Friday, September 26, 2008

Let's Aim A Little Bit Higher, Boys

From the game recap on Wednesday's penultimate Dodgers/Padres game, here's Nomar Garciaparra (my emphasis added):

"Everybody is contributing right now," Garciaparra said. "For us to be in the position we are in and doing what we are doing right now, with putting that many runs up, everybody is doing their job. That's what we have to do if we are going to reach our ultimate goal, which is getting to the playoffs."

Wait a second here, reaching the playoffs is our ultimate goal? What about winning a playoff round or two? Or reaching the World Series? Come on, Nomar! Aim high!

Luckily, only 24 hours later, in the recap of last night's pennant-clinching game and post-game revelry, one of the Dodgers' grizzled veterans reset goals appropriately:

The Dodgers waited nearly eight hours to express themselves after clinching their first NL West championship in four years. They made up for the delay with a wild celebration on the field and in the clubhouse.

"We're not done yet. We have an objective," champagne-soaked pitcher Chad Billingsley said. "It's just been a great year, with all we've gone through."

Thanks for restoring order, Chad! And for the kids at home, let's play "count the cliches with Frank McCourt" (from the same game recap):

Dodgers owner Frank McCourt was in the middle of things in the clubhouse, being drenched by several players. "I'm happy because of all we went through this season," McCourt said. "It was a battle, with all the injuries. At the end of the day, this is all about the fans. They stuck with us through the entire year, and we were scuffling for a while. It was a fantastic finish."

I count five, maybe six.

1 comments:

Alex Cora said...

I think I saw the nomar interview on some highlight show. He was in the dugout drenched in champagne and he started off that rant with (to paraphrase) Getting to the world series is the ultimate goal and what we discussed at spring training. But then he goes on and states that the first step is the playoffs.