So was Torre's plan to have Broxton pitch until he died?

Yankee fans got to have all sorts of nostalgia this weekend.

They got to see Don Mattingly again.
They got to root against Manny Ramirez again.
They got to rewind lots of great clips of World Series past again.

And they got to see Joe Torre bungle the bullpen again.

Three batters into the 9th inning it was clear that Jonathan Broxton was toast. Even Charlie Steiner and Rick Monday were talking about it on the broadcast. His fastball was flat and he was nibbling.

And the inning kept going... kind of like a Star Wars prequel... you kept hoping for that awesome thing to happen but as it kept going on you realized it was going to end up sucking.

And Charlie and Rick kept pointing out "nobody is warming up in the Dodger bullpen."

Once the Yankees tied it 6-6, I turned it off. They won it right then and there. There was no need to play the bottom of the 9th nor the 10th. The entire planet knew the game was over.

And I had a great blog post all written in my head... and instead all I've got is this half assed entry.

Tip of the cap, Joe.
Now off to San Francisco.

Hey Dodgers... what is wrong with this picture?

On July 21, 2009... less than a year ago, Cliff Lee was a pitcher for the Indians.
He threw a complete game 2-1 victory for the lowly Indians and as the defending Cy Young winner was on the trade block.

And the Dodgers, who made it to the 2008 NLCS, desperately needed an ace pitcher. They had some decent pitching but were also leaning on the Clayton Kershaws and Chad Billingsleys too much. They needed a stud to put them over the top.

He was traded to the Phillies 10 days later... and threw 8 shutout innings in the NLCS against the Dodgers.

He's been traded three times in the past year.

The Dodgers still desperately need a #1 starter.
Cliff Lee would have been PERFECT ace for the Dodgers. They may have won the 2009 NL Pennant and probably would be in first place as I type this instead of being in 4th place, 6 games back of the Padres in the loss column.

And yet with the need for Lee, the minor leaguers to trade, the pitchers park for him to thrive and the big market to resign him.

And how many proposed trades did we hear involving the Dodgers?
That would be ZERO!!!

Hey Frank McCourt... remind us how your divorce isn't affecting how the team is put together again?

The latest insult to the Mets... Kenley Jansen

Joe Torre let someone named Kenley Jansen pitch the 9th inning of a 1-0 game that L.A. desperately needed to win.

If you never saw Jansen pitch in the majors, it is because he only had one appearance before today.

If you don't remember him climbing up the Dodger farm system, it is because a little more than a year ago he was a catcher in the Dodger farm system.

Today, he got a 1-2-3 inning and the save.

Now he could turn around and be the next Rich Gossage and #74 could be retired at Chavez Ravine.

But right now the Mets bats are so flacid, that a pitcher making his second appearance EVER can get an effortless save.

Don't wear out his arm, Joe.
His name isn't Scott Procter.

Answering George Sherrill's Question

According to Yahoo Sports, Dodgers reliever George Sherrill was quoted asking "I don't know what you have to do in this league to get the calls" after one of the calls went against him in the Angels series.

Well a start is to post a lower ERA than 6.75 and make sure the league is hitting less than .304 against him and let up fewer than 2.13 walks or hits per innings pitch.

I don't want to be mean, but when a pitcher is putting up ugly number, you can't really expect to get the calls as if you are Bob Feller in his prime.

Heck, the way Sherrill has been pitching, he isn't pitching as well as Bob Feller would NOW!

Hey Diamondbacks... good luck getting sympathy for your pulled hamstring

Can you imagine a Diamondback player coming up to their new manager, Kirk Gibson, and complaining about a physical problem?

"Skip, I think I have some tightness in my quad. I may need to sit out tonight."

"Oh you've got some tightness? That's too bad. I bet it hurts. Do you know what also hurts? Having a busted right knee. Do you know what is worse than that? Also having a busted LEFT kneee. But I guess sometimes you have to SUCK IT UP and drag yourself to the plate when you CAN'T EVEN WALK and face a HALL OF FAME PITCHER in his prime with 2 outs in the World Series and hit a Game Winning homer ONE HANDED WITH NO USE OF MY LEGS! But really, I hope your quads feel better."

"I'll get some Ben Gay."

"Hold on, let me find that clip. It's kind of obscure... if by obscure you mean the most famous home run possibly in baseball history."

"No, you showed it already."

"Seriously. I insist you watch it again. I think my quads also hurt that night. I couldn't tell because I had no use of my legs."

"Can I call A. J. Hinch please?"

Kirk Gibson's Homerun

Julio | MySpace Video

Gee Whiz... I wonder what the mood at Fenway will be like tomorrow

Everyone in Boston is already pissed off that the Lakers came from behind and bounced the Celtics.

Now ANOTHER Los Angeles team is going to show up.

I bet if an L.A. team arrived and featured Carlton Fisk, Yaz, Larry Bird and the remains of Paul Revere, they'd still get booed.

And this one has Manny Ramirez.

Hope NESN has a seven MINUTE delay!

Now I know this is not the popular opinion for Sox fans, but I would applaud Manny.
We all waited our whole lives for that 2004 World Series title and when we got it, Manny was a big reason for its delivery.

I have a rule.
If you played for the 2004 Red Sox, I don't boo you.

I have a feeling not a lot of Sox fans have that rule.

It should be fun.

Remember, opponents of Interleague Play think tomorrow's Red Sox/Dodger match up featuring Manny Ramirez the day after the Lakers/Celtics final ended is bad for baseball.

Did the Ninety Nine Restaurant have a Manny Ramirez special?

You would think it would have been a natural fit.

Oh well. I am glad that Manny got more cheers than boos at Fenway.
Red Sox fans should always be thankful for 2004... especially on the heels of a championship that slipped away.

He's baaaaack

I know it ended badly... but I really hope Manny gets SOME love tonight.

I can't boo a 2004 Red Sox. I just can't.

The Dodgers are toast

The Dodgers went into last night's game 9 back in the loss column and a mere 3 games over .500. That is a perilous position for the two time defending NL West Champs. The only two branches they could hang on to at this point are they have a head to head series against the Padres and a sweep of that series would set themselves up for a potential comeback in August and September.

So how did they do?

They didn't show up.
A 10-5 crushing at home.

10 games back in the loss column and their 6th straight loss.

Keep in mind on June 16th, the Dodgers were in first place by themselves.
In the 41 game since then, they've had three different 6 game losing streaks.

They have been 16-25 since then. Only the long left for dead Pirates and Diamondbacks have been worse since.

Now they are facing a double digit deficit in the loss column and a .500 record right in the face.

The ship has sailed and no doubt so will the Joe Torre era in L.A.

It started off so promising... Torre leading the Dodgers to the NLCS while the Yankees failed to make the playoffs and a core of nice players like Ether, Kemp, Loney, Kershaw, Martin and Broxton giving the team hope and Manny giving the team character.

And now they are in the express lane to total irrelevance. With all of their losing streaks, they may have trouble staying above .500.

This current Dodgers team is probably going to go down along with the Mike Piazza/Eric Karros/Raul Mondesi years or perhaps the Adrian Beltre/Paul LoDuca/Eric Gagne years.

Good enough to make the post season but not good enough to make any sort of dent in the post season.

(Ironically the are ALL deeper in talent than the 1988 team that won it all.)

So Torre will probably step down, Manny is out the door and the McCourts will try to make us all feel like the divorce had nothing to do with anything.

They aren't showing much pride at this point and maybe a fresh start will do the organization well.

But for the rest of the year? Put butter on them. They are toast.