Time, death, and misdirection

Tigers 6, Dodgers 2

Sitting there watching the Dodgers flail and gasp for air as Garret Anderson shows the first signs of life we’ve yet gleaned off him this season, I am struck by two powerful themes, time and death.

It was not just the vicious Tigers who battered Hiroki Kuroda through six innings, or the death of former Dodger playoff hero Jose Lima that gave me this ominously excessive revelation, but rather it was a fact. It was a Dodgers pitcher who first won the Cy Young award in 1956, Don Newcombe in fact. And it was given in honor of Cy Young, who had died in November of the previous year. This award honors the best pitcher in baseball, but the best pitcher in baseball’s history up to that time was not at it’s first awarding. Denton True (Cy) Young might have known he was going to get an award named after him, perhaps if he were alive he would have kicked and screamed at the honor, bemoaning the idiot commissioner and all the sports writers who’d one day vote on the pitcher who would carry his name sake off as a trophy. Chances are, he wouldn’t. Chances are that in the wake of Cy Young’s death baseball learned it was loosing a true legend, and it missed him all the more for it. Baseball and the Dodgers have a similar story.

Missing three of the biggest stars on the Dodger roster, Ramirez, Ethier, and Furcal, they already appear to be showing signs of wear and tear that shouldn’t even be thought about before the all star break. Despite this, there are reasons to remain optimistic. Russell Martin has continued to play well, and along with Casey Blake and Matt Kemp there is little doubt that the Dodgers recent success will come back around once they get healthy.

I must admit that watching the Dodgers was a lot more fun when they were winning. The Latino’s sitting in front of us who had rolled two rows deep were shouting and whooping at every rally. Now, with a loss in the cards there’s only a mild mannered collection of upper middle class families who seem to have nothing interesting to say, and worst of all they don’t watch the basketball game on their phones and tell me the score whenever I ask it.

Now the lowly Dodgers slink away with their tails between their legs, even hitting in to a double play to end the game in the bottom of the ninth inning. The only salvageable moment of the game was the perfectly executed suicide squeeze to give the Tigers their fourth run of the game. The ferocity of the Tigers manager Jim Leyland as he switched pinch hitters in order to gain a slight advantage, reminded me what it would be like to be Joe Torre, only he’s my grandpa’s declawed cat because he just switched pitchers to avoid pitching to…another pitcher? If Joe Torre doesn’t feel like a nance for running to the bullpen when a pitcher came up to bat then nobody ever will.

My cabinet of trusted advisors who accompany me to every game had a good laugh after the game in the smoking room about that one, what a joke good ole’ Leyland had played on him, except that in truth it could have very nearly been the game. When Manny Ramirez came up to pinch hit in the sixth inning we were all sure that the Dodgers were about to blow the game wide open. One chance wasn’t enough though and the Dodgers would pester the Tigers until the very last.

Like a fly they were simply swatted away.

How did I get here though, miles from time and death, or am I? If we only remembered the value of those near and dear to us while they were alive then perhaps we would put them to better use. Of course the Angels across town could better themselves if they heeded that counsel every off-season. More than one star has been lost to an administration unappreciative of their services. Still, time and death, the love of life as Jack London put it. If you’ve not partaken in that harrowing story then I advise you to read that, AFTER you’ve finished reading this.

Ethier and Manny Ramirez were sitting on a bench on a Los Angeles front porch. Manny turned his head and glanced over at Ethier and said, “Hey, did you hear they’re building a new stadium in Detroit?”

“No.”

“But they aren’t telling anyone where it is. They’re worried that the Tigers will try and play there.”