The Dodgers completed their season sweep of the Cincinnati Reds 7-3 behind the amazing Greg Maddux. I'm running out of superlatives to describe this guy and there's little to compare him with, except long dead names in the Hall of Fame. Tonight's victory knocks Steve Carlton out of the all-time Top Ten and it was pure Maddux magic. In 7 innings he threw only 77 pitches...13 balls and 64 strikes. That's fewer than 2 balls per inning! He also made several miracle plays on defense and knocked in 2 runs as a hitter...one RBI on a single and another on a suicide squeeze! How valuable is Maddux to the Dodgers? That was their only suicide squeeze of the year. Think about it. In a call-in poll before the game, Dodger fans were asked who the starting pitcher should be in the playoffs and a majority picked Maddux over either Brad Penny or Derek Lowe... This win puts the Dodgers 9 games over .500, which is their widest margin of the year. It also gives them the 2nd best record in the National League, ahead of the Cardinals and behind the NY Mets. This win also gives the Dodgers 21 victories in August, which is their all-time team record... .................DD
8) Dodgers off tonight... BTW- I hear that the Red Sox have raised the white flag and traded one of their starting pitchers to San Diego. Remind us to return that favor some time... re: more Maddux After last night's game, the radio call-in show contained more info as it always does. Many Dodger Dogs (fans) who go to the game call in to the show on their cell phones from the parking lot to report on what they saw. If you've ever tried to get out of Dodger Stadium after a game, you know that those guys aren't going anywhere anyway, because there's only three exits and the games are always sold out, so they might as well have a beer and talk to A. Martinez on his show while they wait for the parking lot to clear out... Our spies reported something very unusual. Before the game, the ENTIRE DODGER PITCHING STAFF was in the bullpen watching Greg Maddux warm up! If Sandy Friggen Koufax himself has suited up, he couldn't have garnered more awe and respect than Maddux. The other pitchers regard him as some kind of exotic treasure, like the natives observing Faye Wray on Kong Island. Derek Lowe now owns an exact duplicate of the kind of game socks that Maddux has and he wears them the same way. Rookie catcher Russell Martin follows him around like a puppy dog and Maddux calls the kid "Rusty", which Martin loves. The whole thing reminds me of the scene in The Natural where the entire team wears lightning bolts on their sleeves, because Roy Hobbs does... Roy Effen Hobbs indeed... ...........DD 8)
8) Derek Lowe may be confused, but he was clear-headed enough to beat the Rockies again and the Dodgers are now 10 games over .500 and pulling away from the Padres... They have already won more games under GM Ned Colletti than they did all of last season under the Boy Wonder...
8) re: Lowe The last time you guys saw Lowe he was beating you, but I can't see this Dodger team making the World Series. If we make it, luck will have to carry us, because we're not the best team. The best team that we saw this year was the Minnesota Twins and they may not even make the playoffs in the American League. We still have too many young players in key roles and we need two more pitchers, so we're still a year away at least... Today's LA Times is suggesting that the Dodgers obtain A-Rod from the Crankees for several young prospects, but I'd rather have the prospects. These kids have already arrived... re: Today's game Dodgers lose 12-5, which stops their 7 game winning streak and ends the Rockies 9 game losing streak... re: the blast In today's game, the Rockies Matt Holiday hit the 3rd longest HR in Dodger Stadium history. Vin Scully said of it, "You could have watched a movie on that flight!" Elmer Dessens hung an overhand curve and Holliday sent a skyrocket completely over the leftfield bullpen wall and out of the park. It struck one of the Three Sisters (palm trees) that line the sidewalk out there. The tree that it struck is 481 feet from home plate and the tree prevented it from sailing further. The longest HR ever hit here was Wilver Stargell's bomb off Alan Foster in 1969 that landed on top of the pavillion roof in RF and bounced out into the parking lot. That spot on the roof was measured at 506 feet. Mark McGwire hit the pavillion roof in leftfield a few years back at 483 feet, but it stayed in the park for the 2nd longest... Big series coming up with the Mets and Padres in what looks like a good old-fashioned pennant race... ..............DD :wink:
The season is now 7/8 over and the Dodgers are: 5-5 -- 10-10 5-5 -- 13-17 3-7 -4 20-20 7-3 -- 28-22 8-2 +6 33-27 5-5 +6 36-34 3-7 +2 41-39 5-5 +2 46-44 5-5 +2 47-53 1-9 -6 55-55 8-2 -- 64-56 9-1 +8 68-62 4-6 +6 74-66 6-4 +8 Last year at the 140 game mark the Dodgers were: 63-77 -14 George in Ct.
8) Dodgers are off today after beating the Mets with two rookie pitchers named Stultz and Hong Chi Kuo. The future looks brite, but somehow I just can't picture the team winning the World Series this year with pitching like that. The plan for the final games is to basically go with a three-man rotation whenever possible: Maddux 5 starts, Lowe 5 starts, Penny 4 starts and fill-in the blanks with rookies... ..............DD
8) re: Gagne I haven't heard that he resigned with the club. The last that I heard, he wanted to and had even asked his agent to take less money, because he loves the Dodgers and playing in Los Angeles... Could he return to the form he had before? I don't see how. He was unique in baseball history. His record of 84 consecutive saves boggles the mind. The previous record was 44. He made it all look so easy, that whiners were complaining that the save rule should be changed to prevent "easy saves"; whatever that means. Easy for who? It reminded me of when I played high school basketball and they outlawed the dunk, because it also was "too easy." Too easy for whom? Wilt Chamberlain? Bill Russell? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Nobody may ever be that good again, but Gagne is only 30 years old, he's had this surgery before and the Dodgers are the team that invented that kind of surgery anyway. Their starting pitcher tomorrow, Hong Chih Kuo, has also had several of these surgeries and he still throws near 100 mph, so there is a record of success with this procedure. If Gagne still has control over those four incredible pitches...or even three of them, he will be worth whatever they pay him. His talent and competitiveness are special... ....................DD
8) Dodgers beat the Padres last night. Greg Maddux no-hitter was spoiled in the 7th inning, leaving him in 3rd place on the all-time list of pitchers with the most wins without a no-hitter. The list: Grover Cleveland Alexander 373 wins Roger Clemens 347 wins Greg Maddux 331 wins ...and not a single no-hitter among them. That's especially incredible for Clemens who has been a power pitcher for over 20 years... ...............DD
The Dodgers lose in the 9th 2-1 and fall out of first place for the first time since August 9. They are now 1/2 game behind the Padres in the West and one game ahead of the Phillies in the Wildcard race. The Padres have beaten the Dodgers 13 of 17 this year. The difference is pitching. ............DD PS. Having a bad weekend. At least Damien High School won... :roll:
Oh my GOD! This may have been the greatest regular season game ever played at Dodger Stadium! Another sell-out crowd of 55,000+ broke the all-time Dodger attendance record for a four game series (1963) with 218,000 fans coming to see the Dodgers battle the Padres for the Wild West... Vin Scully was finally speechless. Rick Monday called it "The most remarkable thing I've seen in 41 years as a player and broadcaster and nothing else comes close." The crowd was on its feet most of the game, going absolutely berzerk... The Dodgers trailed 9-5 going into the bottom of 9th inning. Then Jeff Kent hit a HR. The thousands who were streaming into the parking lot locked their cars and began running back into the stadium, smelling something big. The next batter, JD Drew, hit a massive HR measured at 461 feet and the crowd looked like a howling mob. The third batter, Russell Martin hit the first pitch into the pavillion in left field, as his father led the insanity in the stands. The fourth batter, Marlon Anderson, also hit the first pitch for a HR to tie the game for back-to-back-to-back-to-back home runs to tie the game! Dodger Stadium was rocking with the ghost of Kirk Gibson! It was only the fourth time in major league history that any team had hit four consecutive HRs and it was the first time that the Dodgers (1890) had ever done it! The fact that the Dodgers are dead last in HRs in all of MLB makes this even more remarkable. The last two HRs were off future Hall-of-Famer Trevor Hoffman, who had saved 55 games against the locals in his career, with only one blown save... The Game went to the tenth inning and the Padres got a run to go ahead 10-9. In the bottom of the 10th, Kenny Lofton got a hit and Nomar Garciaparra hit a walk-off HR to win the game and touch off a celebration not seen here since V-J Day. After the game, Nomar couldn't even talk, because he'd lost his voice from screaming. The Padres looked like the A's after Gibson's miracle and the Dodgers are back in first place with 12 games to go! This is the weirdest rivalry. The Padres had beaten the Dodgers 13 out of 17 going into this game. Against the rest of MLB, they were only 65-66. But now, none of that matters... I've never seen anything like this. What are the odds of the team with the fewest HRs in baseball swatting 4 in-a-row? Then hitting a walk-off one inning later? The Dodgers trailed this game 4-0 after one inning, but came back again and again and again and yet again to win this thing. Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow...wow! A game for the ages at just the right time! .................DD
The season is now 15/16 over and the Dodgers are: 5-5 -- 10-10 5-5 -- 13-17 3-7 -4 20-20 7-3 -- 28-22 8-2 +6 33-27 5-5 +6 36-34 3-7 +2 41-39 5-5 +2 46-44 5-5 +2 47-53 1-9 -6 55-55 8-2 -- 64-56 9-1 +8 68-62 4-6 +6 74-66 6-4 +8 79-71 5-5 +8 Last year at the 150 game mark the Dodgers were: 67-83 -14 George in Ct.
In my reading this morning I came across this interesting bit of sports trivia involving the Dodgers: On 8/5/42 the defending NL Champion Dodgers were 10 games ahead of the Cardinals. By the end of the season the Cards won 43 of their last 51 games to win the NL Pennants. The Cards won 106 games and the Dodgers won 104, and 104 is the most wins ever by a club that did not make the playoffs.
Well... <t>Serves me right as I had watched the last tow of this series on MLB Extra and decided to watch CSI Miami season opener instead of the Dodger game. What an incredible game that had to be. Sorry I missed it. I will go over the the MLB site and catch the highlights.</t>
I want to share this personal baseball story without starting a new topic. Last Friday, my son Brian was in Chicago on business. They went to lunch at the James Hotel. Ernie Banks was in the restaurant and when recognized by the young men at Brian's table, came over and sat down with them and chatted for 20-30 minutes. Brian told him a story that I've long since forgotten. When he made the LL all-star team he was given #14 which was not the number he wanted. I told him it was an honor to wear that number because it was Ernie Banks' number. Brian said that Ernie was genuinely excited to hear that story. Brian also said that Ernie's eyes were happy eyes. I got choked up listening to Brian describe the experience. To top it off, Brian got his autograph, which reads, "Sid, Think Big! Ernie Banks, Mr. Cub". Ernie and Stan Musial were my two childhood idols. Now, through the thoughtfulness of others, I have the personalized autographs of both great players. Today, I'm the luckiest guy......in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.
Sid.. <t>Great suff. Count me as a Musial guy as well. To this day I am a Cards fan because of following Stan the Man as a kid.<br/> You are a fortunate guy to have those signatures.</t>