Manny could reverse curse of the Dodgers' bad moves
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 2 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
On so many levels, the big deal really was a no-brainer. The franchise that's gone from brilliant to brainless just made a trade for a player who often seems to act like he doesn't have a brain in his head.
As great a hitter and RBI guy as he is – and he's now the most feared batter in the National League West, certainly – Manny Ramirez isn't one of those ballplayers who gets by on guile. Neither do the Los Angeles Dodgers, meaning, the Dodgers who've won one playoff game since 1988 because they've stupidly kept bringing in expensive duds like Nomar Garciaparra, Juan Pierre, Jason Schmidt and Andruw Jones, and basically just paid them to eat.
More Chris Jenkins Columns
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 2 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Manny could reverse curse of the Dodgers' bad moves: On so many levels, the big deal really was a no-brainer. The franchise that's gone from brilliant to brainless just made a trade for a player who often seems to act like he doesn't have a brain in his head.
July 27 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
No boppers no worry for Halos: Honestly, now. There's only one major league club west of Minneapolis that you'd call a pennant contender – in either league. And that one club, the Los Angeles Angels of Wherever, makes almost no sense whatsoever.
July 20 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Suzuki's salty pep talk not lost in translation: Even with cameras in the All-Star clubhouses, Fox couldn't have shown the traditional pregame pep talk given the American League by perennial All-Star right fielder Ichiro Suzuki.
July 13 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
While Maddon's witty, Rays no longer a joke: Funny season. Funny thing. The Tampa Bay Rays used to play baseball like a vaudeville act, and their skipper failed to see the humor in it.
July 6 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Homerfest is right up Berkman's power alley: Not only should he be the starting first baseman for the National League in the All-Star Game, but Lance Berkman of the Houston Astros also has committed to take part again in the Home Run Derby, a decision that's sure to get even more people busting on the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez for withholding his participation in the slugfest at Yankee Stadium.
June 29 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Even Padres have a shot in abysmal NL West: After two-plus weeks of playing some of the sufferin'est teams in the American League – the Detroit Tigers, the Cleveland Indians, the Seattle Mariners – the Padres get to spend the upcoming week playing the two clubs that played in last year's National League Championship Series.
June 22 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Send in the Christians; Colosseum nearly built: Yankee Stadium, as we've known it most of our lives, is about to become a softball field. Surely, that semi-sketchy part of the Bronx will have the most hallowed parks-and-rec complex in America, not to mention some of the more interesting ghosts.
June 15 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Zumaya set for return this Friday at Petco: Signs of reconstruction from last fall's raging wildfires can be found all over San Diego County. As fate and the interleague schedule would have it, another might show up next weekend at Petco Park – specifically, in the visiting clubhouse.
June 8 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
All-Star nod a no-brainer for Braves' Jones, at last: It's the second week in June and Chipper Jones is still doing his Ted Williams thing, but from both sides of the plate. Having just become only the third switch-hitter with 400 career home runs – previously achieved by no less than Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray – the Atlanta Braves star entered yesterday's games batting .421 and climbing.
June 1 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Padres not alone as unpleasant surprises: The last thing any team or player – or human being, for that matter – wants to hear at times of struggle is that things could be worse. Even when it's true.
May 25 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
NL looking a lot more offensive this season: At ballparks throughout the major leagues, it's become as much a part of the batting-practice scene as the maxi-decibel thump-thump of hip-hop and screaming rage of rap metal, mixed with the more romantic crack of maple bats.
May 18 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Another La Russa innovation hits mark: The St. Louis Cardinals are at Petco Park this week for three games, their first against the Padres since early August in what became an extremely pivotal series for the Redbirds. Perhaps for all of baseball, too, if everyone starts thinking like Tony La Russa again.
May 11 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
A bitter harvest for Gagne, Brewers: Heaven knows Eric Gagne has made himself an easy target. Especially for hitters. Walkers, too. Heck, for everybody.
May 4 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
D-Backs can chill the champagne ... probably: Let's not assert that the Padres should just pack it in now. Nor that the Dodgers and Rockies and Giants should, either. We can't say with full conviction that if you're not the Arizona Diamondbacks, your chances of winning the NL West are zero.
April 27 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Speed? Zito seeks new spots to fix arm woes: Cattily, I'd say to you, there is yet another explanation why the Padres don't have more wins in 2008, why they're in last place in the division, trailing even the San Francisco Giants. That explanation has nothing to do with Trevor Hoffman or bullpens or lineups or Petco Park or the price of watered-down suds.
April 20 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Suddenly, K.C. armed to rise from the depths: When coming into this world with the name Jimmy Gobble, you're unfairly assured of a lifetime of hearing “Pardon me?” and snickers and suppressed guffaws. Being a major league baseball veteran of five-plus years, too, Gobble thought he'd heard every possible nickname.
PHOENIX, April 13 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Nowadays Snakes are striking for distance: Pitch, pitch, pitch. In the eyes of fans, that's all the front office cared about, all the general manager ever did to improve the club. Build a team with pitching, reinforce the pitching, then add better pitching.
April 11 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
History shows Tigers aren't out of trouble: Whew. That was close. Ten days into the regular season, the preseason favorite Detroit Tigers were just one loss away from elimination for a postseason berth.
April 6 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Hypocrisy will abound at AT&T tomorrow: If they have even one iota of mental muscle memory, the Padres reflexively will be looking this way and that tomorrow, trying to find any sign of Barry Lamar Bonds at AT&T Park. They'll find almost none.
Feb. 11 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Steroid allegations overshadow rites of spring: Considering what has taken place in baseball during the 2007-08 offseason – i.e., the way the Hot Stove League was chilled considerably by the winter-long focus on performance-enhancing drugs – there's a different air about the rhapsodic ritual that is spring training.
Jan. 20 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Together in Hall of Shame?: If it all ended today, if both their baseball careers and the controversies consuming them went no further, if enough Hall of Fame voters were giving the maximum benefit of the doubt, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds could be the Cooperstown Class of '13.
Dec. 19 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Padres atypically quiet on the western drug front: Before they were on the same team, literally, they were on the same panel. Kevin Towers was general manager of the Padres, Sandy Alderson a high-ranking executive of Major League Baseball, and they found themselves sitting next to each other as panel-mates summoned to testify before a Congressional committee on steroid use in sports.
Nov. 15 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Peavy's numbers Cy Young worthy: He has led the major leagues in the statistic that's ostensibly the true measure of a pitcher, earned-run average. Twice, in fact.
Nov. 11 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Pitching shortage = dumb & dumber: Happens every year about this time. Major league baseball invokes the law of supply and duhhh-mand. That is, there's such a shortage of good pitching it turns clubs stupid.
