It’s a function of my own personal memory bank, but the celebration outside the White House right now reminds me of the celebration when the U.S. hockey team beat the Soviets in 1980. I’m picturing Al Michaels announcing the news, and Jim McKay covering the reaction.
Discussion of the death of Osama Bin Laden is allowed here, within reasonable guidelines.
Hong-Chih Kuo is back, but he isn’t back. Four of the five batters he faced in the ninth inning today reached base, and all of them scored thanks in part to a sacrifice fly and double off Mike McDougal in the Dodgers’ 7-0 crumble to the Padres.
Andre Ethier extended his hitting streak to 27 games with a seventh-inning infield single, but that was just about where the offensive highlights ended for the Dodgers, who fell to 14-15. The Dodgers are 4 1/2 games behind first-place Colorado in the National League West and 2 1/2 ahead of last-place San Diego.
Juan Uribe had a nice defensive game at third base, but his double-play grounder after a one-out walk to Ethier and single by Matt Kemp (2 for 4) in the fourth inning ended the Dodgers’ best offensive threat while the game was still in doubt. With two out in the ninth, the Dodgers finally got a runner to third base for the first time in the game thanks to singles by Aaron Miles and Kemp, but Uribe blooped out to right to end it.
The Padres scored their seven runs despite going 26 consecutive batters without a hit from the second inning, after they scored three runs off Dodger starter Jon Garland, into the ninth. Garland went six innings, allowing three hits and four walks while striking out eight.
Identical twins: Ethier and Kemp have each reached base 56 times in 125 plate appearances (.448 OBP) this season.
The first part of the headline is the most important: The Dodgers get Hong-Chih Kuo back after a minor-league rehab appearance Friday (his third) in which he allowed no runs or walks and struck out two. But the more curious aspect is the second part, in which the Dodgers optioned reliever Kenley Jansen to Triple-A rather than cut loose back-of-the-bullpen reliever Lance Cormier. (Update: The Dodgers later issued a correction saying that Jansen has gone down to Double-A Chattanooga.)
Jansen has had two certifiably terrible outings, one April 2, the other April 19. But in has past three games, covering 4 2/3 innings, Jansen has allowed no hits, walked two and struck out nine. That makes Jansen the Dodgers’ most effective reliever over the past week.
If this small sample size were all that Jansen had going for him, that’d be one thing, but the two bad outings in April are much more of an aberration in the Jansen oeuvre than what he’s done recently. Jansen’s career numbers remain strong: 2.90 ERA, 49 baserunners vs. 63 strikeouts in 40 1/3 innings.
Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com writes that the Dodgers want Jansen to develop a secondary pitch, and that the Dodgers value Cormier’s role as a mop-up man, which is as damned with faint praise as you get. So what this boils down to is the Dodgers breaking more eggs in their bullpen, in the hopes that they’ll bake a better cake in the long term. It’s not the end of the world, but Jansen will be missed.
As long as Cormier’s sticking around, can I suggest again that the Dodgers use the right-handed Cormier more against left-handed batters, a group he continues to have the most success against?
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Here’s what I’d like to hear from Roger McDowell, beyond his apology: an explanation.
McDowell, the former Dodger, one-time “Seinfeld” second spitter and current Atlanta Braves pitching coach, has been suspended for two weeks by Major League Baseball for his inappropriate, offensive and threatening behavior before an April 23 game in San Francisco.
“I understand the decision made today by the commissioner,” McDowell said in a statement. “I am embarrassed by my actions and I plan to give a personal apology to Mr. Quinn and his family. I would also like to offer a public and heartfelt apology to the fans of San Francisco, to the Atlanta Braves organization, my family and to Major League Baseball.”
It’s great that McDowell won’t have to go to Rocket Scientist School to realize what he did was wrong. All things considered, considering the facts of the case don’t seem to be in dispute, it seems the punishment could have been much worse, but he’s going to sensitivity training, and maybe he’ll come out of this a better person.
But I’d still like to know what in the world could have made him act this way in the first place, because if nothing else, it sure might be instructive.
When Kobe Bryant got fined $100,000 after issuing a gay slur at a referee during an April 13 NBA game, he didn’t exactly fall down and beg weeping for forgiveness, but he did discuss his actions publicly. As many questions as his incident raised about Bryant’s character — and as difficult as his explanation might have been to accept — what McDowell did, in the calm of pregame batting practice and directly in front of fans and children, was dimensionally more unfathomable and disturbing.
Is it unreasonable for me to wonder what could possibly have been going on in McDowell’s head, to wonder where that anger and hostility came from, to wonder whether there might a benefit from the answer?
What happens when three old friends in crisis fall into an unexpected love triangle? In The Catch, Maya, Henry and Daniel embark upon an emotional journey that forces them to confront unresolved pain, present-day traumas and powerful desires, leading them to question the very meaning of love and fulfillment. The Catch tells a tale of ordinary people seeking the extraordinary – or, if that’s asking too much, some damn peace of mind.
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