Dodgers 2011

Da Bums is dead. Baseball season is starting, but the Dodgers will have to fold without me.

 I loved  the Dodgers for 60 years. Even though I was born and raised in Colorado, I was consumed by the Dodgers since 1949 when I discovered a comic book about Jackie Robinson. I was 9 years old.  Nobody in my family even knew what baseball was.

            I lived on a small farm outside of Sterling, on the plains of northeastern Colorado, the setting for James Michener’s famous Centennial. All we basically had was farm work and school. Except me. I had baseball. I followed the Brooklyn Dodgers mostly in the small Sterling Journal-Advocate (the newspaper I worked for summers from age 20-22  as a reporter.) It carried the baseball standings and scores of the games. That was about it. My favorite team was the 1950s Dodgers followed by the Sandy Koufax-Don Drysdale era and the Steve Garvey-Ron Cey-Bill Russell years.

            I lived and died for the Dodgers. By myself.  They were a shoo-in to repeat the 1949 pennant in 1950.  Carl Furillo hit .305 with 106 RBIs and 18 homers, Duke Snider hit .321 with 109 ribbies and 31 homers. Gil Hodges batted  .283 with 32 homers, and 113 RBIs,.  Roy Campanella hit .281 with 31 homers and 89 RBIs. Jackie Robinson hit. 328 with 81 RBIs, Pee Wee Reese hit .260 with 17 stolen bases and 98 runs scored. Preacher Roe and Don Newcombe each won 19 games and Erv Palica won 13. And that was one of their lesser years!

 By contrast, for instance, the 2010 Dodgers featured Andre Ethier hitting .292 with 23 home runs and 82 RBIs and Matt Kemp a mighty .249 with 28 homers and 89 RBIs. James Loney had 88 RBIs. Pathetic. The great pitching featured 13 wins from Clayton Kershaw, 12 from Chad Billingsley and 11 from Hiroki Kuroda. No wonder I am turning into a fair-weather fan.

But has GM Ned Colletti let grass grow under these Dodgers’ feet? No, he has signed the mighty Rod Barajas, Jon Garland, Juan Uribe and Vicente Padilla, all who are likely to strike fear in the hearts of the 1962 Mets. The roster also includes the intimidating Javy Gomez, Blake Hawksworth, Kenly Jansen, Travis Schlichting and Trayvon Robinson. Who?

 I tell you all of  this to let you know my decision is firm. I have given up. The Dodgers can win me back but not without lot of effort. Abandoning them was  no easy decision, but I can’t take it any more.  Peter O’Malley sold the team to Rupert Murdoch who in turn sold it to Frank McCourt, the worst move in Dodgers history. (The second was O’Malley moving the team from Brooklyn). Peter O’Malley should have thought more of the people of Los Angeles  before he shuffled the team off  to Murdoch to McCourt, one of the worst owners in the history of sport. The guy is a jerk, and the team is going absolutely nowhere. Throw in the fact that he and his ditzy wife Jamie are fighting over the team would make anyone turn even to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

            It didn’t help that the Dodgers  were led by Joe Torre – a guy I like but one who lost interest in the Dodgers in the middle of 2010. Who could blame him? Colletti (and McCourt) refused to shell out money for available pitchers like Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt.  All he did was imbue the team with this losing haze which enveloped every player – perhaps with the exception of journeyman Jamie Carroll, who seemed to have the only life on the team. The Dodgers increased ticket prices for 2011. That’s the way to win friends and influence fans. Why not? It does not seem to matter what McCourt or the Dodgers do. The fans are insatiable for a team. The Dodgers could field the Little Sisters of the Poor (thanks Chick Hearn), and they would draw 3 million people. What might happen if they got a good team?   In the meantime, you know what the Dodgers really need?

            Heart.

          A transplant -  an inspiration to carry the team – like these three guys.  First is Babe Ruth, a good-natured guy who became the most famous person in America, smashing home runs and winning the hearts of baseball fans throughout the country. The guiless Babe was an inveterate womanizer but showed his love for the game every day through his treatment of autograph hounds to his entertaining fellow players, fans and even the umps. Babe personally saved baseball. .

            Then came the second best player of all time – Willie Mays (Babe is indisputably first, since he is the only player in history to have been a great hitter and a great pitcher).  Willie Mays could not only hit, run and throw, but  he inspired his teammates to do likewise and inspired the fans with his love of the game. He personally resurrected a dying New York Giants team. His talent was extraordinary, but his it was his heart and personality which made him the one of the brightest stars ever. Can you imagine any enthusiasm at all from such Dodger stoics as James Loney, Matt Kemp and Casey  Blake?

            There’s one more person of the 20^th century whose charm, charisma, good nature and love for a game, turned would-be winners into a five-time champion – Magic Johnson. It’s true that Magic’s talent was important in the Lakers winning, but like Mays, he inspired his teammates, and made everyone around him better. Magic Johnson helped resurrect the NBA.

            Someone needs to resurrect the Dodgers. Besides a new owner, and some, talent, they need a heart transplant. Pallbearers are more exciting that the current Dodger team. The Dodgers won’t have me to kick them around any more until they do something right  - like getting rid of McCourt and bringing in Joe Mauer to catch, Evan Longoria to play third and Tim Lincecum to pitch.  And then there’s the heart transplant. The Bums  need to go back to being Bums – not losers.