Who woulda thought? Dodger fans loved Mondy. Everybody loved Mondy. He played with flash and passion, and was a thoroughly exciting player to watch. It was painful to see him go, especially after the Mike Piazza debacle (there, I used debacle in a sentence once, and it's out of the way for good).

Shawn Green's debut in L.A. reminded me of Dusty Baker's first year here, 1976. Sure, Green hit 20 more homers than Dusty, but you get the idea. The whole thing just looked like a disaster. All too familiar.

But what happened next? Baker helped the Dodgers get to the World Series the next two years, and three in five, finally getting his ring in 1981. Shawn Green looks a lot more like the 1977 version of Dusty Baker than last year's model.

We'll find out soon enough if Raul Mondesi turns into an American League star, or whether he's just the next in a long line of Carlos Baergas...

By the way, if we're gonna continue to hold Kevin Malone responsible for Carlos Perez and Darren Driefort, let's also give the guy his props for Shawn Green, Terry Adams, Marquis Grissom, Jeff Reboulet, Jim Tracy, and to some extent, even Paul Lo Duca...

Predictions: Arizona will get really old and fade in August, and it will be L.A. and San Francisco one more time. It'll also be the Yankees and the Red Sox one more time. Would you believe, Seattle and Minnesota one more time???

Oh good. Turk Wendell is in the news again. Way to go Mets. Three cheers for that trade. Gives me a chance to steal this old line from myself:

Will someone please tell Turk Wendell to stop trying so hard to be the second coming of Mark "The Bird" Fidrych. I knew Mark Fidrych. Mark Fidrych was a friend of mine. And Turk Wendell, you're no Mark Fidrych...

By the way, when the American League gave The Bird his ROY, they really should have thrown in the Cy Young. 19 wins in what amounted to less than a five month season, and an ERA of two...

Can we now officially lighten up on Roberto Alomar please, once and for all. Let's all move past the spitting incident, and simply say that it just doesn't matter anymore. Roberto Alomar is not a bad guy. He wasn't then, he isn't now. It was one horrible moment in time that he regrets. Over and done with.

It's time we appreciated Alomar for the great player that he is. One of the best second basemen of all time. A Hall of Famer. Ten times the man Pete Rose is. Let's enjoy his last few seasons...

Some late-night dweeb on ESPN called Deion Sanders "the greatest two-sport star of his generation." Please. Fine, he was just reading a line on a page, but please. Bo Jackson was the greatest two-sport star of his generation, and of several generations, and a better football player than Deion at that.

Had Deion Sanders not been a football player, he wouldn't have been a baseball player. Had Bo Jackson not been a football player, he would have been a perennial Major League All-Star, an MVP-type player, an actual star. Deion Sanders was a guy who ran up 28 RBIs a bunch of times...

Since practically no one has mentioned it, this Ichiro Suzuki guy, not a bad little player. You'd think someone would have said something...

Tim Allen is a five-tool player...

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