Dozen is the number
All three NL wild card teams scored twelve runs last night, and all three won their games, keeping everything status quo for now.
Mets still lead the Giants by 1/2 a game, with the Cardinals just one game back of the Giants.
The scores weren’t really a surprise when you consider the Rockies used rookie German Marquez, and the Reds went with rookie Robert Stephenson. This is Sept baseball so while the teams looking to next year, try out some of their 2017 options, the teams in the race will be using Matt Moore, and Adam Wainwright. The Mets threw their ace Thor at Koehler and had predictable results.
Today will be a little different with the Mets using their own rookie Lugo, and the Giants getting to face Tyler Chatwood who continues to tap dance his way to a sub 2.00 ERA when pitching on the road. Smarter people than myself keep telling me that his road work is a mirage and it will come crashing down, but last I looked it is Sept 28th, which means he kept up his mirage all year long. I guess he’ll either normalize tonight or next year.
This might be the night the Cardinals catch up.
See you on the radio, Charlie
If you think this column is about Charley Steiner you’d be dead wrong. It is about someone who is famous for his radio show, and who grew up an avid baseball fan on the East Coast, but it is not that Charley.
It wasn’t just Vin Scully saying goodbye this weekend, long time Sunday Morning host Charles Osgood also said so long it was good to know you.
It is strange for me to realize I’m an old fogey, considering I first heard this song by X when they would perform as the Knitters. I’m a far cry from my head banging days. Though I did see X and Los Lobos a few weeks ago.
Now I watch Sunday Morning, used to listen to Garrison Keillor and his A Prairie Home Companion on the way to Saturday Night Clipper or Dodger games. Even caught the show at the Hollywood bowl.
In the same year three entertainment icons, Garrison Keillor, Charles Osgood, and Vin Scully have all retired. Better they retire than pass away, I hope they all echo what Vin said when asked what he was going to do? “I’m going to live”
A commonality would appear to run through these three men. They all seem to love to sing, are very musical, and have a grounded way about them, that makes them seem accessible to the common person. They are all men who came from humble beginnings to carve out a huge niche in the mid to late 20th, and early 21st century.
I don’t know what the demographics are for Sunday Morning, but I suspect they are the same people who listen to Public Radio but are way older. Just googling around it appears I may be wrong, and that the show has made nice inroads into that 25 – 54 demographic that I passed a few years ago.
I’m not a big enough fan of Charles Osgood to get misty about his leaving, nothing like what I thought of Vin Scully. I’m not sure how much he had to do with Sunday Morning these days, he mostly just seemed to announce what was going to be on the show and didn’t really do any segments himself anymore. I’m a late comer to Sunday Morning, I never saw the show with Charles Kuralt, and at my wife’s urging only started watching a few years ago. I’m glad I did, the segments have certainly broadened my knowledge and something we enjoy doing together, usually while eating our freshly made waffles with strawberries/blueberries/whipped cream.
My wife and were both pleased to see that Jane Pauley will be the new Sunday Morning host. We only hope that she enjoys such success that in twenty-two years she gets a send off like Charles Osgood got this past Sunday, and even more so, we both hope to be alive to see it.
I hope her first segment is on Garry Trudeau, she might know a little about him.
Grandal and Joc
As the Dodgers wind down September baseball, two huge reasons for optimism this October are the play of Grandal and Pederson. Last year the Dodgers were pretty much on the same pace but the team had two black holes in the lineup every time Grandal and Pederson were in it.
Not this year, they are weapons, and they are loaded:
| Yaz Grandal | | | 2015 Aug | 2016 Aug | | | 2015/Sept | 2016/Sept |
| wRC+ | | | 54|155 | | | 22|128 |
| OPS | | | 0.521|0.945 | | | 0.364|0.857 |
| PA | | | 68|91 | | | 86|68 |
| HomeRuns | | | 1|6 | | | 1|6 |
| RBI | | | 5|12 | | | 3|16 |
| | | | | |||
| | | | | |||
| Joc Pederson | | | 2015/Aug | 2016/Aug | | | 2015/Sept | 2016/Sept |
| wRC+ | | | 101|109 | | | 82|210 |
| OPS | | | 0.644|0.748 | | | 0.637|1.18 |
| PA | | | 74|94 | | | 91|62 |
| HomeRuns | | | 2|2 | | | 3|6 |
| RBI | | | 4|10 | | | 7|10 |
With the Nationals only having Gio Gonzalez to change the lineup around, and the Cubs only having Jon Lester, one has to think that if Grandal and Joc can continue their excellent seasons into October the Dodgers will have a very long and strong lineup.
You couldn’t say that last October.
Mets score big on Phillies take a one game lead
in the Wild card over the Giants, with the Cardinals a 1/2 game back of the Giants. The Mets won yesterday 17 – 0, the Giants lost once again to the Padres, and the Cardinals were on the wrong side of a 3 – 1 score with the Cubs.
With one week remaining it is still very tight. The Giants have six games remaining, three with the Rockies and three with the Dodgers all at home.
The Cardinals have four with the Reds, and three with the Pirates all at home.
The Mets have three with Miami and three with the Phillies all on the road
Still anybody’s ball game. The Mets have the one game lead but are on the road, the Cardinals play seven at home, and the Giants play six at home. The final three games for the Giants will be against the Dodgers, I don’t think the Dodgers would mind ending once and for all the odd/even run of the Giants.
Dodgers blogs check in on an incredible weekend
Eric Stephen hits a perfect note
Jon Weisman is churning out story after story but this was one was what I was looking for
or maybe it was this one celebrating Charlie Culberson
Do bad choices make great stories?
While riding the metro home from the Rose Bowl on Saturday Night I was struck by a jacket I saw on a young woman between 20 – 22. Her jacket proudly said on the back:
Bad
Choices
Make
Great
Stories
She could have been part of the group I’d hung out with at X concerts thirty-five years ago, but this was 2016 not 1981. She looked like someone who had made a few bad choices in her life but was happy with her current situation.
I’m a little too pragmatic a person, but I let my mind wonder about this little saying she was so proud to be wearing. I started running through bad choices people make and was having a hard time coming up with ones that would have a good story.
Is a DUI a good story? Not if it ends in jail or death for someone, or at a minimum the loss of your license. If you make it home without any consequences is it a good story? Doesn’t strike me as one but maybe that is a badge people wear.
Is a teenage pregnancy a good story? Sometimes, it worked out for my niece.
Is picking the loser who likes to hit a woman a good story?
Is picking the winner who likes to hit a woman a good story? In either case, it was a bad choice.
Is driving a motorcycle recklessly without a helmet a good story?
Is driving 120 on the way to Arizona a good story? Absolutely, until it isn’t .
Most of us make bad choices every day, and I don’t think there are many good stories to be found. In my own experience, I could only find one instant where I’d made a bad choice and it turned into a good story. At age 14 a girl and I played hookey from school and hitchhiked to the beach from Glendale. It was a wild and crazy trip that kept bordering on becoming a disaster, but eventually, we found our way home with one hell of a story.
The great stories are the great choices. Aren’t they? Otherwise, aren’t they bad stories?
Maybe I need to expand my horizons. Sometimes we don’t know going in if we are making a bad choice, but I think the jacket was talking about going in knowing full well this was a bad choice and being ok with the consequences.
But I’m just a guy on a metro headed home to suburbia. That wasn’t exactly a good choice, and I certainly don’t have any good stories to tell about suburbia.
Vin sings
When word first came out that something “shocking” would happen on Vin’s last day, I jokingly said he’d be singing the National Anthem. I really hoped that it would involve singing.
Writers all over the continent who actually knew Vin are busy writing why he was so important to this town or to the baseball world or their own lives.
I can’t really add to anything these great writers might be saying, so I’m just going to talk about what he meant to me.
And I’m going to keep it simple.
He meant everything to me.
He might be the last hero I have on a pedestal. I’ve been very careful with that pedestal since Bill Cosby came crashing down.
When I was lucky enough to get to cover the Dodgers I found out two things. Vin Scully loves to sing/hum to himself. I often wanted to ask him if he hadn’t become a baseball announcer if he would have loved to have been a singer but I never had the courage to approach him. The closest I got to Vin Scully was opening the door for him when he had just gotten some ice cream. Vin said thank you.
Ha
We went to Friday’s festivities. I made it through that okay, some tears but not as many as I expected.
Today wasn’t so easy. I stayed home, I wanted to hear Vin make his last call from Dodger Stadium.
When he got to say Deuces Wild one more time I laughed with joy.
When Corey Seager tripled to tie the game I laughed with joy.
When Corey Seager homered to tie the game and give us extra Vinnings I laughed with joy.
When Charlie Culberson homered to give Vin the greatest way to walk off a career I laughed and laughed
When he sang to us, i just cried. and inside I haven’t stopped yet.
I have to thank the Los Angeles Dodgers for giving Vin a great season to end his career on.
What a team. What a year. What a day
If the Dodgers win a World Championship and they play Vin singing “You are the wings beneath my feet” to us I may lose my normal composure and go bat shit crazy.
For a moment anyway.
The magic of 58
I’m going to turn 58 on Nov 24th this year. I was born in 1958 and I told Dave Young how cool I thought this was, that I was born in 1958 and would be celebrating my 58th birthday this year. He was unimpressed.
But you know, 1958 was a pretty good year. I was born in Pasadena the same year the Dodgers came to Los Angeles. That year brought Vin Scully to Los Angeles and started the love affair between announcer and city that has been a constant over these 58 years.
I wasn’t even a year old when the Los Angeles Dodgers won their first World Championship in 1959 but somehow that magic seeped into my crib. Maybe it was my Grandmother and Grandfather (Mana and Da) listening to Vin while rocking me to sleep? Maybe I could hear my brothers transistor radio under his pillow late at night?
However, it happened I’m sure Vin Scully had a part to play in it when I was but a tot. I’ve been a Los Angeles Dodger fan since I first understood what major league baseball was. By then I didn’t even live in Los Angeles but by the time I came back in 1970 I was already a big fan.
Coming from a city Alexandria, VA where no one cared about baseball to Glendale, Ca where everybody talked about Dodger baseball was nirvana for me. One really could play catch on the front lawn and hear Vin Scully’s prose emanating from multiple houses.
For the next 46 years, Vin Scully was as big a part of my life as he was yours. I’m not really ready for the end. I’m not ready to acknowledge my childhood is over. Vin has kept me eternally young as he is the constant between our twelve-year-old person and our fifty-eight-year-old person. This year I stopped watching the game when Vinny was calling them. I simply closed my eyes and listened to the TV. My wife would test me time and time again by putting it on mute to see if I was as asleep. I usually passed the test. My biggest complaint about Vin Scully is that the Dodgers were wasting his talent by only using him for TV. His greatest skill was talking to us on the radio. Let Charley or whoever do TV, give us Vin on the radio. They wouldn’t do that so I made it happen myself.
But even I had to watch the last two innings today. It was the type of sendoff you only hope can happen. It was a special end to an emotional weekend.
Jon Weisman put together a special Dodgers Insider for Vin, and since Jon was involved I’m sure it is excellent. I won’t read it. Not yet. Not until the Dodgers stop playing baseball this year. Hopefully, that won’t happen until November.
The LA Times Sunday edition today, had a section devoted to Vin Scully. I’ve heard great things about it. I won’t read it. Not yet. Not until the Dodgers stop playing baseball this year. Hopefully, that won’t happen until November.
There is no kidding myself, baseball will not be the same for me going forward, just as the Lakers have never been the same for me since Chick left. I’ll have to muddle through it without Vin Scully, and as Joe Davis gives us the exit velocity of the game-winning home run by Corey Seager next year, I’ll appreciate the info, but the call won’t be giving me goose bumps.
Or maybe it will, I have to say I really like Joe Davis, though it would be cool if the trio of Joe/Orel/Nomar could temper the homer parts of their demeanor.
A Hollywood ending that even Hollywood couldn’t write
The day that should have had so much promise started out with the horrible news that baseball had lost one of its great stars in a fishing boat accident. Winning a pennant now seemed inconsequential. Witnessing the last calls of Vin at home was already going to make for a stressful day, losing Jose Fernandez and Vin Scully on the same day just didn’t seem right.
One was just starting out with a road map that looked like it could lead to Cooperstown, the other had parked at Cooperstown decades before. In a strange twist, it was going to take someone like Vin Scully to get me through another tough day, even if it was the last time he would be able to do it.
This game was fan appreciation day. It was Vin Scully’s last home game. It was a possible pennant-winning day. The drama involved the combination of the three.
Could the Dodgers win their fourth straight pennant on fan appreciation day in front of Vin Scully on his last game at Dodger Stadium? Had the stars really aligned to make this a possibility? I asked Craig Minami if the Dodgers had ever clinched a pennant on Fan Appreciation day, and he couldn’t remember it happening.
The LAD have won eleven ROY awards. The award is named after Jackie Robinson who won the first ever award for the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Dodgers have owned this award from Jackie Robinson to Fernando to Mike Piazza but for one day Corey Seager transcended them all.
If Corey Seager does nothing ever again he gave Dodger fans exactly what they needed and wanted on this Sunday.
One might say”Extra Vinnings” #WinForVin
— Sons of Steve Garvey (@sosgsosg) September 25, 2016
He gave the Dodgers Extra Vinning when he slammed a two-out home run in the bottom of the 9th against a pitcher who had just toyed with Toles and Turner. He gave Vin Scully the call we wanted to hear one more time. The dramatic call, the roar of the crowd . Corey Seager gave us something we only hoped could happen, but never expected it to happen.
He gave us Charlie Culberson.
Charlie Culberson will never hit a more important home run for Los Angeles Dodger fans, I don’t care if he hits a World Series home run. This was it. This was not just a pennant-winning home run, that was going to happen no matter what. No, Charlie Culberson gave the greatest baseball announcer of all time the greatest call one could ask for to go out on.
Corey Seager and Charlie Culberson were the wings under our feet today.
Thank You
Horrible Sunday morning
Getting my car washed at 08:00 AM at a local carwash charity for Sebastian Bordonaro so he could get his service dog I had time to check out the twitter feed. I was expecting lots of Dodger love but instead, I got a punch to the gut.
My favorite pitcher died this morning, an inspirational story has ended much too soon. This is when great writers come to the forefront to help us express what we are feeling and Grant Brisbee did just that.
Jose Fernandez was not someone you had to remind yourself to humanize. He was not a player you had reduced to an on-field construct because that’s just how we have to compartmentalize everything. No, no, goodness no. He was so radiant that when he’s ripped away, you almost have to force yourself to remember the talent. How well he played the sport is the afterthought because all you can think about at first is the joy.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 