Michael Phelps Who?

Who can watch the Olympics when the Dodgers have Manny Ramirez? Last night’s game was a beautiful thing. If I’d been paid yet, and if I could breathe out of my broken nose, I’d have gone out to celebrate. The Dodgers fought their way back from a small deficit, but they actually fought their way back , something they would not have been able to do had Manny and Casy Blake not been in the lineup. They beat a first place team whose ace had made the start. Unfortunately, it all means very little if they don’t get the sweep against the disappointing Joe Blanton, late of the Oakland A’s, tonight. The bottom line is they MUST begin to show dominance.

Personally, in spite of the fact that fellow UCLA alum, Chase Utley could be the best second baseman I’ve ever seen and one of the 5 best overall players in the game, and the fact that J Roll, (Jimmy Rollins) last years MVP (I thought he had a great year, but felt Matt Holliday deserved it more) is also an amazing player, I believe the Dodgers actually have a MUCH better club. Their starting pitching is far superior to Philly’s. And now that they have Manny, their power is beginning to gain on theirs. 2006 MVP, Ryan Howard is tied for the MLB lead in HR’s. and has 100 RBI’s but the man is hitting in the .230’s and strikes out more than anyone – even Adam Dunn and Mark Reynolds. The Dodgers need to show the National League and themselves that they are indeed a force to be reckoned with and what better way to do that than to sweep Philly and beat up on Milwaukee in the Ravine? Don’t answer that. Do it in their parks. That would really show dominance.

Nomar looked bad at the plate in his debut from the DL and Martin still looked off, but Kemp, Manny and Blake look strong. Ethier’s at bat in the 9th against J..C. Romero, whose ERA against lefthanded hitters was under 1.0, was superb. He fought off pitch after pitch until he got the right one and he drove it the other way over J Roll’s head. But the Arizona Diamondbacks continue to win the games they need to win. They own Colorado this year. Every game is a must win for the Blue if they’re going to remain close.

What happened to my prediction that the Rockies were going to wind up winning the West? Evidently, I was wrong. They were on a roll, and now, for whatever reason, they’ve decided to stink again. I thought that a resurgent Ubaldo Jiminez, who’s fastball was clocked at 100 mph and Cy Young candidate Aaron Cook would lead the way, along with their extremely potent lineup to finally making sense out of a confusing and crappy division. But last year’s NL Champs just can’t seem to keep it together. I still think the Snakes are gonna take it for no other reason than Webb, Haren and Johnson. But my heart is with the Dodgers and they actually have a reasonable chance to do it. In fact, they’re more likely to go on a roll than Arizona because the Dodgers starting pitching in the 4 and 5 spots is superior to that of the Phoenix franchise. So, I guess what I’m saying is that if the Dodgers are going to win the West, they’ll either begin to run away with it, or they won’t do it at all.

How does the US Olympic baseball team lose to Korea? Well, manager Davey Johnson has always had bad luck with Koreans. Remember when he left Chan Ho in too long in the first inning and he gave up 2 GRAND SLAMS to Fernando Tatis… IN THE SAME INNING??? Well, Johnson is at the helm for the U.S. team and they choked big time in the bottom of the 9th after rallying for 3 runs in the top of the 9th. What a disgrace. Maybe, if baseball does remain an Olympic sport, they can take 2 weeks off of the regular season to allow some of our big leaguers to go there and play and re-establish some world order. I realize that sounds ridiculous, but why can’t our college and minor league guys get the job done? Because there’s too much pressure and they’re not used to it. The other countries’ teams don’t feel the pressure nearly as much as the Americans. It’s not their game, they don’t expect to win, so they go out their all loosey goosey and kick our butts. Hopefully we can save face by beating The Netherlands today. Unless they have some Viking names Sven with a mean ass slider and a 98 mile per hour fastball, we should get a win.