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Ken Davidoff of Newsday raises the possibility of disentangled Yankees manager Joe Torre coming from the Bronx to Chavez Ravine to replace Grady Little, then gets an anonymous Dodger insider to dismiss the idea:
There are currently three teams, not counting the Yankees, looking for managers: the Cardinals, Pirates and Royals.
Forget about the Pirates and Royals. The Cardinals, to the contrary, would present great appeal to Torre. He is immensely popular in St. Louis, thanks to his terms as a player (1969-74) and manager (1990-95). Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, who is on the Cardinals' payroll, is probably Torre's best friend in baseball.
But the Cards appear likely to bring back Tony La Russa for a 13th season, so that's probably out.
Would any team jettison its current manager to go after Torre? Here's a guess for conspiracy theorists: the Dodgers. Owner Frank McCourt is a Boston native, so he knows all about Torre. Current manager Grady Little is under scrutiny for a tough 2007 season, during which the young and veteran players failed to peacefully coexist.
Imagine the Dodgers bringing in a Brooklyn native to end their World Series title drought of 19 seasons. That would strike a blow in the Southern California public relations battle with the Angels. And Torre could hang out with Billy Crystal and other Hollywood types.
Alas, on the condition of anonymity, an official intimately familiar with the Dodgers shot down that idea yesterday, vowing that the club would stay with Little. But keep an eye on the situation.
Meanwhile, Times editorial researcher Paul Thornton suggests, in the shadow of the team's 50th anniversary celebration of its arrival in Los Angeles, that the Dodgers are truly getting back to their Brooklyn roots ...
Maybe the Dodgers' two decades of mediocrity is just a return to form. After all, the Brooklyn Dodgers didn't win a World Series until 1955 — their seventh decade as a franchise — finally knocking off the hated New York Yankees. Then-owner Walter O'Malley plucked the Dodgers from their borough in 1957 and moved west; the L.A. Dodgers played their first season in 1958 at the L.A. Coliseum — and began winning in a hurry.
In just the team's second season on the West Coast, the Dodgers won the 1959 World Series — spoiling Angelenos with an accomplishment that took Brooklynites several generations to enjoy. The Dodgers won it all again in 1963. And '65. Again in '81. And '88. The team appeared in the Fall Classic three more times in the 1970s and also 1966. For 30 out of the team's 100-plus years, the Dodgers and their L.A. fans gorged themselves in Yankee-like victory and established a so-called "tradition of excellence."
A short-lived tradition, we might now add. Perhaps the Dodgers' move west didn't take the Brooklyn blood out of the Hollywood-adjacent Dodgers after all. Fifty years later, the Dodgers are finally the Bums once more.
Jumping back to the previous topic (sorry, by the time I caught up with all the posts I hit the NPUT...great stuff by all), my earliest Dodger memory is Jack Clark's homer in the '85 playoffs. I was 7. Mostly, I remember my dad's reaction: groaning and throwing his hands up in disgust. I think I learned a few new words that day as well. :)
Despite that, I think I have to credit my Dodger fandom to Steve Sax's sex appeal. My aunt had a huge crush on him and she would take me to several Dodger games a year in hopes of getting a closer look at him.
Seems like being a sportswriter is not that hard as long as you don't care about reality.
Seems like being a sportswriter is not that hard as long as you don't care about reality.
Sorry 'bout that.
lock up martin & bills this offseason. those are about the only moves i want to see.
Bringing Torre on would not only put a spark in the clubhouse, but I think it would also open the door for aquiring a certain start third basemean, if you know who I nean. ;)
WAKE UP FRANK MCCORT!!!!! Dodger fans are patient but only if you're trying. Grady Little doesn't have anything but hay between his ears and Ned Colleti manages with black and white baseball cards.
Ya know, the Dodgers last year reminded me of Mr. Burns when he was asking Smithers to find him ringers. "Honus Wagner! Moredchai 'three finger' Brown!"...."Sir, those players have been dead for over 50 years."...."Fine Smithers! Fine me some players, some good players, some LIVING players!"
He just seems to take what we don't like about Grady and magnify it.
1. Third base
2. Jettisoning Nomar
3. CF
4. Starting pitching.
100. The manager
The LA Dodgers have been to the World Series 9 Times.
Maybe, being a bum isn't so bad. I mean, you don't have to work, people just give you money for doing nothing but asking for it.
Instead of hiring a guy with Brooklyn ties, how about hiring the guy who hit a home run in his only at-bat in the 1988 World Series?
Where I recall him being pretty good.
back, all hopefully for their last season here. We're going to have the same unhappy clubhouse we had this season. To me that sounds like 4th place again - maybe 2nd place at best behind the Rockies.
I do think that will lead to a bright 2009 -with Ned and Grady shown the door, Logan White taking over as GM, the old vets gone for good, and the young players taking over.
Now, about that Phillips character...
23 NedCo could just fire himself? Yeah. Not gonna happen.
1. Sox fans are obsessed with the Yankees.
2. Torre is a celebrity in the Lasorda mold.
3. The 2008 marketing plan. "Torre to LA!"
4. A-Rod (though I think I agree with 17 )
5. Instant credibility on ESPN.
None of these are good reasons, of course, but so what?
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