Oh please don't associate the Dodgers with the sorry Lakers. Next thing you know we'll be playing a bunch of guys I've never even heard of.
I love my Dodgers, but the Lakers are the much better franchise (both in success and popularity), sorry. The Lakers are arguably a top 3 franchise in all sports.
I see a lot more Dodger gear, and always have, out in the community than Laker apparel. Perhaps it's because purple and gold aren't flattering everyday colors, but I've always sensed a much more intimate connection between the city and the Dodgers more so than the Lakers. Lakers viewership is down 50% since two years ago. They're entertaining when they're good (and they usually are), but when they're bad who cares. They will continue to be bad for a while, and I have no reason to believe the Dodgers won't become the hottest thing in town. They already are. 710 AM is the Laker flagship station, so if you listen to ESPN you'll be bombarded with Laker talk. But the other stations dgaf. Even during Showtime the Dodgers were more popular than the Lakers. The Lakers are in the shitter so I believe it will be a Dodger town again. Easily. My two cents.
The Dodgers have longevity. They're the heart of LA. The Lakers, recently (since the mid seventies), have had much more success. They had very few ups and downs over the past thirty years (after Magic left, After Shaq left, and now with Jim Buss gone). The Dodgers have not been in the spotlight very much in that time due to not having much success in that time.
How much of a blame goes on Dodger ownership for the Dodgers not having much success the past 20-25 years? With the division and market LA is in, the Dodgers should be in the postseason every year.
Now they will be and we're already seeing it. When the Dodgers are good the town is fired up more than ever.
You bkitches asked for it, so here it comes. TEH SKY IS FALLING!!! TEH SKY IS FALLING!!! ESPN board style... We're 4 games in ckocksuckers, lighten the fuck up.
I find it hard to see the Lakers doing well for a long while as Jimmy is taking that franchise straight into the toilet. He made a good call years ago with Bynum and has hung his hat on that ever since. Brown was his choice (which was moronic the second he did it) then he elects D'Antoni over PJ, a coach that outside of Steve Nash has constantly butted heads with his star players and gimmick offense was shut down once the league figured it out. Buss wants too much control, he thinks he is his dad in which everyone that has ever met him says he is nothing like him. If LA isn't already a Dodgers town, it soon will be.
ray: Kershaw's velocity up in bullpen session By Ken Gurnick and Teddy Cahill | MLB.com SAN FRANCISCO -- Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw threw a bullpen session Tuesday and showed his best velocity since being injured. "We're getting close, it feels like," Kershaw said. "I'm sure they [management] have a timetable in mind that they don't want to tell me. I raise the ceiling every day. I don't want to get to the ceiling where I feel pain, but as close to it without being hurt." Kershaw threw 26 pitches in what he called "somewhat close to a typical bullpen" session at AT&T Park, with manager Don Mattingly and pitching coach Rick Honeycutt watching and athletic trainer Stan Conte monitoring velocity with an app. Mattingly said Kershaw was clocked in the mid-80s and at one point, the manager stood in as an imaginary batter. Kershaw threw from the windup and the stretch. "The ball was coming out pretty good," said Mattingly, who nonetheless tried to manage expectations. "We'll continue to be careful. He's slowly moving forward. He's optimistic, we're optimistic, but that doesn't mean there's a timetable. It seems to be going in the right direction. He feels encouraged. It's positive for him, but he still has to be careful." This was Kershaw's second time off a mound. He said he would spin breaking balls on flat ground Wednesday and probably throw a bullpen session again Thursday. Kershaw was injured Opening Night in Australia on March 22, suffering a strained teres major muscle, which stabilizes the upper arm with the upper back near the armpit. He was placed on the 15-day disabled list with no announced time frame for a return, although the injury was expected to sideline him a month or longer. After being shut down for about a week, Kershaw has remained on a throwing program. __
Kershaw to throw to hitters Sunday By Anthony Witrado | ESPN Los Angeles LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers still don't have a timetable for ace Clayton Kershaw to return to their rotation or even go out on a rehab assignment, but he is getting closer. Kershaw will throw to hitters Sunday for the first time since he pitched the season opener March 22 in Australia. The left-hander went on the disabled list because of inflammation in his back after that start, but he is scheduled to throw another bullpen and then throw about 15 pitches to hitters before the Dodgers' finale against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Kershaw, who signed a seven-year, $215 million contract in January and is regarded as the best pitcher in the league, threw a 35-pitch session Thursday in San Francisco and his fastball topped out at around 85 mph as the training staff slowly lets him up the intensity. Kershaw has reported no discomfort in any of his throwing sessions, but the Dodgers are being extra cautious in making sure this doesn't become a lingering injury. "It continues to go in the right direction," manager Don Mattingly said before Saturday's game. "We'll see how it goes. It'll be limited with what he's doing with the hitters. "It's probably too early for a timetable [for his return], at least from my standpoint. It just seems to be stepping forward, but obviously as we get moving he's going to have to go out and throw somewhere. Is that after the [simulated] game and two more bullpens, or another sim game? That's where it all depends on how one step goes to the next." Team physician Neal ElAttrache was at Dodger Stadium on Friday and checked in with several players, including Kershaw. The Dodgers have done no further testing on his back because he says he is feeling well. If Kershaw is at the point of throwing to hitters and continues to not report discomfort in the upper back or anywhere else where he might be compensating, then sending him out on a rehabilitation assignment is not too far off, and an early- to mid-May return is not an absurd assumption. "As long as he is able to progress and not feeling anything," Mattingly said, "they will continue on that route." __
:fingerscrossed: ray: Kershaw goes "full effort" in simulated gameBy Ken Gurnick | MLB.com -- 53 minutes ago LOS ANGELES -- Clayton Kershaw threw at "full effort" in a three-inning simulated game on Sunday and "assumes" a Minor League rehab assignment is next. "He looked good to me," said Drew Butera, who joined teammate Chone Figgins in hitting against Kershaw, who made 50 pitches. A.J. Ellis, who caught Kershaw 12 days after himself undergoing knee surgery, said the two-time National League Cy Young Award winner threw all of his pitches and took the workout so seriously that he shook his catcher off. "He wanted it to be as game-like as possible, and he's always second-guessing me, Ellis joked. "He looked great. "He warms up comparable to a regular start. Velocity was very comparable. Kershaw said he assumed a Minor League start would be next, as long as he came out of Sunday's session with no setbacks. "This was full effort for me," he said. "You can't simulate the adrenaline of a big league game. But as far as [a] 10 a.m. sim game, that's all I got." Kershaw said the soreness and stiffness from the teres major muscle strain in his back that put him on the disabled list after his Opening Night start in Australia "is gone, and now it's just building back up" arm strength. Ken Gurnick is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs. __
If you think about it, we're in pretty damn good shape. We are in first place today without the benefit of our ace and our starting catcher, with a lineup of under performing hitters and a defense that leaks like a sieve.
Maybe they can have him start his bobble head day? I only say that because I'm going that day. But he should take all the time he needs to heal up and be 100%.
