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Dodgers Unwilling to Bet the Farm (Team), Buy Japanese Import, Kuroda

Aaron — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:44:34 +0000

The American idiom bet the farm is defined as to risk everything you have because you are certain of something. If baseball, and the prices that George Steinbrenner pays his player teaches us anything, there is no such thing as sure thing.

My local Dodgers are blessed with a good farm system and some young talent that was fun to root for last season while the team was still in playoff contention. The fear among Dodger fans (not just the fair weather sort who only show up for a winner) was that Dodger management would trade away the future for a couple of years of pricey vets.

If the last week is any indication, new skipper Torre knows the Dodgers have great young talent and the way to keep it AND be competitive for 2008 is to bring in Japanese talent that won’t require sending LA’s upcoming stars to play for its foes. An outfield of Kemp, Jones and Ethier has a lot of potential.

Welcome to LA, Hiroki Kuroda.

In Awe of Maurice

Aaron — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 02:57:04 +0000

I’m usually the last to leave my office. Around 6pm, Maurice comes to our building to tidy the four suites on our floor and the one suite on the floor below ours. Tonight he asked me how he thought “our Dodgers” would do this year, and the conversation turned to my asking him when he arrived in Los Angeles. He told me 1958, the year the Dodgers first played in Los Angeles, four years before I was born.

I learned tonight he saw the Dodgers in the 1959 World Series against the Chicago White Sox at the Coliseum and he also went to Roy Campanella Night.

Both games had over 93,000 paid attendance. Dodger Stadium holds 56,000, by comparison. Take your local baseball stadium, fill it, then overfill it by two-thirds more again.

Pretty cool. I’m not sure if any TWO Dodger games I’ve ever attended have added up to 93,000.

The next time you see someone you often see who is a generation or two older, ask him or her about a cherished sports memory. Your jaw will probably drop in awe, too.