More violence at Dodger Stadium

A little more than a year after San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow was left with brain damage after being beaten, violence erupted once again at Dodger Stadium.

A minor fender bender turned into a man being beaten by four men. A man in his 20s was involved in an accident with another driver and three other men pinned him down and beat him in the Dodger Stadium parking lot.

The four men have been arrested for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon.

The other driver kicked and hit the victim in the head and face while he was on the ground, police Sgt. David Armas said.


“It was just a minor fender bender that just got totally out of hand,” he said.


The victims injuries were not life threatening and was treated for scrapes and cuts. Luckily he escaped the incident relatively unharmed .

Dodgers’ Ethier buying uniforms for Phoenix high school team

Positive sports stories hardly ever make news. No one ever reports the good that professional athletes do on their own time. Except for the televised charity work.

Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder, Andre Ethier, has done a big favor for a Phoenix area high school. Ethier’s buying new uniforms for the baseball team at Camelback High School. Ethier attended St. Mary’s High in Phoenix.

“I’ve been pretty excited and choked up about this,” Camelback Coach Todd Goertzen said.


Camelback reached the state finals in 1985, but the baseball program declined as the surrounding neighborhood changed. Most of the players are sons of Mexican immigrants who didn’t play baseball before high school because of the high cost of equipment. Many players come from single-parent households. Until recently, the team had one bat for the entire team.


The Spartans have won one game in each of the last two seasons; they are winless this season and lost one of their games by a 38-0 margin.


I can imagine being excited for new uniforms, especially being supplied by a major league player. A local product in this case making for a classic hometown hero story.

New Balance, which recently signed Ethier to an endorsement deal, will provide the team with shoes.

Hopefully Ethier’s contributions will spark a new interest in the baseball program at Camelback.

Mattingly stakes his claim for Los Angeles

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly spent his playing career with the New York Yankees, so he should be well versed in “crosstown” battles. Not battles on the field, but for fans and a certain market share. The Yankees and New York Mets share the Gotham headlines, but the Yanks are the far more dominant team. It’s hard for a Yankees fan to convert to a Mets fan.

The Los Angeles Angels have been around for awhile. They were known as the California Angels and Anaheim Angels, before going headfirst into the Los Angeles market. They share the area with the Dodgers and have made the biggest splashes. Namely in free agency. To Mattingly it doesn’t matter. Los Angeles will always belong to the Dodgers in his mind.

“It’s kind of like Mets-Yankees,” Mattingly said just before the Dodgers’ first full-squad workout of spring training. “The Yankees are the team. [The Mets] are going to have their years when they play well, but the Yankees are still the team. I don’t want to badmouth the Angels at all. Mr. [Angels owner Arte] Moreno has done a great job down there in Anaheim, and [Angels manager] Mike [Scioscia] does a great job. But we’re the Dodgers, and that isn’t going to change.”

“We’re still going to need to play good baseball,” Mattingly said. “But at the end of the day, if we do things right, worry about ourselves and take care of business, we don’t need to worry about what another team is doing. I don’t mean this as a negative, because [the Angels] have done a tremendous job down there.

“But at the end of the day, the Dodgers are still the Dodgers.”

With the signings of Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson in the off season coupled with the Dodgers looking for a new owner, the Angels are gaining ground quickly. The Dodgers do have the name recognition and historical significance, but their product on the field has been lacking recently. They have to produce on the field to reclaim the market they held by themselves for so long.  

Excessive Fandom

The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the defending world champion San Francisco Giants in their season opener yesterday. That’s all good and dandy. It just wasn’t enough for a few Dodgers fans.

Dodger fans and Los Angeles fans in general have a rap about being too laid back. If I’m wrong about this let me no, since I’m not a native in your city. A pair of Dodgers fans laid a critical beatdown on a fan wearing Giants gear in the Dodger Stadium parking lot.

“The man suffered a serious head injury during the assault after the game,” said Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Sanford Rosenberg. (LA Times ).

Rosenberg said the victim was one of three Giants fans attacked in the parking lot around the end of the game by two unidentified men wearing Dodgers clothing.

Police are trying to get any witnesses to come forward since there was a pretty large group and the attack happened when everyone was coming out. Hopefully someone will come forward and identify the people that did this crime.

It’s fine to talk trash to one another while supporting your team, but keep it non violent. Let’s hope the perpetrators of this sad and cowardly act are brought to justice. There’s no place for this junk in being a fan of professional sports — which are supposed to be fun.

  

Torre Would Be A Fool To Take The Mets Job

After going back to New York for the Steinbrenner ceremony, soon to be former Los Angeles Dodgers manager, Joe Torre hinted about the New York Mets job.You know the rumors started swirling.  He was linked to the job by various news reports. Then he came on WFAN and talked his previous stint as Mets manager back in the late 70s. Ahhh, longing to go back to the city where you had your greatest success. There is one problem. The Mets are currently managed by Jerry Manuel. Although, I don’t think he’ll last beyond this season.

If I’m Torre, I just go on and retire. You have your rings and you’ll be remembered more for your time as Yankees manager than anywhere else you’ve been. Who actually remembers that you managed the Mets, Cardinals, or Braves. Ok, i do. But not the casual baseball fan. He might seem like a good fit for the Mets job, but I wouldn’t touch it. Your leaving a dysfunctional Dodgers organization for the Mets,who sign high riced players that underacheive once they hit Queens. The Mets haven’t been the same since they blew the late season lead to the Phillies. 

My advice,ride out into the sunset Joe and leave well enough alone.