Jimmy Bramlett

"It's true," J.P. Howell confessed with his trademark jack o'lantern grin. I had read on the computer machine that J.P. Howell got his ass whooped by 1968 gold medal winning figure skater Peggy Fleming. Not content in trusting what others write especially since I have the key figure in the story in front of me, I had to confirm whether this was true.

I don't know what to believe anymore. Perhaps Vin Scully is right and Dodger Stadium is a Magic Castle. Even manager Don Mattingly couldn't explain things.

There are no words for what the Dodgers are doing right now. With their 4-2 win over the Mets, they are now 39-8 in their last 47 games, a feat unseen, unheard, un-anything by most people alive right now watching baseball.

Vin Scully, harkening back to the magical 1988 season, called Dodger Stadium the "Magic Castle." The Dodgers faced a 2-0 deficit heading into the bottom of the sixth inning having been hamstrung by Mets starter Jenrry Mejia through the first five innings: singles by Ricky Nolasco in the third, Adrian Gonzalez in the fourth and Juan Uribe in the fifth the only glimpses of offense the Dodgers displayed.

For weeks I was looking forward to this Dodgers-Rays matchup. I thought it was going to be a great test against a team that is fighting for their AL East lives, the team whose frugal approach is a 180-degree approach from the Dodgers free-spending ways.

Dodger Stadium has seen soccer, ski-jumping, boxing, supercross, basketball. It's seen Madonna, Elton John, KISS, Depeche Mode and the Cure among other bands and musicians. It's even seen the Pope. Thus it's a big occasion when the stadium hosts the Tampa Bay Rays for the very first time — the last active Major League holdout. But then you see what the Dodgers accomplished in this game, you just sit back, jaw agape and wonder what exactly you witnessed.

The Dodgers continue to steamroll through the competition since June 22. While most of it has been pretty bad — Chicago Cubs, Toronto Blue Jays, San Francisco Giants to name three — the Dodgers proved themselves in taking three of four from the St. Louis Cardinals.

A sad update to a story that took off in early May. The 19-year old teenager Joshua Jones whom Matt Kemp gave his gloves, jersey and shoes at AT&T Park in San Francisco succumbed to brain cancer on Tuesday.

Is that all there is? That repeated question in the Peggy Lee classic kept rolling in my head on Saturday as I sat in the loge section at Dodger Stadium. It was the Guinness International Champions Cup. The doubleheader feature the semifinals of the tournament between Real Madrid and Everton and a consolation round (of sorts) between Juventus and the Galaxy. The other half of the draw — AC Milan, Inter Milan, Valencia CF and Chelsea played today at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

It takes something special to displace everything that is cloyingly sentimental and grandiose about a Dodgers-Yankees matchup. There were the celebrities, Kobe Bryant hobnobbing with Tommy Lasorda while Dallas Cowboys stars Demarcus Ware and Jason Witten mingle with Cristiano Ronaldo and Samuel L. Jackson. There was the hubbub of Mariano Rivera's final appearance at the Ravine, the Dodgers 19-5 record in July.