Disgusting

It was a disgusting day here in Anchorage, Alaska. High School baseball has started and we are about 4 games into the season when the weather took a turn for the worst today. Winter was extended an extra month with measurable amounts of snow across town making this winter officially the “longest” winter ever in Anchorage. This is remarkable given that last year we experienced the heaviest amounts of snow in Anchorage ever recorded with over 130 inches. There are many in the community that feel, “you aren’t a real Alaskan if you can’t stand the snow!”. To which I reply, “I should be playing golf! Go suck an egg!” I’m not a real Alaskan. Sometimes the weather just sucks.

You know that feeling you get after eating too much at thanksgiving dinner. There is a moment where nothing feels better than napping. Your arms feel heavy. Your legs are weak and lethargic. Burps escape your gut unexpectedly and football is a sideshow to the bellies flopping out from under an unbuckled pant. It is this precise moment that would best explain the Dodgers so far this season. They definitely aren’t hungry. They are fat and happy and content to lose.

Tonight, what eventually did them in was a Justin Upton grand slam. Granted, as Steve Lyons said, “they should have already been out of the inning by the time Upton came up.” Even when good things happened tonight, the team looked asleep on the field. I know that Crawford misjudged a few plays in left, but by and far, he has easily been our best defender. Ryu didn’t have his best stuff, but he left the game with a 4-2 lead. He seemed to be missing a lot of his fast balls on the first-base side and up. Thankfully the worst damage the Braves could do was draw walks. I think we all can see the frustration in Kemp is building. But the Dodgers look tired. The Dodgers look weak. The Dodgers look defeated before the game even starts.

Personally, I am not content to see the team this way. And I don’t know that Don Mattingly is doing anything about it. He seems just as content as any of the players on the team that GBM is going to pay him millions of dollars to manage a team into the ground. I’d love to hear Ned Colletti give his support to Don Mattingly knowing good and well that when a GM gives his support to his manager, it is usually as indicator for dismissal within a week. There aren’t many times that a manager needs to be fired. But this team is projected as one of the best in the league. When Joe Torre ruined any of the plethora of relievers he has managed, when Grady Little let the clubhouse get away from him again and again, or when Bobby Valentine* was hired as the Red Sox manager… someone should get fired! Or when your 233 million dollar team goes 17-23, someone should get fired because this team needs to wake up! That, or sometimes they just suck.