Friday, June 15, 2012

Mike Downey Takes Notice Of The Dodgers' Trajectory

Great piece by Mike Downey as a special to CNN on how the Dodgers are finally on the long road back as a power and class franchise:

Everything that goes wrong one year can go right the next. Every guy who hit .200 can hit .300. Every guy on the DL can be an MVP. Every team's owner who files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection can sell that same team for $2 billion and change.

Deadline day for Dodgers bids Well, OK, not EVERY team. But maybe the Dodgers are too big to fail. Maybe you can't keep a franchise this strong down too long. Maybe the bum breaks even out. Maybe a new owner and a new cash infusion and a new attitude can create a new mood. I don't know. Call me maybe.

I can tell you this much: For years and years before the last owner owned the Dodgers, the Dodgers owned this town. The seats were filled. The team took five World Series championships and nine National League pennants after bolting Brooklyn to go west. If you count the Brooklyn years, these boys of summer won six Fall Classics and 22 pennants.

Something happened to the club that brought you Jackie Robinson and Duke Snider and Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, alas. Something unfortunate. Something unforeseeable.

An organization that oozed success and epitomized class was being abandoned by some of its fan base. The seats WEREN'T filled. The team wasn't succeeding. Its owner was in divorce court and its financial statements were in bankruptcy court. A lawsuit and a criminal investigation were pending over a parking lot incident in which a Northern California man was beaten into a coma. Dodger Stadium attendance in 2011 was down more than 627,000 from the year before.

Unthinkable. Unacceptable.

I wondered what it would take for the Dodgers to straighten this out. Would it take years? Would thousands of fans who once jammed the freeway near Stadium Way now steer clear for good?

Well, they aren't totally back, the team or the fans, but you've got to admit, it's getting better.

It's a long article but it's worth a read if you're a Dodger fan. It's hard not to be excited, both because the past years have been so dreary, as well as because the present (and future) look so bright.

photo swiped from the same cnn site link (uncredited)

3 comments:

Fred's Brim said...

I am tired of all this chatter.

Let's do like teenage Dusty with his Cheryl Tiegs poster and befoul some Sox tonight

Hideo Nomo said...

^ Comment of the Moment Nominee.

Steve Sax said...

Agreed. It's going up.