Call this one a hunch. The Dodgers brought in Vicente Padilla from the Rangers last week. This could be a brilliant move by Ned Colletti, as Padilla is an established veteran who could really add to the rotation.

That’s the upside. The downside is that he has a history of pitching inside, and most recently for being a “head hunter” and purposly throwing at people. Different people have different accounts, but part of the reason he was released by Texas was because of his attitude in the clubhouse and his history of throwing at people.

So – you do the math. You have a guy who naturally throws inside, probably does throw at people when he feels they deserve it, and now will be pitching for the Dodgers against the Giants later this month in a heated rivalry.

Yeah. It’s going to happen. There have already been two bench clearing skirmishes in the last two years, so I can easily see a third.

Hopefully Vincente will pitch well and add a little energy to the boys in the blue. They are slipping a little and the Rockies are coming too fast. The Dodgers need Manny and their offense to come around, and they need to at least take the last game with Colorado this week. They played well last night, now they just need to finish tonight and win the series to prove they are still the better team.

So you heard it hear first. Vincente Padilla will cause a brawl with the Giants…even if he isn’t trying to.

Vincente Padilla - L.A. Times

Dodgers/Giants Dugout Clearing

As mentioned in my last post, I wanted to spend more time on this issue of how far is too far when it comes to the Dodgers/Giants rivalry.

I find this issue to be pretty polarizing, but especially up here. If you listen to the radio, those guys wish the rivalry was more intense. Apparently when the Giants played at Candlestick, the fans were borderline nasty and really let the Dodgers and their fans have it. I guess one of the worst areas was along the foul lines when opposing pitchers would come in from the bullpen. That’s when the jeers rained down. They feel that there are too many Dodger fans at the game and they want us to feel less welcome.  So that is the one extreme.

The other is a comment from my Manny the Man and What a Blowout post, copied here:

Its one thing to be happy for your team and cheer them on, and quite another to rub things in people faces. I have to say I am disappointed in the spirit of it.

This is from a Giants fan friend of mine who is all about the purity and sportsmanship of baseball. He loves to talk the game, watch the game, and truly is in on every pitch. He loves the strategy in each situation, and randomly is a really good whiffle ball player. He is a huge Giants fan but won’t go to a Dodgers/Giants game because he feels it is too harsh even still. It isn’t sportsmanlike, the rivalry is too in your face and uncomfortable, and thus he won’t have a part of it. It’s for those reasons that when I said I would raz my co-workers that he felt it was too far.

I find myself in the middle. I don’t like when the fans are drunk and can’t respect fans of other teams. I was at the Dodgers/Cardinals playoff game a few years ago and watched a Dodger fan dump a beer on a guys beautiful new Cardinals jersey. There was some taunting, but it didn’t deserve the damage to the jersey.

From what I hear though L.A. is worse than AT&T park for the rivalry. You know this is true when people are dying and getting beat up at the game. Again, that obviously is too far.  I think there should be the fun of razing, but with mutual respect.  Both sides know that it is a pendulum and you may win one game but lose the next, so why rub it in one game and then look like a fool the next.

So what should the rivalry look like? Should Dodger fans fear going to AT&T? What’s your take? Take the poll below and leave your comments.

Scott Work Cube Day 2

Well, the sweep didn’t quite happen. Tim Lincecum did his thing and the Dodgers bullpen just couldn’t hold out long enough.

I was checking in on the game since it was during work and knew it would come down to the end. It was tied when I left work and I told my Giant fan co-worker, “You better hope they put Broxton in so you have a chance…” It ended up that they didn’t need Broxton, Mota did just fine. I knew he was in trouble with that first walk.

No sweep, but the Dodgers still showed why they are in 1st place.

What was interesting tonight was in listening to the talk shows after the game. Let’s just say the fans and talk show host were livid. I mean livid. Livid first at the umpires, livid second at the Giants for having no offense, and livid third at Brian Sabean for getting them into this mess.

I’ll be the first to say the umpires had a bad series. Literally one fan called in and thought the Giants probably would have gotten better calls down in LA. Those calls did affect the game, so I can see their disdain.

The offense though of the Giants is weak. As the talk show host said it, “when you have to depend on Juan Uribe to be your walk off homerun guy…you’re in trouble.”   Enough said.

Even more, as much as I think Brian Sabean has done a pretty good job this year with what the Giants have, this talk show host felt he should be fired now. He found real fault that the Giants went into the year planning on Bengie Molina being an acceptable clean up hitter. He felt that all the veterans (including Molina) should be canned and the young guys should take the team where it needs to go.

I see where he was going, but it was a bit extreme. The Giants are way better than expected already, so the comments are pretty harsh. I think the real problem is that the plan was never to win the World Series, just to compete this year. I think the fans have gotten a taste of the wildcard and now have expected that this was the potential all along. It never was.   They still have a chance at the wild card and that should be the goal to be realistic.

Anyway – the highlight of the day was this morning listening to the talk shows. They played the sound clip of Manny Ramirez hitting his homerun last night and in the background they also played someone throwing up. It was the most realistic throw up sound clip I’ve ever heard and it was hilarious to hear it next to Manny’s homerun. High points to the Murph and Mac show (click here) on KNBR for really funny radio.  I’m totally biased because I love Giants fans wanting to barf at Manny’s success, but it was great.  If anyone can find the sound bite, send it to me and I’ll post it to the next post.

Special thanks again to all the extra hits over this series.  Keep the comments coming. 

Coming up next – a response to a few of the comments from the last few days.  The biggest one being – how far is too far in terms of rivalry gloating?  More specifically when is the rivalry fun, versus mean?  Most Giants fans up here actually wish the rivalry were meaner like it was in the old days at Candlestick Park.  What do you think – is the Dodgers/Giants rivalry too soft, or too hard?  Let me know and I’ll compose the comments in the next post.

Work Cube Whiteboard

I’m writing this as I watch the Giants broadcasters dissect the game tonight. Let’s just say they’re a little stunned. As two of them said, they just weren’t expecting the Giants to get blown out like they did tonight. With the Giants pitching as it is, blowouts like this aren’t real common. Yet with the errors the Giants had tonight, it just wasn’t close. They spent a lot of time in their discussion stating just how good the Dodgers are this year. Bring on the spoon, because I can eat up that praise and their shock all day!  

Tonight just wasn’t close. Wolf and Ethier were on and Manny just raked. It was great to see Manny hit a homerun tonight. Hopefully his hand is feeling better now. He is officially claiming the title of “Giant Killer.” He continues to step up against the Giants and it’s just great to see the fans continue to hate him all the more for being so good.

Today was a fun day because it came after the win last night. I rubbed it in to my co-workers and put the Dodgers score on my whiteboard at work (See picture). I got some great comments. I had one guy who didn’t know I was a Dodgerfan say, “Why in the world are you celebrating that the Dodgers won?” I said, “BECAUSE I’M A DODGERFAN!” He rolled his eyes and then said, “well then I’m not coming back to your cube any time soon….” Such it is. 

Another Giants fan was lamenting that the Giants just can’t catch up when they are down. Last night, I was confident the Dodgers would win with a 4-1 lead (even though I was right on Broxton), and I was right.   The Giants have great pitching, but they just don’t have the offense.

The papers and the TV were touting how important this series was to the Giants.  After seeing the Dodgers struggle so much with Atlanta, it’s great to see them come in and build up their lead in the west.  Even if they lose to Lincecum tomorrow, the Dodgers still showed already why they are the best in the West.

I don’t want to rub it in too much tomorrow…but oh what fun to do what I can.  Go Blue.

Hiroki Kuroda - Fox Sports.com

Writing as I watch the game:

Great game so far.  As of right now, it’s the 6th and the Dodgers have a 4 to 1 lead.  I’m very glad to see the Dodgers offense starting to come around again.  After Manny hurt his hand, he seems to have slowed offensively, but he’s still getting on base, so hopefully he will come around soon.

Special thanks to all of you who checked in on the site as the Dodgers played the Giants.  It was obvious to me that more people are reading this week.  I’m in the process of looking for guest writers for SF Dodgerfan.com.  If you are passionate about the Dodgers/Giants and love to write (and ideally live in the Bay Area), shoot me an e-mail at scott@sfdodgerfan.com.

Here’s a few notables from the game:

Obviously Joe is still tweeking the lineup to manufacture runs.  Putting Russell Martin second, is different, but it worked tonight, so I’m sure he’ll keep it for a bit longer.

• Great to see Matt Kemp get the key hit.  He really is driving in the runs this year, and can’t be avoided.
• I had to agree with the announcers up here that the 1st base umpire really missed the calls at 1st base.  Twice he favored the Dodgers on the call.  Not that I mind, but he definitely got those wrong.
• Perhaps it was because the cameras only showed the lower fans, but there didn’t seem to be as many Dodger fans at this game.  I know there are always more up high, but perhaps it was just perspective.
• My hero so far in this game is Hiroki Kuroda.  In a game where Jason Schmidt was supposed to make his return to SF, Kuroda stepped right in where the Dodgers needed.  The thing I liked most was that he was hitting his spots…

Interruption——–

The Giants are again chanting “Beat LA.”  If I haven’t made it clear in previous posts, that has got to be the WORST sound on the face of the planet.  It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.  Arrggghhh.

Interruption ended———————

Kuroda just really has kept them off track and is going deep into the game.  If he is truly back and can be consistent, he is what the Dodgers need with Wolf to get into the Playoffs.  Time will tell if not getting Halladay was a mistake, but a healthy Kuroda definitely will help the Dodgers win the West.

We’ll see how this game ends up.  There’s still hope for Giants fans if Jonathan Broxton gets into the game.  He always makes it close for the Giants.  If he can finally beat the Giants strong – he has come a long way….otherwise, Torre should use Sherrill this series.  Go Blue.