Joe Torre coming to the Dodgers?

[dd74]

Not much of a story, but the raw facts are here. If I were Grady Little, I'd start clearing out my desk.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21532095/

[Porsche-O-Phile]

That'd be cool. I actually like Torre. More so now that he told $teinbrenner to go "F" himself (I'm sure he used politer words).

[dd74]

Would you mind if A-Rod came along, too?

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Fine by me. Gets him out of the AL.

[BertBeagle]

Grady Little is a great manager.

What do the folks in LA think of him?

[Wickd89]

Finally the dodgers are thinking championship ball.
Torres, and Al Rod would be great.

Just got to get rid of all the stupid loud music at the stadium and LA could be back to playing Baseball.

When going to a game it seems like a freekin' mariachi band competition.

[dd74]

Originally Posted by Wickd89

When going to a game it seems like a freekin' mariachi band competition.

LOL!

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by Wickd89

Finally the dodgers are thinking championship ball.
Torres, and Al Rod would be great.

Just got to get rid of all the stupid loud music at the stadium and LA could be back to playing Baseball.

When going to a game it seems like a freekin' mariachi band competition.

+1 to that. I used to love going to Dodger Stadium but the last 2-3 years it's turned into what the Angels used to be under Disney. It was obnoxious as hell.

Dodger stadium is a great park - kinda' old school, a bit like Fenway in that regard. You go there to sit down and see a ball game, not have non-stop stimulus for the retarded public. Between the "guess which ball the shell is under on the jumbo-tron", the "guess which car will win the race on the jumbo-tron", the "kiss-cam", the "family cam", the "cute baby cam" and all the other crap it was worse than being at a convention for ADD sufferers.

I can sit through the length of a commercial break with no "fan entertainment". Really. It'd be fine with me.

[Wickd89]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

+1 to that. I used to love going to Dodger Stadium ....It was obnoxious as hell.

Dodger stadium is a great park - kinda' old school, a bit like Fenway in that regard. You go there to sit down and see a ball game, not have non-stop stimulus for the retarded public. Between the "guess which ball the shell is under on the jumbo-tron", the "guess which car will win the race on the jumbo-tron", the "kiss-cam", the "family cam", the "cute baby cam" and all the other crap it was worse than being at a convention for ADD sufferers.

I can sit through the length of a commercial break with no "fan entertainment". Really. It'd be fine with me.

So, So true. That is what makes college baseball so awesome.

I stopped following baseball after the strike, but I fell in love with the game after moving to North NJ and going to some Yankee games in the Bronx. Great ballpark, great real fans, etc..

Visiting the current Dodger stadium is like hell on earth.
I am obviously not the type of fan they want.

Hope they go back to the basics some day!!

[dd74]

Damn! Someone's spreading rumors that the Torre deal can go down tomorrow, and Mattingly is coming with Torre as the bench coach. It just played on the local sports news.

Also playing: Kobe ain't gonna' be a Laker much longer.

Gee whiz! What's next? Pete Carroll's leaving USC to coach the Raiders?

[Dan in Pasadena]

I've got no problem with Torre and of course Mattingly would be heir apparent; Joe's already 67 so who's kidding who. I feel kinda bad for Grady though. He's a hell of a decetn guy and is a winner. Even though I like him I did find myself questioning some of his moves as well, inexplicable. And his old bugaboo of sticking with pitchers too long was always there. But of course he didn't have much of a starting rotation t owork with this year afet Scmidt and Wof and Kuo all went down.

My guess is this signing is an obvious signal the Dodgers will go after Arod a lot more seriously than I thought they would . I figured us for Mike Lowell after Arod went to the Bosox....guess we'll see!

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I like Grady Little too. And he's a decent manager. His undoing was the 2003 decision to stick with Pedro Martinez in the ALCS game against the Yankees - a game the Red Sox SHOULD have won - handily. Sox fans have not forgiven him about that to this day - and probably won't ever. So he heads off to the land of the Blue Sox with many of his former players and puts up horrible results. The Dodgers are downright dreadful now, so unfortunately, although he's a likeable guy and arguably the lack of success with the Dodgers might be for reasons other than him, I suspect his days are numbered.

[Dan in Pasadena]

I REALLY disagree that the Dodgers are "dreadful" right now. They're now in a position to be as good as they have been at any time since the 70's when they had a largely homegrown stable of talent - Garvey, Lopes, Cey, Russell, Baker, Reggie Smith, Yeager.

Kemp, Loney, Ethier AND Martin appear poised for .300+/20-30/80-100 seasons. That's nothing to sniff at. If they'd just friggin move Pierre to leftfield and bat leadoff with a healthy Furcal behind him with more power we'd have a dynamite setup for the middle of a killer batting order. This alone would make them drammatically better. Of course throw a Miquel Cabrera, Mike Lowell, or (please God) ARod in that lineup at 3B and they'd be the favorite to win the pennant.

Every team needs more pitching but some combo of Penny, Lowe, Billingsley, Schmidt, Wolf (yes, he'll be back) and Kuo gives them that without signing anyone and you can expect to see Clayton Kershaw on the big club too after the All Star break if not out of spring. Having said all that, they need to sign a pitcher too.

I'll agree they finished 2007 dreadfully. That was primarily due to Grady losing the clubhouse over the issue of the veterans vs. the kid's playing time. But they were in first place or nearly so up until about July 25th or so. That's most of the season and NOT done by a "dreadful" team.

[Overpaid Slacker]

Hey, it'd give me a reason to watch one National League team!

JP

[Porsche-O-Phile]

They finished 82-80. BARELY over .500 with the talent they have. Sorry, but that's dreadful. They need to seriously restructure over the next couple of seasons. Getting Torre in might be a good start. Going after some good pitching would be another. Losing Gagne was a blow (maybe the Sox will give him back free of charge).

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Sox fans have not forgiven him about that to this day - and probably won't ever.

It's still a sore topic for Sox fans. Maybe not Bill Buckner painful, but pretty sore nonetheless.

[dd74]

Buckner was the worst. Didn't he commit suicide after that?

[Porsche-O-Phile]

The tragedy of it was that Buckner was a damn good player overall. But he's only remembered for that one gaffe.

Last I heard he was living in Idaho or someplace running a baseball camp for kids.