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Four and Twenty Blackbirds Baked in a Pie
Blake "Marilyn Monroe" DeWitt celebrates the division playoffs. AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
The Los Angeles Dodgers are the 2008 National League West Division Champions.
Over and over this team has made me eat my words more often than a Steinbrenner. When Joe Torre was hired, I said he wouldn’t make a lick of difference going so far as superimposing his face over a Kool-Aid packet. The day before the season started I said the Dodgers would finish third in the division. And many times during the season I have written that the Dodgers are an awful team that have bigger problems than trying to figure out how to make the playoffs.
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I was flat out wrong. Some of you commenters have ridden my ass all season long about my assessment of this Dodger team. Contrary to popular belief, I do not revel in the Dodger’s miseries. I would much rather look like a complete asshole and have the Dodgers win the World Series than be completely deluded Vic Jacobs style and watch the Dodgers circle down the tank like last season.
As for the Dodgers, losers of every playoff game they've been in since 1988 save for that lone October day in 2004 where Jose Lima pitched a five hit shutout of the St. Louis Cardinals, they have some work to do. On Wednesday at 3:30 pm they will face the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field for game one of the NL Divisional Series.
The Cubs took five of the seven games during the regular season and amassed an NL best 97-64. But in those seven games, the Cubs did not face a Dodger team that resembles anything like it does today. There was no Casey Blake nor Manny Ramirez. Clayton Kershaw was still trying to find himself in the big leagues.
Another fact worth mentioning is that the NLDS is a best of five series which always improves the chances of upsets occurring. Take the Colorado Rockies last season against the Philadelphia Phillies. Or the Houston Astros against the Atlanta Braves in 2004 and 2005. Or the Florida Marlins against the San Francisco Giants in 2003. You get the point.
Everyone knows how good the Cubs are. Ryan Dempster is unbeatable at Wrigley. Aramis Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano, Derek Lee are deep ball threats. Carlos Zambrano, Rich Harden and Ted Lilly are just about unhittable. And of course there's the renaissance of Kerry Wood. What a filthy pitcher.
But all season long the Dodgers have been perplexing. At times they've looked worse than a AAA team even when Manny Ramirez was on the team. But when it counted in September they pulled it together and went on a tear unseen in these parts in September.
Basically nothing makes sense about the Dodgers, and that is why I am not only predicting them to win their second postseason game since 1988 but they will win the series in five games. Facts, schmacts.
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And for the sake of equal coverage, the Angels will sweep the Red Sox.
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