O MANNY, WHERE ART THOU?

A Letter to the Dodgers Management

From a long suffering Fan,

Please sign Manny Ramirez. It makes too much sense. We saved millions by saying goodbye to Maddux, Kent, Nomar, Penny, Lowe and A.Jones. We stand to clear even more off the books next year (Schmidt) and resigned Blake and Furcal to below market deals.

I see you want to charge premium prices now for games vs. the Angels, Cubs, and Opening Day amongst others, not to mention the $15 you screw us for to park. How about giving us a player we can root for? SCREAM FOR! BUY DREADLOCKS FOR! It has been a long time since the Dodgers had a player that caused "Mania" like Manny-mania did. Did you really not enjoy the extra 5,000 or so fans a game down the stretch?

Look at this team. Our pitching is TERRIBLE. We're counting on Wolf, Kuroda, Billingsly and a bunch of kids or rejects to keep us in games. GIVE US A BAT TO ROOT FOR SINCE WE'LL BE TRAILING SO OFTEN! PLEASE?!?!?

3 years, 70 Million Dollars. Don't worry, it'll be worth it! LA WANTS MANNY TO BE MANNY!

Only 2.5 Games Back?

(This is a sure-fire Jinx!)

So I look at the standings today to see LA is only 2.5 back of AZ. How and when did that happen? I don't know about you and maybe it is just Lakers-mania, but I barely noticed or was that happy with the Dodgers SWEEEEEEEP of Cincy and the Wristband. I guess AZ managed to lose 3 in a row at the same time and presto, here we are.

It can't last though, right? St. Louis comes into town and outside of Atlanta and the American League, is there a team that owns us more? Not really. It always seems like they kick our ass. Well, this is at home so lets hope for the best.

Also, did anyone else notice that ANAHEIM got the 2010 All Star Game? Not "Los Angeles" where the Halos think they play, but Anaheim! This is still one of the dumbest moves in sports. OC is big and supports the Halos, so why are you dissing the OC and trying to be LA? Lame. Nice to see MLB call it correctly.

Blake DeWonderful

Ok, so that hack Nomar Garciaparra is close to healthy. That kid that has never proven himself in the majors is also just about back (Andy LaRoche). What are the Dodgers to do? Well dummy, KEEP PLAYING DEWITT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As a 22 year old rookie he's batting .322 with 4 HRs and 23 RBIs and he's 6 for 6 with bases loaded in his short career!!!!

I know one guy gets paid more, the other is a highly thought of prospect, but DeWitt is just producing, period. He carries himself well, plays good defense and has been a clutch hitter. What more can we ask for? So memo to Dead Head Ned and Torre, don't screw this up!!!

Furcal = NL MVP

Is there any question at this point that Furcal is/should be the front runner for the NL MVP award? With him leading off, the Dodgers rattled off 12 wins in 15 games, then Furcal goes out and LA drops 5 of our next 6. His .366 average is extremely missed!

To compound the problem, Brad Peso thinks it post All Star break already and has begun his annual choke job. Hey Penny, its only May! You owe us two more good to great months, lets go! We just can't buy any luck right now. Kuroda throws a 1 hitter and we're cruising, only to have Broxton make like Seanez and give up 12 runs on Mother's Day in a come from ahead loss. Lowe looks like crap but Billingsly is finally starting to pitch well. Can we just get it all rolling at the same time?

Now to Andruw Jones...this hurts me. I'm a big fan and always have been of Jones. I liked his game, liked his attitude, liked his love of Hooters and the Gold Club and liked our signing of him. Is it working? HECK NO! He's batting .170 with 1 dong and 5 RBIs. Joey Votto had like 5 RBIs in ONE GAME. Who? Exactly! Joey freaking Votto! Yet one of the 5 highest paid players in baseball cannot hit water falling out of a boat? Give me a break. You can't cut him, you can't really send him to the minors, but maybe we should just bench his ass for a solid week, make him get back to basics (and for gods sake, hit a treadmill Tubbo) and see if we can salvage this like SF did with Zito (so far). He's just killing us.

Mike Piazza used to have the perfect "quitters swing" for pitches he had no chance at and at bats he didn't want to be up for. It was a one handed choke job, pirouette followed by a walk back to the dugout. Why is this important? Because this is how Andruw ends ALMOST every at bat. He just swings at anything and looks so terrible. To his credit though, he did work Gagne for a walk last night only to have Juan Pierre pop up a first pitch with 2 on, down by 2, to end the game. Thanks you dick!

Anyway, we're back to .500 while AZ is surging again. I really thought this team was going to take a step foward but it looks impossible without Furcal. Hence the MVP status. Get well soon Rafy!!!

Much like the Dodgers, I'm taking April off!

With a trip to Italy and moving houses and hopefully changing jobs, I have been swamped this month. Its not like I have missed any Dodger highlights. A quick recap and then I'll be back in May with a vengeance!

1. Andruw Jones is a fat Tubbo that isn't anywhere close to earning his paycheck. I almost want to root for Pierre to play with Kemp and Ethier! Almost.....

2. Its Brad Penny and .................. Where did the pitching go? Billingsly is sucking, Loseriaza has always sucked. Kuo is not very good. Lowe has been just ok, at best. Kuroda looks ok but gets no support. Nice job!

3. We can't hit water if we fell out of a boat. No bats? Russell, Loney, etc. all struggling. Thank god for Furcal. Of course he's playing for $$$ so expect a great year.

4. We can't beat ATL (what is new there) and we're fighting SF for last place. Completely unacceptable. The West is a joke. COL was overrated but LA and SD sucking too? Hey Hoffman, try making saves and not blowing them! HA!

This Post Brought to you by THINK CURE!

Ok, props to McCourt for coming up with the idea of copying the Jimmy Fund, calling it Think Cure and holding a 50th reunion at the Coliseum on Saturday night. It was a good time and a good cause.

I could go on and on and rip McCourt and the Dodgers for the parking/tram issues but who needs it, really? I blame the caltrans idiot for posting on the electronic signs that the Coliseum was full and to park at Dodger Stadium. That was a lie. We got to Dodger Stadium at 5pm, saw the 3 hour line for a bus, got back in our cars, drove the 10 minutes to the Coliseum, found FREE street parking and walked to the game by the first pitch. Plenty of other people did the same thing.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Had everyone that wanted to park at Dodger Stadium called, made a reservation and stuck to it, it probably would have better organized but I bet most of you did not!

Now to the game. It was rough. Our tickets were basically on top of the torch. If you did not have binoculars, you were not seeing anything. It was far too great of a distance to enjoy the game. That and giving up 5 runs early. Anyway, it was cool to see the place and be part of the largest crowd to ever see a baseball game. My stub will be on Ebay shortly....ha ha

One complaint, the only thing missing was Jerry and Kids. Having a sponsor for a first pitch EVERY inning slowed the game down a TON. Outside of Kareem two-hopping his pitch and then firing a hook shot instead, it was lame. Glad it raised it a lot of money and hopefully it helps cancer research!

Try the Dim Sum

The Dodgers head to China for two games vs. San Diego. Does MLB really need to screw with the spring routine by scheduling this crap in March? Teams are trying to get ready for the games that count but instead they have to travel the globe, with a bunch of AAA players, to play in China? Why not do this in Oct. (with two teams far out of playoffs) or right after the World Series? I'm just glad most of the starters aren't going. If Torre is jet-lagged, Bowa can call the shots. If Penny is jet-lagged, we're screwed.

On the plus side, this does allow Tommy Lasorda to manage a few games for the team. Much like Scully, Tommy is a cornerstone of the franchise and should be respected and cherished by all. Here's hoping Andruw Jones stays away from the Beijing Hooters and focuses on baseball.