No, you read that right. I titled this post THANK YOU LA! Los Angeles, CA! Tinsel Town, La La Land, The Coast! I am tossing up a great, big THANK YOU to the town I have little to zero love for…why? I’m glad you asked. The Los Angeles( Should’ve Stayed in Brooklyn) Dodgers have “parted ways” with former New York Yankee Captain Don Mattingly. That news made my year! Donnie was canned. Donnie was sacked. Donnie was sent packing!! It was music to my ears! The Dodgers don’t want Mattingly!!
Now you might be asking yourself, “Mikey, isn’t it harsh to be so excited to see one of your childhood heroes out on his ass?” No. No it’s not. Donnie has already been rumored to be in line for the Miami Marlins gig, in fact, it happened, read HERE. Donnie will be fine. It’s not like he is a steel worker that got laid off from the mill in a working class Pennsylvania town with 5 kids to feed. Mattingly is not hurting for dough.
The reason I’m SO UNBELIEVABLY excited to hear this news is simple. I can stop hearing Yankee fans saying, “I hope the Dodgers win it…for Donnie Baseball.” WRONG! When Donnie was wearing that awful Dodger Blue uniform the Donnie Baseball ceased to exist! He was Donnie Ocho. That is a fact. He actually sent me a bobble head back in 2011 and Donnie Ocho signed the card! What?! Nope.
I don’t like the Dodgers! I told Tommy Lasorda where to go once upon a time at Chavez Ravine (We’ve since reconciled). I cringed seeing Garvey, Cey or Lopes. I can’t stand Dodger Dogs; hate beach balls, fine Randy Newman hacky. I hold 2 members (AND ONLY 2 MEMBERS) of the Dodger Family in the highest regard. 2! Mr. Vin Scully and THE GREAT Jackie Robinson. That’s it.
Look, Donnie is out! I feel like he just got paroled. They didn’t treat him well. The players were a bunch of clowns…YES! I’m looking directly at you Puig!! Donnie is out and we can stop with the “I like the Dodgers because Donnie is there” crap.
I love Mattingly. I really do. But we can also stop with making him Casey Stengel. He ain’t the “Old Professor”. He was a beloved Yankee great, became a solid bench coach and followed Joe Torre out of town because he felt the Yankees “Cano’d” him by giving Girardi the job.
GI Joe was a MANAGER OF THE YEAR! He was the no brainer call for the skipper seat, Donnie. You still haven’t proven yourself a good manager. Period. I’m not bashing Mattingly; I’m just calling it as I see it. Donnie shouldn’t have been the Dodger Manager in the first place and here we have Yankee fans, YANKEE FANS! Pulling for the Dodgers because of Donnie. What is that?! No. I say again, NO.
I’m having a beer and thanking the Baseball gods and the Ghost of Old Yankee Stadium that this day has arrived. Now I don’t have to worry about Mattingly bringing LA a title…not that I did much.
Donnie, I love ya. You will always be a Captain to me. You are a NEW YORK YANKEE forever. You are Donnie MUTHA TRUCKIN’ Baseball! And I’m raising my pint to the loss of Donnie Ocho! Good riddance
** From another proud Son of New York to you, Donnie. Say G’bye, Cap!**
I really enjoy the BYB posts introducing the staff writers who contribute to the site each week. It’s yet another great way Casey has illustrated how Bleeding Yankee Blue is really a team in every sense of the word. From the Skipper on down to this reformed Irish hoodlum, BYB has baseball, heart and a real sense of community and family.
Recently you were introduced to staff writer Alexis Garcia, read MEET THE BYB FAMILY: INTERVIEW WITH ALEXIS GARCIA for that. One of the questions posed to the Los Angeles native and University of Texas alum (By the way a couple trips to the Series during her time there. Impressive to say the least.) was how could she convince me to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a chance.
Here's that exchange:
BYB: Mike O'Hara, a fellow BYB writer hates the Dodgers. Can you convince him to give them a shot?
Alexis Garcia: Mike, I would say hating the Dodgers is about
95% of being a Dodgers fan! Some of my best memories of going to games
was jeering that bum Kevin Brown while
stuffing Dodger dogs in my face. We have the money, we have the talent,
we have the best weather in the country, and yet we still manage to
choke in the off-season. We develop some of the best talent in the
league only to trade it away for players past their prime. It is this
frustration of constant under-performance that unites all of us Dodgers
fans! Also, we have Vin Scully.
It’s been fairly well documented that I am in no way, shape or form a Dodger fan. I have said, and will go on saying, that I’d rather hear the cheers on Yawkey Way and all over Bean Town than to see them happy at Chavez Ravine. Crazy? Not to me. It’s a long story, but I will explain so that you can understand why I “dislike” the Dodgers so much…I swear it’s not just an East Coast vs. West Coast thing.
First of all, the Dodgers hurt my feelings. That sounds childish, doesn’t it? Well, that stands to reason. I was merely a small child when the club that left Brooklyn beat my Yankees in the World Series. I sat on the floor of my folks’ bedroom and cried.
The Yankees weren’t a baseball team to me, they were superheroes. They couldn’t lose…could they? How did Reggie let me down? Who was this Penguin guy?
And could someone please get Lasorda off my TV screen ASAP! I carried that anger with me for years. It kind of subsided during time in grade school. I started to resent the Mets more…actually I resented my friends who jumped ship and started wearing Strawberry jerseys because the Yanks weren’t exactly the toast of the town any longer. I also NEVER allowed them to live it down when they wanted to come back to the Bronx in the mid 1990s.
Now, you’d think that I’d forget why I disliked LA so much over time, but as my Grandfather would say, “Only 2 creatures walking this planet that never forget. An elephant and an Irishman.” He was 100% correct. My feelings for the Dodgers were just hibernating. They would wake with vigor after I graduated college.
I’m an actor. I moved to Los Angeles, as so many in “The Biz” do, with my game face on. LA does have great weather. It is a trip to go to the market and notice that you are in the checkout line behind Jennifer Aniston, and it’s as if she is just any other person…though incredibly beautiful and pretty nice to boot.
She was very friendly when I placed the rubber divider on the conveyor belt so that her rice cakes and humus didn’t get mixed in with my Guinness, cold cuts, Guldens Mustard and Beefsteak Rye bread. Los Angeles is pretty much as you’d expect to be honest. The people are sort of different. They march to the beat of their own drum. I met a lot of great folks out there. When I got work it was a great time, but it also is a lonely town. Now that shouldn’t reflect on the Dodgers…but I allowed it to. That is not fair and I know it now.
I went to see my first Dodger game the weekend I moved out West. The Boys in Blue hosted the Pirates. I got to see that the Ravine is a great ballpark. It was before so of the recent renovations. The bullpens are still the worst in the league, but there aren’t any bad seats. You can get a great look at the game no matter where you sit.
Dodger Dogs? That is an ENTIRELY separate chapter in this story. My conclusion is LA fans KNOW that the Farmer John product is awful, but refuse to give in to that knowledge. LA does have a “little brother” complex about New York’s hot dog and Pizza Empire. FACT. Here’s a hint Dodger Concession Director. Have Pink’s supply the dogs. They ain’t Nathan’s, but it’d be a step in the right direction.
The pebble that began the avalanche of the return of my DODGER DISLIKE was the fans…there were so few 'actual' fans. I won’t say that there aren’t true blue Dodger fans. There are. They are knowledgeable, invested and all and all pretty friendly. The problem is they are outnumbered in a big way in their own ballpark. Fact. Often it’s by fans of the visiting club. The Mets, Cubs, Sox, Yanks, Phils and Giants all have transplants in the City of Angels and they show up. There is also the “To Be Seen” crowd. They don’t care who is playing; they just want to be at the party. You know the type. Every club has them, but LA REALLY has them. They show up in the 4th and leave in the 7th. They play with the beach balls.
They are on their cellphones. They have dinner reservations at Beso. They think Mike Piazza is still behind the plate. They quote “Naked Gun”…a lot! “Enrico Palazzo! He saved the queen!” Yep, that’s a good one. It’s almost as if MLB should talk to the NFL and ask, “Hey, why don’t you guys have a franchise here?” Fair? I don’t know. But it is what it is.
The last factor in my less than favorable feelings toward all things Dodgers is the “Tough Guy” factor. I saw it every time I went to the stadium and I went a good deal. There are those at the game who are just looking for a problem. It’s not about baseball, although they will be decked out in Dodger Blue. It’s about starting trouble in the stands or in the parking lot. The Dodgers have been absolutely horrendous addressing this issue.
The Bryan Stow incident just shed a bit of light on what happens more often than not at Chavez Ravine. I got to see it first hand at an inter-league match up years ago. I was at the game with some friends from back East. We saw the Yanks take it on the chin and made our way to the car. Almost instantly we hear the jeers. Hey, that’s what you get. I completely understand that. We do it in the Bronx. But these jeers got personal fast. Them they got increasingly angry. My one buddy is a bit of a hothead and I could tell he wasn’t going to stay quiet too long. We found ourselves in outside and noticed that a handful of these Dodger fans had followed us spewing their over the top jabs the whole way. Now two of my friends were US Marines at the time, and in this particular staring contest the other side blinked first. We were lucky. The situation didn’t become a problem…but it could have.
Who needs that garbage? If you want to find a fight go to a roadhouse bar and knock yourself out. It’s a baseball game. We go to have a good time and watch the American Pastime. Period. Yeah, there is some good-natured ribbing and no one wants to see his or her teams lose, but it’s not a turf war. It’s not and should never be personal. The sad fact is that in almost every trip I made to Dodger Stadium, I saw all of the above. It has made me close the book on the Los Angeles club. I don’t like them. I won’t ever like them.
I want Donnie back. I love Vin Scully and respect the actual Dodger fan that suffers through the nonsense I saw. They can’t be happy with that stuff. I don’t like “I Love LA”. I don’t consider LA a sports town. The Lakers stink now…where is everybody? And again, this is not an East Coast, West Coast thing. I’ve been to the Bay Area. I’ve seen games in the Great Northwest. I’ve loved every single trip to San Diego.
The Anaheim Angeles of Los Angeles, near the 5, close to Disney, South of Knott’s Berry, down the street from that strip mall…no, the other strip mall. They are not my favorite either... I don't care for the Rally Monkeys and Thunder Sticks... trust me. But it wasn’t nearly as bad at LA.
The truth is I’ve liked some Dodger players in my lifetime. Gibby, Butler,The Bulldog and Piazza were guys I enjoyed seeing play. No, it’s more about that first team to hurt my feelings. It’s about the Hollywood fans and the tough guys. They aren’t what baseball is about and any chance that I’d give the Dodgers a chance rolled away with the credits. Sorry, Alexis. It’s just one guy’s opinion.
Go Yankees!
** One of my Favorite Bands – Please note I do NOT want anything bad to happen to anyone in Los Angeles. I love my friends there. This song just has Los Angeles in the title I like Bad Religion a lot. **
I sat there listening in pain as the PA speakers blared Randy Newman’s famous tune. The stands, which were really only full in the 5th, 6th & 7th, are now close to empty. The beach balls are gone. Dodger Dog wrappers, the worst hot dog in the Majors, lay strewn on the stadium stairways. The game at Chavez Ravine is now over. What was the score? Cubs 4, Dodgers 2…but aside from a collection of actual die-hards, nobody there noticed.
This was my experience going to many games in Los Angeles while I was a resident of the “Southland”. “I Love LA”? You might, Randy. I don’t. I won’t go into the whole anti Los Angeles rant. It’s not a terrible town; it’s not really a town at all. It’s a collection of spread out suburbs. 818, 213, 310, 323…an area code is your membership number. I had a lot of fun in LA. I met some great people (mostly native to New York, Chicago and Boston) in my years there. It can be a good time. It’s biggest draw for me? LA is only and hour and a half-ish from San Diego on the 5 Freeway.
Look, I’m just not and LA guy…and that’s okay. I’m a New Yorker. I call the east coast home. I’ll take the bitter cold and subways over the earthquakes and gridlock. It’s just me. I don’t feel the need to bash the “WEST SIIIDE!” anymore.
However, I will never agree that LA is a great sports city. Yes, the Kings beat my beloved New York Rangers for Lord Stanley’s Cup. Hey, the Kings had a better club. You tip your cap and hope Nash shows up in the playoffs this year. But does that mean the LA fans are equal to their club? No way. It ain’t even close. The Lakers stink now…suddenly the local population has Clippers jerseys and have given their purple and gold #8 a rest in the hamper. The city cries out for an NFL team…slow down. I think the NFL will survive without a return to the City of Angeles.
You might be asking at this point, “Mikey, why the post on the plastic city behind the Saints?” I’ll tell you. I “dislike” the Dodgers that much. I read recently that my buddy and former Yankee Joba Chamberlain is getting serious looks from Lasorda’s darlings. I wished him well and cheered him on in Motown…unless he was throwing against the Yanks.
I’m his pal and a fan of what he is capable of doing on the hill. I could go into the ridiculous “Joba Rules” and the Bombers role in ruining a young talent…but why pick that scab? The bottom line is I won’t wish any ill on Justin, but I can’t root for anyone on the Dodgers either. I can’t. I won’t. I have said many times that I’d rather see the Sawk win than see any happiness in Dodgertown. I mean that. I am in NO way a Red Sox fan, but in a way they are part of the family...it’s hard to explain. I can’t stand them, but they have my respect. Their fans are delusional, but they know their club and live and die with what happens on Yawkey Way. Dodger fans? Nope.
The Dodgers hurt me first. I watched as they beat my Yankees in that World Series…I shutter to name the year. I was a little kid but my distaste for Lasorda, Cey, Garvey and Company was at an adult level. I am okay with Los Angeles getting a football team…as long as they play in what is now Dodger Stadium and the Dodgers (NO TRAINS TO DODGE IN LA BY THE WAY!) move back to Brooklyn and serve as a Single A affiliate to the Mets from their crimes against my Nana who loved them. I’m only sort of kidding about that.
I don’t want Chamberlain in Dodger Blue. Their bullpen is the worst. They sit on those plastic chairs you get at Target! The stadium isn’t awful, but it’s not great either. Go to Philly! Go to Chicago! Go to Atlanta! Hell, go to Boston (not really). But please, Joba, don’t take the “Magic Dollars” and move to Melrose Place!
At the end of the day I hope Chamberlain lands in the best spot for himself and his family. Yankee fans have strong opinions on him…I get that. I root for him because of the person he is not the record he has. This post is really just a way to poke fun at LA. If Joba signs in LA and excels under Donnie Baseball…I’ll appreciate it…I guess. I’ll be happy until October rolls around, and then hope he ended the season with a great ERA, an All Star appearance…and an early vacation. Nope, can’t have them in the Postseason…let alone the World Series. Joba, weigh your options. Citizen’s Bank is a great park. Maybe the Mets need a power arm in the pen…Arizona has a pool for the love of Pete! LA…well, the Grove is a heck of an outdoor Mall…my manager can probably get you on Kimmel…Oh! They have New York style pizza…and Pink’s Hot dogs…which isn’t much of a draw since you’ve had Nathan’s…they have a subway system now…but the ground shakes so…the weather is really nice…but you’re from Nebraska so who cares about the weather? Plus you’re a baseball player…so you work in the spring and summer…and travel all over the country…so that doesn’t work. Yeah, I’d say pass on this offer.
** Here are 2 songs. One I wrote about an Irishman living in LA and the other a song that is heard when a baseball game ends in a CITY!**
I wanted to wait until today to post this. Maybe because it makes me all fuzzy inside. Maybe because it's personally sad for me, or because it just brings me back to when things were simple...my childhood. This post is about Sy Berger. Sy was the designer of Topps baseball cards and he passed away at 91 this past weekend, read HERE.
Topps baseball cards were the first baseball card brand I was ever introduced to and to this day, I still own hundreds upon hundreds in a card collection that is neatly organized and being held for my children, to eventually pass to their children and so on. For me, it's become a tradition.
Card collecting was always a treat for me. It was something that I did all of my childhood. I remember being in my living room in 1975, and my father had bought me my first pack of Topps card. I wasn't a die hard baseball fan at the time, I was little, but for some odd reason, I remember the card pack, mainly because each card was colorful... remember, it was the 70s. The one card I remember from that living room in Kentucky? Ron Cey.
I still have it to this day.
Since then, I would be given a few packs for holidays in my stocking. Santa was good like that. I remember my dad bought me the entire box of unopened packs for my birthday in 1984. I sat on my bed for hours opening and organizing those cards. It was the most fun I had as a kid. I thought at the time, "My dad bought me the whole box! I might have the best dad in the world!
Over time, if I had a few bucks, I'd buy my own. Back then, baseball cards were on the counter of every store. There were no Targets, there were 5 and 10s and coffee shops, and every coffee shop had a glass counter with baseball cards in them. It was a great time to be a card collector and to be a kid.
My collection became bigger by the 1980s and like any kid, I aimed to try and get the good cards. The 1982 Cal Ripken rookie card, the Don Mattingly rookie, not the Donruss or Fleer ones... the Topps one. You know, the one where you can just make out the #4 on his back. Mattingly wore #46 before he wore the now retired #23.
Topps was good like that... and I was loyal to Topps. Even as a kid, I knew baseball cards needed to have that soft cardboard with the brown, grayish back full of stats, and not that fake looking glossy appearance of the others. I was never a fan of the Fleer white backs. It looked like a knock off to me.
Topps was the card, and while I expanding to the others, I always went back to Topps. They were the gold standard.
I remember sitting in my den as a kid, lining up my Topps cards according to the order of the lineup for that day's game. I remember having the game on, Messer, White and Rizzuto did their thing, and as the players were lifted from the game, switched with defensive replacements or whatever, I'd replace them on my card lineup too.
I remember bringing my baseball card binder everywhere, always looking through my cards and finding facts about players, and even where they lived and what teams they played for before. It made the summer vacation car rides better. Sy Berger had me hooked, and my hobby made me truly happy for years.
When I went away to college, the collecting stopped, but my parents didn't throw them out like other parents did to their kid's collections. My parents knew how much I loved it and when I graduated, and moved into my own place, my cards came with me, now about 3 boxes full. They were still all together, now in plastic, separated by YEAR with an index card that I hand wrote to separate each section. It's the perfect collection... and it's mine.
I never graded a single card, because it was my opinion that collections needed to be personal. Mine was. I didn't fall into the trap of buying sets that I would never open. What's the fun of that? I never looked for a mint card. I looked for cards that were unique, or something that stood out...something I liked. After all, it was my collection. For instance, there was a day in 1989 that I bought my first Don Larsen card. The card had drawing on it's face and the seller, a guy in a jewelry store I used to go to, sold it to me for $2 bucks. It probably isn't worth $1 at the time, but it was my first Larsen card. That's it above.
I remember being in Cape Cod with my parents and my dad brought me to a card shop. It was my birthday and he bought me a 1958 Yogi Berra. To this day, It might be my favorite Topps card in my collection. In short... I remember where I was and what I bought and what it made me feel like when I held that Topps cards... that's because Topps did it better than the others. I fell in love with not only the hobby, but with the brand.
Sy Berger is a pioneer. Sure, before Topps there was Goudey and Tobacco cards and I have those too, but it was Topps that dominated and made their cards better than all the rest. Sy Berger once said this about his product in 2002:
"We wanted to make something attractive that would catch the eye."
Well, for a kid who wanted a hobby back in the 1970s... he caught my eye and my heart and I am proud to say I've been a Topps card collector for 39 years.
My collection is now massive, deeply organized and mine... it's unique to me! Most of all... It's overwhelmed with Topps baseball cards.
Thank you to Sy Berger. Prayers for out to the Berger family. Thanks for allowing me to go back to my childhood any time I want. All I have to do is go back to my collection at any moment, grab my card out and remember where I was when I bought them. It's always a pleasant moment. It was a much simpler life for me back then. It was one of the best times of my life.
I really “dislike” just about everything about the Los Angeles Dodgers. I apologize for how I feel, and it’s not something I will change my mind about. It might stem from seeing the likes of Ron Cey, Davey Lopes and Steve Garvey beating my beloved Bronx Bombers in the World Series as a child. I sat on my parents’ bedroom floor with tears in my eyes asking my Dad, “How could Reggie lose?” and then telling everyone I thought Tommy Lasorda was a jerk.
It might be that my grandmother, who lived in Bay Ridge, loved the Dodgers and was heartbroken when they skipped town…she became a Mets’ fan…that bothered me too. I guess it could also be just their name. Much like the LA Lakers, I feel strongly that the Dodgers should have INSTANTLY changed their name with their relocation! The Lakes were in MINNESOTA, and the trains they once “Dodged” were in the streets on Brooklyn. LA simply seems to be okay with borrowing other cities’…well, everything really. Ever been out in La La Land and seen the insane number of “NEW YORK STYLE” pizza places? LA should just be LA. It’s got nice weather…and…
I guess the real reason I have grown to loathe the Dodgers more than that rival club up in New England is rooted with the time I lived in Los Angeles. I went to a lot of games at Chavez Ravine while I was a Southern California resident. It’s a good ballpark, but (most) of the fans just ruin it. Make no mistake there are solid, true blue Los Angeles Dodger fans. They love their club and I absolutely respect that. The sad truth is that that group is vastly out numbered by beach ball chasing clowns, the late arriving/early departing crowd and others seeking anything but a nice day at the yard. It would turn my stomach to see how much the majority of the ravine didn’t care all that much about the game.
I’d force down a Farmer John Dodger Dog (The worst hot dog in the Bigs) and root for whatever club was occupying the visitors’ dugout. When they play Randy Newman’s “I Love LA” after the final out was recorded I’d long to be back in New York…and wish that Mr. Newman had picked the afternoon in penned his tribute to Los Angeles to write a song about Phoenix or Cedar Rapids.
Now if you are reading this and are a native of Los Angeles and a die-hard Dodger fan take heart. No matter how I feel or what I say you still hold one thing over all other Major League clubs and their fans…you have Vin Scully.
The iconic voice of the Dodgers recently announced that he would be returning to the booth for yet another season. I was elated to hear that news. I am a giant fan of Mr. Scully. His voice is Baseball. If Bob Sheppard was likened to “The Voice of God” then it’s my contention that when you hear Vin Scully’s voice you are hearing the soothing tones of Baseball’s Patron Saint. I can’t deny it; the Dodgers have the best of the best calling their games for radio and TV. Mr. Scully goes with Baseball the way Ice Tea goes with Lemonade. It’s smooth, crisp and always refreshing. He has a timeless way of calling each moment of the game, and no matter whom you root for you want to hear Vin call out your favorite players names. He is without question one of the constants in this sport and a touchstone for the generations. Now if we could only deal Suzyn Waldman and a boatload of cash to LA for Vin…
I don’t think I am overstepping any line by saying that all Yankee fans wish Mr. Vin Scully the very best for the season to come, and thank him for being not only the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but the voice of Baseball…
Mr. Scully was born in the Bronx and attended Fordham University by the way…I had to take one more dig at LA, but it’s all done in good fun. They have a true legend out there. No doubt about it.
** Against my better judgment…but this one is for Vin…**
--Mike O'Hara, MLB Fan Cave Host, Season 1
Twitter: @mikeyoh21 "Paulie was always my favorite player."
The title of this post sounds like an ill-fated sitcom doesn’t it? A modern day CW rip off of “The Odd Couple” or, in the case below, the short-lived show called "Tenspeed & Brown Shoe" featuring Jeff Goldblum and Ben Vereen.
Shows filled with reused jokes and old plot lines, and is ultimately cancelled for the next Amanda Bynes pilot…once she rights her ship. But the truth is that the situation in LA may be closer to a bad TV show then we think.
I continue to lament the loss of Donnie Baseball from the Yankee staff. I feel that the Yankees picked the right guy when they selected Joe Girardi to skipper the club, but watching Mattingly go hurt. I understood why he left and probably would have done the same in that situation. I will NEVER be okay with him wearing Dodger blue however.
Anyone who knows me will tell you I’d rather see the Red Sox prosper then see the Dodger win a single game. I don’t wish the Sox well mind you; I just have always “disliked” the club that left Brooklyn a touch more. Lasorda, The Penguin,Garvey and those “fans” are the worst…I even hate that awful Randy Newman song. In short, I DON’T love LA. Hey, I lived there for a while. There are great things about The City of Angels…the Dodgers just aren’t one of them in my opinion. And that’s all it is, my opinion.
I truly feel is Yasiel Puig is a perfect fit for LA and Donnie is not. Yasiel is a beast. He is an outstanding, natural athlete. He is big, fast and has the potential to be an all-time great…if he listens to his current manager. As it stands now he’ll be an individual numbers guy that gets caught driving his expensive cars too fast on the 101. The difference between being great and achieving greatness is all done on the mental side. If you have all the physical tools but a two-cent head…well, Manny Ramirez, please stand up. Puig could be “Manny being Manny” on an entirely new level. And LA will love him for it. It’s all about the show out there. He’s off to a great start in terms of selfish, showboating behavior that could cut a brilliant career short.
What a gift it would be to have Don Mattingly as your skipper. To learn from a guy that knew how to lead in good times and bad. Donnie was ultimately respected and played the game the right way.
It was about the team…and there were years Mattingly was the only reason to go to Yankee Stadium. I think most everyone in the baseball world can clearly see that the Yankees loss is surely the Dodgers’ gain with regard to Donnie…well, except Yasiel Puig. That’s a big mistake if you ask me. Now, I’d be happy to see Puig continue to act like bratty diva and turn the Dodger clubhouse into an episode of “The Real Housewives of Chavez Ravine”. Again, I am not a fan of this club and think the beach ball toting masses showing up in the 4th won’t mind too much…they can go on pretending to watch the Lakers or continue their legless demand an NFL team.
If I were in the Dodger front office I’d sit Yasiel down fast. I’d explain to him as PAINFULLY and SLOWLY as possible that he’d better listen to Mattingly get on the same page ASAFP…or he can head down the 5 and find a job with The Los Angeles Angels of Orange County, near Knott’s Berry Farm, but closer to Disneyland, north of Irvine of Anaheim. He has a chance to be something special…and give me heartburn for years to come. Puig could be the real deal and give the Boys in Blue their first title since “Limpin’ Kurt Gibson” and “The Bulldog” in 1988.
I feel for Mattingly. The Dodgers let him twist with regard to his contract. He doesn’t seem to have the entire clubhouse behind him and what should be one of his greatest weapons is one of his greatest headaches. The game is changing and you can see the shift in the type of player Mattingly was to the type Puig is. I wish Donnie had stayed with the Bombers, but again I understand his decision. He, for the time being, is no longer our Donnie Baseball…he is their Donnie Ocho (his words, not mine). It’s tough to see a guy I admire so much working for a team I have less than favorable feelings for. But LA is lucky to have Mattingly. They should see that and Yasiel Puig should learn all he can from one of the good guys in this sport.
--Mike O'Hara, MLB Fan Cave Host, Season 1
Twitter: @mikeyoh21 "Paulie was always my favorite player."
