ALL BALL SPORTS: Dodger Surprises
by Paul Teetor
Surprises can be good; surprises can be bad. Surprises can be great or surprises can be terrible.
Context is everything.
Dodgers fans got two big surprises this week: first a good one and then a great one. No terrible ones yet. Not unless Dodgers pitcher/sexual sadist Trevor Bauer is allowed to come back and pitch again. Which, unbelievably, could still happen. Stay tuned for the resolution of that sordid drama.
First came the fairly shocking news on Thursday night that the owners and players had come to terms on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.
It was a widely hailed piece of good news for a jittery nation because the long-running stalemate – which started last November 1 when the old CBA expired – had begun to resemble the Russia-Ukraine negotiations before Vladimir Putin just went ahead and invaded: both sides accused the other of making crazy demands, lying about just about everything and negotiating in bad faith.
But after Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob (What, me Worry?) Manfred announced last week that the first two weeks of the baseball season scheduled to start March 31 would have to be canceled, suddenly all the hypothetical projected financial losses due to a work stoppage became frighteningly real.
And if there’s one thing that unites the millionaire players and the billionaire owners, it’s their love of money. Lots of money.
So just when the baseball experts were predicting the work stoppage could drag on until May or June – or later – suddenly both sides discovered that they actually did have some common ground and quickly announced a deal.
“Money talks and BS walks,” said longtime Dodgers fan Tony Capozzola, a prominent Redondo Beach attorney who represented Dodgers legend Tommy Lasorda for many years. “I figured they would come to their senses when it started hurting them in the wallet – and by them I mean both sides.”
The details of when a player becomes eligible for free agency, when a team has to pay a luxury tax, and how much money goes to the player pension fund are too wonky to be laid out in detail here.
But there was one thing that really jumped out from the announced agreement. Despite the loss of more than a week of the season – it’s now scheduled to start April 8, and opening day at Dodgers Stadium will be April 14 – both sides agreed that a full 162-game schedule will be played.
It will require a few more day-night doubleheaders, and a few more 3-game series that will now be 4-game series, and even a few 4-game series that will become a 5-game series. But the owners and players are determined to do whatever it takes to squeeze every last dime out of their paying customers.
Never mind that seemingly everyone complains that there are already too many games, which causes too many player injuries.
Beers that cost $15, Dodger dogs that cost $7, parking a half-mile from the Stadium that costs $25 – and goes straight into reviled former owner Frank McCourt’s pocket – none of it matters. Dedicated Dodger fans are willing to put up with it all just to see their beloved Boys in Blue.
Which brings us to the second and even bigger surprise for Dodger fans this week, news that broke 24 hours after the new CBA was announced: Living legend Clayton Kershaw is coming back for his 15th season with the Dodgers, the only organization he has ever played for.
Granted, the 33-year-old pitching ace and 3-time Cy Young Award winner only signed a one-year deal for $17 million, with another $5 million in incentives he could easily reach if he stays healthy. But after a winter in which the conventional wisdom was that Kershaw would head home to finish out his Hall-of-Fame career with his hometown Texas Rangers, news of his return provided a real jolt of energy and adrenaline for true-blue Dodgers fans.
It felt like Sandy Koufax had suddenly announced he was making a comeback. That’s how big of a surprise his return was. After all, it was Kershaw’s first time as an unrestricted free agent, his family was hoping he would choose Texas so they could have him home on a full-time, year-round basis, and despite what author Thomas Wolfe said, you can go home again.
Why did he do it? Very possibly because he didn’t want his last Dodgers appearance to be the awful outing he had against the Atlanta Braves last post-season, when they knocked him out of the game on their way to an eventual World Series title, a title they took from the defending champion Dodgers.
Or maybe he sincerely wants to finish his career with the Dodgers, to be that rarest of pro athletes today, a superstar like the Lakers Kobe Bryant or – hopefully – the Rams Aaron Donald, who spends his entire career with one team, and then lives to see his statue in front of the stadium he helped to pack for so many years.
Kershaw was going to get that statue regardless of whether he stayed or went to play his last years in Texas. But now it’s that much more likely he will be wearing a Dodgers uni when he’s inducted into the Hall of Fame.
But this wasn’t just a sentimental sop to the fans or to Kershaw himself. The reality is that the Dodgers need him to be the Kershaw of old if they are to challenge for the West Divisional Title, which they lost to the Giants last season – on the last day of the season — after winning it for eight straight years. And they’re really going to need him at full effectiveness if they are to win another World Series title to add to the one they won in 2020 – the one they never got their championship parade for because of all the Covid-19 restrictions in place that fall.
Max Scherzer, who turned out to be a half-season rental and was never coming back after he quit on the team in the most important game of the season – game six of the league championship series – left when he signed a $130 million, three-year deal with the New York Mets. It says here the Dodgers were smart not to try to match that outrageous price for the 38-year-old pitcher.
But his departure leaves the Dodgers with only two championship tested starters – Walker Buehler and Julio Urias – and a bunch of kids like Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May who may or may not blossom this year with an increased workload.
That’s where Kershaw fits in: as a third or fourth starter who can get guys out in crucial situations and be a reliable starter in postseason play. Or even, in a pinch, be a guy who can come in for a couple innings of relief, just as he did in the championship season of 2020.
That’s because long-time closer Kenley Jansen is probably gone, although there is no official word yet on what the Palos Verdes Estates resident plans to do this season. Free agent signings were prohibited during the work stoppage, but you can bet your fully grilled Dodger Dog with the works that there were plenty of off-the-record discussions between player agents and teams with a need for certain types of players. Reliable closers – which Jansen was last season after two years in which he lost his mojo – make him a hot commodity who is likely to leave LA for big bucks somewhere else.
For the record, Kershaw cited the oldest reason of all for choosing the Dodgers over the Rangers: winning the World Series.
“At the end of the day, I wanted to be here and win a World Series,” Kershaw said Sunday when the media finally got a chance to talk to him at the Dodgers spring training camp at Camelback Ranch in Arizona. “I think the Dodgers give me the best chance to do that and I’m excited to be back.”
Not nearly as excited as Dodgers fans are to have him back!
“He’s much more than just a Dodgers player,” Capozzola said. “He’s a part of Dodgers history. Now that Tommy Lasorda is gone to blue heaven, he’s Mr. Dodger as far as most fans are concerned.”
Of course, bringing back Kershaw – or even Jansen – doesn’t solve the Dodgers most pressing problem: how to replace the giant hole in their batting order left by Corey Seager, the 2020 World Series MVP who was just entering his prime at age 27 and figured to hold down the shortstop position for the next decade or more.
But he stunned the Dodgers – in what turned out to be one of those terrible surprises – by spurning them for a 10-year, $325 million contract with the Texas Rangers. It all happened so quickly last fall before the lockout that the Dodgers never had time to present a formal offer, nor were they given a chance to match the Rangers’ offer.
And after the signing, Seager was very vocal about encouraging Kershaw to join him in Texas, which was one reason among many that it looked like it was going to be Happy Trails for Kershaw too.
Fortunately, there’s a free agent out there who would fit into the hole in the Dodgers batting order perfectly: Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman, who just happens to be a native of Orange County. The Dodgers know they need another heavy hitter to replace Seager, so the stars seem to be aligning just right to bring Freeman, a former National League MVP, to LA.
Last year the five-time All Star clubbed 31 homers and led the league with 120 runs scored. At 32 he’s five years older than Seager, but as he showed in helping the Braves beat the Dodgers last fall, he still has a lot left in the tank. Somehow it would be karmic justice if the Dodgers manage to steal him away from the Braves.
There are plenty of other pressing issues for the Dodgers brain trust to solve before the first regular season pitch is thrown, like signing lame-duck Manager Dave Roberts to a long-term extension.
But there are none more important than finding a way to cut ties with Trevor Bauer, who has been on paid administrative leave since last June, when a San Diego woman made horrific allegations about two sexual encounters she had with him after they hooked up online.
After a long investigation, the LA DA declined to file criminal charges against him, and he is now acting like he expects to pitch for the Dodgers again this year, because, after all, he still has two years left on his contract, and the Dodgers still owe him $64 million. And as mentioned earlier, the Dodgers desperately need at least one more front-line starting pitcher. Whatever else Bauer is – an obnoxious jerk, an online troll, a sexual predator – he is also a very good pitcher.
It’s clear that the Dodgers are hoping Commissioner Rob Manfred will take some action against Bauer, suspending him for a week, a month or even the entire season. But if he doesn’t suspend Bauer, or if it’s a short suspension, then the moment of truth will have arrived for a front office that has avoided it for as long as possible.
Let’s hope Bauer himself gets a terrible surprise: he may get his money, but he won’t ever get another chance to pitch for the Dodgers.
UCLA Hoops a Good Bet; USC a Long Shot
Looking for a quick, easy and affordable way to make $2,000? Why not put $100 down on UCLA to win the NCAA championship that gets underway this week.
Vegas has listed the odds of the Bruins – a fourth seed in the East Regional — actually winning the title as 20-1. Sounds high, but that’s a helluva lot better than the 75-million-to-one odds of winning the Powerball Lottery.
Forget the Vegas odds. We all saw how hot the Bruins got last spring, when they made it all the way to the Final Four as an 11th seed, and would have made it to the championship game if not for Gonzaga beating them on a 40-foot buzzer beater in the semifinals.
All those players that made that run so exciting – compulsive bucket-getter Johnny Juzang, do-everything stud Jaime Jaquez, savvy floor general Tyger Campbell, wild-man Jules Bernard and undersized board beast Cody Riley – are back for another run at what would be UCLA’s first NCAA title since 1995.
And the Bruins showed they are ready to navigate that road to the Final Four in New Orleans by making it all the way to the Finals of the PAC-12 Tournament Saturday night. They even opened up a 12-point lead on top-seeded Arizona in the second half of the championship game before their one glaring weakness – a lack of height and rebounding beyond Riley and Myles Johnson – was exploited by the Arizona front line, which may well be the best in the country.
Along the way to the PAC-12 championship game the Bruins dispatched USC for the second time in a week, thereby running Coach Mick Cronin’s winning streak against USC to two games – after he had infamously lost his first five games to USC since arriving in Westwood three years ago.
The road to the Final Four is filled with potholes, but as the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu noted, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
The first step for the fourth seeded Bruins figures to be a cakewalk. They will travel up the coast to Portland, Oregon to take on an Akron team seeded 13th in the East Regional.
Assuming they win that game Thursday night, it gets a bit tougher as they will probably have to face fifth-seeded St. Mary’s, which boasts the 12th ranked defense in the entire country, on Saturday.
Right there we will see if they can recapture last year’s lightning in a bottle. The key Bruin player will be Juzang, who took a step back this year from the uber-confident shot-maker who powered last year’s run to the Final Four.
Every winning team needs a go-to guy, someone they can give the ball to and say go get us a basket. Juzang was that guy last year, but due to injuries and other obstacles there were long stretches this season when he couldn’t produce buckets on demand and his confidence – so important to his game – seemed to wane.
But his shooting touch, his aggressiveness and his confidence returned in the PAC-12 Tournament, particularly against USC and Arizona. So there is every reason to expect he will be fully healthy and scoring at a high clip by the time they face St. Mary’s on Saturday.
If they beat St. Mary’s as they should, they will then have to travel cross-country to Philadelphia, probably to face defending champion Baylor, the top seed in the East Regional. FYI: seedings have very little to do with the geographical locations of the colleges and a lot to do with their regular season records. Hence UCLA, a California college, and Baylor, a Texas university, meeting in the East Regionals.
If they upset Baylor and the other seedings hold, the Bruins would then face their final obstacle to another Final Four spot: a Kentucky team loaded with NBA prospects. But both Juzang and Jaquez are NBA prospects also, and they have a puncher’s chance of making it past Kentucky to the Final Four.
Once they make it to the Big Easy? Hey, anything can happen, baby.
It’s certainly worth a $100 bet to get $2,000 back.
As for USC, they were slotted as the seventh seed in the Midwest Regional. The Trojans lost three of their last four games, and have regressed since they beat UCLA in their first meeting of the season.
Their first-round matchup is 10th seeded Miami, which already beat Duke, Virginia Tech and North Carolina this year. Should they survive and advance, they would then face Auburn, which has been ranked in the top three all season and spent a bunch of weeks as the top-ranked team in the country.
Looking at the treacherous road USC faces, it’s easy to understand why Vegas has the odds of them winning the whole thing at 100-1. With those odds, a $100 bet would pay off with $10,000.
High risk, high reward.
Take your pick: either school is worth a flier if you have any spare cash left after filling up your gas tank.
Hey, it’s called March Madness for a reason.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. Follow: @paulteetor.