Yankee Series

The New York Yankees were hosted by our Dodgers for a 3 game series this last week end. Each game was a sell out with an announced crowd of 56,000. Each game was competitive but on balance the Dodger performance was disappointing.

Game 1 was a 2-1 Yankee win, Game 2 was a 9-5 Dodger win and the series finale was an 8-6 Yankee win.

What made the Dodger performance disappointing was the fact that they blew a 6-2 lead in the 9th inning of Game 3 with their closer Broxton on the mound. That inning I suspect will haunt the Dodgers for the balance of the season. To their credit they rallied Monday night to a 4-2 win over the Giants in San Francisco.

The Sunday game should have been a triumph in every sense of the word. Kershaw pitched a masterful 7 innings; until the 9th the Dodger played perfect defense & had timely execution on offense. In fact, until the 9th, they badly out played & out-classed the Bronx Bombers.

With their closer starting the 9th with a 4 run lead everyone (including the ESPN crew) had conceded the win to the Dodgers. In fact, after Broxton struck out Teixera to open the 9th the ESPN bunch named Kershaw the player of the game.

Then the wheels fell off - it may have been because Broxton pitched 1 1/3 innings the day before, it might have been nerves or it might have been over-confidence - or all of the above - but what followed was an absolute collapse.

The Yankees won the game in the 10th when Sherrill surrendered a 2 run Home Run to Robinson Cano. At that point the Dodgers lost their composure with both Garrett Anderson and Russell Martin being ejected in the bottom of the 10th.

The entire incident exposed some fundamental flaws in these 2010 Dodgers. First & foremost the bullpen has proven to be untrustworthy. Torre has relied far too much on Broxton as he now clearly only trusts Big Jon, Bellasario and Kuo (but he can't use him 2 days in a row) at the end of the game. They are getting a credible performance from Weaver in middle relief but after that zilch. Especially troublesome has been the performance of Troncoso and Sherrill - they are not the same guys that were the bridge to Broxton last year.

Also exposed (in my opinion) was a lack of confidence that these Dodgers can play with the big guys. Through the entire melt down the Dodgers looked as if they were expecting this to happen all along. Then once the game was tied they did not show any fight as they went quietly in the 9th & 10th as Mariano Rivera had his way with them.

Lastly, it is now becoming apparent that Kemp is in trouble and that Martin isn't the player we all thought he could be. Loney & Ethier continue to be serviceable but it doesn't look like they are super star material. Also Broxton has the ability to lose it in a hurry - not only this game but we must remember the Pirate game at the end of last season when he blew a significant lead to that last place bunch when the Dodgers had a chance to clinch. Is it possible that Broxton isn't as strong mentally as we hoped - he seems to struggle big time in non-save situations. It appears that there is a big let down.

The Series showed (as well as the recent Red Sox & Angel series) that the Dodgers are not yet in the elite level of those teams. In fact, they seem to be regressing. They will be hard pressed to catch the Padres; in fact, they are going to find it difficult to stay ahead of the Giants and the Rockies.

Kobe & Lakers Repeat

A few months ago I wrote about the disappointing late season swoon by the Lakers - they seemingly lost any hope of home court advantage and seemed uninterested in their 1st round efforts.

Well I am thrilled to say I was 100% wrong. Phil Jackson did a masterful job piloting these guys to another NBA Championship and sweetest of all they bested the hated Boston Celtics in 7 games in the Finals. They managed to erase a 3-2 deficit by winning 2 very tough games at the Staples Center with defensive efforts for the ages.

This was truly a team effort with Kobe getting help from everyone - from Pau's everything, to Sasha's free throws at the end of Game #7, to Fisher's clutch 3's and Artest's 3's & his defense and more. This was a victory they all could enjoy and know they were responsible for significant contributions. Bynum fighting through injury to contribute; Odom playing solid ball all around; great bench efforts from Farmar, Brown & Walton - these were all wonderful.

But, the guy that made this happen so that Kobe (and Fish) could get #5 was Pau Gasol. The 7 footer was amazing - he scored, he defended, he was a force on the boards, he blocked shots & distributed assists. I concur with the commentators that are calling him the best big man in the game right now - I can't imagine anyone else doing so much so well.

Kobe was fantastic all through the playoffs and richly deserved the MVP trophy. In a few short months we have gone from talking about the best in the game being LeBron to unanimously saying that it is still Kobe. Game 7 was tough - he hung in there, 15 rebounds, great defense, good energy - the rest of the guys pulled together so that Kobe's average (maybe below average) performance was good enough. Up to that point he was averaging nearly 30 points per game, was defending the toughest guys, distributing the ball - and, as we found out after the Finals were over, he was hurting big time. Probably 2 surgeries will be required before next season - knee & finger on shooting hand.

Kobe is now clearly solidified as one of the best ever - in my time I have been blessed to watch Jerry West (still my all time favorite), Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Elgin Baylor, Pistol Pete Maravich and the big men Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Bill Walton, Kareem (the best of them all) and, (yes) Shaq. Kobe deserves to be included in the conversation with each & every one of them.

We should enjoy this run as with all things they will pass - Phil Jackson is seriously considering leaving coaching due to health issues, Fisher isn't getting any younger, Farmar & Brown might want to try & get starting gigs elsewhere and worst of all Kobe will be another year older next season.

Vin Scully on John Wooden

We lost one the greatest sports icons of all time this past month when John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach of the UCLA Bruins passed away at age 99. Perhaps the greatest sports figure in Southern California, Vin Scully, announced Coach Wooden's passing between innings of the Dodger game that night.

The announcement is embedded here; watch it and bear in mind that this wasn't rehearsed, Vin had just heard the news of the passing of one of his dearest friends, there wasn't time to prepare something formal so he just spoke extemporaneously while at the same time announcing this news to approximately 50,000 people at the Ravine as well as countless others watching the game on TV.

Having said all of that Vin Scully, who himself is 82 years of age, is such an excellent wordsmith that you would think that the announcement was prepared by Presidential speechwriters with the words placed on a teleprompter. He is a genius - everything, including the Shakespeare quotation came from him alone, communicated with his matchless talent.

We have been blessed to have lived in a time and at a place where we are privileged to be exposed to people such as John Wooden & Vin Scully.