LA bar bans fans from wearing Dodger gear

As you know, I'm far from a Dodgers fan, and seeing them fall apart so completely last night against the Phillies - well, that was pretty fun. But from what I'm hearing, one of the biggest, most popular sports bars in the LA area is sticking it to Dodgers fans even harder than I would endorse. Several sources have told me that Big Wangs North Hollywood - the recently-opened offshoot of the popular Big Wangs sports bar in Hollywood - has banned anyone from wearing Dodger gear, whether the team is playing or not.

But here's the kicker - when you go down tomorrow night for the Phillies/Dodgers game, you can wear a Phillies hat, jersey, shirt...hell, you can show up as the Phillie Phanatic for all they care, and that won't be a problem. But God help you if you have any Dodgers apparel on. You know, the most popular team in Los Angeles?

The story is that there was a fight at the bar last weekend, and the instigator had a Dodgers cap on. So the management decided to be completely logical and measured in their response, by banning any Dodger apparel of any kind in the bar.

I've heard of clubs banning sports wear, but that's usually either to enforce a dress code or to eliminate gang colors. But a sports bar? In North Hollywood? And if you are going to specifically target one team, do you really want to upset Dodger fans? They are acting as if the problem wasn't that an oafish, drunken Dodger fan got into a fight, but that an oafish, drunken Dodger fan got into a fight because he had a Dodgers hat on. Which is lunacy.

I called Big Wangs North Hollywood and spoke to a waitress/bartender who confirmed everything I had been told. Her line was "you can't take the punk out of the jersey, but you can...you know...take the jersey out of the punk, or whatever." I'm sure she's a sweet girl, probably with big melons.

I've never heard of a sports bar banning the apparel of their hometown team, especially when that team is in the playoffs. Needless to say, there are a lot of pissed off Dodger fans who are vowing never to come back. Hardly the kind of word of mouth a bar that just opened in a new location needs, right?

Note: I would suggest that Big Wangs put something about this on their Web site so people can know before they show up, but since the site currently seems to be suspended with a note to "contact the billing/support department as soon as possible," it seems like they have bigger fish to fry.

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 10:33 AM 7 comments  

Dodgers euthanize Garciaparra after breakdown at Dodger Stadium

LOS ANGELES - In an emotional press conference today, Los Angeles Dodgers officials announced that Nomar Garciaparra had been euthanized, two days after he injured his left knee rounding the bases in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

"Nomar gave us all he had for such a long time," said Dodgers general manager Ned Coletti, fighting back tears while addressing the media. "But with his history of injuries, and the likelihood of his recovery being slim to none, we thought the humane thing to do would be to put him out of his misery."

Dodgers trainers said they had attempted to keep Garciaparra off of his injured leg, but he had fought all restraints, refusing to lay down while shouting "What are you doing?" and "Hey, I'm not a horse!"

Dodger fan Joe McClendon, who brought his family to the game on Wednesday, said watching Garciaparra break down in front of a packed stadium was a disturbing sight.

"You bring kids to the game, and you don't want them to see that," McClendon said. "But at least they didn't have to put him down right there - I saw they had the portable curtain thing out just in case. If that happened, we wouldn't have come back."

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 10:56 PM 1 comments  

Manny traded to the Dodgers and no, I'm not being funny this time

In case you haven't heard, the Red Sox actually dealt Manny Ramirez before today's trade deadline, but his destination wasn't Florida, as originally thought. Manny is now a Dodger, which is stunning since the Los Angeles Times reported in today's paper that about as much dealing as the Dodgers expected to do was to try to get Greg Maddux. This is, to put it mildly, much bigger.

First, I didn't think this would happen, period. It seems like Manny's been perpetually almost traded every season, with the media saying something like "unlike last season, when they were able to patch their differences, there's really no going back this time - the relationship is too broken to continue and Red Sox have to trade Manny Ramirez ." And then every year they don't trade him, and everyone goes about their business as he proceeds to get hotter than hell in September and October and mash the ball all over the place.

But I guess the fact that he wasn't coming back next season meant that the Red Sox had all the incentive they needed to make this deal work. And frankly, they made out like bandits. Looking at the numbers for this season, Jason Bay's production is almost equal to Manny at the plate this season. Plus, he's six years younger and locked up through the end of next year at a fraction of what Manny is making. It's a no-brainer.

And for the Pirates? Well, they get prospects. A lot of prospects. But they desperately need depth - the fact that several of the other team's Triple A prospects are going to start right away tells you all you need to know about them.

But what about the Dodgers? What are they getting out of this? Since the Red Sox are paying a bulk of Manny's contract for this season, there isn't a money problem. But, they had to give up Andy LaRoche, who was the No. 1 future option at the sinkhole that has been third base for the Dodgers. (Unless they plan on re-signing Casey Blake, which they may have to after this deal.)

There's no question that they get a premier hitter, even at 36. After all, as ESPN shouts at me seemingly every day, he is ONE OF THE TOP FIVE RIGHT-HANDED HITTERS OF ALL TIME! But they've also added to a position where they already have about 27 options, and made their defense significantly worse no matter what they do.

The logical outfield at this point would be (I guess) Manny in LF, Matt Kemp in CF and Andre Ethier in RF. Which means Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre are riding the pine. Which makes sense from a baseball standpoint, since the only thing more absymal than Pierre's OBP is Jones'...well, everything. But that also means that you lose good defense and speed, and have to play Matt Kemp out of position (he isn't a natural CF). Oh yeah, and you have $17 million in contracts sitting on the bench every night in those two players alone, and you didn't address the really key areas, like starting pitching and shortstop.

And the real bottom line is this: the Dodgers weren't going to win the World Series before this trade, and they really aren't good enough to win it now. It should be enough to put them past the Diamondbacks in the God-awful NL West, but so what? I know "anything can happen" in the post-season, but come on.

I suspect that Dodgers GM was feeling the heat after the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California, USA made the bold move of trading Corey Kotchman for Mark Teixiaxairaiaxia even though they have a double-digit lead in the AL West and the best record in baseball. He had to make a blockbuster move in order to get the interest back on the Dodgers, and this sure does that job just fine.

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 4:28 PM 0 comments  

Sporty Small Talk

When I arrived at work this morning my friendly coworker decided to make some small talk regarding the Diamondbacks' win last night over the Dodgers. Usually, this is all well and good, as I love talking sports with other knowledgeable fans.

Unfortunately, this young man knows next to nothing about sports. NOTHING. Here's an example:

"Good morning, fknmclane. Did you watch the Arizona Diamondbacks win last night? They scored a lot of points."

There are clearly a couple of issues with this question/statement. First of all, DBacks will suffice. Saying a team's full name is just, well, stupid. Secondly, there's no such thing as a point in a baseball game. The baseball gods decreed they are to be called runs and that is the way it has been for over a hundred friggin' years.

I'm not typically a miserable person but this kind of thing makes me insane. I don't pretend to have a doctorate or something in sports knowledge but I like to think I can discuss basketball, baseball and football (and boxing...and tennis) with some degree of expertise.

My coworker has no such confidence in his ability to speak intelligently on sports, which leads me to wonder why bring it up at all? I don't ask him what the latest, greatest anime movie is. I don't ask my architect friend about the new kick-ass t-square when we meet up. I don't create a discussion with my brother the CFP on the long-term prospects for the economy. It would be foolish and incredibly awkward to do so.

Maybe that's what is bugging me about this morning's dissecting of the DBacks win over the Dodgers last night. It was incredibly awkward to bring up Chris Young going 0-fer the night he signed his long-term contract and see a look of dumbfoundedness on this fellow's face. What exponentially increased the awkardness is that I LOVE talking sports. This instance turned out to be anything but.

What I realized this morning is that while the only thing better than watching sports is talking sports, there aren't many things worse than talking sports with those who know next to nothing about them.

I can get that on talk radio anytime.

Posted by McLane at 1:27 PM 2 comments  

A celebration of drunken jerkwads at the LA Coliseum

In case you missed it, this past Saturday night was the big exhibition game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox at the LA Coliseum. And yes, it was a gimmick, mainly to pad the Dodgers' attendance statistics for the season, but it worked - there was probably more buzz around town for this game than any Dodger game since the 1988 World Series. I chose not to go, for this simple reason:

(Asshole Dodger fans + Asshole Red Sox fans) * a ton of alcohol = a miserable experience

Seriously, I know people who were getting there at 8 a.m. to start tailgating. This is for a game that started at 7 p.m. I've done my share of tailgating there before USC games, but even for me, starting things out a solid 11 hours before the first pitch seems excessive.

Needless to say, I was basically right, if the stories I've heard from friends who did go to the game are any indication. I'll pass along one story relayed to me by a friend who witnessed this whole encounter while standing in (a huge) line waiting to use the urinals:

Drunk Red Sox fan is rambling on and on to anyone within ear shot about World Series rings, Boston sports, and their general superiority to sports from any other city - especially Los Angeles. So, your basic Boston sports fan. Directly behind him in line is a gentleman who is about 6'5", 250 pounds, wearing a Dodgers hat, Raiders jersey and a mean scowl. The Red Sox fan turns to him and says (in the middle of a rant about how Red Sox fans are so awesome that they turn any road game into a home game): "Thanks for coming out to our stadium toni-"

The last part was a bit clipped, on account of the Dodger fan leaning back and cold-cocking the Red Sox fan before he could finish the sentence. He fell, out cold, onto the ground, as his three friends took one look at the hulk brute who just decked their buddy and turned away, their eyes as big as saucers.

I'm not sure how to feel about all of that. I don't advocate violence of any kind, and it's exactly that kind of fan that makes me not want to bring my daughter to sporting events in Los Angeles anymore (especially USC games - thanks for your "support", Raider fans, but we'd rather you found something else to do). But at the same time...if anyone ever "has it coming to them", it's a loudmouth Red Sox fan.

Also of note: if you saw any of the game, you saw that they had a giant net instead of a "Green Monster" type fence in LF, since it was about 220 feet down the LF line. Which would have been fine, except that apparently in batting practice, they didn't have the net tight enough. So, several people apparently got beaned with line drives from about 200 feet away, because the net gave so much that the ball hit them anyway.

Good time, indeed.

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 11:08 AM 3 comments