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The "Rap" .......
About Baseball & More......
by Tom Cole
© 2005
September 7, 2005
A Departure from Tradition
"Da Bums" of ...... Los Angeles
| The Dodger franchise, once one of the most storied, as well as respected organizations in all of baseball, have truly sunk to depths unthinkable until the past few years. The sale of the team by the O'Malley family to FOX was a grievous error in judgement, a business mistake as well as unfair to the Dodger “family” (ie. ex-players & coaches) as well as to their fans. | Given the traditions that were practiced by the Dodgers in the past, having signed Jackie Robinson as the first African American major league player, the current Dodgers hardly carry themselves with the class or élan that has been a trademark of the franchise through the years. |
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Brad Penny working against the SF Giants in LA on Tuesday night
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| Case in point, in the second game of a three game series against their arch rival in the NL, San Francisco, Brad Penny distinguished himself among his peers as something less than the good pitcher he has been in the past. Having led off the inning with a single turned into a triple by leftfielder, Jason Werth, Snow faked a steal of home in an attempt to upset Penny's rhythm on the mound, hoping for a run producing balk. Penny gestured to Snow, came off the mound towards 3b, yelling and pounding the ball against his right leg, indicating that should Snow attempt a similar move, he would be hit with the ball in his next at bat. Snow stood speechless and surprised, as did his Giant teammates. Similarly, Josh Beckett (FL. Marlins) shouted at Randy Winn in a recent contest after striking him out to end a threat and an inning, but Beckett | apologized personally to Winn the next day and did so publicly in the local Miami press as well. Mistakes of youth may be forgiven, especially when acknowledged by the guilty party, but Penny is hardly a youth nor has he apologized to anyone, privately or in the press. Jeff Weaver, too, has been known to take a personal affront to professional competition on the field, and clearly Jim Tracy, a true professional in every sense of the word, has not been able to imprint his style of the game on his players. Significantly, Tracy wears a #16 patch on his uniform, in honor of Paul LoDuca, traded last year to the Marlins… in return for Penny, an apparent statement that his general manager, Paul DePodesta, can hardly appreciate. Tracy's days in LA may be numbered. |
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prompted Giants announcer, Duane Kuiper, to declare the game was over with the crack of the bat.
| Referred to as 'Da Bums, fondly or otherwise, in Brooklyn, Penny has re-defined the term “bush league” as it is used in major league baseball. Even the fans in LA are put off by this 2005 version of what is supposed to be a baseball team, calling in to complain on the talk shows. With ex-Giant Jeff Kent leading this team (not without some controversy of his own), the Dodger | tradition of developing major league caliber players in their fabled farm system has become a distant memory, and many sports fans in the LA area have written off this season, embracing the only championship team in their midst these days, the USC Trojans football team. |
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