PLAYING THE NUMBERS ONE GOOD PLAYER DOESN'T ADD UP TO A BROKEN TEAM.Byline: KEVIN MODESTI A San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. press-box attendant had a question for a Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. writer in the middle of Sunday's game, the first for which all of the new Dodgers suited up. He seemed to be offended by the choice of uniform number for Steve Finley Steven Allen Finley (born March 12 1965, in Union City, Tennessee) is a Major League Baseball center fielder who bats and throws left-handed. He currently is a free agent, and has been working out on a regular basis since his release, hopeful a call will come from a team looking , the No. 16 that for 5 1/2 seasons had identified Paul Lo Duca Paul Anthony Lo Duca (born April 12, 1972 in Brooklyn, New York) is a catcher in Major League Baseball who plays for the New York Mets. Previously, Lo Duca played for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1998-2004) and Florida Marlins (2004-2005). . ``How come,'' the man asked, ``they're letting Finley wear Rick Monday's number?'' Take that, everybody who's having trouble getting over Lo Duca Lo Duca is the surname of the following people:
The catcher's jersey hadn't been cold for five minutes and, at least in one corner of the National League West, he'd already been forgotten. The longer you're around baseball, the more you come to accept pro sports' cycle of life, the certainty that favorite players will come and go and none is indispensable. Maybe to you, No. 16 is Lo Duca, the determined little catcher who toiled for eight minor league seasons before becoming a Dodgers regular and a two-time All-Star. To the man in the press box, No. 16 is Monday, the graceful outfielder who saved a flag and won the Dodgers a pennant. To me, No. 16 is Ron Perranoski n. Baseball A pitcher who replaces another during a game. Noun 1. relief pitcher - a pitcher who does not start the game fireman, reliever on three 1960s pennant-winners was a Dodgers coach in the '80s when I covered the team. I look at No. 3 (Cesar Izturis) and see Willie Davis Willie Davis can refer to different people:
Know what Davis, Garvey, Cey, Guerrero, Marshall, Welch and Hershiser have in common? When each of those great Dodgers players left the team by trade or free agency, the club was so devastated dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. that it immediately won a division title or a pennant. For any baseball team, there are the active players and then there's the fan favorite conspicuous by his absence. In L.A., that was Mike Piazza from 1998 until Friday. Then Lo Duca was packed off to Florida with Juan Encarnacion and Guillermo Mota in the deal for Brad Penny, Hee Seop Choi and a minor leaguer. The sports-talk callers, the chat-roomers and the letter-to-the-editor writers reacted as if Lo Duca was taking with him some combination of Roy Campanella's catching and Kirk Gibson's inspiration. Heart and soul of the team? A lot of people with the team were perplexed by that description of Lo Duca, whose desire to be a clubhouse leader and spokesman had stirred as much resentment as fellowship among teammates. Think about it: If Lo Duca was as essential to the first-place club's chemistry as some people seem to think, then it's a chemistry too fragile to be worth anything. Sure, Lo Duca and his now-former teammates cried when he was traded, and he was lauded by them, but listen to what else they said. ``Chemistry comes from more than one person,'' manager Jim Tracy said. ``And to say we've lost that is a little bit insulting to the guys who are still out there.'' Reliever Darren Dreifort said: ``We've got a room full of professionals here. We had a good thing going before, and we want to keep it going.'' On his way out the door after one of the three trades Saturday, Dave Roberts said: ``There is something special in this clubhouse. The people of Los Angeles have something special to look forward to. There's no way the guys in this clubhouse are going to let the ship go astray. They're going to find a way to win.'' Lo Duca is a good man who earned his place in L.A. fans' hearts when he played with fire in seasons when that was a Dodgers rarity. How could you not root for a 185-pounder who could bat .320 with 25 homers in the big leagues one year? How could you not love an athlete who reacts to absolutely every opponent's slight with the same peevishness as you do? Look, general manager Paul DePodesta's trading-deadline moves - turning over one-fifth of the major league roster and affecting five everyday positions and the bullpen alignment - might turn out to be too much change for a first-place club. Dreifort's shaky eighth inning in Saturday's loss to the Padres wasn't encouraging. The lineup's 6th, 7th and 8th slots went 2 for 23 Saturday and Sunday. A lot rides on Brad Penny, the beefy beefy, beefyness 1. in dog conformation, used to describe overdevelopment of musculature in the hindquarters. 2. in cattle, used to designate the desirable physical conformation of a beef animal, but an undesirable character in dairy cattle. right-hander who makes his first start tonight against Pittsburgh at Dodger Stadium as the Dodgers' new No. 1 starter. If it doesn't work, it won't be because Paul Lo Duca was indispensable. Players come and go, and they should be a lot better than Lo Duca before a citywide day of mourning For other uses, see National Day of Mourning. The Day of Mourning was a day of protest held by Aboriginal Australians on 26 January 1938, the sesquicentenary of British colonisation of Australia. is declared. I mean, after the '82 season the Dodgers lost Steve Garvey; in '83 they moved on and won the division. Somewhere, a Brooklyn Dodgers fan probably wonders how come they're letting Finley wear Van Lingle Mungo's number. CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: (color) Even a fan favorite such as former Dodgers catcher Paul Lo Duca isn't indispensable. Alan Diaz/Associated Press Box: WHAT'S IN A NUMBER? |
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