The Truth about the Dodgers

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Written by Amber (twitter: @LeagueOfHerOwn1) from UndergroundSportstNetwork.

Close your eyes and envision you’ve been given your favorite car for your birthday. I’m imagining a 2001, Rosso Corsa, red, custom made,  Ferrari F-50. Of course it’s fully stocked, alloy wheels and even a pretty little spoiler on the back.

Now picture you’ve been handed the keys to this gorgeous vehicle and given free range on the streets. You hop in the driver’s seat, adjust the mirrors, adjust yourself in the mirror, throw on the shades you think make you look cool and slide that shiny key into the inviting ignition.

You take a deep breath because the anxiety and excitement is almost suffocating. You turn the key and KAPLUNK!  Again. KAPLUNK!. One more time, KAPLUNK! Much to your surprise and disbelief, there is no revving beast under the hood, there is not purring gyration of the seats, nothing. Nothing but a poorly assembled, 4 cylinder Volkswagon engine, with leaky hoses and clogged filters under that beautiful red hood. Crushing is it not?

That’s how myself and millions of other long-suffering Dodgers fans have felt about this team over the years. They are an alluring disappointment.

A disappointment that dates back to the Brooklyn Dodgers days when noted sports cartoonist Williard Mullin coined the team’s lovable nickname, “Dem Bums”.  How charming. However, the Brooklyn Dodgers did manage to win a World Series before their big move.

When real estate businessman Walter O’Malley moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles in 1958 he split Dodger fans in two.  Loyal Brooklyn fans contests that the three greatest villains of the twentieth century are Hitler, Stalin and O’Malley.  The joke was if a fan was in the locker room with the three and had only two bullets, who would he shoot? The answer: O’Malley, twice. Brooklyn fans loved their bums. However, according to the way the Dodgers have played in the last 20 years I’m sure they are no longer missed over in Brooklyn.

Since then, the Dodgers have become the love and headache of Los Angeles. After several years of sub par play in the ‘60’s, Dodgers injected new blood into the team. While under the management of hall-of-famer Tommy Lasorda, the Los Angeles Dodgers won five World Series. Great right?  Well unfortunately, the buck stops there. Out of the 18 times the Dodgers have gone to the World Series, they have lost 12 times But why?

Manny Ramirez Photo by Icon SMI

In the past 20 years the Dodgers never seemed to have a lack of talent. The truth is the Dodgers always seem to have the bells and whistles like the red Ferrari, such as Mike Piazza, Gary Sheffield and Manny Ramirez but never seem to do anything with it. Ahem…Volkswagon engine.

From 1992 to 1996, five consecutive Dodgers where named Rookie of the Year: Eric Karros, Mike Piazza, Raul Mondesi, Hideo Nomo, and Todd Hollandsworth, yet the Dodgers have not been to the World Series since 1988!

How can a team with so much talent and so much potential be such bums? Bums may be a little harsh, but as a fan, I’ve earned the right to be so brash. In the past two years the Dodgers have lead the NL West at some point during the season, made it to the playoffs and DIED.

I blame the pitching staff and manager musical chairs game the Dodgers have been playing over that last ten years. Since Lasorda retired in 1996 the Dodgers have had

six different managers. Hoping we had purchased a modern day Lasorda with the signing of former Yankees manager Joe Torre, the Dodgers hope to revive the good ole winning days.  Not to mention the firing of GM DePodesta who was replaced by Nick Colleti.

The Dodgers currently have one of the best hitters in Major League Baseball, Manny Ramirez.  Although Manny is not the same as juiced up Manny, he is still walk off material. Not to mention, the Dodgers also have power hitters Matt Kemp, Casey Blake and Andre Eithier. But it seems like whenever they face an American League team, the Dodgers start playing Triple-A baseball. So what’s the problem? Is it the competition? Maybe. After all, the Dodgers aren’t able to buy championships like the New York Yankees, who the Dodgers have loss 9 World Series to. But that’s an excuse. Too weak for us Dodgers fans to accept. We believe our team can be champions. We just don’t quite understand why they’re not.