Of Course It's Kosher To Boo - Even When We Love Who We're Booing.

Say what you will about this crazy Dodgers' season, but if anything, 2013 has given the local and national media, social media and us bloggers plenty to write, gripe and debate about over this past month. 

The latest fuel for fire is still attached to Matt Kemp, and whether or not it's OK to "boo" the face of the franchise.  One might say that I've been booing Kemp regularly here, and that would be a fair assessment.  Another might say I have no right to boo a guy who is so generous and gives to the fans straight from the heart.

Matt Kemp flew Joshua Jones to Los Angeles (Photo Credit: Sportspedia)

 I do have to admit that Kemp definitely has a knack for immediately going out and doing something wonderful,like flying and hosting terminally ill Dodger fan Joshua Jones and his family out to Dodger Stadium, immediately after I've written a less than positive piece about him.  That said, Kemp's benevolent moves away from the field, while worthy of respect and admiration, do nothing to advance runners in scoring position when it matters on the field.

Baseball has always been the sport of "Boo!" as much as "Peanuuuts!" and "Down in front!"  Anybody who's paid the price of admission is entitled to express a non-obscene opinion out loud, even if that sometimes includes hurling one or two hearty razzes at the home team.  It doesn't make you disloyal to your team or less of a fan simply because you expect more and you let the guys on the field know that you're not happy when they don't deliver. 

I'm definitely not advocating booing every time a player muffs a play or grounds out, and I'm definitely NOT advocating booing a struggling player in the middle of an at-bat.  That's exactly what happened in a recent game when the Dodger Stadium crowd actually started booing Kemp when he got to a two-strike count.  They weren't booing a perceived bad strike call by the ump.  No sir. They were booing in anticipation of an inevitable third strike.  Which inevitably came, and was followed by even more boos. That second-strike negativity doesn't help anyone, and possibly will cloud a player who's already pressing at the plate. 

That said, we should consider what exactly are all those boos directed toward?  Yes, in a situation following a third or fourth (the dreaded Golden Sombrero) strike out of a game, many of those folks are directly booing Kemp.  But many like me, are booing the entire scenario.  We're not only booing Kemp's strike out, we're booing the big picture, if you will.

In the case of this season, we've been booing the general situation of yet another case of runners left stranded, another ruined rally, another game lost that we should have won, and - until recently - the resistance of Don Mattingly to face reality and drop Kemp down in the batting order where his current offensive capabilities truly deserve to be.

If I may digress for a bit - all I've got to say about that recent development is - FINALLY!  I've been  writing here for quite a while practically begging that Kemp be dropped down in the order.  I suppose it takes a while for humble little blogs like mine to filter over to Mattingly. 

We're not booing in the stands or grumbling in our blogs because we're anti-team.  Rather, it's quite the opposite.  We love our team and we want them to win every night.  Point of fact: Dodger fans don't boo the home team easily.  That hasn't been our M.O. like it is in other cities; Philadelphia, to name one.

We're just tired of losing, tired of the enemy up north leading the division, and damn tired of rising ticket, hot dog and beer prices for a last place team.  There.  Now that a healthy boo has been let out -

( Credit: Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images)

 GET A HIT, BISON! and LET'S GO, DODGERS !

Hey Mattingly! Magic! Anybody! Here's How I Would Fix The Dodgers...

An Open letter to Damn Mattingly,

Hey, skipper. So you were encouraged and feeling better about the Dodgers after being swept over the weekend by the evil ones in Frisco?  I guess that means you're absolutely giddy after opening at home last night and losing for the fifth time in a row.  This time getting stomped 9-2 by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

"I'm ecstatic the boys are in last place."

Skip, I know I've been after your hide in my blog and other places.  I've been on you about your learning of the managerial craft while using my beloved team to do it.  But most perplexing to me has been your ridiculous refusal to move Matt (I can't hit with RISP) Kemp far away from spots in the lineup that require him to hit with runners in scoring position.

"Next year I'll be a 60-60 player. You'll see!"

Kemp has hit like crap pretty consistently since the final third of last season up until now, and you've consistently continued to pencil him in to bat third, and on occasion, fourth.   These are prime spots in the batting order reserved for a team's best hitters, not "potentially" or "fondly remembered as best".  You've steadfastly kept Kemp within those "hero or the goat" spots, only to have him come up as a bellowing billy goat while the automatic outs piled up.  The result?  Your team fell short last season, and now it's opened up this one horrifically.

I can certainly understand the hope that our multi-million dollar, over-hyped star will eventually "break out".   Why, just the other day, our infamous batting coach, Mark McGwire, opined that Kemp and all of the other Dodger bats will magically begin spraying hits everywhere, or knocking outfield walls down with rocket-like line drives, or some other similar sounding post-steroid-delusional drivel.

"Home runs and Andro for everybody!"

Believe it or not, I feel just like McGwire and yourself, skipper.  I feel just like Kasden and the boys signing those huge Kemp paychecks, and I feel just like all the rest of the folks in the Dodger Nation waiting and praying that Kemp and the rest of the boys will break out any day now. 

However, as I write this, our team wallows in last place.  I said - LAST FRIGGING PLACE!! - in the N.L.West.  We certainly can't sink any lower than last, so I think it's about time for a new approach.  Maybe the Dodgers really will wake up from this sleepwalk, but I'm starting to get the feeling that it'll take something drastic to snap the team out of this bloody malaise.

It's a simple plan, really.  The Dodgers currently have two guys in the lineup mashing the ball and amassing hits with decent consistency.  Those two guys are Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez.  Heck, even though he practically batted with a neck brace last Sunday night, an injured Gonzalez pinch hit against the giants and immediately drove in two runs with a clean single.  This isn't rocket science, Mattingly.  Meet your new number 3 and 4 hitters.

You say Kemp is gonna break out any day now?  I hope so too.  So let's help him out and bat Kemp - get ready for this - Lead Off.

That's right.  Matt Kemp leading off.  At this point he pretty much only hits singles, so it's a natural fit.  For all the Kemp believers out there, batting first gets him more chances to come up.  And for all the Kemp realists, he gets less at-bats under high pressure (RISP) situations.

We really can't lose with this move. If Kemp makes an out, at least he's not killing rallies (and our pitcher's morale) with double play grounders twice a night.  Those do nothing but increase the pressure and frustration in Kemp's head.  Not good.  But if he gets a base hit, this opens a solid win-win situation.

I wish we still had Mark Ellis batting second, but we don't, so a little more creativity is needed here. For now, Nick Punto will do in that slot.  I'd be open to batting A.J. Ellis there as well. Let's go with whomever can lay down a better bunt. 

With Kemp on, the pitcher immediately has to deal with the threat of a pretty darn good base stealer.  With his speed, Kemp can steal, set up a buncha hit and run plays, and score from first on a whole slew of deep hits. What do you think that'll do for Kemp's and the team's confidence?  

Next, the Dodgers roll up with the heavy hitters, Crawford and Gonzalez.  Now, PEDs McGwire, the RBI's might start falling into place just like you said they would.  This gives Crawford's wicked bat a chance to clear the bases 2 or 3 times a game.  And if  Kemp and Punto yield two fast outs, as they will do on occasion, Crawford's power can still get us a lightning quick home run, as we know he can do on occasion.  There be your first four batters, skip:

 1. Matt Kemp
2. Nick Punto
3. Carl Crawford
4. Adrian Gonzalez.

Bat Ethier fifth and figure out the back end of the line up for yourself, skipper.  I can't do everything for you.

THANKS for reading, everybody!

Season Broken? I Definitley Know What Is.

Hey everybody,

Forget about that Dodgers - giants feud that only the fans and the media seem to feel these days...

You want rivaly? I've got a gen-yoo-wine west coast blood feud for ya.   It's been developing for the past 5 years or so, albeit quietly.  At first, just like the L.A. - Frisco feud, only the fans felt it.

Even if you only watched Dodgers vs. Padres games on t.v. -  if you were paying attention, you could hear what at times sounded like an LA. home game, even though the Dodgers were 100 miles south in Diego!  During every game it was possible to hear LOUD chants of, "Here we go Dodgers, here we go! ", just as loudly as if the boys were at home in Chavez Ravine.  How much do you think Padres fans loved that?

Tonight the rift between the two cities doubled in width and intensity as it reached the dugouts of both teams.  And boy, did it ever...

Everything was under control (more or less) for one of the newest and most expensive Dodgers, starting pitcher, Zack Grienke.

It was a tight game, but Greinke was winning 2-1 in the 6th.  He was pitching well enough to win - if only Matt Kemp would live up to one tenth of his hype.  More on that in a later post.

6th inning, Dodgers winning 2-1.  Padres are up.  Enter the jerk...

Remember when everyone was calling for Luis Cruz's head following the WBC brawl?  All Cruz did was request his pitcher drill the opposing batter in the ribs.  Writers of every ilk were frothing over Cruz and blaming him for the fight, even though he didn't throw the pitches that set off that donnybrook. I argued against the "Down With Cruz" crowd, insisting that it was the pitcher who threw the actual PURPOSE pitches, not Cruz.

In tonight's game, the score was close, it was a 3-2 count, and that was hardly the time that a pitcher would purposefully hit a batter.  Mr. Quentin, the proud wearer of many a pitch, the record holder of being hit by more pitches than anyone else over the past 5 seasons, crowded the plate with his entire left arm, and proceeded to not make ANY attempt to get out of the way of a pitched ball, and whattyaknow - was hit by a pitch.

Just like Cruz's WBC pitcher, Quentin had a choice.  He could have taken his base, since the weak umpire was going to let a guy who doesn't try to get out of the way of a pitch have a free base.

But instead he chose to charge the mound.

Greinke tossed his glove to the ground and Quentin charged like a bull.  Greinke got low like they teach in football, so did Quentin.  Quentin absolutely rocked into Zack.  Our $147 million, no. 2 ace pitcher, thus had his collarbone broken by some jerk who doesn't have the sense to even TRY to get out of the way of a baseball. 

 What followed was a pretty awesome bench clearing basebrawl...

 Unfortunately for the Dodgers, Quentin weighs about 50 punds more than Greinke and he had a full head of steam when he hit him.  Zack ended up with a broken collarbone and he'll end up missing about 6 to 8 weeks of the season. 

Although he wasn't hit by a pitch, or charged by a rhino, I don't think there was anyone hotter than this guy...

Kemp is so frustrated about becoming an easy out in the Dodger's line up, that he really let all of his frustrations fly and he added plenty of fuel to tonight's brouhaha. 

The real story that smart reporters oughtta be chasing is what exactly was Kemp saying when he was forcefully poking his fingers into fellow Dodger Andre Ethier's chest and barking at him like Ethier was the enemy?  Andre quietly walked away and Kemp then turned his anger at some nearby umps.   That's the inside Dodger's scoop right there.

Meanwhile, this guy...

...is slowly starting to become a force to be reckoned with.  He blasted another homer tonight.

 After the game, reporters asked Greinke if the Dodgers and Padres have a history of bad blood. Greinke said he doesn't know if any existed before, but it seems as though there is now.

The season is just starting - the Dodgers and Padres hate each other, and we won tonight!

I love baseball!