Category: Sports

Go Dodger Blue

Fandom, Sports

OK, the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles have just won the World Series, beating the New York Yankers of Yankertown 4 games to 1. Tonight’s game was exciting and could have seriously gone either way. New York got up five runs to none, and then the Dodgers just kept chipping away at them until, late in the game, they took the lead by one slim run. The Dodgers did not get those runs with homers, they just loaded the bases and got base hits and racked up RBIs. A fun game, but of course, I am biased. I have been a Dodger fan since the late 1980s, when the combination of a friend who likes sports and a personal computer that could play games intersected with the Dodgers winning the World Series in spectacular fashion combined to give me a life long love of baseball and Dodger blue.

It is true that I picked the winning team in 1988. My friend at the time even warned me that I was in danger of becoming a bandwagon fan, which was bad, or something. But then the Dodgers did OK but not World Series OK for many, many, many years. To me, they were like the Portland Trailblazers, my hometown team: they always did OK in the season, and almost always made the playoffs, but rarely made it all the way through to the last series, the NBA Finals or the World Series.

So, to prove my fandom was not fickle, I stuck with them: the Blazers, and the Dodgers. The Blazers because they were my home town team, and the Dodgers because I had to dance with the one I brung. Or, um, something.

Even though I considered the Los Angeles Dodgers my team, I had a heirarchy below them. I liked other teams, for reasons as silly and as arbitrary as any other fan. After dating Corina, I rooted for the Detroit Tigers because she was from Detroit, whenever I had a chance. I would always pick a National League team over an American League team, because, of course, pitchers should hit. Though MLB has gotten rid of that distinction between the leagues for now, I have to believe that it will come back at some point. It’s traditional.

When mom was still alive, she liked baseball, too, and so when the World Series would come around, we would pick teams. I would always pick the National League team unless it was the fucking Giants. She didn’t care who was playing she just liked being a little competitive, and it gave us a reason to chat and talk. In her final days, I did ask her if she really liked baseball, and she told me that she liked it because her mom loved it, and because I loved it, and it felt like a connection. I have no reason at all to doubt her answer.

And I never ever ever root for Seattle, or the Giants, or the fucking Yankers. Those three live at the bottom of my list and I would rather throw up the contents of my entire digestive tract twice than cheer on any of those teams. I’ll turn the game off and ignore it if they are the only ones left. Which doesn’t happen often, but, still. I got standards, y’all.

And now I can spend the winter being proud of being a Dodger fan, even though I had absolutely nothing to do with them winning. I earned it by hanging on through the 36 years of enjoyment and the attention I gave them. It was all worth it, and I am glad I have a very low-stakes but intricate thing to root for in these otherwise very dire and dark times.

Go Dodger Blue.

Major League Baseball vs. Unlucky Gamblers

Sports

I probably have a few words to say about today’s announcement by Major League Baseball about a disciplinary action. Have you seen it? Link here, but here’s the key paragraph:

In March 2024, MLB learned from a legal sports betting operator that it had identified past baseball betting activity from accounts connected to multiple Major and Minor League players. MLB obtained data from that operator and other sportsbooks, including authentication data for bets. None of these players played in any game on which they placed a bet. Further, all of the players denied that they had any inside information relevant to the bets or that any of the baseball games they bet on were compromised or manipulated, and the betting data does not suggest that any outcomes in the baseball games on which they placed bets were compromised, influenced, or manipulated in any way. None of the players are appealing their discipline.

Press relase from Major League Baseball, dated 6 June 2024

Major League infielder/outfielder Tucupita Marcano has been ruled ineligible for life, and Major League pitcher Michael Kelly and two Minor League players have been ruled ineligible for one year, for participating in sports betting. That terminology is legalese; it means they’re banned from participating in major or minor league baseball play for the time period noted, which is the highest form of punishment MLB can dish out.

That means a player “ruled ineligible” can’t play in games, can’t manange or train other players, can’t work in the front or back office, and will never be able to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Betting has been a cardinal sin in baseball going back a very long time. The leaders of the league hated the scandal that fans and historians call the Black Sox. Back in 1919, players on the Chicago White Sox were accused of fixing the outcome of the World Series for a payout from a mob boss, Arnold Rothstein. In response to the scandal, team owners created a new office of the Commissioner of Baseball and the person selected, Kennesaw Landis, demanded full power over the game and the players, includingi the ability to permanently ban anyone. Despite the players being acquitted in court, the new Commissioner of Baseball, flexed that ability by banning all eight White Sox players forever.

If this sounds familiar, it’s backstory for one of my all-time favorite baseball movies, Field of Dreams. Ray Liotta played a very sympathetic “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, who would have been a Hall of Famer for triples and career bests in home runs, except for this little scandal.

The list of people ruled ineligible isn’t that long but there are some famous names on there. Willy Mays in 1980 and Mickey Mantle in 1983, of all people, were banned after they were retired, all because they took a job promoting a casino in Atlantic City. The bans were eventually overturned.

George Steinbrenner, owner of the Fucking Yankers, was banned for trying to blackmail a player, 12-time MLB All-Star, seven-time Gold Glove Award winner, and six-time Silver Slugger Award winner, Dave Winfield. What a fucking mess. I’ve never understood Steinbrenner’s motivation here; just an enormous asshole. When Bud Selig took over the Commissioner’s seat, he reinstated Steinbrenner, creating a stain on both of their tenures.

Marge Schott, owner of the Cincinatti Reds, was banned in 1996 for being a fucking racist in public. That’s all that needs to be said. Bud Selig was the one who declared Schott ineligible, which just proves even a broken clock can be right sometimes.

And of course, the most famous player banned from baseball is Pete Rose. I’ve always been on Pete Rose’s side in the story; he did bet on his team, the Cincinatti Reds, but never betted against them. But as I said, betting is the worst sin. Rose’s case is unique in that the ban wasn’t unilaterally given by the Commissioner; Rose agreed there was a case, and it was instituted by mutual agreement. I hold out hope that this be overturned at some point but it’s unlikely and sad.

Day 4 – Despicable Dodgers vs Sugar Titts

clippings, Daily Story Project, Portfolio, Sports

As a life-long Dodger fan I’m really disappointed in them right now. I even rooted for the Cubs today when they hosted the Dodgers in Chicago (and the Dodgers lost, which is just karma.)

What on earth could make me so mad? The way the Dodgers treated a fan this week who managed to catch a home run ball hit by new Boy in Blue Shohei Ohtani. She was sitting in the pavilion at Dodger Stadium, a location I’ve been before; baseball game tickets are expensive these days.

The team is promoting Ohtani as their new star, having paid a lot of money for him after losing some big hitters to free agency. And I don’t have anything against Ohtani; I think he’s a great addition to the roster and will probably do good things on the field. But on Wednesday, when Ohtani hit his seventh-inning homer padding out LA’s lead against the fucking Giants, the ball landed in the hands of Ambar Roman. And that’s when the trouble began.

Roman reports that security staff descended on her, separated her from her husband, and made an incredibly low ball offer to buy the ball from her. She says that the pressure was unwelcome, and that they even made threats to withhold the certificate of authenticity from her if she decided to keep it and take it home with her.

Two baseball caps signed by Ohtani. That was their offer. Auction house representative Chris Ivey, from Heritage Auctions, says that ball is worth US$100K easy. In fact, the Dodger fan store is selling a ball hit and signed by Ohtani for US$15K, and it wasn’t even a fair ball. The fact that the offer was bumped to include a bat and a ball (Ivey says is worth maybe a grand) doesn’t make this any better.

Roman has been posting about this on social media. Her Twitter (you can’t make me call it the dumb new name, Elon) handle is, and I swear I am not making this up, Sugar Titts. Her pinned post is the video of her catching that ball, clearly a proud moment for her. When she’s asked, she repeats that it’s not about the money, but the treatment, and I believe her. It was a big moment, and she acknowledges that it’s a big moment for Ohtani as well. He hit the ball, he should get the momento.

She didn’t even get to meet him to hand the ball off, although apparently Ohtani’s translator may have given that impression.

Today the front office said they’d be willing to do a little more and offered Roman and her husband, Alexis Valenzuela, a private box for her birthday. At least at that point, she’ll get to meet the team, not just Shohei Ohtani. The front office says they’re going to review their protocols for important situations like this in the future. Even today as I write this, they’re saying they’re open to trying to make it up to Roman for all this bad feeling.

But their immediate actions and the reporting on it has tainted my view of the team, and that’s no small feat after almost 4 decades of following the team.

Gotta say on this one, I’m on Team Sugar Titts.