The Dog Days

Ah, every ballplayer's favorite time of year; the weather is miserable in most parts of the country, their bodies ache, slumps and streaks lead to a sort of manic attitude, clubhouse turmoil either simmers or boils, and all without the aide of greenies anymore. Yes, the dog days are upon us.

On that note, I apologize for beginning my little blog here so late in the game. I, too, have been mired in my own dog days. And to be honest, as much as I love following the "kids" on this Dodger team, they still seemed a year or so away from reaching their true potential as a ballclub, so this season (injuries and all) has felt, for lack of a better word, somewhat boring. It feels wrong to say that, I know. I love watching Russ, Kemp, Ethier, Loney, Bills, Brox, and once again, Clayton Kershaw who has made me feel like a complete loser (CK, 20 years old and in the bigs. Nick, 22, college graduate, sitting on his butt writing about CK. Hmm, if only I were left handed.) These guys are not boring to me, not in the slightest. In fact, they are the only saving grace of this season if you ask me.

What is boring? Juan Pierre, Andruw Jones, No-more, and Joe Torre to an increasing level. It had gotten to such a frustrating level about a week ago that I had almost written this season off. Slappy McPopup (aka Juan Pierre) might be one of the most useless ballplayers I have ever seen. Jones is a joke. And Mr. Mia Hamm would be fine if he didn't have the whole requisite DL stint every 2 weeks. So, our young kids (20-26) are being asked to carry this team offensively, and while they show flashes of brilliance, they also find themselves striking out in the clutch. Call it a learning curve, a learning curve that productive vets are supposed to help alleviate. Problem--out vets have not been productive.

So, like I said, I had just about given up on the season, holding out slight hope that we might take the division based on, in my opinion, a VERY underrated pitching staff and the off chance that Raffy could come back and reignite the O. That is, until Pau pt. II.

Manny Ramirez turns this team into a legit contender to actually win our first playoff series since 1988 (and we all know how that ended). The future HOFer so far has gone 8-13 with 2 HR, 5 RBI, 5 runs, and a slugging percentage over 1.100. Damn. The only downside to this whole trade has been Torre's insistance on benching Ethier, who deserves to start everyday.

So, anyway Dodgers fans, I'm back a peak fanaticism. Bear with me on the posts: this is my first time blogging, so I may need a bit of a learning curve myself. But I'll be here often and I'm open to suggestion.

Go BLUE!