August 4th, 2014
How pathetic were the Dodgers this weekend against the Cubs? 70% of you Southern Californians were fortunate enough to have missed out on this display of atrocious baseball at the Ravine, since most of you don’t have Time Warner. I wasn’t so fortunate. On Friday, Dan Haren pitched more like Dan Aykroyd. Both have recently delivered extremely laughable performances. Andre Ethier and Carl Crawford have forgotten how to hit a baseball, and the Dodgers were about as unclutch with runners in scoring position as the Dallas Cowboys are on a Sunday in January. Josh Beckett also didn’t make LA feel any better about the back end of their rotation with his performance yesterday, not even sticking around for 5 innings and getting knocked around by former Dodger pitcher Edwin Jackson. The last place Cubs punked the 1st place Dodgers by taking two out of three in their own house. Adding insult to injury is the fact that it rained in SoCal over the weekend, which devastated all those fans with spray tans that were washed away.
As for the trade deadline, the Dodgers did the right thing standing pat. Of course it would have been nice to trade for David Price or Jon Lester, but not at the expense of LA’s three best prospects, who will likely play key roles for the organization in the very near future. Lester is nothing more than a rental for the A’s, who I think were insane to trade their star cleanup hitter for him. Of course it’s easy to say you want Price after watching Disaster Dan and Josh Beckett pitch this weekend, but LA is still good enough to get to October with them, and then we won’t have to watch them pitch. A Kershaw, Greinke, Ryu trio is still as good, if not better than the Tigers or A’s rotation in October, and surely better than anybody else’s in the National League. As for you Matt Kemp haters (yes I’m talking to you idiots in the Dodgers organization that don’t actually like him personally), do you still want to trade him and pay half his salary? Yea sounds like a great idea for a guy that just hit five home runs in the last week.
On to the Angels, who took two out of three against the Rays over the weekend to close within 1 game of the A’s. That was an important series win for the Halos, who had lost two out of three in Baltimore earlier in the week, in a series that was tighter than a Kim Kardashian jump suit. Every game in that series was a one run game, and two went into extra innings. Once again, that’s a tribute to the much improved starting pitching and bullpen the club is experiencing this season. If Josh Hamilton and David Freese could show anything that resembled consistency, the Angels might actually be the best team in baseball. Now the Angels will get ready for a big four game showdown with the Dodgers this week, starting tonight at the Ravine. Both teams need wins badly, so it should be a fun four days.
I find it amazing how all of the ESPN baseball analysts are claiming the Angels are the big losers of the trade deadline because Oakland and Detroit improved so much. Apparently these analysts haven’t noticed that the Angels have had their own ace who is rapidly emerging in Garrett Richards. Richards, Jered Weaver, and the experience of CJ Wilson easily make the Angels as dangerous as the Tigers and A’s. It just so happens that over the last week, David Price and Jon Lester have received more attention than a girl in an MBA program, which would make one think they are the best pitchers in the game. Oh, and how soon we forget that the Angels also have the best player in baseball in Mike Trout. Don’t sleep on the Halos folks.
I feel terrible for Paul George, and the horrific leg injury he suffered over the weekend during a Team USA basketball scrimmage. However, all you people, like Mark Cuban, that are lining up with pitch forks and tiki torches to end NBA players participation in international competition need to settle down. NBA players have been doing this for 22 years, and this is the first crazy injury we have seen. George’s injury could have just as easily occurred while he was playing in that stupid Drew League that NBA players play pickup in during the summer. NBA teams should actually feel much better about their players working out under an organized and structured environment too, where injury is actually less likely to occur than from some punk taking their guys out in a pick up game. Creating a World Cup of basketball, as some have suggested, would be meaningless, and wouldn’t reduce the chance of injuries. Cuban’s argument has more to do with revenue sharing or compensation from the IOC, which is understandable, but a different argument altogether. As for George, he’s only 23 years old, and he had a clean break of his leg, with no ligament damage anywhere. He’ll be out for a while, but no reason he can’t still be an elite player again in the NBA.
Meanwhile, Donald Sterling looks like he’s toast. Earlier this week a judge ruled that Shelly Sterling has the right to sell the team. Donald will surely appeal the ruling, but that process cannot delay the sale of the team. That means barring some wild turn of events in the appeals process, Steve Ballmer should officially be the new owner, and there should be no boycotting from Doc Rivers or Clipper players. I’ve gotta admit, Sterling’s legal drama has been pretty entertaining to watch, and while I hope the sales goes through and the players can move on, I hope the legal process continues just for the entertainment value Donald is providing us.
In college football, the coaches poll has been released. UCLA is ranked #7, USC #15, and I must point out the my alma matter, Notre Dame, is at #17. I like the Bruins, and they are on the rise, but #7 seems a little too high for them. In fact, if anything, it works against the Bruins because they will now have a target on their back. Brett Hundley needs to prove he can be great every week, and not average every other. More importantly, the Bruins need to prove they can beat the big boys like Oregon and Stanford, which they have yet to do. As for USC, their #15 ranking is simply a product of their recruiting class, but that also seemed high for them. The defense should still be solid for the Trojans, but Cody Kessler isn’t even one of the 5 best quarterbacks in the conference. Should be a fun college football season that is fast approaching.
Speaking of UCLA, Pauley Pavilion is home for Bruins basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics, however, now it can be home for swimming and diving. After a water main broke in Santa Monica last week, parts of the campus flooded, including the newly renovated Pauley, as well as Drake field. I’m sensing some serious insurance premiums going up here, and a potential law suit if the city doesn’t cover the damages. Here’s a perfect opportunity to start offering boating classes at UCLAKE.
I’d be pretty fearful of a flood happening at UCLA after watching Sharknado 2 last week on SyFy. Then again, the movie was pretty unrealistic, since someone actually married Tara Reid. The movie was as epic as advertised, and just when you thought it was over, we learned that there is going to be a Sharknado 3 on SyFy next summer as well! Terrible TV has never been this entertaining folks. The only thing better than Sharknado was a whole week of Shark related movie programs on SyFy. My favorite was the Top 15 Shark Bites, which was a program where celebrities discussed the top 15 shark movies with ridiculous deaths. If you’re looking for some good laughs set the DVR when SyFy airs it again.
