Results tagged “mattkemp”

It's an uncertain time for Dodger fans. To put things lightly, there are some questions about the ownership. It is not clear who will maintain control of the club. It is not clear what the payroll of the club will be. Despite falling two years a row to the Phillies in the NLCS, the reality is the Dodgers are blossoming into a very good baseball team. I am going on the record in saying I don't want the progression to end. We have miles left in our legs.

t’s a rematch in the National League Championship Series! It’s the Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies! Last year the Phillies came to the series being the cock of the walk physically intimidating the young Dodgers by pitching inside. While Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda shot back in game three, the tone had been set. The Phillies were going to take the pennant, and the Dodgers could do nothing but stand there.

A Dodger video featuring the smallest member of Snoop Dogg's possee.

This game was supposed to be an exhibition by St. Louis Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter to display his dominance over a completely overmatched Dodgers club. But what was the name of the game? Let’s leave runners on base! The Dodgers and Cardinals broke an NLDS record combining for 30 runners left on base. Three times the Dodgers had the bases loaded only to bring home one runner - and that was on a hit batsman.

Andre Ethier was the savior for the Dodgers 4-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. On Air Force Appreciation Night, the Dodgers bullpen laid a stink egg for the second consecutive night. Right fielder Andre Ethier willed the Dodgers to victory twice. First with the game tied at three in the bottom of the seventh, Ethier worked a bases loaded walk to give the Dodgers a 4-3 lead. Then in the top of the eighth and stole a two-run homer in off of first baseman Brandon Allen to end the inning.

Taking the sports world and yet another NFL franchise hostage for the second consecutive offseason, The Quarterback Who Shall Not Be Named has officially become the quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings signing a one-year deal worth between $10 to $12 million. A day after the Fox Sport's Jay Glazer reported the rumors, it has come true one day later. Former Vikings wide receiver and current ESPN NFL analyst Cris Carter also reports that TQBWSNBN will also start in the Viking's preseason game on Friday against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Sorry for being so neglectful recently. It seems like everything exploded in the sports world in the last week or so. So here's a round up rather than reading about how the Dodgers and Angels lost Wednesday night.

Dylan Hernandez, the 28-year-old Dodgers beat writer for the Los Angeles Times, is set to embark on his second full season covering the team. The native Southern Californian and graduate of UCLA has worked for a slew of papers before the Times hired him in 2007. He recently ended one of the more difficult periods in his professional life: covering the Manny Ramirez saga for the Times through sleepless nights and hundreds of stories. I recently caught up with him about the rigors of covering the sport, how traditional sports journalism has been affected by baseball bloggers and what has to happen for the Dodgers to resign Manny Ramirez.

Notable Notes

Dallas Stars defeat Anaheim Ducks 4-0. 11 penalties by the Ducks, excellent penalty killing by the Stars. That's the story of the game. The Stars score all four goals during the power play, and the Ducks just couldn't get anything going. The Ducks only had 23 shots-on-goal compared to the 37 by the Stars. This was not the way the Ducks wanted to start their defense of the Stanley Cup.

• An investigation by the Daily News found that, as the DWP has increased rates they continue to issue cars to more than 100 employees who are free to take them home. Proponents of the program say the cost of the vehicles is offset by the tax breaks the department receives from the hybrids they drive. Other people say, You're shitting me, right? Stop wasting my money.
• The LA Times had their own investigation party too. The paper found that about 33,000 state inmates served longer than they should have because they were not given all the time off they earned for good behavior and for working in prison. Hey, those license plates don't make themselves.
• In a scene straight out of "Ferris Beuler's Day Off," a valet crashed a Corvette during a joy ride Friday night in Van Nuys. Uh, what country do you think this is?
• A dead body was found on the 10 freeway this morning. Authorities say the body was already dead when they arrived and there is no truth to the rumor that it was Hillary Clinton's campaign.
• Pitchers and catchers reported to Spring Training last week and position players are due to arrive at camp soon. Let the season of sports writing begin. Tony Jackson shows you why you shouldn't mind the fact that the Dodgers don't have Don Mattingly as their hitting coach and Bill Plaschke writes lovingly of Matt Kemp: "He gets a plate full of catfish nuggets. I get a side dish of insight." How many days of this crap will we be forced to endure?
• Tomorrow is Presidents' Day. How will you celebrate? It won't be at these places, which will be closed tomorrow.
• Also closing tomorrow is the Kanye contest on LAist. Enter to win tix to what could be the second best show of the year (Radiohead is reportedly coming to L.A. in August).

• With exactly one year to go until a new president is inaugurated (and one more year of Jon Stewart's hilarious Bush headlines), the field of Republican hopefuls just got smaller. After poor showings in, well, every primary, caucus and poll, San Diego Congressman Duncan Hunter is ditching the presidential race. No word on what he will do now, but rumors are flying that Hunter will continue to build that fence along the Mexican border he started months ago.
• And speaking of the election, Gov. Arnold is holding off on endorsing a Republican candidate, preferring to stay "neutral." For now. Some are postulating that Schwarzenegger is waiting to endorse someone in the Republican field to see if his friend and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an Independent, will enter the race.
• It's been a rough Saturday night/Sunday morning in LA County as 11 people have been shot at two separate parties in Long Beach and Compton. The first shooting happened late Saturday at a birthday party in Long Beach, when several gang members apparently crashed the party and started a fight. The second shooting took place early Sunday in Compton, when four or five men turned up to a party and started shooting partygoers, shooting eight and leaving three in critical condition.
• Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is expected to address the Chatsworth/Porter Ranch State of the Community Breakfast next month. It's the first time the mayor will speak to the group about issues affecting the area. Yawn. The interesting thing about this is that in the the Daily News headline, they referred to the mayor by his first name: "Antonio to speak to area chamber." I didn't know the Daily News and the mayor were such good friends.
• The Dodgers will play two March exhibition games against the Padres in Beijing. While some veteran players are privately saying they don't want to go, Matt Kemp sounds downright giddy about the trip. I hope the old versus young rift that ripped through the clubhouse late last season does not carry over into this season. Isn't this why we go Joe Torre?
• Several gay porn sites have posted pictures of under age water polo players from Orange, LA and San Diego counties without them knowing. Authorities think a campus police dispatcher may have played a role in taking the pictures. Gives a whole meaning to block that ball, doesn't it?

As winds died down Sunday, firefighters gained the upper hand on the Malibu blaze that burned at least 49 homes and sent thousands fleeing. It is now 70% contained and officials expect full containment by Tuesday. The damage could run close to $100 million. Firefighters rescued a father and his 4-year-old son in a Sun Valley home that burned down this morning. The father got his wife and daughter out of the house, but,...

I hesitantly went to the Dodger game against the Giants this past Friday. The only reason I went was because it was a fundraiser for my friend’s school. Thankfully the Dodgers won the game 8-3 which is a better result than the last several games I attended. But if you want me to remember anything about the game you’ve got me. Sadly the only memorable thing was seeing that High School Musical actorhomo being...

Fuck Bill Plaschke. Fuck TJ Simers. Fuck the LA Times. Fuck Grady Little. Fuck Ned Colletti. Fuck Frank McCourt. Fuck Jeff Kent. Fuck the Dodgers. When I read Plaschke’s column Wednesday morning that basically put Matt Kemp in the hangman’s noose, my blood started to boil. How does he have the unmitigated gall to scapegoat Kemp and let the veterans have a free pass just because they have “experience”? This entire mess became public...

After I declared the Dodger season over last week, they go and make me look like a complete asshole by winning the next four games in convincing fashion. But thanks to the Giants, I didn’t look like a complete asshole. As the Dodgers won game after game, the Giants tanked game after game against the wild card leading Padres. With each win instead of inching closer to the postseason, they were merely jogging on...

Guess who popped up with the Padres Tuesday? If you guessed Brett Tomko you would be right. Talk about tit for tat, the Padres acquired Tomko when he cleared waivers after being released by the Dodgers. If you remember, the Dodgers did the same when the bowling ball that is David Wells was released by the Padres. Collective dumpster diving much? Tomko, who had gotten the most boos at Dodger Stadium second to Barry...

It's a national holiday, so we got this one posted a little late. For those of you wondering why we're not inundating you with USC coverage, that's because I'm posting All Things Trojan over at latimes.com. If you'd like to help us do some Trojan coverage here, drop me a line at adam@laist.com. Also, "LAst Night's Action" is only posting about three times a week but will return to a regular M-F schedule starting September...

The Dodgers squandered a good chance to gain some ground in the division and wild card races last night in a 6-4 loss against the Padres. Here the Dodgers faced starting pitcher Jack Cassell making his first major league start, and they did nothing to make him work in the first several innings. The first batter to get a three-ball count was Russell Martin in the fourth when he hit an RBI single that...

Did anyone feel that earthquake and aftershock last night at around 6:30? According to seismologists the epicenter was the first baseline at Shea Stadium in Queens, NY. The rumbles started after the newest oldest Dodger pitcher David Wells laid a bunt down the third baseline and tromped to first base to beat out the throw. The aftershock occurred later in the inning when Matt Kemp hit a bloop single to right field. David Wells...

The Dodgers hitters shortened up their swings. They were a bit more patient at the plate. They hit with runners in scoring position. And most importantly of all the Dodgers won a game! In fact Tubby got the first victory for a Dodger’s starting pitcher since July 26th when he posted a 5-4 at Colorado. Now Tubby didn’t have his best stuff. The Astros managed to get 10 hits off of him in six...

What will it take for the Dodgers to score a run? I’ll give Grady Little some credit in tweaking the lineup a little in Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to the Reds. Juan Pierre was the leadoff batter with Rafael Furcal hitting second. Andre Ethier was put in the fifth spot, and Luis Gonzalez was given the night off. But that’s about all the credit I’ll give him for now. Something that absolutely confuses me is...

Angels 3, Devil Rays 0 - LAnaheim avoided the sweep in Tampa and ended a three game losing streak. Kelvim Escobar's fifth straight win came on 7.2 innings of scoreless work. The Halos had three doubles in the game, but haven't gone yard in 114 innings. Mets 13, Dodgers 9 - The Dodgers slipped into a first place tie with San Diego, but it wasn't due to a lack of offense. The team had 19...

Anyone who follows sports knows about the losing history of Philadelphia teams. Since the Philadelphia 76ers won the NBA finals in 1983 no Philadelphia team has won a championship.

Dodgers 10, Phillies 3 - Imagine how good the Dodgers would be if Jason Schmidt were healthy. On Monday it was another All Star, Brad Penny, who notched his 11th win of the season and gave the Blue Crew their 5th in a row. Jeff Kent and Matt Kemp each contributed a three-run shot. The Phillies trailed by as many as nine en-route to their MLB leading 10,001st franchise loss. Beckham Watch - There's drama...

The Dodgers are all right.

How does a team score two runs when a batter with two outs strikes out swinging?

The Dodgers must really not like Derek Lowe.

Which team has the best record in the National League? Two teams share this distinction: the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

A message from Major League Baseball before I start this drivel. For one lucky baseball loving, red blooded, testosterone raging man or lesbian comes an opportunity of a lifetime. He/she gets a DATE WITH ALYSSA MILANO!