Before he gets to that issue, Mattingly first needs to figure out that his set up man would be a better closer that his present closer. Watched Puig on my MLB app last week. While he does have an incredible physicality, the best part of the game was listening to Scully. That guy is a national treasure. His command of the language, his incredible memory, and the feel that he has for the pace of a baseball game is probably the stuff of genius. That he is able to do what he does at his age and still do it better than anyone else makes him an unfathomable talent. He is the last in the line of great baseball announcers who learned their craft on radio and during TV's infancy. Enjoy him while you can Jo' Co, because we will not see another like him.
:idea: re: Dodger relief pitchers Bobda, all Dodger Dogs agree with your analysis. We cringe every time Brandon League is brought in as a "closer." He was run out of Seattle, because he couldn't do that job there, and I've seen no evidence that he can do it here. Meanwhile, Kenley Jansen, a 6'5" flamethrower, is usually unhittable, but Mattingly and the GM are still trying to justify the 2-year extension they gave to League. Good luck with that one... re: Scully He really is the most valuable Dodger every year. The broadcaster's wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame was created for him and he was the first inductee. It's impossible to imagine Dodger baseball without him. He became the Dodgers broadcaster in 1950...the year I was born. In the first 20 years after the team arrived here in 1958, Dodger fans would bring transistor radios to the game so that they could listen to his poetry as the game unfolded. He got his nickname, "El Supremo" during the 1960's, because of his enormous influence here. He used to ask Dodger fans to "turn on your lights if you support the team" as they drove to work and was shocked when millions did exactly as he requested... For sixty-three years, he has worked alone in the booth, having a conversation with the people of SoCal and Brooklyn, about the one thing that unites all the different cultures that live here: Dodger baseball. For him to not be there is unimaginable...
If I'm not mistaken Scully wasn't taken on road trips when he was in Brooklyn and did the games by recreating them from a news feed ....remember those tape machines...he had a crack of the bat machine and crowd noise machine. He had to create the game all in his mind...might be one reason he is so good at what he does.
Scully has some really hairy stories about his early days in the sports broadcasting business. Before his Dodger days, he was hired to broadcast Notre Dame football when the team played in Chicago. He tells the tale of how he was just a kid trying to break in, so they put him up on the roof of Soldier's Field in Chicago with an old microphone and a long cord. He had to run back and forth, nearly falling off several times, in a rainstorm, as he broadcast the game...
BTW- Do any of you guys follow a minor league team called the Great Lakes Loons? The Dodgers have a phenom down there. They actually signed him before they signed Puig on a Mexican scouting trip. He's 5'11" 160 lbs with a 95 mph... and he's only 16 years-old. The youngest player in that league in more than twenty years. His name is Julio Urias and I haven't seen him play yet.
The National League finally found a way to stop Superman tonight and it started World War III. D-Back pitcher Ian Kennedy hit Puig in the face with a fastball. That's the same Kennedy who led the NL in hit batters last season with 14. He's already hit 8 this year, and with a manager like Kirk Gibson, there will be more... <iframe src='http://wapc.mlb.com/shared/video/embed/embed.html?content_id=27949855&width=400&height=224&property=mlb' width='400' height='224' frameborder='0'>Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe> In retaliation, Dodger pitcher Zach Greinke hit D-Back catcher (Montero) and this caused the benches to empty. BTW- the toughest guys in those dugouts are the batting coaches: Mark McGwire (Dodgers) and Don Baylor (D-Backs). <iframe src='http://wapc.mlb.com/shared/video/embed/embed.html?content_id=27950171&width=400&height=224&property=mlb' width='400' height='224' frameborder='0'>Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe> :shock: Not to be out-done...In the next inning, Montero gets together with his pal Kennedy and they hit GREINKE in the head, which precipitated a full-scale brawl... Kennedy was ejected immediately, and five other player followed him out later, including Puig. This got ugly with McGwire wading through the D-Backs like a hot knife through stale cheese and at least one D-Back player being bent over the railing and beaten... http://wapc.mlb.com/play?content_id=27951177 Before the night was over, the D-Backs hit another Dodger, Mark Ellis. Kirk Gibson's savages already have several on-going wars with other teams and now you can add the Dodgers to that list. They purposely hit three batters, two of them in the head. This war is just beginning BTW- Bobda will be happy to know that the Dodgers won tonight, because the new closer, Kenley Jansen, closed the game with pitches clocked 94-97 mph...
Wow...I see that Puig stayed in the game. I can't imagine getting a 92 mph fastball in the face and being able to stay in the game. I hope it doesn't get in his head and ruin the great start he has had.
:idea: re: ruin the great start he had That's why the D-Backs did it. The three guys who were hit were... 1. Yasiel Puig The Baby Effing Ruth himself. 2. Zach Greinke The Dodgers starting pitcher who retaliated against Montero. 3. Mark Ellis The D-Back killer. His batting average against certain D-Back pitchers is over .600... Greinke getting hit in the head was apparently Montero's idea. Gibson said he didn't order it and went on to explain that you don't aim at a guys head anyway. Montero is now dead to all National League pitchers. Catchers don't retaliate. Hitting a batter is a decision that has to come from the manager and/or the pitcher. You can't have sorehead catchers calling plunks on their own or it's going to be World War III every night. It's too late to stop this war. After the game Dodger broadcasters Rick Monday and Kevin Kennedy were openly saying as much...
8) Dodger pitchers say it's not over, including Belisario, Howell, and guys on the DL like Beckett and Lilly who participated in the brawl...
Beckett made a career out of hitting Yankees, especially Jeter. When he threw the ball over the plate they crushed him.
Beckett and Lilly are the old, washed up guys at the end of the rotation...making them the perfect candidates to hit both Montero and Kennedy. If they get ejected, who cares? BTW- Home gamers might want to check out a rookie pitcher that the Dodgers just brought up from Albuquerque last night. He's a former top pick named Chris Withrow. The notoriously slow Dodger Stadium radar gun clocked him at 98-99 mph on his fastball and 81mph on his curve. He looks pretty good to me. Here he is with the Inland Empire 66ers... <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-uncpw7Cugg?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0"></iframe>
After going 4 for 9 in a doubleheader with the Yankees that included everything from a bunt base hit; to a HR; to a stolen base; to another hit-by-the-pitch; and numerous runs scored and super defensive plays; Yasiel Puig returned to the Coast tonight batting .474... Down in San Diego, he hit the first pitch that he saw into the rightfield stands for a home run. Vin Scully is now openly comparing him to Joe DiMaggio. Think about that one. I've been faithfully listening to Vinny every night for 55 years and I've never heard him compare any modern player to players from the past: this is a first. Scully grew up in New York watching DiMaggio, so that makes the comparison even more interesting... In his first 16 games, Yasiel Puig has produced more offense than any player since 1900. That was the year the American League was created... Listen to Vin Scully's call when the kid hit his first grand slam against Atlanta... <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/klL566fpSHM?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Has a great player ever worn a number like 66? Too bad they didn't give him Duke Sniders old number #4!