8) Dodgers beat the Pirates 5-2. The Pods won down south, so the Dodgers are 1/2 game behind the Padres in the West and 1/2 game ahead of the Phillies in the Wildcard race with 9 games to go... The Dodgers broke their all-time attendance mark tonight, with three home games left... The Dodgers will finish on the road with Colorado and the (burp) Giants... The Pirates go to San Diego next and we wish them good luck and good hunting. They're the most improved team that we saw all year and they actually had the best record in the National League Central after the All-Star break. Jim Tracy and his staff are outstanding coaches and they have a lot of good, young talent. The Buccos Freddy Sanchez is winning the NL batting title going away... 45 years ago last night, the Dodgers played their final game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, before moving to the brand new Dodger Stadium the following year. In that final game, Sandy Koufax beat the Chicago Cubs 3-2, pitching ALL 13 innings in a complete game performance where he threw more than 200 pitches! ...........DD
Yeah in todays game neither he or Drysdale would throw the number of complete games as they did in their careers, and given Sandy's elbow problem he might have lasted 5 years longer and been just as effective. I wonder if modern surgical techniques would have helped him as well. I actually forget what exactly was wrong with his elbow. I just remember pictures of him soaking it in an ice bath after each outing.
:!: Koufax was finished at age 30. Don Drysdale was through at 33. Neither of them ever spent a day in the minor leagues. Koufax joined the Dodgers directly out of high school in Brooklyn at age 18, while Drysdale joined the team directly out of Van Nuys High School here in SoCal at age 17. BTW- Drysdale was also a 6'6" 2nd baseman at Van Nuys, where the starting 1st baseman was Robert Redford... Both Drydale and Koufax routinely threw complete games, extra inning games and pitched in a four-man rotation (not 5 like today) and often threw on three or even TWO days rest in a pennant race. Modern surgery would have extended both of their amazing careers, no doubt, but its difficult to imagine either one in modern baseball. Both would throw 300 or more innings every year, flaming away at 100 mph through the entire game. There is simply nothing to compare them with in modern baseball... ............DD
8) Dodgers lose to fall 1 1/2 games behind the Pods and 1/2 game behind the Phillies in the Wildcard with 7 to go. This team may not make it. They are 1-57 when trailing after 7 innings. Their only late-inning, big comeback was the "Monday Miracle." The Dodgers will use a three-man rotation from here on in: Lowe, Penny and Maddux... ..................DD :cry:
:shock: The Wild West and the Wildcard are finishing up in dramatic fashion. In the Dodgers final home game of the season, Nomar Garciaparra hit a walk-off grand slam HR to beat the Dbacks 5-1... An interesting story here is the pitching of Hong Chih Kuo. He's a lefthanded flamethrower, who's had two Tommy John surgeries and failed as a relief pitcher because of poor control. After spending most of the year at Triple-A Las Vegas, he's returned to the team as a solid starting pitcher with outstanding control. He's already been named to next year's regular starting rotation by skipper Grady Little... Colorado and Frisco for the Dodgers, while the Padres finish with St. Louis and Arizona. Six games left... ...................DD
Hey Dodger Dog... Who's Lee Smith? Somebody got a save yesterday and supposedly moved into #2 on the all-time save list behind only Lee Smith. I never heard of Lee Smith.
Lee Smith http://www.thebaseballpage.com/players/smithle02.php Lee Smith was a good, but NOT great pitcher who lasted 18 years for several different teams and finished as the all-time saves leader. He was just a guy who hung around for a long time, but who never performed in the clutch, which is why he isn't in the Hall of Fame. I expect that many modern pitchers will pass him by on the all-time list in the next few decades. Remember, the role of "closer" was only invented by Tony LaRussa back in the late 1970's. That all-time saves list will be shredded soon and Lee Smith will fade away...IMHO. ...............DD
I think the closer was conceived earlier than that. You must remember Mike Marshall of the Dodgers in the early 70's.
8) You're forgetting that I am a Dodger fan who's familiar with all of their players going back to 1958. It was the Dodgers who invented many of the modern ideas of bullpen theory dating back to the late 1940's. When they arrived here in LA in '58, they came with the best bullpen in either league, featuring Clem Labine, Eddie Roebuck, Johnny Klipstein and Larry Sherry who was the MVP of the 1959 World Series. Dr. Mike Marshall was a unique character and a great pitcher, but he was not a closer. He would often be brought in as early as the 7th inning and it was not unusual for him to finish both ends of a double-header or pitch multiple innings of every game in a series. Dr. Marshall claimed to be able to control the amount of wear and tear on his arm with special techniques that he used and to a certain extent, he succeeded. Tony LaRussa invented the modern one-inning closer with Dennis Ekersley when he managed the Oakland A's. The closer's job is to pitch one inning only and only when his team has the lead. In effect, this makes it an 8 inning game, instead of 9 innings. Since the invention of the closer, more specialty relief jobs have emerged, such as the set-up man and middle reliever. This in turn, has changed the job of the starter, from attempting to go all nine, to throwing just 65-100 quality pitches... ..............JO'Co
I'll yield to you superior intel on the Dodgers. Marshall sure looked like a closer to me when I watched him pitch several times from the bleachers of Riverfront Stadium when the Dodgers played my beloved Reds.
Trevor Hoffman, that was the dude who I was referring to, he got another save last night and is past the great Lee Smith into #1 all time save leader. errr ...who the hell is Trevor Hoffman? He doesn't play for the Yankees does he?
8) re: Trevor Hoffman He's the brother of the Padres 3rd base coach, who's a friend of IrishDave, whom you've met... re: Phillies I've been worried about the Phillies all year. I thought that they were the 2nd best team in the National League after the Mets, based on what I saw and like the Dodgers, they're young and improving, so they're probably even better than the last time that I saw them... ..................DD
Trevor Hoffman was a shortstop with a cannon arm duing his college years at Arizona (87-89) and was drafted by the Reds. He couldn't make it out of Single A as a position player, so he tried his hand at relieving...
8) The Dodgers beat the Rockies 11-4. I don't want to accuse a team of rolling over and playing dead in a pennant race, but the Rockies sure looked like Fido-on-the-freeway to me. They had infielders diving out of the way from hard hit line drives and they brought in a 30 year-old minor league pitcher who was only the 2nd Denver-born player in their team history. He lasted about ten seconds as Russell Martin tripled with the bases loaded, then scored on a wild, wild pitch, then Marlon Anderson blasted a bomb that left a contrail of sparks as it left town on its way to Colorado Springs. If this were April, that pitcher would already be on the bus back to the boonies... San Diego won against the collapsing Cardinals, who may yet be caught by the Stros. The Phillies lost, so the Dodgers are two behind the Pods in the West and one ahead of the Phils in the Wildcard with 5 games to go... ..............DD BTW- Marlon Anderson in 21 games for the Dodgers is batting over .400 with 6 HRs.
If it happens I will be ashamed at how many times I have quit on the Astros this year!! May have set an all-time record for waffling in support of my team!
8) Hell...you should be ashamed of giving up on them the last two years! You're the Stros secret weapon! Every time you toss in the towel, they revive and arise from the dead. If I can find an itsy-bitsy waffle I'll send it to you... ...............DD PS. What in the world has happened to the Cardinals?
8) Dodgers win at Colorado for the 14th time in 18 games. The Pods lost to the Cards and the Phillies finally beat Washington in the 14th inning, so the Dodgers are one game behind San Diego in the West and one game ahead of the Phillies with four games to go... re: Cardinals collapse The greatest collapse in baseball history was the Phillies blowing a 6 1/2 game lead with 12 to play in 1964. The Cardinals can achieve baseball infamy if the blow this thing. They had a 7 game lead with 12 to play... If the Dodgers and Padres finish in a tie, there will be a one-game playoff at Dodger Stadium. If all three teams finish with the same record, there will be a one-game playoff at Dodger Stadium, with the loser playing a one-game playoff at Philadelphia to determine the Wildcard...