Posts Tagged ‘ Dodgers ’

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

SF Examiner: Bad news Bay Area at it again

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — It was another of those should have, could have days for the Bay Area, the ones overloaded with bad memories and worse possibilities.

There was Manny Ramirez standing at the plate for the Dodgers, two outs in the eighth and you knew what was going to happen.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

SF Examiner: Giants off to hot start, but true test comes in LA

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — And now the Dodgers, the hailed Dodgers, the despised Dodgers, the “Beat L.A.” Dodgers. And now we find out if these 2010 Giants, who have started so well, who have begun so encouragingly, are able to do what Giants teams of late have been unable to do, beat the Dodgers.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

RealClearSports: For Dodgers, McCourts, It’s Going to Get Ugly

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

In the latest development of “This Ain’t No Fantasy League, Folks,” the guy who currently owns the Los Angeles Dodgers — and we must wait to see how long that will continue — has fired the team’s chief executive officer. Who happens to be his wife. His estranged wife.

This following Steve Phillips, former major league GM, recent baseball analyst and oft-time Don Juan, being forced to take a leave of absence by ESPN for reasons that had nothing to do with the hit-or-take sign.

We know the real world is out there, but how about allowing us a few unspoiled moments when we don’t have to worry about troubles other than a pitcher losing his stuff?

In SoCal, from the very start of the Dodgers’ League Championship Series against the Phillies, the issue seemed to be about Frank McCourt not so much losing his spouse, the self-assured and quite well-heeled Jamie, but about losing his team. To his spouse.

So as that melodrama unfolded — he’s going to have to sell, as John Moores in San Diego; no, she’s going to give up her 50 percent — along comes Phillips to take the headlines. He had what was called “a fling,” and that didn’t mean hurling a baseball.

Parallel worlds. Phillips’ wife apparently is filing for divorce for his dangerous liaisons. Meanwhile, with the McCourts the word “divorce” has not been spoken, only speculated.

Up in Northern California, where hatred of the Dodgers is more noticeable than love of the Giants — yes, jealousy — the citizenry is viewing the McCourts’ problems as pure Hollywood. And also with pure delight.

Even Giants fans are respectful of the tradition of marriage and wish no ill will to either McCourt. But if their union does fail, there’s the possibility the Dodgers also may fail. After all, the Pads went from a champion to a disaster when the assets were divided, as required by law.

It was interesting that McCourt announced the removal of his wife of 30 years from her post the day after the Dodgers had been removed from the playoffs by the Phillies. Presumably he thought everyone in L.A. either would be in such a funk they wouldn’t notice a little hanky panky in the front office.

One person who did notice, of course, was Jamie McCourt. Another was her attorney, Dennis Wasser, who gave the normal legal response in such situations, to wit: “Jamie is disappointed and saddened by her termination. As co-owner of the Dodgers, she will address this and all other issues in the courtroom.”

All other issues? What would they be, whether Steve Phillips will stop huddling with girls half his age?

Frank McCourt’s attorney, Marshall Grossman, played barrister-ignorant on whether his client had canned the mother of their four children from the post she’d held since March.

“The Dodgers’ policy is not to comment on personal issues,” said Marshall Grossman, Frank McCourt’s guy. Then they stand alone in the mess, since everyone else is commenting, gossiping and guessing.

What happens to the Dodgers? What happens to Joe Torre? Normally, owners fire managers, not chief executives.

Is Jamie McCourt, who teaches at UCLA’s business school and has degrees from Georgetown, the Sorbonne and University of Maryland School of Law, really lining up investors to buy out her hubby?

Does Steve Phillips wish he had a woman as sharp as Jamie figuring out a way to save his career?

When McCourt vs. McCourt gets to a court, it could make Judge Judy blush.

Grossman contends that “Frank McCourt is the owner of the team.” Wasser contends, “If the ownership issue must be adjudicated, the Dodgers will be determined to be community property, owned 50 percent by each of the McCourts.”

OK, Jamie, which half of Manny Ramirez do you want?

Major League Baseball lists Frank McCourt as the Dodgers’ “control person,” but according to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times a “high-ranking baseball source” said the couple presented themselves together for the approval of commissioner Bud Selig when they bought the team in 2004.

“I think,” agreed the source, “it’s going to be pretty ugly.”

It already has been. Baseball doesn’t need this, doesn’t need the embarrassment of Steve Phillips, not during the post-season, not any time.

You think those people in the right field pavilion at Dodger Stadium are the least bit concerned with Jamie and Frank McCourt’s domestic relationship? They’ve got their own problems.

They turn to the Dodgers, to baseball, to any sport, for a few hours of entertainment. Of course, in L.A., marriage on the rocks is part of the entertainment.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award — given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football — he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

RealClearSports: Say Goodbye to the Freeway Series

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

Does this mean there’s not going to be a Freeway World Series? Think of all the gas they’ll save in Southern California. The kind that goes in the fuel tank, not the type C.C. Sabathia was throwing.

No entertainment personalities. No inside info on the breakup of Jamie and Frank’s marriage. No Tommy Lasorda anecdotes. No confusion whether they’re the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles or Charlie’s Angels.

The Yankees are supposed to be that good, aren’t they? A-Rod has the largest contract in history. Sabathia got enough to bail out Wall Street. He certainly bailed out a team that last year didn’t even get to the playoffs. Mark Teixeira is earning $20 mil a season, or thereabouts. Then there are Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon, and a cast of thousands.

TV loves the Yankees. Because so much of America hates them. Or did. It was the Red Sox who stepped in for the Yanks as target of our disenchantment the last few seasons. They became the very Evil Empire that the execs in Boston called the Yankees.

The theory here is “In cars, wine and ballplayers you get what you pay for, with exceptions.” Alex Rodriguez has hit a home run in three straight post-season games, five total. He’s acting like a guy who should be getting millions.

Long ago, the Yankees of Ruth, Gehrig and their teammates were nicknamed the “Bronx Bombers,” a label shortened in the New York tabloids to Bombers. As in Bombers crush Angels. And in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, they certainly did.

Not a great 24 hours for the folks along the Pacific Ocean. The Phillies rally with two outs in the ninth to beat the Dodgers on Monday night, and then the Yankees do some freeway wheeling, 10-1, Tuesday evening.

A Yankees-Phils World Series isn’t quite as glamorous as Yankees-Dodgers or, as the West Coast crazies would have preferred, Angels-Dodgers, but the baseball itself should be fascinating.

One team is the defending World Series champ, the other long has been the template for judging American sports. Arguably the three most famous franchises on the planet are Manchester United, FC Barcelona and the New York Yankees.

In the case of all three, they’re the best teams money can buy. But in a way that’s incidental. Pack together a lot of star players and it results in success on the field, or pitch, and at the gate or on the tube. Did anyone notice Friday night the Yankees-Angels had a TV rating nearly twice that of Dodgers-Phils?

You sort of wish the problems with the economy were as easily correctly as those with the Yankees. Sign C.C. Sign Teixeira. Pick up Nick Swisher and that’s that.

All the agonizing in March, about A-Rod on steroids, about A-Rod undergoing hip surgery, about A-Rod struggling to find his form has quieted considerably.

He’s knocking balls into the stands. He’s scoring from second on singles. He’s playing like a $250 million man.

Rodriguez went from Seattle to Texas to the Yankees, but he’s never gone to the top, never been a World Series champion, a point emphasized on the back pages of the tabs.

They’ve been waiting for a new Mr. October. He’s arrived.

Only a week ago, after the Angels and Dodgers swept their division championship series from two very good clubs, the Red Sox and Cardinals, euphoria was on the loose in L.A. and vicinity.

Thirty miles or so from Anaheim to Dodger Stadium. Randy Newman’s song “I Love L.A.” on the radio. Great fall weather. Eat your heart out, Manhattan, while we roll back our sun roofs and roll down Interstate 5.

It isn’t going to happen. Not even half of it. No Angels. No Dodgers. Instead it’s going to be the very underappreciated Phillies and the very impressive Yankees. Instead it’s going to be two teams who have a beautiful blend of pitching and hitting.

Southern California was getting just a bit cocky. The Lakers won the NBA title. USC is no worse than the fifth best college football team in the land (despite what the BCS says). And then the Angels and Dodgers had made it one step from one short drive to a regional World Series.

But unlike so many Hollywood productions, this one will end without the hero getting the girl, or more specifically the two baseball teams getting what they thought they would — an opportunity to meet for a title.

A bummer. Or should that be a Bomber?

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award — given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football — he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

Friday, May 8th, 2009

RealClearSports: Manny being a mess

By Art Spander

OAKLAND –- Manny? He’s sorry. Maybe not as sorry as the Dodgers. Maybe not as sorry as baseball. Still, he’s sorry. And he’s been advised not to say anything more. Which is always the way when somebody breaks the rules.

Let an agent talk –- are you out there, Scott Boras? Let an attorney talk.

Athletes were playing ball Thursday afternoon at the Oakland Coliseum. Not Manny, although he and his drug suspension were the only things people seemed to want to discuss. The Texas Rangers and Oakland A’s were going at it in the sunshine.

Manny Ramirez was down the coast, in southern California. And down for the count. Or more specifically, 50 games.

John Madden could have summarized this one beautifully: “Boom.’’ A story that hit like a bomb. A story that made us wonder, who next? A story that, after all the agony of the Yankees’ and Mets’ ticket blunders, of Alex Rodriguez’s drug involvement, trumps all the rest of the negative material with one big blow.

Manny gone until the beginning of July. What’s going to happen to sales of those dreadlocks wigs in the stands at Dodger Stadium? What’s going to happen to the Dodgers?

With Manny in the lineup, they literally had been unbeatable at home, 13 out of 13. With Manny in the lineup, they had compiled the best record in the majors.

Barry Bonds never was suspended. A-Rod hasn’t been suspended. But Manny was given 50 games for failing a drug test, which proves both that baseball is serious in cleansing its sport of the doubt and disgrace and that Manny is either arrogant or ignorant.

Ramirez said the drug violation was due not to a steroid but a medication from a doctor, “which he thought was OK to give me. Unfortunately the medication is banned under our drug policy . . . I do want to say I’ve taken and passed about 15 drug tests the past five seasons.’’

He didn’t pass this one. A man with a two-year, $45 million contract, a man who almost single-handedly carried the Dodgers to the 2008 postseason after they traded for him in July, a man batting .348 after Wednesday night when he doubled in two runs, got smacked and hard.

They must be laughing and exchanging high fives in Boston. And exhaling in San Francisco, not that the Giants, even with frequent rumors, were a particularly strong candidate to get Manny last winter when he became a free agent. He was worth too much to the Dodgers. And worth more than the Giants could ever pay.

A healthy Manny, an unsuspended Manny, is a winner, a player who turns teams into champions. The Red Sox couldn’t win a World Series, if you don’t revert to 1918, until they got Ramirez. Then they won twice in four years.

Juan Pierre takes over in the Dodgers outfield for Manny. Not exactly the power or the personality. But a body that isn’t under suspension. Or suspicion. A dropoff in talent, but an improvement in eligibility.

All February, the questions swirled about the Dodgers. Would they finally give Manny, and Boras the agent, what they wanted? Would they be successful in re-signing the irrepressible Ramirez, who had made them successful? Finally, a couple weeks into spring training, the Dodgers made the announcement. They were whole once more.

No longer. Not for another two months. The guy who dominates the cover of their media guide, indeed the guy who dominates Dodger opponents, arguably the biggest bat this side of Albert Pujols, is banned from the game.

The sport’s balance is tipped. The Dodgers are more than Manny, certainly. You don’t start the way they’ve started without other star players. Yet they will be less without Manny.

As Bonds, when Barry was at his best, Ramirez is a difficult out, less troublesome with an intentional walk than a pitch that could be driven to the fences or over them. A week and a half ago, in a game against the Giants, Manny walked in his first two plate appearances and doubled in his next three.

After Bonds, after Mark McGwire, after Rafael Palmeiro, after the warnings and the threats, the presumption is that players understand they are responsible for what ends up in their bodies, even if they contend they have no idea how it got there.

A month ago, Jose Canseco, self-professed steroid user, at an appearance at the University of Southern California, said Ramirez’s name “is most likely 90 percent’’ on a list of 104 players who failed a drug test in 2003.

It sounded like bluster. Instead, it was dead accurate.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award — given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football — he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he has recently been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/05/manny-being-a-mess.html
© RealClearSports 2009

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Bonds back, Giants come back

SAN FRANCISCO – Empty seats, maybe 10,000 of them, a sign of the times. But one chair not empty was filled by the man who for the Giants was the sign – and the face – of better times.

Barry Bonds had come home.

He was a spectator, a guest of Bill Neukom, the guy in the bow tie who is the Giants’ managing general partner. It was Giants vs. Dodgers, on a chilly, windy Monday night. A rivalry renewed. And with Barry a hero/villain remembered.

In so many places, Barry was despised, even before the steroid stuff started. In this place, AT&T, the park that if Barry didn’t quite build he was in part responsible for, Bonds is idolized.

It’s the Dodgers who are despised.

“The Dodgers,’’ their manager, Joe Torre, conceded before the wildest of games Monday night, a Giants’ 5-4 win, “people either love them or hate them.’’

In 50 years, they’ve never been loved in the Bay Area. Not at Seals Stadium. Not at Candlestick. Not at AT&T.

Fans here rarely chant “Let’s go Giants.’’ Fans here always shout “Beat L.A.’’ Which Monday is what San Francisco was able to do, if not by the easiest of methods.

The Giants blew a 3-0 lead in the seventh and then came back with two in the eighth to win, 5-4, before a crowd announced at 31,091.

This indeed is a rivalry. “Not like it was in New York,’’ said Torre, who grew up back there cheering for the New York Giants against the Brooklyn Dodgers. “But it’s a rivalry. I think the younger players find that out quickly. I knew it before I came here.’’

Before that, Torre was with the Yankees, where the hatred is pitched at them by the Red Sox fans. Real venom. And when he managed the St. Louis Cardinals, he learned that across the Mississippi, downstate Illinois has more than enough Chicago Cubs partisans.

“The fans can get in a frenzy, which is OK,’’ said Torre. “That’s what sports are about. But it can wear you out.’’

The Giants wore out the Dodgers on Monday in the opener of a three-game series. Trailing 4-3, they scored twice in the eighth on a couple of line drives and a couple of dribblers.

It was a game the Giants needed. Not only because they were swept by the Dodgers in Los Angeles a couple of weeks back but because on Sunday, San Francisco couldn’t hold on to a 4-1 lead over the Diamondbacks and lost in 12.

It was a game closer Brian Wilson needed, since he was the man at fault on Sunday, giving up the game-tying homer. But Monday, in the ninth, Wilson struck out the side for the save.

Maybe it was a game Barry Bonds needed. This was his first one in San Francisco this season, and the time he didn’t spend waving at the fans when next to Neukom or in the row behind him he spent talking to Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper on the Comcast telecast.

All of a sudden, Barry is the charmer. All of a sudden the Giants, after a 2-7 start, are 9-9.

All of a sudden, the other Barry, Zito, is the pitcher of old. He went seven shutout innings last Wednesday. He went 6 1/3 shutout innings Monday night before giving up a walk and a home run. Zito still doesn’t have a win in 2009, but he does have back-to-back impressive performances.

“He did a great job,’’ Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of Zito, “but he was getting it up and not where he wanted. That’s why the change was made.’’

After 109 pitches, Zito was replaced by Merkin Valdez who after a walk to Rafael Furcal and a single by Orlando Hudson challenged Mr. Dreadlocks himself, Manny Ramirez. Manny won, singling in the go-ahead run. Yet in the end, the Giants won it all.

“Exciting game,’’ affirmed Bochy. A rivalry game, a game that teased and irritated but, for Giants fans, finally satisfied.

“It was good to see Barry,’’ Bochy said of Bonds. “He came to the clubhouse. I know the guys were happy to see him. He was sitting there watching. It was an exciting win and a great win for us.’’

Against the Dodgers, a team people either love or hate. Except in the Bay Area. Where it’s only hate.