The Pool Party Fallout-The Dodgers Are Swimming With Talent

The Dodgers/Dbacks rivalry took a new twist yesterday afternoon after the Dodgers clinched the NL West division crown. You could say the Dodgers ticked off the Snakes after their 7-6 win at Chase Field on Thursday afternoon. The two teams have had bad blood between them for the last few years, and a new chapter was written after yesterday’s clincher.

The two clubs have had a subtle hatred for each other since 2011 and the Gerardo Parra incident. The bad blood spilled over into this season after the June 11 brawl at Dodger Stadium. There have been other incidents as well, like the Dbacks ownership asking Dodger fans sitting behind home plate to move or remove their Dodger gear.

So with all that history between the two clubs, the Dbacks did not want the Dodgers celebrating on their home field. The Dodgers had to fight for this one, as they rallied to overcome a three-run deficit thanks to the two home runs from Hanley Ramirez, and a solo home run from A.J. Ellis that broke the tie in the eighth inning. The bullpen picked up starter Ricky Nolasco who had a poor start, lasting only five frames, and allowing six runs on nine hits. But all of those runs were in the third inning, and the Snakes didn’t score at all after that thanks to the Dodger bullpen. The group of J.P. Howell, Brandon League, Brian Wilson, and Kenley Jansen and company kept the Arizona offense off the board the rest of the game. The last out was recorded on a fly ball to left. Skip Schumaker, who Vin scully mistakenly called Scott Schumaker, (I think Vinny was thinking of Scott Van Slyke.) made the last out. The Dodgers celebrated on the Dback’s home field.

That was why I got so frustrated on twitter when the Dodgers had fallen behind 6-3 after giving up six runs in the third inning. I wanted the Dodgers to clinch in Arizona. We have had so much nastiness from that fan base this season, and I wanted them to suffer. It’s fitting that the club clinched in Arizona. However it was after the clinching where things got interesting.

Before the game Arizona’s management had asked the Dodgers nicely, to not come out onto the field once they leave. They instructed the Dodgers to celebrate as long as they wanted to, but once they left the field, do not come back. They said it was for their “safety”. Sounds like sour grapes to me, which it was. So the Dodgers celebrated in front of a lot of Dodger fans who drove down for the game from Los Angeles and other places.

The raucous celebration took into the clubhouse where the club sprayed each other with champagne and did the normal stuff clinching teams do when they celebrate. Normally road celebrations are more subdued for obvious reasons, but the Dodgers have flare.

That flare caused the Dodgers to run back onto the field and dive into the pool in center field. That’s right, some of the Dodgers, not all of them, ran into center field and all jumped into the pool and celebrated with a swim. Check out Kemp doing his strut! I think they’ve all earned it. It was much to the chagrin of the Dbacks.

It wasn’t long before the Dbacks responded with unkind bitter like statements. Arizona shortstop Willie Bloomquist made a statement about being surprised because the Dodgers have a lot of veterans and he called the Dodgers “classless”. Here is what he said….

"“It’s surprising because they have a lot of veteran guys on that team that I thought were classier than that,”. “I just think they have enough guys on that team that it’s surprising that they would allow that to happen.“You have to give credit where credit is due. They won the division; congratulations to them, but I would expect them to act with a little more class than they did. I doubt the New York Yankees would do something like that.”"

Wait, he doubts the Yankees would so something like that? Oh come on Willie Bloomquist, get over it.

Dodgers CEO and president Stan Kasten responded by saying that all celebrations are boisterous and enthusiastic.

The most bitter comments of all came from Dback’s president and former Dodger employee Derrick Hall. He said…

"“I could call it disrespectful and classless, but they don’t have a beautiful pool at their old ballpark and probably wanted to see what one was like.”"

Ahhhh, I see what you did there Mr. Hall. Very clever. Well I think having a pool in center field is tacky and lame. Chase field looks like a shopping mall, or YMCA. Swimming pools don’t belong in a Major League ballpark. I’m sure this is just the beginning of what should be a ton of bitter backlash from Arizona management and fans. It seems like the Dodgers little pool party really pissed off the Snakes. Good. I’m glad they are annoyed.

I guess you could say the Dodgers are swimming with talent. Get over it Arizona.