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CALLING SIGNALS |
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L.A. baseball teams echo
fireworks at the ballparks
of TheColumnists.com
Fireworks hit L.A.’s
baseball stadiums this spring.
Red rockets glared at Dodger Stadium, where 54,000 fans watched on the eve of Mexico’s May 5 celebration.
A week later came Angel Stadium’s regular Friday night lights, and 44,000 caught the firecracker show.
Then there was the really hot stuff: baseball. Both L.A. teams lit up the top of their divisions in early May: the Dodgers in the National League West, the Angels in the American League West.
That was the real reason they packed their stadiums on those firework nights. Gimmicks spark fleeting interest. Winning baseball lasts.
That winning is especially crucial here in Los Angeles. Without that element, we can always jog, skate, swim, hike, play tennis, basketball, softball--any day of the year. Rain and cold don’t compete.
So the Dodgers and Angels better win to pull us off our routines.
I joined those big crowds and witnessed L.A. fans clapping and chanting their teams to victories. Dodger fans were into shortstop Cesar Izturis’ potent bat and golden glove. Angel fans focused on center fielder Steve Finley’s power and speed.
Here are what those fans ignored:
Steroids.
The designated hitter debate.
The Yankees.
Whether ads should replace player pictures on the outfield wall.
Such matters obsess ESPN and sportswriters. L.A. fans have better things to ponder.
The fans I sat with cared about the game. Other than hot dogs, cotton candy and beach balls.
Jackie’s legacy: You know how many black Americans play for the Dodgers? One. He’s Milton Bradley, the center fielder.
Amazing. In 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier, he played on a Dodger team with a second black player, pitcher Dan Bankhead. That’s double the Dodgers’ current representation.
On April 15, the Dodgers honored Jackie Robinson Day. Bradley escorted Jackie’s widow, Rachel Robinson, onto the Dodger Stadium field.
Imagine if the Dodgers had dumped Bradley after he mixed it up with home fans last year. That would’ve been one embarrassing Jackie Robinson Day.
Could be the Dodgers kept Bradley for that very reason. Besides the fact he swings a mean bat.
Cornerstone: That’s the translation from German of Dave Eckstein’s last name. And his importance.
These days Eckstein plays for the St. Louis Cardinals, and is he ever a rock! Solid at shortstop and at the plate.
And here the Cardinals were supposedly the losers in the off-season shortstop merry-go-round. They lost Edgar Renteria to Boston, which lost Orlando Cabrera to the Angels, who let Eckstein go to St. Louis.
Eckstein, at 5-foot-7, 165 pounds, seemed like a little loss to the Angels. Yet here he is igniting the Cardinals. He torched Dodger pitchers last week, going 11 for 16. That’s a .688 average.
The Dodgers simply couldn’t get Eckstein out. You think the suddenly light-hitting Angels miss him? You bet.
Hardly Pale: The Chicago White Sox are stepping all over the major leagues.
They had the best record in baseball early in May. It’s simply the shock of the season.
The Pale Hose haven’t won the World Series since Woodrow Wilson was president. Their most famous dent was throwing the 1919 World Series. And no one picked them to go anywhere in 2005.
Yet here they are winning every night. Jon Garland has pitched his way to 7-0. First baseman Paul Konerko has jacked nine homers. Broadcaster Hawk Harrelson hypes his Good Guys in a refreshing homer style.
And pulling for them all the way is Paul Whitfield, author of “The White Sox Fan’s Little Book of Wisdom.”
Paul’s no bandwagon jumper who happens to have a book on the market at the right time. This is a serious fan. Every year he packs up his wife and four kids and stays in an Anaheim hotel to catch each inning of the White Sox-Angel series.
Paul deserves this hot White Sox season. I work next to him at a newspaper, and I’ve been listening a couple of years to Paul’s ChiSox passion. His love must be unconditional. The White Sox have suffered through lean seasons in the tradition of the 1970s Braves, 1980s Indians, 1990s Tigers.
Now he’s the source of baseball’s best. Whatever a fan wants to know about the White Sox is on Paul’s site: TheSouthSider.com.
©2005 by Bucky Fox. The illustration is from IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA. This column first posted May 16, 2005
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visit Bucky Fox's website at www.BuckyFox.com
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