Still Rooting

The Dodgers gave us something to cheer about yesterday.

On the same day that Frank McCourt filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the boys in blue showed that they are not bankrupt.  They are not downtrodden.  I know my Major League (the movie) comparisons might be a little bit cliche – but let’s examine this just a little further.

The owner (Frank McCourt) of the Cleveland Indians (Dodgers) puts together the worst team that she can (this isn’t the worst team in my heart, but they are down pretty low in the standings, so Dawyer fans, go with me here) so that she can lose and move the team (so that he can live a billionaire lifestyle on a millionaire budget).

You with me?  Let’s go to central casting:

• Dorn = Loney, we’ve gone over this
• Casey Blake = Tom Beringer’s character Jake Taylor – a little older, been around the block, but still knows his way around a diamond (and he used to play for the Indians)
• Kershaw = Ricky Vaughn minus the chip on the shoulder and in later years the coke and hookers.  But they are both “winning.”
• Gordon = Wesley Snipes – except he CAN hit
• Cerrano = Kemp (bring that S to me) – after he tells Joe Boo that he can do it himself (& we’ll throw in Rihanna as Rene Russo just because we can)
• Donny Baseball as Coach Lou Brown – “nice play Jerry, don’t ever fn do it again”
• Vin Scully as Bob Uecker (though that’s an insult to the greatest of all time, it’s pretty funny – I’d love to get some off the mic soundbites of what’s happening in the box off mic)

Just like owner Rachel Phelps, Frank is playing the villain here – the big difference is that she knew she was the villain.

Just like Dorn and Vaughn and the rest of the crew, the Blue Crew is playing to win as evidenced by a 15-0 beatdown of an albeit pretty weak Twins team out in Minnesota – despite the multiple distractions of a selfish owner.  Like I said before, someone forgot to tell the players that  they were supposed to crawl under a rock and be the scourge of MLB.  They don’t have the record that would make this a national headline story, but it’s the little things that they are consistently doing right.  Main case in point:  not talking about the front office drama.

Yeah, we’re at the bottom of a pretty weak division.  We’re 9 games back of a pretty good (pains me to write) Giants squad.  I have had an uncanny knack of jinxing with my posts, so I’m not going to name names, but I do not think the Dawyers are going down without a fight.

You know, I found out while writing this, that there was an alternate ending for the film.  Here it is, directly from Wikipedia:

"The theatrical release’s ending includes Rachel Phelps, apparently unable to move the team because of increased attendance, angry and disappointed about the team’s success. An alternate ending on the “Wild Thing Edition” DVD shows a very different characterization of Phelps. Lou tenders his resignation and tells Phelps that he can’t in good conscience work for her after she sought to sabotage the team for her own personal gain. Phelps then tells him that she never intended to move the team; when she inherited the club from her late husband, it was on the brink of bankruptcy. Unable to afford top flight players, she decided to take a chance on unproven players from the lower leagues, whom she personally scouted, and talented older players who were generally considered washed up. She tells Lou that she likewise felt that he was the right manager to bring the ragtag group together.Phelps made up the Miami scheme and adopted a catty, vindictive persona to unify and motivate the team. As the players believed that she wanted the Indians to fail, she was able to conceal that the team could not afford basic amenities such as chartered jet travel behind a veil of taking them away to spite the players.Lou does not resign, and Phelps reasserts her authority by saying that if he shares any part of their conversation with anyone, she will fire him.Producers said that while the twist ending worked as a resolution of the plot, they scrapped it because test screening audiences preferred the Phelps character as a villain."

Personally, I’d like to see an alternate ending from the course we’re currently on with Mr. McCourt, but I have a feeling that it will end up being the theatrical release version that plays out, just like it did in the film.

From a team perspective?  Well, I’m still rooting.  How about you?