I write this blog today with a fair bit amount of disgust. In last night's Dodgers-Giants game the action on the field has become meaningless due to what happened beyond the stadium. A 24 year old Dodgers fan, Jonathan Denver, was stabbed and killed a few blocks from AT&T Park Wednesday night. It seems the argument that lead to Denver's death was initiated between two different groups because of trash talk about the two respective teams. The argument then became more heated eventually leading to Denver's senseless death.
Obviously I wasn't in San Francisco when the fight took place. I have no idea what actually took place and I'm not assigning guilt to anyone or abstaining anyone from blame. I have no idea about all the specifics, I just find it horrifying that someone could lose their life over what baseball team they cheer for.
This past weekend I was at the BYU-Utah football game. This is a huge rivalry game in Utah although I know it barely draws a blip outside of the state. The game was at BYU's LaVell Edwards Stadium. The crowd approximately had about 60,000 BYU fans and there were about 5,000 Utah fans scattered throughout the stadium. g were seated near where I sit in the north endzone. Then there were scattered in pockets throughout the stadium. The Utes red stands out quite a bit contrasted to Cougar Blue. While there was some good natured trash talking I didn't see any physical confrontations at all.
This game is not only a rivalry, but there are also a lot of differing opinions about the church who's in charge of BYU. That's the Mormon, aka LDS, Church, an organization that has many of both fans and detractors.
I don't care why this argument took place, or even that it took place but the fact that it involved a physical altercation is ridiculous. A good natured rivalry is fun and great, but you should never lay a finger on anyone else. And as always in this type of situation there appears to be a lot of liquid courage involved. I'm just shaking my head now as I write about this situation.
Anyone now on to the least important part of this game, the actual game itself. ESPN speculated that if the Dodgers won this game that they may be able to get homefield advantage in the first round playoffs. That came off as bunk to me, because I don't think the Dodgers are going to catch the surging Cardinals. St. Louis won on Wednesday night and now leads the Dodgers by 2.5 games in the NL.
The Dodgers have split the first two games of this series against the Giants. The final game is Thursday night in San Francisco. Thursday's scheduled matchup will be between two pitchers who've struggled this season. The Dodgers are scheduled to send Edinson Volquez (9-12, 5.77 ERA) to the mound against former Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum. Lincecum is nowhere near as dominant as he has been in the past. Lincecum is 10-14, with a 4.48 ERA.
Following tonight's game the Dodgers return to LA and will host the Rockies in a three game series to close out the season.
Speaking of St. Louis, as I already mentioned they won Wednesday. They've won 3 in a row and 7 of 10. The Cardinals, one of the best organizations in MLB, seem to be headed towards another excellent postseason. Any club that can survive Albert Pujols leaving obviously has a lot going for it. Meanwhile both the Pirates and the Reds lost. Now the Cardinals lead the Pirates by 3 games and the Reds by the 4 games. That means that Pittsburgh on track to host the one game NL Wild Card game early next week.
Both the Reds and the Pirates have Thursday off. On Friday they'll start a 3 game series against each other in Cincinnati. That series will decide once and for all who'll host the NL Wild Card game. In the AL Wild Card it looks like that Tampa Bay will host Cleveland in the AL Wild Card game.
Finally ESPN is reporting that the 30 year old Robinson Cano wants to sign a 10 year, $305 million contract. He doesn't seem to be too picky about where he'll end up at. I have the feeling that he'll be a Dodger next season, as the Dodgers spend money like a drunken sailor. I'd be very happy with Cano being a Dodgers. But I'd be happier if the contract is closer to a 7 years and $180 million dollars.
I know that the Dodgers have a ton of money to spend, but I hope they've learned the lesson about signing players in their late 20s and early 30s to long-term contracts. I hope they remember the contracts of A-Rod, Josh Beckett, Ted Lilly and Ryan Howard before they sign Cano to a massive long term contract.
themusicaddict
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