live in a sort of bi-lingual/bi-cultural world like I do. Enjoy. It was four years ago today since our President Bush went on television around the world from the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and announced that major combat in Iraq was over and that we had prevailed. I guess he was just mistaken. Well here it is the first of May and my beloved Angels are in first place. This was their best April in history. Now if past experience is indeed the best barometer of future performance, (as Dr. Phil always says it is!) we can look forward to a monumental crash very soon. But at least April was fun! This program cover is from 1971, years before Anaheim, California somehow became Los Angeles. The team was so cheesey they put crayon drawings on their programs because they knew they were going nowhere. The team finished 10 games under .500 and their best player was second baseman Sandy Alomar. Finally my thoughts on George Tenet. George, you blew it. First off, you waited too long to tell your story. If you had any reservations about going to war, you owed it to us, the American people, your real bosses, to come forward when it would have made a difference. Before the war! Not four years later. Second, you allowed factual errors to be printed in your book. I understand what you are saying in that perhaps you got the dates wrong, but the substance is still true, but, it doesn't matter! You were a spy for cryin' out loud. Details do matter. In the field those details can be the difference between life and death. And it is always the details that trip people up. Did you not know that what you were writing might inflame the conservatives and that they would be looking for inconsistencies? If this book is any indication of the level of spycraft we have in the CIA, no wonder we were wrong on Iraq! (all of the thoughts here are mine and mine alone. feel free to share them, steal them, or use them however you want. just be honest and give me credit.)