But I think part of it is also just the fact that there's been so much change. It was pointed by someone (forget who) that only one Dodger regular remains from Spring Training 2004 -- Izturis. I doubt the Dodgers have ever had quite so much turnover before, and that's the reason for all the hand-wringing over a (so far) successful team.

When Steve Schmoll first tried out for the University of Maryland baseball team as a freshman walk-on in 1999, he was told to go home. The next year he tried again, and made the team. He was a bad pitcher in his first three years as a Terp, posting season ERAs of 5.09, 7.46, and 7.44. But as a fifth-year senior, Schmoll developed his sidearm motion. "I remember it vividly," Terrapins coach Terry Rupp told the Daily News. "He was right out there in front of the dugout. When I saw him throw that way, I thought, 'Whoa, we may have something here.'"

During his senior season Schmoll, using the sidearm delivery only intermittently, posted a 3.49 ERA while nearly matching his strikeout total from the previous three years combined. "He was a blip on the radar before the season and he just blossomed into a big dot on the radar," Rupp said.

I need the dude from Spaceballs to read this to me for full effect.

That was my stunt double.

May 16, 1998

"As Dodger fans stagger numbly today into a new era, part outraged, part inspired, mostly confused, peace can be found at the other end of a question.

Are you still about winning?

If so, then you will applaud the trade of Mike Piazza.

For the first time since the free agent-bloated Dodger squad stumbled in the final days of 1991, your team is bold again.

Your team is willing to risk public wrath for a shot at championships again."

So open question... when exactly did Bill Plaschke jump the shark?

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=2036973&type=story

Bravo!

Why all the hatred? I can only imagine that people actually read the Plaschke and Simers doo-doo, and it seeps into their brain like the mold spores on last night's CSI.

People don't like change, I think it's as simple as that.

For me, Plaschke got really annoying and started writing please-the-lowest-common-denominator-fans articles was after he started getting so much face time on TV the last couple of years. All these ESPN shows and FSN shows, he has become almost incapable of accepting a bold idea and will trash any change because he knows that there is a deluge of articles that the Times is receiving from fans worried about change. So he feeds their fears and comes up with articles ranging from they-can-never-win-with-this-owner, without-this-player, without-the-guy-whose-front-row-seats-went-up-six-times, and my favorite type of articles, the-won-today-but-how-long-can-it-last?

Just kidding. I got nothing. Keep up the real good work, SB (and EE).

Actually I think the funnier picture is Brad Penny's:
http://tinyurl.com/4myxl
Because he looks like Abe Lincoln...get it? Penny, Lincoln...

As for his early performance, I think you have to acknowledge a few rookie weaknesses: Trading players without have a clear replacement on hand, getting involved in complicated Rube Goldberg trades. Also, it's not always easy to emotionally understand decisions based on frugality, even if they help competitiveness in the long run. A lineup with both Beltre AND Drew would be much more formidable, though I don't suppose that was ever in the cards.

I'd venture to say about as often as I do. Which is never.

Previewed a comment, clicked edit again, and it took me back to the thread sans comment. Any ideas?

I've had that happen. Just copy the text next time in case it happens again.

The only Times columnist who strongly opposed the Piazza deal was the late Jim Murray. Plaschke was its biggest cheerleader in the paper.

About a year before. Plaschke had gone after Piazza claiming that he stiffed kids for autographs after the game,without getting Piazza's side of the story. The story turned out to be a lie, and Plaschke had to backtrack. Shows the level of "credibility", as Simers likes to call it, of the Times Sports Page. Kind of like how the Times invents a dubious story about fraternity deaths in Chico, which is now under investigation as fraudulent.

Plaschke also advocated the trade of Sheffield, which he later admitted was a mistake, and of course last September, demanded Bradley be kicked off the team.

WHAT?!?! Now I have nothing to do tonight. Nothing.

Anybody need a LHP? Maybe Shuey could sign him to a personal services contract.

Those bastards.

From the "best things in live ARE free!" department:
As a bartender, I will get to watch the Dodgers play San Diego on the bar tv tonight while making money and flirting with the waitresses and cute patrons.

Wow, the Braves just gutted the Heart and Soul(tm) of their bullpen. Clearly that Braves GM Schuerholz is in over his head.

As for Sheffield, I personally could live without him on the Dodgers, but he would have helped a lot in 2003.

Didn't they do that when they moved Smoltz to the rotation?

In the meantime, if it happens again, try hitting your browser's forward button. You may find your previewed text available for cut and paste.

Dioner Navarro:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/births/2005/apr/15/518608705.html

Kim Ng:

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=2037957

Plus, they have a channel just aimed at truckers. It's like "Smokey And The Bandit" come to life. I can't emphasize enough how cool that is.

The Dodgers game is on KCOP, so it's not available for Extra Innings. Saturday and Sunday will be on FSN2, so they should show up on Extra Innings.

Before we get carried away;

Ward's HR the other night broke an 0 for 16 streak, and on the season he is 2 for 20. Dan Evans is probably trying to persuade Bavasi to pick him up for Seattle as a bargain;

Ross is currently hitting .333 (5 for 15). There is no known scientific, or empirical basis for this happening, and religious scholars are researching whether Dave Ross hitting .333 is one of the signs of the End of the World. Anyway,once Santiago, and Cota get healthy, Ross is probably going to the minors.

The Cardinals turn up only when they're on Fox, which is a minority of their games. I believe the Cubs moved to Comcast.

It's nearly impossible to avoid YES on Extra Innings.

The Devil Rays seemingly are always available. I watch them sometimes just because I feel obilgated because I paid for the service.
It's my $149 and darn it, I'm going to watch Tampa Bay play Kansas City if I can.

Daryle Ward will be appearing in the CBS TV movie "Locusts".

Yes. Kalas's contract was up after the 2003 season. In contract negotiations, he asked to not have Wheeler be his broadcast partner. (He never publicly said this, it was a leaked story) This gave Phillies fans another reason to love Harry, as if they didn't have enough. The Phillies though, did not give in, and they still work together.

Wheeler is just terrible. As a play by play guy he's bad, and for some reason they have him do color as well, and he's god awful, and apparently the players don't like him doing it.

and this is different from how he comes across in print...?

Why is it that practically everything I want to read on ESPN I have to pay for, and everything for free is total crap (except Neel and the occasional Gammo).

In the face of such supernatural events, no wonder the Cardinals are taking their time picking the next Pope.

Most of the paid stuff is junk too.

It's too long to copy out the good parts.

But if you're curious, Crasnick says her last name is pronouned "ANG", although most people seem to say "ING". Most people being me.

--------------------------------------------

Today's (oh so short) fact of Choi, SB's favorite player, 2005:

You've all probably heard the story that Choi grew up on a farm and that if he played well he got meat to eat. If he didn't play well, fruits and veggies.

"But Dad, he was left-handed and threw 95."

"Eat your radishes!!"

What's less well known are these two little tidbits:

1. Choi's family farm wasn't the stereotypical garden in the backyard but a bustling family business. Choi and his siblings were all involved at an early age. According to Choi, his home was perfect for farming. "The area I grew up in (was) less polluted and has better water than other areas of Korea," he said.

2. Choi is apparently well known for his prodigious appetite. For breakfast, he may eat 10 eggs, two orders of bacon, two orders of toast. For dinner, he may eat three steaks.

I assume the Dodger trainer measures his cholestrol in light years.

It's one thing to take verbal shots in one of his columns, quite another to actually see him attempt quick and witty rebuttals in the yelling matches that occur on Around the Horn.

Hey, Dodger Thoughts is free!

Ng: I'm working.
Singer: What are you doing here?
Ng: I'm working. I'm the Dodger assistant general manager.
Singer: Where are you from?
Ng: I was born in Indiana and grew up in New York.
Singer: Where are you from?
Ng: My family's from China.
Singer: (Nonsensically mock Chinese). What country in China?

The sad part about this is that friends of mine who are Asian say it happens to them quite frequently. Especially the "Where are you from?"

I could answer "The San Fernando Valley" and not be asked any followup questions.

Well, they do have "5 good minutes" with a player, coach, writer or analyst about something specific. So it's got that over dreck like ATH. Kornheiser is, for a sportswriter, funny, and is a good ying to Wilbon's yang; they're rather entertaining. Guys like Bill Plaschke, Jay Mariotti, Woody Paige, et al shouting from the rooftops to "Stat Boy" isn't very entertaining.

Although neither is as terribly produced as Jim Rome's show.

Has Kornheiser ever been to a sporting event in any place outside of Washington or New York? You know, maybe even a place as far east as Chicago.

But you're right, they are very east-coast centric, but thats nothing new to espn.

Hey, Dodger Thoughts is free!

If you feel like changing that, there's that little "donate" button Jon enjoys people clicking on =)

Jim, have a preview of tonight's game for us yet?

Choi's a vegan? Who knew?!?

Hopefully things go better tonight.

That was actually going to be SB's Fact of Choi for tomorrow.

http://www.csnnews.net/nihao/detail.asp?id=3245

Even stranger was that Tony La Russa had Miguel Cairo batting third.

And the Dodgers leadoff hitter for that game was Adrian Beltre. And Eric Gagne was the starting pitcher.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=545&ncid=755&e=8&u=/ap/20050415/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbn_dodgers_jackie_robinson

Looks like AP got ahead of themselves just a bit!

I agree that part of anti-DePodesta reaction has been because of McCourt and the ambiguous strength of his ownership, at least at the start. But it seemed to me that they deserved the benefit of the doubt because the Fox Way hadn't worked very well. I don't think a fan should be unhappy when a new owner comes in and wants to be the anti-Fox.

The only thing Plaschke's "Around the Horn" appearances do for him is to show that other sportswriters around the country are equally buffoonish. Every time I see Bob Ryan I want to punch his pasty face. For TJ Simers? A lead pipe. And for Skip Bayless? The same treatment Marv gave the punk in "Sin City": holding his face to the pavement from a moving car. But then I remember I can change the channel and all the rage goes away.

I have to admit that I kind of enjoy PTI sometimes because they seem to go out of their way to take opposing views, even ones they don't believe in, and take them to their ridiculous conclusions (especially Kornheiser). Unlike a lot of sportswriters-turned-chatterers, Kornheiser and Wilbon seem to enjoy sports without constantly comparing them to some unattainable idea. They admit when they can't explain why they like a particular athlete, and you know you've felt that way too.

I admit (even more reluctantly) that I used to listen to Rome's radio show often back in the mid-90s. For a while I kind of liked hearing the trash-talking, especially when he pulled the athletes themselves into it. The turning point was when he started spending a lot more time ragging on the "clones" than on sports. I haven't gone back since. But that brief infatuation did cause me to be one of the few viewers to see the ESPN2 show where Jim Everett blew a gasket, which was one of the funniest things I've ever seen on a talk show.

She's also commented on how much the Dodgers lost from a PR standpoint when they let Lima go, and she feels bad for all the people who bought Lo Duca jerseys. She wasn't sure if she could name anyone besides Gagne from this year's team.

As much as I prefer the new team over the old, I don't think my wife is wrong. They don't put GMs on trading cards because the stories most people are interested in are the player's stories. Will Beltre build on his success? Will Green continue to stand up for his religion? What crazy, goofy thing will Lima do next? Can Finley defy age for another season? It isn't as easy as watching the 11 o'clock news to answer these questions anymore.

Filler time......

oooh, Ortiz just hit a grand slam. How can I not feel bad for Nomo. Not sure why, I just feel for the guy. He's at the end of a baseball career, about to go into who knows what profession, he's playing in Tampy Bay, and an inning like this...

I like PTI gotta admit. Kornheiser hams it up and Wilbon is a nice foil. It's a guilty pleasure but I do enjoy it. And if you can imagine (though I wouldn't advise it) Around the Horn was truly execrable when Max Kellerman was hosting it. He participated in the yelling whereas Stat Boy actually does a fairly decent job hosting it. Still, yeah, they're all a bunch of homers. Paige and Ryan actually make Plaschke seem reflective, they're such blowhards.

Oh yeah, and in response to the suggestion Milton wear #42, my name is Todd and I approve (of) that suggestion. Maybe MB would even behave better. Hey, just an idea, do you guys will have done something to get himself traded or released or something this year?

Rack 'em. Or something.

Did he forget about Jeff Weaver, Jayson Werth, Olmedo Saenz, Odalis Perez, and Duaner Sanchez? IIRC, Grabowski was around then also.