By Steven Booth
Jeff Passan became officially the first rat to jump off the Titanic Dodger Bandwagon. In true courageous fashion, he jumped on them with two articles, one slamming Joe Torre, and the other going after Manny Rameriz for showering as his team had its heart ripped out by Jimmy Rollins’s game-wiining double off os a shaky Jonathan Broxton.
As far as his first comment goes, Torre has had his mind-boggling moments in the playoffs, most notably his hanging Clayton Kershaw out to dry in Game 1, but overall, he has done a great job this year. Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier became frontline players this year, and their is a calm and professionalism in the clubhouse this year which hasn’t been seen in many years. Whatever happens against the Phillies this year, the Dodgers should be a force to be reckoned with for many years to come. While a loss to the Phillies would be, and perhaps will be a dissapointment, it’s not Torre’s fault that he has a thrown-together starting rotation and a declining Manny Rameriz.
Passan also says that Torre’s disappearance has also enabled the Yankees to go to greater things. It’s actually C.C. Sabathia, Mark Texeria, and a healthy A.J. Burnett that has helped them. Without those guys, the Yankees wouldn’t be much better than the also-rans they were last year. Alex Rodriguez’s post-season improvement may or may not be attributed to Torre’s absence, but chances are they’d still be rolling, even if ARod’s primary concerns were still purple lipstick and banging Madonna.
As far as the Manny thing goes, it’s just Manny being Manny. Manny has generally been a good citizen in Los Angeles (steroid suspension aside). I don’t think the guys in the clubhouse gave Manny’s shower even a second thought. His declining bat speed and inability to hit inside stuff are the real concerns, especially for a guy who the team is stuck with next year. While Passan had a point in his criticism, Manny is such a predictable target and the Dodger postseason woes have made them seem like a wounded elk, Passan is scraping the barrel creativity-wise, acting more like a vulture than a wolf. Hard for me to beleive there wasn’t more riveting topics out there.
The Dodgers may very well be done. The optimist inside of me says if they weasel out a victory tonight, and get it back to L.A., they may have a shot. But the Phillies are on a roll, and this may very well be it for the Blue. You only wish the vultures would wait another couple of days.
