Gosh I hope not.

July Splits:

.471/.550/1.021/60 AB Ethier

.338/.574/912/68 AB Kemp

.287/.317/.604/82 AB Gonzo

Off to the game, should get in by 8:30

>> But if we agree Bonds is going to break Aaron's record sometime soon ... the worst place to do it would be Los Angeles, and everybody in the game knows it. <<

## He isn't going to go deep on them. Not in this series. Unless someone gets sloppy. (Hello, Brett Tomko.) ##

http://www.presstelegram.com/sports/ci_6522613

"Eric Gagne entered in the ninth to a pulse-pounding ovation, striking out the first two batters he faced.

"But a dropped two-out popup in no-man's land between third base and left field put a runner on second. The Orioles scored on a single, but ultimately surrendered to Gagne's low-90s heater and knee-buckling repertoire of off-speed stuff.

"How about that?" Gagne said after the game, wearing a grateful smile. "I have a 9.00 ERA as a Red Sox, [and] I get a standing 'O.' That's pretty good. It tells you a lot about the fans."

I was always circumspect about the idea of the record falling in LA. The fact that the series has apparently attracted the most casual of Dodger fans who either actually want to see the homer or at least want to be part of the circus (the flashbulbs, and all) has pushed me over the edge. Not here. Not now. San Diego's problem. I"m counting on Brett Tomko in the cross hairs of history.

What am I missing here?

Just kidding. Welcome. I noticed you posting, and concluded (correct me if I'm wrong) that you're not actually Wilbert Robinson, on account of he's been dead for like 70 years. The Greg Brock who posts here, though, could be the real Greg Brock, for all I know.

"In L.A., you're not required to stay 'til the end of the game... I think the best fans are the ones smart enough to know when to leave."

...and leave me to deal with less traffic after the game. LA fans are considerate that way.

2 games
2 homers

Moreno has gotten more mileage out of a beer price reduction than the Dodgers have out of changing hitting coaches. I did a price comparison on domestic beer prices on draft per ounce and there was no difference between LA and LAAA. Enough already!

If he is a churchgoing man, he still prays for Gil Hodges.

He hands out with Roger Kahn and tells stories about how baseball should be played and how Ebbets Field was the greatest baseball stadium every collected.

Wilbert Robinson still goes out to the stoop every morning waiting for his copy of the Brooklyn Eagle to arrive.

33 you can at milb.com. I'm listening to the jacksonville game right now.

Same even more so with leaving before the end. Mostly this is a bedtime or a babysitter thing. Seems like a fan willing to pay up to take his kid to 6 fun innings of a baseball game is being a pretty good fan. Hard to see what is gained by overstaying at the kid's expense.

Sorry, this just irks me.

Why do I stay until the end of baseball games? Because I can. I'm single. I have no kids.

In other words, I have nothing else to live for.

I hope Casey can't see your screen right now.

Bob, you need some kids.

But people are the same all over.

I learned that from watching "The Twilight Zone."

Tony Gwynn is just the best. He was just extolling the beauty of the game of baseball and how kids who don't play it are missing out. Man, I admire that guy. Both of these guys actually.

Awkward.

He even threw in some Don Schwartzes...!

RFK is about 15 blocks away.

Just happened. It confuses me a little.

I saw there induction speeches live (t.v) you just can't help but love what there all about I can't wait to hear Biggios speech a few years from now. Baseball needs more guys like them.

I remember sleeping in the car on the way home.

And, that's why I never leave early, I guess.

I don't resent fans who do that much, though. Except when I wish there were more fans cheering for comeback wins.

I'm reminded of a hit song digital underground had back in the early 90's

But sure would be nice...

http://tinyurl.com/2b9pwn

It can be quite confusing watching a game, while a coach is standing with a fungo bat off to the side hitting grounders to Young.

"You know, Blake, I guess I had you wrong. You're just a kid from a small town in Missouri who can't seem to take the pressure. After all, you've got a million bucks in the bank so you're set. You can go home and be a big hero even if you don't make it to the big leagues. You don't seem to have what it takes."

According to Shelley, that man -- who I am just guessing might be Blake's old high school coach (just a feeling I have) -- later said that making that phone call and saying what he did was the hardest thing he has ever done in his life, but he had to do it, because Blake's father asked him to do it. Blake's father thought his son needed the kick in the pants. This reminds me so much of something Mickey Mantle said on Ken Burns' Baseball documentary. When Mantle first got to the majors he struggled, badly, and he called his dad and said that he didn't think he could cut it as a baseball player. Soon after that, Mantle's dad showed up, blew right past him in the doorway, and started packing Mickey's bags, and when Mickey asked his dad what he was doing, his dad turned on him and said, "I thought I had raised a man, but I raised a coward!" Obviously, Mantle's performance as a ballplayer improved considerably after that.

In the year since Joel Guzman was traded away, comments have been made by people making light, and often outright fun, of the comments that were apparently made in the Dodgers' organization questioning Guzman's make-up and work ethic, as if they were self-serving excuses for giving away a prospect. But I do think character counts, and I believe that work ethic plays a big role in whether or not an athlete with the right tools makes those tools work for him. Why Guzman regressed after showing so much promise is something I have thought about a lot, since I was a big champion of his a couple of years ago, and I have thought about whether Guzman really had much incentive to be a big league player. The Dodgers gave him $2.25 million to sign as a 16-year-old. He can live like a king on that money in the Dominican, so what would be so bad about not having a major league career? Something to think about, and perhaps one, and maybe the only, reason the Dodgers no longer throw the big money at Dominican players, prefering instead to sign guys at the cheaper end of the Latin American talent pool.

I loved the first book 20 years ago, and I really liked the first two movies, even though they were quite different from the book. Map-reading, timetable-checking, always thinking Bourne is a pretty cool superspy.

But I'm really doubtful they can keep it up for three.

Then
FLORIDA PITCHER RENYEL PINTO LEFT THE GAME IN THE TOP OF THE FIFTH INNING DUE TO A STRAINED LEFT SHOULDER.

-jaiziz, Tomko looks awful.

Almost.

sometimes I miss Tommy Lasorda for those exact things, he'd do wacky things like that & it worked many times!

Sandy Koufax has the most with 15.

Tomko and Bonds. Booing paradise.

No wait, they're saying, Booo-omko, Boooo-omko.

So, what else is on TV tonight?

New episode of 30 Rock?

Ugh...

That's why he has people for those kinds of things.

He needs to ease those nerves with Tomko pitching today, Greg.

Of course, the Dodgers have to actually score some runs for any of that to matter.

I'm thinking it's his fastball Andrew but don't take my word for it, If it's a cutter it isn't cutting from what I see.

Stop swinging at it. All of you.

ACTING!

Yeah, and those of us who were little kids, laying in bed, listening to Willie Davis glide over for yet another fine catch, fell asleep. Those were the days.... Except for now, with nearly every game to be seen too, by by dish or by net. Sure is a treat still hearing Vin Scully on these home games.

I also find it somehwat amusing that Berman kept talking about him as if he were a Giants fan. The guy is sitting there in a blue shirt. Dense.

maybe a little of both Marty.

Did I miss something?

Stretching
Yoga
Spliff
Strum Cat Stevens tunes on his acoustic
Meditation

Says she's given up dating athletes. FWIW.

That's pretty lame.

Can he name all the vice presidents in order?

(I can't do the latter.)

I think they were only counting BBWAA MVP choices. They didn't take over the voting until 1931.

Oh, you said "fire" flies...No idea.

My niece in St. Louis could not fathom that Southern California did not have:
1) fireflies
2) cicadas
3) cardinals [birds]

:-/

I can a test that they do exist in Los Angeles but I only saw them once when I was about 10 years old, there's plenty of them down in Guadalajara, Mex. Though.

214 Fan-tastic.

But you know, to his credit, Tomko has settled down a bit since the horrible start. This is almost like Tuesday night, where it didn't matter because the Dodgers offense couldn't do anything.

218 I moved to DC during our "Brood X" year. It was three weeks before I realized that that wasn't the normal background noise.

Okay

-somebody had to do it..

Dios Mio.

http://tinyurl.com/2tco2y

Mark Hendrickson!

The rest of the commercial is about the same. Slightly higher production values now.

273 Ah. I had the SP part...

Anyways, Kemp was out by a mile.

the reason that hurts is because RM2© will lead off, sigh.

So Beimel has to come in to face Bonds, right?

But Proctor, on his own, is fine.

Or One.

I like Proctor fine. I wish they'd start him, frankly.

Huh, leaving Proctor in, which means they'll IBB Bonds, and there we go. Odds are we won't see Bonds hit again this series and that's it.

I thought at that point the Dodgers should have pitched to him.

This time, he kept the gear on.

Man, I get irked when Giants announcers make fun of Dodger fans for leaving early - they're talking now about last night's game. I guarantee a good number of those fans who did leave after Bonds' last at bat were Giants fans, or people who came just to see Bonds.

Argh, I think we left EDSP in too long.

Welcome to the Dodgers! When Pedro Feliz is up, throw sliders in the dirt. I know that sounds stupid, but, really--just do it.

Grr. Next time, I guess.

Yours,
Andrew Shimmin

Seems like good pitchers either start, close, or set-up.

Proctor was a setup man in NY.

I mean, his stuff looks decent enough. Although it probably plays up when he can max out for an inning. His fb velocity was down a tick or two in that second inning of work there.

The battle to change the perception that Dodger fans leave early (as opposed to fans of any other sports team) will never go away because it's an easy idea to hold on to.

It is true, but fans in other cities are ALL THE SAME WAY.

We had a comment yesterday that only 20% of the fans were in their seats when the game started Tuesday. Which would mean 45,000 people arrived late. Which is ludicrous.

But people like to play with numbers. The Baseball Hall of Fame claimed 75,000 people came to Gwynn and Ripken's induction. People who live in Cooperstown say there is no physical way for that many people to fit into the area available for viewing. Sounds nice doesn't it?

In the words of the Lionel Hutz, there's the truth and there's the "truth."

Pedro Feliz has the potential to grow a pretty grizzly looking beard.

all the angels spent was money though.

"fertilizer! fertilizer!"

Cowboy Joe is a trainwreck (no, not you)

coming up to bat.

Hustle Martin!

And when the Giants played at Candlestick, you couldn't see the parking lot that easily.

Candlestick's access by car for a crowded game was worse than a sold out Rose Bowl.

So who's to blame for the headfirst slide - Roberto Alomar?

An easy way to mess up your wrist...

I believe it's called childhood.

I'll grant you that it's possible Betemit is worth more than Proctor, but I don't think it is so black-and-white as giving up a starting 3rd baseman for a pitcher of no value, as some have made it out to be.

I was at candlestick once & the stadium pretty much looks like a UFO landed there atleast that's how we felt when we first saw it back when I was 16 or there abouts.

It's so crazy, it just might work.

Proctor had one year where he might of transcended his middle reliever label (barely), but the way he's regressed this year, he's not even average in any relevant category.

Now, everybody wants his head on a pike staff.

Nope--so it'll be Saenz vs a right hander.

He should only be used vs left handed pitching.

It's obvious the Dodgers missed Kent this series, no doubt about it. But they shouldn't be so dependent on him, either. LaRoche coming up would really strengthen the bench a bit.

http://tinyurl.com/292ad2

The Blue Jays and Royals are very good with the bases loaded! So are the Giants!

Lyle Lovett slowly raises hand.

Nice pick there by Nomar.

Yeah, any game that begins with Tomko and ends with Hernandez is generally not going to be a happy occasion.

Make mine a double.

Thanks for the pick-me-up!

So I guess that is a positive.

http://tinyurl.com/yq6uof

They're fourth overall with runners in scoring position in any variety.

http://tinyurl.com/2d65qz

The bases loaded problem is just one of those things.

Correlation to runs/game(1 is perfect)
Interesting how close OBP and SLG are, each better than OPS+, and all better than BA. (this is via excel cut from b-r.com)

Dodgers rank #3 in OBP; Padres dead last.

BA OBP SLG OPS+

0.7996 0.8928 0.8927 0.8825

TEAM R/G BA OBP SLG OPS+

PHI 5.44 0.278 0.356 0.459 117
ATL 4.91 0.276 0.340 0.430 110
COL 4.89 0.272 0.346 0.418 100
FLA 4.85 0.268 0.336 0.449 115
MIL 4.81 0.262 0.330 0.444 108
CHC 4.67 0.269 0.330 0.410 96
LAD 4.64 0.276 0.342 0.403 99
NYM 4.59 0.269 0.333 0.421 106
CIN 4.57 0.254 0.324 0.422 95
HOU 4.42 0.257 0.327 0.409 97
STL 4.41 0.270 0.334 0.400 98
SFG 4.31 0.252 0.323 0.381 92
SDP 4.24 0.243 0.312 0.389 94
ARI 4.17 0.248 0.317 0.405 89
PIT 4.14 0.254 0.313 0.390 89
WSN 3.84 0.249 0.316 0.369 88

i'll just set the tray down.

carry on!

Thanks!

What a surreal atmosphere. The place went crazy booing Bonds, but then as soon as pitch was thrown, half the stadium was flashbulbs. And when Bonds so much as swung, therew as a palpable "AAAH-" in the air, like everyone was just waiting to cheer. I'm sure they would've quickly collected themselves and booed.

I actually found myself cheering for every good thing Tomko did after the first inning, just because he was getting booed so mercilessly. That lasted until he dropped the relay from Loney, then I just shook my head and said, "you're on your own."

When Pierre came up in the fifth with two out, he started to square, and I yelled, "don't you dare bunt." I didn't even mean to, it just came out. Half a dozen people laughed.

I think my favorite moment was when D. Young came out on deck, and I cheered that I knew who it was. Then I had to explain it to the rest of the section.

So now BobbleRuss, BobbleRuss II, and I arew finishing off the game at home. These things are surprisingly sturdy.

Oh, and my brother got booed for knocking a beach ball over he edge of the loge. I gave him a high five.

Yum.

The thing to know about Bob is: he's no fun.

You can have the silver bullet.

11 hits (10 singles), 5 walks, and 1 run so far.

absolutely not yum.

Make them pay James.

Woop, I guess not.

Oh well.

I'm going to listen to Vogon poetry now, then some Chinese water torture, followed by a trip to the dentist, just to complete the cycle. Feh.

Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown.

Night all.

I like the odds till then, asta manana

Bring on the Diamondbacks.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,70131-1278332,00.html

1)as everyone knows. except grady little, the old tomato is done.

2)this is not the same team without kemp

3) cant blame this loss on tomko.

4) nomar looks a lot better at the plate.

http://tinyurl.com/2b9pwn