Archiving the 2025 SoSG Attendance Record, For Posterity

Once again, it's time to archive the prior season's attendance record, again a World Series Chamionship 2025 season for the Los Angeles Dodgers (the franchise's ninth title). The Sons were an amazing 10-2 during the regular season, as well as a spotless 2-0 during the postseason (and this was a second consecutive year that Sax has seen a walk-off Freddie Freeman home run in a World Series game!).

SoSG 2025 record: 10-2, 2-0 postseason

3/28 vs. DET (W, 8-5 (10)): Sax
4/2 vs. ATL (W, 6-5): AC
4/27 vs. WAS (W, 9-2): Dusty
5/17 vs. LAA (L, 2-6): Sax
5/31 vs. NYY (W, 18-2): Dusty, Sax
6/3 vs. NYM (W, 6-5): Nomo
6/15 vs. SF (W, 5-4): AC
6/17 vs. SD (W, 8-6): Dusty
6/18 vs. SD (W, 4-3): AC
6/22 vs. WAS (W, 13-7): AC, Dusty
7/5 vs. HOU (L, 6-4): Orel, Sax
9/18 vs. SF (W, 2-1): Sax

10/9 NLDS G4 vs. PHI (W, 2-1 (11)): Sax

10/27 WS G3 vs. TOR (W, 6-5 (18)): AC, Sax

In 2025, I only got to five games (3-2), plus two playoff games (2-0). That was the fewest number of games I had attended in a season in over a decade (excluding 2020). I pledge to get back to the Stadium a lot more in 2026!

Prior SoSG attendance records: 2008 (18-15), 2009 (21-10), 2010 (9-8), 2011 (10-7), 2012 (24-18), 2013 (24-16), 2014 (22-12), 2015 (27-13), 2016 (10-5), 2017 (27-13) 2018 (12-9), 2019 (10-5), 2020 (0-0), 2021 (4-3), 2022 (4-4), 2023 (5-5), 2024 (5-6).

Dodgers Lead League in 2025...Pitch Clock Violations

On the eve of the epic 2025 NLDS against Philadelphia, let's not lose sight of the fact that the carefully-constructed team from Andrew Friedman and company achieved the pinnacle of the sport, in pitch clock violations:

The Los Angeles Dodgers topped the major leagues with 26 pitch clock violations this season, while the Tampa Bay Rays' Shane Baz led pitchers and the Athletics' Lawrence Butler was first among batters as the overall big league total dropped substantially once again.

Los Angeles committed one more violation than the New York Mets, according to Major League Baseball's figures. The Colorado Rockies had 23, and the Houston Astros, the Los Angeles Angels and Washington Nationals had 22 each.

The Cincinnati Reds and Kansas City Royals tied for the fewest infractions with three apiece.

There were 465 violations in the third year of the pitch clock, down from 602 last year and 1,048 in 2023. Pitchers committed 369 violations, along with 91 by batters and five by catchers.

Great work by the Dodgers to claim the top spot, after being tied for 10th last year.

2025 Dodgers WAR (Through June 23, 2025)

I just peeked at this and found it pretty surprising:

• Shohei Ohtani 3.6
• Will Smith 3.3
• Andy Pages 3.0
• Mookie Betts 2.7
• Max Muncy 2.3
• Freddie Freeman 1.9
• Teoscar Hernandez 1.6
• Tommy Edman 1.5
• Michael Conforto -1.1

For substitutes, Hyeseong Kim leads with a 1.1 WAR. Kiké Hernandez has a 0.6 (better than I expected!), and Miguel Rojas and Dalton Rushing each have 0.3.

Austin Barnes was -0.3 and Chris Taylor was -0.6.

From a pitching perspective, Yoshinobu Yamamoto has a 1.9 WAR, and Clayton Kershwaw has a 0.4 WAR. Roki Sasaki is 0.1, as is Tyler Glasnow. Blake Snell has a -0.2 WAR, worse than even Dustin May (-0.1) and Tony Gonsolin (-0.1). Landon Knack has a -0.3 WAR.

Within the relief corps: Ben Casparius has a 0.7 WAR, Alex Vesia is at 0.5, Jack Dreyer is at 0.4, and Anthony Banda is at 0.3. New pickups Tanner Scott is at 0.1 and Kirby Yates is at 0.0.

Games 1-2 Thread: Tokyo Series vs. Cubs (March 18-19)

Lots of open mouths here. Whatever happened to nose breathing?

Tue 3.18: Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Shota Imanaga, 3a
Wed 3.19: Roki Sasaki vs. Justin Steele, 3a

It's finally time for Dodger Baseball, and it's awful early in the day here in Los Angeles. But I'm totally excited to get up and watch the Dodgers defend their World Series Championship by facing off against the Cubs in the Tokyo Dome. And just in time, Spectrum is finally allowing a subscription streaming service, which should open the Dodgers up to all those cord-cutting fans in the Los Angeles market.

The only bad news? Mookie Betts' recent diet plan (drop 15 pounds in short notice!), a.k.a. the flu he's been fighting since leaving for Japan last week, has knocked our new shortstop off the roster for these two games in Japan. I guess that puts more pressure on that other guy to carry the load. (No, not Freddie Freeman; he did his part during the 2024 World Series!).

I'm going to try and get up at 3a and watch this puppy. Come join us on this GT!

LET'S GO, DODGERS!

Dodgers Open 2025 Season vs. Cubs in Tokyo

The Dodgers will play the Cubs in the Tokyo Dome on March 18 and 19, 2025. These games precede the league-wide Opening Day on Thursday, March 27 (Tigers @ Dodgers).

Excited for another international visit for the team, and of course a huge visit for Shohei Ohtani to Japan!