Vin Scully - 9/13/09

Went to the game and saw the Dodgers get their little behinds beat….bad. At one point I said to my wife, “wow, what an exiting game…” not.  It was fun being there…but not so fun being killed.

Let’s just say Chad Billingsley is not ready for the playoffs.  I talked to another fan who felt that he hasn’t been the same since the All-Star game.  I would agree.  Something is off.  The thing I noticed today wasn’t that he was wild – it was that they were crushing his pitches.  I don’t know if it was his velocity down, or that they knew what was coming, but those balls were just flying off the bats.  Jon Weisman thinks he’s been worked to hard this year (click here).

Weaver and Belisario didn’t seem much better.  Weaver got hit from the first pitch and Belisario just kept bringing them in.

Here were the real highlights of the day, since the Dodgers didn’t bring too many.

• Even in the parking lot at the train station I had a fan stop, roll down his window and “boo” at me in my Dodger gear.  Got to love living up here.
• We had really nice seats in the club level and still had a lot of Dodger fans around.  There were over 40k people at the game, but the blue was out.  As you can see in the above picture, we were really close to Vin Scully too, which was very fun.
• Russell Martin has figured something out.  He hit 2 homeruns over the weekend, and even when he got out today, he was hitting the ball well.  Not sure what happened, but here’s hoping he has a good September.  He seems to have gotten his grove back.
• There was a pretty funny situation near the end of the game.  They put up the Padres/Rockies score and that the Padres had won.  It was funny because both sets of fans started cheering.  Both the Dodgers and Giants want to see the Rockies lose, so it was funny to finally have something that both sides could cheer about.
• Special thanks to Dave and Kevin on the train ride home.  You guys are the epitome of good Giants fans.  You were great to talk to, up on your sports, and had lots of good things to say about the Dodgers, with just enough taunting too.  If we’re ever at a game again together, I’ll gladly buy you both a beer.

Well – there goes the series.  Time to play the Pirates briefly, then more Giants.  I’m glad we took 2 of 3, I just wish we could have finished strong today.

Funny Scoreboard

Finally, here’s a fun game to end the post.  Can you find what’s wrong with the picture here?  Let’s just say the scoreboard was having some technical difficulties at one point in the game.  It’s a little small, but hopefully you can see what happened.  Post your thoughts below.

Here’s the pitching match ups for the 3 games:

Friday
Hiroki Kuroda, RHP (5-6, 4.15)
Matt Cain, RHP (13-4, 2.51)

Saturday
Vicente Padilla, RHP (10-6, 4.63)
Jonathan Sanchez, LHP (6-11, 4.03)

Sunday
Chad Billingsley, RHP (12-9, 3.93)
Brad Penny, RHP (9-8, 5.15)

Learned something new tonight – The Dodgers have a great probable pitchers write up that gives a great comparison of each of these pitchers.  (Click Here)  It’s a good write up on their recent performance, but it stays nuetral on who will win….

I won’t stay neutral.  Here’s my picks.

Friday – Advantage Dodgers.  Matt Cain will out pitch Kuroda, but as always, the Dodgers will break it open against the bullpen.

Saturday – Advantage Dodgers.  I think Padilla can beat out Sanchez.  Sanchez is pitching well of late though.

Sunday – I hate to say it since I’ll be there, but Advantage Giants.  Billingsley just doesn’t seem to have it right now, and Penny is a man on a mission to stick it to the Dodgers.

Bottom line – they will be close…especially if Broxton does the closing.  The Dodgers again need to take 2 of 3 to stay on top and show who should take the division.  The Dodgers were fortunate not to face Lincecum this series.  That is the big concern up here is whether his back will be ok.  He is their Ace and they want him back.  There were even conspiracy theories up here that he was kept out a game to set him up against the Rockies on Monday.  It doesn’t ring true though because they need him to win every game he can…not sit on the bench.

I was hoping for a Padilla/Penny matchup to see if my brawl prediction comes through, but it could still happen.  If Padilla brushes someone back, Penny may try to finish it off the next day.  I should have plenty to write about if their is a brawl when I’m there on Sunday.

Keep coming back – more to come each day of the series.

I have to admit I was pretty disappointed when I found out that Manny Ramirez still has a really good chance to make the All-Star game this year.  I know he will have the month of June to make his case, and he is definitely popular, but I believe that anyone who gets suspended for steriods for 50 games shouldn’t get to play in the All-Star game.  It just isn’t right.  It is an honor, and most of the time a pay raise for a lot of guys to be in that game, and to keep someone else from going for a guy who cheated just isn’t right.  It sounds like Joe Torre is on the same page, but it certainly didn’t seem that way from the Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.  He said it would be an “honor” for Manny to play.  That still seems like a bad quote from a guy who’s number 1 player just got busted for cheating.

I actually don’t vote for the All-Stars a lot any more (I used to love pushing out the tabs at the ball-game), but this year, I’m going to vote for three players.   These guys have been all-stars in every part of the word and should get their shot.

Juan Pierre - Fox Sports.com

First, Juan Pierre.  Manny’s replacement doesn’t hit homeruns, but he steals bases, is hitting like crazy and is doing everything possible to help the team.  Just look at his stats the last few games:

The hits alone is crazy.

Casey Blake - Fox Sports.com

Second, Casey Blake.  Where would the Dodgers be without him this year?  He is just clutch and has a lot more homeruns than Manny.  He can be streaky, but he drove in the winning run again two nights ago and was involved last night.  He was a good pickup and will definitely provide stability at third for the next few years.

Jonathan Broxton - Fox Sports.com

Finally, Jonathan Broxton.  Who would have thought that we wouldn’t be missing Saito.  Broxton has shored up his game, and as long as they keep him out against the Giants, he can definitely pitch.

Honorable mention to Chad Billingsley.  He really has become the ace this year.  The Dodgers are now 9.5 games ahead in the West.  I read today that they haven’t been that far out in front since 1988 when they won the World Series.  Too early to predict the World Series, but they are a very good team.  

Go Blue.

Manny Whiteboard

I had to include this picture as one of the posts.  This is the whiteboard of the cube across from mine at work.  He put this up yesterday, and has every intention of counting down the days and rubbing it in.  Yes, he’s a Giants fan.  He’s really more of a Sharks fan, but he’s from around here, so he’ll jump on anything anti-Dodgers he can.  It’s actually a pretty funny picture, but yes, life as a Dodgers fan living in Giants territory.

Great stories in the SF Chronicle about the Manny debacle.  One of the comments from my last post brought this up, but apparently what Manny took is a common drug used to recover from steroid use.  The story keeps getting worse and worse.  Here was my favorite comment from the SF Chronicle writer Scott Ostler (See article here):

“Manny Ramirez flunked a drug test because of meds he got from a Florida doctor. Ramirez isn’t providing any more info, so we’re all free to speculate on the nature of his “personal health issue.”

I’m going to go ahead and rule out dandruff.

From what drug experts say about HCG, the banned drug Ramirez used, there’s a good chance Manny used the stuff to boost his flagging testosterone production and head off embarrassing side effects.

So it wasn’t Manny being Manny, it was Manny not wanting to be Franny.

Let’s take a wild swing and speculate that Ramirez took the HCG to deal with the negative side effects of steroids. If so, Manny will no longer be known as simply a great hitter and fun-loving clubhouse guy who, by the way, quit on his team and roughed up an elderly team employee.

He will be asterisked forever.”

I’m sure every paper in the nation had stories on him today.  I guess I am just too trusting because I believed his original statement.  I’m convinced now that I was the only one in the country who did this.  He got ripped to shreds in the internet articles.  Testing is more strict now, and he still used the drugs.  We obviously have no idea of the pressure to be worth the money, but the drugs are obviously rampant.

The people thrilled right now are the Giants and their fans.  They did want Manny, but already dealt with steroids with Barry Bonds.  If they had signed him, and then this came out, it would be even more embarrassment for the organization and fans.  This also means the Giants fans will boast all the more that they made the right decision, when they really didn’t have a chance at Manny…but such it is.

I’m watching the Giants play the Dodgers tonight at Dodger Stadium.  Good pitchers duel.  I’m telling you, Barry Zito has figured something out with Pablo Sandoval, and he looks good again.  Billingsley looked good, and so did Pierre, but Martin should have never gone to second on his hit.  That really killed the rally with Casey Blake’s double.  Hopefully the Dodgers will turn it around, but we’ll see.  The bullpen blew it last night,  so hopefully they can get another chance tonight.

Until next time from anti-Manny land…

Chad Billingsley - Gina Ferazzi/L.A. Times

10-0 at home to start the season.  What a way to start.  I love the fact that I was at the 1st game of this streak that was a Giants romp.  To win today with out Ramirez, Blake, Martin and Furcal makes it all the sweeter.  The Dodgers have depth and they can score runs.  It was good to see Pierre having fun out there again today too.

I said it earlier, Billingsley may be in the Cy Young voting this year.  If he is, the Dodgers will be in the playoffs.  He was the question mark ace this year, but there’s no questions now.

I’ve realized one of the things I miss most about not being in L.A. is not hearing Vin Scully call the game just by turning on the radio.  I could get satalite radio, but I don’t know that’s worth it just for that.  I did however get the MLB package where I can watch every game on the computer.  I even upgraded this year so I can plug it in to my big screen and watch it in HD.

I got to hear Vin today and he had a story that cracked me up.  If you heard the game, you may have heard it, but it was classic Vin.  He was talking about how the players years ago fought and fought to avoid wearing helmets when on the base paths.  Apparently they would wear it when batting, but put their soft cap in their back pocket and take the helmet off when they reached first base.  He was commenting how things have changed now and that guys have now swung the other way.  They keep their helmet on, and when the ball is coming towards them, they usually cover the ear that isn’t protected.  He even had a case in point when Ethier was on base.

What was funny though was when he shifted the story.  He made the point that as slow as it was for players it was even slower for coaches at 1st and 3rd base.  He commented that even now they wear a helmet, but it doesn’t cover their ears.  I couldn’t write it all down, but he made a comment something to the effect that, “now if a ball comes straight down on their head, they are protected, but if it comes from the side, that helmet is worthless…” 

It was just a classic Vin telling a story, but leaking a little bias as only he can.  He was dripping the sarcasm pretty thick because the balls coming straight down are the easy ones to dodge, but the coaches are always dodging ones to the side, but have no protection.  Who knew he had an opinion on coaches helmets, but obviously so.  He finished by saying that at some point the light will finally come in, as if to say that some year those coaches will finally figure it out and protect their ears.

In his 60th year, I don’t know that we’ll have too many more of him at the microphone, but he sure is fun to listen to.  I bet for him seeing the Dodgers go 10-0 at home is a treat because even that hasn’t happened in 60 years.