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Cody Decker is the all-time home run leader in Santa Monica High baseball, which is no surprise since he previously had become the all-time home run leader in the Santa Monica Little League. He went on to UCLA, where he led the Pac-10 Conference in home runs. Presently he’s in the San Diego Padres’ farm system and he hit 32 home runs one year in the Double-A Texas League. But it’s been seven years since Decker graduated from Samohi and nobody faintly resembling his ability to hit homers has e...
Something special is happening for the Dodgers in spring training. Yasiel Puig, the 22-year-old Cuban defector who has had only 82 at-bats in the minor leagues, is doing so well he’s being considered for a roster berth even though the plan was to bring him along gradually in the minors. The baseball people I’ve talked to who’ve watched the Dodgers’ practice games in Arizona have inspired me to write this piece. One scout told me Puig has outstanding power, is built like Bo Jackson and is fast...
The Major League baseball channel annually begins spring training with a variety of programs dealing with the sport. A few days ago the network’s experts ranked the top 10 managers. Don Mattingly didn’t make the list. Mattingly has earned a lot of respect after succeeding Joe Torre, a baseball legend, as the Dodgers’ manager. But, clearly, he’s entering a new phase of his job – guiding a team in 2013 with the highest payroll in baseball history while working on the last year of his contract....
When the Angels signed Josh Hamilton to a five-year, $125 million contract last week they acquired quite possibly the best player in baseball. They also took a considerable risk. Hamilton has had drug and alcohol problems in the past. He was once suspended from baseball for three years and admits “I’ve made some mistakes.” But he’s come back to be an American League MVP and last season he had 43 home runs and 128 RBI for the Texas Rangers. He’s also an outstanding outfielder. With Hamilton,...
For as long as I can remember, the Yankees have been the highest-spending team in baseball. Taking advantage of the fact major league baseball doesn’t have a salary cap like the National Basketball Association, the Yankees have bought players without much consideration for a self-imposed limit. Oh, how that has changed. The Yankees didn’t go after the primary free agents in recent weeks as rumors circulated they’re trying to reduce their $210 million payroll to $180 million by 2014. Meanw...
Well, they made it exciting anyway. The Dodgers won six straight games before losing to the Giants, 4-3 Tuesday night to fall out of playoff contention. The Angels made a gallant late season rush, only to be eliminated when the Oakland Athletics, a team in their same division, did even more spectacular things and took the playoff berth the Angels sought. Both the Dodgers and Angels waited too long to make their serious runs and that’s what they should think about this winter. But let’s go bac...
Mitch Chortkoff We don’t know how well the Dodgers will do this season but we do know their new owners are committed to spending whatever it takes to field a successful team. The blockbuster trade last week was a statement to every rival and to Dodger fans. The Frank McCourt era is most definitely over. The new owners said they’d be in on everything, meaning trades, free agent acquisitions and giving their own star players generous contract extensions. So the Dodgers now have Adrian Gon...
He walked up behind me Sunday, grabbed both of my shoulders and broke into that infectious smile which became part of Dodger history in 1965. Lou Johnson, better known as Sweet Lou Johnson, wanted to talk about his game-winning home run against the Minnesota Twins in the seventh game of the ’65 World Series that brought a championship to Los Angeles. He also wanted to talk about baseball in general and his teammate, the great Sandy Koufax, the MVP of that World Series. “Sandy and I are good to...
In the Dodger Stadium press box Sunday I asked the same question to three broadcasting legends. I asked Vin Scully, Jaime Jarrin and Dick Enberg if they had ever seen anything like what happened here Saturday night. They gave the same answer. All of these guys with about 50 years of watching major league baseball games had never seen anything like it. The Dodgers had a 6-4 lead in the ninth inning against the last place San Diego Padres, a team which struggles to score runs. The Padres scored...
One advantage of being a long-time sportswriter in Los Angeles is I’m welcome in locker rooms and press boxes so I can talk to past and present players. On Sunday, before the Dodgers earned a thrilling 2-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox I was discussing pitching with Fernando Valenzuela. Since he’s one of the greatest Dodger pitchers of all time I thought he could enlighten me on why some outstanding pitchers are struggling this season. The Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw isn’t dominating as he w...
While we were all concentrating on the Lakers and Clippers’ march into the NBA playoffs a funny thing happened. The Dodgers, who struggled to a third place finish in the Western Division last season and were forecast third or worse this season, began the baseball season on a hot streak. Then, despite a barrage of injuries, they widened their lead. At the same time, division favorites Arizona and San Francisco got off to terrible starts. So the Dodgers began this week with a 7 ½ game lead on th...
Magic Johnson is the biggest name and Mark Walter supplies a lot of the money, but among the Dodgers’ new owners Stan Kasten is the one fans should get to know. You see, Kasten’s decisions will have the biggest impact on how successful the Dodgers will be on the field on upcoming years. He’s going to run the daily operation, decide which free agents fit, decide where the roster needs to be upgraded. “I have an office in Dodger Stadium and I’m going to be in every day,” said Johnson. “But I won’t...
The Dodgers were given an extremely soft schedule to begin the 2012 season. Give them credit for taking advantage of the opportunity. It’s hard to find anything negative about nine wins and only one loss. But don’t minimize the fact that all the games were against the Padres and Pirates, two of major league baseball’s worst teams. At the same time the Dodgers were breezing to easy victories the DiamondBacks and Giants were playing each other. Then the DiamondBacks had a series against the Rockie...
Frank McCourt’s eight years as the Dodgers’ owner were filled with unprecedented turmoil. But, like Magic, the saga has come to an end. A group headed by Lakers’ legend Magic Johnson, funded by Mark Walter of Guggenheim Partners and including Stan Kasten, who ran the Atlanta Braves though 14 straight playoff seasons, bought the team and Dodger Stadium Wednesday for $2 billion. The group also includes Peter Gruber, part-owner of the Golden State Warriors. They also paid $150 million for half of t...
The Major League Baseball television network had a show over the weekend rating the top 100 players. Albert Pujols, generally regarded as the sport’s best player over the last 10 years, was only No. 11. Upon seeing that I wondered if an explanation was coming. It was. The explanation was this is their rating as of now, looking ahead to the 2012 season. They believe Pujols will slip as he adjusts to a new team in a new league. Fair enough. But I anxiously watched to see who would rank 1 through 1...
Ryan Braun spoke eloquently for 30 minutes last week, explaining how he had been falsely accused of taking illegal substances that would have resulted in a 50-game suspension. He was passionate about his innocence and quite believable. What a story this has been, the National League’s Most Valuable Player with a spotless past shockingly thrust into the spotlight of an ugly mess. Now his guilty verdict has been overturned, the first time since drug testing became a part of major league b...
As spring training begins the biggest question in major league baseball is a simple one. Were the Angels wise to give Albert Pujols a 10-year, $240 million contract? It’s a fact that Pujols was baseball’s most coveted free agent in this bidding season and it can be argued that he’s been the best player in baseball over the last 10 years. He’s been National League MVP three times and a vital member of two World Series winners. But he’s 33, and how productive will he be in the latter years of...
I’ve observed in a detached manner as candidates emerge as possibilities to purchase the Dodgers. I say detached because I don’t know some of the groups and am not qualified to recommend one over the others. But I was jolted the other day by the news that Magic Johnson has entered the competition. And I was intrigued to hear that his group includes Stan Kasten and Mark Walter. Kasten has been the president of two major league teams, the Braves and Nationals, and has been mentioned as possibly th...
The Texas Rangers have been in the World Series two straight years. The Angels haven’t made the playoffs two straight years. That’s enough to greatly concern Arte Moreno, the Angels’ owner who has a reputation of spending what it takes to keep his team in playoff contention. Now add the fact that Mike Napoli, the former Angels catcher, was traded to Toronto and then dealt again to Texas a few days later and has become one of the Rangers’ key players. It’s enough for Moreno to respond harshly....
As Frank McCourt and Major League Baseball continue wrangling for ownership of the Dodgers, one fact stands out above all others. McCourt has lost the trust of fans who are now expressing their feelings by staying away from Dodger Stadium. Less fans means less revenue for a cash-starved owner and it’s hard to see how he can pull out of his current financial problems and operate the franchise successfully long-term. On Tuesday McCourt and MLB baseball agreed to postpone an MLB financing plan u...
Alex Rodriguez has destroyed the Angels in the first four games of the American League championship series, which the Yankees lead, 3-1. His remarkable performance, which includes home runs in three straight games, reverses a trend. Rodriguez had been dreadful in post-season games previously. It’s one of my pet peeves in sports that a team or individual who has demonstrated excellence throughout a six-month season is tarnished in the minds of many by slumping for a few weeks at playoff time. I...
It’s the Dodgers and Phils again in the National League Championship series, but some of the main players have changed from a year ago. The Dodgers lost that best-of-seven series, 4-1. They started a righthanded pitcher in all five games – not an enviable position to be in against a team featuring superb lefthanded hitters Ryan Howard and Chase Utley. This time the Dodgers will start lefthanders Randy Wolf and Clayton Kershaw. Chad Billingsley, a righthander who lost two games in last yea...
The key to the Dodgers’ chances in the playoffs is for the guy in left field to be Manny Ramirez, not the imposter who’s been there this season. They need the dynamic leader who led them to a first round playoff sweep of the Cubs last year, not the confused batter who struck out frequently in recent weeks. But which Manny will we see? After the Dodgers clinched their division championship Saturday night and celebrated in the clubhouse and then on the field as they saluted adoring fans, Ram...
The Angels began the season stunned by the death of pitcher Nick Adenhart in an automobile accident, then went through the first few months with a minor league pitching staff. The idea was to merely hold on for awhile, yet they won their division by seven games. The players deserve credit, but the stabiizing force was the manager. This was Mike Scioscia's best job of a distinguished career. The Angels will be judged, as all major league teams are, by how they do in the playoffs. They begin at...
When Joe Torre became manager of t he Dodgers he observed that ‘Tommy Lasorda hugged his players and we all laughed at him. Now we all do it.” Lasorda, who celebrated his 82nd birthday last week, remains an ambassador of baseball and adds to his legacy. He was recently inducted into the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Hall Of Fame and then became a member of The Smithsonian in a Washington, D.C. ceremony. He’s been a fixture with the Dodgers since 1971 and tears come to the former manager’s eyes when he t...
