The Torre Aftermath: Notes from the "LA Times"

Whenever I look at the LA Times sports page, with its wafer-thin page depth (despite a banner headline-sized ad running across the bottom), morally unsound coverage of betting lines, and insipid rants from idiots like Bill Plaschke, it makes me long for the days when the LA Times was a quality newspaper. And then I read articles from LA Times alums who have gone on to greneer pastures, and it makes me weep.

First, Steve Henson (now of Yahoo Sports), who calls out the Dodgers' duplicity as ethically-questionable behavior not fit for Sunday school:

The ugly part is all but forgotten. They convinced Grady Little that it was his decision to remain in his North Carolina home hard against the 18th hole at Pinehurst Course No. 7 and relinquish the reins of the Dodgers.

Kids, cover your eyes and ears. This isn't what they teach in Sunday school. The Dodgers' duplicity was staggering. They were dishonest, deceitful, deceptive and … effective.

[...]

But in an upset, it all worked out the way McCourt dreamed it up. The plan didn't fall apart the way an even more complicated scheme did two years ago.

Remember? He had general manager Paul DePodesta fire Jim Tracy, then he fired DePodesta, then he tried to replace DePodesta with Pat Gillick, who was to hire Orel Hershiser as his assistant and Bobby Valentine as manager.

Problem was, Gillick wanted no part of being told who to hire, and he became GM of the Philadelphia Phillies instead. Valentine had won a championship in Japan weeks earlier and preferred his newfound status as a national icon. Hershiser kept waiting for his phone to ring and eventually settled in – quite convincingly – as a television analyst.

McCourt regrouped, was widely lauded for hiring Colletti, and, in a leap of faith, signed off on Little as the right choice for the dugout, even though as a Boston blueblood, the 2003 memory of Pedro Martinez rotting on the vine against the Yankees was indelible.

Little guided the Dodgers to a 17-victory improvement and playoff appearance in 2006, and preseason prognosticators had the team reaching the World Series in 2007. Then came the injuries to starters Jason Schmidt and Randy Wolf, then came the losing, then came the dissension, there went Little, who in hindsight only had the backing of McCourt as long as his winning percentage remained well above .500.

In comes Torre, a .605 winning percentage in 12 seasons with the Yankees, a .476 mark in 15 National League seasons before that. He will be introduced at Dodger Stadium on Monday. It might be too soon to bring along Don Mattingly, but by spring training he will wear Dodgers blue as well, serving as bench coach or hitting coach and wearing the unofficial title of heir apparent.

[...]

Reeling in Alex Rodriguez makes sense for many reasons, foremost being that if the Dodgers are going to pay a manager $13 million, they might as well provide him with the players it will take to win a World Series. Colletti didn't exactly exude optimism, though.

"The free agent market is thin, and any team that is trying to build via free agency is bound to be disappointed," he said. "Our young players, we need to maximize their ability. It's also about the individual players we have here getting better. You're not always going to be able to call the cavalry."

McCourt and Colletti did, however, bring in the equivalent of Gen. Philip Sheridan, who any Civil War buff knows was assigned to duty in the West after distinguishing himself in the East by playing a large role in Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

Wow, minority-interviewing exemptions coupled with Civil War references. Ironic, isn't it?

Exhibit #2 of lost LA Times writers is JA Adande (now at ESPN.com), who writes that Torre alone will not cure the Dodgers' ills--only championships will.

It's not just about the flash, the star power and the almost daily dosage of drama the Lakers provide. Nothing short of a championship will satisfy this city's sports fans. And while the Lakers and the USC football team revived their glory days earlier this decade, we're almost to the point where a whole generation has grown up, left for college and come back while the Dodgers maintained the exact same status: without a playoff series victory since 1988.

And no manager, Joe Torre included, is good enough to transform the Dodgers into a championship team.

If adding A-Rod to the 2004 Yankees couldn't get them to the World Series, how would he single-handedly transform the 2007 Dodgers?

So Torre, in and of himself, doesn't change the L.A. sports landscape. The Dodgers already had a face in Tommy Lasorda. They already had a voice in Vin Scully. Torre won't take over either of those roles -- not that he would want to. He's not here to promote. He's here to maintain. Manage, you might say.

He's pretty good at it, even if the Dodgers aren't a good fit for his specialties. To use an example of another transplanted coach who arrived with a ring collection that wouldn't fit in the overhead compartment, it's like the Lakers hiring Phil Jackson in 2004, not the Lakers hiring Phil Jackson in 1999.

The first time around, Jackson was the right man at the right time, a guy who could meld the egos of a talented team and take it to the next step. The result: three championships for a group that had never been to the NBA Finals before. In Version 2.0, even Jackson has doubts that a coach at his salary level is a good value for a team that doesn't have championship talent.

[...]

So, no, Torre isn't a bad hire. It just seems a little extravagant for a team that wasn't supposed to be shopping in this neighborhood.

Frank McCourt made his money in real estate, and he seemed to be following the old adage that you should buy the worst house on the best block. They're in the two-bedroom bungalow down the street from the mansions. Except that doesn't work in baseball. The Dodgers had baseball's sixth-highest payroll, but were some $40 million behind the Boston Red Sox and $90 million behind the Yankees. He has overcome initial fears that he wouldn't spend money; now Dodgers fans are antsy that he and GM Ned Colletti won't spend it wisely following high-money, low-yield contracts for Jason Schmidt and Juan Pierre.

The actions of McCourt just reaffirm a little secret about Los Angeles: all of the behavior that gives this city a bad name comes from people who move here, not the folks who are from here. As soon as the plane lands, the new residents throw on the sunglasses, find a hairstylist and start trying to fit in. McCourt, a Bostonian, just bought the flashiest car on the lot and is ready to show off. He might even accessorize with A-Rod.

But over the long run, this city really does separate the talented from the hyped. In the movies, it's all about box office. In sports, it's about banners.

Want proof? When was the last time you read about that David Beckham guy?

I'm glad that collectively, Henson and Adande point out that the Dodgers' management is an absurd circus under McCourt's leadership, and what the Dodgers really need to do is earn some banners. I'll say this--Torre is a promising start toward a rebuilding plan. But I'm hoping that Frankie doesn't stop there, or at the concession stands--more work needs to be done.

Bonds Fights Punctuation Symbols: "Asterisk or Me"

Teamless "victim" Barry Bonds has challenged the Baseball Hall of Fame to deny his asterisk-laced home-run ball, or he will boycott the Hall of Fame. Assuming he gets voted in, of course:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Barry Bonds would boycott Cooperstown if the Hall of Fame displays his record-breaking home run ball with an asterisk.

That includes skipping his potential induction ceremony.

"I won't go. I won't be part of it," Bonds said in an interview with MSNBC that aired Thursday night. "You can call me, but I won't be there."

The ball Bonds hit for home run No. 756 this season will be branded with an asterisk and sent to the Hall. Fashion designer Marc Ecko bought the ball in an online auction and set up a Web site for fans to vote on its fate. In late September, he announced fans voted to send the ball to Cooperstown with an asterisk.

Of course, the asterisk suggests Bonds' record is tainted by alleged steroid use. The slugger has denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs. Fans brought signs with asterisks to ballparks this season as he neared Hank Aaron's career home run mark.

Bonds has called Ecko "an idiot."

"I don't think you can put an asterisk in the game of baseball, and I don't think that the Hall of Fame can accept an asterisk," Bonds said. "You cannot give people the freedom, the right to alter history. You can't do it. There's no such thing as an asterisk in baseball."

Ecko may indeed be a self-promoting idiot. But Barry clearly doesn't know baseball history, or he would be aware of Roger Maris and the asterisk he lived with for so many years. Barry, there is indeed such a thing as an asterisk in baseball--and according to the fans, you've earned one. Enjoy.

Finally. Joe Torre.

"It's Official: Dodgers hire Torre" (dodgers.com)

Torre is new Dodgers manager (LA Times)

Dodgers make it official, hire Joe Torre as manager

Torre succeeds Little as Dodgers manager (ESPN.com)
You know, I really don't like the way that headline reads--especially if you say it aloud and don't catch the capital L in "Little". Yikes, I hope it's not a prophecy for next season.

Now, can we get back to that A-Rod chase again? Geez.

Ned Colletti Continues To Play "Torre Hunter"

Nah, there's no new news, short of an admission by Colletti that he has talked with Torre. I really just wanted to write that headline in the hopes that it sparks other thoughts for Ned.

But hey, here's the relevant parts of the story:

Colletti would not provide a timetable for an announcement. He said that he first spoke to Torre "in the last two or three days" and called the conversations "informational gathering to get his thoughts and to give him our thoughts and see if there's interest on either side."

Colletti said that financial terms had been discussed only "to get a feel for where people are at."

I've got a feel for where the Dodgers are at. No Grady, no Torre--how do you say, "over a barrel"?

Torre Renders Minority Candidates Moot

From "Selig Allows Dodgers to Bypass Hiring Rules" by Murray Chass at the New York Times:

The legacy of Jackie Robinson lives on.

The Dodgers, who when they played in Brooklyn broke baseball’s color barrier a half-century ago, have such a good minority employment record that Commissioner Bud Selig exempted them from following his directive on interviewing minority candidates for decision-making positions.

Once Joe Girardi became the Yankees’ manager, the Dodgers wanted to hire Joe Torre for what they expected would be their managerial vacancy and they didn’t want to delay doing it. They called Selig and asked to be allowed to skip the mandatory interviews of minority candidates....

Before he acted on the request from the owner, Frank McCourt, Selig studied the Dodgers’ hiring history. What he found surprised even him. The Dodgers had perhaps the best diversity record in the major leagues. Thirty-eight percent of their staff consisted of blacks, women, Latinos or Asians....

The highest-ranking minority, Kim Ng, is an Asian woman. She is a vice president and assistant general manager, the same titles she previously held with the Yankees. Ng was the first woman who was interviewed for a major league general manager’s job when the Dodgers interviewed her two years ago.

A month ago, the Dodgers promoted De Jon Watson to assistant general manager, about a year after he joined the club as director for player development. Watson, 40, is highly regarded in baseball and is seen as a certain general manager of the future....

Two other blacks — Toney Howell and Vance Lovelace — are special assistants to Colletti, who estimated that half of the organization’s player development staff, managers and coaches are minorities.

Dodgers' Manager Search Hits Craigslist

1:30pm PT, almost a full day after Grady Little has been publicly humiliated in his "resignation," and Ned Colletti is still searching for a team manager:

"As of [noon PT Wednesday], I'm telling you, we do not have an agreement [with Joe Torre]," said Colletti. "In the last 72 hours, I can't believe what I've been watching. I've seen more inaccuracies than I can ever remember. We do not have an agreement."

And then, poking around craig's list this afternoon, I spotted this:

los angeles craigslist > los angeles > general management

---

Manager, Major league baseball team

---

Reply to: job-555963658188@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-10-31, 12:30PM PDT

MLB team seeks candidate, preferably with prior experience, to manage team. Responsiblities include batting practice, media relations, organizational and people development, and occasional public speaking. Candidate must have written skills to complete lineup cards, verbal skills to debate with umpires (former Lincoln-Douglass experience a positive!), and ability to deal with and subside clubhouse dissension. Candidate will get full and complete support from general manager and ownership until they change their minds, at which point candidate will learn about it from the media.

Location: LA
Principals only. Recruiters, or Scott Boras, please don't contact this job poster.
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

---

PostingID: 555963658188

I don't know what to think of this ad, but I am starting to get concerned with what the hell is going on here. As an aside, can Jim Tracy apply?

Baseball Prospectus Tells Dodgers What To Do...

Nate Silver of BP has been running a series of articles on what each MLB club should do in the offseason to prepare for next year. Echoing the SoSG mantra of "Free James Loney," here's what Nate has to say about the Dodgers:

Los Angeles Dodgers
2007 Record: 82-80, fourth place
2007 Attendance: 3.9 million, first in the NL2007
Payroll: $108 million, sixth in MLB

Key Free Agents (2007): LF-L Luis Gonzalez, LHP David Wells, RHP Rudy Seanez, 1B/3B-R Shea Hillenbrand, C-R Mike Lieberthal, 2B-R Jeff Kent (club option), LHP Randy Wolf (club option)
Key Free Agents (2008): SS-S Rafael Furcal, RHP Derek Lowe, INF-R Nomar Garciaparra, LHPs Joe Beimel and Mark Hendrickson, RHPs Brad Penny and Esteban Loaiza (club options)
Key Long-Term Commitments: RHP Jason Schmidt, $12M/year through 2009; CF-L Juan Pierre, $9.1M/year through 2011
Key Ready-Now Youngsters: OF-R Matt Kemp, 1B-L James Loney, 3B-R Andy LaRoche, SS-R Chin-Lung Hu, LHP Clayton Kershaw, RHP Jonathan Meloan, INF-S Tony Abreu
Needs: 1. SP depth; 2. CF

What They Should Do: Hold. Play. The. Kids. The Dodgers simply need to deploy their existing assets correctly, rather than seek help from elsewhere. To get a bit more specific about it, next year’s lineup should look as follows:
SS Furcal
C Martin
1B Loney
2B Kent
LF Kemp
RF Ethier
3B LaRoche
CF Pierre

That group would be significantly better than league average at two positions (catcher and second base), slightly better than average at three positions (shortstop, left field, and probably first base), about average in right field, and slightly below at center and third (though not for long in Andy LaRoche’s case, especially with Nomar Garciaparra serving as his caddy). Overall, it’s one of the better position player groups in the league.

So then you take the money you’re saving yourself on Luis Gonzalez and spend it on a mid-level starting pitcher, to round out a rotation with Penny, Lowe, Schmidt, and Chad Billingsley. Coupled with the great one-two punch in the bullpen, that is also an above-average group.

That’s it. You’re done. You’ve spent next to nothing--and you still have a potential pennant winner on your hands. It looks like about an 88-win core that can creep into the 90s if the veterans stay healthy.

What They Will Do: Strong Buy. There is no bigger disconnect in baseball between the Dodgers’ ability to develop talent and the front office’s lack of appreciation for that talent. Matt Kemp is someone that they should be thrilled to have in their lineup for the next six years. Andy LaRoche’s time is now. So is Chin-Lung Hu’s, and the Dodgers should consider trading Rafael Furcal to make way for him. Instead, all rumors are that Ned Colletti’s compass is pointed in the opposite direction.

What I envision happening is something like the following: Kemp or LaRoche are included in a deal for a premium starting pitcher. And then-–guess what-–you do have a hole at left or third, and you do need to work the free agent market to repair it. But it isn’t a hole that existed before; it’s one that you’ve created yourself. The behavior is literally almost pathological, a kind of Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome: Colletti seems determined to make the Dodgers sick so that he can make them well again. Playing the kids-–these talented kids from your farm system that embody everything that used to be called the Dodger Way-–well, that’s just too darn obvious.

If the Dodgers feel like they have to have a 94-win club instead of an 88-win club-–and there’s no reason they should feel that way after drawing almost four million fans last year-–there are still a couple ways they could accomplish this. For instance, beat Curt Schilling’s second-best offer by 30 percent, which probably means something like $18 million. By definition, you’re overpaying, but the magnitude of the mistake is much, much smaller than trading Kershaw and Kemp for one year of Johan Santana, or signing Alex Rodriguez and permanently burying either LaRoche or Hu.

Or, beat Torii Hunter’s second-best offer by 10 percent, and see if you can’t get someone else to eat most of Juan Pierre’s contract. Of course, all of this speculation may be premature; the Dodgers haven’t done anything yet this winter but replace Grady Little with Joe Torre, which surely has to be considered an upgrade. But based on their past performance, they’re not a club to which I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt.

With Joe Torre Comes What Extra Perk?

No, it's not (necessarily) Alex Rodriguez. Check out the tidbit buried in this morning's update on the ongoing saga, "Dodgers inching closer to Torre", from dodgers.com:

LOS ANGELES -- Club officials say there still is no deal to announce, but all signs are pointing toward the imminent hiring of Joe Torre as manager of the Dodgers.

A Dodgers official said that no press conference has been scheduled, although there were indications that an announcement could come as soon as late Wednesday, with an introductory press conference on Thursday. According to reports, the Dodgers and Torre have in place a three-year deal, with estimates of the package ranging from $12 million to $14.5 million.

In addition, a source told MLB.com that the club and Torre are also discussing Torre having a say in player pesonnel, which he did not have in his final years with the Yankees.

[...]

Still to be determined is the makeup of Torre's coaching staff, although there are indications that Don Mattingly will follow Torre as bench coach, and Larry Bowa also might come from the Yankees as third-base coach. Little's coaching staff was signed through the end of the 2007 season.

An end to watching Dodgers get thrown out at the plate on a regular basis, by replacing Rich Donnelly as the third-base coach? Sign Torre up, that's worth $12M alone!

Mike Cameron Overstimulated

From "Baseball suspends Cameron 25 games for failed test" (ESPN.com):

SAN DIEGO -- Mike Cameron, the Padres' Gold Glove center fielder, was suspended for the first 25 games of next season on Wednesday after testing positive a second time for a banned stimulant.

Cameron, who plans to file for free agency, said he believes he took a tainted supplement.

"The one thing I wanted to make sure was explained is, no steroids," Cameron told AM 1090, the Padres' flagship radio station. "I never took nothing like that before in my life. That would be 50 games, and that would affect me a whole lot more."

Cameron issued a statement through his agent, saying doctors for the players' association helped him narrow down what triggered the positive test.

"After all of the analysis and testing, I can only conclude that a nutritional supplement I was taking was tainted," he said. "Unfortunately, the actual supplement is gone, and therefore cannot be tested. Without the actual supplement in hand, the rules are clear, and I must accept the suspension."

Players who initially test positive for a stimulant receive counseling. Suspensions begin only with a second positive test.

Donnelly: Veterans Forced Little's Hand

From "Torre could step right into Little's shoes" by Dylan Hernandez at the LA Times (reg.):

Third base coach Rich Donnelly thought Little resigned as a result of what he endured over a trying season.

"He was beaten down," Donnelly said. "He said, 'I don't know if this is worth it because I'm miserable.' "

Donnelly said it pained Little to be forced to move down veteran players in the batting order or sit them.

"I don't think he wanted to," Donnelly said. "He was forced to because the guys weren't doing their jobs."

Donnelly said that the Dodgers' offensive shortcomings were such that at one point, he scribbled pitcher Brad Penny's name in the eighth slot in the lineup in an August game in Cincinnati. Little later decided against the idea.

So veterans disappointed Grady on the field, then he lost the clubhouse because of a rift between veterans and rookies. I don't know if Joe Torre is the answer, but I'm pretty sure signing more Shea Hillenbrand-types isn't.

Hi-Diddly-Ho, Mike Piazzarino!

Fickle Frank McCourt Sacrifices Little for New Flavor of the Month

Well, there you have it, it's done. Grady Little is gone as the Dodgers manager, as announced on the Dodgers' own website, and in his place it is assumed (though not yet locked) comes former Yankees manager Joe Torre. I wasn't a fan of Grady, both on the field (for his ridiculous and often momentum-killing lineups) as well as off the field (for letting the veterans-versus-rookies clubhouse dissent spillover into a media circus).

The best I could say about Grady as a manager is that he's an even-keeled leader, which has its value at times. But when your team slips from first to fourth place in the division and you don't make any significant or lasting roster or lineup changes to address the month-long freefall, it looks less like even-keeled nature and more like utter complacency. It would be nice to have a manager with a sense of excitement, with a sense of urgency, with a pulse.

And so that leaves us with Joe Torre, recently deposed Yankees manager whose latest stint in New York brought four titles in twelve years. His lifetime managerial record is solid, he seems like a nice and classy guy, he brings with him a real hitting coach in Don Mattingly (which the Dodgers desperately need), and he probably is one of the few people fit to run this team from a "star power" perspective.

And I keep thinking: Why the hell would he want to join Frank McCourt's crazy team? Frank McCourt is exactly the type of mercurial, back-stabbing owner that would drive any team manager nuts. Didn't Torre just leave that situation in New York, amazingly leaving with his pride and dignity intact? Then why would he join up again with a guy with half the brains and half the wallet and none of the pennants?

McCourt's firing of Little makes this the third manager in his four seasons as the Dodgers owner. He's basically like the freshman frat boy walking along the Manhattan Beach strand; a new beauty comes along, and he bails on his current girl like she's the plague. Jamie McCourt would normally be worried, except for the fact that she probably runs the team anyway. But Frank is the kind of boss for which you would hate to work.

I've already taken the time to list the litany of poor decisions and executional miscues that Frank McCourt has made as Dodgers owner. But now we can add to the list "backstabbing your employees," since he's fired the person that he publicly supported less than one month ago. He is as fickle as the wind.

Since McCourt's public announcement of support for Little, the Dodgers have played exactly ZERO games. They've made ZERO off-season moves (short of letting Shea Hillenbrand and Olmedo Saenz go, only the latter of whih frees up any significant space in the lineup (rim shot!)). And yet McCourt, busy ripping up the field level concessions, has decided to take his sledgehammer to the pillars of the team that he just reinforced 30 days ago.

Well done, Frank. Under your management, nothing is logical and no one is safe. Even the HR moves that should make sense are executed like a Keystone Kops routine. I'm sure morale around Chavez Ravine is a an all-time high--that is, if anyone still wants to work for you anymore.

(I guess this means SoSG won't take over the Inside the Dodgers blog space next year.)

Stay on Target: Torre Deal Closer

From "Little resigns; Torre, Dodgers close" by Dylan Hernandez at the LA Times (reg.):

On the day Manager Grady Little resigned, the Dodgers were close to a completing a deal that would make Joe Torre their manager, a move that could result in the free-agent signing of Alex Rodriguez.

Sources said that the Dodgers and the former Yankees manager have agreed to the terms of his contract, and what remains to be done is to agree on issues about the coaching staff and his input on player personnel moves. Torre wants to choose his own coaches, among them Don Mattingly, and is negotiating the amount of money to be spent on them. The deal could be completed in the next day.

The signing of Torre would end the two-year reign of Little, whose resignation was announced by General Manager Ned Colletti on a conference call this afternoon, and would make the acquisition of Rodriguez a serious possibility. Rodriguez, who opted out of the most lucrative contract in baseball history and filed for free agency Monday, has a close relationship with Torre.

I swear, Ned's as smooth as Milhouse Van Houten. Let's get this deal done with and move past the embarrassment.

Grady Little Jumps Ship...Or Was He Pushed?

Rafael Furcal's not the only one who's moving. From "Sources: Little resigns as Dodgers manager" by Tim Brown at Yahoo! Sports:

According to a source, Colletti met with Little and his coaching staff in the manager's office on Sept. 30, shortly after the Dodgers ended their season with an 11-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants....

In that setting, Colletti opened the meeting by blaming himself for personnel decisions that might have left the team thin in the starting rotation and everyday lineup, then put equal responsibility for the 82-80 record on Little and his staff. Little, according to the source, "didn't take it well."

Little defended himself and his staff, saying they'd worked harder and gotten more out of the team in 2007 than they had in 2006, when the Dodgers won the National League wild card, ultimately losing in a division series to the New York Mets.

"It went downhill from there," the source said.

When the meeting was over, Little left with the impression Colletti would rather he not return, but would have him back because he was under contract for 2008, the option for which was exercised in March. Colletti believed Little would take two weeks to consider his future with the Dodgers. By the end of three weeks, when he hadn't heard from Little, Colletti began the process of identifying a potential replacement, turning first to Girardi, whom he knew when both were employed by the Chicago Cubs.

By then, however, Little had decided he was of the mind and heart to manage the Dodgers again in 2008. He called Colletti, they talked through the pointed parts of the meeting, and told him so.

Colletti, by then, had what he believed to be an agreement with Girardi's agent, and couldn't be sure of Little's enthusiasm for the job. When he was notified of Girardi's decision, therefore, Colletti engaged Torre in conversations, still unsure if he was in a full-scale manager search or simply hedging against Little's hesitation.

A friend of Little's said Little was eager to continue as manager of the Dodgers and that his relationship with Colletti was not irreparably damaged.

Joe Torre had better be already signed, sealed and delivered, because it'll be a disgrace for the Dodgers if he turns down the job.

Dodgers Appeal for Public Donations, But Give No Charity of their Own

This took me a couple of days to realize what was awry. When I first read this story on dodgers.com about how the Dodgers "contributed" to the Red Cross campaign to aid wildfire victims, something just seemed off.

Was it the fact that the picture depicts one volunteer receiving what appears to be a small handful of change from a single motorist? Or that no other cars were visible for a quarter-mile in the background?

Only a careful re-read of the article illuminated what was missing: The Dodgers are asking for public donations to the wildfire victims, but aren't ponying up any money of their own. At least, any donation of funds directly from the Dodgers is noticeably absent from any of the article's nine paragraphs (here's the first four graphs):

LOS ANGELES -- With the Southern California wildfires displacing more than one million people so far, the American Red Cross is mobilizing to raise funds to aid victims of the devastating fires that have ravaged the southland since Sunday.

As it has done in the past, the Red Cross reached out to the Los Angeles Dodgers to help, and within 24 hours, people were driving up to Dodger Stadium to make donations.

"We talked to our partners at KCBS/KCAL television, we did a program with the Red Cross and it was done very quickly as you can see," said Howard Sunkin, senior vice president of public affairs for the Dodgers. "The Dodgers are synonymous with Los Angeles and the nation, quite frankly, and we believe we are a rallying point for all Angelinos and we like to set that leadership bar very high."

So the Dodgers and their partners set up donation tents at the Elysian Park entrance, where volunteers with donation buckets are standing by for people to drive up and place cash and checks in the buckets.

Nice PR job, Howie Sunkin, and way to set that bar high, leading by coercion rather than example! A tragic event hits right in your own backyard, and all you can do is ask others to contribute to the offering plate. Oh sure, it's your offering plate, but there wasn't anything in it when you started passing it around.

Or (to put it in Olmedo Saenz Pavilion terms), that's like going to a potluck dinner, but only providing the plastic tupperware jello mold.

Shouldn't charity begin at home, Frank?

And you wonder why we think you're cheap.

photo: Ben Platt/MLB.com

Furcal Moving!

According to "Real Estalker," Rafael Furcal is putting his townhouse up for sale for $1,159,000. This 3 bedroom, 4 bath apartment features mahogany floors, Viking appliances, a private elevator, and a private 2 car garage. If you make the open house, please look for the storage chamber for his bionic arm and the Grady Little voodoo doll holding the sign "Why not leadoff?".

If McCourt Can't Replicate the Red Sox, Will He Try to Create Yankees West?

Today's update of "As The Yankees Turn":

• Joe Girardi will be announced as the Yankees manager, probably today. They got him for a reported $6M which is $1M more than the base salary that they offere Joe Torre in their ridiculous "base + bonus incentives" deal.
• This leaves speculation that Joe Torre will be the new Dodgers manager, probably at around $7M per year.
• And if we pick up Torre, will McCourt have the wallet, or the cojones, to go after A-Rod?

I think my bigger fear is that shelling out $7M for Torre--which I think would be a premium over the infuriating Grady Little--would satisfy Frank McCourt's spending. In his own mind, he'd be offering new food concessions and a new manager, so what else would the fans need? The reality, though, is that the Dodgers would once again enter a season without a power bat, without an center fielder who could bat for average, and without a back half of a starting rotation. And it's not like the NL West is going to get any easier.

Stay tuned, loyal readers--for both the Yankees' saga, as well as the Dodgers'.

PS. Since when did the Dodgers wear black undershirts underneath their visiting greys?

Congratulations, Eric Gagne and Alex Cora!

Sons of Steve Garvey would like to wish beloved former Dodgers Eric Gagne and Alex Cora a hearty congratulations on their World Series win—the first for either player. We wish you could have won your rings while wearing Dodger Blue, but it must be pretty sweet for you guys nonetheless. Well played, gentlemen!

This Comes as a Complete and Utter Shock

Rodriguez opts out of $252 million, 10-year contract with Yanks (ESPN.com)

What Exactly Is Dodger Blue?

What exactly is Dodger Blue? Conceptually it's what we bleed, certainly, but I'm talking about its place in the color spectrum. Is it the recently restored color of Dodger Stadium's outfield wall, which seems to have found a home on some RGB color charts?

Or is it Pantone 294, the darker blue on the Dodgers' uniforms and caps?

Or is it somewhere in between?