Promise held by boys in blue rapidly fading in eyes of fan

Tuesday, 5/6/97 Promise held by boys in blue rapidly fading in
eyes of fan Dodgers can’t live up to hype, continue underachieving
ways

There were some good sounds coming out of Chavez Ravine last
month, weren’t there? The beginning of this baseball season brought
with it the promise of some really special times. The Los Angeles
Dodgers, fresh off of a first-round loss in the playoffs, came into
the year retooled and talking about bubbly in October. All seemed
right as the boys in blue geared up for their first World Series
championship run in nine years. One month later, the Dodgers are
stumbling around their division, leaving management guessing and
once-hopeful fans despondent. Now, if you’re one of those people
who wear Mike Piazza underwear and think that Dodger Dogs should be
included on the food pyramid under the heading, "snack of the
gods," you need to put this column down and go to Student
Psychological Services right now. But if you’re like me, a
dyed-in-the-wool Dodger fan who relives Kirk Gibson’s home run off
Dennis Eckersley in 1988 on a biweekly basis and knows that the
Dodgers name stems from people who used to dodge trains in
Brooklyn, then read on. It is a dark time for our ilk, my friends,
simply because this year’s Dodgers are bigger underachievers than
Bill Clinton in his second term. With the amount of talent on this
squad, there should have been absolutely no worries about them
reaching the postseason. Instead, this team has looked worse than a
frat house on Friday morning. First up is the pitching staff, where
the Nomo tornado is beginning to look a lot more like those bizarre
dust storms on Bruin Walk. Sure, living up to last year is going to
be hard, but Hideo has fallen into the middle of the pack of
National League pitchers after many pundits picked him for the Cy
Young. The rest of the staff – while not overly shabby – certainly
is not bringing back memories of Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax and Don
Newcombe. Now let’s go around the horn. At first base, Eric Karros
is hitting for the worst average of his career and spends his
postgame time picking on pitcher Ismael Valdes instead of honing
his swing. Just remember, Eric, the man throws 95 mph fastballs,
and one of those pellets may land upside your head during batting
practice. Of course, that may help him see the ball better. Up the
middle has been solid, with Piazza brilliant behind the plate,
rookie Wilton Guerrero playing steady at second, and shortstop Greg
Gagne off to the best start of his career. Now to third base, where
the boys in blue have tried some 17 million people in an attempt to
fill the void left by Ron Cey. Names like Jeff Hamilton, Tracy
Woodson and even my favorite ballplayer ever, Pedro Guerrero, have
met an untimely demise at the hot corner in a Dodger uniform. But
this year was supposed to bring the cure-all. Todd Zeile, late of
UCLA, signed a multimillion dollar deal under the premise that he
would provide the long-sought stability the franchise has craved.
But instead of hitting like Mike Schmidt and fielding like Brooks
Robinson, Zeile has been leaving runners in scoring position and
making fielding gaffes that would make Lonnie "Iron Glove" Smith
look good. The man isn’t even hitting his weight, and we’re not
talking about Andre the Giant here. So what’s the situation? Sure,
a 15-12 record in early May is respectable, but this team was
supposed to blow the shirts off of the National League West and
pick their teeth with the Braves come playoff time. Instead,
they’re four games back, coming off a pair of wins against the
Chicago Cubs, who are to Major League Baseball what Elizabeth
Berkley is to acting – an utter disgrace. Worse still, they are two
games behind the supposed doormat of the West – those frostbitten
whiners from Hunters Point, the San Francisco Giants. To quote
Shakespeare, "Aye, there’s the rub." So, while our dearly beloved
underachieve their way toward the quarter point of the season,
there is little that can be done except pray that Nomo finds his
splitter, Zeile finds his bat and the team plane doesn’t crash into
Coors Field. If not, well, let’s hope they can spoil the Giants’
playoff hopes for a change. Shapiro is a Daily Bruin staff writer
and beat writer for men’s tennis. Send e-mail responses to
[email protected].