Kershaw LXXXII: Kershawpscotch
Rockies at Dodgers, 1:10 p.m.

  • Rafael Furcal, SS
  • Matt Kemp, CF
  • Andre Ethier, RF
  • Jay Gibbons, LF
  • Casey Blake, 3B
  • James Loney, 1B
  • Ryan Theriot, 2B
  • Rod Barajas, C
  • Clayton Kershaw, P

I’m going with one of the best Dads in the world to Dodger Stadium today to see one of the best pitchers in baseball.

The Loser’s Dividend, September 25, 2005:

The last two Dodger games I have attended, a loss and now today’s victory, have been the two most pleasant I’ve been to all season. Both came after the team’s sub-.500 status was assured, a condition that seems to have weeded out the high expecters (expectants? expectationers?) who would only be satisfied by a victory. The best that people hope for now is that a baseball game be played. That’s all. Throw the first pitch and we’ve already won. The Dodgers of September 2005 offer no other guarantees, and so we find ourselves at the major league equivalent of Little League, where it’s a celebration when someone doesn’t fall on his head and it’s considered poor form to rain criticism or curb hope. Call it the Losers Dividend. It’s a very relaxing, freeing payoff (abetted by the ease of ingress and egress to Dodger Stadium that the smaller crowds provide), enough to make one up and move to Kansas City or Tampa Bay so this can be reinvested and experienced permanently. …

Tampa Bay wouldn’t have been a bad choice, as it turned out.

* * *

  • Old friend Takashi Saito has a 0.46 for the Braves since the All-Star Break, but his shoulder is ailing.
  • Eric Stephen of True Blue L.A. noticed that Brandon Weeden, a minor-leaguer who came to the Dodgers in the 2003 Kevin Brown trade, is now quarterbacking at Oklahoma State. Weeden, who last pitched in the minors in 2006, will be 27 next month.