http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/dodgers/la-sp-dodrep19jun19,1,1390377.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-mlb-dodger

Jonathan Broxton - S - LA

Jonathan Broxton allowed one run in two innings and struck out four yesterday in his second relief appearance for Double-A Jacksonville.
Broxton was a fine prospect as a starter, but the Dodgers have sent him to the pen because they think they may need him this year. Overall, he has a 3.36 ERA and a 77/25 K/BB ratio in 75 IP for Jacksonville. Jun. 19 - 2:20 pm et

June 20, 1920

Nearly 20,000 fans came to Wrigley Field on a Sunday afternoon to watch the Chicago Cubs edge the Brooklyn Robins (or Dodgers as the newspapers used both names), 4-2 behind a strong pitching performance from Jim "Hippo" Vaughn. The loss dropped Brooklyn to 28-23 and two games behind first place Cincinnati, the defending World Series champs.

Brooklyn manager Wilbert Robinson started his ace, Burleigh Grimes, who would go 23-11 with a 2.22 ERA, but the spitballer ran into trouble in the first. After retiring the first two batters, Grimes gave up three consecutive singles, the last one to Fred Merkle, which drove in a run.

The Cubs scored another run in the fourth. Davey Robertson led off with a bunt single and eventually came around to score on a double by Buck Herzog.

Brooklyn tied the game in the fifth. With one out, Pete Kilduff doubled to left and with two outs, Grimes drew a walk. Leadoff hitter Ivy Olson drew another walk to load the bases. Jimmy Johnston then singled to score two runs.

But Grimes gave it all back in the bottom of the fifth. He walked Vaughn to lead off the inning. Max Flack then reached on an infield single to third. Charley Hollocher singled to right. Bernie Neis made a good throw home to try to cut down Vaughn, who was described in the New York Times as "no Loren Murchison on the bases", but umpire Hank O'Day ruled Vaughn safe. Zeb Terry then singled home Flack to make it 4-2.

The Dodgers had one last chance to get back in the game in the seventh when they loaded the bases with two outs for Hy Myers. But Vaughn got him to ground out to second and as "the last real chance for victory vanished into the empyrean."

(Loren Murchison was an Olympic sprinter who won two gold medals on relay teams. Empyrean is supposed to be the highest level of heaven in certain cosmologies.)

June was a bad month for Brooklyn as the Dodgers went 12-16 and were just 3 games over .500 on June 30. But the Dodgers turned on the afterburners. They went 23-12 in July, cooled off to 14-13 in August, but then blew away the rest of the National League by going 23-6 in September and October to win the league by seven games over the Giants with a 93-61 record.

Besides Grimes the rest of the Brooklyn staff was also strong. The team used just nine pitchers for the whole season. Leon Cadore went 15-14 but had a 2.62 ERA. Jeff Pfeffer went 16-9 with a 3.01 ERA. The highest ERA of any pitcher on the staff was Rube Marquard who had a 3.23 ERA.

The offense was solid with Zack Wheat batting .328 and Myers leading the league in triples with 22.

Brooklyn would face Cleveland in the World Series. The Indians had won a close pennant race over Chicago, helped in no small part to having several of Chicago's star players suspended when the 1919 World Series scandal came to light in late September. Cleveland also had to overcome the death of its shortstop, Ray Chapman, who passed away as the result of a beaning from Yankees pitcher Carl Mays.

It was not a great World Series for Brooklyn. Marquard got arrested in Cleveland for ticket scalping (which would end his career in Brooklyn) and the Dodgers lost a game in which they surrendered the first grand slam in World Series play (to Elmer Smith) and later lined into an unassisted triple play, turned by Cleveland second baseman Bill Wambsganss. Cleveland took the best of nine series in seven games.

As for the Dodgers and Indians, their next pennants would both be a long time coming. The New York Yankees had acquired a new outfielder named Babe Ruth for the 1920 season. Baseball was going to change and there was going to be a dynasty to be built. And home runs to be hit.
Thanks to the New York Times, BaseballReference.com and Retrosheet

"The Dodgers are looking for a starter and while they like the Rockies' Joe Kennedy, their preference seems to be Cincinnati's Aaron Harang because they seem him as a Derek Lowe clone, says the Denver Post."

The Padres are down 1-0 to the Twins in the 6th, but they're facing Johan Santana.

Peavy was held back from today's start so he can pitch tomorrow against the Dodgers.

That's about as long and hard as I've seen Roberts hit anything.

"Luckiest" teams
----------------
Ari/Was +6
CWS +4
Phi/SD +2

"Unluckiest"
------------
Mil -4
Atl/Col -3
Fla/Tor
KC/Tex -2

All other teams are within +/- 1 game of their expected W/L record. I think this is accurate after last night's games.

She hasn't passed judgment on it. Probably because I've been asleep on it much of the day.

Actually, it's only loveseat size, but despite being 6'5" I can actually fall asleep on it quite easily. But I can fall asleep in most places and positions. And even with a lot of noise. Some people find this very irritating.

i wish i can take a trip to go watch a Suns series down in florida.

That's the team DePo built. Unfortunately, only 2 of those things are possible. One (Erickson) is DePo's doing, for what reason I cannot fathom. The other (jerking Choi around) is Tracy's failing. As for the rest, well, I don't see who is to blame, other than Lady Luck, and no team with this sort of luck can be expected to contend for anything.

My "blind optimism" goes as follows:

All of our injured players will return, and our competition will start getting their share of injuries. There's still half a season to go, and the 51s are still in this thing. The Dodgers might actually have a better chance, if we ever see them.

Izturis
Choi
Drew
Kent
Saenz
Werth
Grabowski
Phillips
Edwards

Weaver

White Sox

Podsednik
Harris
Rowand
Konerko
Everett
Dye
Pierzynski
Crede
Uribe

Contreras

They are a combined 0 for 8 now. Updated with Izturis's lead off ground out.

what a lousy start.

I'm 'rooting' for Podsednik. 0 HR this season so far.

why is it so fun to deconstruct joe morgan's thought process, even when you disagree so completely?

1) How are the Dodger uniforms tonight any diffrent than last night when it was throwback night.

2)What are the ribbons on the left shulder and have they been there all season or just recently?

I think we're already over a couple dozen.

Another question: Why don't we put Werth in left, Repko in right and send Grabs go home to Las Vegas. At least Repko is more exciting.

There are dead bodies all over the South Side of Chicago. You would think Al Capone was still around.

A few years ago they dug up one of the parking lots at USCF to pull out the body of a mobster named "bones."

That series besmirched everyone with my name.

And it had a good cast too: Joely Fisher, Adam Arkin, and Holland Taylor.

- white sox not familiar with him?
- better pitch-calling?
- slightly better movement?
- pine tar?

http://tinyurl.com/avwoj

Dye had 31 ABs against him coming into the game and Pierzynski had 29.

Please don't show Choi's AB. I really want to watch Kenny Williams instead.

Oh, cool! Thanks.!

What's the over/under on how big a lead everyone feels comfortable with to put Erickson in, I'd go with 8.

Vishal,
I think I'm a curse. Or at least affected by the Curse of Jason Ellison.

After that six straight losses.

The most walks he ever had in one season was 25.

maybe you're just not going with the right people. i'm 4-1 this season...

(the loss was an erickson start, which shouldn't count)

Under Rule 7.05 (g)
A runner may advance, without liability to be put out,
g) Two bases when, with no spectators on the playing field, a thrown ball goes into the stands, or into a bench (whether or not the ball rebounds into the field), or over or under or through a field fence, or on a slanting part of the screen above the backstop, or remains in the meshes of a wire screen protecting spectators. The ball is dead. When such wild throw is the first play by an infielder, the umpire, in awarding such bases, shall be governed by the position of the runners at the time the ball was pitched; in all other cases the umpire shall be governed by the position of the runners at the time the wild throw was made;

An error there is bull.

BTW, I'd have a quick hook this inning, this has the makings of a Classic Weaver Meltdown.

So tomorrow will be June 19.

7.05(h) One base, if a ball, pitched to the batter, or thrown by the pitcher from his position on the pitcher's plate to a base to catch a runner, goes into a stand or a bench, or over or through a field fence or backstop. The ball is dead;

An umpire told me that the guiding rule is "two from the field and one from the rubber"

i had a phone call, did toby keith say he was a dodger fan?

Remember that Eric Enders grew up in El Paso.

I don't think he'd like the comparison.

Izturis is batting .304 with 13 RBI

163 -- Right now, watching Werth is like watching Grabowski in a mirror.

I miss Offerman 2.0 tonight.

Anyway, leadoff walk. Here we go...

You will see six of these calls a game now. The umpires are uniformly and completely awful.

This game is a nightmare. Not because the Dodgers are losing, but because of Morgan and Thorne.

I'm really wishing that the FBI had just arrested Morgan back at LAX when they had the chance.

Bright side (for me only), my Sanchez-jinxing theory is officially disproved, and I can stop turning off the game when he's on the mound.

And for some reason, I'll now rewind on the Tivo so I can see what you guys have been talking about.

The inning had three essential parts:
1) Leadoff walk to Thomas
2) Bad call on the bunt by Podsednik
3) Base hit by Rowand

Sanchez should not have been pitching tonight after he pitched last night. Period.

ESPN has shown a graphic, like 5 times, that says the Sox have scored in 74% of innings they've sacrificed. That's cool, but it would be more useful if we knew how many of those runs were scored via a HR and subtract those innings from the numerator.

Ok I'm done. Feel better now. (Not really)

That's been proven to be completely useless in predicting wins.

The Dodgers have scored in 100% of the innings we have hit a home run in.

ESPN is stupid.

The Dodgers may not be playing well this week, but there is no bigger Titanic than the Crazy Cruise-Holmes Ship.

Yeah, the Dodgers lost and it wasn't entirely unexpected.

But I have never had to listen to a guy who was so relentlessly wrong for such a long period of time.

When the White Sox check out of the playoffs in the first round, we need to ask Morgan how things are going.

When the White Sox are losing games by 2 or 3 runs and wonder why Scott Podsednik isn't generating any offense, then he will know.

I feel like Michael Lewis now. I'm angry and I'm go for a walk and see if Tabitha Soren is in my apartment when I get back.

Bad weekend.

My purpose will be solely this: I want to raise a child who will know that Joe Morgan is an idiot.

When this gets accepted, I'll ask the other dads for advice on other stuff.

Do you have to feed kids?

There is a much simpler reason why the White Sox gets runs so often in innings in which they sacrifice.

It's got to be a factor of them being in the American League. Nearly every National League team is going to pick up several sacrifices a season by the pitcher when there is one out.

In the case of the White Sox, each sacrifice is going to be with no outs, unless Ozzie Guillen becomes even stupider than he already is.

But so many other statements by Morgan were so easily rebuttable.

Weaver's errant throw on Podsednik's sacrifice wasn't because Podsednik was "putting on pressure on". It was because he got his spikes caught when he made the throw.

And somehow the walk that Frank Thomas got to lead off the 8th was some sort of "smartball" thing. Even though:
1) Thomas is one of the best players in the majors at drawing walks
2) Sanchez was afraid of Thomas hitting the ball on to the El tracks more than anything else.

All future ESPN Sunday night games will be watched with the SAP channel on.

I will relish it.

I need to have some sort of rooting interest in the postseason this year. At this point, the Yankees could make the playoffs and I would root for them over the White Sox.

Now that that's solved, would it be too goofy to take some solace in the fact that after stinking things up this much we're still only one short win streak away from the Division lead?

I was tasked tonight with figuring out how the "on demand" feature of our newish cable works. Apparently, they have a bunch of kids stuff on free "pay per view," presumably as part of the Cable war against Tivo. Anyhow, they have a lot of sucky movies available "on demand," but buried amidst the chaff was Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip. Wathcing it now, and it's pretty great. Will say that, now that I'm old and fathered up, I'm finding it very very dirty. It didn't seem that way when I first saw it, way back when . . .

Someone was asking about that Cal Ripken thing on BTF the other day. He is in the commercial because he is the spokesman for XM. Other that that, the significance with the Angels guy is zilch.

Anyone see Horry hit the shot at the end of the game tonight? I know. Wrong sport.

100. Bob Timmermann
I would think the Dodgers need a big lead because I can't imagine that either Flying Glove Man or Ghame Over will have much in the tank tonight.

Hubie Brown is not nearly as annoying as He Who Shall Not be Named.

yeah, i saw that. that guy is like a living argument in favor of clutch performance. too bad i want the spurs to lose.

Apparently, the fact that Phillips had to throw over Choi wasn't a big deal to them.

It's all such a blur...

I remember telling the Dodger fan in front of me that Weaver always has problems in the sixth inning...

I remember seeing something out of "The Matrix" involving Choi avoiding a bullet from Phillips to Kent...

I imagined that Wunch and Osoria were in the bullpen but somehow I saw Sanchez on the mound...

And for the second night in a row I had to shake my head in wonder as we blew another lead and made the Sox fans feel like they won the World Series.

Happy Fathers Day.

4/6 - Sacrifice in 9th, winning run scores
4/8 - Sac in 8th, no run
4/10 - Sac in 3rd, 1 run
4/13 - Sac in 10th, 1 run
4/17 - Sac in 1st, no run
4/19 - Sac in 5th, 1 run
4/21 - Sac in 7th, 2 runs
4/25 - Sac in 3rd, no run
4/30 - Sac in 7th, 2 runs
5/1 - Sac in 2nd, 1 run
5/5 - Sac in 8th, 2 runs
5/8 - Sac in 9th, 1 run
5/9 - Sac in 3rd, 0 runs
5/10 - Sac in 6th, 1 run on squeeze
5/17 - Sac in 1st, 2 runs
5/20 - Sac in 3rd, 1 run, 1 out by pitcher
5/24 - Sac in 9th, no run, Sac in 11th, 1 run
5/30 - Sac in 9th, 2 runs
6/1 - Sac in 1st, 2 runs, Sac in 6th, 2 runs
6/6 - Sac in 6th, 1 run
6/8 - Sac in 8th, 5 runs score (at Coors)
6/19 - 2 Sacs in 8th, 2 runs score

Guillen loved the sacrifice in April and May, but he doesn't seem as enamored with it in June.

Tony Jackson in the Daily News:

Phillips ran to get [the bunt] but didn't have a clear view of second baseman Jeff Kent covering first. Choi, the Dodgers first baseman, charged the ball. But instead of then getting out of the way when Phillips took charge, Choi took a couple of steps back toward the bag, leaving him directly between Phillips and Kent. Phillips made an awkward throw around him that Kent had to lunge for...

Asked whether Choi should have gotten out of the way, Kent declined to respond. Asked whether he had a clear view of the throw coming at him, Kent was more candid.

"No," he said. "And neither did Jason."

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Dare I say that Joe Morgan may have been right in blaming Choi?

It's hard for Choi to get out of the way, but once he saw Kent covering, he just needed to be someplace else.

The White Sox attributed the error to Podsednik's speed.

The fact that Podesdnik was out anyway seems irrelevant.

choi's a big guy; he did a decent enough job of getting out of the way. the fact remains that the play was made. who cares how ugly it looks?

Choi had been charging and then saw he didn't need to. He was caught in no man's land and with his size he ended up being the reef upon which the S.S. Dodger crashed into Sunday.

Actually, I'm not really upset at Choi, I just like the reef metaphor.