Today marks Jackie Robinson's 89th birthday, and the Dodgers are celebrating it by educating the youngins.
Here's To You Mr. Robinson
Extra, Extra: Farewell, Mr. Lieberthal
- "A very, very good night for Barack Obama just got better," the LA Times said after it reported that the winner of the South Carolina Primary was on the receiving end of two Kennedy endorsements; Caroline Kennedy endorsed Obama this morning in the NY Times and Sen. Ted Kennedy issued his endorsement later in the day.
- Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton moved on from South Carolina and defended critics of her husband's campaigning, saying, "everybody just needs to take a deep breath. We need to be focusing on what's important in the lives of Americans."
- The Federal Government isn't making too many friends these days and a new rule along the borders might not change that. People crossing the border must now prove they are a U.S. citizen, eschewing the long standing policy of orally declaring your citizenship. I fear this does not spell the end of those fabled Tijuana donkey shows.
- "I'm in a totally happy place," said former Dodger Mike Lieberthal explaining why he decided to retire yesterday. The Dodgers declined the option on the two-time all star and valley boy who was last year's back up to Russell Martin.
- Good news, foodies: the Daily News found that the number of restaurants who have received a C from the Department of Health has declined dramatically since inspections began a decade ago, while the number of eateries with an A have increased 40 percent from last year. I'm sure this doesn't include taco trucks, but, hey, ignorance is bliss.
- Rains continued Sunday, dumping as much as 4 inches on the Southland. Downtown record about 10 inches, eons more than the 1.65 inches Downtown received at this time last year. Don't freak out, L.A. drivers, the storm might taper off by this evening, forecasters say.
- In case you missed it, LAist had a big week. A few highlights: the Neighborhood Project continued with a look at Country Club Park;
- To Catch a Predator bait Dani Miura was interviewed and;
- The Roman Catholic Archdiocese has sold off their 3424 Wilshire Boulevard Archdiocesan Catholic Center to Jamison Properties for $31 million to raise money for the hundreds of outstanding sexual abuse lawsuits. An interesting debate in the comments section ensued.
- We have a big week ahead with some big name interviews, great music reviews and continued news, politics and art greatness
Extra, Extra: Another Year of Fun Daily Show Headlines
- With exactly one year to go until a new president is inaugurated (and one more year of Jon Stewart's hilarious Bush headlines), the field of Republican hopefuls just got smaller. After poor showings in, well, every primary, caucus and poll, San Diego Congressman Duncan Hunter is ditching the presidential race. No word on what he will do now, but rumors are flying that Hunter will continue to build that fence along the Mexican border he started months ago.
- And speaking of the election, Gov. Arnold is holding off on endorsing a Republican candidate, preferring to stay "neutral." For now. Some are postulating that Schwarzenegger is waiting to endorse someone in the Republican field to see if his friend and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an Independent, will enter the race.
- It's been a rough Saturday night/Sunday morning in LA County as 11 people have been shot at two separate parties in Long Beach and Compton. The first shooting happened late Saturday at a birthday party in Long Beach, when several gang members apparently crashed the party and started a fight. The second shooting took place early Sunday in Compton, when four or five men turned up to a party and started shooting partygoers, shooting eight and leaving three in critical condition.
- Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is expected to address the Chatsworth/Porter Ranch State of the Community Breakfast next month. It's the first time the mayor will speak to the group about issues affecting the area. Yawn. The interesting thing about this is that in the the Daily News headline, they referred to the mayor by his first name: "Antonio to speak to area chamber." I didn't know the Daily News and the mayor were such good friends.
- The Dodgers will play two March exhibition games against the Padres in Beijing. While some veteran players are privately saying they don't want to go, Matt Kemp sounds downright giddy about the trip. I hope the old versus young rift that ripped through the clubhouse late last season does not carry over into this season. Isn't this why we go Joe Torre?
- Several gay porn sites have posted pictures of under age water polo players from Orange, LA and San Diego counties without them knowing. Authorities think a campus police dispatcher may have played a role in taking the pictures. Gives a whole meaning to block that ball, doesn't it?
Shot In The Balls
For baseball fans under the age of 35, reading the Mitchell report should be like taking repeated shots to the groin without the Nutty Buddy.
My Thanks in Prose
I was going to do this in anapestic pentameter, but screw that. Beyond the typical scope of these sort of things (life, family, health, friends, etc.) here are five things I'm thankful for: 1. The Dodgers. Without the Dodgers I wouldn't have a chance to torture as many people on this forum with my mangling of the English language. As torturous as some of the games were to watch, it was still gratifying to...
LAst Night's Action: We're Talking Baseball
But first - Kobe vetoed a trade! Baseball in the Coliseum - Just after it was announced that the Red Sox will open the exhibition season against Oakland in Japan, the Dodgers confirmed that the defending World Champs would play three games against the Blue Crew. The cool part? One of the games will be in the Coliseum as part of the Dodger's 50th anniversary in Los Angeles. Yes, it can be configured that way...
Torre-Watch Over: Joe Torre is Hired
It took a couple of days, but it's official: Joe Torre is the new Dodger manager. The Dodgers and Torre have agreed to a three-year, $12 million contract. Torre was also negotiating to bring in bench coach Don Mattingly and third-base coach Larry Bowa which lengthened the negotiation time. Other coaches rumored to brought over are Jose Cardenal and Lee Mazzilli. The Dodgers were granted an exemption by commissioner Bud Selig from interviewing minority...
Dodger Review
I hesitantly went to the Dodger game against the Giants this past Friday. The only reason I went was because it was a fundraiser for my friend’s school. Thankfully the Dodgers won the game 8-3 which is a better result than the last several games I attended. But if you want me to remember anything about the game you’ve got me. Sadly the only memorable thing was seeing that High School Musical actorhomo being...
LAst Night's Action: Local Teams Don't Give a Damn
Rangers 16, Angels 2 - Welcome to opposite day; Cellar dweller Texas plastered playoff-bound LAnaheim and completed a three game sweep. A day after resting several stars, the Angels showed that they're still struggling with injuries. They got a couple runs in thanks to small ball (both were scored on sac flies), but gave up a whopping five home runs. One was hit in the first by Sammy Sosa. (You remember him, even if he...
The Time Has Come: FIRE GRADY
At the beginning of the season I picked the Dodgers to handily win the division. The Dodgers had a starting rotation that most teams would kill for, and offensively they could overwhelm every other team in the division. Sure injuries took their toll especially on the pitching staff, but it’s pathetic that in the final week of the season I’m not caring at all what the Dodgers are doing. Last Thursday AM570’s reporter David...
It's the End of the Season As We Know It, And I Feel Fine
This has been a shitty night. I watched the first couple of innings of the Padres-Dodgers game to watch newly acquired hack Esteban Loaiza completely stink it up. He game up four earned runs in those two innings and couldn’t find the strike zone for the life of him. I then went to play some tennis with my new tennis partner. I couldn’t serve for the life of me, and my normally strong forehand...
It's Crunch Time!
With both college football and the NFL going ahead full steam, it’s been hard to really pay attention to the goings-on of the Dodgers. And there is a good reason for that. The Dodgers just plain stunk it up at Telecom-of-the-Moment Park against the Giants. Each game featured a Dodger pitcher giving up crucial runs late in the game. Jonathan Broxton gave up home runs in Friday’s and Sunday’s games, and David Wells managed...
Can the Dodgers Continue This Streak?
Why are the Dodgers doing this to us? Yesterday’s come-from-behind victory in the ninth inning was great. Never could I have imagined the Dodgers would execute the Earl Weaver (a three-run homer) perfectly to take the lead. It was only the third time this season the Dodgers had won a game when trailing after eight innings; they had lost 59 times in that situation. As high of a high as that was, reality starts...
Dodgers on a Three-Game Winning Streak
Guess who popped up with the Padres Tuesday? If you guessed Brett Tomko you would be right. Talk about tit for tat, the Padres acquired Tomko when he cleared waivers after being released by the Dodgers. If you remember, the Dodgers did the same when the bowling ball that is David Wells was released by the Padres. Collective dumpster diving much? Tomko, who had gotten the most boos at Dodger Stadium second to Barry...
The Dodger's Juggernaut Offense?
Is it too little, too late for the Dodgers? I hope not. With four weeks to go, the Dodgers now trail by four games in the NL West after their 11-3 victory over the Cubs. This is not the same Cubs team the Dodgers faced at home in May. Then the Cubs were a bad team that couldn’t hold a lead for the life of them. It took manager Lou Piniella’s ejection and consequent...
Worst Blow Job Ever!
The Dodgers squandered a good chance to gain some ground in the division and wild card races last night in a 6-4 loss against the Padres. Here the Dodgers faced starting pitcher Jack Cassell making his first major league start, and they did nothing to make him work in the first several innings. The first batter to get a three-ball count was Russell Martin in the fourth when he hit an RBI single that...
LAst Night's Action: Galaxy Lose $1,000,000 to $250,000,000
Pachuca 4, Galaxy 3 - With a cool million bucks on the line, the Los Angeles lost the final of the first ever SuperLiga tournament. After the Galaxy scored an own goal in the first half, they tied it at 1-1 in stoppage time on a brilliant bicycle kick by Chris Klein. Quarter-billion dollar man David Beckham sprained his knee and could be out another 4-6 weeks. At this rate, he won't be around to...
Disillusionment
The Dodgers are winning. They’ve won nine of their last 13 games crawling back to 4 ½ games within the NL West lead. It looks like a rosy picture, but I’m still not buying into it. The problem is the Dodgers are merely a singles-hitting team that can only run station-to-station. Of their 1,232 hits 225 are doubles (ranked 13th in the NL), 27 are triples (tied for 8th) and 96 are home runs...
LAst Night's Action: Dodgers, Angels Roll
Dodgers 4, Nationals 3 - Maybe, just maybe, Los Angeles is turning things around. The Blue Crew won for the third straight game and are within 4.5 of first place. Takashi Saito has been perfect in each of those games, retiring the final three opposing batters in each contest. Andre Ethier was 0-for-3 on Tuesday night, but drove home the winning run on a sac fly. The Dodgers go for the sweep against Washington tonight....
LAst Night's Action: Here Comes The Boom(er)
Dodgers 6, Mets 2 - Los Angeles might be wishing they picked up Boomer sooner. They took advantage of the shiny new toy latest addition, as 44 year old veteran David Wells pitched five innings to pick up career win 236. He allowed two runs on seven hits, but did throw four scoreless innings. He also had a bunt single to lead off the fifth and scored later in the inning. Angels 3, Blue Jays...
Let's Go Bowling
The Dodgers have a certain way of making me look like a complete asshole. Just when I proclaim that it would take a miracle for the Dodgers to make the postseason, the offense explodes as if some saintly being was guiding them in the outfield. You know, they should make a movie about that. Against the Phillies on Wednesday the Dodgers scored 15 runs in an obvious show of laziness since a horrible Texas...
LAst Night's Action: Sparks Finally Die Out
Comets 82, Sparks 72 - A long and painful season is over for the Sparks. Without a preggo Lisa Leslie, the team crashed and burned through the final half of the season, finishing with an overall record of 10-24. If you're really eager to check out some professional women's sports in LA, how about a football game later this week? Dodgers 4, Rockies 3 - The Dodgers took the rubber game in a 2-1 series...
The Dodgers Win! The Dodgers Win!
The Dodgers hitters shortened up their swings. They were a bit more patient at the plate. They hit with runners in scoring position. And most importantly of all the Dodgers won a game! In fact Tubby got the first victory for a Dodger’s starting pitcher since July 26th when he posted a 5-4 at Colorado. Now Tubby didn’t have his best stuff. The Astros managed to get 10 hits off of him in six...
The Downward Spiral
Coming into Tuesday night’s game the Dodgers were 58-53 and the Cincinnati Reds were 47-64. The Dodgers were still in striking distance for the division title, and the Reds had the third worst record in all of baseball. It was this horrible Reds team that shut out the Dodgers. This would be the third game in the last four games the Dodgers have put up a goose egg. Count it: in the last 19...
LAst Night's Action: Angels Look Up, Dodgers Fall Fast
Angels 4, A's 3 - The NorCal-SoCal rivalry is heating up in the junior circuit. Oakland and LAnaheim split the four game series, but not without a some players getting beaned (or close to it). In the final game, the Angels got three of their RBIs from Garret Anderson, who is not one of the three Halos to get hit this year. Vladamir Guerrero almost became the fourth victim on Sunday on a pitch that...
Just Another Dodger Loss
The Dodgers made a better showing of things Friday night against the Diamondbacks. The game ended up being a good pitcher’s duel between Chad Billingsley and the D-Back’s Doug Davis. Bills ended up making one mistake, an eighth inning lead off homer to Chris Snyder which was the only offense mustered by either team. Bills tamed a D-Back’s locomotive that had won 10 of their last 12 games, five of which they scored seven...
WAKE UP!
That was just plain pathetic. Here you have a bad Giant’s team with aging position players and suspect pitching. The Dodgers could only manage one run off of five hits while giving up three runs off of 10 hits and an error in Tuesday night’s loss. The sad thing is nothing the Dodgers have been doing since the Mets series at home would indicate they would muster any sort of production anywhere. They lost...
LAst Night's Action: On Second Thought
Dodgers 10, Houston 2 - Los Angeles has been consistently inconsistent since the All Star break, and didn't show true dominance until going on the road. Chad Billingsly improved to 7-0 with a complete game, and even held the Astros scoreless until the final out. The Dodgers also looked good at the plate, with 3 RBIs from both Luis Gonzalez and James Loney. Jeff Kent (who scored on a wild pitch) had four hits before...

