Brian George's Los Angeles Dodgers fan blog

Will it? Can it? It's looking pretty damn good. Our lineup is sick right now. Furcal's bunt against the Cubbies was textbook bunting for a basehit and legging one out. I wonder if anyone's asked Kent lately if he thinks Vin is talking too much now. What an a-hole. Leave him on the bench. His injury was the biggest blessing we've had this season. The team seems to be having fun now. Bring on the Philthies!

Continue reading ""In a season so improbable, the impossible...""

This is tough. It's usually not our problem. Colorado, Cincinatti, Houston, yes, but not us. It's our staple. That and the D and we ain't gonna be able to hold up with what we've got. With Brad Penny looking pretty "done", and Jason Schmidt not even a blip on the radar for any kind of return this year, it's time to reassess what we've got and what's needed.

Billingsley - obviously our #1. The problem is he's had to pitch so damn perfect all year, so focused, every pitch stressed, because of our pre-Manny, season long ineptness at offense that he may be loosening the reigns a bit now that it looks like we may be able to hit and it may come back to bite him. But, he's our stud.

Kuroda - Up and down. Hard to determine if a quality start is coming for sure.

Continue reading "Pitching, PItching, Pitching"

Last Sunday, in my Los Angeles Times, there was an article about American athletes (and by American athletes I mean athletes who were born and raised here) who are competing for Mexico in the upcoming Olympics. The article was kind of an icing on the cake confirmation for me that, todays' first and second-generation Americans, are leading the way in the demise of our great country.  What's even more saddening for me is that when I share this story with other Americans, the common response I've gotten is usually something along the lines of, "They just want to compete in the Olympics" or "What's the big deal? They just want to play".  Who cares? They just want to swim, run and jump, right? It doesn't matter that they're Americans swimming, running and jumping for another nation, does it? Is this the prevailing mentality across America? Call me old-fashioned, it ain't right.

Continue reading "Kaman the German and his cohorts"

The Dodgers are banged up in the rotation right now. We've got Chan Ho Round II in the rotation, Kershaw the Kid in there, and another kid named Eric Stults in there, not to be confused with the drug dealer from Pulp Fiction grubbing on cereal in a bathrobe pissed off that Vincent Vega is calling his house telling him he's bringing over his OD'ing date, nor to be confused with the guy who portrayed teen biker Rocky Dennis - the other one who spells his last name with a "u" and who after pitching a shutout last week said the last time he pitched a shutout was sometime in Little League, he thinks. So the question continues to pop up, why not Kuo?

Why not the guy with the lowest ERA on the team?

Why not the guy with, according to Fox analyst and former MLB skipper, Kevin Kennedy, the sickest and nastiest stuff on the team?

Continue reading "Why Not Hong Chi?"

Is it true? Are there less athletes in baseball today than ever? That's what they say, what they've been saying for years now. The athletic, talented kid who can run and jump and hit and catch better than you or I isn't playing baseball anymore. If it doesn't involve a football or a basketball, our truly athletic American kids aren't playing it. Baseball is slow. Doesn't grab the interests of kids. The game hasn't evolved. It's bad on TV. There are less fields in the inner city. It's expensive to play with equipment and travel leagues. Although there may be some apparent truth to some or all of these arguments, there are several factors to consider on the contrary.

The first being the "The beauty of baseball" factor and that is that you can succeed at it, make it to the Show and flourish even, regardless of your height, build, vertical leap or speed - and that's the way it's always been. Pete Rose never blew anybody away with his height, size or speed. He could hit and if you can hit, you can make it in this game regardless of size, height or speed. It didn't hurt that he always played aggressively and outhustled the next guy. Some attribute that success to the era he played in, but some of today's stars in MLB: Ichiro, Tejada, Rollins are all well under six feet and in addition to their speed, can hit the baseball for avergae and power.

Continue reading "Forget the Athletes, Give me the Gamers!"

I think George Lopez' grandmother said it best with, "Then Don't Go!" We, as Dodger fans, are too loyal (and we don't even get credit for it). We're too nice. We go to the games no matter who they put out there. We go for the tradition. For Vinnie. For the organ music. The dogs. The tranquil surroundings of the Ravine. But we've got to stop it. I've been yelling this for years, to no one who can do anything about it of course, that we, are idiots. We're the Cub fans of the West. And the owners, all of them in this post O'Malley era, know it. They know we'll go no matter who they put out there in the Home Whites.

This is L.A. Not Cleveland. Not Milwaukee. Not Cincinnati. L.A. In L.A., we shouldn't have to endure as many rebuilding years as we've had. Did we back in March, as we sat around discussing it over beers with our buddies, really think that this team had a chance at a World Championship. Be honest now. Our hopes we're high. We loved that we were able to keep the kids. We knew we had good pitching but no true studs. We knew that we were hanging on to the hope that Andruw was going to turn it around and be a miraculous signing. But, deep down, we knew that there was a lot of wishing and hoping going on. We hoped that the kids would have developed some pop in their bats over the winter. We hoped that LaRoche was going to be the next Ron Cey. We hoped that Kent and Nomar were going to stay healthy. But, in our heart of hearts and in the most knowing, honest modules of our brain, we knew that there was a lot of praying and finger crossing going on if we were going to make a run at this thing.

Continue reading "Tired of Losing?"

Randy, it's been real. But it's time for a new diddy.

To the tune of Johnny Cash's "One Piece at a Time"...

"We'll win it one game at a time,

Cuz' Kobe Bryant is in his prime,

And he's coming out to terrorize Bean Town,

We're gonna win another ring

Cuz to us it ain't no big thing

To win our 10th NBA championship crown"

As Kobe stated after the Game 4 loss, "just like college basketball, we're in the Elite Eight and we gotta win out to win the championship."

 We're in the Final Four now. Two more to go for a ring. Let's do this!

Continue reading "Move over "I Love L.A."?"

Oh my lamb! If it isn't bad enough that our beloved Dodgers are looking to extend their championship-less streak to 20 years, the Lakers...The Lakers...what can we say? That was sick, knots forming in the stomach type television watching. HD did not help me in that debacle. Actually would've preferred to watch that second half in some rabbit-ear antenna inducing, snowy, Low D. Give me the old, chunky graphics that take up half the screen to cover up that mess.

Oh this is tough. Coming from a childhood in the 70's and 80's with the Dodgers being regular, National League pennant contenders, winning a couple of World Series titles...The Showtime Lakers winning titles every other year...Hell, The L.A. Raiders were even regular winners...Oh, it's tough times right now in L.A....Thank you, Lord, for Pete Carroll or we'd really be up crap creek.

Continue reading "BEAT L.A.!"

When I watch this 2008 Dodger team, I sit there and think to myself, something's missing. And two months in, it finally dawned on me: They're just not fun to watch. Besides the lack of power and inconsistent hitting, there's a lack of personality, a Dodger who every time he comes to the plate when we're down, there's a feeling the game's gonna turn around in our favor. We have no Magic.

Don't get me wrong. We've got some good players. Some future stars. I love Martin's fire, Kemp's ability, Loney's consistency, Ethier's professionalism, Kent's toughness, Furcal's spark, Pierre's speed, Nomar's clutch hitting (when he's healthy), but despite all of those qualities on this current Dodger roster, we don't have the Magic. The guy with the personality, charisma, and/or power to give us hope that we can score each time he steps into the batter's box.

Continue reading "No Magic in this Blue Crew"

There's nothing like the feeling as you go through your day and co-workers, friends and family ask, "What do you got going tonight?" and you get to tell them, "I'm going to the Dodger Game." Everyone's immediate response is a smile with a response like, "Oh, that's cool" or "Sweet" or "How fun". "I'm going to the Dodger game," immediately sends peoples Thinking Blue as they envision: The Stadium. The Ravine. Philippe's. Vinnie. Nancy B. Hefley. Dodger Dogs. Ten Dollar Beers. The Pavillion bleachers. The traffic. The parking. The traffic. The parking. We can all, as Dodger fans, relate, reminisce and bond over past, present and future Dodger Stadium memories. 

Now one can argue that any fan, of any ball park, of any team has their own quirks, traditions, and specialness that they can lay claim as to what makes its park better than the rest. But Dodger Stadium is more special than anywhere else. More unique. More of an experience. And it's not the metal and concrete and the blue and the hills and the nice weather that make it that way, it's the people.

Continue reading "The Dodger Stadium Chex Mix: It's a Beautiful Thing"