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Showing posts with label los angeles dodgers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label los angeles dodgers. Show all posts
Los Angeles Dodgers: 2025 World Series Champions
TORONTO -- The landing spot was a familiar one for this building in this setting. But the prevailing sound as Will Smith rounded the bases was that of silence.
Smith’s go-ahead solo shot off Shane Bieber in the top of the 11th stunned the Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre crowd Saturday night, as the Dodgers broke hearts and broached dynasty status with a comeback 5-4 victory in a Game 7 of the World Series that lived up to its lofty billing and merited its own month on the MLB calendar.
The Dodgers are repeat champs, thanks to both Smith, who smacked the first extra-inning home run in a winner-take-all in World Series history, and Miguel Rojas, who tied the tilt with a solo shot in the top of the ninth, hitting heroic homers to virtually the same spot where Joe Carter had once ended a Toronto title triumph. And thanks to the durable Yoshinobu Yamamoto -- named World Series MVP -- coming on in relief on zero days’ rest and stranding the tying run at third in a scoreless bottom of the 11th.
Alejandro Kirk hit into the game-ending double play, which the Dodgers turned before meeting near the mound for a well-earned celebration at the conclusion of an epic World Series.
"Man, this is a special group of guys," Smith said. "We just never gave up, kept fighting, pitching our [butts] off, hitting, taking great at-bats, finally punched through there. Man, that was a fight for seven games -- that’s a really good Toronto Blue Jays team. Oh, man. I’m just excited. There’s nothing better than this.”
The Blue Jays had come so close to capping their first crown since Carter and Co. won it all in 1992-93, but instead it was the Dodgers becoming the first MLB club to mount a successful title defense since the 1998-2000 Yankees.
Rojas’ game-tying blast off Toronto closer Jeff Hoffman in the top of the ninth ultimately made this just the sixth Game 7 in history – and the first since the Cubs-Cleveland classic in 2016 – to go to extra innings. It was a fitting end to a World Series in which these two evenly matched teams had exhausted each other for 18 innings in Game 3.
The finale was baseball at its best, two evenly matched teams going the distance in the Series and in Game 7 itself to determine a champion.
Heavily favored coming in, the loaded Dodgers wound up having to pull out all the stops – and all the starters – to take down a tough Toronto team that had been just two outs from glory.
Bo Bichette’s three-run blast off Shohei Ohtani in the third had Rogers Centre rocking, and Ernie Clement slid in at home with a valuable sixth-inning insurance run on an Andrés Giménez double, just two innings after tensions flared and benches and bullpens cleared when Giménez was plunked by a pitch.
The Dodgers, though, came up with the late- and extra-inning answers.
This Game 7 had pitted two compromised future Cooperstowners against each other: Ohtani going on short rest after, you know, also DH’ing a night earlier, and Max Scherzer, at 41, becoming the oldest Game 7 starter in history.
So no one was expecting the second coming of 1991 Jack Morris to take place (though Morris, along with Paul Molitor, did throw out a ceremonial first pitch).
Still, it was fascinating to watch these luminaries try to gut through Game 7 as long as their managers would let them.
Scherzer immediately surrendered an Ohtani leadoff single in the first and recorded some loud outs in the first two innings, but it was Ohtani who blinked first by surrendering the Bichette blast that knocked him out of the ballgame.
An inning prior to his homer heroics, Bichette had led off the second with a walk and advanced to second on an Addison Barger single. But two outs later, when Clement ripped his 28th hit of the postseason, Bichette, still compromised by the bum left knee that had him off the Blue Jays’ ALDS and ALCS rosters, was only able to advance to third. It cost Toronto a run, as Ohtani struck out Giménez with the bases loaded.
In the third, though, Bichette would not need to run. Ohtani gave up a leadoff single to George Springer, who moved to second on Nathan Lukes’ sacrifice bunt. With first-base open, Ohtani – in a change in roles, after he himself had been intentionally walked five times in this Series – gave Vladimir Guerrero Jr. a fast pass to first.
So up came Bichette, the pending free-agent who paired with Guerrero as a cornerstone callup in 2019. Whereas Guerrero is locked in for life, Bichette’s future with the Jays is unknown. Except that now he’ll be remembered here forever for what he did to Ohtani’s first-pitch slider.
Bichette obliterated the ball, 442 feet to left-center, then watched it fly as he slowly inched toward first and emphatically dropped his bat. It was the third-longest home run of Bichette’s career and the second-longest Ohtani, whose night on the mound was now over, has allowed in his career.
As for the sound in Rogers Centre as Bichette trotted home with the 3-0 lead, well, that can’t be calculated. But even with the roof above, you could probably hear it across the border in Buffalo.
It would take much more than that to win this one, though.
Scherzer pitched himself into a bases-loaded jam in the fourth, but manager John Schneider trusted the veteran to get out of it, and all Scherzer allowed was the Teoscar Hernández sacrifice fly to center that made it 3-1. The inning showcased the Blue Jays’ MLB-best defense, with Daulton Varsho making a terrific diving catch in center on the Hernández liner to prevent extra bases, and Guerrero making a great pick in foul territory near first of a Tommy Edman liner to escape the inning.
Things got testy in the bottom of the fourth, when Dodgers reliever Justin Wrobleski threw up and in on three consecutive pitches to Giménez. When the last one plunked Giménez, he and Wrobleski jawed at each other, and both benches cleared. Warnings were issued to both teams.
Though the Dodgers would keep pressing by manufacturing another run off Chris Bassitt on a sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth, Giménez, perhaps channeling his emotion from earlier, gave the Jays some needed separation in the bottom of the inning.
After Clement, who would go on to set a new single postseason hits record (31), led off with a single off Tyler Glasnow and stole second, Giménez smacked a line-drive double to right, and Clement lost his helmet as he hustled home and slid in safely to make it 4-2.
The Jays turned to their rookie wonder Trey Yesavage to protect that lead in the seventh, and, after walking Ohtani, he got help from his defense when Guerrero fielded a Freddie Freeman grounder and gamely initiated a 3-6-3 double play to end the inning.
Plays like that were monumental in a nip-and-tuck nail-biter befitting its Game 7 stature. Yesavage bent a bit when Max Muncy pounded his splitter out to right for a solo shot in the eighth to make it 4-3, but he quickly shook that off to retire Hernández for the second out of the inning before turning it over to Hoffman for the four-out save opportunity.
Hoffman retired Edman on a groundout to end the eighth, and he got Kiké Hernández swinging for the first out of the ninth.
But after working the count full, Rojas added yet another layer of drama to this epic Series with his solo swat to left. As the ball landed in roughly the same spot as Carter’s famous blast from ‘93, the Dodger dugout erupted and the home crowd groaned.
It was a brand new ballgame going into the bottom of the ninth.
"Yeah, I wasn’t trying to hit a home run," Rojas said. " I think this is my first home run against a right-handed pitcher during the whole year, and it came to the biggest part of my life and my career, in front of these fans and the city of L.A. and my teammates. Kinda like, battling and I can’t really describe right now the emotions that I feel, not just starting the game but giving the opportunity to bring Yamamoto for another spectacular performance. That guy is everything you can ask for. I have to put my teammates in front of me because I wouldn’t have been able to do whatever I did today without the confidence of Doc, my teammates and everybody that believed in me."
Though ninth-inning leadoff man Guerrero’s bid to cap his epic postseason with a walk-off winner died just in front of the warning track in center, Bichette came through again with a one-out single off Games 1 and 5 starter Blake Snell to set the table. Barger then drew a walk, and the Dodgers turned to yet another one of their starters – Yamamoto, who had shined in Games 2 and 6 – on precisely zero days’ rest.
Yamamoto immediately plunked catcher Alejandro Kirk with a pitch to load the bases. Varsho ripped a ground ball to second base, but Rojas added to his great game with a great play, firing home in time to nab pinch-runner Isiah Kiner-Falefa. A replay review upheld the out.
And when Clement came up with two outs and gave the ball a ride to left-center, Andy Pages was able to run it down and make the catch despite colliding with teammate Kiké Hernández to end the inning and send it off to extras.
It was tight in the top of the 10th. The Dodgers loaded the bases with one out against Seranthony Domínguez. But Pages grounded to short, and Giménez fielded it and made a perfect strike home to nab Mookie Betts with the second out. Then, when Kiké Hernández bounced one to the right-hand side, Guerrero fielded it and flipped to Domínguez covering at first just in time for Domínguez to get his left foot on the bag for the third out.
The room exhaled, momentarily.
But after Yamamoto kept the Jays quiet in the bottom of the 10th, Toronto turned to starter Bieber in the 11th. Bieber got the first two outs, but he hung a slider over the middle to Smith, who swung hard and forever etched his name into October lore.
FFXIV Misadventures: All Saints Wake 2025 (With Bonus Hunt Coverage)
#GoDodgers #NLCS #WorldSeries #FFXIV #AllSaintsWake
Los Angeles Dodgers, all of them, are World Series champs
Los Angeles Dodgers, all of them, are World Series champs
Bradford Doolittle, ESPN Staff Writer
Oct 31, 2024, 02:32 AM ET
NEW YORK -- The 2024 World Series is over: Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers are champions in five games, the first title for him and, for the team, the eighth in franchise history.
There were heroes and goats, as there are in every Fall Classic, but no storybook showdown of Ohtani versus Aaron Judge. There were dramatic grand slams, stunning comebacks and horrible defensive miscues. The New York Yankees' title drought reached 15 years, and their captain, Judge, faced struggles that sometimes reached nightmarish levels.
In the end, what we got was a pure baseball matchup decided by baseball factors, and mostly by the fact the Dodgers had more good players than their opponent. They earned it -- as a group.
"They were the better team in this series," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, while praising his own heartbroken club.
This championship, and the way Los Angeles achieved it, is less about the names on the marquee and more because of the ensemble. It belongs to them all, as much to the supporting cast of Teoscar Hernandez, Gavin Lux and Max Muncy as to Ohtani and fellow stars Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts. To anonymous relievers as much as more heralded starters such as Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jack Flaherty. None of this is by accident. The Dodgers won this way because they were built to win this way.
Every season, the Dodgers rank near the top of the majors in categories such as rookie WAR and in total appearances on the transaction wire. Think about that: With all of the resources poured into the L.A. payroll -- the Dodgers spent more than $1 billion this past offseason -- the Andrew Friedman-led front office never stops tweaking the roster mix, addressing needs both immediate and imagined. The Dodgers excel at turning other teams' excesses into gold, with journeymen such as Ryan Brasier, Brent Honeywell and Anthony Banda becoming crucial contributors to the bullpen. Every bit as much attention is paid to the bottom 10 slots on the 40-man roster as it is to the top three.
"It's about getting the right players, the right people," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "Talent is a lot, but it's not everything. You still have to be cohesive. I just think we do a great job of getting the right players in our clubhouse."
The Dodgers have as much star power as any team we've seen in recent years, but they could never be accused of taking a stars-and-scrubs approach, or constructing a top-heavy roster. Depth or stars? We'll have both, thank you.
"We have a culture here at the big league level," Roberts said. "But the scouting and player development is second to none."
After a second title in five years, the Dodgers, from top to bottom, are what Roberts says -- second to none.
Los Angeles Dodgers: 2024 World Series Champions
NEW YORK -- To win it all, the Dodgers had to give it all. Had to stare down an ugly early deficit. Had to empty their bullpen. Had to rally against Gerrit Cole and then against the Yankees’ best relievers. Had to get a World Series-clinching save from starter Walker Buehler, of all people.
With an unflappable team effort, the Dodgers claimed their second World Series title in the last five years and their first in a full season since 1988 by beating the Yankees in Game 5 on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.
And in this 7-6 victory, they earned their champagne celebration the hard way, becoming the first team in a World Series-clinching win to come back from five or more runs.
The Dodgers' Road To Redemption
In a city reeling from the medical and economic devastation of the coronavirus pandemic, forced to restrict its celebrated freewheeling lifestyle and even robbed of the sacred ritual of a summer at Chavez Ravine, the Dodgers’ World Series victory felt like a vaccine — if only temporary — for 2020’s many miseries.
Dodger fans took to the streets and provided Los Angeles with a hearty fireworks show as the team won its first World Series since 1988.
On Sunset Boulevard down the hill from Dodger Stadium, drivers formed an impromptu parade, honking and cheering. Los Angeles police ordered people to leave the area and were attempting to push hundreds of people off the street. While the celebration was largely peaceful, some objects were thrown at police, and officer fired some rubber bullets.
Fans exploded fireworks amid the canyon of towers along downtown L.A.'s main streets as people converged in the city center by car, foot, bike and even skateboard. Police were also trying to control crowds there.
Huge crowds also converged on Whittier Boulevard, expressing their joy in what has been such a tough year. Hundreds crowded street in Pacoima, with cars doing doughnuts in intersections.
Caesar Maldonado, 44, has lived in Echo Park since 1982.
He watched the cars doing burnouts, the people climbing streetlights and remembered when he was 12 and the Dodgers last won the World Series. That year he and his friends went to downtown Los Angeles to celebrate. It was far rowdier.
“There was no COVID,” he said. “There were far more people out. It was a whole lot of fun.”
He couldn’t contain his excitement about the win, holding up his phone to show his friend what was happening on FaceTime as people crowded into the street screaming, “Let’s go Dodgers.”
“I can’t believe they won,” he said.
Just 4 years old when the Dodgers last won a championship, Fernando Hernandez Jr. stood outside his mother’s home in Boyle Heights in a delirium of happiness, clutching a half-empty bottle of Champagne.
“Pandemic champions, baby!” he shouted over the honks of cars rushing past on Soto Street. Queen’s “We Are the Champions” belted from a loudspeaker.
Hernandez, an office services coordinator for a law firm, marveled at the Dodgers’ ability to gut out the season, despite a pandemic that threw the league into disarray.
“There’s no asterisk to this championship at all, bro,” he said. “That was straight gutsy baseball.”
Officials urged Dodger fans to avoid crowds and practice social distancing when celebrating. L.A. County health authorities have blamed gatherings related to the Lakers’ and Dodgers’ championship season for spreading COVID-19 and preventing the county from reopening more quickly.
“Gatherings in large crowds to watch games indoors, people aren’t wearing their face coverings, people are yelling a lot — that’s just not sensible,” Los Angeles County Health Director Barbara Ferrer said recently.
Los Angeles police are also hoping to avoid a repeat of the problems that occurred in downtown after the Lakers victory. The celebrations turned rowdy, and more than 70 people were arrested. Police had closed off the main entrance to Dodger Stadium as well as Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore urged people Tuesday to celebrate a Dodgers win at home.
“They are safer at home. This COVID-19 virus is real,” he said. “There will be no tolerance for violence. There is no room in Los Angeles for people to commit vandalism."
As the final pitches were being delivered 1,400 miles away, fans that parked inside the Dodger Stadium’s parking lot stepped out of their cars in anticipation of jubilation.
They pulled out flags, banners, hopped up and down and then celebrated with screams and tears, in some cases, as the Dodgers won their first World Series in 32 years.
People from nearby cars hugged, others ran around high-fiving crowd of fans – most where masked, but others pulled down their facial coverings to scream.
Eventually, Los Angeles police in riot cleared the intersection of Vin Scully and Sunset. “The only people we want to see in blue are the dodgers,” one woman steamed.
Parties along Whittier Blvd. in East Los Angeles were also broken up by police, who asked fans to disperse.
Every year, Oscar Marquez saves his pocket change on the chance the Dodgers make the World Series. “Pennies, nickels, dimes — anything.”
It all goes in a big plastic jar, only to be shelled out on a ticket to watch his team vie for a championship at Dodger Stadium. The last time the Dodgers won it all, Marquez was 12, a student at Euclid Avenue Elementary in Boyle Heights.
For the next three decades, he would watch each season end in varying degrees of disappointment. This year, Marquez set aside $500 in his jar. But with a pandemic shifting the series to a neutral site, there were no hometown stadium tickets to buy. Instead, he put down his World Series fund on a bet.
He’s in line to collect about $1500, he said, standing on the corner of Whittier Boulevard and Lorena Street, surrounded by screaming fans and shouting above the screech of an orange Camaro doing donuts in the intersection. Health restrictions may have pushed some revelers outdoors who in ordinary times might have celebrated in a bar, but Johnny Aguilar, a Boyle Heights native, insisted that “whether there’s a pandemic or not, we’d be here. We’d be right here on this corner. This is a family.
”Felipe Herrera, who also grew up in Boyle Heights, described the neighborhod as “die hard.” “East LA bleeds blue,” Herrera said. And after season after season of “trying, trying, trying,” he added, “we finally got it.”
Mask on, Victor Argueta wore a special black Dodgers jersey he recently bought on EBay for $40.
Number 8 on front 24 on the back. The name on the back was Bryant. This year was marked by loss for the 30 year old. First Kobe who was his favorite player growing up in Echo Park. Then his mother who had cancer But then died in august from Coronavirus. “She was beating the cancer and doing better but then went into the hospital,” he said fighting back tears.“I didn’t get to see her again.”
When Mookie Betts hit his homer to extend the Dodgers lead in the eighth inning, he left his house and headed for Vin Scully Way. As he adjusted the mask on his face, a fresh tattoo of his mother, an immigrant from Mexico who worked at the Beverly Hills court house and loved her adopted city, was visible.“My mom would’ve loved to see this,” the house painter said.“She loved the Lakers and Dodgers so much.”
Los Angeles Dodgers: 2020 World Series Champions
Rays manager Kevin Cash raised his right arm, signaling for the bullpen. Tampa Bay starter Blake Snell bit his lip and shook his head. And the Dodgers smelled blood.
The Dodgers are World Series champions for the first time since 1988 because they seized their moment when Snell’s dominant Game 6 outing was controversially cut short Tuesday night at Globe Life Field. With a sudden offensive awakening against Rays reliever Nick Anderson in the sixth inning, the Dodgers won, 3-1, to claim their long-awaited crown and complete their domination of the shortest, strangest season in Major League Baseball history.
This was the ending the Dodgers expected when they pushed in their chips and placed Mookie Betts in an already loaded lineup. The ending that had evaded them in their World Series appearances in 2017 and ’18. When the coronavirus pandemic dramatically reshaped the length and look of the MLB season, the Dodgers mercilessly ran through their shuffled schedule with a .717 winning percentage (43-17).
When a new-look postseason format asked more of the division winners, the Dodgers ran roughshod over the Brewers in the National League Wild Card Series and the division-rival Padres in the NL Division Series and overcame a 3-1 deficit against the Braves in the NL Championship Series.
And when the Rays threatened to push this neutral-site World Series to a Game 7 behind an early Randy Arozarena homer (the rookie’s record 10th of a powerful postseason) and Snell’s fantastic first two turns through the order, the Dodgers pounded down the door the minute it was cracked ajar.
That moment arrived in the sixth inning. With one out, Snell allowed a line-drive single to Austin Barnes -- just the third ball he had let out of the infield in 5 1/3 innings of wowing work in which all of his pitches were on point. Snell had thrown just 73 pitches and recorded nine strikeouts.
But Cash showed fierce devotion to his pitching plan and went to his ‘pen as the lineup turned over for a third turn. Immediately, the move to Nick Anderson, who had allowed runs in six straight postseason appearances, backfired. Betts grounded a double down the left-field line to put runners at second and third. Then Anderson uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Barnes to score the tying run and advanced Betts to third. And when Corey Seager scooted a groundball to first, Betts took off on contact and slid in safely at the plate, ahead of Ji-Man Choi’s throw, to give the Dodgers the go-ahead.
Though the Dodgers’ own pitching plan had some early difficulty in the form of Arozarena’s first-inning homer of Tony Gonsolin, who was pulled after only five outs, the trail of relievers trotted out by manager Dave Roberts held the Rays scoreless for the remainder. Alex Wood’s two perfect innings allowed Roberts to align his most trusted options late. Betts’ monster solo shot in the eighth was an emphatic exclamation mark on his first season in Dodger blue, and Julio Urías’ 2 1/3 perfect innings finished off the seventh World Series title in franchise history.
"I guess the retard had a point..."
Aside from at least one co-worker making the ill-advised choice to take my clerical abilities for granted at work, I had the opportunity to talk with some naive young African-American women who, in spite of their clothing, afros and heavy make-up, decided to smoke in my face by the bus stop after my class. I told them, "Hey, can you move aside. You're smoking, and I would like to see some courtesy from you." One of these two, presumably twins (which bring up the question of how they were raised, et al.), said, "No, you step aside." "This is America. Everybody smokes," said the other. "Not everyone wastes away from lung cancer, ladies," I replied tersely. So as I got on the bus, flabbergasted from their ignorace and naiveness of the situation, they come out yappering about, "This guys is mentally ill," and all that sort of stuff. It's shocking to know that these undergrads (presumably freshman) from DeVry (or wherever, maybe even high schoolers or dropouts) have the courage to paint an MBA student from Keller with the "mentally ill" brush. This is a stigma that I have had to deal with, so I found it refreshing to know that they are talking out of their arses, and they don't even know it. "Your wombs will be garbage cans," I said. "Just let the local gangs come and blast you." I was referring to the health risks they put in from smoking cigarettes, and the gangs of carcinogens that come from it. Obviously they haven't a clue of what I'm talking about, because they think they can try to outtalk somebody who actually has common sense to know that quitting would be the best option for them, and that they place health risks on themselves and the people around them. Or rather, they choose to tune out this mentally ill guy wearing a orange polo with a green and blue sweatshirt, a black cap from his alma mater, Long Beach State, and olive slacks, not knowing that this unassuming fellow has a point. The bus driver has to come over to the back and let them know that there are others on the bus (me included) who would do better without their conversations. I don't wish the worst upon them; I am a person that doesn't see anything bad about them, except for their image and the fact that people who breathe secondhand smoke are ignored by these two girls. But at thre same time, I don't feel the least bit sorry for them if a situation like this occurs: years down the road, one of them finds out she has cancer, and they are trying to start a fund to pay for something that wouldn't have happened if they didn't smoke, or if they did, started quitting. And they are in the hospital dying of cancer, and they recall the day a long time ago, when they mocked the advice that this mentally ill MBA student wearing a orange polo with a green and blue sweatshirt, a black cap from his alma mater Long Beach State, and olive slacks, and they find out, that here they are, dying of cancer, and they start to wonder, "That guy we made fun of...I think he had a point." At this point in my life, I am putting my MBA to use, having swithced jobs to something that pays better, and maybe in spirit I'll say, "I told you so." But I probably won't. As far as I know, those two girls don't exist, and most likely, they won't if they follow the path they are walking. And there are millions of chain smokers out there who don't believe in the facts about smoking, and these two are part of that long line of people who follow that same wrong path. And while that brings closure, that becomes an afterthought with a snap of the fingers, and a click of the mouse. === Other stuff going on. Whoa. This day was just flat-out crap. Not only do I not get any raise in pay, but the Dodgers win while the Angels lose. Even things up, Ervin Santana.
"Is that all you can do!? TWELVE pushups? That's it? Man, get the hell outta here!"
In lieu of risking getting caught in friendly fire between some Bloods and Crips (and others) in the lovefest (as well as a lack of itinerary), I eschewed the historic first meeting between Lakewood High and Verbum Dei High at Centennial High in Compton to watch the Long Beach City College football team take on West L.A. College at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Little did I know that I got more than I bargained for.
To be honest, I had to sit out watching Viking football games last season because I was disgusted with losing my press credentials (leading to the self-imposed shutdown of my blog covering them and the other teams in the now-defunct Mission Football Conference). I didn't attend a single game. The only game I even went to at any level was the Lancers taking on the Tesoro Titans, and I wasn't quite pleased with the 2nd half effort from them.
It was good thing I didn;'t come, because they had a crappy final season for Jerry Jaso, who stepped down. In his place was a man named Mike Reisbig, the brother of Larry Reisbig, the LBCC Men's Athletic Director. He was an assistant for 16 seasons. He now had his chance to prove himself. After paying $8.00 for admission and media guide ($6.00 + $2.00), I took my seat behind the 50-yard line. In the background, the Oilers were doing some pregame ritual that was comparable (or maybe not) to Long Beach Poly. I just thought, "They have the bark, but we got the bite. And we're gonna keep chomping till the clock reads 0:00."
The first half was all my guys as they climbed to a 21-0 halftime lead. The first touchdown I did 7, the second 14, and so on. All of the first-half push-ups were in the wheelchair-accessible section where I had lots of space to do it correctly.
Interestingly, it was in front of the West L.A. supporters. Buy the time I completed 21, some irresponsible African-American mother of an at-risk youth just waiting to pay the price for being affiliated with the wrong people tried to break my back. Luckily, she failed, and I shoved her off. Now, she's trying to be a CSC Event Staffer, but she didn't do a good job at it (first off, she isn't donning her Event Staff garb, and she would have been best not to be in my way. Some mother she grew up to be in. Puts my dealings with my mom in perspective, when I think about it. My mom's issues arean't as bad as this woman's issues.) As I shoved her off, I got into a scuffle, with the brat rabbit-punching me. He said, "You hit my mom!" I said, "She deserved it. If she wasn't on my back, I wouldn't have defended myself! And is that your best punch, you son-of-a-bitch? My dad can hit harder than you. Weak! Pathetic! You're wasting your time here! I don't fear you lot, and I never will, scum!" Truth.
After discussions regarding the altercation (and the lack of security thereof) with an old friend from the Long Beach Union Weekly (now a writer for the Long Beach Post), as well as another old friend, Dr. John Fylpaa, and cooler heads from the West L.A. parents, I proceeded to do more pushups in the 2nd half. In total, I did 147.
I was shaking my head at the West L.A. kids trying to do pushups the way I did them. Note that they didn't score until 3 quarters and four seconds into the game (and a personal foul by one of my guys made that touchdown a gift). When they tried to do 7, I was not pleased. When you do a pushup, your back, legs, and head have to be straight. You push your weight at an agle. You don't bend your body like an asymptote, and risk straining your back. I had to school these kids in how it should be done. When they hit 14, they did a little bit better, but they only did 7. When they reached 21, the best they could do individually was 12. I said to they guy who did 12, "That's it? You scored 21 points, not 12. Get back here and do nine more!" He didn't, I said, "I can see why you attend West L.A., and not LBCC. Here, such half-assing will not cut the mustard." During my Tong days, failing to finish my pushups was something I couldn't do. The quality was what I was looking for, but the quality wasn't. And when we got the last touchdown, a fumble recovery by David Sausau after Lawrence Alai punished Oiler QB Ryan Rosenvall, I did 42, and I yelled across the bleachers, "NOw THAT'S how you do a push-up, West LA! Quality and quantity! Let's see if you can impress me on your next score."
Sure enough, they had a consolation touchdown, and I said, "All right kids, 28 pushups. Go!"
None of them went down.
"I said GO!"
Still none of them went down.
Now I was a little peeved, "Oh come on. Not a single one of you bother to try to do even one push-up. Of 28. Now we all know why you attend West Los Angeles College, and not LONG BEACH CITY COLLEGE! Because out here, even if we are losing, we'd still do those push-ups, as a morale boost at least. And all y'all gave up. Quitters. After this game is over, get the hell outta our stadium. For all your feistyness, you need to get in shape."
Only at Long Beach City College (and perhaps elsewhere) can you see an alum on the home side outdo youthful visitors on the visiting side in terms of push-ups. Personally, that's the first time it happened. I think I got some payback. And I was gonna applaud them for trying just one. I'm not even in shape, and I can still do 147.
Pep Band - Check.
Cheer Team - Check.
Better Football Team - Check.
I should thank my visiting team for having the old "Super Fan" side of me rear its down-and-dirty head again. I got fired up. Also I should thank Pechange for giving me some coffee. Man, I was starved to get my java. I need that. I really, really needed that.
One of the parents from West L.A. said, "You did well in standing your ground. Good job."
"Thanks, Lee." That was his name. "You know, I'll be honest. I didn't come here to fight anybody. I came here to watch a game, and do push-ups for every point we scored. That's it."
Nothing else.
===
Meanwhile, Verbum Dei was shut out by the Lancers, 34-0. It wasn't a good day for most of my teams, thought. LOng Beach State women's volleyball isn't cutting the mustard. While the defeated UC Davis today, they lost to Pacific in a sweep. Thw Angels are in danger of coming into the postseason on a losing note, effectively preventing me from coming to their rally on Monday. The Sparks also dropped a stinker to San Antonio on a buzzer-beater, while my Hawaii Warriors are clearly in a rebuilding phase, losing to San Jose State 20-17. AFc Wimbledon let a FA Cup win slip away against Bedford Town in the 89th minute, forcing a replay. And while AFC Liverpool defeated AFC Blackpool 6-3, it will take time for me to forgive them for failing in grandiose fashion to Waterloo Dock 6-1. The men's water polo team coached by Gavin Arroyo isn't doing themselves favors either, choking against Loyola Marymount in a rally failing short.
Man, what is it with rallies going awry in my neck of the Beach? In the words of Torri Hunter, "Ohhhh man!"
Cheers though to the Mauricio's bridesmaids defeating Arizona, the USD Toreros running down Drake, and even to Duke University making some wise decisions in miving the student section behind the home players, and changing their mascot to a slimmer, menacing and more photogenic character with marketing opportunities abound.
And yes, the Dodgers and Mets winning was good, because the drama can be saved for tomorrow.
===
Little did I know that I got more than I bargained for.
To be honest, I had to sit out watching Viking football games last season because I was disgusted with losing my press credentials (leading to the self-imposed shutdown of my blog covering them and the other teams in the now-defunct Mission Football Conference). I didn't attend a single game. The only game I even went to at any level was the Lancers taking on the Tesoro Titans, and I wasn't quite pleased with the 2nd half effort from them.
It was good thing I didn;'t come, because they had a crappy final season for Jerry Jaso, who stepped down. In his place was a man named Mike Reisbig, the brother of Larry Reisbig, the LBCC Men's Athletic Director. He was an assistant for 16 seasons. He now had his chance to prove himself. After paying $8.00 for admission and media guide ($6.00 + $2.00), I took my seat behind the 50-yard line. In the background, the Oilers were doing some pregame ritual that was comparable (or maybe not) to Long Beach Poly. I just thought, "They have the bark, but we got the bite. And we're gonna keep chomping till the clock reads 0:00."
The first half was all my guys as they climbed to a 21-0 halftime lead. The first touchdown I did 7, the second 14, and so on. All of the first-half push-ups were in the wheelchair-accessible section where I had lots of space to do it correctly.
Interestingly, it was in front of the West L.A. supporters. Buy the time I completed 21, some irresponsible African-American mother of an at-risk youth just waiting to pay the price for being affiliated with the wrong people tried to break my back. Luckily, she failed, and I shoved her off. Now, she's trying to be a CSC Event Staffer, but she didn't do a good job at it (first off, she isn't donning her Event Staff garb, and she would have been best not to be in my way. Some mother she grew up to be in. Puts my dealings with my mom in perspective, when I think about it. My mom's issues arean't as bad as this woman's issues.) As I shoved her off, I got into a scuffle, with the brat rabbit-punching me. He said, "You hit my mom!" I said, "She deserved it. If she wasn't on my back, I wouldn't have defended myself! And is that your best punch, you son-of-a-bitch? My dad can hit harder than you. Weak! Pathetic! You're wasting your time here! I don't fear you lot, and I never will, scum!" Truth.
After discussions regarding the altercation (and the lack of security thereof) with an old friend from the Long Beach Union Weekly (now a writer for the Long Beach Post), as well as another old friend, Dr. John Fylpaa, and cooler heads from the West L.A. parents, I proceeded to do more pushups in the 2nd half. In total, I did 147.
I was shaking my head at the West L.A. kids trying to do pushups the way I did them. Note that they didn't score until 3 quarters and four seconds into the game (and a personal foul by one of my guys made that touchdown a gift). When they tried to do 7, I was not pleased. When you do a pushup, your back, legs, and head have to be straight. You push your weight at an agle. You don't bend your body like an asymptote, and risk straining your back. I had to school these kids in how it should be done. When they hit 14, they did a little bit better, but they only did 7. When they reached 21, the best they could do individually was 12. I said to they guy who did 12, "That's it? You scored 21 points, not 12. Get back here and do nine more!" He didn't, I said, "I can see why you attend West L.A., and not LBCC. Here, such half-assing will not cut the mustard." During my Tong days, failing to finish my pushups was something I couldn't do. The quality was what I was looking for, but the quality wasn't. And when we got the last touchdown, a fumble recovery by David Sausau after Lawrence Alai punished Oiler QB Ryan Rosenvall, I did 42, and I yelled across the bleachers, "NOw THAT'S how you do a push-up, West LA! Quality and quantity! Let's see if you can impress me on your next score."
Sure enough, they had a consolation touchdown, and I said, "All right kids, 28 pushups. Go!"
None of them went down.
"I said GO!"
Still none of them went down.
Now I was a little peeved, "Oh come on. Not a single one of you bother to try to do even one push-up. Of 28. Now we all know why you attend West Los Angeles College, and not LONG BEACH CITY COLLEGE! Because out here, even if we are losing, we'd still do those push-ups, as a morale boost at least. And all y'all gave up. Quitters. After this game is over, get the hell outta our stadium. For all your feistyness, you need to get in shape."
Only at Long Beach City College (and perhaps elsewhere) can you see an alum on the home side outdo youthful visitors on the visiting side in terms of push-ups. Personally, that's the first time it happened. I think I got some payback. And I was gonna applaud them for trying just one. I'm not even in shape, and I can still do 147.
Pep Band - Check.
Cheer Team - Check.
Better Football Team - Check.
I should thank my visiting team for having the old "Super Fan" side of me rear its down-and-dirty head again. I got fired up. Also I should thank Pechange for giving me some coffee. Man, I was starved to get my java. I need that. I really, really needed that.
One of the parents from West L.A. said, "You did well in standing your ground. Good job."
"Thanks, Lee." That was his name. "You know, I'll be honest. I didn't come here to fight anybody. I came here to watch a game, and do push-ups for every point we scored. That's it."
Nothing else.
===
Meanwhile, Verbum Dei was shut out by the Lancers, 34-0. It wasn't a good day for most of my teams, thought. LOng Beach State women's volleyball isn't cutting the mustard. While the defeated UC Davis today, they lost to Pacific in a sweep. Thw Angels are in danger of coming into the postseason on a losing note, effectively preventing me from coming to their rally on Monday. The Sparks also dropped a stinker to San Antonio on a buzzer-beater, while my Hawaii Warriors are clearly in a rebuilding phase, losing to San Jose State 20-17. AFc Wimbledon let a FA Cup win slip away against Bedford Town in the 89th minute, forcing a replay. And while AFC Liverpool defeated AFC Blackpool 6-3, it will take time for me to forgive them for failing in grandiose fashion to Waterloo Dock 6-1. The men's water polo team coached by Gavin Arroyo isn't doing themselves favors either, choking against Loyola Marymount in a rally failing short.
Man, what is it with rallies going awry in my neck of the Beach? In the words of Torri Hunter, "Ohhhh man!"
Cheers though to the Mauricio's bridesmaids defeating Arizona, the USD Toreros running down Drake, and even to Duke University making some wise decisions in miving the student section behind the home players, and changing their mascot to a slimmer, menacing and more photogenic character with marketing opportunities abound.
And yes, the Dodgers and Mets winning was good, because the drama can be saved for tomorrow.
===
ERROR
The combined length of all the labels must be at most 200 characters.
===
Doesn't it suck to have limits like this? I think so.
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