The LA Sports Blog: C-H-A-D

The ArmchairGM Burns

By: Nate Gordon

Generally I am a fairly consistent writer; two times a month minimum in slow times, once a week during busy times, three times a week when highly motivated. On the contrary, however, I’ve been stymied by a real life event that I both never though I’d have to endure at this point in my life, nor would believe the magnitude of it I did experience such a thing. My close friend and neighbor Chad, who I’ve known since I was 10, passed away on September 7 th due to complications of substance abuse. It’s been a troubling, sobering, anomaly of an experience. A diehard Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Broncos fan, I’d often draw motivation to write off of a conversation I had with Chad. The last 6 weeks have been to say the least, an experience, an experience I’ve been unable to write through.

That is until this afternoon. Sitting at my desk, reflecting on the previous weeks sports events my mind wandered into a faux conversation with Chad. I could see and hear his excitement over the Dodgers and his corny jokes about the Raiders. As I thought about this I was quickly drawn into side thoughts about each team, Dodgers and Raiders respectively. What came of it was an analysis of the state of each team currently. I’m going to share the thoughts on the Dodgers with you today, but I’m going to write in the spirit of Chad, so the language and grammar might not sound like my voice, but it’s only because you’re talking to Chad. So without further ado, here is Chad’s take on the Dodgers:

Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers are NL West champions, and 3 wins shy of their first World Series since I was 2. I’ve been attending Dodgers games since 1990 and there are “5 best of the last 20 years” on this team. I’m certain of that have made this team what it is:

• Manny Ramirez is the best player to play for the Dodgers the last 20 years.

You think this is obvious right? Manny is a lock Hall of Famer having one of his best statistical seasons while wearing Blue. However there is more to this then one may see. You see, I’ve watched tons of great players in a Dodger uniform, but not all of them played to their potential, or were in their primes when they were with the club. Pedro Martinez and Vlad Guerrero, both as farm hands/fringe big leaders were moved to Montreal. I’ve seen Gary Sheffield, Mike Piazza both come through here and put up their respective numbers. But no one has played as hard or as well as Manny.

Now the next caveat purposed would be that Manny won’t be here next year. My answer? So freaking what! If he helps us win a ring, thank you for your services and have a nice day! I don’t see past this season, not when I’ve endured 20 years of losing from a proud and successful organization. If I was a Giants fan I could cope – not as a Dodgers fan.

• Joe Torre is the best Dodgers Manager of the last 20 years:

Now this is unfair because it would technically reach into Lasorda Era. So excluding Tommy Lasorda we’ve been subjected to Davey Johnson, Glen Hoffman, Jim Tracy and Grady Little. So enough said, Joe is the best since Tommy.

Derek Lowe, Dodgers Ace

• Derek Lowe is the best Dodgers Pitcher of the last 20 years:

I’m not going into stats, ERA, sabermatrics or anything like that. I’m going off of what I’ve seen with my own two eyes and no one since “Bulldog” Orel Hershiser has been more consistent than or as talented as Derek Lowe. Lowe, the textbook sinker-baller, has been automatic the last two months and is playing his best baseball since arriving in LA. He’s been the true Ace of the staff on and off the mound and has brought a calm and consistency to that clubhouse by ensuring the position players that at least once ever five days they are getting a quality start from their pitcher.

James Loney, Dodgers First Basemen

• James Loney is our best first round draft pick of the last 20 years.

Loney was a highly regarded High School pitcher but was assumed to be unable to play position baseball. Logan White, Dodgers scouting director, had a different idea. Called a “waste of valuable talent” at the time, the Dodgers selected Loney in 2006 as a first basemen. Two seasons later Loney was starting in Los Angeles as the first basemen, batting over .300 and showing a prowess for defense and power.

Russell Martin, Dodgers All-Star/Silver Slugger Catcher

• Russell Martin is the best Dodgers catcher of the last 20 years:

Russell Martin undid a childhood of Pizza and LoDuca memories in his rookie season alone. This season his continued his solid pitching staff management while putting up consistent numbers at the plate. The kid is gifted with unnatural speed for a catcher and a leadership quality that borders on arrogant. While that attitude has rubbed some veteran teammates the wrong way, it has thrilled fans and emboldened other young teammates. Martin seems poised to be the franchise catcher well into the next decade and I for one will be thrilled to go see him at Chavez Ravine year after year.

So if Chad was still around this is how he would see the current state of Dodgers affairs. Success behind 5 of the best Dodgers of the last 20 years, all at pivotal positions: Catcher, Pitcher, First Base, Left Field and Manager. I’ll never get my friend back, and I’ll never to get share another memory with him like the ones we made. But hopefully, if you have a friend that is special to you like Chad was to me, you’ll cherish the time you have together, because it can be gone tomorrow.

Mr. Burns, AGM Burns Mascot

The LA Sports Blog - Bowlin', Sackin' and Cadillacin'

By: Nate Gordon

The temperature in Los Angeles is lukewarm according to the thermometer. If you were to stick your toes in this pool you’d say out loud: “Ew, that’s kind of icky.” But that doesn’t keep us Angelinos from frolicking silently in this mildly hot stew.

It’s happened again to Dodger fans as Ned Colletti did his infamous ‘GM Two-Step’. Andruw Jones comes to Los Angeles with the promises of an influx of power and defense being injected into the Dodger line up. His reputation would indicate that the Dodgers got an upgrade from Juan Pierre in Center Field. Jones is 30 and the man boasts so many Gold Gloves he could keep an orphanage warm all winter. Despite major drops in offensive production last season he still had more HRs (26 to 20) and RBIs (94 to 87) then any everyday player on the Dodger roster last season. However, his average (.222) was the lowest in a season in which he plays everyday and Strikeouts (138) where higher then his hits (127) for just the first time since his rookie season. Why am I not only the only person concerned about this, but the only person talking about this??? The Jones signing might improve the Dodgers defense but I expect his offense numbers to continue to tail off and the Colletti ‘GM Two-Step’ will be in full force again.

We jump in the Cadillac and cruise from Dodger Stadium up the 2 Freeway to the 210 where we quickly find ourselves in Pasadena and the Rose Bowl. The University of South Central… er, Southern California has secured their 6th straight Pac-10 Championship and another trip the Tournament of Roses. This time they will take on unlikely Big Ten qualifier Illinois. John David Booty has played increasingly more composed as the weeks since his injury have past; pair that with a USC defense that has matured into one of the most dominating units in the country and you have your Rose Bowl Champion. I like Illinois and I think they have a lot of talent on the offensive side of the ball, but all it takes is USC to force a couple of turnovers and this game can get away from the Fighting Illini in a hurry.

The team and usually calls the Rose Bowl home, UCLA have fired Karl Dorrell for not meeting program expectations. Pundits across the nation have defended the job Dorrell did at UCLA. In fact, they have defended him so well he is likely to be the next future-fired-coach of Duke. I understand and appreciate the job that Coach did while he was at UCLA but it simply wasn’t enough. People have looked at me like I’m crazy “he never had a season where he missed a bowl! What more do you want from UCLA football?” I’ll tell you what I want; I want UCLA to be in the national picture right there with USC 7 out of every 10 seasons. When you sit every season and watch USC tear apart mid and top level SEC and ACC teams in non conference play year in and year out and UCLA struggle and lose to the Oklahoma States’ and Utah’s and Fresno States’ of the world it gets annoying and frustrating. While USC is winning multiple Pac-10 championships, UCLA is playing in the Las Vegas bowl and the Sun Bowl. It’s as simple as this: when you share a city that doesn’t have pro football with a national powerhouse in college football – you better get results, or your ass will be in the unemployment line. (I didn’t even mention Dorrell’s 1-5 record against USC.)

Back at the start of the month I wrote about the Clippers fast 5-2 start and their favorable schedule, implying that they could play themselves into a position to make a run at a playoff spot. Well after injuries to Corey Maggette and Cuttino Mobley the Clips pissed away their soft schedule and now sit at 8-12, which would make them 3-10 since that article. The Clippers now have 4 road games in a row (@ NJ, Charlotte, Memphis and LAL) then a home game against Toronto before back to back road games at Dallas and San Antonio and a home/away series against Phoenix. Life as a Clipper fan has to be a rough one…

Meanwhile a quick memo to the Lakers front office: Do not… I repeat DO NOT give up Jordan Farmar or Andrew Bynum for anything that is currently on the market including Jason Kidd. Both kids are proving to be blue chippers, especially Farmar and it would be foolish to blow up a team that is playing great team basketball (not usually said about a team featuring Kobe Bryant) and is going 10 deep every night. Usually this means Kobe playing under 40 minutes a night and multiple starters finding themselves in double digits in the points section of the box score. Andrew Bynum is averaging 10.9 pts, 9.7 rebounds, and 2 blocks a game in 26 minutes. The kid already has 10 double-doubles including all 9 of his starts. Farmar averages 20 minutes a night and has yet to start but contributes invaluable ball handling and leadership skills off the bench. Add to that 9.8 pts, and 3 assist a night and he is making a solid contribution. Oh and guess what folks, these two aren’t going to get worse.

On some personal notes, Orange County Angeles fans: We don’t care about Hunter. We don’t care that we didn’t get A-Rod because you didn’t either. Hell guess what Orange County, the only thing that makes us pay any semblance of attention to you at all is the fact you force yourselves upon us with absurd market sharing that the MLB defrauds the Dodgers with. The Angels aren’t located in Los Angeles or Los Angeles County, so why do the Dodgers have to share their market, and in turn their market revenue? It makes no sense to me. I don’t get excited about a team without a tradition or identity. The club was more popular for “Angels in the Outfield” then anything they did on the field prior to 2002. Now you got 1 world championship that’s becoming more and more in the rearview and a couple of stars and now we are suppose to care when I get e-mails like: “We got Hunter and are a lock for a playoffs, how do you like NOT having A-Rod, or Santana?” I like it just fine thank you, because you’re basically irrelevant as a rival. The AL is much better then the NL so naturally the Angels will get over on the Dodgers in interleague (something I don’t care for) so you can dance and hold that over our heads. I’ll allow the multiple championships and pennants, not to mention to reputation of “The Ball club others should strive to be like” keep me warm at night.

On another side note, I’d like to respond to this: “You don’t update your webpage 3 times a day, so how are you a Sports blog? I mean, I want my LA sports news and pictures! And I want it everyday.” Okay, fair enough buddy, I’m not Perez Hilton. I don’t sit around touching myself to gay website all day and make a bunch of useless bullet and link post about every little thing going on in LA Sports. Hell if I update my site more then twice a week it’s something to write home from war about. I guess it’s more of an opinion column or editorial, except it’s not published in a newspaper or magazine publication. You know what? I don’t care, because even unpublished I think I’m one of the top editorial writers that no one is publishing.

Oh and the final note to leave you all on – I was listening to Stephen A. Smith’s radio show while driving to get my check this morning and I got to admit that I agreed with a lot of his rant. He was talking about Author Blank’s “fried chicken and fries” comment regarding Michael Vick’s jail time. Smith articulated: “I’m not ashamed that I love fried chicken, and no one should be. I was depressed for nearly a month when the doctor said I had high cholesterol and couldn’t eat fried foods anymore… Mr. Blank ‘’’should’’’ know better then to use a statement that some have found to be sensitive. But I hardly find his using “Fried Chicken” in this context as insulting. There isn’t anything racial or wrong in Mr. Blanks statements… he spoke ad lib in an on the spot interview and if that’s the worse that comes out of his mouth, I’ll take it.” I’ll take it too Stephen A. When I heard him on air I didn’t think twice about it. I use to have a coach (black man mind you) who would lambaste all the unfit players about their cultural eating habits. He’d let me know that I had to lay off the fried stuff, and suggested to my Latino teammates to push away the tamales. Did we find this offensive or racial? Not at all, these are the things we like to eat and we aren’t ashamed of them, they are what they are. LaDanian Tomlinson reiterated Smith’s feelings while doing his weekly interview on the Steve Mason Show on 710 ESPN Los Angeles: “Nah, I didn’t find the statement offensive, I love fried chicken. If you’re ashamed to love fried chicken, then there is something wrong with you. But Me, you can sign me up for that fried chicken in a quick minute,” I don’t even have to say anything.

So I’ve laid the table for debate and disagreement, but unlike Joe Grande or Petros of 570 KLAC Los Angeles, I don’t make arguments against myself for 15 minutes just to fill a segment. I actually talk about relevant stuff, heads up 570AM management…

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It's Called Fall For Falling On Your Face

By: Nate Gordon

Those good 'ol Bums. Once falling on their face at Ebbets field now imploding this fall in Chavez Ravine and on a TV or Radio near you. While I gotta sit by and listen to the band wagoners awake for another Orange County/ Golden State Angels playoff run, me and the rest of Los Angeles are stuck without October baseball. The Dodger pitching staff has been lackluster the last 2 months and the bats have been far from consistent. This shit hit the fan and the the whole second half of the season was summed up by Jeff Kent's remarks on 710ESPN with Kevin Kiley (D'Marco Left the show for opportunities in the NFL and good luck to him. Kevin isn't liked enough to be a sure thing in the time slot so they didn't name the show after him, I find this funny.) Jeff stated "...some of the younger guys didn't approach this last Rockies series like professionals and it showed... now we are out of the race..." The Dodgers were cleaned out by the Rockies and the D'Backs and are all but eliminated from playoff contention. Like they always say Dodger Fans, Wait 'Til next Year.

In other baseball news Milton Bradley tore his ACL while being tackled by his manager who was trying to restrain him during an argument with the 1st base umpire. I almost am lost for words about this, after watching the video several times it seems like the 1st base Ump says something pretty offensive because the 1st base coach for SD goes to get in the Umps face instead of turning to restrain Bradley. Things got escalated and as the skipper tried to hold Bradley from going after the umpire Milton's knee gave out and he collapsed onto the field. This whole story is something that could only come out of the 'Dennis Rodman/Carl Everett/J.R. Rider/Milton Bradley/Albert Belle/Kyle Turley/John Rocker File'. You never hear about Ken Griffey getting picked on by an ump to get his blood boiling, then having his manager so worried about Jr. going after the ump that he tries to hold him back resulting in an injury. You don't even hear about this happening to Sheffield, only someone like Bradley could be this ridiculous. The question is now how is Bradley's career affected and how might he be compensated for this freak accident?

Switching sports quicker then Smush Parker can turn the ball over I got a thought or two about Lovie Smith and the Bears situation. All the NFL experts and pundits have been writing in their articles and blogs and saying on TV that Lovie has to bench Rex. In every one of these 'original' pieces they mention how loyal Lovie is and how he needs to quit his loyalty and make a switch at quarterback. I'm going the other way with this, Lovie Smith is a loyal man by nature, it's part of his personality. If Lovie feels that his team is better off with Grossman at quarterback then I support his decision to keep 'Sexy Rexy' under center. Smith has to bring his locker room together and unite them behind Rex otherwise he might have some trouble, but don't change who you are as a coach to appease the pundits, stick true to yourself Coach.

How do I spell vindication? K-I-F-F-I-N. After last Sunday's debacle in Denver i went to Gillis's place to collect on a debt of 20 dollars owed by one Steve Dodge thanks to a 5 1/2 point spread bet I took in the Raiders/Broncos game. I was met with Dodge's 'all hail Shanahan' cack riding for an hour and not one dollar from his Hebrew hands. Despite my argument that Kiffin makes sound adjustments and had engineered back-to-back comebacks Dodge brought up the damned timeout and debunked my 'Kiffin is a good coach' argument. I thought this was stupid that a good move by Shanahan would mean that Kiffin was a bad coach, but most things in Steve's world make little to no sense. Either way Kiffin pulled the same move on the Browns this week that Shanahan pulled last week and when I called Steve to talk trash and feel vindicated I found his phone going straight to voice mail, that a boy Steve, showing those true Blue and Orange colors.

A quick final note on the Raiders, their next 4 weeks are @ 0-3 Miami, BYE, @1-2 San Diego and H vs. 1-2 Kansas City. The Raiders could be 3-3 after 7 weeks, in '06 they were 1-6 and in '05 they were 2-5. Also I love how aggressive the secondary players are but Michael Huff has to read the play fake better because he left the DBs without inside help on 2 occasions in which Derek Anderson couldn't convert.

All stats in the next section are from NFL.com

My top 5 Quarterbacks through 3 weeks -

AFC:
1.Tom Brady
The numbers and SC highlights say it all.

2.Carson Palmer
9 TDs and 300+ YPG/AVG.

3.Peyton Manning
1 INT 66% comp + 873 yds

4.Matt Schaub
76% comp and HOU: is 2-1

5.Ben Rothlesberger
TD/INT ratio 6:1 29 comp for 1st down.

NFC:
1.Bret Farve
His teams 3-0 and his TD/INT ratio is 6:2

2.Tony Romo
TR: TD/INT: 8:2 and 15 plays +20 yards

3.Jon Kitna
980 yds and 68% comp

4.Donovan McNabb
158.3 QB Rating in week 3... that's perfect

5.Jeff Garcia
66% comp 0 INT and TB is 2-1.


My top 5 Running Backs through 3 weeks-

AFC:
1.Lamont Jordan
5.1 yds/carry 18 runs for a 1st + 116 yd/gm

2.Willie Parker
leads NFL in yards (368) and has 5.0 avg.

3.Jamal Lewis
5.8 yds a carry and 307 yds, mostly against CIN.

4.Travis Henry
302 yds. 5.0 yds/carry and 9 kids

5.Joseph Addai
271 yds, 15 rushes for 1st and 4 TDs

NFC:
1.Brian Westbrook
5.7 yds/carry and 1/3 of his carries go for a 1st down.

2.Shaun Alexander
91 yds/gm, 2 TDs and 275 yds.

3.Marion Barber III
256 yds, 6.4 avg, 4TDs

4.Adrian Peterson
AllDay had 16 rushes for 1st downs and 271 yds.

5.Edgerrin James
2 TDs and 277 yds.

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