Baseball Watching Stategies for Crestfallen Dodgers Fans

August 13, 2007

On the occasion of a Russell Martin's monthly day off Sunday, I thought I'd take one myself. Not from work; from watching the Dodgers.
With Mark Hendrickson on the mound, I figured, why torture myself unnecessarily?

But being a glutton for my own pain, and finding it almost impossible to skip an entire game without checking in at least once, I went into what is now my defensive posture of watching the Dodgers play baseball. Try this at home some time.

With the game scheduled to start at 11:15 a.m. Pacific, and expecting the Dodgers to go quickly in the top of the first, followed by a Hendrickson mess of his own making in the bottom half, I left the tube off, and logged onto the MLB Scoreboard page of ESPN.com at 11:25.

ESPN.com gives you these little baseball diamonds, with even littler dots, which represent men on base. With dots on first and second at 11:26, and anticipating Hendrickson's allowing at least the two dots to score, and succumbing to the feeling that two is more than enough dots to beat the Dodgers, I turned away from the computer and took the rest of the day off from Dodgers baseball. Am I a bleeping genius or what?

Needless to say, Ryan Ludwick homered on Hendrickson's next pitch. Final score, Cards 12, Dodgers 2.

It's still a bit early for post mortems, so I'll keep my ragging on the Dodgers to just a few more paragraphs, and only the most obvious of items, primarily in the form of rhetorical questions.

First, is it just me, or could you just see this latest Hendrickson bombing coming a mile away, the second you heard the club had demoted long-man D.J. Houlton Friday, followed by an after-the-fact complaint from the dugout about the club being short on relievers?

Now, is Hendrickson the single most unwatchable Dodger pitcher since current Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt lost those team record 12 straight in 1987?

Third, and raise your hands if you're with me on this one, are the Dodgers doing the exact same thing with Derek Lowe now that they did with Jason Schmidt and Randy Wolf earlier?

(Actually, they did the exact same thing with Hong-Chih Kuo, Chin-hui Tsao, Yhency Brazoban as well, but I thought I'd just mention the precious arms with large salaries, rather than the not-quite-as-precious-arms who are now assured of never getting large salaries. I mean, why pile on?)

Fourth, are you in the least bit prepared to watch the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and God forbid, the San Diego Padres, play baseball in October, while your Dodgers club sits and watches, yet again?

On the bright side, the club did just pick up Chad Moeller from the Reds, so they've clearly addressed their need for a third string catcher. And he did hit as high as .208 as recently as 2004. It's an important pickup for Los Angeles because Mike Lieberthal's going to need his rest come September…

Trivia: In the pre-blogosphere days of 1987, a secret society of ultra-close Dodgers watchers had a nickname for Mr. Honeycutt. What was it?

Talkback: Your comments are always encouraged…

PGA: Congrats to Tiger Woods on his 13th major. I still say the Tiger Slam sounds like pancakes at Denny's…

More Dodgers: Talk about your disgruntled employee. Is it possible Shea Hillenbrand is moonlighting at the Las Vegas post office while awaiting his chance to get released by the Dodgers? Oh, and if Juan Pierre were a St. Louis Cardinal, do you think Tony LaRussa would bat him ninth?

Media Savvy: Jon Heyman of SI.com said the following: "The Dodgers, whose reluctance to trade prospects before the waiver deadline cost them a chance at Joe Blanton or Jon Garland, are one contender that's struggling lately and could probably use a starting pitcher." Do I really need to comment on this one?

Bonds Away: I had planned to touch on the Barry Bonds story in this week's post, but since the thing has unexpectedly quieted down to less than a mime's whisper, what do you say we just leave it that way, shall we? Nothing could be more appropriate then to drop the subject completely, and concentrate on more pleasant things…like the 2007 Los Angeles Dodgers…

Trivia Answer: Honeygoltz…

Statue for Sandy: The Koufax in bronze campaign continues. Please Vote “Yes on 32.” And tell a friend…

Bonds Makes Steroid Zone: What, did you think I was going to leave Gary Matthews, Jr. up there all year long, letting such an obvious opportunity slip by? Please scroll down a ways. OK, now let's drop the subject of Barry Bonds...

Remember, glove conquers all….

....................