Friday, October 01, 2010

Just How Different Are The Dodgers And Padres Now, Tim Sullivan?

So I want to ask Tim Sullivan of the San Diego Hyphenated Newspaper Name:

With the Padres needing a sweep to avoid missing the postseason, is it still true that the "Difference between Padres and Dodgers is life and death"? (published September 22):

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers are a team in need of a toe tag. They look lifeless and they play dead.

Their ownership is being disputed in divorce court. Their manager is a lame duck. Their cleanup hitter, James Loney, has openly questioned their effort and barely provoked a shrug.

These are the kind of people the Padres want to be playing as the pennant race nears its finish line. You want to face a guy like Rafael Furcal, who led off the eighth inning Tuesday night with his team down by five runs, and promptly swung at the first pitch. You yearn for opponents who are mainly marking time during the decisive weeks of the baseball season.

You just can’t say it when you see it.

“You try not to worry about what the other team is doing,” Padres second baseman David Eckstein said Wednesday afternoon. “As soon as you start looking at that, that’s when you’re going to get beat. You can’t take anything for granted.” [...]

Oh shit, Eckstein is quoted in the article's leadoff slot? Let me guess: the cliched "scrappiness" argument is right around the corner...Boom goes the dynamite.

If Eckstein is prone to overpraise his teammates, to see heroism in simply playing the game correctly, those values are at the core of the Padres’ success. Hitting the ball to the right side with no outs and a runner at second base should not be confused with diving on a live grenade, but it does involve a certain amount of statistical sacrifice.

Well put, Mr. Sullivan, making the military allusion with a team who often dresses like its fan base from nearby Camp Pendleton.

It is the kind of play that wins pennants.

We'll see about that, Timmy.

The rap on the Dodgers is that some of their most gifted players are more concerned with personal stats than they are with winning. This is a common affliction within the game, one that can sometimes be overcome if a team has enough talent.

These Dodgers don’t have that much talent. Neither do these Padres. The difference is that one team plainly gives a damn.

78-84 or 90-72: we're still getting the exact same length of winter vacation, Tim. Because we're both in the same morgue.

7 comments:

Josh S. said...

This is Tim's audition piece for the L.A. Times.

MeanieBreanie said...

Ouch!

MR.F said...

So have you all heard that our draft pick, Jake Lemmerman, was a subject of a female student's thesis "work" while at Duke?

Nostradamus said...

Saw that on Deadspin yesterday, Mr. F. That's some funny shit.

Neeebs (The Original) said...

The difference with the Pods/Dods is that, aside from an amazing May, the Dodgers were never in the race.

The Pods, on the other hand, choked bigtime!

Nostradamus said...

I'm just amazed that of all the Dodgers he could have accused of goldbricking, he chose Furcal.

Que?!

Cliff Beefpile said...

stay classless, san diego.