Speaking of the kids, my oldest (11) daughter's soccer season finally ended today. After going through the league season 8-2-1, they went down in flames in the playoffs, being held scoreless in three games. Now our attention shifts to her school basketball team. As a 5th grader, she was able to try out for the 5th-6th grade team for the first time, and made it. It's going to be a learning process for her, along with most of the other girls on the team, as she has only one summer of city rec department basketball experience.
Lately my web surfing has been almost exclusively confined to anything related to the baseball winter meetings and the eventual destinations of MLB's free agents, specifically if the Angels are going to be able to hold on to Mark Teixeira, and similarly, the Dodgers to Manny Ramirez. I get the feeling that the Angels are going to have to substantially exceed the Nationals' offer - because if they don't, the Red Sox will. That feeling was only made stronger when the Yankees added A.J. Burnett after signing CC just a few days before. The last thing Boston wants is to let the Yanks become a dominant force again. Among Angel fans, the Red Sox have become even easier to dislike than New York.
I don't understand what the Dodgers are up to with Manny. There doesn't seem to be a great number of teams jumping at him, the Dodgers need him badly, and they could probably get him for less than their original offer at this point. But, after all, this team is owned by the same people who publicly aired their naivete about Dodger fans, by wondering if "the community" wants them to go after prominent free agents such as Manny in light of the current economic conditions. Uh, Frank and Jamie, if you were really concerned about the economy's impact on your fans, maybe you could lower your ridiculous prices for food and souvenirs at the stadium, not to mention the $15 to park. And how about those $90 seats for EXHIBITION games in Glendale, Arizona? Is this pompous hypocrisy, or just plain ignorance of the LA baseball fan?
And, about the local baseball fan... this is a topic for another day, but another bit of nonsense is this notion, fairly recent in origin, that you can't be both a Dodger fan and an Angel fan. I have been a big fan of both teams for almost my entire life. They don't play in the same division, or even the same league, so where's the conflict? I thought most of us in Southern California hoped every spring for a "Freeway World Series." I still do, though it seems as if only one of the two local owners shares his fans' enthusiasm for the idea of even getting to the World Series.
More baseball thoughts next time, if time permits between all of our "holiday" preparations. And BTW, that's another can of worms - stay tuned...
